God does not abandon us in our difficulties!
5th Sunday in ordinary Time. Job 7, 1-4.6-7; Psalms 146; 1Cor 9:16-19.22-23; Mark 1:29-39.
Our daily life is filled with all kinds of difficulties, struggles, pains and griefs that seem to darken our lives. (Cf Job 7). We often ask ourselves where God is and why has he seemed to abandon us! However, today's readings remind us that Jesus is there for us. He shares our weaknesses, our sufferings and our condition.
The first reading gives us only a few lines of the huge Book of Job which contains 42 chapters. The few lines confront the terrible question of suffering that we are all victims. The question of suffering is real and actual for people of all generations. People have always believed in retributive Justice and one might easily explain suffering either as the consequence of wrongdoing and sin or as a school of virtue. Without giving any explanation to the question of suffering, the Book of Job helps us to confront our daily sufferings with trust and confidence in God. Hopelessness does not have the final say. Jesus shares our condition; he is with us till the end of time. “He heals and restores the broken heart. He heals their wound” (Ps 146:3). So suffering is a deprivation of joy; it is an evil that we must ask God’s power and grace to fight. Our efforts to relieve humanity from suffering are part of God’s plan to save humanity.
Jesus in the Gospel reveals himself as the one who comes to heal our humanity from diseases andeverything that hinders their wholeness. He is the response to the question of suffering raised in the first reading by Job. He heals the mother in law of Peter and they bring to him all those who were sick and possessed by all kinds of evil spirits. This is indeed an anticipation of what Jesus will do for us on the wood of the cross. St. Peter in his letter explains, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24). With Christ, we begin a new creation, where new life is given and suffering is transcended. Jesus is the Messiah who announces and fulfills the kingdom of God. (Mark 1:15). This kingdom must be preached to all and bring freedom to all.
Like Jesus, let us find the strength to face our daily struggles and to know the right direction to take through silent meditation, adoration of the blessed sacrament, and other forms of prayer.
This Sunday we learn that the preaching of the Gospel is not just a mere utterance of words, but also a commitment to fight like Jesus, against everything that causes suffering to our humanity and everything that deprives us of our joy of being children of God.
Happy Sunday!
Fr. Georges Roger Bidzogo sac