Homily (2) 5th Sunday
of Ordinary Time Year B: Fr. Michael U. Udoekpo
Readings: 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. 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. Jesus
was human. 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 walks with the afflicted. He
empties himself to 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 extremisms, 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.
