5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
Liturgy of the Hours, 1st week, Sunday
Texts taken from the “Sulla Tua Parola” Missal, January-February 2021.
Mark’s Gospel continues its description of a typical day in Jesus’ life, which can be summed up in three words: healing, praying, proclaiming. Last Sunday we encountered Jesus in the synagogue, where he teaches with authority and frees a possessed man. Today, Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house; she is lying sick in bed with a fever. The disciples tell Jesus about her and become a bridge between Jesus and this suffering woman, who is healed. When we meet people who are suffering, in need, sick, or alone, we rely on the power of intercessory prayer and present the needs and necessities of others to Jesus. While it was still dark, he went out to a deserted place and prayed there. Jesus’ solitary prayer teaches us, instead, that we must place our heart within the heart of God.
FIRST READING
From the Book of Job (Job 7:1-4, 6-7)
Job spoke, saying: “Is not man’s life on earth a hard service, and are not his days like those of a hireling? Like a slave who longs for the shade, and like a hireling who waits for his wages, so I have been assigned months of futility, and nights of misery have been allotted to me. When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’ The night drags on and I am wearied with tossing until dawn. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is but a breath; my eye will not see happiness again.”
Commentary on the First Reading
The figure of Job presents us with this apparent contradiction between the desire, the hunger for eternity, and the awareness that life seems to last only one day. The days pass quickly, and with them human life, but stopping at this thought would mean having no “thread” of hope, and such a situation would mean “nothingness”! Despite his illness and the loss of his wealth and loved ones, Job, while expressing all his anguish to God, does not lose hope. Indeed, although it is impossible to stop time, it is possible to give it value, and this is what we are called to do. Every single moment can take on the value of eternity only if it is lived in love: love has no end and will never end; love saves us and leads us to eternity. It is the love of the One who gave his life for us and opened the doors to a life without end. Certainly, first and foremost, Christ’s love takes on eternal value. But its reflection in listening, patience, mutual acceptance, and total self-giving also possesses the value of joy without end.
SECOND READING
From the First Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23)
Brothers and sisters, preaching the Gospel is not a reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel! If I do so on my own initiative, I have a right to a reward; but if I do not do so on my own initiative, it is an entrusted responsibility. What, then, is my reward? That I may preach the Gospel free of charge, without using the right conferred on me by the Gospel. Although I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all in order to win over as many as possible. I have made myself weak for the weak, to win over the weak; I have become all things to all, to save at least some. I do everything for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may share in its blessings.
Commentary on the Second Reading
The passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us, first of all, that a heart that rejoices cries it out to the world: joy cannot be kept to oneself; it is transmitted, consciously or unconsciously. This is what happens to anyone who lives the Gospel: their whole life proclaims hope. In a world that does everything to extinguish desires, today more than ever there is a need for messengers of beauty. It would be pointless to hold a competition for professional hope-bringers because, as the One who embodied the Gospel showed us, the Gospel can be proclaimed only by living it. Jesus also told us that his message and testimony are addressed to every person, and every baptized person is called to live them. Let us not, then, refuse to welcome and pass on joy. Saint Paul, in his life spent for the Gospel, proves to be a man of extraordinary freedom. His freedom is not understood as doing whatever one wants, but precisely in the sense of selflessness and service that comes from the Gospel, or more exactly, from having been won over by Christ. Freedom, then, takes on a value entirely different from the one to which we have become accustomed: it is authentic when it places itself at the service of Jesus, who is the way, the truth, and the life.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 1:29-39)
At that time, Jesus, leaving the synagogue, went at once to the house of Simon and Andrew, accompanied by James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told him about her. He approached her and raised her up by taking her by the hand; the fever left her, and she waited on them. When evening came, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill and possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons; but he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. Rising very early, while it was still dark, he went out and withdrew to a deserted place, and there he prayed. But Simon and those who were with him pursued him. When they found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you!” He told them, “Let us go elsewhere, to the nearby villages, so that I may preach there too; for this is why I have come!” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.
Commentary on the Gospel of the Day
Jesus heals, prays (intercedes), and proclaims. Reading the Gospels, we see that these are his habitual actions among the villages of Palestine. Yet we may experience immense wonder if we reflect on the fact that healing, prayer, and proclamation are precisely the actions that the Lord continues to carry out even today, in that often rugged, deserted, thorn-covered, fortified, and closed-off territory that is every human heart. Jesus Christ never tires of calling and inviting. He does not resign himself in the face of barred doors because he wants us to be free, he wants us to be happy, and welcoming the Gospel means precisely living and sharing joy and hope. Let us allow ourselves to be taken by the hand like Peter’s mother-in-law, and every fear will vanish: the Lord wants nothing more than our consent in order to heal us and free us from whatever kind of prison we find ourselves in. In particular, the scene involving Peter’s mother-in-law is highly significant: the community’s beautiful and positive mediation leads to an encounter with Jesus and to healing through physical contact with the hand (not permitted in Jewish culture); after this experience of salvation comes the mother-in-law’s service.
