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
St. Mark’s gospel as far as our reading today:
John the Baptist was proclaiming his message of repentance when Jesus
came to him and was immersed in the Jordan, whereupon the Father from heaven
declared Jesus to be His beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descended anew upon
Him, immediately leading Him into the desert to overcome Satan in a direct,
personal, confrontation, before beginning to draw followers to Himself. When John the Baptist had been imprisoned,
Jesus returned to Galilee to begin His proclamation of the Good News, the Gospel
of salvation; and there, seeing Peter and Andrew, James and John, fishing on the
Sea of Galilee, He called them to Himself as disciples. Then, as you heard in last Sunday’s Gospel
reading, together:
They came to
Capernaum, and on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and
taught.
taught.
The effect of Jesus’ preaching was
most striking: they were amazed at the authority of His teaching, and also, that
of His very Person when -- before their eyes -- He drove out of a man possessed
an unclean spirit shrieking:
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!
Now we have today’s reading which
tells us that:
On leaving the
synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Jesus had entered the synagogue as
one entering His own realm: there He had spoken with the authority of a prophet;
and His Person as the Holy One of God had been proclaimed by a man possessed of
an unclean spirit. But, are those other
words of the spirit:
What have
we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?
perhaps some slight indication of
the secret dispositions of some of those hearing Jesus and witnessing such
happenings in that synagogue at Capernaum? For He left the synagogue recognized indeed by
His hearers as one speaking with prophetic authority, and partially acknowledged
by His fearers as the Holy One of God; but, acclaimed He was not, neither as
prophet nor as the Holy One of God.
Today we learn that on leaving the
synagogue Jesus went straightway to the house of him who was to become Peter;
and so, that house, the home of Peter, could aptly signify the future Church
Jesus would found on the rock of Peter’s faith.
Jesus therefore, having just left the synagogue accepted neither in the
divinity of His Person nor in the authority of His teaching because of His
humanity:
Is he not the
carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joseph and Simon?
(Mark 6:3)
thereupon symbolically entered the
Church where His humanity, His enfleshed divinity, both manifested His power and
brought Him immediate acclaim and whole-hearted acceptance:
Simon’s
mother-law lay sick with a fever, and He grasped her hand and helped her
up. Then the fever left her and she
waited on them. And when it was evening
the whole town brought to Him all who were ill or possessed and He cured many
who were sick and drove out many demons.
Mark is telling us of a perfectly
understandable event in which Jesus initially did a service for His disciple
Peter. But the wisdom of God had wide
horizons in view and so, in this small incident at the beginning of Jesus’
career we find encapsulated His whole life’s work and mission; for the authority
and power of Jesus’ word and the majesty of His Person would burst the
limitations of the Law, the Temple, and the synagogue, and lead inevitably to
the Universal Church.
Let us now look more closely at what
transpired. 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 literally how Mark expresses
it; for his order of events is slightly different:
Having
approached, He raised her taking (her) by the hand.
Mark puts “raised her” before
mentioning that He took her by the hand.
Let me try to show you why the Spirit guided him 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 (Acts 3:15), uses that same Greek
word again:
You killed the
Prince of life, Whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
There is also a liturgical hymn from
the early Church, only a few years after Jesus’ resurrection, which tells us
(Ephesians 5:14):
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."
There, notice, we have the same
Greek word for “rise” this time 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 had to leave the synagogue and go directly to
Peter’s house, 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 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 His miraculous power; no, He ‘raised’ her in
anticipation in His own resurrection and helped steady her by the right hand of
His divine, supporting and sustaining, Flesh.
People of God, here we catch a trace
of the eternal wisdom of God; for here, the Holy Spirit inspired Mark to use words whose
fullness of meaning and significance he, Mark, could only partially have
glimpsed. And how wonderful it is for
us, in and through the Church by the guidance of the same Holy Spirit, to be
able to appreciate more and more of the wonder of God’s wisdom and the fullness and beauty
of His truth! The Church can never come to the end, so to
speak, of God’s majesty and goodness: there will always be infinitely more
enshrined beyond and above our present capabilities, which -- hidden and at
times unspeakable -- makes up the eternal glory of divinity uniting Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit in a transcendent oneness of mutual love, understanding, 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 come to a saving
knowledge and transforming realization of the wonder of our calling to know,
love, and serve God here on earth so as to be able to delight in Him for all
eternity.
St. Mark then tells us something
which greatly surprised the disciples:
Rising
(a different Greek word this
time) 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 had left His disciples behind
in order to go and pray to His Father alone.
Later on, after rising from the dead, He did the same again: He
disappeared from their view as He ascended to His Father in heaven. And now we are all -- as with Simon and his
companions of old -- ever on the look-out for His return in glory.
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 today’s Gospel reading -- alone
before the Father, but now at His right hand of power, for all those whom the
Spirit raises to new life through their faith in Jesus.
And so, God’s wisdom and beauty has
foreshadowed for us in broad outline the full saving work of Jesus in the events
of this one day at the very beginning of His ministry as recorded for us by St.
Mark. What treasures the Scriptures hold
beneath the apparent simplicity of their inspired words!
Finally, let us take note of what we
are told concerning Simon’s mother-in-law:
The fever left
her and she waited on 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; may therefore the Holy Spirit of Jesus
in Mother Church guide and sustain you in your personal works of service for
God’s glory and the salvation of souls:
While I (and Mine) are
in the world, I am the Light of the world. (John 9:5)