ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

07 feb 2021
07/02/2021 – 5th Sunday in O. T.  - B

07/02/2021 – 5th Sunday in O. T.  - B

In Italy, Day for Life!

Reading 1 JB 7,1-4.6-7 Psalm 146/147 Reading 2 1COR 9,16-19.22-23 Gospel  MK 1,29-39

 

The first reading lets us hear one of those complaints we can hear more or less every day, and which we sometimes ourselves move the weight of on those close to us, making them suffer. Here is Job complaining about his sickness: but he lets God hear his complaint, sure of the fact that He can appreciate our life even if we might think it is useless or wasted. “My life is like the wind”, he says, knowing that «wind» is the name of Abel. My life is like Abel’s, a life full of suffering, envied and rejected by the brother, a weak and fragile life, but anyway appreciated by whom gave it to me.

This complaint is echoed by the words of the first disciples of Jesus, who are telling the Master about Simon’s mother in law’s sickness. Why are they telling Him? Maybe in order to let Him know to stay away, because a woman with fever is impure, and makes impure whoever touches her? Very probably so. However, we like better to think that the disciples have told the Master about the woman so He could take care of her, as He then really did. Just a little earlier in the synagogue He had freed a man from a impure spirit, now He can free the woman from fever in the house, a sickness that was considered the heat coming from hell as the sign of the neverending hostility of the devil. It is beautiful and consoling to see Jesus approaching the sick, looking at her tenderly, taking her hand fearlessly, picking her up as to make her rise again. Being sick is always like being thrown in the path of death, being freed from it is not only a relief, but also a prelude of resurrection.

And the woman “waited on them”. Healing happens not so the woman could feel better and go out having fun, but so she could show love, so she could serve. The opposite of sickness then is not health, but service. A healthy person who is not ready to serve, as a matter of fact is spiritually sick. When the man lovingly serves, is alive, is great, is fulfilled, is happy. He would be that way even if there were still in him weakness and sufferings. And he is already experiencing the resurrection, the new life, as Saint John writes in his first letter: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death” (3,14).

Healing from sickness is performed in the house: the house is not a holy place like the synagogue, where you can hear the praise and the Word of God resounding. But since Jesus has arrived at the house, this is also a holy place, also because in it you can live the Word that has been proclaimed in the synagogue. It is in the house that is lived the persevering service, the one which often is overlooked. How great is the gift Jesus gives us with His presence! He makes holy all our houses: it is in them that, with the strength we receive from His presence, we obey the Word we welcomed in church: it becomes flesh, so concrete experience in our life, human actions that are at the same time divine.

The evangelist is then making us notice Jesus' choice: He wakes up in the early morning and looks for a hidden place in which to pray. There it is, how to begin the Christian’s day! Do you want to know too what Jesus' prayer is about? Mark is going to tell us only at the end of the Gospel: Jesus' prayer is listening to the Father and welcoming His will. “Not my will but yours be done”. He does not give in to the idea of success, He does not go to those who are looking for Him because of the miracles, but continues to preach the Father’s kingdom to whom has not heard about it yet. More important than the miracles is Jesus' Word. His Word is healing us, His Word is showing us the Father’s face, His Word gives us life. To announce His Word is a duty and a pleasure for the apostle, a duty and a joy for the Church. It is the Word revealing the meaning of men’s life, and giving men the strength and the joy to welcome every human life from the beginning until the end. This is why Jesus does not remain in Capernaum  with those who wanted to keep Him for themselves, but He leaves in order to preach in other villages too. If someone want, they will follow Him, be with Him giving up their comforts or all the things which keep them busy daily.

Today we pray the Father so He may give to all Christians the knowledge of Jesus, true value of every man’s life. And we pray so every man, from the moment of conception to their natural death, may be considered great by everyone, because they are the temple of the Lord and of His Holy Spirit.