Saturday, February 7, 2015

5th Ordinary Sunday, Year B, 08.02.2015

Job 7:1-4, 6-7 / 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23 / Mark 1:29-39

Life would be very much easier if there is always someone to solve our problems.

We just have to dump our problems with that person and then just wait for solutions. Life would be so easy for us then.

There is a sports equipment company that has this slogan “Just do it”. Our slogan would be “Get someone else to do it”.

Children would get their parents to do it, when it comes to homework (that’s called outsourcing). Older siblings would get their younger siblings to do it, when it comes to housework (that’s called bullying).

And when we get our colleagues to do it, it’s called “arrowing”.

Maybe that’s why at meetings, we try to keep our heads as low as possible so as to avoid getting arrowed.

To be arrowed and burdened with other people’s problems can rather frustrating and annoying.

As Job says in the 1st reading “life is but a burden”, “nothing more than pressed service”, “no better than hired drudgery”.

It is certainly very frustrating when you have to solve other people’s problems, and there’s no one to solve your problems.

Oh yes, life is full of problems and we will always be looking for that “go-to” person to dump our problems with and then wait for solutions.

In the gospel, we can see who that “go-to” person is. He is none other than Jesus. 

On leaving the synagogue, He went to the house of Simon and Andrew and there they told Him about Simon’s mother-in-law who was down with fever.

And so Jesus went to her and took her by the hand and helped her up and the fever left her.

Then that evening after sunset, they brought to Him all who were sick and those possessed by devils.

In fact the whole town came crowding round the door and He solved problem after problem, curing those who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another and casting out devils.

Those problems were bad news, but Jesus turned them into Good News.

Just as out of chaos, creation came forth, then out of bad news will come forth Good News.

There is a story of a famous tennis player who trained hard for the championship.

But unlike other famous players, he lived simply and even took public transport.

Because he trained hard, he won the championship and the $10 000 prize.

As he walked to the bus-stop with the prize money, a woman went up to him, crying, saying that she has a sick dying child and she needed $10 000 to save her dying child.

Without a word, the tennis player gave her his $10 000 prize money.

A week later, the tennis player was at a café and a news reporter went up to him and asked him if he had given a woman $10 000, and he said yes.

The reporter then told him that he has bad news for him. The woman does have a child but the child is not sick nor dying.

The tennis player asked, “Really?”  The reporter said, “Yes, really. You had been cheated!” (guess what happens next?)

The tennis player said, “I mean is it really true that her child is not sick nor dying?”

And the reporter replied, “Yes, the child is not sick nor dying.”

Then the tennis player said, “Thanks be to God! That’s the best news I’ve heard all week.”

That’s certainly good news, as long as we can look beyond that $10 000.

The point in the story is that the bad things in life can open our eyes to the good things we weren’t paying attention to before.

But in order to see the good things and to see the Good News, we need to heed what Jesus is telling us – Come to Me all you who find life weary and burdensome and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)

Jesus Himself knew the weariness and burdens of life, and we heard in the gospel that in the morning, long before dawn, He got up and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. 

It was prayer that made the difference, the difference of turning bad news into Good News, the difference of turning problems into solutions.

To end off, let us listen to this short poem called “The Difference”.

I got up early one morning and rushed right into the day. I had so much to accomplish that I didn't have time to pray.

Problems just tumbled about me, and heavier came each task. "Why doesn't God help me?" I wondered. He answered, “You didn't ask." 

I wanted to see joy and beauty, but the day toiled on, gray and bleak. I wondered why God didn't show me. He said, "But you didn't seek.” 

I tried to come into God's presence. I used all my keys at the lock. God gently and lovingly chided, "My child, you didn't knock." 

I woke up early this morning and paused before I entered the day. I had so much to accomplish that I had to take time to pray.

So let us not tell God how great our problems are, but let us tell our problems how great God is.

Then problems will turn into solutions, and bad news will turn into Good News.