[see Mass reading text below]
Personal Thoughts
The Problem: 1st Reading Job. The problem of pain.
The Promise: Responsorial Psalm. The Lord heals the broken hearted.
The Solution: The Alleluia Antiphon. Jesus carried our diseases & Gospel Reading. Jesus heals the sick.
The Response: 2nd reading. St Paul became all things for all people to bring them to Christ.
Fr Robert Barron Homily – The Spirituality of Pain
Fr Barron recommends reading the book of Job – profound OT wrestling of the great problem of pain. No other book looks so bravely and uncompromisingly at the issue of pain. Why does the good God allow suffering in His creation? John Stuart Mills – if God was omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, he would remedy any pain right? God allows devil to inflict all suffering upon this man. Job visited with all species of human suffering. Many people can identify deeply with Job. Lying awake at night unable to sleep is quite troubling. Then Job says his life goes by so quickly. Everything is swallowed up by time. This book is juxtaposed with our Gospel story. A whole army of Jobs come to Jesus! He cures many who were sick and possessed.
God takes Job on a tour of the cosmos. Were you there when I commanded the dawn? Were you there… God shows Job how little he understands of His overall purpose… His suffering tiny ingredient of His great plan.
Example – suppose you took a novel a read only one paragraph. You would say the book doesn’t make any sense. It’s tiny compared to the greatness of the whole book. Same parallel with the whole of creation & salvation. We experience one half of one paragraph of one page in the great 1,000 page novel.
But for some reason we are still not satisfied…
Why do they come to Christ in the Gospel?
God made flesh does not just say trust in me I have a plan, Jesus senses this won’t be enough. He allows His divine power to flow out to them who come to him. He becomes a healer of the suffering of the world. How come he didn’t heal everyone in the world with sickness? Why you and not me? We get something more… God’s own solidarity with those who suffer! Jesus came to take on the sickness/agony of the human race, to enter into this sickness, all that bedevils us, he takes on the sin… but also all the suffering on the cross. He shows his solidarity with us. Lesson of Job still remains – trust in me. But we have more now – showing forth of God’s healing power & his own solidarity in our suffering!
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament Bible Commentary
Scott Hahn – Raised to Serve
In today’s First Reading, Job describes the futility of life before Christ. His lament reminds us of the curse of toil and death placed upon Adam following his original sin (see Genesis 3:17-19). Men and women are like slaves seeking shade, unable to find rest. Their lives are like the wind that comes and goes. But, as we sing in today’s Psalm, He who created the stars, promised to heal the brokenhearted and gather those lost in exile from Him (see Isaiah 11:12; 61:1). We see this promise fulfilled in today’s Gospel. Simon’s mother-in-law is like Job’s toiling, hopeless humanity. She is laid low by affliction but too weak to save herself. But as God promised to take His chosen people by the hand (see Isaiah 42:6), Jesus grasps her by the hand and helps her up. The word translated “help” is actually Greek for raising up. The same verb is used when Jesus commands a dead girl to arise (see Mark 5:41-42). It’s used again to describe His own resurrection (see Mark 14:28; 16:7). What Jesus has done for Simon’s mother-in-law, He has done for all humanity – raised all of us who lay dead through our sins (see Ephesians 2:5). Notice all the words of totality and completeness in the Gospel. The whole town gathers; all the sick are brought to Him. He drives out demons in the whole of Galilee. Everyone is looking for Christ. We too have found Him. By our baptism, He healed and raised us to live in His presence (see Hosea 6:1-2). Like Simon’s mother-in-law, there is only one way we can thank Him for the new life He has given us. We must rise to serve Him and His gospel. Our lives must be our thanksgiving, as Paul describes in today’s Epistle. We must tell everyone the good news, the purpose for which Jesus has come – that others, too, may have a share in this salvation.
Fr. Larry Richards – To Be a Slave to All What did Jesus say he came for? To preach. Interesting b/c that’s what Paul talks about, I must preach the Gospel. Made myself a slave to all. What am I doing to win others to Christ? He’s reading Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell. How many go to Church every Sunday with a personal relationship with Christ? I exist to preach the Gospel. Knowing Jesus isn’t about me, but about bringing others to him, and in doing so i know him more intimately. We exist to make disciples of others. Created & call by God to bring others to Him. Paul was preaching… meeting where they are at. Pope Francis is becoming weak for those who are weak. To save them. We need to get that. God was born as a weak baby and became weak and died on the cross for us, Jesus became a slave to save us, we need to be like Jesus and become a slave to others to save them. Will it be easy? No it will kill you! That’s the point. What are you doing to bring others to Jesus? It better be something, if it’s nothing, think about what He is calling you to do.
Fr Nick Meisl – Why the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on assisted suicide changes everything and nothing
| First reading | Job 7:1-4,6-7 |
|---|
Job began to speak:
Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service,
his time no better than hired drudgery?
Like the slave, sighing for the shade,
or the workman with no thought but his wages,
months of delusion I have assigned to me,
nothing for my own but nights of grief.
Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’
Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’
Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.
Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed,
and vanished, leaving no hope behind.
Remember that my life is but a breath,
and that my eyes will never again see joy.
| Psalm | Psalm 146:1-6 |
|---|
Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.
or
Alleluia!
Praise the Lord for he is good;
sing to our God for he is loving:
to him our praise is due.
Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.
or
Alleluia!
The Lord builds up Jerusalem
and brings back Israel’s exiles,
he heals the broken-hearted,
he binds up all their wounds.
He fixes the number of the stars;
he calls each one by its name.
Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.
or
Alleluia!
Our Lord is great and almighty;
his wisdom can never be measured.
The Lord raises the lowly;
he humbles the wicked to the dust.
Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.
or
Alleluia!
| Second reading |
|---|
| 1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23 |
I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the gospel gives me.
So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessings.
| Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
| Or | Mt8:17 |
|---|
Alleluia, alleluia!
He took our sicknesses away,
and carried our diseases for us.
Alleluia!
| Gospel | Mark 1:29-39 |
|---|
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.
That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.
In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.
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