Sexagesima Sunday – “B” – February 8, 2015

It’s easy for us to be so wrapped up in our lives – the daily routine, the demands that simple existence makes upon us – that we lose sight of our true purpose and calling. Like Job, we can be left struggling with our existence, failing to find a meaning in our lives. Sickness, mental illness, stress and anxiety in particular can so consume us that our life feels like no more than “pressed service” and “hired drudgery”. But that highly charged, symbolic good deed of Jesus points away forward us: Simon’s mother-in-law is restored by Jesus’ touch not simply to health but to service. Her encounter with Jesus transforms her suffering into the freedom to serve. This Gospel truth is a lesson the disciples struggle to learn: that true greatness lies in service, for Jesus himself came not to be served but to serve. Those of us who, like Simon’s mother-in-law, are touched by Jesus are raised to serve like Him, to continue His mission of bringing healing and wholeness into our world. So many people are weighed down by burdens of suffering, trapped by external forces of oppression and poverty, or enslaved by internal compulsions and addictions. The response of Christ – of the Christian – is to do more than simply ask “Why?” We are called to engage actively, by proclaiming the nearness of God’s kingdom through lives of loving service.