Walking with Jesus: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time B

Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39

Let’s take a realistic moment and look at what’s happening around us and within us. We hear: I don’t like the result of the elections … I like the result of the elections; I don’t like my job … I like my job; I don’t like the neighbors … I like the neighbors; I don’t like what the Pope is doing … I like what Pope is doing; I don’t seem to be making any headway in my prayer life … I like my prayer life; I can’t seem to find God anywhere in my life today … I’m experiencing God in so many ways. The readings do not paint a flowery vision of life with God but they directly look at what is happening and give us direction.

In the first reading we hear Job speaking while in great suffering. He cannot imagine that God still cares for him. His place has been occupied by so many of us at different times.

In the second reading, Paul accepts the great response God has given him to preach and live the Gospel … the Good News of love. He isn’t hesitant. Am I?

In the Gospel, Jesus raises Simon Peter’s mother-in-law and she immediately waits on them.  She feels she has this responsibility. And they bring people to Jesus who need healing and He heals them. He has a responsibility too. Am I responsible for loving others?

Is my life characterized by service, or taking care of me first? Do I feel that God has placed me here for a particular purpose or just for my own betterment?

Today is Super Bowl Sunday, a yearly ritual for most people. Both coaches have been acknowledging the outstanding team effort that has brought them to this day. To be successful they need to go back over the details, go back over the little things. Both agree: Our guys are working hard to make sure we’re sound both fundamentally and schematically. We need good protection and run the ball well, play solid defense and take advantage of situational breaks. Do I live my life accordingly? It seems this is the message of the readings today.

The dialogue between Job and his three friends is under way at this point in the book. One thinks Job should plead with God for forgiveness [5:8]. Job counters that he hasn’t done anything wrong that would offend God. This is totally true. He has been totally devoted to the Lord but at this point in his life he can’t see his purpose. He complains that God is punishing him without cause, which he feels is unjust. He describes life in a negative way: heavy and unbearable — “a drudgery” [7:1]. So he thinks his life is coming to an end … there is nothing left for him to live for. We’ve been there. We want to be happy all the time. It does not work that way. Hardships will befall us no matter how we live our lives. One ring of the phone can change our lives in a second with horrible or unbelievable news. As human beings we feel doubt, loneliness, loss, anger. We cannot beat ourselves up over these. We also experience both great joy and great difficulties in life. From Job’s point of view, life is only short, painful, and ultimately without hope. Is mine this way? So much of the future is unknown. Look at the hope and optimism with the COVID-19 vaccine. God is in the NOW. His promise is life forever with Him.

Paul is fully aware of the huge responsibility he has been given by God. He has been given much. He's an arguer, speaking with passion and determination. He had persecuted the Lord by seeking out, imprisoning and killing Jesus’ believers. Then the Lord appeared to him. He is totally grateful and shares the Lord’s message of love. Paul preaches without reimbursement because he knows living the Gospel of love means giving without cost.

Just imagining the scene in the Gospel is an example of total giving and the hopefulness of the people. Imagine the sick hobbling into Jesus’ presence and then throwing away their crutches … the possessed with addictions and mental illness feeling a huge weight lifted … they had been prisoners and now they are free. The Greek word used to describe the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is egeiro, a word that describes resurrection: She has been given a new life … she waits on all in service for the Lord … to the Lord. The main point of Jesus’ ministry is prayer: He stays totally connected to God through prayers. His disciples didn’t understand this … it’s a message to help us. Jesus freed people from the hatred that binds them. He needed prayer to maintain His focus. Our call is to love God and each other. St. Francis said “we are to preach the Gospel with our lives and if we have to, use words.” Are my actions always love actions?

So I reflect on:

• Sometimes we want things to stay the way they are. Yet God’s plan is deeper and richer. Reflect on the “surprises” that have led you to deeper experiences of God.
• Jesus traveled about to all sorts of people: believers and pagans, criminals and those living just for themselves. Are we seeing God in all the people who cross our lives?
  

Sacred Space 2021 states:

“There is a moment of truth in the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law. When we are cured from a sickness by whatever means, it is tempting to sit back and accept people’s good wishes and congratulations. This sick woman felt her temperature drop and energy return to her limbs ‘and she began to serve them.’

“Lord, thank You for my health, not something to luxuriate in but the means by which I can serve others.”