Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

We are here in ordinary time in the church cycle with a perfect first reading for this time of year. During this time we have moved past the Christmas season, the days may be getting longer but that does not seem to happen as fast as the days getting shorter during fall.

We have the bills to pay from Christmas and the day to day world of work, family, making meals and what can seem like the same routine day after day. We hear the news of the plane crash in Taiwan and the train crash in New York and wonder why life seems so miserable. Then we hear from the ground hog in Pennsylvania that we have 6 more weeks of winter. Of course from February 2 we have 6 weeks of the winter season before the spring equinox.

The story of Job is full of these types of days where no matter what he seems to do his life becomes more tortured. He loses his family, his money and his possessions. He was afflicted with boils and other physical afflictions. He was seemingly being thrown to the wayside by God. Yet in all of this, even in the reading we hear today he never curses God or others around him. He goes on seeking to do as God would want.

This is where the rubber hits the road for us as Christians. When we hit those times where it seems as though nothing is going right and we are stuck in a rut we see no way out of, what do we do? We may see others who we know are not doing the right things in life yet they seem to get ahead and wonder why when we follow the gospel and do as we are supposed, yet we seem to be falling behind.

This affliction can hit every one of us at one point in time of our lives or another. We feel awful during it and will become sick as Simon’s mother in law was in the gospel today. Yet we are all called as Jesus assists her in getting up for we all need this type of help on occasion. The curing of the sick and lame by Jesus in and around Galilee was miraculous for some and they believed and followed Jesus and his teachings. There were I’m sure others who thought their being healed by Jesus was expected, because they believed they were righteous and upstanding people who did not deserve whatever affliction was upon them.

There will be times when it may seem like we are being left alone by God. These can seem like great times of suffering for us. How we handle this suffering has an effect on others around us. We can lament our suffering alone and not seek help, as it seems Job does or we can reach out and ask others for assistance. When we see someone suffering we should act like the disciples did and reach out to offer our assistance in getting them the help they may require. I have a friend from high school who lives up in the area of the train crash. She was so impressed and appreciative of all the phone calls and concern shown for her family, as her husband was normally on the train that was involved, commuting home from work. He happened to leave work early that day and had caught an earlier train, but those who knew the couple made sure they reached out to see what if anything they could do to help.

Most all of us in the church today have had some tragedy affect our lives individually and we as a nation have had a number of incidences that have affected us as a whole. These can be as simple as losing a boyfriend, or girlfriend as a teenager, or losing a parent or spouse and including incidences like 9-11 and Pearl Harbor. This feeling of woe and hurt can manifest itself in many ways and we can let if fester and feel horrible about it or we can reach out and describe our feelings to others.

We all also have many people who care for us, even though we may not always see it. During these times of woe and misery we all have people we can lean on. Sometimes these feelings of woe can seem so overwhelming we do not want to share them with others, but just as Jesus healed the sick and the lame in Galilee and moved on we too will find family and friends who will listen and help us through these times of distress. These people may not be in our lives for long but will hold a lasting impression on us as we live out the rest of our lives.

Jesus was called to heal the sick, die for our sins and show us all how to live our life as God wants us too. With a society that believes it is the individual that should decide what makes them happy, which can lead to many different ideas some good, some not so good, it seems harder and harder to live the Gospel and follow Christ.

We see those we know are not following the churches and Christ’s teaching seeming to get ahead in this world while the seemingly good people fall further and further behind. During these times of seeming never ending bad news it becomes more important to lean on the teaching of the church and Christ. We see this manifested with Joy in Pope Francis.

He lives the gospel message today of healing those who are sick and moving to those areas where he is most needed. While many Catholics may be nervous about how he does this, just as I am sure there were disciples who were concerned about what Jesus was doing, the Holy Spirit is working through him to show us the absolute Joy in following the Gospel. He always seems happy and upbeat regardless of the situation and while he may say things that seem unusual, he continues to teach what the church has taught for centuries. The age old precepts are not changing they are just being approached from a more contemporary way, so that those who have not heard or believed will come to believe.

We will all feel the lament and woe of Job at some point, if we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as it did Jesus we will find that all of our struggles served a better purpose. We can use that suffering to do one of two things; we can show the world the joy in suffering, knowing everyone will suffer. We can also allow our afflictions to overwhelm us and begin to do things we know are not the way we should live our lives but make us feel good in the short term. We are all being prayed for, sometimes by the family and friends we know, and sometimes by those who pray for the general well being of all. These prayers help us through those times of lament and we may never know who was praying for us, but we suddenly are no longer looking at the darkness but experiencing the light.

If we are the shining example of using our suffering to help others, then we are living as Christ wants us to live and we will bring more people to know him through us. We will become the priest, prophets and kings we were called to be upon our baptism. Will we follow the Holy Spirit to show the world what can await them, or will we fall into other afflictions that seemingly make us feel better in the short term only to cause us more harm at a later date?