Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 5^th 2012)     

Mark 1:29-39
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel
1 Do I consider encounter with God to be something that occurs primarily in church, or is it something that occurs at every moment in life?
2. When I ask the Lord for healing, do I expect instant results regardless of my personal behaviour? Or am I prepared to take Jesus’ hand and follow him?
3. Do I believe that wellness consists in the ability to serve others?
4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things by myself? Or is the fulfilment of our mission dependent on fidelity to God's plan?

The arena of God’s action is not just holy places but also our own homes

This passage recounts a series of events from a day in the life of Jesus, and, through it, we learn a great deal about his mission. Jesus leaves the synagogue (having just healed the man with the impure spirit) and goes to the house of Simon. This movement is highly significant. The action of God's Messiah shifts from the synagogue – a place associated with the word of God – to a normal human dwelling. The movement of God's action from the synagogue to the home is a historic movement that corresponds to the advent of Christianity. Jesus wishes to enter the house of Simon, and into all of our homes, because there are things that he wants to accomplish there. The arena in which God enters our lives is no longer exclusively the sacred places, but the very places where we live. Holy places can assist us to pray in a concentrated way, but, with the advent of Christ, it is no longer the location that decides whether God is present or not. The Lord comes into our most personal of places seeking genuine encounter with us.

To be healed by the Lord, we must allow him to take our lives in hand
Jesus enters the house of Simon and what does he find? Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. And what does he find generally in our homes? Sickness, difficulty, people who cannot move, people who are trapped inside the unresolved problems of their existence, people who are nailed down by the things they are fixated with.
            Approaching the sick woman, Jesus takes her by the hand. Sometimes we are not healed because we don’t allow Jesus to take us by the hand. We need to allow ourselves to be taken by the hand and do the things that Jesus wants us to do. Healing cannot happen until we become obedient to the Lord and allow him to lead us by the hand. While we persist with our own projects, as long as we refuse to permit Jesus to guide our actions, then we remain infirm with sicknesses that never go away.

The goal of God’s saving action is to enable us to serve others
In the Gospel, the fever leaves the woman and she begins to serve them. The point is that the goal of God’s saving action is to enable people to serve. The person who is well is the one who knows how to serve, the one who is able to take care of others. This world can be divided into two types of people: those who need care and those who know how to care for others; those who are black holes of needs without end, who demand constant affection and attention, and those who have finally been healed and are able to care for others; those who devour life and those who give life. In the Gospel, the woman first had need of care, but then she becomes someone able to give care. What a beautiful image! All of us are well when we are able to serve! All of us are fit and alive when we are able to take care of others!

Wellness consists in the capacity to serve others
The human being is called to paternity and maternity. The woman in the Gospel was a mother, a person who had once been an expert in taking care of others, but who was no longer capable of serving. In our time, members of the older generation are often in this situation.  They fail to create a caring role for themselves. Many elderly people pass their time doing things that are vain and of little value. The children ask “Where is Grandma?” and they find that she is busy doing a course of salsa, or is on the phone six hours a day! The image that elderly people desperately need to rediscover and nurture is that of the adult who knows how to serve, who has attained wisdom, and who is available to others. This is the kind of senior citizen that this world needs more and more as the average age of our population grows. One of the problems of the older generation is that elderly people often feel useless. They think that no-one needs them. This demonstrates that acts of service towards others makes us feel whole. We must learn how to serve others. The fullness of life is maternity, paternity, being available to devote oneself to the needs of others.

The goodness that we are capable of achieving depends on our fidelity to God’s plan

Once Jesus heals the sick woman, the occupants of the entire town come searching for him. The house is assailed by requests from the infirm, and from those possessed by demons. Jesus heals the sick and drives out the demons, ordering them to be silent. The success of Jesus in curing people means that everyone now wants him. So what does he do? He rises early in the morning while it is still dark and goes to a lonely place to pray. When the disciples eventually find him they say “Everyone is looking for you!” Why does Jesus go away in private to pray like this? In the Gospels, Jesus is always shown praying at the moments that are fundamental to his mission, and when he is tempted. We see this while he is in the desert, when he is at Gethsemane, and when the crowd comes to carry him off and make him king. At the times when his life could take a wrong direction, at moments when he must remain faithful to God’s plan, Jesus unites himself with the Father in prayer. In the words of the disciples “Everyone is looking for you!” the temptation is evident. “You’ve made it! You’re a huge success! You’re no longer an obscure carpenter from Galilee!”
Jesus replies “Let us leave here. I haven’t come for this, but to preach also in other places”. As soon as Jesus attains great success he removes himself from the success, demonstrating that he has come not to do his own will but that of the Father, and so fulfil his great mission. We too must be on guard against the temptations that come with success. We must be wary of remaining only with the things in our lives that work well, instead of confronting the challenging things that life places before us, so that the good that we are all capable of doing might be uncovered.