Job 7:1-4, 6-7 / 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23 / Mark 1:29-39
Human beings are weak and fragile. No matter how strong we are, we are not super beings.
No matter how high a position or status we have in society, we are not indispensable.
We are mere flesh and blood, and we can succumb to illness and diseases.
And emotionally, we can be discouraged from failures, and hurt and suffer from arguments and criticisms.
Some days we are up and about, other days we are down and out. And we are also aware that we can be here today and suddenly be gone tomorrow.
Such is the fragility and the unpredictability of life, and we also lament that happiness is so short-lived, while sadness is so prolonged.
In the 1st reading, what Job said may probably express some of our thoughts: Is not man's life on earth nothing more than pressed service, his time no better than hired drudgery? Like the slave sighing for the shade, or the work man with no thoughts but his wages.
That reflection could possibly express the stark and blunt reality of our lives.
And if that is not pessimistic enough, there is something else that we have to face and struggle with.
And that is the scourge of sickness and diseases.
There is no guarantee that we will not succumb to anything from aches and pains, to health issues and life threatening diseases.
All this sounds dark and depressive, but that is the reality of life.
Today's Gospel passage also reminds us of this reality of life.
But the gospel gives us hope in the face of this dark and gloomy reality of life.
Jesus went about in His ministry of healing and deliverance. He cured Peter's mother-in-law of her fever, and those who are sick and possessed by devils were brought to Him.
Jesus cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another, and He also cast out many devils.
The gospel shows the human need for comfort and healing being fulfilled by divine power and love.
But the gospel also tells us a deeper aspect of life, and that is the power of prayer over the reality of human need.
Jesus went off early in the morning to a lonely place to pray.
It is in prayer that Jesus is empowered and strengthened in His mission of proclaiming the Good News through healing and deliverance.
And that reminds us of this: Life is fragile handle with prayer.
When the fragility of life is exposed by sickness and diseases, then prayer is the remedy and the necessity.
More than just a remedy, prayer brings us to understand one of the fundamentals of our faith, and that is redemptive suffering.
Redemptive suffering is what we see on the Cross.
Jesus suffered and even died to save us.
Jesus called us to carry our cross and to follow Him as His disciples.
When we face our cross of sickness, diseases and suffering, we too must follow what Jesus did.
Just as Jesus went off early in the morning to a lonely place to pray, we too must pray.
And just as Jesus was empowered and strengthened to continue His mission, we too will receive divine power in our human weakness.
That divine power will help us to understand what is redemptive suffering.
That divine power will also give us hope that with our prayer, our suffering will lead us to salvation.
And that is what the Cross promises us:
That by His suffering and death on the Cross Jesus will heal us and save us.