HOMILY 5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

HOMILY 5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

BY: Rev Fr Stephen ‘Dayo Osinkoya

Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Ps. 147
1 Cor. 9:16-19, 22-23
Mark 1:29-39

Since my ordination I have had to include in my daily mass and prayer intentions names of friends and family members asking me to pray for them as they were dealing with one illness or the other. Some recovered. I could also remember those who never recovered and have died. I didn’t feel good about their having to die from such illness despite my daily prayers and masses for them. This was also an experience of another priest. When he was first ordained he became a bit overwhelmed by the number of people who approached and asked that he should pray for them or a loved one as they were dealing with an illness. As the list of names included in his daily prayer intentions grew he asked his spiritual director, “Fr., how long am I to continue to pray for these people?” His spiritual director looked at him with a puzzled expression and replied “until they are cured”. “What if they die?” He asked his spiritual director. Without hesitation the priest said – “Then Jesus has cured them.”

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Our first Reading today from the Book of Job expresses some of the feelings we have when our hearts are torn by the difficulties, hurts and sufferings of life. I am sure many of us at one time or the other have felt a little like Job, lamenting about our suffering, misfortune and misery. While Job has a reason for his lamenting, we often do not have any good reason to lament. Because we often look around, lamenting about things we do not have, yet we fail to recognize the good things we have- our family, life, faith and hope.

Job is a man who has lost all optimism. He does not believe that good things are in his
future: “I shall not see happiness again.” A slave, at least, can look forward to resting
in the shade and a hireling will get paid eventually, but Job cannot rest at night, the days run swiftly, but all they lead to are his death. One can endure all kinds of hardship if there is a promise of something good at the end of it. “Even the lowest of men if tempted with the proper reward would climb to the highest heavens.” We need to be optimistic about life on earth and hopeful for reward of life beyond death.

This reward of life beyond death is what Jesus came to proclaim and emphasise, as we see in the Gospel reading of today. In other words, what Jesus Christ came to do is to proclaim the Good News of the kingdom of God, to invite all humankind to let God reign as king in their hearts and in their lives, to reconcile us with God and with one another and be with our creator after our earthly life is ended. During his life on earth Jesus continually worked extraordinary miracles—just as we read in today’s Gospel and as a result so many people were drawn to him, looking for healing. But the interesting thing is that this was not the main purpose of Jesus’ being here.

Of course he was happy to heal the people because he had merciful compassion for them, but primarily he wanted to teach the people and to teach us; to teach us about God and about the reason why we are here. When we think about it all; the people he healed and the ones he brought back to life from the dead, they all eventually got sick again at some stage and died. So we can see that he wanted to teach us that we are loved by God and we are not here by accident; that our life has a purpose and it is going somewhere; that it is worth keeping going, even when we are suffering, and of course above all he came to die for us.

In whatever situation we may find ourselves, do we see the opportunity the situation is offering us or do we dwell on the difficulty of such situations? What helps us shape our attitudes in life is our relationship to Faith, our relationship with God. This relationship with God is what Jesus came to establish and to emphasise. He used his healing ministry to show to the people what much more they stand to gain if they repent and believe in the Gospel, the Good news. Hence, when his disciples found him and said to him, “Every one is searching for you.” He knew they were searching him for the wrong reasons. They were looking for Jesus simply to get what they wanted; they were not so much interested in what Jesus came to give. So he said to his disciples, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.” And St. Paul considers it woe for him (Paul) not to preach the Gospel (Cf. 1 Cor. 9).

From this we see that coming to know God, doing His will, abiding in His glory and allowing His presence to fill our life with His guiding light brings a holistic healing to us. The scripture already says “Seek first the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness, and every other thing shall be added onto you.” Seeking first the kingdom of God above physical healing is important for us because the truth of the Gospel, the Good news gives meaning and purpose to our lives and earthly existence. This meaning and purpose will help us to keep going and not lose heart even in the midst of our suffering.

So my dearly beloved, we shall continue to pray for bodily healing, for it is definitely right for us to do so, but we must not forget that it is actually worth more to keep our hope in God and abide by His commandments. God knows what He is doing with us, we should not be afraid. Like Job, let us keep our trust in God even when our life seems to be marked by pain, doubt and suffering, for Christ himself admonishes us “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Trust in God still and trust in me” (John 14:1).

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