(Homily 5th
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. B)
The readings of this Sunday are beaming
with words of hope and encouragement for anyone in a dead-end situation. The
readings present the human condition and some of those element that do not
permit the full realization and freedom of man; ranging from misfortune,
sickness and predicaments. But God through his W(w)ord helps us to get through
all the difficult and seemingly impossible situations. Job experienced the
miracle of restoration, and the Mother in-law of Simon experienced healing, all
wrought through the presence and the mighty hand of God! The good news behind the screen of today’s message is that God is aware
of everything that is happening to us, he knows all that we are passing through.
Our First Reading today is taken form the
book of Job (Job 7:1-4.6-7). The
book begins with a prose narrative in which Job, the protagonist, a prosperous
father of the family, was subdued by calamities upon calamities. He experienced suffering in all aspects of
life: domestic, economic, physical, moral and spiritual. However, one thing
striking here is that, suffering here doesn’t and cannot have the same
connotation as in Deuteronomy (there suffering is seen as a direct punishment
for sin). But in the case of Job, that cannot be applied, for he has been a
righteous man. At the end, Job had to
grapple with the fact that man’s righteousness gives him no claim upon God.
In the passage of the first reading we
encounter whom we could call the “patron” of suffering: Job. His predicament
overwhelmed him to the point of desperation. He lost all that he had and
labored for in one day, including his children and enormous wealth. At a time in this quagmire Job lost hope,
he saw gloom in his condition and exclaimed: “My days have passed, and
vanished, leaving no hope behind. Remember that my life is but a breath, and
that my eyes will never again see joy” (Jb.
7:6b-7). Life for him became empty and without meaning. For him it was as if he was not going to
see light at the end of the dark tunnel. But Job did not end his life in suffering. For after passing
through those turbulent and hard times, God intervened and reversed his
condition and thus Job recovered all that he lost, and got even more (Jb. 42:10). And indeed, the book ended happily with the restoration of Job’s
fortune.
One thing striking about Job is that he
never gave up totally on God: “In all this misfortune Job committed not sin,
and he did not reproach God” (Jb. 1:22).
For in the midst of his predicament he said “I know that I have a living
Defender” (Jb. 19:25). Sometimes unlike Job, when we are
confronted with challenges we often forget that our Redeemer lives. Our spiritual experience brings to our
consideration the fact that God has not promised us total exclusion from the
difficulties of life but He has assured us that He will be with us as we pass
through them. Often we make the mistake of telling God how big the storm is,
instead of telling the storm how big our God is. Job despite all odds still remains the model of and for Christian
Suffering, because his moment of all-round misfortune became for him a moment
of a personal experience of God. It is only in this optics that our hard
times will draw us closer to God and not the other way round.
The passage of today’s reading is taken
from the early part of the dialogue. After Job must have finished responding to
his friends, he was plunged into soliloquy on the miseries of human existence.
Indeed, it is not very clear the reason for the choice of this reading today,
especially in parallel with the gospel passage. However, we may well presume that Job’s theme on the miseries of
human life and existence serves as a background for the healing work of Christ
as revealed in the gospel.
In the Gospel Reading (Mark 1:29-39) we are presented with Jesus’ encounter with people
with various challenges including the mother-in-law of Simon who was sick with
a fever. From the narrative it is very clear that Simon’s mother-in-law and the
other people who later came for healing were in hopeless situations. They were
experiencing the height of their various challenges and suddenly Jesus
Christ came and everything changed. It was as if they were waiting for him
to come. Of course those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength (Isaiah 40:31).
After the healing at Simon’s house, very
early in the morning he escaped to a quiet place to pray. Here Jesus teaches us
the need and power of prayer when we are tired and in need of strength. Jesus prays in order to renew and recharge
Himself. But before he could finish his morning prayers the disciples
sought him out and informed Him that an even larger crowd has gathered with
their sick and infirm and that everyone is in search of Him. Indeed, here one could expect Jesus to heal
those sick people but He does not. He rather says: “Let us go on to the neighboring
towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came
out to do” (Mark 1:38). Jesus is not conditioned by the CROWD. This
is an indication that Jesus came for all
mankind, his primary mission is the proclamation of God’s kingdom. However,
the people were looking for him, not because of his person and good news but to
satisfy their needs of miracles. You, why do you seek him? For the value
imbedded in his Words or for cheap miracles? But what did Jesus really come to
do? Jesus, being a spiritually-minded person, refuses to limit His ministry to
one place or to encourage the belief of a coming worldly Kingdom of God,
responding to Simon, He said: “Let us go the neighboring towns so that I may
proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” So Jesus came to do three major things in
His ministry: to heal, to pray and most importantly to preach.
Jesus moved on for a purpose, and the
phrase we see in the passage: “that is why I came out”, may not just only be
referred to his departure from Capernaum, but instead to the entire purpose of
his mission on earth. As such, we can
say that Jesus regarded the miracles merely as subordinate elements of his
ministry. The main purpose of his
ministry was to preach. Besides, there is an important common particularity
of the Marcan gospel, and that is the silencing of the demons. Mark reported
that the demons “knew Him”, for they recognized him as the “Holy one of God” (cf. Mk1:24). But he rebuked and
subdued them into silence. As we can see, it was only at the end of Mark’s
narrative that the centurion at the foot of the cross could freely confess that
“truly this man was the Son of God” (Mk.
15:39). Indeed, the Jesus he sees, the Jesus as such, is the crucified-risen
One. At this point, one may begin to wonder the place of the miracles in the
gospel of Mark, and maybe by extension to the ministry of Jesus? The most eloquent of all the miracles, the
messianic miracle per excellence is the Cross and Resurrection. The other
miracles are prefiguration and preliminary acts of healing that foreshadow that
ultimate act of healing.
The
presence of Jesus makes the difference. For in his presence, things happen,
the sick are healed, lives are changed, demons are cast out and the gospel is
preached. He gets involved in our day today activities and shows his interest
in our wellbeing and welfare, for this he healed Simon’s mother in-law without
anyone requesting for it. He is truly
sensitive to our needs. He is the
God with and for his people. A proper and close reading of the gospel of Mark
reveals that the Jesus of Mark is not distanced from the human reality. He
enters into people’s houses (cf. 3:20;
7:24). He is close to the people. He entered into the house of Peter and
healed his mother in-law. Even today, he
continues to go about doing good (cf.
Acts 10:38), he continues to come into our houses as he did to Simon, do we
welcome him? Are we ready to welcome him? In the book of Revelation he says
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).
A very close look at the Gospel would
reveal a very important thing our Lord did, which connects us to the Second
Reading (1 Cor.9:16-19.22-23). We
are told that the next morning, after healing the mother-in-law of Simon and
others, our Lord Jesus Christ went to a lonely place to pray. While he was
there, a lot of people came looking for him at Simon’s place. When Simon and others
found him and reported that people were looking for him he said to them: “Let
us go on to the next towns that I may PREACH there also”. St. Paul in the
Second Reading shocked the Corinthians when he declared woe upon himself if he
fails to preach the word of God. The
preaching of the gospel for him remains a necessity he has no right to
boast about, irrespective of all odds, for St. Paul to preach the gospel means
to preach Christ-crucified.
In all, the word of God this Sunday is full
of hope and encouragement for us. No matter what you are passing through today,
no matter what is facing you or what you are facing, be rest assured that there
is no human misery that divine grace cannot transform into avenues of blessings
and miracles. Just don’t give up! Hold fast!! Stand firm!!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)
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