Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The Book of Job is the source of the first reading for Mass this weekend. Scholars disagree as to when this book was written. This book furnishes few details about the identity of Job. It is nonetheless one of the great literary works in the Old Testament since it so remarkably captures the struggle experienced by many believers as they try to match their faith in the merciful God to problems in their lives.
A misreading of Job has led to a phrase that has entered into English common speech, the “patience of Job.” Clear in many places in this book is the fact that Job was not always so patient with God.
For example, in this weekend’s reading, Job vents his impatience. He asks if life on Earth is not, in reality, drudgery. Each human being, Job writes, is a slave to this fate. He says he has been assigned “months of misery” (Jb 7:3). “I shall not see happiness again,” he writes drearily (Jb 7:7).
St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians provides the second reading.
The same source has given earlier weekend liturgies this winter their second readings. In this passage from First Corinthians, Paul insists that he was free to accept the call to be an Apostle or to spurn the call. He chose to accept it.
He evangelizes. He proclaims the good news. He explains the identity and mission of Jesus. Paul’s faith compels him to evangelize. It is an act of service and of love given for people who otherwise would not know Jesus. People’s needs in this regard are so great that Paul’s obligation, correspondingly intense, makes him their slave.
For its final reading, the Church offers us a selection from St. Mark’s Gospel. It is the story of the Lord’s curing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Matthew and Luke have their versions of the same story.
The story is clear. Merely by touching her hand, Jesus cured the woman. She was so fully cured, in fact, that she immediately rose from her sickbed and began to wait on Jesus and the disciples. She was healthy again, and she used her health to care for others. For all Christians, the impulse to serve others is true stamina.
While the cure is extraordinary, Mark does not make the fortunate mother-in-law the centerpiece of this reading. That belongs to Jesus.
Christians long have remembered this miracle. Indeed, archeologists found traces of this mother-in-law’s house in Capernaum. They confirmed their discovery by the fact that ancient Christian inscriptions were found on the walls.
As the story continues, Jesus heals the sick and drives demons away. He ordered the demons not to speak, and they obeyed.
Jesus went by himself to a distant place to pray. The Apostles pursued Jesus, longing to be near the Lord, needing the Lord.
When at last they found Jesus, the Lord reminded them that the messianic role was to reach all people.
Reflection
The Church continues to introduce us to Jesus, a process begun weeks ago at Christmas and underscored in the lessons of the feast of the Epiphany and in those of the feast of the Lord’s Baptism.
Jesus is Lord, the Son of God, with all power. He came to us to bring humanity God’s mercy.
The condition of Peter’s mother-in-law, and the anxiousness with which Peter and the others search for Jesus, tell us about ourselves. Conditions trouble our lives, such as this persistent pandemic. In their worries, Job, Paul and Peter’s mother-in-law would be at home with us. We are helpless, but we are not doomed. Jesus is with us. †