PHP prints variable to screen and code stops running - php

Question

I am trying to use Parsedown Extra with Parsedown (Have never used either before). I have the code $_GET the selected category (?cat=0) and set it's path & filename to a var. It $_GETs the page number just fine, however when I set the file var, it just prints to the screen and doesn't load my page.
//sets the page (category) number for use with array
//also sets the path to the category's pages
if (isset($_GET['cat'])) {
$catNum = $_GET['cat'];
$catPath = 'content/' . $pageList[$catNum]['path'];
echo '<div class="center pageNav">';
//lists out subpages of catagory
$pageAmt = count($pageList[$catNum]['pages']);
for ($i = 0; $i < $pageAmt; $i++) {
echo '' . $pageList[$catNum]['pages'][$i]['title'] . '';
};
echo '</div>';
//sets path & filename var to selected page: this is the part where it prints the var and doesn't run the rest. The var is pointing to the right file, I checked.
$page = $catPath . $pageList[$catNum]['mainPage'];
} else {
$page = 'content/home.md';
};
//parsedown
require 'parsedown/parsedown.php';
require 'parsedown/parsedownextra.php';
echo ParsedownExtra::instance()
->setBreaksEnabled(true)
->setMarkupEscaped(true)
->text($page);

Answer 1

you have a semi colon at the end of your if statement.
} else {
$page = 'content/home.md';
}; <--

Answer 2

Parsedown takes marked up text and renders it. In your example, you pass $page (which holds a string, a filename) to ->text($page). This parses the string as marked up text, and renders it. So, in your example you are seeing exactly what it is doing. If you are trying to run the text of the file through ->text, you need to load the file contents first and pass to Parsedown.