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freed from the clutches of this evil spirit he immediately becomes God’s property and God’s possession because man is originally made/created in the ‘image and likeness’ of God (Gen 1:26) and thus becoming ‘His own’.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.