Adoration & Bible Study Tonight

The Lord Be With You!

This Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

READING 1 JB 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.

READING 2 1 COR 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.

GOSPEL MK 1:29-39
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.

Reflection
"If I preach the Gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been imposed on me, and woe to me if I do not preach it!" I Corinthians 9: 16

Mark hands us today's topic on a silver platter. It jumps out at us as we proclaim the last paragraph of Sunday's Gospel reading.

The first Evangelist begins his Gospel by describing Jesus' initial days of public ministry (Mark 1:29-39). Jesus starts by announcing God's kingdom is at hand, calls his first four disciples, goes into the Capernaum synagogue where he exorcizes a demoniac, then ends up at Simon's house in time to cure his mother-in-law, and eventually sticks around through the evening when he "cured many who were sick with various diseases and drove out many demons...."

What a beginning! Did you notice this time he made sure not to let the demons speak so as to reveal him, “not permitting them to speak because they knew him”?

No doubt at this point his followers have press conferences set up and TV interviews scheduled. But as we hear at the end of our liturgical passage, Jesus has other plans. "Rising very early before dawn, He left and went off to a deserted place where He prayed."

Jesus Unscripted
It's important to note that throughout his Gospel Mark only has Jesus pray when He's under "messianic stress" - when He's trying to figure out what kind of Messiah He should be.

We can surmise from Mark's Gospel that the historical Jesus wasn't handed a divine script for the next 30 years. Like Job, Paul and all of us, He was expected to work out His own destiny.

Jesus faces a huge temptation that morning. He can go back to Capernaum where "everyone is looking for you," or leave town and preach in "the nearby villages."

If He decides to do the former, He'll probably live a full, rewarding life, dying in bed peacefully with His admiring family and friends gathered round.

If He opts for the latter, He runs the risk of going "one village too far," a village like Jerusalem where He'll stay alive only five days after He enters its gates.

Marcan scholars often remind us that the Greek vocabulary he employs in this passage is only found in one other place in his Gospel: the agony in the garden. The Evangelist implies Jesus had more than one "agony." This is His agony "in the deserted place."

Like all of us, Jesus reaches a point in His life in which He can continue doing "God's work" in a secure, sustaining environment. Yet He agrees to respond to a call to go beyond that peaceful existence. God is calling us as well to this "beyond."

Going Beyond
We especially see some of this beyond in today's I Corinthians passage (9:16-19, 22-23). Paul not only responds to God's call to "preach the gospel," he goes beyond: "When I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge so as not to make full use of my right in the Gospel."

He doesn't ever want anyone to accuse him of "being in it for the money." He deliberately makes himself "weak to win over the weak." Paul's convinced that some will never have the opportunity to be saved if he doesn't go beyond what he's expected to do.

On the other hand, if we do only what's expected of us and no more, we run the risk of identifying with Job (in 7:1-4, 6-7), asking, "Is not our life on earth a drudgery?...If in bed I say, 'When shall I arise?' the night drags on."

We presume both Jesus and Paul discovered that when they chose to go beyond, life was never as secure as it was before, but it certainly wasn't boring.

Join us Thursday @ 7:00PM in Adoration of our risen Lord, then Bible Study following!

THE DUDE ABIDES Jn 15:4
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not want to understand, no explanation is possible.

Jim Krieger
Lay Mystic