Sunday, February 1, 2015

Cycle B - Year I:   

8 February 2015: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time 
(Liturgical color: Green)

Mark 1:29-39

Praying and healing!





The Philippines was blessed recently with the pastoral visit of the popular Pope Francis. In the highlight of his visit, and despite the bad weather, he took the real risk to fly to Tacloban and be with the people there, to heal their wounds brought about by the devastation of Typhoon Yolanda, through his mission of  "mercy and compassion".





Barely a month after the papal visit, our nation suffered yet another tragedy, not from the wrath of mother nature, but from the evils of man's own making. The country mourns the loss of 44 SAF policemen who were mercilessly massacred by Muslim rebels. How do we heal the nation's wounds of our own making?





Pope Francis said that sometimes we have no words to say amidst tragedies. And so it is alright for us to cry, perhaps to ease the pain, to cleanse our hearts of hatred and the desire for revenge.





For we live in a world of pain, where physical, emotional and moral sufferings are realities. So we turn to God for hope and refuge in the most trying times in our lives.





This week's gospel offers a glimpse of a day in the public life of our Lord Jesus. The evangelist Mark presents Jesus tirelessly preaching to large crowds and healing a mounting number of sick and suffering. On entering the house of Simon Peter, Jesus healed Simon's mother-in-law and she waited on them.




There is a lesson to learn from this incident. When Jesus heals us physically or even spiritually, the best way to thank the Lord is to serve Him in our brothers and sisters, like what Simon's mother-in-law did after being healed by Jesus.





The Gospel narrative continues and that even after sunset, people keep bringing to Jesus all who are ill. But after this exhausting day, Jesus gets up early the next morning and goes off to a quiet place to be alone in prayer with his heavenly Father.  Because in prayer and conversion with the Father, Jesus finds the strength and energy in his demanding ministry.  We can learn from the example of Jesus as well, and make prayer the primary source of our activities and actions while living in this busy world.





What then is the relevance of the gospel message in dealing with our national tragedies and hurt?





The Gospel presents Jesus as the healer of the sick and suffering. He is God-made-man who is always close to those broken and suffering in soul and body. In Jesus, God comes into our world of tears and sufferings in order to transform our despair into hope, to transform death into new life.





This is the only way we find meaning in our sufferings, national or personal, to find our way back to God, who is gracious and heals the brokenhearted.





A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.







Ad Jesum per Mariam!































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