FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT - YEAR B

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT – B
(Gen 9:8-15; 1Pet 3:18-22; Mark 1:122-15)

Theme: We have to make a passage from the desert of the pain to the garden of joy

Reflection

Lent: A Time for prayer – fasting – charity

- We have just begun the ‘time of Lent’ and today is the first Sunday of the Lent. With the Ash Wednesday we have initiated our ‘journey of spiritual renewal’. Inspired by and taking origin from the word and life of Jesus, the Church has placed before us the three important Christian practices for the Lent: the prayer, the fasting and the charity. One of them is a virtue through which our Christian life is nourished and enriched.
o The prayer makes us to be near to God and to discern the will that God has for us. It helps us to reach the altar of God and become closer to him. It is the gesture of our coming to God and to be with him. We leave aside all our daily worries and preoccupations and give a ‘space’ for God. It is through prayer, especially in silence and in mediation, that our spirits to cling on to God always. In prayer we become God’s children and God’s possession. In prayer we see God’s will coming to us and our response of faith moving to God. God and We become one in prayer. It is the reason why the greatest prayer that becomes the meeting point of both God and Us is: ‘Let your will be done’.
o The fasting is the gesture of sacrifice or foregoing something for the better cause of interior spiritual growth. In the material sense the fasting is the sacrifice/foregoing of the food we eat so that we keep aside what we are saving and give to the needy. In the spiritual sense it is the sacrifice/foregoing of our priorities and our dominant egoistic attitudes so that we give importance to others and make ourselves pleasant and peaceful in our relationships. If in prayer we become closer to God, in the fasting we become closer to ourselves. We have the possibility of knowing what we are, where we are and where we are heading to. In hunger we look into ourselves. In sacrifice we realize our power and potentiality. In foregoing what we hold onto we develop our personality. We form ourselves by the ‘entering into the knowledge of the self’. In the fasting we have this possibility of entering deep into our mind, heart and the spirit. But on the other hand the sacrifice either of food or of our immature attitudes, the fruit of fasting, is not for us alone. It is for other. Our interior formation of the mind, heart and soul is to reach out to others and make them walk towards the same faith in God. It is the reason why the greatest act of fasting is: ‘pruning our proper self and soul’.
o Charity is the gesture of a help extended towards the needy. While prayer makes us closer to God and the fasting makes us closer to ourselves, the charity makes us closer to others. This charity/extension of the arms to our needy brethren is possible and become easier after the encounter with God in prayers and the encounter with the self in the fasting. Once we know the will of God and once we have the knowledge of our identity (prayer and fasting), it is very conducive to reach out to others. It is for this purpose that the ‘act of charity’/love becomes the meeting point of the three: We, God and others. Only here our life and its destiny find their realization of ‘being in love’ and being love itself. The pruning of our self and soul through the prayer and through fasting is culminated in the charity and in the loving deeds. If this final virtue of love is not the motive of the former two, prayer and fasting, then they do not have much significance. Therefore, the ultimate meaningfulness of Lent is to extend our interiorly profound life of faith to the exterior testimony of love of works.

Lent: A walk out of desert of desperation and into the garden of hope

- On this first Sunday of the Lent, the Church exhorts us to make our passage from the life of desert to the life of joy. Why a desert? Why to be in the garden? What is the significance of both of them in our life? And how the word of God enlightens us today? These are the questions that arise immediately and we deepen our reflection by trying to find out reasonable answers.
- Human life is a desert: In the normal sense, our mind very easily moves to imagine the desert as a place of dryness, as a place of fruitlessness, and as a place of perdition. Thus, it is a place of lifelessness. In the spiritual sense, the desert is a place of loneliness, solitude and meditation. It is place in which the silent discernment of our rapport with God is possible. In this way it becomes the place of ‘interaction’ between God and the believer. Accordingly, does not our human life often find itself deserted? Often we find ourselves depressed, discouraged, isolated and helpless. In a word, we find ourselves deserted. This is the normal sense. In the spiritual sense, though the desert of the solitude and being in prayer helps us to know and develop our relationship with God, our unity of love with God should be transformed into the testimony of life which is possible not mere in the desert but in the midst of the people. In both senses, the deserted life leads us either to the loosing of God or to the communication with God alone. In both cases we do not have any contact with others/fellow beings which is not natural for the community life.
- Human life is a garden: on the other hand, human life is not meant and made for the deserted life. It is made for the garden life. It is the plan of God in the creation and in the salvation too.
o In the creation God has created the human beings, man and woman, and place them in the garden asking them to enjoy ‘the life and the fruitfulness’ of the garden of Eden.
o In the salvation history, God has led his people Israel from the desert to the land of milk and honey, from Egypt to the Cana and in the spiritual sense, from the land of pathetic/desperate situation of slavery to the land of sympathetic/hopeful condition of freedom of God’s children.
o In the mystery of Christ, the fulfillment of the promise of salvation, Jesus is risen from the dead and his resurrection from the tomb happened not in the desert but in the garden. In the garden he has offered to man a new life that was lost with the consequence of being ‘out of the garden’ or ‘out of the life of God’.
o From this we know that the destiny of our life is not a desert but a garden, not a condition of losing life but the possibility of gaining the divine life back. That does not mean that we do not have any experience of the desert. God never promises a life without difficulties. He only promises the spirit and the strength to confront these difficult situations with the love for God and for the neighbor and for the glory that is awaiting us. As long as we are in the battle with the world and its attractive pleasure we experience the ‘life of the desert’ with the situations of hopelessness and helplessness. Amidst all this we should not worry and we should not lose heart. There is one person who is before us: Jesus - one who walks before us; one who prepares a way for us; one who leaves his foot prints so that we follow them; one who takes all our desperate moments of suffering and pain on to his shoulders and carry; one who, thus, makes us free of burden and the invites us to reach him, to learn from him and to carry the cross with courage and hope. Jesus calls us: Come to me, you who are heavy burdened. I will give you rest. Learn from I am meek and humble. You will find peace. Take my yoke because it is light (Mathew 11:29ff). There is a way to overcome and to win all these with the example and imitation of Jesus and thus to reach into the lift of joy, peace and love, in a word, to the life of a garden of spiritual renewal. Thus, now let us imitate what has Jesus done and how the Church helps us to understand the same Jesus’ desert experience.

Jesus: tempted by the Satan and served by the Angels

- We have today a passage from St. Mark’s gospel in which, as in the first Sunday of every Lent, meditate upon the ‘temptation of Jesus in the desert’ and how he has overcome it with the total commitment to the will of God.
- Spirit leads Jesus into the desert: it is noteworthy to observe that it is not the devil that leads Jesus into the desert but the Spirit of God himself. It is the work of the spirit to lead a person to enter into the closer encounter with God. Here the Spirit guides Jesus into the loneliness and solitude and to be with God alone. The first work of the baptized is to be fully immersed in the life of God with the discernment of His will. Jesus has just received baptism by John the Baptist and immediately the Spirit pushes him gently into the ‘experience of God’. The baptized is set out to carry on what he has just promised in the reception of new life: being faithful and being a testimony. Here too Jesus is set out when he has just begun his public appearance and ministry. For this first step is to find out what God really will for him and the plan of carrying it out. This is possible only in the silent and prayerful interaction with God. In the midst of the noise and the rumors of the normal public life this is not easily possible. He needs a space for solitude. Therefore, Jesus moves into the desert always in the guidance of the Spirit. In the desert Jesus has become so strong in doing of the will of His Father that no temptation, however powerful it is, could stop him and we see in the parallel accounts of Mathew and Luke how the Satan leaves him after finding itself helpless with the spiritual empowerment of Jesus (Mathew 4:11; Luke 4:13).
- Jesus remains forty days in the desert: Forty days is a ‘fixed period of time’. It is the partial and particular moment of Jesus life. Desert is not his place of living. Desert is not his place of preaching. Desert is not the place of mission. Desert is not the place of his sacrifice of life too. Desert experience is only partial. It is not his whole life. It becomes only a part of Jesus’ life. Still it is very important starting point, though not a centrality of his life. From here we understand at least two things:
o That, in the desert Jesus has spent only few days of his entire life. This period of forty days of prayer and solitude will come to an end and immediately there follows the living of the experience with the ministry. This teaches us that there is a period of temptation and pain. But it is only short one. It remains only for few days. It is not the whole life. There will be the turning of this desperation into hope. The desert experience will be followed by the joyful life of God.
o That, in the desert Jesus has started descending and accepting the will of God for him. It initiates him into the public ministry. It encourages him into the fulfillment of salvation process that he has come to do. Thus, it is not a less important moment of his life. It is very important and of course, it was not there, his public mission would have taken another shape/another mode. But God willed this way and that is the reason why His Spirit has guided him into this desert experience. It is the ‘starting’ point of his life. This teaches us that we have to accept this desert life and remain in it with the spirit of sacrifice and renouncement. With this experience we become strong in the spirit that we can face any material difficulty with ease and with positive confrontation.
- Jesus is served by the Angels: Another element of desert experience. God never leave his children alone. He always takes his side with the presence of his angels. We see here the beautiful and encouraging expression of the service of the angels. Jesus is surrounded by the angels who guard him and who assist him. The Spirit has done his work of leading Jesus into the desert. Jesus has fulfilled the plan of God by remaining in the desert without giving up in the middle. Father has done his work by sending his angels in support of him. This happens in every desert experience. We get lot of power to live our own deserted moments of life. We are not alone. God cannot leave us alone. His love and mercy is so amazing that he takes our side. If we remain with him he remains with us. His angels are always present with us in our temptations and in our difficulties. That is the reason why Paul tells us that God will not make us tempted beyond our strength. When we lose our ground his powerful hand takes hold of us. Why to worry? There is no need for any preoccupation. We are always assisted by the angels of God. We should never bypass this presence of God with us in the form of the service of Angels. It is the Spirit who leads us to the desert experience because we need this to become strong in the spiritual life. And it is the Angels who help us, by their presence and protection, to the fruitful carrying of our mission.

Lent: forming ourselves as a sign of God’s mercy in and to the world

- With the spirit of Lent we have the call of forming ourselves as the sign of God’s love. We have to form ourselves into that destiny where we become ‘the symbols’ of Jesus mercy and love. Those who meet us have to see in us the presence of God for their life of desert. We have become strong in the spiritual life and thus we have the task of bringing all those who are still in the desert of discouragement and difficulty to the garden of vitality in Jesus. In order to fulfill this task we need to become a sign of God for them. We have this notion from the same readings of today especially from the first two readings.
- In the first reading we observe the alliance/ covenant that God has made with the family of Noah. The flood has destroyed whole face of the earth. God has saved only Noah and his family because of the faith of Noah. Now God renews his covenant of leading them to the ultimate salvation which cannot be destroyed by any further flood. As the sign of his faithful and his covenant God places his ‘bow’/rainbow in the skies. His promise is: “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh” (v. 15). We observe here two points: God’s covenant with the family of Noah, his chosen race on the one hand, and His covenant with the whole creation which surpasses the remnant of his people and thus becomes the universal in its character. God’s love is for his people and his people are not of a selected section but the whole humanity. The important point here is: There is both a person and a sign between God and his people. The person is Noah and the sign is the rainbow.
- In the second reading Peter recalls the waters through which Noah and his family is saved as the waters of baptism through we are all called to new life and salvation. Here the symbolism is the blood of Christ in which all our sins are washed away and we are made again the children of God. Through our participation in the death of Jesus we become also the partakers of his resurrection. In other words, when we partake in the desert experience of Jesus Passion and Death we are also raised to the glory of new life in the garden of God. God renews again his promise and covenant and brings it to the ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The important point here is: There is both a person and a sign here also between God and his people. The person is Jesus Christ and the sign is the Cross.
- Today we are called to be sign of God in the world. We form and reform ourselves. We transform our life into the sign of God’s love to the world. Noah and the Bow are the person and the sign that God placed between Him and his people in the covenant after the flood. Jesus and the Cross are the person and the sign that God placed between Him and Us after the death and resurrection to New Life. Now, today, it is we and our love that God places between Him and the world as the person and the sign. Thus we, the Christians, have the great responsibility of ‘being the person and the sign’ of God for the world that is hopelessly moving towards perdition of the desert.
- Lent is a ‘favorable hour’ and ‘redemptive hour’ (2 Cor 6:2 – “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation”). It is the time in which we have to ‘convert’ our words into merciful deeds, our prayers into actions, and finally our deserted life into the fruitful garden. For this we are called and for this we are offered this ‘gracious moments’ of the Lent. Therefore, let us make a passage from the desert of the pain to the garden of joy and once we are in the garden of life we become sign of God’s love to the world so that the whole creation enters into the ‘joy of the gardened life’.

SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

SEVENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B
(Is 43:18-19, 21-22, 24-25; 2 Cor 1:18-22; Mark 2:1-12)

Theme: We have to become the bearers of God’s pardon and grace to our brethren

Reflection

- In this seventh Sunday of the Liturgical Year, the Church invites us through its proclamation of the word to become ourselves God’s pardon and goodness to those who contact us. It is the Christian vocation of all those who choose to follow Jesus and his footsteps. Thus, it is our mission too. There are in us and around us many people who are discouraged with the difficulties of life, those who are paralyzed with the incapacities and failures, those who are not able to move forward with their pathetic situations of depression and desperation. Our mission is to carry them to the presence of God as the four people who have carried the paralytic to Jesus and we are to become ourselves God’s good news of love and forgiveness so that who meet us may find in us the same consolation of Jesus. This is the call that the Church makes to us today.
- Last Sunday we have mediated on the extending of our arms to those who are in need. We have seen that extending is to arrive to the very heart of the person and touch him in the profundity of the person so that the person feels important, loved and cared which will makes him really valuable and livable. It was this type of extending of the hand that Jesus has done to the leper in the last week’s gospel. When Jesus said ‘Yes, I do want’ and did the act of ‘embracing’ him, the leper became a person of proclamation of God’s wonderful presence among the people. He has become also for us a model ‘to announce to all the good deeds that God did and is doing for us’. And like Jesus we have to touch the reality and inner core of the person who is in need of our help.
- Chain of wonderful deeds: It continues. Jesus continues working great deeds among his people. It is not the first time today and it would not be the last time too. From the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, gospel of our interest for this year, we see the fragrance and power of Jesus’ word and deed. Without giving any importance to personal rest and without wasting even a single moment, Jesus initiates his ‘true mission’ of making people anew with his proclamation and with his wonder working. It is not more for proving his divinity but to lead people into real faith and love of God which will transform them to be the worthy children of God and in fact for this alone that Jesus has come. One by one we have reflected in the weeks passed that Jesus was always available for the needs of the people who are helpless, possessed by demons, attacked by the various diseases. He contacted them with compassion. He touched them with love. He made them well again. This is the vocation that God sent him to do in the world: to renew all their integrity and to restore all to their original relationship with God.
- God who renews: Indeed, our God is God who is always in movement towards his people. He never abandons his people. He never leaves us to the hands of sin and slavery. God’s ever and continuous will is to make his people ‘new creatures’ who finally ‘find their refuge under his wings of love’. This is what we see in the first reading and also in the Gospel. God renews his people by ‘pardoning’ their sins and by ‘donating’ his own life to them.
- Sin is the paralysis: sin is a voluntary thought, word and deed against God’s will of love. God willed that man remains always ‘integral’ / with fullness of divine love and it is for this purpose that He has created him ‘in his image and likeness’. By sinning man falls aback from this ‘divine life’ and loses his totality of the person. In sin man is no more ‘the image of God’. Sin makes him disfigured. Sin makes him ‘unmoved’ towards the loving invitation of God.
o In a word, sin makes man ‘paralyzed’ who cannot anymore move by himself because he is in the clutches of sin and its effects of depression, discouragement and diversion. Man who is in sin is paralyzed, is paralyzed in the interior life and in to some extent also in the exterior life. The sin makes our movements, our rapport with others hindered and thus we become almost ‘exiled’ from the community.
o Man is paralyzed in faith because in sin he is not able to come to the presence of God to listen to him and thus grow in his spiritual life.
o Man is paralyzed in life because in sin he goes to do what we wants and what the world offers to him – which is often seeming to be more colorful and attractive than the word and deed of God in the Church – and becomes numb (without any mobility in the body) to the true life which is fully realized only in Christ.
o Man is paralyzed in the Christian testimony because in sin he becomes helpless and incapable and thus neglecting his Christian task and mission.
o The world – we ourselves – has become paralyzed and immobile by sin and its consequences. It is in need of restoration and renovation. It needs someone who will bring it to God. That someone for us and for the world is Jesus Christ. God promises to renew all things by the forgiveness of sin which will be accomplished by the death and the resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
o Therefore, both sin and paralysis fall into the same reality in which man often finds himself and hopes for someone to carry him to the Great Healer, God in Jesus and in Spirit.
- ‘Renew us, Lord, with your pardon’: This is the responsorial psalm we have today. Thus renewal can be realized only through God’s forgiveness. And the restoration becomes possible only through God’s work of salvation in Jesus. We become renewed in Jesus and in Spirit here in the presence of God through the Word proclaimed and the Bread shared.

First Reading
I make everything anew

- ‘If you Lord count our sins who can survive’: is the lamentation of the Psalmist. God promises that he would not remember anymore our sins. It is the promised made to the people of Israel who are in the slavery of Babylon. In fact, the cause for the slavery is the sinful deeds of the people. God has allowed them to be defeated and to be carried into the deportation of Babylon because they have not listened to his voice and they have not followed his commands. Other way round could be also true. It is not God who has allowed them to be slaves but it is their own sinfulness because in sin they have become ‘deaf and dumb’ to God’s will by leaving themselves to be take away as captives. Indeed, in this sense, they have become paralyzed.
o Because they are not in the state of ‘noticing’ what is happening: v.19; they have lost the capacity to observe and to recognize what God does amidst them; so they have become ‘paralyzed’ in their mind.
o Because they are not in the state of ‘singing’ the glory of God: v.21; they have lost the spiritual readiness to be always at the disposition of praising God; they have forgotten to celebrated the hymn of God; so they have become paralyzed in their spirit.
o Because they are in the state of ‘honoring’ God: vv.22 and 24; they have tested God so much that God is tired of them; they have annoyed God with their iniquities; so they have become ‘paralyzed’ in their heart.
- ‘We are the new sprout’: God did not leave the people in their pain and suffering of Babylon, but has promised to bring them out so that they could become ‘new creatures’ of obedience and love to him. This is the promise of God to these people of deportation and to these people of sinfulness, as we find it in today’s first reading: “Here, I will make everything new….I will cancel your misdeeds because of my love and I will not remember anymore your sins” (Is 43: 18-25).
o The strange that only God can do is this: for God our past and the evil we have done are not important. For him only one thing comes into account: love. If we, realizing our being paralyzed by sin, come to him asking for pardon and mercy He is always ready to show his love. He will purify us and make us ‘new possession’ for himself. He will make us ‘to sprout again’ as a new being (v. 25) and we will be able to live again, we will be able to move again as though nothing has happened and as though we are freed from the paralysis of sin and burden.
o This newness of life (or renewal of life) has come to us in the Baptism in which our old nature of sin is immersed into the death of Jesus and thus we become part of the ‘new life’ in the Risen Christ; thus, we, who are paralyzed by sin, can see something new happening in life: life in the Spirit. Every time when we participate in the sacrament, especially in the Reconciliation and in the Eucharist, we return to God with new vigor and new spirit and thus share in the banquet of the ‘Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’ (Jn 1:29).

Second Reading
‘Yes’ of Jesus to God’s will is the highest point of his mediation between God and us

- St. Paul reminds us that in Jesus all the plans of God have become ‘realized’. Jesus has said ‘Amen’ to his Father and continued to be his ‘medium of yes’ all through his life. It is this which has made him our mediator between God who demands from us ‘our consent of amen’ and we who struggle to choose between of ‘no’ and ‘yes’. But in Christ we have to always say ‘Amen’ so that through him we raise up our praise to God. There was no confusion in Jesus and he never struggled between ‘yes’ and ‘no’. His answer was always ‘yes’.
- The second letter to the Corinthians opens a portrait between Christ and his true disciple; they both are linked with one small word: ‘yes’ – or – ‘Amen’. The ‘Yes’ of Jesus is complete and perfect:
o ‘Yes’: because in Christ the announcement of the liberty and forgiveness of the prophets has been actualized.
o ‘Yes’: because in Him reaching to the Father was total and without crack or rift.
o In this way, following the example of Christ, the believer has to be the man of ‘yes’ in the pardon, in the testimony and in the faith. Above all, the faith is the ‘great amen’ we can elevate to God.


Gospel
Jesus is God’s Forgiveness and Newness to the world

- The marvelous deeds of Jesus, on the one hand create confusion in the authorities and, on the other hand create faith in the simple people: general understanding of today’s gospel:
o We see in today’s gospel passage three significant elements:
o One – the Action of Jesus: Jesus’ daily mission continues. He keeps himself occupied with the will of his Father. As the part of it he makes always available to the people around him who indeed need him. His preaching of the good news of God’s love and his miracles of the renewing man in his wholeness of human nature is his daily food and drink. He says that his food is to do the will of His Father. Therefore, Jesus is always in action and in movement. Here too we see this same intervention of Jesus for the people. He preaches to the people and in the same time when the paralytic is brought to him he heals him totally – both in the body and in the spirit – in fact, first he heals him spiritually by forgiving his sin which is the cause of losing of human integrity and then, he heals also physically by ordering him to get up and walk.
o Second – the Negative Reaction of the Scribes: there were two kinds of people present when Jesus has done his action of word and miracle: Scribes and the ordinary people. The reaction of the Scribes, who were supposed to be the law holders, could not understand what Jesus was doing. They have gone little more further in considering him as a blasphemer because he is doing ‘that which is’ only God’s: forgiving the sins. They wanted that Jesus heals him in the normal way as he has done few times before: he ordered the demon to get out of the possessed one (Mk 1:25 – “Be silent, and come out of him!”), he took by hand Simon’s mother-in-law and healed her (Mk 1:31 – “He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up”), he healed even a leper by just extending hand to him (Mk 1:41 – “I do choose. Be made clean”). But here Jesus enters little more deeply into the working of the miracle. It is not just to heal him physically but to heal him totally. That’s why he peeps into the person and says “your sins are forgiven. Get up and walk”. Exactly these words of Jesus have raised curiosity and confusion in them. They could not digest and accept what Jesus is intending to do. Therefore, they have completely rejected him and his action as the blasphemy: an action against God.
o Third – the Positive Reaction of the ordinary people: Jesus did not mind so much what the Scribes have done as though he already thought of it before. His whole concern is to make this paralytic to have a new life – life of movement, life of faith and the life of spirit. That’s why he rebukes all the malicious thoughts of the scribes and does what he wants to do. He heals the paralytic. Here is the reaction of the common people who could see with their naked eyes (v.12 – “he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them”) and praise God for the ‘marvelous and never unseen things’ he fulfilled through Jesus. This is the positive response and open attitude of the ordinary people to Jesus’ words and actions. This tension is always found in the gospels: the authority rejects and condemns him, but the common folk accepts and believe in him.
- Jesus has come to ‘set right’ and ‘save’ what is lost and dispersed. He has come to renew all things and to restore them back to God - particular understanding of the gospel:
o Knowing that Jesus was there in the house many people gathered round him (v.2): the presence of Jesus is like a fragrance; it reaches to everyone and attracts everyone to him; this is what happened in the verse; they came to know that Jesus has come and is at one particular house and immediately they have come to see and listen to him; purpose may differ; some might have come to see him; some out of curiosity; some for receiving some help; but all the same when the news is spread that Jesus was there, the folk has flocked to him.
 In the same way: our knowledge and acknowledge of him does not keep us inactive; it makes us move towards him; it drags us to his presence; it is so powerful reality that we cannot but reach him immediately leaving our occupations and preoccupations; if only we know him and acknowledge him we always gather around him.
o Although there was lot of people and no space for entering into house, the four helpers somehow made the paralytic present to Jesus (vv. 3-4): if only one has the interest and persistence in the will he can somehow find the solution; four people have carried the paralytic on the bed; they really wanted to ‘place him’ before Jesus; they found the great gathering; they thought that it would not be so easy to enter into the house; but they did not give up their desire of presenting the paralytic to Jesus; they have finally made a space from the roof and let the paralytic down before Jesus.
 In the same way: if we have the desire to present ourselves in front of Jesus, our Master, we always have the possibility; though it seems to be little difficult in the beginning we can finally make it if only we have persistence in our trial; we should never give up our coming to Jesus by finding many excuses: ‘there are lot of people’, ‘the house is filled with different mentalities’, ‘oh! There is no possibility now, I will come later’. We may have many reasons to escape from the presence of Jesus; but on the other hand, the possibility of meeting him is always open; nothing will hinder us if only we desire to be with him; we will continue to search for the various way to present ourselves before him because of the same ‘ever growing desire’ we have for him. Let us not lose hope and the hope will make us find a solution and finally ‘we will be with him’.
o A good gesture of the four people who have helped the paralytic who cannot walk or move by himself (v.6): there are always people around us who are trying to help us; we have to be aware of them and accept their help; here we have four people who have extended their help this helpless paralytic; Jesus has not seen their action/gesture alone; he has gone in profundity to see their ‘faith’. A help anybody can do; but helping even in the midst of difficult moments and embarrassing situations such as ‘opening the top of the house’ of the gospel passage which is abnormal and unacceptable, is the true faith. These four people have manifested this authentic faith in their gesture of help.
 In the same way: if we have faith anything will be possible; faith is the hoping constantly even in the moments of darkness and of despair. This is what we read in the book of Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of thing hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (11:1). Jesus also assures us that it is our faith alone that saves us. Indeed the faith of others too will help us find solution as we have seen in the gospel. It is this faith of theirs that made Jesus to ‘heal’ the paralytic both spiritually (in faith) and physically (in health). We are demanded today to manifest this kind of faith: unwavering and committed faith which makes us still hope in God amidst the worldly things which seems to be grab us to condemnation.
o The interaction between Jesus and Scribes which started with the intention, continued in their words and finally culminated in the healing (vv. 6-9): Jesus knowing what the scribes are thinking in the mind confronts him with the question of what is easier to do: ‘forgiving the sins’ or ‘healing the paralytic’. He can simply heal the man and sent him home. He did not choose the short cut. He opted to restore him to the faith and to the life of God than just healing him. But the Scribes were not in the position to comprehend Jesus and his words and his actions; it is not that they are not capable; in fact, the Scribes were the law-givers and thus they are intelligent enough to read through the law of Moses and they can very easily bring out the reasonable logic from what Jesus has done; the result is that Jesus become a blasphemer for them; they have given more importance to their thinking and reasoning than ‘believing and accepting the fulfillment of the promise which God made them of renewing all things in the Messiah’. In a word, they have won their position with the mind but in their heart they have lost the possibility of ‘seeing God amidst them’.
 In the same way: in every society and in every situation there will be many people who negate and misunderstand a good word said and a good action done; it is always there and it is always possible; it is normal in any given community; like the Scribes, who think only with their mind, there are many people who produce the logic and reason behind every action; it is very good; it is a good gesture that can be very well welcomed; BUT it is not enough; some words and actions go beyond the simple reason; they cross the logical observation; they can be understood only in the faith; they can be fully comprehended only with the purity of heart; that’s what we have to learn today: let us not leave ourselves won by our mind and logic alone but above all, let us leave ourselves won by our heart and faith; in the reasoning we lose the possibility of God’s presence and power in and around us but in the heart we find the spirit of God working in us that produces in us total trust and confidence in every word we utter and in every action we perform; we are the people of the pure heart (“Blessed are the pure in spirit for there is the kingdom of God”) because FOR THE MIND THERE IS A LIMIT BUT FOR THE HEART THERE IS NO CONFINE. TO IT EVERYTHIGN IS OPEN.
o The power of the word of Jesus that made the paralytic walk and the power of the action of Jesus that made the people to praise God (vv.10-12): ‘we have never seen such things before’ is the marvelous moment that the people around Jesus have experienced. With Jesus everything is marvelous. With Jesus everything is surprising. With Jesus everything is new. With Jesus everything is possible. With Jesus we can raise up our praise and glory to God (second reading).
 In the same way: we have to notice well what God fulfills in front of us and give glory to God; our life has to become life of a hymn (first reading: they will sing again); our life has to become life of amen (second reading: in Jesus our answer is always amen that is raised up to God); our life has to become life of praise (gospel: they have praised God).

Conclusion
We are the bearers of God’s pardon and forgiveness to the people around us

- Let us become bearers of the paralyzed like that of four people:
o Four people signifies a community: they have helped the paralyzed and led him to Jesus and to his powerful healing; they have acted as a ‘good community’ of believers and because of their faith that Jesus has worked this miracle; if they were not there, if their help were not to be there, may be the paralytic would have missed the possibility of experiences Jesus, his graceful action and the restoration of totality of life.
o We are also to act as the community besides ‘fulfilling our individual vocation’: we have in us and around us many people paralyzed with the discouragement and depression. There are people who are paralyzed in faith with many doubts about God, about Jesus’ humanity, about the reality of the Church and so on; we have to teach them to accept not with the mind and reasoning but with the heart and the faith; we have the responsibility of bringing them to presence of Jesus so that they would experience the interaction with Him and the healing of Him and thus they become ‘new creatures’ filled with the joy and love of the Lord; for this first of we need to have faith and we need to be in movement.
- We have to place ourselves in the double movement:
o First, after receiving from God, we carry to our brethren the peace and the grace of God - our movement towards them: the reality of the testimony of life.
o Second, we carry our brethren to the experience of God’s peace and grace in his presence in the Church and in the community – their movement towards God: the result of the testimony of life.
o In a word, as we have already highlighted in the theme, We Have to Become the Bearers of God’s Pardon and grace to our Brethren.

SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

SIXTH SUNDAYOF THE YEAR – B
(Lev 13:1-2, 45-46; 1 Cor 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45)
Theme: Extending the embrace means to reach the heart of the other

Reflection

- We are here, on this sixth Sunday of liturgical year, in the open arms of our God in order to experience the warmth and the depth of his embrace and his affectionate hug. God extends his hug to each one of us with affection of love and compassion. His embracing effect reaches our heart and transforms it to be like him in our words and actions. This is the message that we have to learn and carry with us today. We have to learn to ‘have compassion’ and to ‘extend our hand’ and to ‘reach out’ to touch the very need of the person we meet.
- This message is a continuation of the theme of the Last Sunday. As we are in the liturgical cycle of the celebration of Mark’s gospel this year, even our weekly themes and reflections have to be in connection and have to be in cycle. One theme has to lead us to the other theme and one Sunday has to guide us to the other and it is only with the other that the first one finds its completion and realization. In this context we had last Sunday the theme that “we are the walking Gospel/mobile or moving Gospel” which means we have to talk we talk about the good news of God and while we do something we do it for the glory of God and good of the others. This theme leads us today into the theme of ‘reaching out to the heart of the other’. This is actually the effect of being ourselves a Gospel. We have the gospels in the bible and we read them; we may also write again another gospel; but above all the truth that ‘we are the gospel’. If the true Gospel is the proclaiming and performing of the love of God, we too are called to be this Gospel. Each one of us is and has to be ‘good news of love’ to the world. This is the Christian vocation that we are called for.
- Today, Jesus teaches us the authenticity of our gestures and their rightful and meaningful usage; we have to live what we do and we have to do what we say; if we extend our hands to help someone and if it has to be an authentic one, it has to reach not the only exterior result of the help but the transformation of the interior self and being. This is what happened in today’s gospel with and by the touch of Jesus, because Jesus did not cure the leper just outside or only on the appearance but he touched ‘the inner most being’ of the leper that ‘leper is no more a cursed one but blessed one’. This is the real meaning of ‘embracing’. The curse should be transformed into the blessing and the fear of sickness into the joy of total healing of the person. Are we really ready to extend this kind of embrace? Exactly this Jesus wants from us today and as his committed followers are we ready to give him what he wants?

First Reading:
The reality of the leper is to be ‘outside’ of ordinary living

- The first reading of today provides the words spoken by God to Moses about the leper’s condition. “The leper has to live alone and live outside of the camp” (v.46). The book of Job defines the leprosy as the “firstborn of the death” (18:13). This shows the seriousness and the gravity of the disease and for this reason the Rabbis used to treat the leper as a ‘dead man’ and if at all he is cured from this they consider him as the ‘risen from the dead’. This sickness of leprosy is thought to be the highest form of the physical impurity that a man may be affected with. For this reason that the priest has the duty of ‘examining and declaring’ that he is impure and unhealthy (v.2) and also of ‘sending him out’ of the community. In this way, the leper is:
o Deprived of his cult and participation in the sacrificial offerings
o Separated from the communion with God as though he is buried in the tomb.
o Disconnected from the daily interaction with the people, even his kith and kin.
- The life of the leper is made so terrible that he has cover his whole body with the sack cloth and whenever he wants to enter into the public he has to come making people alert about his entrance and he has to shout ‘I am impure’ and this is seen as the most disguising and disgusting moment of his life because he has declare himself ‘impure and unholy’ with shame and that makes him suffer terribly in his heart for the situation for which he is not guilty; this could also be an innocent suffering like that of Job. The moment still more serious for the whole life of a leper is to be ‘thrown out’ of the community and normal relationship with the people around him and he cannot bear the condition of being ‘maltreated’ by his own people.

Second Reading:
Do everything for the glory of God

- St. Paul who exhorted us last Sunday to make ourselves ‘all things for all’ for gaining all, today gives us the similar teaching. He is writing to the Corinthians who are still living a life of ‘idolatry’ and eating what is offered to the idols and thus profaning the Christian living. To answer the people of such sort and to answer their question of whether the food that is offered to the other pagan gods can be consumed by the Christians, Paul writes this passage.
- “Whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do it for the glory of God” (v.31) is the answer of Paul. Once again he goes with the ‘spirit of the action’ than the ‘letter of the word’. Eating and drinking are the common acts of the daily life; but as Christians every act that we commit is always ‘linked’ with the rendering glory to God. Here lies the true message of the Christian living. Eating is not the matter that has to be considered or treated seriously, but while eating ‘what is your thought and how is your spirit’.
- In this way, Paul invites them to search not their own interests, in their ordinary acts, but strive for something above: that is the glory of God. Therefore, without giving lot of time and importance to these ‘unnecessary arguments’ of the food and drink, whether offered to pagan gods or not, the people of Corinth are encouraged by Paul, to look for the spirit that is working behind every action. Therefore, every moment of the Christian life is a ‘raising up’ the sacrifice of Glory to God.
- Our action should not be a cause of the scandal but it has to become ‘a moment of testimony’ of being all for all and it is for this, therefore, that Paul admonishes to make ourselves – as Christians – “to please everyone in everything” (v.33) by giving up our self motives and our interests and by giving importance to the others and to the needy and it is the ‘gesture of glorifying God’ and ‘action of saving the other from their false ideas’.
- ‘Be imitators of me as I am of Christ’ (11:1): another word of encouragement that Paul provides to the new followers of Jesus, the people of Corinth. It is indeed needful because as they have just entered into the Christian faith by coming out of the life of idolatry (worship of pagan gods) there is a chance of mixing up of the cults both either because of the ignorance of the true and new faith which is not yet deeper or because of the pressures from the other people who have not yet received the faith in Jesus and yet criticize and disturb those who just received faith. It is the most confusing situation of the life of the new Christians. At this juncture they need someone for their reference and for their imitation so that with his guidance they ‘embrace’ the true Christ and Christian life. Yes, here and for this spiritual encouragement that Paul tells these words: ‘to be imitators of him as he is of Christ’. From this we can understand two points:
o The first truth is that ‘the faith is nourished only (sometimes purely) by the imitation of the other’ and thus together reaching to the ‘destiny of faith’: this is true from the beginning of the salvation history: Jesus also asked the people to follow him so that they could enter into the kingdom of God and it is both – Jesus and the faithful – together walking towards life in God and in fact, for this reason that Jesus has made himself one of us, our brother and our neighbor. Not to be anymore above us (he can be above us because he is capable, but he prefers to be with men because it is his will, not compulsion), but to be with us, in us and for us so that we become his imitators and along with him we reach our God. It is in this sense that Paul has asked them to be his imitators. Every disciple of Jesus has to be the ‘icon of imitation’ to the people around and especially to the people entrusted to him.
o The second truth is that this imitation makes us ‘responsible’ for our own life and the life of those who follow us. It becomes a blessing if first of all we give good example of personal life and thus lead others to the faith. It can also become a great curse if we only ‘teach them to be’ without being ourselves the same. It will have its consequence as Jesus tells that ‘if we become stumbling block to the faith of others it is better for us to be thrown into the sea with the great stone tied to our neck’. Therefore, ‘being the icon of imitation’ makes us to be responsible and authentic in our own Christian life. We cannot anymore pretend to be the disciple of Jesus because it will only cause us the ‘terrible’ result for our false teaching and misleading of others. Paul is able to tell this way because he has ‘decided and radically offered’ himself to the cause of Jesus and thus he is authentic imitator of Christ. Being imitator of Christ he can call the people to be his imitators because ultimate and common imitation of both Paul and People is, ‘the imitation of Christ’ who in turn, is the imitation of God, the Father in the Spirit.

Gospel:
Jesus manifests himself to be the doctor of both the body and the soul

- Jesus re-brings the leper into the communion and communication: there are three principle moments in the Gospel:
o First moment: Interaction between Jesus and the leper with the gestures and with the words (vv. 40-42):
 we see here an interesting scene of gesture both from the part leper and Jesus: it is leper who comes first to Jesus; he keeps himself on the knees; he asks Jesus; therefore, we have three gestures from the leper: ‘coming’ – ‘kneeling’ – ‘begging’. The gestures that show the ‘total surrender of the leper in the person whom He meets’.
 Even Jesus before responding to his words makes few gestures: moved with pity, stretching the hand, touching him; three gestures from Jesus ‘having compassion’ – ‘reaching out hand’ – ‘touching’, show the ‘ultimate meaning of his being with the people’ as Immanuel, that is, ‘God with us’.
 we notice also the significant exchange of words between the leper and Jesus: leper as though he has already known Jesus, at least as though heard about Jesus, asks Jesus ‘if you want, you can make me clean’: this request of the leper, though seems to be little provocative on the one hand, is actually ‘the question of wanting’ more than healing; it shows also that the leper is seeming to ask Jesus directly: ‘leave aside healing because it is not the thing that I need so much; what I need is whether you want me or no; what I need is whether you consider me as a person or no; whether you can treat me important for you or no in the condition I am in which all have abandoned me and deprived me.
 In this way the leper expresses his want of being accepted rather than simple healing. ‘you can heal me’ is the total trust that the leper already has in Jesus; he would have easily and simply asks like ‘two blind men’: ‘Jesus, have mercy on us’; but here the question is not only simple cure but ‘acceptance and embracing of the person’ and this desire of being ‘noticed and treated wanted’ that made him ask Jesus, ‘If you want’. These words of the leper are the words of ‘complete trust’ for being ‘accepted first’ and then for being ‘healed’.
 Jesus too knows his thought and his desire and that is the reason why he does not simply say ‘be healed’ but he first says ‘I do want’; he knows that more than healing the leper wants to be touched and embraced; that he needs a hug which is missing for very many years outside the camp. Jesus embraces him not with a mere gesture of hugging but with the deeper compassion and pity for him and for his being ‘excluded’ from the ‘life’ of the human person. These words of Jesus are the ‘words of love and mercy’ that can hold everything in their arms.
o Second: the important thing is to respect and to follow the Law of Moses which is indeed the law of God (vv. 43-44):
 Jesus after healing the leper sends him to present himself to the priest and get certified that he is totally healed and it is according to the law of Moses (the first reading). Jesus, though being New Moses and New Law Giver, still respects the old Law that is given by Yahweh. In fact, he has come not to abolish the Old Law but to ‘perfect and fulfill it’. Though many misunderstand him to be the rejecter of the Law of Moses, here we can see one of the many examples in which Jesus respecting personally the Law of Moses and asks the people to follow it because it is given by Yahweh and because it is for their own well-being.
 Telling others is not the prior matter here but fulfilling the law as the testimony is the matter that has to take precedence. That’s why Jesus warns him and sends him away to show himself to the priest without telling this to anyone else (v.44). What is important is giving testimony of glory for the healing received by fulfilling the norms that are prescribed than just taking with the words.
o Third: the joy of being accepted cannot be hidden and cannot be held in secret (v. 45):
 In spite of Jesus severe instruction the leper goes out proclaiming and spreading out the news. It is true that the joy received with the ‘kind embrace’ is so powerful and so effective that no one can hide it or keeps oneself away from it. It is like an explosion. It breaks out from the bottom of the heart. Leper has experienced, not just a healing from the physical wounds and disfigure of the body, but the warmth of love of Jesus in whom he has placed his complete trust which has touched whole of his person. This is the joy that no one can hold it secret and so also the leper.
 Joy of being ‘readmission’ into the community and thus having the normal and relational life again is another motive for the lepers’ unhesitating proclamation and neglecting the warning of Jesus and it ‘may be with the overwhelming joy of forgetting the self’. This joy of the leper must have impressed also Jesus because of his non-stop proclamation which is in reality ‘the action of glorifying God for the great deeds that he has fulfilled for them’.
 In this way, the wounded leper has become healed testimony. In other words, the disguised and rejected leper has becomes the cheerful and joyful announcer of the good news that ‘God is with us’ and he has come to ‘embrace us’.

Conclusion:
Leprosy is the ‘deformation’ of the integrity and in this sense we are also lepers

- As we have seen till now from the first reading or from the gospel the reality of the leper is ‘to cover himself totally’, to announce himself to be impure, and to be excluded from the society and from the community: in a word, leper is the one who ‘stays outside’ the camp.
- If we draw some meaning for us today from the readings we can comprehend that we have still leprosy around us and in us though we boost of eradicating the roots of physical leprosy from our surroundings.
o Personally and physically, leper is the one who is outside of the camp of the beauty and the form of the body because he loses his ‘normal shape and health’, because he is impure; each person is created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God; the nature of the body of the person is in his image that the creator destined to him; but the leper, once he is thrown out of the is deprived of the image of God in him physically because he is rejected of the corporal needs like that of food, shelter and security.
o Socially and psychologically, leper is the one who is outside the camp of the dignity of human person because he is deprived and rejected by the society and more than that he is ‘excluded’ from the normal living; each person is created with the freedom and with the relationship; the leper is thrown out of this dignity of enjoying the freedom and rapport with others and thus he becomes socially and psychologically a leper.
o Spiritually, leper is the one who is outside the camp of the faith and religious practice because he is considered as ‘cursed’ by God and as ‘unworthy’ of offering the praise and thanksgiving with the community of believers; each person is created and called to be the ‘child of God’ and to be the ‘icon of glory’ in the world; the leper is thrown out of this ‘proper being of possession of God’ and thus loses his right to expression of faith and trust; and thus he becomes spiritually a leper and a dead man.
- Leprosy for our days is losing of ‘beauty and purity’ physically, deprivation of ‘dignity of freedom and relationship’ socially and rejection of being ‘glory of God’ spiritually; in a word, leprosy is the ‘deformation of the integrity of the human person’. If this is the true leprosy that is spreading now in the world and in our society we all become part of it and thus: we too have leprosy and lepers with us and often times ‘we are the lepers’.
- We need not fear this sickness which is although contagious because we have a savior before us and with us and only one gesture and one word is needed, in the manner of the leper of the Gospel:
o One gesture of ‘placing ourselves before him on the knees’ and
o One word of asking: “Jesus, if you want you can heal me”.
o Because this gesture and the word of ours is the “expression of our total trust in Him who can save us”.
- With this reflection of the readings today we learn three things that:
o God has extended his warm welcome and embrace to all because everyone is part of His salvific will and action.
o Jesus in person is the expression of God’s ultimate compassion and love to those who come to him ‘kneeling’ and ‘praying’.
o On our part, as good Christians, we have to ‘give glory’ to God in all that we do (second reading) by fulfilling the law of God (first reading) and by ‘proclaiming the mercy of God’ (Gospel).
- In summary: we have to ‘extend our warmth of embrace’ which is signified in ‘reaching out to the heart of the other/ to the core of the very being of the person’ as Jesus has reaching the heart of the leper by his kind gesture and loving word.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - B

FIFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B:
(Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mark 1:19-39)
Theme: We are the walking Gospel: Let us spread the perfume of the good word and deed

Reflection

- In this fifth Sunday of the ordinary time of the Liturgical year, the church encourages to be and to live what we are truly. We are called to be the ‘Mobile Good News’ of God’s word and deed. This is what we are and our call and vocation lies in this. We have to remember always this truth of our identity and live it.
- After reflecting on our Christian dignity of being ‘the consecrated possession’ of God which we have done last Sunday, today we are called to recall our true selves of being for God ‘a vehicle of his love’. We are possessed not by the evil spirit but by the Spirit of God. In the miracle of last Sunday Jesus has driven out the evil spirit from the man (Mk 1:21-28). Possession is making something one’s own. Man was possessed by the evil spirit. Not that just an evil spirit entered into a man but it has made him his own and his own property. Jesus has come to throw out and pull out this spirit which has made man his property. He has just done that. He has called out from him the evil spirit that has pitched his tent in him and that has placed his throne in him. Once man is freed from the clutches of this evil spirit he immediately becomes God’s property and God’s possession because man is originally made/created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God (Gen 1:26) and thus becoming ‘His own’. Jesus has come to restore us this ‘image and likeness’ of God by which we will be again His possession. Once Jesus has started his mission of saving the men from the bondages of the evil, from then on has started also the time of our sanctification by the ‘indwelling of the Holy Spirit’ which will destroy the evil within us and make us the ‘possession of God’.
- With this Christian identity we are given also the mission of being God’s instrument of the gospel. We are the moving gospel. We are the mobile good news. We are the vehicle of God’s love in the world. We are called to keep ourselves always on the move. We are not to sit and take rest in the world. As Christians we are always on the march towards spreading the perfume of God’s goodness and love. The church by giving us the model of St. Paul in the second letter and by offering us ‘Jesus at word and work’ in the Gospel, gives us also the Christian responsibility of being their followers. We have to be always available for the people like Jesus and we are asked to makes ourselves ‘all for all’ like Paul. It is the consequence of the faith. Faith thus becomes not only a moment of expression by the word but a moment of ‘living and doing’ the Gospel. In a word, we are called to be ‘the walking Gospel’.

First reading:
God himself has to reveal the mystery of the innocent suffering which cannot be fully and perfectly comprehended by the human and logical mind:

- The book of Job is part of the ‘wisdom literature’ of the Bible. Thus its principle interest, like any other wisdom books, is to make man open to the reality with the knowledge and reason and above all to make him ‘humble and obedient’ to God’s will and work when he finds himself helpless and incapable of understanding the reality.
- Job is not the author of the book; but the sacred author, who writes this book in the period of the deportation of Israel to the slaver of Babylonia, wants to recall to the people the dramatic situation of suffering and slavery; he wants to present both God and his people as innocent of what is happening;
- The author of the book speaks about a man (here we find his name as Job) who is faithful and pious before God; he is perfect in his faith; he has not sinned and has not given even a single possibility for falling into sin.
- Still, there is a power of evil which has taken troubled and tempted him by removing from him his property and by killing his sons and daughter and finally by making him attacked by the horrible disease. This is the condition of Job and he finds himself helpless and incapable. The only instrument is his unwavering hope and firm faith in God.
- This book is the book that reveals to the ultimate manner the mystery of God, man and evil. There is God who desires that every man to be good. There is a man who embraces God and refuses Evil. And there is also an Evil who wants to destroy man by tempting him. As a consequence of this evil there is also a suffering and pain to the believer which we often call: innocent suffering.
- Job has lost everything though he has not done any fault. His friends come to him and suggest him to see whether he has committed any sin against God. Job who knows his innocence affirms that he has not done anything wrong in the sight of God. But there seems to be the prevalent the pain and suffering: both psychological by the loss of all his kith and kin and his possessions and physical by the loss of health and bodily form. In spite of such a great suffering Job does not lose the faith; in fact at certain point expresses his ‘commitment to God’s will’ by saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (1:20). The book reveals us that “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing” (1:21). Such was the great faith of Job.
- Job, through this obscure way of pain and suffering, becomes the model for the believer who loves the true God in himself and for himself, without further motivations. His words refuse the thinking of his friends and their old formula: that he who suffers has to be necessarily a sinner and only the sinner suffers. But Job does not want to perceive God in this basis of human thought and logic: for him God reveals himself in his actions. In this way Job leaves, both good and bad, innocence and suffering, to God who alone knows everything even if the human mind cannot comprehend it.
- Let us be silent and obedient even if we don’t understand what is not within our hands and limits: we have to silently accept what is happening to us without our own doing and without blaming anybody let us confront it because it is God who knows it and allows it for the ‘great reward’ that follows it. It is what Job has done. When he is not able to understand why he has to suffer for what he has not done, he leaves everything to God with silence and faith, rather than blaming himself or somebody else or accusing God. The attitude of Job will help us to understand that we are humans and some things are not in our hands and still we have to accept them ‘as the stepping stones’ to become perfect believers in God. We have an answer for an ever ending question: why the innocent suffer. Job gives an answer. God himself gives an answer in His Son Jesus Christ on the cross. God has left his own son to suffer and die for the fault he has not committed. Why? We do not grasp everything of what God does and what he plans to do. We are only finite people and thus we have to be quite and calm and above all, we have to be confident and trusting in God who reveals himself to us ‘in the suffering of his innocent son’.

Second Reading
Becoming ‘everything for everyone’:

- Paul finds out that he is entrusted with the Gospel and it is the fruit of the gospel that a missionary is always on the move proclaiming it. he acknowledges that it is not he who has initiated it but it is the in charge/responsibility given by the Christian call: those who accept the call of Christ has to proclaim the Gospel and it becomes a thing ‘must of a missionary of Christ’.
- No one is obliged by anybody and anything. Each one is free and absolute in his doing. But a Christian on the other hand has to be ‘at the service of others’ and has to become ‘servant’ for others (v. 19: “I made myself servant of all in order to gain good number”), by ‘denouncing his personal freedom and interest’ (v.19: “though I am free from all”). This is the consequence of the ‘acceptance of the Gospel, Jesus Christ, who has become servant in order to make us the liberated children of God. At the end Paul exclaims that all that he does is for the ‘Good News’ and for becoming ‘participant’ of it.

Gospel
Jesus is ever available for all and for always

- Jesus is the Messiah who save - the intention of the Evangelist Mark:
o Jesus is the Messiah who is, at the same time, both a preacher of the word and the performer of the good deeds. Mark presents Jesus who has come to save the people from the ‘malice of the mind’ by his proclamation of good news of the kingdom of God and from the ‘illness of the body’ by his miracles and wonder-works. This is the reason Mark presents Jesus immediately on the task without wasting time or giving many references of his childhood like Mathew and Luke.
o His Jesus is the ‘Word’ and Son of God who preaches and heals and thus both ‘word’ and ‘work’ go hand in hand; we have just seen in the last week’s gospel passage that Jesus, after preaching in the synagogue, immediately drives out the demon out of a man and thus putting the proclamation in the performance.
o Even today’s Gospel shows that Jesus was preaching and healing all the day long.
- Jesus always sets out for a mission: of being with and for the people – being available for all and for always:
o In the Gospel passage we see three moments of Jesus in his mission:
 Healing of the mother-in-law of Simon
 Other healing after the setting of the sun
 Jesus leaves the house to pray
o Let us mediate few important words and enter into the deeper reflection of it so that we can the great significance of Jesus’ word and action:
 V. 31: “took her by the hand and lifted her up”: the root word of this is ‘sollevare’ in Greek which means ‘to raise up’ which indicates also the resurrection. The authors of the New Testament have made use of this word passing from its ordinary meaning of ‘healing’ the mother-in-law of Simon to it ultimate and final significance of ‘being raised’ at the end of life/or time. We can also refer to John 2:19-22 and Ephesians 5:14. Mark in the whole of his gospel uses this verb to suggest the salvific action of Jesus who raises up all those who trust in him and all those who are presented to him by the Christian community.
 V.32: “That evening, at sundown”: the evening of the day, specially the time after the sunset is the indication of the ‘start of the new day’ for the Hebrews. Jesus has entered into the synagogue on Sabbath and the daylong he was preaching and healing (in the temple and in the Simon’s house) and now the evening (which is actually the beginning of the following day) all those who are sick and possessed by the evil spirits have been brought to him and Jesus healed all of them. We understand two important elements here:
• First one: is that Jesus gives link between the day that is just past and the day that is just begun. He connects the past of yesterday and the future of tomorrow in his person and in his presence. He becomes the Lord of the past and the future who always is (present). He has no difference between the days that have been passed and the days that are yet to begin. He becomes the Lord of the time and history.
• Second one: is that the evening, after the sunset, the Sabbath has passed and the ‘day of the Lord’ has begun; for the first Christian community the day after the Sabbath is the ‘Day of the Lord’ and the ‘Day of the Resurrection’ and in one word, ‘the Day of Life’. Jesus by healing all those who are brought to him that evening, which is the day of the resurrection, gives us the message that ‘he has come to give life and life in abundance’ to all who gather around him. He heals the sick and restores them the good life. He throws out the throne of evil from the ‘possessed ones’ and raises them up from the ‘pit of the demons’ and brings them to life of the Spirit.
 V.34: “he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him”: Even the demons recognize and proclaim the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. This we have already seen in the last Sunday (Mk 1:24 – “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God”). Mark maintains always this ‘messianic silence’ in which Jesus says to those who are cured to be silent and not to speak anything of what has happened. This is demanded also from the part of the demons. That’s why Jesus does not permit the demons to speak out. He does not want to be proclaimed and highlighted. The messiah is the ‘God-Sent’ messenger and he has to give testimony only to him. He wants to disappear and make known the glory of the Father rather than his own glory. The gospel of Mark is characterized mostly with the ‘messianic secrecy’ for the reasons that:
• Jesus wants to avoid the confusion in the people between the messiah who has already come among them in the person of Jesus and their own expectations of a savior with the weapons and with power.
• Jesus wants to hide himself or diminish his self-manifestation so that the will and the action of the Father will be revealed by his words and works.
• Jesus wants to refuse the titles given by the others and he wants to receive his glory only from His Father; he wants to rejects any title and any power which cannot be made his own unless and until he confronts the passion and death.
• Apart from all these motives for his messianic silence, Mark underlines another aspect for this secret: he wants to express that Jesus from the beginning is the Son of God and so He has to receive everything from the Father and this is the key-motive of the Incarnation.
 V.35: “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed”: Mark registers many a time the prayer of Jesus both directly (1:35; 6:46; 14:35-39) and indirectly (6:41; 7:34; 8:7; 15:34). This indicates that Jesus starts his day and his journey of the mission with the “knowing and accepting of his Father’s will” and this is the prayer for him. His first task of the day as indicated here seems to be ‘his ever-living relationship’ with the Father and from this ‘intimacy and interaction’ (the prayer) that everything of His word and work take a beginning and an end; and thus Father is the cause and fountain of all that Jesus does and continues to do. In the prayer he prepares the day according to His Father’s will and wish.
 V.37: “all are searching for you”: from this emerges the theme of ‘searching for the Lord’ which is also seen in the Old Testament (Amos 5:14; Ps 24:6; 27:8; Isaiah 55:6 – in which main aspect is that ‘we need to search for the Lord when he makes himself near to us’) and this aspect will also be slowly developed by John 1:38; 20:15.
 V.38: “Let us go also to the neighboring towns….. that is what I came out to do”:
• ‘let us go’ indicates the ever continuing journey of Jesus on earth in search of finding and saving the lost sheep. He keeps on going. He keeps on moving along. He does not stop. He does not waste any time in waiting for the people to come to him; instead, he goes out to meet them.
• ‘let us go’ also indicates an open space into the limitless and boundary less mission that Jesus wants to do. It crosses the boundaries of the nations, races and embraces the whole humanity.
 “I came out to do”: contextually the ‘coming out’ means that Jesus has just come out from the Capernaum (v.21) and here this meaning goes beyond ordinary textual significance. It means that Jesus has come out from the bosom/presence of the Father because he is sent by the Father (Lk 4:43 the parallel text) and he has come ‘from God’. References to be made also to John 8:42; 13:3; 16:27-28, 30.
o Jesus made himself available for the people: the enlistment of the program of the ‘usual day’ of Jesus ,like that of preaching in the synagogue, visiting the villages and houses, healing the sick and driving out of the demons, shows that Jesus does not leave any time for himself but goes on to be on the mission of the Father; and he affirms it saying to his parents: ‘why are you searching for me; do you not know that I have to be in the work of my Father?’. And today’s gospel too affirms this: ‘let us go to the neighboring villages so that I also preach there; for this is what I have come to do’. We also see that Jesus taking a short rest and getting up early in the morning to start his mission of being with the Father and with the people. Thus, he also becomes ‘Immanuel’ – God with us.

Conclusion
Three attitudes to learn: leave to God – be with God – be with the people

- Today’s gospel teach us three aspects to carry with us today and this very moment and to practice them from today itself:
- First: We may question God for the suffering we have, but we should not accuse or blame him: Job is the great example for this from the Old Testament who never accused God for all the evil that has happened to him and that has taken away both ‘his health and wealth’; instead he praised God in all his doings; this shows the total and committed trust he has in God; he manifests his faithfulness and his devotion to his God who never abandons him; but when the moment of suffering has come for which he is not guilty he expressed his firm faith in God; he left everything to God; when he is not able to understand why this happens, he completely entrusts it to God’s will; that’s what we have to learn. As humans and with the limited mind we cannot all the time understand the pains and sufferings that surround us; instead of blaming somebody, or God or our own self, we have to learn the attitude of Job and ‘leave what is not comprehensible to our human mind and logic to God’ who knows to suffer and to love. God, indeed, knows the innocent pain and guiltless suffering. He has offered his own son to suffer for us on the cross; we see the innocent lamb on the cross in which God has ‘left alone’ his son to undergo this pain for the love and salvation of mankind. Even Jesus did not accuse God for this and he did not blame him for this innocent suffering; instead of blaming he only questioned with the prayerful heart: ‘O God, O God, why have you abandoned me’. Let us learn to accept and live what comes on our way for which we are not the cause.
- Second: We have to learn to pray and ‘keep aside a certain time even among our busy schedule’: Jesus also has busy schedule; from the morning until late in the evening he keeps himself busy and working for the people; but he has not given up his time for prayer; for being with his Father; he has not sacrificed his precious moment of sitting in the presence of God for things secondary; for all else is only the aftermath of the prayer; prayer comes first and is prior to anything else; this attitude we have to learn from Jesus today: yes, we are busy; yes, we have hundred and one things to do; yes, we have number of appointments; we cannot deny them; in fact they are necessary too; But they should not make us ‘go astray’ from our ‘Christian way of living’ which is basically prayerful first; our Christian life has to start with the prayer; with knowing what is our mission and task of the day from the will of God in whom we believe; how often do we give importance or priority to the ‘prayer’ which has to be ‘our intimacy with God in silence and in tranquility’? let us not sacrifice our foundation (faith and prayer) in order to build our social life (power, prestige and possession). They will surely follow when we dedicate our life to the intimacy with God and Jesus affirms this: “seek first the kingdom of God and the rest will be added unto you” (Mathew 6:33). His will has to be in the first place. Jesus even before his moment of passion prays: “Not my will but your will be done” (Mk 14:36) and thus he leaves everything to the will of the Father and this is the prayer we have to learn to make; in fact, when we pray ‘Our Father’ we say this only: “Let your will done” but we should leave them just as words but we have to practice it.
- Third: we have to learn to bear and fulfill our Christian mission of being ‘available to all and always’ (like Jesus) and to make ourselves ‘all things to all’ (like Paul): this is the fruit and the consequence of the Word of God we have heard today; if we are really ‘listeners’ and ‘doers’ of this word – because Jesus promises that those who do the will of God will be worthy of His kingdom – we have to learn to ‘carry on’ our vocation. Let us not be silent. Let us not sit and waste time in the chatting. Let us not strive for what is temporary. Let us fix our mind on the will of God. Let us prepare ourselves ‘like the Israel on the march with the rope on the waist’ and walk forward proclaiming the Gospel through our word and through our kind deed. Let us set out with the task that each one is entrusted within the limits of our call and vocation;
- In a word, we recall to our mind, “We are the walking Gospel: Let us spread the perfume of the good word and kind deed through our Christian testimony of life.” Let the Lord be all in all. Amen.