5th Sunday in Ordinary
Time Year B – Feb. 4, 2024
Job 7: 1-4,
6-7; 1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23; Mark 1: 29-39
Theme: Preaching, Healing, Exorcism, and Prayer
Today’s Gospel picks up where we left
off last Sunday. Jesus and his four disciples left the synagogue and went to Peter’s
house where these new disciples experienced the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law
and many other people who were ill and possessed by demons. Note that these new
disciples are in a training formation to become the “fishers of men”, the
apostles of Jesus. We too who started a new relationship with the Emmanuel,
God-with-us, last Christmas are in a training formation during this Ordinary
time (34 Sundays), learning what discipleship entails. Thus, today’s Bible
readings teach us that as Jesus’ followers, our ministry is the ministry of preaching,
healing, exorcising, and prayer (Gospel). To follow Jesus means that all our
lives must be dedicated to evangelizing the people of God, healing their
physical and spiritual illnesses, exorcising them, and being constantly united
with our God in prayer, especially when we go through suffering like that of
Job in our first reading. This ministry is so urgent that we cannot waste time as
Saint Paul also expresses in our second reading.
The episode of today’s Gospel took place in
the house of Peter and Andrew. Upon Jesus entering their house, they immediately
told him about the sickness of Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus healed her by
touching her hand. As an expression of gratitude to Jesus who healed her, this mother-in-law
started to serve Jesus and his disciples (vv. 29-31). Notice the three steps of
this healing. First, they told Jesus about their problem (the sickness of
Peter’s mother-in-law), then Jesus touched her and healed her, and finally, the
mother-in-law started to serve them. These three steps occur when we experience
Jesus’ healing in the sacraments, particularly in the Eucharist and confession.
At Confession, for example, we start by telling Jesus about our sins which are
the sicknesses of our souls. Then, Jesus touches us through the laying on of
the hands of the priest and heals our souls by absorbing our sins. Finally, as
a sign of our gratitude to Jesus, we are called to serve him through our Church
and our brothers and sisters. Likewise
in the Eucharistic celebration, the first step is when we tell Jesus about our
problems at the beginning of the Mass before the opening prayer called
“Colette”. When the priest says, “Let us pray”, he gives a moment of silence so
that each one of us speak with God and tell him about the topics of our
encounter with him that day. Then the priest will “Colette” all our topics and
bring them to God. This is the significance of the opening prayer at the
beginning of the Mass. The second step is that Jesus will touch our hearts and
heal us through his Word that we hear in the Scripture readings and his Body
and Blood that we receive in the Holy Communion. The third step is that we are
sent at the end of the Mass to go and serve the Lord as an expression of our
gratitude to God.
After the healing of Peter’s
mother-in-law, Jesus healed many other people who were sick with various diseases
and drove out many demons. The narrator tells us that the whole town was
gathered at the door of the house of Peter and John (vv. 32-34). It is
interesting to notice that the house of Peter and John became the central place
where many people came to meet with Jesus and get healed. On Christmas, we
offered Jesus our hearts and families to be born in. Therefore, let us make our
families and our lives the places where the people find Jesus and get healed of
their problems. This is possible when we always renew and strengthen our
relationships with our Lord in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and
confession.
Mark tells us that Jesus went off to
a deserted place to pray early in the morning before dawn (v. 35). Next to
healing, preaching, and exorcism, this part of the Gospel highlights prayer as another
characteristic of Jesus’ ministry. Why did Jesus need to pray to God? In
November of last year, I preached a three-day retreat to the Holy Family Sisters
here in New Orleans. In one of my conferences, I meditated with them on the passage
where Jesus says that we “are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5: 13-16). One
of the reflections was this: Oil stands for our prayer life. The lamp that gives
light amid darkness represents all of us Christians who are called to minister to
the people and live out our faith amid all the trials that we go through daily.
So, the more the lamp gives light, the more the oil dries up. In the context of
today’s Gospel, we can say that the more Jesus ministered to the people the whole
day, the more he needed to strengthen his relationship with God, his Father through
prayer. He sets an example for us his followers. The more we live out our faith
and minister to our Church and our brothers and sisters amid the sufferings
that we face daily, the more our prayer life dries up. Hence, we need to reinforce
it by using the sacraments, mostly the Eucharist and Confession which are the summits
of all prayers. The Eucharistic celebration and confession renew and strengthen
our relationship with God and give us new energy to continue ministering to
God’s people.
The narrator of our Gospel reports to
us that the disciples pursued Jesus and informed him that many people were
still coming to look for him. Surprisingly, Jesus told them that they should
rather go elsewhere in the nearby villages to minister to the people there also
because, he says, for this purpose that he has come. The reading concludes with
a mention that Jesus went into the synagogues throughout the whole of Galilee,
preaching and driving out demons there (vv. 36-39). This last part of the
Gospel emphasizes the urgency and universalism of Jesus’ ministry. The people in
Capernaum need more of Jesus’s evangelization but there is no time to waste since
many people elsewhere throughout the whole of Galilee need Jesus’s ministry as
well. This is what Saint Paul expresses in our second reading. He considers
preaching the Word of God not as an option for him to preach or not preach. It
is rather an “obligation” divinely imposed on him (1 Corinthians 9: 16). He says
that he offers the Gospel free of charge which makes him serve his people
freely without being hindered or distracted by financial obligations. Here Paul
shows the urgency for him to preach the Gospel.
Nowadays, there is an urgency to
bring the Word of God everywhere, especially to the people who experience significant
suffering forcing them to think like Job in our first reading. Let us try to
understand the general context of the book of Job to better comprehend our
passage. When you have time, I recommend you read at least the prologue: Job 1:
1-22, 2: 1-13, and the epilogue: Job 42: 7-17. The author of this book composed
poetical dialogues on the topic of suffering, but he did not offer a clear
solution. He attempts to answer the question: if God is loving, then why does
evil exist? The three friends of Job: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, tried to
destroy Job’s faith in God by telling him that his sufferings are the
punishment from God because of his sins. Job’s first response is what we heard
in our first reading. Job here takes up the concept of the passing of time. He
describes life as a “drudgery,” composed of “months of misery” and nights that
drag on. This passage describes Job as a person who is in complete despair yet refuses
to reject God. When we go through this experience of suffering, this reading
encourages us to not despair but to turn to God who has the power to heal us
through the medical providers and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and
Confession.
The liturgy of this Mass reminds us
that we are Jesus’ disciples of our time. Therefore, our ministry consists of evangelizing
the people of God, healing their physical and spiritual illnesses, exorcising
them, and being constantly united with our God in prayer, especially when we go
through suffering like that of Job in our first reading. This ministry is so
urgent that we cannot waste time as Paul expresses in our second reading. Amen.
Rev. Leon
Ngandu, SVD
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