Feb 7, 2021 - 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
(Jb 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Cor 9:16-19,22-23; Mk 1:29-39)
Have you ever felt as depressed and despondent as Job? In our first reading he is presented as being “without hope.” He says he shall not see happiness again. But having feelings of hopelessness is not necessarily a sign of a faulty spiritual life. Faith can influence our emotional and physical health, but we cannot assume that because someone is sick, they have sinned. Job is also presented to us as someone who is faithful and pleasing to God, as we see in the conversation between God and Satan. When we feel really down and depressed, let us not compound our problems by assuming estrangement from God. Let us continue to call out to him from the depths of our despair as we do from the heights of our elation, trusting in His love.
In today's Gospel Jesus cures many people, both physically by curing disease and spiritually by driving out demons. Then after a busy day of healing he goes off alone to pray. After prayer he tells his disciples they need to move on to another town. From this we can learn that healing is an important Christian ministry, and that no matter how busy we are, prayer is an important part of our life. It is so important that even Jesus, the Son of God and consubstantial with the Father, felt the need for prayer in the midst of other pressing and important concerns. How much more, then, would it be important for us adopted sons and daughters? The fact that Jesus announces the decision to go to other towns after prayer suggests that prayer helped him arrive at that decision. It can help us in our decisions, too.