“When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all
who were ill or possessed…” (Mark 1:32)
If you came today and only hear or paid attention to the
first reading from Job, you would walk out of church simply depressed. Listen to the cry of Job at the beginning and
end of the reading: “Is not man’s life
on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of hirelings?...My days are swifter
than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my
life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.” (Job 1:1,6-7)
Pretty depressing, right? As with
all passages from Sacred Scripture, you have to read them within a greater
context. The first reading only
illustrates for us that for the people of the Old Testament life without Christ
had no meaning, no purpose, and no fulfilling or happy goal. Job is full of hopelessness because
everything had been taken away from him andin our lives, we know people that
have the same attitude as Job. We all
know a Debbie Downer or two who sees life as half empty instead of half
full. These are people that bring us
down and do not dare to hope. As
Christians, we are a people of hope. We
are a people that see beyond the darkness of this world and dare to dream of a
life, a society, a world filled the peace, love and joy of Jesus Christ.
The people that were following Jesus in today’s gospel
recognized that there was Hope. That is
why they brought the sick to Him. This
is what jumped out at me when reading this gospel yesterday: the people brought the sick to Jesus. The ill and possessed in Jesus’ time were
people without hope. They were
ostracized from society, not taken care of, and yet the followers of Jesus laid
them at his feet. They brought hope to
the hopeless. We are called to do the
same. Scratch that! We are obligated
to do the same. If we listen carefully
to the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians in the second reading: “If I preach
the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast, for an obligation has been
imposed on me (1 Cor 9:16).” Paul
recognizes the urgency to proclaim the gospel, to proclaim the hope that Jesus
brings and he concludes by saying “and woe to me if I don’t preach it!” Yet obligation is a word we don’t like. We’ve been conditioned by society to do as we
please, to do what makes us happy not considering the consequences of our
actions. Obligations are tedious,
burdensome, and get in the way of happiness.
But this particular obligation leads to pure joy. There is no greater joy than to bring a
friend who has given up hope to Jesus and watch their hearts be
transformed. There is no greater joy
than to watch the ill be healed, to watch those possessed by the demons of
addiction and vice be liberated by Christ.
This obligation to preach the gospel truly brings us pure joy.
This is why we need to start being more proactive on
filling that empty seat next to you, on filling this church as it deserves to
be filled, and on approaching those who have no hope and offering them the hope
of Jesus Christ. Notice a great line in
the middle of the gospel: “The whole town was gathered at the door (v33).” This should be our church! This obligation falls on all of us. So many are hurting. So many are lost. So many are possessed and seduced by the
hedonistic pleasures of this world. I
sometimes look at my kids that I have had in youth group and school over the
years navigating through a soulless, hopeless, drug-infected, over-sexualized,
amoral, “anything goes” world and I know they are not happy. Some of them claim to be, but I don’t buy
it. Which is why I still look at them
with hope-filled eyes. I still nudge
them towards Jesus. Still pray for
them. Still try to get them to see the
joy I have in my heart and the hope that fuels me every single day. We need to bring them to Jesus. He is the reason for our hope. He is the cause of our joy. He is what will fill a Job-like hopeless soul
with pure life. As one of my 7th
graders is fond of saying: “Y’all Need Jesus!”
