Cycle B - Year I:

7 February 2021: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Job 7:1-4, 6-7

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23

Gospel:  Please Read  Mark 1:29-39

"The Christian challenge: work and pray"

Last third Sunday of January we celebrated the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Feast of the Sto. Nino.  This Sunday we will see the public life of our Lord Jesus as an adult.

The Gospel narratives by St. Mark offers a glimpse of a day in the public life of our Lord Jesus.  St. Mark presents Jesus tirelessly preaching to large crowds, healing a mounting number of sick and suffering.  Many aspects of the life of Jesus as an adult come together in this reading.

When Jesus came to the house of Simon-Peter, the latter's mother-in-law was also sick.  Even though it was a Sabbath, our Lord Jesus was moved to cure Peter's mother-in-law because He always puts compassion for the needy over the Law that prohibits healing on a Sabbath.  And then Peter's mother-in-law waited on Jesus and the others.

Now, 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 in need, like what Simon's mother-in-law did after being healed by Jesus.

The Gospel narrative continues that people kept bringing to Jesus all who were ill and possessed by demons even after sunset.  It must be an exhausting day for our Lord.  In the morning, "while it was still very dark," Jesus got up early and slipped out of the house where He was staying to a deserted place to be alone in prayer with His heavenly Father.  The Gospel stories tell us that as well as healing, casting our demons, Jesus was in the habit of going off to a quiet place to pray.  Because in prayer and conversation with His Father, Jesus finds strength and energy in His demanding public ministry.  So let us learn from this example of our Lord Jesus Christ as well, and make praying the primary source of our activities and actions while living in this busy, sometimes chaotic world.

As we face another year of this pandemic with no certainty of when this ends, let us go back to basics of life, meeting the challenges as they come with hope and trust in God's almighty, and finding our strength to surmount in prayers whatever storms this life brings.  For it is when we pray that we connect with God, Who is the Author and Creator of all things.  Now God will not spare us from life' storms, but believe He will make us strong and steady to pass through these storms, in His caring and loving arms.  Amen.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!