In today’s Gospel,
Mark 1: 299-39, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law. As soon as Jesus
entered Peter’s house, the disciples (Peter and his brother Andrew and James
and John) told him that Peter’s mother-in-law was sick. Jesus immediately
approached her, “grasped her hand, and
helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them….In the evening, after sunset,…. the whole town was gathered at the door.” Jesus “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many
demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.”
Let us, as the responsorial psalm, Psalm 105, invites us to
do: “Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his
name; make known among the nations his deeds", as He is as active today, as in Peter's time. ” Let us “glory in his holy name; rejoice” and “look to the Lord in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly” because “in
the evening, after sunset,” that is, in the darkness of our current events and world, God is at work. The demons will be driven out of those possessed by hatred and
bigotry and by misogynistic, narcissistic and prejudicial attitudes that will
bring harm to the poor and to this country and the entire world.
To what extent do you and I share our concerns with God, knowing that God will heed our requests that sicknesses be healed, “demons”
cast out, injustices squelched, sinful behaviors challenged, and wrongs made
right. Just as Jesus, as Mark tells us, “went
into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of
Galilee, so, too, today, does He do so
throughout the entire world. Evil shall not prevail!
Jesus, I trust in you.
