I would venture to say that most of us, if not all of us, have felt, at some time in our life, like we hear of Job in our first reading. Today’s first reading from the Book of Job reminds us of how life can get us down sometimes. I think we can all relate to Job. I’m sure we’ve all had times in our life when nothing seems to be going our way; we feel depressed and we just want to ask, “Why me Lord?” We probably know of other people close to us who have also gone through similar times. And we only have to watch the news to know that many other people are feeling the same way right now; in this time of the pandemic so many people having lost their jobs, or losing their businesses, losing their houses or being evicted from their apartments.
How appropriate it is that we hear this reading today about the terrible losses suffered by Job. He had lost everything. Even his wife and friends turned against him. At the end of the reading, we hear Job exclaim, “I shall not see happiness again”; a thought that many people in today’s world may also have. But there is good news. If you continue reading further into the Book of Job, God at first chastises Job for even presuming to criticize him for all of life’s troubles; but through the grace of God, Job is given a profound insight and he realizes that no, mere, human being can possibly know the depth of God’s knowledge and wisdom or his justice and reasons for why he does what he does. That’s the same for us today. We can’t even fully comprehend God himself. Have you ever tried to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity? So, we certainly can’t understand the extent of his wisdom and reasoning; and why he permits the injustices in today’s world. It’s up to us to simply put our trust in God; that he sees a much bigger picture and knows what’s best for us. If you finish reading out the Book of Job, you’ll hear that Job is eventually rewarded for his repentance, his understanding and acknowledgement of God’s power. He lives out a long, happy and prosperous life.
In today’s Gospel we also hear of great hope amidst pain and suffering. We hear of Jesus’ power of healing for those who come to him. Jesus enters Peter’s house and first cures Peter’s Mother-in law who had a fever. Then that evening, as the Gospel recounts, “they brought to him all that were sick or possessed with demons; and he cured many with various diseases and cast out many demons.” Early the next morning Jesus escapes to a quiet spot to pray, but his disciples track him down and inform him that many more people have gathered with their sick and infirm and that they are looking for him. You might expect Jesus to say, “Great, we’re in business.” But no, instead he says, “Let us go to the neighboring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also. For that is what I came to do.” Proclaim the Message; A message greater than healing the sick? Yes! Jesus came to bring the Good News; and the Good News is not just physical, but spiritual as well; just as the human person is body and soul. But when it comes to the order of priority, the spiritual comes first——– then the material. This order is brought out in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “Seek yee first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
What Jesus came to do, in other words, is to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God, to invite us to let God reign as king in our hearts and in our lives. Much of the sickness, the poverty and suffering that exists in the world is traceable to the state of disharmony or sin that separates us from one another and from God. By healing this root cause of many of our problems, would find ourselves in a better position to receive God’s blessings in all areas of our lives, physical as well as spiritual———moral as well as material. But to try to seek physical healing and material well-being without first making peace with God is to miss the point, like putting the cart before the horse. It doesn’t go well.
This may be what the people of Capernaum tried to do with Jesus that morning in today’s gospel, so Jesus bypasses them and continues to other villages, to proclaim the message. That crowd that gathered that morning did not find Jesus and went home disappointed; perhaps because they were looking for him for the wrong reason. They were looking for Jesus simply to get what they wanted, and not interested in what he came to give. Not that Jesus isn’t interested in our physical and material well-being, he is, but the spiritual must come first.
Like the people of Capernaum, we come to Church on Sunday looking for Jesus. We come with our various problems of soul and body, but to avoid disappointment we must first seek the Kingdom of God that Jesus came to proclaim. When we find the Kingdom of God, then God will see to all the needs of our soul and body.
Within today’s gospel we’re given a couple clues as to how to find the Kingdom of God. First in Peter’s mother-in-law, after being cured by Jesus, she immediately got up and waited on them. We too need to pass on and share the graces that God gives to us. The blessings that we receive from God are not all ours to keep to ourselves. Secondly, we learn from Jesus the importance of prayer. Amidst his busy ministry he got up early in the morning to go to a quiet place to pray. All through the gospel readings we hear of Jesus praying regularly. It was prayer that strengthened Jesus to do what he was called to do. With all the activity and demands on him, it was through prayer that he plugged into God’s power. He knew he had to step away regularly; to be with God the Father in prayer. If Jesus, who lived the perfect human life, needed to pray regularly, what about us stumbling through life? Do we realize that prayer is the connection to the source of power in life—–a connection to God? When we try to live our lives without prayer, we’re not connecting to the power that God offers us; the power to live the kind of life that God wants us to live.
We certainly need to pray, but prayer is not always a matter of talking to God or telling him what we need or would like him to do. If you’re here today to pray for either the Chiefs or the Buccaneers in today’s/tomorrow’s super bowl game, I hate to tell you, but you have the same 50/50 chance of disappointment as everyone else who cares about the outcome. Prayer is more than giving God a list of things we would like him to do. Or, as a certain priest said in a homily a few weeks ago, “Listen Lord, your servant is speaking.” No, it doesn’t quite work that way. Prayer is just spending time with God. It may involve asking for something, or it may involve thanking him for something. Or more importantly it may involve just being still and quiet and listening to what God has to say to us; just spending some quiet and quality time with God, whether that be in Church, at home, or wherever you can give him your full attention. But at the end of our prayer when we say “Amen”, we shouldn’t treat it as though we’re saying “goodbye’, or like we’re hanging up the phone and disconnecting from God; but more like hitting the “pause” button. God is always there to pick back up on the conversation. Prayer should be ongoing; an awareness that God is always there.
Sometimes when we say ‘Amen”, it’s a call to action. We’ve talked to God, we’ve listened to God, we’ve been strengthened and encouraged and are now ready to go on with life; ready to carry on with what God wants us to do. That’s what Jesus did in today’s gospel; he snuck off to pray and then was ready to get on with his mission, telling his disciples, “Let’s go on to the next village so I can preach there.” He followed prayer with action.
Often times we need to follow up our prayers with action. It’s good to pray for those who are sick or in the hospital, but it’s even better if we pray then pick up the phone and call them to let them know we’re thinking of them and ask if there is anything we can do to help. It’s good to pray and ask God to relieve the famine and suffering in the world, but it’s better to pray and ask God to show us how we can help.
Prayer alone is good, and sometimes that’s all we can do, but when our “Amen” can be followed by action, that prayer becomes much more powerful. Not only will God be doing God’s work, but we will be doing God’s work. So, let’s say amen and then go out and live what we pray.
AMEN?