Most of us at some time in our lives probably have felt like Job as he bewails his life situation in our first reading today, Job 7:1-4,6-7. When sickness or tragedy strikes us, we lament our situation. We might ask “why is this happening to me”? Or, “why is God punishing me”? In his misery, Job declares “life on earth a drudgery” (Job 7:1). He feels he is living a life of “restlessness” and “futility.” Poor Job! Poor us! Life is a dangerous venture, fragile and full of uncertainty. What distinguishes us from Job is our knowledge that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from the uncertainties of life. He came declaring “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Our fulfillment does not come from self-pity or self-obsession; it comes from living out the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is what we hear today in our second reading from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians and in today’s Gospel from St. Mark. After an astounding day of preaching and healing people, Jesus goes to Simon’s house probably for a meal. However, when he gets there with a small group of disciples, they find that Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with a fever. Jesus goes to her, grasps her hand and heals her. She immediately gets up and gets to work, serving Jesus. Simon’s mother-in-law is a very human example of someone living out the good news. She demonstrated her gratitude through service.
After his miraculous conversion, St. Paul became a driven man. He tells us that the love of Christ impelled him (2 Cor. 5:14). He threw himself into ministry not for riches or glory or even by his own initiative. He had an obligation to preach the gospel and to “become all things to all” so that he could “save at least some” (1 Cor. 9:22). Christian life was not an easy path for St. Paul. He was imprisoned, beaten, reviled and ultimately martyred. But despite the difficulties he encountered, he continued to announce the good news. St. Paul had an abiding faith and was “convinced that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
As baptized Christians we too should share St. Paul’s certainty. In the uncertainty of our very human lives, we share the certainty of God’s love for each of us. Because of this all-encompassing love, we can, like St. Paul declare, “all this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it” (1 Cor. 9:23).
Compassionate God,
when we cry out to you
in our weariness, our sorrow and illness,
remember how your Son too
called on you in his suffering unto death.
Keep us from shutting ourselves up in self-pity
and strengthen us in the conviction
that you are to be found in our pain
as well as in our joys,
and that you always care for us
through him who showed us how much you loved us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
