Homily Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year
B: Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
·
Job 7:1-4, 6-7;
·
Ps 147:1-6;
·
1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23;
·
Mark 1:29-39
Suffering in Communion with Christ!
In his Book, When Bad things Happen to
Good People, Harold S .Kushner explains why he took to this theme. It was
because of his personal family tragedy. His son, Aaron became sick of what is
called “progeria,” that is rapid aging. It was a sad news difficult for Harold
and his family to handle. Perhaps like
the family of those healed in today’s gospel. Yet, he knew he was trying his
best to live the gospel, the good news, in obedient to the Lord. But if the
news of the Lord is always good, how can the Lord allow his son become sick,
inflicting immeasurable pains and anguish to the family? Harold’s question
could be related to the biblical Job, Habakkuk, Paul and to the mystery of the
Gospel of Christ’s Gospel, the cross, the sufferings, and healings, God’s
justice, addressed in today’s bible readings. Or, as Joseph Cardinal Bernadin would
write in The Gift of Peace, “Suffering in Communion with the Lord.”
Job, a pious and righteous man kept the
rules like any of us. Obeyed God, was prosperous but also suffered terrible set
back and misfortunes in life. He lost his property, his children. He was
afflicted and tormented by all kinds of diseases. He felt restless and as if he
had been assigned months misery (Job 7:1-4, 6-7). He would have loved to have
rational answers to the cause of his set back and sufferings. But they were not
forth coming, yet Job deepened his trust and love for God through his
experiences of suffering.
Job’s suffering- experiences in his
relationship with God could be liken to that of Paul. In his ministry, after
his conversion, he experienced suffering, torture and imprisonment. He was once
shipped wrecked and beaten many times for the sake of the Gospel. These
sufferings did not change Paul. He kept the faith. He felt the compulsion
to preach the Gospel of Christ. In the 2nd reading he strongly says,
“Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (I Cor 9:16).
What is the Gospel for Paul? It is the “the
good news of Jesus Christ,” the patience, the sufferings, cross, the peace, the
faith, and the hope that comes with it. It is the entire activity of
evangelization to the Gentiles, to the uncircumcised (Gal 2:7). It must have
its origin in God manifested in Christ, the son of God (Rom 1:9). It is the
faith in Christ (Rom 4–6; Gal 1:23) and the living of the word of God (2 Cor
2:17), the beatitude (Matt 5:1-2). It is the Golden Rule (Matt 7:12). It is a
Christian way of life. It is accepting God’s mysterious ways of dealing with us
in the crucified Christ (1 Cor 2:1-2), and the hope in the resurrection (1 Cor
15; 1 Thess 4:12-17). It also include the fostering of unity (1 Cor 12–14). It
is the story of the Risen Lord, not our own stories (2 Cor 4:4).
For Paul the Gospel is God’s salvific
activity for his people, his power and healing mercies. The Divine Jesus was human too. Again,
as Cardinal Bernadin said in The Gift of Peace, Christ, “felt pains as we do.
And in many ways he experienced pain and suffering more deeply than we will
ever know. Yet in the face of all, he transformed human suffering into
something greater: an ability to walk with the afflicted and to empty himself
so that his loving father could work more fully through him.”
In the Gospel reading of today (Mark
1:29-39), the Marken, Christ like God his father walks with the afflicted and
those fevered. He empties himself for the sick. He heals Simon Peter’s mother
–in-law who was sick with fever:
“On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the
house of Simon and Andrew, James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with
a fever… he approached grasped her and helped her up. Then the fever left her
and she waited on them.”
What are your own “fevers”? Certainly this
can come in form of the restlessness of the biblical Job. It can come in
forms of bodily or spiritual illnesses, some that we bring to our
doctors. It is true that we have these human doctors. We keep
those appointments. But do we believe in the Gospel of Paul, in the healing
power of Christ who is able to cure us of our illness, or work miracles,
the type seen in today's Gospel.
Truly, our today’s “fevers” can
also come in form of disunity and lack of love, and envious of other’s
spiritual gifts, that the Gospel Paul opposes in I Cor 12–14. Our fevers can
come in form lack of universal spirit, being victims of war, bias and
prejudices, acts of terrorism, religious extremists , HIV
and Ebola epidemics, unjust socio-political structures that breeds
poverty, violent, and lack of acceptance of others. Our fevers and
weaknesses can come in all forms of immorality and idolatries of the 21st
century, against the values of the Good News of Christ championed by Paul.
Whatever our shortcomings, fevers and
sufferings might be, these days, in living and preaching the Gospel of Christ,
we are invited to open up for our understanding of suffering in communion
with Christ, not merely for its inevitability, but also for its
Good News, its mystery, and redemptive values.
Reflection Questions
1. How do you relate to today’s scripture?
2. Do you see yourself in Job, or those
healed in today’s Gospel?
3. How do you assist the suffering members of your faith community?
4. What are your fevers?
