Homily Fifth Sunday Year B Response to encounter
Homily Fifth
Sunday Year B
Reading 1:
We can possibly relate to Job’s negative attitude about life in general and his
life in particular. At times, life does feel like a drudgery: months of misery,
restlessness, hopeless and helpless feelings, without much happiness.
Job has lost
everything: material possessions and personal relationships. He is afflicted
with multiple sores and scabs on his body that causes great pain. Basically, he
wants to die. But the real reason for
Job’s disposition is he feels totally innocent and he blames God for his
situation. He wants God to justify why he has caused Job to suffer all these
calamities. In spite of his distressful life there is pride and arrogance in
Job. He is right and God is wrong. God owes him a justification. Have you ever
felt this way?
Eventually,
in his confrontation with God, Job experiences the truth. He is not God. He
will never fathom the mind of God. All he could do is to surrender himself to
God’s plan for him, in order to experience true happiness again.
Life is not
a drudgery but a mystery. We are not the beginning, nor end, nor the center of
life. God is. Difficulties are part of human life because of the sin of Adam and
Eve. But Jesus became like us in all things except sin to show us the truth of
life in God.
Gospel: Life
involves encounters. Some encounters are transformative, others destructive.
But it was an encounter with Jesus that has made a difference for Simon,
Andrew, James and John. They left their
former way of life as fishermen to become disciples of Jesus.
As disciples
they had many experiences that become part of their formation. They witnessed the
power of Jesus to heal many from various illnesses and to deliver others from
the power of Satan over them. Jesus knows that in these various encounters
lives can be changed or remain the same. His mission from the Father was to
preach the Good News of the Father’s love and eventually to offer his life for
the salvation of all.
Many people
came into contact with Jesus. Many experienced his ministry. Not all changed
for the better. Not all became disciples and continued their
transformation. Though they experienced
the same ministry and heard the same saving message, they refused to believe,
accept and act on their decision by becoming disciples.
Have we had
a personal encounter with Jesus that has made a difference in our life? What
has happened to us as a result? Have we become disciples and followers so that
we can grow in our relationship? Have we become convicted by the message of the
Gospel—the cross of Jesus—by which we have been saved to the extent, like Paul,
we must share it with others in the power of the Holy Spirit?
Having received
the healing touch of Jesus, Peter’s mother-in-law began serving him and the
disciples. Others went about proclaiming the mighty deeds of Jesus. Others
defended him at the risk of their lives. What has been our response?
Reading 2:
Paul’s life after his conversion to the person of Jesus Christ was anything but
pleasant and comfortable. He was beaten, imprisoned, stoned, shipwrecked, felt
abandonment, even to the point of despair. He could say with St. Theresa of
Avila: “If this is how you treat your friends, Lord, no wonder you have so few.”
But for Paul,
what or who made the difference in his life was the person of Jesus. Once Paul
came into the light of salvation, he felt compelled to preach Jesus and him
crucified and risen. He was so convicted
that he wrote: “Woe to me if I do not preach it!”
Because of
Jesus and the freedom of faith in Jesus, Paul willingly gave his total self to
reaching out to all, so that at least some would be saved. Once his personal
encounter with Jesus changed his life, Paul could not and would not go about in
the same way as the past. He was convinced that “I live now, not I, but Christ
Jesus in me…. In him I move and live and have my being…I want nothing but to be
conformed to his passion, so I can share in his resurrection.”
How
committed am I to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others in gratitude for
the fact that someone shared it with me? We are not called to be another Paul.
Rather, we are called to be the disciple Jesus has gifted us to be.
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