Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B
Job 7:1-4, 6-7
Psalm 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Mark 1:29-39
We pray that soon the opportunity for pilgrimages to the Holy Land will be able to resume as they happened in the not-too-distant past. Sadly, the event of the past few years, with Covid and with the escalation of tensions and violence and the reality of war have stopped this wonderful experience from being readily available.
One of my favorite places to visit and to share with pilgrims under my leadership is the city of Capernaum. The site is among the most remarkable of places to see with your own eyes. It gives you a vivid experience of the Scriptures we hear this weekend. Capernaum is where the events of today’s Gospel really happened. If you have seen this place or have allowed the accounts of the Scripture to become real for you, then you have received a stewardship that invites you to move beyond the sense of life in this world as a “drudgery.”
The archaeological site of Capernaum, identified as the City of Simon Peter, and the place Jesus Himself chose to call home after He left Nazareth, provides a perspective on the life of the first generations of Christians that is helpful. You can see the Sea of Galilee and stand along the shore where so many of the Gospel account take place. If you come there at the end of the day, you experience the beauty of the sunset over the sea, which in itself offers consolation and healing.
The tour of the site includes the remains of a synagogue that dates to later than the first century but is in the same place as the very synagogue where Jesus prayed and taught. Immediately beside the synagogue is a remarkable church built over the site of the House of Peter. From the sanctuary level, pilgrims are able to look directly down into the room where Jesus sat as He healed the many who were brought to the doorstep after sunset. Standing there, you have the view of the four friends of the paralyzed man who was lowered down from the roof for healing.
On one of the pilgrimages I led, just outside this area under lovely foliage, we took the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Recalling the many healed by Jesus in that very place, we could sense His Presence among us in the Sacraments continuing His ministry through His Church.
Not far from Capernaum are many other places that bring out a vivid understanding of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry: Magdala, the rock of Peter’s primacy, the Mount of the Beatitudes, and the deserted places where Jesus when to pray. We can almost hear Jesus offer to us the invitation that He gave His first disciples: “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”
Each of us is given a stewardship in the proclamation of Jesus. When we experience the restlessness that is expressed by Job, we can learn to attend more deeply to the call of the Gospel. With Paul, we can give our all, knowing that by our own ministry of living, speaking, praying and healing, we also will have a share in the Gospel.
