St James Catholic Church

Job could be the patron saint of drudgery, restless nights, and miserable days.  Every evening he ends his day without hope.  He has no confidence that his life will change.  A couple of weeks ago we heard Jesus call Andrew and Simon.  They abandoned their nets of drudgery and followed him to a brand new life.  Today we see Jesus enter Simon’s mother-in-law’s house, where she lay in bed ill.  His healing touch leads to her new life, a life of ministry to her fellow disciples.  Often we feel as Job did, stuck in a rut and despairing of our misfortune.  May we instead find hope in Christ, as his first disciples did, allowing him to guide us to a life of service, a life with purpose, a life for the kingdom.

Often we just have to learn things by ourselves.  Sometimes it’s because we’re unsure if we can trust the person who is teaching us; sometimes it’s because what we’re told seems unbelievable.  But often it’s because we learn better when we figure it out on our own.  In today’s Gospel, Mark says that Jesus did not permit the demons he drove out to speak “because they knew him.”  Later, we will learn again and again that despite following him for a long time, the disciples still misunderstood who Jesus was.  They only learned little by little over time.  Perhaps Jesus realized he had to wait patiently for his disciples to gradually learn who he was.  What the demons could have revealed would not have enabled true learning.  How do we best learn more deeply about Jesus?

Love, Peace, Joy,

Fr. Bob