Opening reflection (taken from Magnificat magazine, www.magnificat.com): Job asks, “Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?” We, too, often wonder if we will “see happiness again.” Jesus responds, “Let us go on to the nearby villages.” The presence of Jesus is the antidote for our “months of misery.” When “the night drags on” and we are filled with restlessness, only one thing makes us want to get out of bed in the morning: Jesus Christ. The gracious God “rebuilds Jerusalem” one broken heart at a time. To the weak He becomes weak to win over the weak. In Christ's preaching, “He calls each by name.”
(This weekend's Scripture readings are available in the New American Bible translation – the one used in U.S. Catholic parishes – at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website at http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/020512.cfm or the Vatican's English website at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM.)
First Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7 (Revised Standard Version)
A reading from the book of Job.
Job spoke, saying,
"Has not man a hard service upon earth,
and are not his days like the days of a hireling?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
and like a hireling who looks for his wages,
so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, `When shall I arise?'
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.
Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.”
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation: The concept of slavery runs throughout the three readings this weekend, though the types of slavery change somewhat. The “back story” here is well-known: Satan, permitted by God to test Job's faith, takes away Job's possessions, his children and even his health. One can understand the misery and suffering that underlies Job's extensive questioning of God throughout this long book. But is the slavery of which Job speaks imposed by God?
When things go badly for us, we're all too likely to blame it on God. And the slavery Job describes here is indeed real. But the condition he describes is the condition of all human beings since Adam and Eve chose to listen to Satan's temptations and rejected God's plan for their lives – a plan of unconditional love for each other and for Him – in favor of their own. The miseries of life, as reflected here by Job, are the inevitable fruit of humans putting themselves first.
The slavery in question is the slavery of sin. The God who is love does not condemn anyone to live in it. So why does it happen? Because He gave us free will to choose Him – or to live as someone whose eye “will never again see good.” God finally led Job to realize that he could not possibly understand the ways of He who is perfect love – especially how He orders all things for good even when our sins or those of others throw us off course. Only when Job repented of his lapse in trust did he see good again. Will we trust our Lord even when things are at their darkest?
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.
Brothers and sisters: If I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation: Paul, meanwhile, speaks of a different type of slavery. It began on the Damascus road when Jesus made a direct claim on his life. Ever after, he described himself as a prisoner of Christ – a slave by any other name. His full recognition and acceptance of the gospel compelled him to serve Him until the end of his earthly days. It drove him in turn to make himself a slave to others, a servant to all whom he encountered.
Why would such a strong-willed person do this? Because Paul realized that pouring himself out for others in fact amounted to freedom from the type of self-centered slavery Job described. He found his happiness in the mission Jesus had given him to spread the Good News among the Gentiles. He would do anything and put himself in any position that would lead them to the same type of freedom he had found in Christ. In his case, that meant working at his secular occupation as a tentmaker to pay for his own living expenses. By thus making the gospel “free of charge,” no one could accuse him of seeking earthly profit by making others support him. And those he sought to convert would see that slavery to Christ meant a freedom far beyond any human understanding.
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark. Glory to You, O Lord.
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him pursued him, and they found him and said to him, "Every one is searching for you." And he said to them, "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out." And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ.
Meditation: As Jesus went from one village to another, He saw with His human eyes the effects of sin that He had recognized all along in His divine knowledge and wisdom. He saw the physical illness that afflicted the mother of Peter's wife. He saw how Satan and his fallen angels so dominated humanity that some of them literally dwelled inside particular people. He would witness human poverty and misery again and again during His earthly ministry. And His heart went out to them. He knew the sheep needed a shepherd to find their way home.
If Jesus healed so many people, why then did sickness and misery continue during and after His time on earth? For the same reason that it existed in Job's time. Christ did not come to force anyone to follow Him, for that would violate His own gift of free will. He came to show people how to use that gift as they were created to do – to place their faith in Him. But they could not do so on their own, so He took care of that too. Only by dying and rising again could they walk away from their self-imposed slavery to sin and find the freedom for which they were created: the freedom to love without limits. So Jesus went from village to village, pursuing His mission of living the perfect life, of loving us all the way to the cross. Praise be to Him.
Close with individual prayer, followed by Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be
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