The Word–Fr Tony Percy– "Eutheós" Immediately (This week it's the very beautiful period of Advent and the Gospel of Mark which is the shortest of them all and perhaps we should also say the most dramatic. There's a sense of urgency in Mark’s Gospel and you'll find that in the Gospel this week. Even as the Gospel opens, he loves to use this phrase or this particular word in Greek, which we translate in English as immediately, "eutheós" [English: immediately]. It's used in his Gospel, believe this or not, 42 times and in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, it's used 11 times. So, Jesus is baptized by John, and he immediately comes up out of the water. No sooner than that happens, then Jesus is immediately thrown into the desert by the Holy Spirit. A particular word is a throw, so you can get a sense of the dramatic style of Mark. And then when the apostles are called, the first disciples have called, they immediately leave their nets behind, and that's the first two. The second two, Jesus comes across them, and he immediately calls them. This is just in the first few verses of chapter one. So you get a sense of the urgency and the sort of action -packed Gospel that Mark is.)
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