10th January >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies for Today's Mass Readings (Mark 1:29-39) for Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘Everybody is looking for you’. (2024)

10th January >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies for Today's Mass Readings (Mark 1:29-39) for Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘Everybody is looking for you’.

Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Mark 1:29-39He cast out devils and cured many who were suffering from disease.

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.

In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.

Gospel (USA)Mark 1:29-39Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases.

On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. 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.

When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left and 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.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

Reflections (6)

(i) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s first reading, the young Samuel heard a call, but it took the older Eli to help Samuel discern that the call was coming from the Lord. We sometimes need others, people more experienced in the spiritual life than ourselves, to help us discern the call of the Lord in our lives. Eli fulfilled the very important ministry of enabler. He enabled Eli to recognize the way that the Lord was calling him. In the gospel reading, we find Jesus getting up long before dawn and going off to a lonely place to pray. He may have been trying to discern the call of God in his own life. Having ministered in Capernaum, where should he go now? It seems that after his prayer, he was clear to him that, as he said to his disciples, he had to go to ‘the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came’. However, whereas Eli acted as an enabler in Samuel’s life when it came to God’s call, Jesus’ own disciples acted as disablers in Jesus’s life when it came to God’s call. They wanted to drag him back to Capernaum to minister there, when Jesus was clear that God was calling him to go to other towns to preach the gospel. We may be fortunate enough to encounter an Eli in our lives who helps us to discern God’s call. We can also encounter the equivalent of the disciples who try to take us in directions that are contrary to where God is calling us to go. We need to pray for the grace to know who is helping us to answer the Lord’s call and who is hindering us from answering his call. We also need to ask the Lord to help us to play the role of Eli in the life of others rather than the role of the disciples in the life of Jesus in today’s gospel reading.

And/Or

(ii) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In the first part of the gospel reading this morning, people bring Jesus to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who was in bed with a fever, in Capernaum. In the second part of the gospel people bring all who were sick in Capernaum to Jesus. In both cases people mediated between Jesus and those who needed him. We can see in that an image of our own calling to bring Jesus to others and to bring others to Jesus. The Lord looks to all of us to mediate between himself and others. If the Lord is to get his work done, he needs all of us. In the third part of the gospel reading, Jesus’ disciples try to bring Jesus back to Capernaum. ‘Everyone is looking for you’, they said. Yet, on this occasion, Jesus refused to go with them, because he had other places to visit, ‘Let us go elsewhere’, he said. Yes, people could bring Jesus to others and bring others to Jesus, but they were not in control of him. Jesus was subject only to his heavenly Father, and his disciples had to learn to submit to him, to go after him, rather than insisting that he go after them. That too is an important part of our calling. We need to yield to what the Lord wants to do and is doing; we are not in control or in charge of the Lord’s work. Rather we try to allow the Lord to do his work in and through us. It remains his work rather than ours. It is above all in prayer that we attend to the Lord of the work, so that we can do the work of the Lord.

And/Or

(iii) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Both readings this morning remind us in different ways that we need others to lead us to the Lord. In the first reading, Samuel was being called by the Lord but he did not recognize that it was the Lord who was calling him. It was Eli, who was much older than Samuel, who recognized that it was the Lord who was calling Samuel, and so he told Samuel what to say in response to the call he was hearing. He was to say, ‘Speak Lord your servant is listening. Eli helped Samuel to meet the Lord; he mediated between the Lord and Samuel. We find something similar happening in the gospel reading. Simon Peter’s mother in law was in bed with a fever. Other people in the house where she was lying told Jesus about her, and, as a result, Jesus came to her and healed her. These people, again, made it possible for this ill woman to experience the healing presence of Jesus; they mediated between her and the Lord, as Eli had mediated between Samuel and the Lord. All of us have a similar calling; we are called to bring each other to the Lord, and the Lord to each other. The Lord continues to need people to mediate between him and others. Every day we will be given opportunities to do just that.

And/Or

(iv) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

There are two quite different activities of Jesus presented in this morning’s gospel reading. The first is the activity of healing. Jesus heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law in the house of Simon and Andrew by taking her by the hand and lifting her up, and then goes on to heal many sick people who were brought to the door of the house. This healing activity of Jesus is very public and is greatly appreciated by everyone; the whole town came crowding around the door, according to Mark. The second activity of Jesus is quite different. It is much more private. In the morning, long before dawn, Jesus goes out by himself to a lonely place to pray. Whereas Jesus’ public activity of healing the sick was much appreciated by all, this second activity of going off by himself to pray is not appreciated by others. Even those closest to him didn’t think much of it. Peter, the leading disciple, rebukes Jesus, ‘Everybody is looking for you’, as much as to say, ‘Why are you wasting time out here on your own’. Yet, Jesus knew that the source of his life-giving work was his relationship with God, which is nurtured in his prayer. The activity of prayer was even more important to him than his activity of healing. Prayer is as necessary for us as it was for Jesus. We need the Lord if we are to live as he desires us to live and if we are to share in some way in his work. In prayer we acknowledge and give expression to our dependence on the Lord; we open ourselves to the Lord’s life-giving presence so as to be channels of that presence to others.

And/Or

(v) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading we have the first clash in Mark’s gospel between Jesus and his disciples. After a very busy day healing the sick in Capernaum, Jesus withdrew to a lonely place for a time of prayer. Whereas people greatly appreciated Jesus’ healing ministry and wanted more of it, they didn’t seem to appreciate his going off on his own to find time and space for prayer. Jesus’ own disciples didn’t seem to appreciate this either because Simon Peter and his companions went out in search of him and when they found him they rebuked him saying, ‘Everybody is looking for you’, as much as to say, ‘What are you doing out here on your own when there are so many needy people in Capernaum looking for you’. Jesus, however, did not go back to Capernaum, in spite of the pressure put upon him. After his prayer, he went on to other villages and towns. Activity is often more appreciated than prayer; that is true of our own time as much as it was of Jesus’ time. Yet, Jesus shows us that the kind of activity which is an expression of God’s work must always be rooted in prayer. In prayer we open ourselves to God’s activity, and that helps to ensure that our activity is in harmony with God’s desire for ourselves and for others.

And/Or

(vi) Wednesday, First Week in Ordinary Time

We relate to people in a whole variety of ways and, likewise, we relate to God in a whole variety of ways, which is why our prayer can take a great variety of forms. Prayer links both of today’s readings. The prayer of listening comes to the fore in today’s first reading. God was trying to speak to young Samuel but Samuel had not yet come to recognize the voice of God. He needed the elderly priest Eli to help him become attuned to God’s voice more fully. Eli was a kind of spiritual companion to Samuel, helping him to articulate a prayer of listening, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening’. Eli’s suggested prayer to Samuel is a prayer we could all make our own today. It is a very good way of beginning a time of silent prayer during which we try to open ourselves to what the Lord may be saying to us through his word. The gospel reading describes a day in the life of Jesus. Having spoken in the local synagogue of Capernaum, he goes to the house of Simon Peter a short distance away to heal his mother in law, and the house then becomes a focal point for a healing ministry that extended into the evening. Hopefully after some rest, Jesus then goes off on his own to a lonely place just before dawn to pray. We are not told how he prayed, but it is likely that the prayer of listening was central to his prayer time. When Simon Peter and his companions went looking for him to bring him back to Capernaum, Jesus was very clear that this was not what God was asking him to do. Rather, having listened to God in prayer, he knew that he had to go to the neighbouring towns to preach the gospel there too. Prayer helped Jesus to discern what God was asking of him, which often clashed with what others wanted him to do. Our prayer of listening will help to give us too the clarity and the conviction to take the path the Lord is asking is asking us to take today.

Fr. Martin Hogan.