13/01. Wednesday, Week 1

1. 1Samuel 3:1-10

2. Gospel:Mark1:29-39

The cure of Simon's Mother-in-law

Dear brothers and sisters in our today's gospel we hear Jesus curing Peter's mother-in -law. Clearly this is the fact that the disciples of Jesus freely bring their hardships and afflictions to Him simply because they find Him ready and able to deal with any difficulty, afflictions or sickness which they encounter.

One of the reasons why Jesus cures Peter's mother-in-law can be because He knew from the bottom of His heart how He feels about His own mother, Mary. He feels what the wife of Simon Peter feels because He is a human being like us.

It quite obvious that when most of us are depressed or have a problem, we look for someone who can understand us; someone who can appreciate how we feel; sharing our own experience with someone who has gone through a similar experience like our own. That is why Jesus is born in order to feel also what we feel, to experience what we experience, to talk to Him and to share with Him our own feelings and hurts.

However, some of us come to Jesus in prayer because they want something from Him, rather than they come to Him because they love Him. We want to use Jesus to promote our personal growth and welfare.  Our relationship with God becomes tragic when we regard Him as a spare tire. All of us are aware that the spare tire is unnoticed until a vehicle gets a flat tire on the road. Likewise, some people seem to forget God when life is quite fine and pleasant, however they ask God to remember them when there are storms and problems in life. Some people tend to forget God during the day, but they ask God to remember them at night. If such is the case, religion to such people is simply a crisis affair. 

God is not someone to be used  in days of misfortune. He is someone to be loved and remembered everyday of our lives. In good moments and bad moments God is to be loved and served

Are we ever ready to express our gratitude to what Jesus has done for us? Let us put on the personality of our Lord Jesus Christ by giving both spiritual and physical healing to our brothers and sisters asking our assistance.

Let us  commit ourselves totally to our calling

In life there is what we may call uninterrupted expectation, as we can see in today's gospel, Jesus after preaching in the synagogue, he retires quietly to Peter's home and unexpectedly he finds Peter's mother-in-law in bed with a fever. How normal it was for Jesus to notice her illness; yet is never present just as a spectator. He went over to her and grasped her hand  and helped her up,  "and the fever left her." This is simply because Jesus was always moved to attend the needs of others. It is the same calling that we should be touched by the needs of others as Jesus Himself was touched by the need to cure Peter's mother-in-law. 

Despite of interruptions in our journey of faith and vocations, yet life has to go on because life is never the same every day. The practical example to this is Jesus act of curing Peter's in-law and then afterwards He did not end His mission there, rather He had to move on to the neighbouring villages to preach. " for that is what I have come to do." Like Samuel, Jesus was sent to God's work. Moreover, God expects us also to be faithful to our Christian calling; to take decisions that can be reached only by prayer and reflection. Let our own experience be not too distant from Jesus' own experience of life.