FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B

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

“Praise the Lord who heals the Brokenhearted”

Indeed we should praise God as God restores creation to its glory at creation when God saw everything to be good and Blessed.

The book of Job written may be 2,700 years ago seems to express today’s reality. One wakes up in the morning only to find that the basement is flooded and electricity is off. What a way to start the day. Or if all else is alright, they try to do everything fast in order to bit the traffic. Holding a doughnut in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, a bag hanging on one shoulder trying to leave the door in a hurry only to sleep in the ice which accumulated in the night. And what a morning!! No one to call 911 as one lies on the cold for some minutes.  And even if we make it to the Beltway, the traffic has already built up and it is stop and go. Then the day is often spent doing work in which there is no real enjoyment or satisfaction. “I just do it for the money.” And after work we re-join the rush-hour madness on the way home. . And even when we come to our street we find it blocked because the police are investigating and activity there. Reaching home we gobble down a supper and slump in front of the TV too exhausted to enjoy and evening.  And we can go on and on till we can say with Job “Is not man’s / woman’s life on earth a drudgery? I am filled with restlessness … I shall not see happiness again? Does that sounds like you? Or someone you know?  Why is life like this? Was life made to be so? 

    I don’t believe God meant our lives to be like that. We live perpetually preparing for a future which never comes. We think that some day when we have ‘made our living’ we will be able to put up our feet and really enjoy the fruits of our labors. But we find ourselves in hospitals and nursing homes paying huge bills as a result of a sickness which come from all those stresses. If you think I am dreaming just look around and see the thousands of faces around us who are still waiting to see that day just like you and me. People who are obsessed with the future that the present passes them by. And yet it is in the present that we can have real enjoyment of life as we prepare to enjoy even more in future.

But a question should be asked here. Why so much suffering in our world? My answer is – I think it is because of how we have been more self centered. We are profit calculators – ‘how much am I going to get for doing this? I am about my life. About making a living for myself. We are after power, influence, success, wealth etc and all for me, myself and I’. Or even when we use ‘We’, we actually mean a selected few – ‘my family, my church etc.  The second reading and the Gospel gives us a different approach to life. Paul and Jesus are there for the other first. Jesus goes about healing and casting out demons. Paul, in the second reading declares that ‘although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible …. to save at least some.’  In other words, let us consider less what we can squeeze for ourselves from our society and consider how much we are putting into it. We have to be like Jesus, finding ourselves in sharing what we have and what we are with others. Be a person for others. That is life-giving, that gives work meaning and value. It is in enriching others that we become truly rich ourselves. Yes we may be in Job’s situation. Then we ask how can we do what you just said. True. But look at what happened to Simon’s mother in law. So when we are in Job’s position we go on our knees and Pray to God and we do our best in our world situation. Jesus or someone else sent by God will grasp us and help us up. What follows is important. Just Simon’s mother-in-law, in thanksgiving and praise we have to enter into the service of others. This brings us to the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. Because God has stretched his hand and blessed us. Let us respond to the Archbishops call and stretch out our hand to bless someone else, be it at the Our Daily Bread, My Sisters Place, or someone at our struggling Schools, or reaching our to less fortunate Parishes like ours etc. Read our bulletin inserts and the Tabloid included and please make a generous Pledge. Respond to the letter you have received or come next Sunday be ready to make your Pledge in our In Pew process.  Then take a step further. Take on Jesus’ example. After the busy day or week. Take a break to be with God. Recharge your batteries, bringing healing and wholeness to oneself. Nemo dat quod non habet = you can’t give what you do not have.

And now my friends let me sum up. I think a life of meaning is this. It is a life where there is time for prayer, reflection and coming closer to God; where there is time for sharing with others in word and action; where there is time for building and healing and reconciling. It is a life of Faith in God who can be trusted to ‘ heal the brokenhearted …, who takes away our infirmities and our diseases’.   

Finally ask yourself. Which lifestyle is more like mine? Job’s or Jesus? Am I more like Job where life is dull, boring, routine, going nowhere……? Or would I like it to be more like that of Jesus? To be full of meaning, full of clear direction, where I find real satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness in being part of a community that concentrates on making life good for all – here and now.  Welcome. Let us put on the armor of Christ. Let us say with Paul”It is not I who lives but Christ lives in me”.