What weighs you down?
Often, it’s a problem of vision: our ability to perceive things clearly is
restricted by the burdens we bear, the difficulties we face. And yet, God’s grace surrounds us. Job had been prosperous, faithful, in right
relationship with God. And then terrible
calamities start to occur: he loses his
house, his children, his livestock, his health. Through it all, however, Job remains
faithful, trusting in God, though he does experience moments of despair like
the one we hear this week. Through a
series of powerful images, we feel Job’s pain:
he believes his life is like the
wind; he can’t control, guide, or see it.
And so he is filled with
restlessness until the dawn.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the bigger picture, the truth beyond the
tangible… And yet the Lord is there to
see us through, as Job will shortly learn.
In Mark's Gospel, when Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, he is removing her,
too, from the grip of all that weighs her down; he lifts her so that she can be
whole again. Indeed, in his healing
ministry, Jesus releases many from whatever holds them back, yet often they
still don’t see clearly. They are now
free to serve, free from constraint, free from what stood in the way of their
experience of the fullness of God’s love.
Paul has experienced similar healing at Jesus’ hands, and thus he too is
free to serve – it’s not a question of whether or not he will proclaim the Good
News, but how he will do so. And so he
shares the vision of the healing Christ with the Corinthians – he heals the brokenhearted and binds up
their wounds (Psalm 147) – hoping they, too, will come to praise the Lord, to sing praise to our God.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle
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