We are in the first week of Ordinary Time, and after the celebration of Christmas and welcoming the New Year, we enter into the beginning again to reflect on the beginning chapter of the gospel of St. Mark. We are again called to meditate on the ministry of Jesus. In today’s gospel, Jesus begins preaching and driving out demons. The reason why Jesus came is to bring us out from darkness. We are indeed children of God according to the Letter to the Hebrews, for we share the blood and flesh of Jesus. He is with us to destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.
During the time of Jesus, and in our present time, there are people who have the attitude of resistance against God. They are being tortured and have no peace at all. The evangelist Mark presents to us the fragility of man’s heart to corruption and not being disposed to allow Jesus to come into their hearts. Here is the story of the healing ministry which is more powerful than the devil. Jesus can free and liberate those afflicted with the bad spirits and can calm them by the way of His mercy and grace.
Jesus went to the house of Peter and Andrew, maybe to take some time to relax, freeing himself from His busy activities of preaching and healing. However, instead of taking some time to rest, He was called because Peter’s mother-in-law was sick with a fever. Jesus’s heart is to respond when the need arises. He healed her and freed her from sickness, then immediately she was back to normal. The woman got up and started serving a meal to Jesus and other disciples.
When we are cured, we are actually being set to freedom. We need to serve others. The healing of Jesus is unchaining us from the clutches of evil and calling us to love and serve others as well. When healing takes place, we are forgiven from our iniquities and liberated from the attitude of passivity and resistance to God’s grace.
Jesus continues to do His ministry “throughout the whole of Galilee.” This is the urgency of making God known and that He is in our midst. The goodness of God must be known through our good works and unselfish labor for God.
Today’s passage is inspiring in that we can trust Jesus with all our physical challenges and be cured from all our sufferings and sickness. Let the love of God heal us. The more we are restored spiritually and physically, we too are called to serve and love others. May we also become the “wounded healers” for our neighbors.
God bless you.
Fr. Arlon osa
