5th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B Homily Reflection: GOD HEALS THE BROKENHEARTED.
1. MAIN IDEA OF TODAY’S SUNDAY LITURGY
This Sunday, [5th Sunday in Ordinary Time year B] we contemplate Jesus as the Lord who “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Responsorial Psalm)”
The Gospel (Mk 1:29–39) narrates us how Jesus, after preaching the Gospel, cured many sick people of their illnesses. Then he woke up early in the morning to pray. The Evangelist tells us the people were seeking for Him: “Everyone is here looking for you.” And from there, Jesus went to the nearby villages preaching and driving out demons, for this is the reason why He came into the world: to save us, to cure us, to heal us.
As Christians, we too are called to preach, evangelise, and cure the sick of body and soul, even if most of the time, we have to go against the current brought about not only by a hostile and pagan environment, but also by our own disordered passions. However, in spite of our failures, our defects, our limitations, and even our sins, we should remember what St. Paul said in the 2nd Reading: “woe to me if I do not preach it!” God still counts on each one of us to be an instrument of his mercy, love and salvation.
United with Christ through prayer and most especially in the Holy Eucharist, may we joyfully bear fruits of apostolate and evangelization for the salvation of the world (cf. Prayer after Communion).
2. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted (Ps 146).
At some point in our life we shall be all beset by problems whether they be health, financial, marriage, family, social, and/or of spiritual type. And during these dark moments of pain, anguish and suffering, we seek consolation, liberation, light and peace.
Today’s liturgy encourages us to direct ourselves to Our Lord, who heals the brokenhearted and binds our wounds, instead of giving into despair and sadness. However, for this to occur, firm and tangible faith is necessary so as to have recourse to God and call on Him who is all good and rich in mercy, and who never abandons His own.
We all have a profound need not only for Christ’s help, healing, peace, but above all, for redemption. This need is rooted in our own weak and limited condition which is always threatened by the mystery of sin, pain and suffering.
- This is an enigma, which only in the light of the Christian faith finds its exact and salvific interpretation. A rationalist conception of life only increases the pain and anguish of man and, even, can lead him to despair.
On the contrary, the Church teaches us, as she does today in her liturgy, to consider the problem of pain in the light of divine revelation. Vatican II says:
“Such is the mystery of man, and it is a great one, as seen by believers in the light of Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, the riddles of sorrow and death grow meaningful. Apart from His Gospel, they overwhelm us. Christ has risen, destroying death by His death; He has lavished life upon us so that, as sons in the Son, we can cry out in the Spirit; Abba, Father.”
Gaudium et spes 22.
Hence, when we are enveloped by darkness, let us untiringly look for Jesus through prayer and frequent reception of sacraments for there we shall seek not the light which Jesus has brought forth, but the Light Himself.
You are my light and salvation; whom shall I fear?
Psalm 26
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; before whom shall I shrink?…
It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face.
Dismiss not your servant in anger; you have been my help. Do not abandon me.
Pope Benedict XVI goes further to say that the miraculous healing of various illnesses are just but a sign.
“I maintain that these cures are signs: they are not complete in themselves but guide us towards Christ’s message, they guide us towards God and make us understand that man’s truest and deepest illness is the absence of God, who is the source of truth and love. Only reconciliation with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without truth would not be life. The Kingdom of God is precisely the presence of truth and love and thus is healing in the depths of our being. One therefore understands why his preaching and the cures he works always go together: in fact, they form one message of hope and salvation.”
Benedict XVI, Angelus, Feb. 2, 2009
With the help of Mother Mary and St. Joseph, may we have the faith and humility to go to God, ask his help and abandon ourselves into his hands, especially whenever we are burdened by pain, sorrow, suffering due to life’s problems and convinced that He who is is the divine Healer of body and soul will never abandon us. May we be convinced that if we unite ourselves to His Passion and Death, our pain will be transformed into prayer, sacrifice, a source of grace, purification, holiness, salvation, and God’s glory.
FOR THE 5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B 2024 MASS PRAYERS AND READINGS, CLICK HERE.
FOR THE REFLECTION HOMILY ON THE 5TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR B, CLICK HERE, HERE, HERE, AND HERE.
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