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Homily for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (Job 7: 1-4, 6-7; 1 Cor 9: 16-19, 22-23; Mk 1: 29-39)

REFLECT: Set your priorities to stay with God and start on a journey to proclaim Christ to all…

Dear friends we are in the Fifth Sunday in ordinary time. The liturgy of the day invites us to set our priorities right for all things to fall in line with. Knowing our priorities and setting it right on God would mean that we understand and accept who we are as God’s children. After having understood and accepted who we are, we set our priorities on God and ceaselessly make efforts to never give up such healthy priorities that give us happiness, peace and meaning. That’s the invitation that the liturgy of the word invites us all in and through the life of Job, St. Paul and Jesus our Saviour. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflections;

1. Accept limits like Job:

Pope Francis tells us, “A Christian community that welcomes the person as he or she is thus helps to see them as God does, which is with a look of love. God also sees our limitations, it is true, and helps us to bear them. But God looks above all at the heart and sees every person in his or her entirety. God sees us as an image of Jesus, his only begotten son, and with his love he helps us to become more and more like him.” Yes, accepting one’s own limits, limitations and strengths, helps us to know who we are and enables us to set our priorities right in life. In order to set our limits we need to know who we are, what is God’s plan for us and what is our purpose. That’s what finally Job does in the first reading. Job feels that his destiny is comparable to the hardship bore by the one who spends his strength in working for another person. Job laments the many sufferings he experiences in life. He feels that his life pulls on like slaves who work many days without proper sleep or rest.

We know from the Bible that Job was a just man; he does not deserve the suffering that he is experiencing; all the more he was wealthy man and had good health formerly. So having experienced the peak of prosperity in his life, he now experiences utter poverty, loaded with sickness and suffering. Therefore, Job keeps on asking God through his laments or complaints, “why me God’s target?” However, the last words of Job “my life is a mere breath, a vapor that quickly vanishes,” manifest that Job understood the shortness of his life and shares his grievances to God that his body could no more bear the pain he goes through terribly. Job becomes aware that the pain would be too much to bear. If God does not come to rescue Job, he would lose his and would never have the opportunity to see the goodness of God and experience joy in life. Ultimately, Job surrenders to God, he accepts his limits, he can only speak, complaint or lament and after all it is God who decides and it is God’s plan that works in life. So job surrenders and submits his life to God.

Today, most of us feel or experience that our lives pass quickly, very specially those of us who have not lived our lives to the full feel that we have not done anything substantially well. We have a feeling that there is nothing more to accomplish or at times we have no targets to achieve or reach. It is a kind of helpless and hopeless feelings. Something similar was the experience of Job too. Job felt that his life was passing and there was no goal or no hope, because of the hardships that he endured. Instead of accepting the limits and the limitations of his own life, he keeps on arguing with God and tries to prove that he is guiltless but just, until he surrenders and accepts that there is nothing in his own reach unless God allows it to happen. Yes, there are times we feel that we know everything, we feel that we deserve everything right but we need to realize that unless God makes it to happen, we can do nothing about it, because in all wisdom and power God has done best and he still is doing best for us. If only we realize the power and wisdom of God, we would accept our limits, limitations and strengths; we would surrender everything to God. So let us surrender our lives to God always, for he has best plan and future for us. Let us accept our limits and limitation without complains or arguments or blame game.

2. Be committed like St. Paul:

Commitment to God means that we have a strong feeling that we will love God always and others as well in all the circumstances. It means our actions will reflect who we are and what we believe. Pope Francis very beautifully says, “That committing oneself to something means to assume a responsibility, a task toward someone; and it also means the style, the attitude of fidelity and dedication, of special attention with which we carry forward this task. We all know that the commitment to share the gospel of Christ was very strong in St. Paul by the very life he lived. His heart was beating unstoppably to make known Christ to every nook and corner of the world. Perhaps, St. Paul was ready to risk his life and give all that he had for Christ and for Christ’s glory. We have one such passage in the second reading of the day from St. Paul’s letter to Corinthians.

St. Paul ardently proclaims, “Woe to me If I do not preach the Gospel; I have become all things to all; I do it all for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”  Why such passionate commitment to the Gospel of Christ by St. Paul? It is because of the call he received from Jesus on the way to Damascus; this call grips him lastingly, commits him for a cause and that cause was to save people by all means through the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps as much as interest or zeal he had formerly in inflicting pain or killing people who believed in Christ, St. Paul now becomes doubly zealous and spirited to make as many as people for Christ. He considers himself a curse if he does not preach the Gospel of Christ; he is ready to go any level to bring people to Christ. The phrase, ‘I have become all things to all,’ conveys his zeal and commitment to God. It is becoming like them to bring them back to Christ – to the slaves like a slave, to the Jews like a Jew, to the weak like a weak in order to win over their heart for God.

Today we need such commitment in our lives as Christians. The spirit and enthusiasm are still lacking in us, because we have not encountered Christ genuinely and deeply like St. Paul. If we could search, we could find that there are some who have encountered Christ deeply and have changed the life of many in our world. Many genuine and zealous saints of the past and the present, the lay faithful, the religious and priests of today are witnesses.  So what we need today is commitment like St. Paul to our vocation as Christians or religious or priests, to proclaim good news everywhere. Our commitment is not to be merely manifested once in a blue moon rather daily in all that we do. Our commitment to God and to God’s work should not be half-hearted rather whole-hearted commitment to God. Such commitment to God in life would bring meaning, happiness and peace.

That’s why very meaningfully Pope Francis inspires us saying, “Each day we are asked to commit ourselves in the simple things we do, such as prayer, work and study, as well as in sports or free time. To commit ourselves, then, means to put our good will and our efforts to improve life, noting that God is also committed to us. The greatest ever commitment that God has made is giving his own Son Jesus for us.” If God could make a great commitment for our sake, our commitment to God reciprocates the same although it is not possible in the same degree or intensity of commitment, at least to commit genuinely to God’s works and his ways. So let us commit ourselves to the call of God as Christians, religious or priests in life.

3. Be Commissioned like Jesus:

We all know what it means to commission someone. It means to charge someone with a task, giving them the authority do to do something in an official way. Indeed, Jesus was commissioned by God to fulfill his mission on earth. In the Gospel of Mk 3: 14, after choosing the disciples Jesus shares with them the key point of being called as chosen ones of God, “I have called you to be with me and also to send out…”  He calls the apostles and commissions them too. This is what Jesus does personally himself by being with God in prayer and obtaining the power from God, Jesus moves out to people healing and curing, doing good to the people. Therefore, what Jesus himself did always is now being passed on to the chosen one’s to be with God and to be sent out. That’s what in particular we find in the gospel reading of the day. Although Jesus did quite a lot of miracles of healing and curing the sickness of people, teaching them what to do and what not to do, yet Jesus does not limit himself to comfort zone of life from the appraisal or appreciation of people. After completing the work of healing and curing, Jesus moves to a desolated place to pray.

Moreover, when the crowd was in search of Jesus for a cure and healing or for a miracle, Jesus reminded them the priority of his mission by God saying, “Let us go to other towns, so that I may preach the good news in other towns too.” So we notice here that Jesus was not carried away by the praise of the people; Jesus was not worried about the security or comfort zone of life rather Jesus was interested in praise of His heavenly father, glorifying God and  doing what Jesus was entrusted by God. So Jesus knew what his priority was. The priority of Jesus was to pray and to preach the good news of God. Prayer to be in communion with God and the proclamation is to share the good news of God and the offer of salvation to entire human race.

Pope Francis points out prominently, “Proclamation is born from the encounter with the Lord; every Christian activity, especially the mission, begins from there. Not from what is learnt in an academy. No, it begins from the encounter with the Lord. Witnessing Him means radiating Him; but, if we do not receive His light, we will be extinguished; if we do not spend time with Him, we will bear ourselves instead of Him and it will all be in vain. So only the person who remains with Him can bring the Gospel of Jesus. Someone who does not remain with Him cannot bear the Gospel.” Yes, it is only by drawing ourselves to Jesus and remaining with Jesus, we would be able to go out to proclaim the good news. With Christ we have security and safety and that’s born of deep trust and intimacy with God or Christ.

Today Security has become the top most priority for all of us. To say ‘no’ for security is difficult for many of us and nobody wishes to do it daringly, because we might risk one’s life. Our unwillingness to move out of selfish-security or other vested interest or securities aimed at wrong means or moves would mean that we are not ready to move forward in life or ready to face risks in life. At times security becomes a stumbling block or temptation to see the best side of life. We often feel complacent about ourselves that it is better to remain within the four-walls of one’s own house or to remain within a circle of particular group, friends etc. But hardly are we ready to move or willing to go to a different place or meet different person to widen the horizon of life or share the gift and grace of God in us.

Remarkably, Jesus was not carried away by the cares and concerns of the worldly ways nor was he worried about his future destiny, because he was sure of his mission and purpose. Thus Jesus united himself with God intensely, focused on God and God’s mission. That’s why he could proclaim God’s word powerfully and succeed at every moment of his life although he had to face lots of obstacles. So when prayer becomes the priority of life, our bond with God is strengthened, when our bond is strengthened, the propagation of the good news spreads faster; Let us set our priorities to stay with God and God would definitely give us the grace to go out to proclaim the good news and move ahead in life.

RESPOND:

Do we accept our limits or do we accept our limitations and strengths in total surrender to God like Job?

Do we show commitment to the task we are entrusted as Christians daily to God, other and oneself?

Do we make efforts to stay with God and to go out powerfully proclaiming Christ to one another in the world?

Let us surrender ourselves to God, show commitment to daily tasks and set our priorities to stay with God and start on a journey to Proclaim Christ to all. Amen. 

God bless us all! Live Jesus!

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968