Homily Cycle B 2/07/2021, Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/020621.cfm
By many measures 2020 was “a drudgery”, the COVID Pandemic, Election turmoil, violence at home and abroad. In 2020-21 most of us can identify with Job when he says life on earth is a drudgery.
Job reminds us that our time on here on earth is swift whether we live for a day, a year or 100 years. In the grand scheme of things life on earth is brief. Job asked will we “see happiness again?”
In our Responsorial Psalm we are reminded that the Lord “heals the brokenhearted, binds up their wounds … and the Lord is good.” St. Paul teaches us that we are called to preach the Gospel by our actions, by our lives.
That is the best & most important way for us to share the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In today’s Gospel St. Mark tells the story of Jesus healing Peter’s Mother-in-law.
The healing gets our attention but the most important part of today’s Gospel is the call to prayer. Mark provides an important insight into Jesus & what He calls us to do, He … “prayed.”
If it was important for Jesus to pray, it is even more important for us to pray.
The legendary Hall of Fame Hank Aaron recently died, he offered 6 Spiritual Lessons [https://aleteia.org/2021/01/31/6-spiritual-lessons-from-baseball-legend-hank-aaron] for us:
1. Trust in God
2. Acceptance & Self Control
3. Spiritual Reading [Fulton’s Sheen’s The Life of Christ & Thomas a Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ]
4. Self-Sacrifice
5. Guardian Angels
6. Keeping The Sabbath Holy
Jesus came to “change” us, to help us see the obstacles that are distorting our vision.
He came to remind us we are made in God’s image & likeness; He showed us what the image & likeness of God is when full lived.
The Kingdom of God is among us & in us, we need to do our part in making the kingdom visible by our lives.
Maybe this story “Desert Places” can help us move toward 20-20 spiritual vision.
Every week she makes a list: family and friends who are ill or going through some crisis, some news story she read that moved her, a difficult situation in the community in need of God’s grace.
On days when she goes on a run, she takes a small piece of cord & ties a number of knots in it, each knot corresponding to one of things on her prayer list. As she runs, she holds one knot at a time as a reminder of what to pray for, Her “spiritual run” is her “deserted place.”
Most mornings, he’s up first. He makes the coffee while scrolling through his calendar. He pours his first cup of the day — & then he sits in a chair across from the window looking out over their wooded back yard, reviewing the day ahead,
with its challenges & how he will deal with them – thinks about loved ones going through a tough time & wonders how he can help.
Just a quiet time every morning to get his head together & let his heart ramble — that “deserted place” where God speaks to him.
[Connections - From Running: The Sacred Art — Preparing to Practice by Warren A. Kay and The Knitting Sutra: Craft as a Spiritual Practice by Susan Gordon Lydon.]
We need a “deserted place” in our life where we seek God & allow God to be with us.
Eleonore Stump wrote, “To serve God well, a person …. has to do those things that God has called him [her] to do.”
[Sunday website 2/07/2021: https://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdB020721/reflections_stump.html]
Prayer is how we find out what God wants us to do, St. Augustine offered this powerful insight “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
Reflect on your prayer life, are you finding rest in the Lord?
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Saint Andre Bessette intercede for us.
May God Be Praised!
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