The Gospel story about Jesus making a house call to Peter’s mother-in-law reminded me of a story about a nun working in a rural area for a home health care agency. Her car stalled, out of gasoline. Luckily there was a gas station in walking distance. The nun looked for something to fill with gas. In her health care supplies was a bedpan. She filled it with gas, then walked back to her car.
Two Baptists walking by saw her pour from the bedpan into the tank, and one said: "If that car starts, I'm definitely becoming a Catholic.”
Yes: it's amazing the ways we can influence people.
The Word of God brings us to one of the masterpieces in the wisdom literature of Ancient Israel: the Book of Job. Scholars describe this book as a poetic drama dealing with the mystery of suffering and evil and offering no easy answers. As the legend begins, Job has everything he could want. Gradually he loses everything and ends up on a dung heap, taunted by former friends.
Job asks: How could this happen to me? But the better question might be, how will I respond? Then God speaks to Job in a whirlwind. God doesn’t answer Job’s questions: Why do bad things happen to good people? He simply lets Job experience God’s awesome presence in a mystical way.
There is no satisfactory answer to the mystery of suffering.
Nonetheless, our faith in Jesus, risen, alive, among us, proclaims that suffering and death are not the final reality; new life and resurrection are. Meantime, Jesus challenges us to fight against suffering, to heal, console, forgive and create compassionate communities where people can experience responsible freedom, fairness, peace, and opportunity.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Corinth describes his one passion in life: proclaiming the Good News, evangelizing. That energized Paul. And the question for us is: what energizes us? Where do we find purpose? In family? Work? Service? Friends or music or reading or nature or sports? Probably in all of these and more.
In the Gospel, Jesus makes a house call to Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus heals her. Townspeople suddenly appear at the house, with their sick ones. Jesus works signs and healings and exorcisms that signal the in-breaking of the kingdom of God.
Imagine if we were at Capernaum that day; what so called demon or addiction or character flaw (e.g., greed, lying, prejudice, alcohol or drugs) would we ask Jesus to drive out of us?
The Risen Christ, by virtue of the waters of baptism, empowers each of us to choose our better self: to give our time and talent for others. That is what our baptismal calling is all about. Every one of us has gifts or talents that can “build up” other people.
It often seems our culture is celebrity-driven, but people like Patrick Mahomes or Serena Williams are not the only ones with talents. You and I have special gifts or talents by virtue of our baptism.
Within Christian life there are many splendid vocations or callings. Father or mother, teacher or student, doctor or lawyer, business person or artist, whoever you are, you have a specific calling: to give your time and talents for others, to do the right thing, by being an example. We possess the power to believe, to hope and to love.
What makes us a missionary disciple of Jesus is the Spirit of God within us. Oh, personality can be a blessing. But more importantly the Spirit of God works through us as we are. The Spirit illumines our mind to know the way we should behave, and strengthens us to behave in that way despite obstacles. The Spirit gives us gifts: “love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and discipline.”
That Spirit empowers us to help others become more human, more godlike, in our relationships.
close with a little reflection or prayer that sums up a few of these goals:
Fortunate are the persons,
Who in this life can find,
A purpose that can fill their days
And goals to fill their mind.
For in this world there is a need,
For those who’ll lead the rest,
To rise above the “average’ life,
By giving of their best!
Will you be one, who dares to try
When challenged by the task,
To rise to heights you’ve never seen,
Or is that too much to ask?
May each of us realize that the purpose in life is to make a difference for the better by giving our best in service to one another, by always seeking the greater common good. Amen.
