April, 2023
HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société - notices sans texte intégral
Jacques Descreux, « La quête de bonheur dans l'évangile de Marc », HALSHS : archive ouverte en Sciences de l’Homme et de la Société - notices sans texte intégral, ID : 10670/1.195f87...
Does the Gospel of Mark contain a teaching about how to live happily, and what might be its content ? The relative lack of the vocabulary of happiness in the Gospel obliges us to approach the question laterally, from the point of view of the "happy proclamation" of the coming of the Kingdom of God in the preaching of Jesus; the Gospel shows that the happiness of the Kingdom is not the product of discipline, but is a gift to humans; it presents it as the fruit of the victory of Jesus over the powers of alienation, which saves us from life-threatening perils, and initiates an eschatological life characterised by a reestablished accord with Creation and a vision of Jesus in glory. If this happy proclamation meets the needs of sinners, nonetheless Jesusk, in the parable of the Sower, depicts contrasting modes of reception. Mark depicts humans who are searching above all for healing, a concept that is not unambiguous. In the "Way" section, the teaching of Jesus subverts human conceptions of the way to achieve eminence, reputation and power, to which many people aspire. He calls his listeners to aspire to the service of all through self-abnegation, a way which frees us from relations of domination and so inaugurates the Kingdom. To follow this demanding way, just as Jesus does to the end, fulfuils the human vocation according to the Scriptures. This is the paradoxical happiness of the Kingdom incarnated by Jesus.