05/02/2024
FIFTH SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME: PRAYER AND WORK
On the nth Sunday in Ordinary Time (b), the Liturgy of the Word invites us to follow Jesus in Prayer and in Loving service.
1. LITURGY OF THE WORD
First Reading, Job 7:1-4, 6-7. The Book of Job is a book on suffering as part of life- of every person's life. In the Old Testament, except in the last books, suffering is a sign of sin: health and wealth are considered blessings of God. The life of Job proves that suffering is also part of a just man's life. In today's narrative, called The Lamentation of Life (Taedum vitae), 166 laments his miserable existential situation (he has lost his material possessions, his children and his health); his situation is made more miserable because then, there was not yet hope in heaven. Job is a type of the Lord Jesus, the Suffering Servant, for whom - and for us suffering is a suffering in hope – hopeful suffering: Good Friday ends up in the resurrection. Thus, Jesus teaches us to be detached, for we are on the way to God to heaven. What matters is to be patient and trust in the Lord.
Second Reading, I Cor 2:1-5. St. Paul tells the Corinthians of his ministry: "The proclamation of the Gospel. He is totally committed to it. His payment? His passionate love for and fidelity to his call, a call to preach the
News of Jesus, especially to the gentiles or pagans. The Apostle of the Gentiles tells us in his Letter to the Colossians (Col 3:23) "What you do, do it with your whole soul," in our words and deeds, in our preaching, we try to imitate Paul by trying always to announce the good news of salvation of Jesus with zeal and enthusiasm: the fire of preaching is charity and its flame, zeal - according to St. Francis de Sales.
The Holy Gospel, Mark 1-29-39. We all plan- have to plan – our life: our long-term goals, our intermediate goals, and our daily goals. In the Holy Gospel for his Sunday, St. Mark, the evangelist, narrates to us a day in the life of Jesus. The Lord starts the day by praying - as a human being – alone with God, for strength for the day's work: serving all, healing (the mother-in-law of Peter and many others) and preaching the Gospel of salvation with authority and compassion; and finally, he ends the day with solitary prayer, too. (He also prayed publicly with the community - he went to the Synagogue).
He is the example and model to follow by serving others (like Peter's mother-in-law, who answers her healing with service), by healing and announcing the Good News through good deeds and words, and by beginning and ending every day with prayer, the fountain of our strength.
2. MEDITATION AND OUR RESPONSE
Like the disciples, (1) we go to Jesus in prayer to examine our relationship with the Blessed Trinity and to ask for his help because we believe in him, and without him, we can do nothing. We take to God through Jesus in the Spirit, the needs of the people.
Like Our Lord, we have to pray always, and like him, we begin every day with prayer. Through Jesus in the Spirit, we go to God the Father: in the depth of our soul in solitary meditation, in common prayer, in the Eucharist, in the poor. We go to God to ask for his grace, the grace we need every day to be
faithful to our work, to our brothers and sisters - to the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Eucharist is the unique event in which we ask God through Jesus in the Holy Spirit to give us the water we need for the day, for every day: "Give us this day our daily bread."(Not only asking for my bread but our bread: mine and yours, and especially for bread for those who have no bread and with whom we have to share our bread - according to our possibilities and freely).
We go to Jesus (2) to learn from him. The Lord keeps telling us to imitate his way of life his loving service to others. The authentic meaning of our life is to serve others in love: "To live is to love." ("In the evening of life-[of every day]- we shall be examined on love").
To live for us is to love. To be able to walk, we need one love with two feet: one foot, the love of God, and the other foot, love of neighbor. This love is the only thing that will accompany us when we die. For us Dominicans, this double love is expressed in our motto: contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere: to contemplate, that is, to meditate on God's word, and to give to others the fruits of our prayerful contemplation, that is, to preach the Good News of Jesus by our deeds and words.
(3) Furthermore, we go to Jesus to learn that authentic prayer is deeply connected with good work: "Prayer with no good works is not effective... For he who on the day of the last judgment will reward good works and almsgiving, today also listens favorably to prayers which come from good deeds." (St. Cyprian). St. Augustine reminds us: Your prayer is like a conversation. When you read, God is talking to you; when you pray, it is you who are talking to him.
In this Holy Eucharist, we are asked to pray for others for all those in need; to pray for peace in our warring world. particularly the urgent needs of the day – the need of peace the end of war, in which all lose, because hatred increases and personal, national and international selfishness increases. May the Lord soften the hardened hearts of the leaders in our world!
Through the coming week (the last week of Ordinary Time before Lent), let us offer to God some personal sacrifices - for peace in our hearts, in our families and communities, and in the world. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with each one of us.