Sunday the 4th of February 2024 - The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Job 7:1-4,6-7/ Psalm 146(147)/ 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23/ Mark 1:29-39

In the apparently ever increasingly cynical and disbelieving world around us it can be challenging to cling to our faith, our belief in something beyond this life. As people lose their faith in God and the eternal life he promises they seek to obtain as much as possible from this short physical life on earth. Some people are lucky and find themselves living relatively pleasant lives but for many there are numerous troubles and traumas thrown at them. The truth is that this world, the creation we know, and even our own physical lives are passing away. The world cannot guarantee anything to us, all will fail in the end. It is sad to see people dealing with their own death or the death of a loved one when there is no faith to support them. This is even more difficult if there has been a period or a lifetime of disappointment and suffering. The age-old question of why good people suffer is one that is difficult to answer from a faith perspective yet alone a secular one.

The challenges of life are what we find Job wrestling with in the first reading. Job is a just and innocent man and yet he is plagued by misfortune. Having no hope beyond his earthly life Job, realising that his life is just a breath, sees it as short and futile, passing quickly until he becomes just another of the forgotten dead. Having been left in the joyless despair overwhelming Job we have the hope given to us in today’s Psalm.

Calling us to praise a good a loving God the psalm brings us back from despair giving us hope in the future. A God who calls back the lost exiles healing the broken-hearted binding up their wounds. The unfairness of life felt by Job will be addressed by the just actions of God whose wisdom cannot be measured. He will raise the suffering lowly and humble the wicked. How will God achieve this redressing of human failing? Through sending Jesus, his son, to take on all evil and banish it for ever. It is Jesus who heals and binds up our wounds, who is to be found amongst the poor, repressed, downtrodden and needy of this world. It is Jesus who gives us the confidence we need when facing the trials of this life. Unlike Job we, through faith, have a hope beyond this imperfect short life in a damaged world that cannot promise us anything that lasts. Our faith, our hope, and our love will outlast this life and carry us into the next eternal life, freeing us from the despair that Job felt because of the damage brought into creation by the sinfulness of humanity.

In the Gospel passage we have Jesus continuing his healing mission. He visits Simon and Andrew’s home and finding Simon’s mother-in-law sick Jesus heals her. The response from this woman to being healed by Jesus is to serve him. This should be our response also. Jesus heals us of our sinful fevers and on being healed we are called to serve him so that his mission in the world may continue. It is only through those who are healed and helped up by Jesus that this healing of a fallen and broken world can be continued. People desperately need the hope beyond this life that Job also needed. This is the consolation and hope that Jesus brings to the world, but the message needs to be brought to people.

Jesus was frequently recognised by the evil spirits who encountered him. They knew who he was, but he prevented them from speaking. The revealing of Jesus as the Messiah, the Holy one of God, The God who became human and lived within his creation, can only be made gradually over time. It is a concept so enormous that if revealed in one go would be too much for mere human thinking to contemplate. This revelation has to take place gradually over the lifetime of creation if it is to be accepted and understood by humanity who are limited by the physical creation we inhabit. It requires faith and reason working together with everything in scripture to even begin to grasp the length and breadth of God and his purpose for us.

We can appreciate how big a task the spreading of the gospel message is when we read about the life of Jesus. Before he moved on from Capernaum to preach further afield, and indeed before any of the major events in his life, we find Jesus taking himself away to a quiet place to pray to his father. If Jesus had to do this in order to gain the strength to carry out his father’s will then how much more will we need to go off to a quiet place to pray before we can attempt the mission we have to evangelise the world around us. All we seek to do must be founded in prayer, prayer that gives us the strength to carry out the task we have been given through baptism.

The answer to why the good suffer is not satisfactorily answered in this life. We know that God’s perfect creation was damaged by sin brought into the world through humanity by the devil. Jesus is the example of the perfect human being, innocent and completely sinless, in full communication with God the Father and yet he suffered and died. If Jesus had to suffer and die for our sins, then it should not be surprising that we also will have to share in that suffering and death. It is through joining in the suffering and death of Jesus that we can also join him in his resurrection. This is the hope in the life to come that our Christian faith gives us.

We must join Jesus in prayer so that we can also join him in his healing mission bringing God’s mercy to those who need it in the world. In the extract from Paul’s letter we get a taste of how he fulfilled this mission. Paul had to put aside his personal ambitions and made God’s work his priority becoming a slave to all. Paul understood that God’s promise of salvation beyond this life is open to all without exception. In Paul we have an example of how we can continue the mission that Jesus started at that small fishing village on the lake shore and then took it out into the wider world. As it was the case for Jesus our work will only bear fruit if it is founded in prayer.

God Bless

Brendan.