The Mission is to Preach. The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

                                      The Mission is to Preach God's Nearness.

The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

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February 7, 2021

Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 95; 1 Corinthians 7:32-35; Mark 1:21-28

 

 

A heaviness permeates these readings today as we enter in Job’s account of his life on earth, one that became filled with drudgery and suffering. He has been toiling for long months with many sleepless nights as he endures his afflictions. It is not unlike the turmoil that we face as we have endured a long year of pandemic and we are still not free from its shackles, but Job soldiered on as we must too with increased vigilance against an invisible foe. Let’s remember the rest of the story: Job does indeed see happiness again, though it is tempered by his memory of suffering.

 

The Gospel tells us of the healing ministry of Jesus, first with Peter’s Mother-in-law and then with the town’s sick, and then from farther out. We notice that Jesus is intent on healing all who are brought to him because he wanted to bring God’s compassion to the people. He sought out a remote place to pray and presumably to tell God about all the suffering he saw and to give thanks, but his prayer was interrupted by those who witnessed the miracles. They felt like they hit the jackpot and they wanted Jesus to return as a miracle worker to heal everyone. 

 

Jesus redirected the people to focus upon his mission, which was to preach the good news that God cares about their suffering and that Jesus wanted them to have the same relationship with God. The most important work of Jesus at the time was to be in prayer, which is often seen as passive, while the people wanted Jesus to fix the whole world. Instead, Jesus is showing them that prayer and the relationship with God is the most important cure for our souls.

 

I am a beneficiary of the effects of prayer when my father died a week ago. I was flooded with phone calls, emails, texts, and cards to reassure me that people were praying for the repose of his soul and for my consolation and that of the family. In a time when prayer was difficult for me, the prayers of friends and loved ones lifted me up and I knew that there was nothing for me to do but to receive the kind gestures of goodwill and the offers of masses and remembrances. I needed time in silence to receive the care that others were showing me. Without them, I was in a daze; with them, I could see the abundant blessings around me. To me, all these people were proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was here; they were preaching the Gospel to me. 

 

No one wants to be sick; most want to be made whole. The message of Jesus is that the most important matter is to enter into this friendship with God in such a way that we know of God’s care whether we are sick or well, without regard for any condition in life. Yes, God wants our physical healing, but the healing of our souls is the reason he came. Jesus does not want us to feel alienated from God; He does not want us to feel unworthy to enter into this friendship; He wants us to know that we have always been in the heart of God and that we can go to God for any need and God will provide. This is the preaching of Jesus: that God knows our suffering and desires our friendship.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

First Reading:

Monday: (Genesis 1) In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

 

Tuesday: (Genesis 1) God blessed them, saying: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,
and all the living things that move on the earth.”

 

Wednesday: (Genesis 2) Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and he placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made various trees grow that were delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

Thursday: (Genesis 2) So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.

 

Friday (Genesis 3) The woman answered the serpent: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, ‘You shall not eat it or even touch it, lest you die.’”

 

Saturday (Genesis 3) The LORD God called to Adam and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Mark 6) As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him. They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.

 

Tuesday: (Mark 7) You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God
in order to uphold your tradition!

 

Wednesday (Mark 7) “Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” 

 

Thursday (Mark 7) The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”

 

Friday (Mark 7) And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment and begged him to lay his hand on him. He took him off by himself away from the crowd. He put his finger into the man’s ears and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (that is, “Be opened!”)

 

Saturday (Mark 8) My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.

 

Saints of the Week

 

February 8: Jerome Emiliani (1481-1537), was a Venetian soldier who experienced a call to be a priest during this imprisonment as a captor. He devoted his work to the education of orphans, abandoned children, the poor and hungry. He founded an order to help in his work, but he died during a plague while caring for the sick. 

 

February 8: Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947) was a Sudanese who was sold as a slave to the Italian Consul, who treated her with kindness. She was baptized in Italy and took the name Josephine. Bakhita means fortunate. She was granted freedom according to Italian law and joined the Canossian Daughters of Charity where she lived simply as a cook, seamstress, and doorkeeper. She was known for her gentleness and compassion.

 

February 10: Scholastica (480-543) was the twin sister of Benedict, founder of Western monasticism. She is the patroness of Benedictine nuns. She was buried in her brother's tomb; they died relatively close to one another. 

 

February 11: Our Lady of Lourdes is remembered because between February 11 and July 16, 1858, Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in a cave near Lourdes, France eighteen times. The site remains one of the largest pilgrim destinations. Many find healing in the waters of the grotto during the spring.

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• Feb 7, 1878. At Rome, Pius IX died. He was sincerely devoted to the Society; when one of the cardinals expressed surprise that he could be so attached to an order against which even high ecclesiastics brought serious charges, his reply was: "You have to be pope to know the worth of the Society." 
• Feb 8, 1885. In Chicago, Fr. Isidore Bourdreaux, master of novices at Florissant, Missouri, from 1857 to 1870, died. He was the first scholastic novice to enter the Society from any of the colleges in Missouri. 
• Feb 9, 1621. Cardinal Ludovisi was elected Pope Gregory XV. He was responsible for the canonization of St. Ignatius and St. Francis Xavier. 
• Feb 10, 1773. The rector of Florence informed the general, Fr. Ricci, that a copy of the proposed Brief of Suppression had been sent to the Emperor of Austria. The general refused to believe that the Society would be suppressed. 
• Feb 11, 1563. At the Council of Trent, Fr. James Laynez, the Pope's theologian, made such an impression on the cardinal president by his learning and eloquence, that cardinal decided at once to open a Jesuit College in Mantua, his Episcopal see. 
• Feb 12, 1564. Francis Borgia was appointed assistant for Spain and Portugal. 
• Feb 13, 1787. In Milan, Fr. Rudjer Boskovic, an illustrious mathematician, scientist, and astronomer, died. At Paris he was appointed "Directeur de la Marine."