Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

JESUS HEALS PETER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW
Mk 1:29-39

Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”

A Story

Already Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.

On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on - hour after hour - while millions watched on national television. Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn't much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had . . . until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out. Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reporter, "Look, I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.

Now back to Jesus.

Jesus was curing people left and right. People were flocking to him in droves. He had become famous. It was probably with great excitement that Peter uttered the words: “Everyone is looking for you.” He and the other disciples were perhaps already imagining a bright for him and for them. Perhaps they expected Jesus to share their excitement. Perhaps they expected Jesus to announce a longer stay in that place to satisfy the crowds.

But the response of Jesus doused their excitement with cold water. “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”

Jesus kept his eyes on the goal. He did not allow other things to distract him from it--not even the adulation of the crowd. His mission was to preach the Good News to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. It was not to build a following of raving fans.

Heaven

Our goal is heaven. We are just on pilgrimage on earth. It doesn't mean that we shall keep ourselves aloof from earthly concerns. No. It just means that we will not live as if there is no heaven.

The catechism I learned as a child puts it well: Why did God create us? God created us to know, love and serve him in this world and be happy with him in the next.