V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
WOE IS ME IF I DO NOT PREACH
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
The readings for this Sunday are a strong invitation to evangelize. To evangelize is to announce joyfully the Good News, to transmit Jesus Christ to those who do not know him. St. Paul affirms: “Woe to me if I do not preach!”
The Holy Father, Pope Francis last year gave us a very rich document called “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel) and it is a strong challenge to announce the Gospel with the joy of living in the grace of God. To transmit Jesus Christ, alive, glorious, full of mercy and goodness. Not a dead God, nor a God that sits as judge to give out sentences of punishments. The Pope affirms: “In our day Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new challenges to the Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called to take part in this new missionary “going forth”. Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call…” (EG 20)
In the passage from the Gospel this Sunday, which is pretty short, we find a description of an ordinary day for Jesus Christ, who makes it extraordinary. We should note in this passage that Jesus has close friends, he is not a solitary man: “Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.” Jesus Christ had been to the house of Peter’s mother-in-law many times according to biblical scholars; that was the house where Jesus stayed when he was in the region of Galilee. So in that sense he did not need company because he had already been there and knew a lot of people there. But it shows us the value of friendship. Jesus Christ comes to each house not as simply a guest, but rather because he wants to come in to our problems as well, he cares because that is how he becomes Emanuel, God with us. For this reason when he enters they tell him: “Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.” This is God’s presence among us. Can you imagine having Jesus in the middle of your house? At the same time as he heals, he frees. If we pay attention to this passage we discover the way Jesus acts: he comes closer, takes her hand and raises her up. It is a process of salvation. To come closer and come down to the level of the one who is down; to take their hand, a gesture more meaningful than many words; and raise them up, which has a very profound sense of Christology related to the resurrection. That is how Jesus acts.
I was given a small book that has helped me learn how to treat people, even children, here in the U.S., who cannot receive communion. They come forward to receive spiritual communion and the minister says: “may you receive Jesus in your heart.” And when it is children, I kneel down to their level and what joy it is to see these children with much faith receiving Jesus Christ from such a young age.
Jesus’ activity is very intense; to the point the he needs support: his intimate relationship with his Father God. As busy as he is, as urgent as his preaching and attending to the needy is, as strong as the controversies are, there is always time to give first priority to prayer and his relationship with God his Father: “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” How much time in a day do we dedicate to prayer?
The mission of Jesus is to preach, to give testimony, to announce the Gospel, which is the Good News. We are to announce it to all people, all nations, but above all to the poor and needy. Today it is urgent that every Christian be fully aware of being an evangelizer and that bringing Jesus to homes, testifying that Jesus is alive and present, frees and heals.
God our merciful Father, who in your Son you gave us a savior, help us to be able to testify to the light, the truth and life itself which is your Son, and so with the presence of Christ in our lives and in our homes, we may grow in faith and in service and may our community grow as well. Amen.