Father Donald Senior, CP

Feb. 4: 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Jb 7:1-4, 6-7; Ps 147: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39

What is it all about?

Some stories and movies stick in your memory. A movie I remember from many years ago had the title “Alfie.” The story, as I recall it anyway, was about a young Englishman, Alfie, who was handsome and popular but, at the same time, was something of a lost soul, not knowing what to do with his life, even as his friends around him got married, began jobs and settled down. “What was life all about?” a purposeless Alfie ended up asking himself.

That movie came to my mind as I reflected on the Scripture readings for this Sunday. In the first reading, we encounter Job, something of an Alfie himself. As Job’s setbacks mount, we hear his cynical and despairing lament: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? ... I am filled with restlessness until the dawn. My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.”  

As with Alfie, Job’s friends will not help him out of his doldrums and only his encounter with God will bring him to his senses and restore his sense of purpose and meaning.

By contrast the second reading and that of the Gospel illustrate what a “purpose driven” life is like (to quote the title of a popular book from a few years ago). In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul the apostle recalls the driving purpose of his life — to preach the Gospel. We remember this was not the case for all of Paul’s adult life. At first he was motivated by hatred and violence against the followers of Jesus. But now his call to preach the Gospel and to be of service to the communities he had founded gave Paul true and life-giving meaning.  

He speaks here of being “entrusted with a stewardship.” He adapts his life to the needs of his people: becoming a “slave to all” although he is “free”; becoming “weak” to be in solidarity with those who are “weak.” “All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.”  

More than once in his writings, Paul speaks this way about his commitment to proclaiming the Gospel. He travelled more than 10,000 miles, most of it on foot, to bring Christ’s message to the world. This labor of love did not inoculate Paul against suffering and setbacks, but it sustained him and brought him through times of anguish and hardship.

In such endurance, Paul was imitating his master, Jesus. This is the point of the Gospel selection from Mark that we hear this Sunday. As we noted last Sunday, the mission of Jesus portrayed by Mark is to liberate people from the grip of evil and to heal and restore them. Here Mark describes Jesus’ first day of healing in Capernaum, restoring Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, enabling her to “serve” — a powerful word for Christian discipleship. 

After the Sabbath is over at sunset, the crowds surge forward, bearing the sick and the wounded for Jesus to heal. “The whole town was gathered at the door” where Jesus stayed. In a scene of haunting beauty, Mark describes that, after this exhausting day, Jesus retreats to a “deserted place” and prays, restoring his strength for what lay ahead. 

Simon and his other new disciples break into the stillness of Jesus’ prayer and excitedly tell him that “Everyone is looking for you.” With resolve, Jesus states his mission: “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose I have come.” Throughout his Gospel account, Mark portrays Jesus as driven by his mission of healing and reconciliation.

Who of us hasn’t, at some point, felt like Alfie or his ancestor Job? What is the ultimate meaning of our life? The wisdom of the Scriptures this Sunday reminds us that the true measure of a meaningful life is the degree to which we give life to others. 

 

 

Topics:

  • scripture

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