5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Knights of Columbus Board Meeting
Bonita Springs, FL
February 3, 2024
Job amid the Sunshine
Spending these few, entirely pleasant days in the Florida sunshine with fellow members of the family of the Knights of Columbus, it may be a little hard for us to identify with Job’s complaint about the drudgery of life, its slavish routines, its paltry rewards, about life’s brevity, the anxiety it generates, its futility.
These may not have been our first thoughts as we walked along the beach and gazed out under cloudless skies at the Gulf of Mexico. Yet, even if these days provide a temporary respite, at one time or another we have all made Job’s complaint our own. Which is to say, we have all experienced the drudgery of life. We’ve all felt like we’re on the proverbial tread mill. We’ve all been beset by anxiety caused by illness, problems, difficult relationships. We’ve all experienced the evanescence of our hard work and accomplishments.
But, as we know, our experience of anxiety and suffering is but the tip of the iceberg. There are untold numbers of people suffering dreadfully in the world today, suffering in ways that we, despite of our charitable outreach, can scarcely imagine. This suffering humanity is symbolized in the Gospel by the multitudes gathered at the door of Peter’s house, those beset by illnesses and those possessed by demons. They dramatize Job’s complaint and the questions he raises about the meaning and value of life in the face of suffering.
Hastening to Peter’s House
Let us therefore hasten with the crowds to Peter’s house in order to meet Jesus. Jesus had come there with Peter and his brother Andrew where he cured Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, very likely malaria, and where all the townsfolk brought the sick and the possessed to be healed. We now take our place among those townsfolk and their loved ones.
For the Christian response to suffering and meaninglessness is not merely to complain about it – but to bring it to Jesus. That is what Simon Peter did for his mother-in-law. He not only told Jesus about her; he brought Jesus to his house. So too, the sick and suffering of Capernaum gathered outside of Peter’s house because they knew that Jesus was inside. They may not have understood who Jesus was and what his mission was, but his words somehow penetrated their hearts and gave them hope that they could be freed from suffering and the grip of evil.
The message is clear: in the midst of life’s setbacks and even its worst tragedies, we are not to dither, asking where God might be, or why this or that has befallen us. Rather, we are to tell Jesus about our problems, dilemmas, setbacks, and sufferings. Then, we are to welcome the Son of God more fully into our lives, so that he might transform those very things we experience as drudgery, all those things that keep us up at night, all those things that make it difficult for us to get up in the morning. At the hands of Jesus, those very things become the “levers” of God’s grace, crucibles in which we are healed and ennobled in unexpected ways, channels of grace that flood our lives with meaning, purpose, and mission. We have only to think of how God’s glory shines in the darkness, in prison cells, concentration camps, battlefields, hospital wards … confessionals.
With Jesus in Prayer
The Gospel tells us that Jesus rose early the next morning and went to the desert to pray, there to be one in prayer with his heavenly Father. It seems he slipped away, not only from the crowds, but even from his closest followers, from Simon and Andrew, who tracked him down and said on our behalf, “Everyone is looking for you!” And indeed everyone is looking for Jesus, whether they know it or not.
If we would find Jesus, if we would bring to him all that besets us, then we too must go to the desert and pray. Just as Jesus poured out his heart to his heavenly Father, so too we must pour out our hearts to Jesus, confiding to his Sacred Heart our hopes and joys but also our grief and anguish, presenting ourselves daily for his healing touch and his loving gaze.
As we experience Jesus’ love in the power of the Spirit, let us also imitate Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who rose up from her sick bed and began to wait on her guests. In the presence of Jesus, there can be no question of our lingering in self-pity or of our isolating ourselves from the needs of others. Rather, when rise up from our prayer, we, like Blessed Michael are to serve the needs of others, and in so doing proclaim to one and all that the Kingdom of God is at hand. May God bless us and keep us always in his love!