You have within yourself the wellspring of eternal life.

 

Fifth Sunday in OT  B   2021

 

Last Sunday night, I wasn’t able to sleep very well.  I’m experiencing a bit of pain from carpal tunnel syndrome in my left wrist.  And so, I got and trying to make good use of my time, I looked at the Scripture readings for the coming Sunday.  As we heard today, that reading was from of Job.

Job says:  “I have been assigned months of misery and troubled nights have been allotted to me…I shall not see happiness again.”  Now we know from the book of Job.  His family, his possessions and even his own physical well-being are removed.  He lost everything.  Job’s faith was being tested “big time.”

There is a message for us in the test of faith that was given to Job.  Job who had once been the recipient of God’s many blessings in his family and in all of his possessions now sees life with different eyes.  Job now experiences misery and darkness. Job is called to trust in the words of the Psalmist: “Praise the Lord who heals the brokenhearted.”

 Have you found yourself feeling like Job?  Now mind you I am not comparing the bit of pain I was experiencing with the misery of Job.  In fact, God with a sense of humor was telling me to get over it.

In reflecting on the hardship of Job, we sometimes can identify with the suffering and hardship of Job.  We are dealing with Covid-19.  Our way has been turned upside down.  There is much economic uncertainty for many people.  We cannot connect with other people the way we would like.  Sporting events and the theatre are significantly restricted.  There is much to get stressed out about.

How do we deal with the stress?  In these pandemic days, there are many  circumstances that push us to the limit, that stress us out?

But before we feel sorry for ourselves again and totally stressed out, we need to look again at today’s Gospel.  It describes a typical day for Jesus in his public ministry.  The whole town was gathered at the door where Jesus was staying.   He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons.  If we are talking about being very busy, nobody can compare with Jesus. 

Based on our experiences and standards, Jesus must be stressed out.  But was he?  Jesus found a way to experience inner peace.  The source of the inner of peace of Jesus is revealed in the Gospel today:  no matter how busy or exhausted, he would always find time to pray and to be with his Father.  “Rising very early in the morning, he left and went off to a deserted place to pray.” His communion with the Father gave his strength, inspiration and peace.

Prayer was Jesus’ spiritual medication that enabled Him in his public ministry to be so available.  Again, going back to the gospel, after Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law, the Evangelist says:  “The whole town was gathered at the door.”  Talk about availability.  Then Mark tells us Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases.

How did Jesus did with the stress of always being available?  Notice what Jesus did next:  “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”

I recommend your commitment to quiet prayer, just being still in the presence of God.  This will be an inner compass that enables you to continued to be centered – centered in God’s presence – in the midst of the busyness and the stresses of your day.

This I promise – or better, the Lord promises you – will give you an inner compass that focuses us to live in the midst of God’s unending love for you.  As the Lord said to the Samaritan woman in the fourth chapter of John’s Gospel, “You have within yourself the wellspring of eternal life.”  And the power of prayer enables you to access this wellspring of eternal life.

One of the great mysteries of life is that we don’t always claim and value and trust the life of Christ that is within us. 

 Do you the distinction between curing and healing?  While cures aim at returning our bodies to what they were in the past, healing uses what is present to move us more deeply into spiritual wholeness and, in some cases, physical improvement.  A very telling event that spoke to me of the distinction between curing and healing.  This was on the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, I was at the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France.  On this major feast crowd in procession at this most sacred shrine.   There were a considerable number of people being carried on stretchers, people in wheelchairs, people with obvious physical illness.  While I don’t know if there any people physically cured on this day, I witnessed powerful spiritual healing seeing the glow, the joy, the faith of these very sick people who come to seek the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes and experience the healing that Jesus offers to each of them.

In fact, it often is in sickness that the healing begins.  I know a parishioner with a considerable cancer diagnosis who tells her spiritual journey has deepened in the course of her sickness in her desire to place God first in her life.  She is experiencing in abundance the inner healing of her soul even as remains physically sick.

In the Gospel healed those who came to him.  Jesus is ready to heal those in need of healing.  IN your prayer today, what is there within you that you wish to bring to the healing Lord?

Have a Blessed Day.