February 5—Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Job 7:1-4

1 Corinthians 9:16-19

Mark 1:29-39

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Demons are mentioned often in the Gospel today. For example:

• They brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons
• He cured many…and he drove out many demons
• He did not permit the demons to speak
• He went into their synagogues preaching and driving out demons

What about this? Were all these people possessed by the devil, as we understand possession today? Fr. Raymond Brown, a leading Scripture scholar puts it this way:

Working within the worldview of his time, Jesus, by driving out demons in his process of healing, is indicating that sickness is not simply a bodily ailment but is a manifestation of the power of evil in the world… Sufferings, tears, disasters and death are representative of alienation from God and of evil… The very existence of such factors indicates the incompleteness of God’s plan. By treating not only diseases by also natural disasters as opposed to the kingdom of God, Jesus is dramatizing a basic biblical understanding of God and the world.

What Fr. Raymond Brown is saying that in the biblical view of things, evil of any sort is an indication of the power of evil in the world, natural disasters included.

Take, for example, earthquakes. We cannot prevent them from happening. The tectonic plates are pushing against each other and periodically one moves, and there is an earthquake. In the biblical view, Fr. Brown says, such events also show that there is a power of evil. Even though it seems we need earthquakes and erupting volcanoes to make more soil and lift up the land to keep everything from eventually washing into the oceans, they still are evil. St. Paul says: We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains until now (Rom 8:22). Waiting for what? For the redemption and healing of everything which will be fully realized at the end of time.

All evil is contrary to the kingdom of God. That is way the Book of Revelation says that at the end of time when the kingdom of God is fully established, He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.

But for now we live in the ‘old order’. How do respond to evil, to suffering, to tragedies, to financial disasters and human disasters of all kinds? What do we do? We can oppose evil in three ways:

1. Prayer. Jesus prayed, and he was God as well as man. The Gospel today says that Jesus rose early in the morning went off to a deserted place where he prayed. What do we do? We pray when others or we are sick. We pray when others or we are spiritually sick. We pray for peace, for family, for unity, for rain, for protection from bad storms, from temptations, etc. And this is just asking. We also thank God for good health, for good crops, for healthy children, for vocations, for friends, etc. We also praise God for who God is. We praise God for the mystery God is, for the mystery of love that God is. Prayer is very important. It opens us to God who loves us. That is a real comfort. Prayer brings more God into the world and that helps fight evil.
2. Spread the good news. By word and example we proclaim that God is love, that God sent his Son Jesus Christ to save our from our sins, that God wants us to go to heaven, that Jesus showed us the way of life that by faith expressing itself in love leads us to heaven. Proclaiming the Gospel by word and example opposes evil. Our words and example are very important.
3. Change things. We and humanity do this in a variety of ways:
• Medical research to help us deal with the evil of illnesses
• Change structures, change laws to make things better, more fair, more just and just better for people
• Change our way of thinking. Remember what Jesus told St. Peter when Peter objected to Jesus having to suffer and die. Jesus told St. Peter, you are thinking and human beings do, not as God does. As difficult as it sometimes is, we bring God into the world and ourselves by trying to think as God does.

In the First Reading, Job is given as an example of mysterious suffering. Maybe some of us are in that situation. Jesus, in driving out demons, was pushing out evil, for demons oppose God. Prayer and the good works of faith are God at work in us so that we will allow God into us and into the world to drive out the demons of evil. Here at Mass, let us thank God for sending us his Son Jesus Christ, the healer body and of soul.