5th. Sunday, Year (B) (Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1st Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23;
Mark 1:29-39)
Let me first give you an outline of Mark’s gospel as far as
our reading today: John the Baptist --
sent as Jesus’ forerunner -- was calling for true repentance in Israel when
Jesus came to be immersed by him in the river Jordan, and then:
Immediately coming up out of
the water He saw the heavens opening and the Spirit like a dove descending on
Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My beloved Son. In You I am
well-pleased.’ Immediately, the Spirit
impelled Him to go out into the wilderness,
where He overcame Satan in a direct confrontation. John was then imprisoned and Jesus returned to
Galilee to begin His Public Mission by proclaiming the Gospel, His Good News of
salvation; in the course of which -- going by the Sea of Galilee -- He came
upon Peter and Andrew, James and John, all fishermen there: He called them to follow
Him and together with Jesus:
They came to Capernaum, and
on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
Last Sunday you heard the effect Jesus’ preaching had on those
in the synagogue that day: they were amazed at the authority of not only His
teaching but also of His Person; for -- before their very eyes -- He had driven
out of a man possessed an unclean spirit shouting:
Let us alone! What have we to
do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are --
the Holy One of God!
And now, today’s Gospel reading continues that same story:
On leaving the synagogue, Jesus
entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Though He had just left the synagogue members talking much
about Him at Capernaum and, indeed, throughout Galilee, acclaimed he was not,
neither as prophet nor as Holy One of God; in fact, some, in His own at Nazareth,
would soon be saying somewhat antagonistically (Matthew 13:54):
‘Where did this man get all
this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’
However, here at Capernaum on leaving the synagogue Jesus
went straightway to Simon’s house; and here I want to show you something of the
religious significance of that apparently very ordinary happening ... following,
I trust, the example of the young St. John Henry Newman writing to his mother
about the religious significance of their family, financial, crisis ... an
example which today’s leaders of our Church seem unable to follow with regards
to our whole world’s pandemic trials: are they, is it, indeed without any
religious significance?
Jesus entered the house of him who was to become Peter; and
that house, the home of Peter, aptly signifies the future Church that Jesus
would soon establish on the rock of Peter’s faith. Jesus had just left the synagogue not
accepted in the divinity of His teaching and Personal authority, and symbolically
entered straightway the Church where His humanity manifested His Person and
powers immediately, bringing Him both acclaim and welcome:
Simon’s mother lay sick, and
He grasped her hand and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
There, Mark is telling us of a perfectly understandable
event in which Jesus did a service for His disciple Peter by healing his
mother-in-law from a fever; but the wisdom of God had far wider horizons in
view and so, in this small incident at the beginning of Jesus’ career we can
see encapsulated in outline the whole of His life’s work and mission: for the
authority and power of Jesus’ word and the grace of His Person were destined to
burst the limitations of the Law, the Temple, and the synagogue, and lead
inevitably to the glory of His Universal Church.
Let us consider what followed very closely. Mark tells us that:
Simon's mother-in-law lay
sick with a fever. They immediately told
Him about her. He approached, grasped
her hand, and helped her up. Then the
fever left her and she waited on them.
“He grasped her hand and helped her up”. That is how we would expect it to have
happened and that is how it is translated for modern readers. But that is not how Mark literally expresses
it; his order of events is slightly different, because he writes:
Having come to her, He lifted,
raised, her up, having taken her hand.
Mark, you notice, put “raised her up” before mentioning
that He took her by the hand. Let me try
to show you why the Spirit guided St. Mark in that choice.
The Greek word Mark uses for the raising, lifting, up of
the sick woman is the same verb that he uses for the resurrection of Jesus
(Mark 16:6):
The angel said to them,
"Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He
is risen! He is not here.
Likewise, St. Luke; when he tells us of Peter’s first
address to the Jewish people, he uses that same Greek word again:
You killed the Prince of
life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (Acts
3:15)
And what is more, we also have a liturgical hymn from the very
early Church, only a few years after Jesus’ resurrection, which tells us:
All things are made manifest
by the light. Therefore, He says: "Awake, you who sleep, arise from
the dead, and Christ will give you light;" (Ephesians 5:14)
and there, notice, the very same Greek word for “rise”,
this time is being used for a newly-baptised person rising from sin and being
illumined by Christ.
Now, perhaps, we are in a position to begin to understand
why Jesus, on leaving the synagogue, symbolically went directly to Peter’s
house, that is, to the Church, to “raise up” Peter’s mother-in-law: for “raising
up” can only be rightly understood in
the Church, because it speaks of, presupposes, Jesus’ resurrection from the
dead, which, through faith, empowers the waters of baptism to wash away sin and
bestow new life for the salvation of mankind.
Jesus did not simply lift her up by the natural power of His right hand;
no, He ‘raised’ her by an anticipatory use of the power of His own Resurrection
and Ascension.
Here, dear friends in Christ, we catch a trace of the
eternal wisdom of God. For here, the Person
of the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to use words whose fullness of meaning and
significance he, Mark, could only partially glimpse; and how wonderful it is for
us, in and through the Church by the guidance of the same Holy Spirit, to be
able to gradually glimpse more and more of the fullness of God’s truth and
beauty! The Church can never come to the
end, so to speak, of God’s wisdom and goodness: there will always be infinitely
more truth and beauty beyond our capabilities, as it were, hidden and unspeakable,
which makes up the glory of Divinity, uniting Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in
a transcendent Unity of mutual love and appreciation. We should have the utmost reverence for the
Scriptures and the deepest gratitude for Mother Church: for it is only from
them, in and through her, that each of us can aspire to an awareness at once both
deeply humbling and supremely delightful of the saving knowledge and transforming
reality of the wonder of our calling to know, love, and serve God here on earth
so as to be able to live with, in, and for Him for all eternity.
Mark then went on to tell us something which greatly
surprised the disciples:
Rising very early before dawn,
(Jesus) went off to a deserted place, where He prayed. Simon and those who were with Him pursued Him
and on finding Him said, “Everyone is looking for You” …
Jesus left His disciples behind to go to pray. Later on, He would do the same again, for after
He rising from the dead, He disappeared from their view by ascending into
heaven. And now, we all look -- as did Simon and his companions of old
-- for Jesus’ return, which will now be in glory.
Finally, the letter to the Hebrews (7:24-25) informs us
that in heaven:
Jesus, because He remains forever, has a priesthood
that does not pass away.
Therefore, He is always able
to save those who approach God through Him, since He lives forever to make
intercession for them.
Jesus, in heaven, intercedes, prays -- just as He did on
leaving Simon’s house in our Gospel reading, alone, before the Father -- now at
His right hand of power, for all those raised by the Spirit to new life,
through faith in Jesus’ Name.
And so, God’s wisdom and beauty has foreshadowed for us the
full saving work of Jesus from beginning to end, in the events of this one day
at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry as recorded for us by St. Mark!
Dear People of God, what treasures the Scriptures hold
beneath the surface meaning of their inspired words!!
Finally, let us not fail to take note of what we are told
concerning Simon’s mother-in-law:
Jesus raised
her up having taken her hand. Then the fever left her and she waited
on them.
She did not serve just Jesus, but all of them. Is that a prophetic picture of all those
truly raised by Christ? Do they -- and should we likewise -- serve
Our Lord and our brethren in Mother Church?
I am sure you know well enough the answer to that question, and may the
Holy Spirit of Jesus guide and sustain each of you, in your own work of service
as His true disciples.
