Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B – In Australia we celebrate "the Sunday of the word of God, - Sunday, February 7, 2021
(EPISODE: 277)
Readings for 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
FIRST READING: Job 7: 1-4, 6-7
Ps 147: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. "Praise the Lord, who heals the broken-hearted"
SECOND READING: 1 Cor 9: 16-19, 22-23
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (Matt 8: 17). Alleluia, alleluia! He bore our sickness. And endured our suffering.
GOSPEL: Mark 1: 29-39
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. ID: 666869200 Job and his three friends. By askib
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Please listen to the audio-recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers and homily), for Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B - Sunday, February 7, 2021 by clicking this link here: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/faith-hope-and-love-fifth-sunday-of-ordinary-time-year-b-episode-277/s-YWOjsB5DU2o (EPISODE: 277)
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Message from Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane:
Homily - 7 February 2021 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
From Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane.
Word of God Sunday (See APERUIT ILLIS)
Today is Word of God Sunday, and I begin this homily on the streets of Brisbane. That's because the Word of God was never meant to be shut up within the four walls of a Church building.
There are around 2.8 million people living in this diocese. About 700,000 of those identify as Catholics, but only around 60,000 will hear the word of God at Mass this Sunday. In his Apostolic Letter introducing Word of God Sunday, Pope Francis said that "devoting a specific Sunday…to the word of God can enable the Church to experience anew how the risen Lord opens up for us the treasury of his word and enables us to proclaim its unfathomable riches before the world". So on this Sunday, I will preach as always from the scriptures, but with a special invitation for you all to join me in proclaiming the riches of the word of God before the world.
St Paul speaks of the Good News that's more powerful than all the bad news, even the bad news of death. The Good News he speaks of isn't a message: it's not a 'word' in the usual sense. It's the Word made flesh who is a person, and the person is Jesus crucified and risen, present among us right now, even here on the steps of the Cathedral. He's wanting to be seen and heard. St Paul stresses his responsibility and duty to share the Good News, and with many others in the Church I feel the same sense of responsibility and duty. For all kinds of reasons, many have chosen not to join us in Church, but today we want to go out and offer the Word to everyone, the Good News which is all the Church really has – not to chide or condemn anyone, not to cajole or force, not just to get people to "sign up" to the organization because we need new members, but to share a gift with everyone, especially those who need it most.
We want to invite you to join in sharing the Good News of Jesus with everyone in the Archdiocese, especially perhaps those who have been baptized but no longer walk with us. We want to offer all Catholics the priceless gift that is their right as someone baptized into Jesus. We want to offer them the power to rise from their sick-bed like Peter's mother-in-law, to be free of all the evil powers that can hold can hold us down. We want people to know the healing touch of Jesus in a Church which, as Pope Francis says, is a field-hospital.
We want everyone to know that they're welcome here. These seats are for you. This is holy ground, and it's holy because here in a special way we can see and hear the real, living Jesus. Here we can come to him together, come to him just as we are, with all our anxieties and ailments, all our wounds and weaknesses, all our quandaries and questions. We want you and everyone to know the joy of being a disciple – not perfect but, like all of us, a work in progress, on the road with others, following Jesus into the fullness of life. The journey of faith was never meant to be taken alone. It's hard work at times and pretty well impossible if we go it alone. That's not what Jesus wants for us; he doesn't ask us to do the impossible. He wants us to find sisters and brothers who travel with us, love us, support us, listen to us, advise us, even correct us if need be. That's what the Church is meant to be – not some huge, decrepit organization with ways that don't speak to my soul and rules that don't touch my life, but a pilgrim people journeying out of darkness into light – the light of Christ's mercy, compassion, forgiveness and healing.
On this Word of God Sunday we're making a call to all Catholics to encounter the Word of God in a new and deeper way. The call isn't harsh or heavy; it's more an invitation than any kind of command. We want to propose, not impose. If you're baptized Catholic, but feel estranged from the Church, this call is for you. Perhaps you have friends in the same situation: well, you could also invite them. This call comes not from us but through us – through us from Jesus himself. If it were just from me or from us, then forget it. But the call comes to you from Jesus. It's a call from him and to him. He calls you to himself – not for his own sake or for the Church's sake, but for your sake and the sake of the people whose lives you touch.
So join me in inviting anyone and everyone you know to listen to the Lord's voice which can be hard to hear with all the inner noise of our mind and heart and all the outer noise of a world full of loud voices, many of them promising life but delivering death.
Each parish and community has resources from Evangelisation Brisbane that will help anyone hearing these words to get involved. But there are three simple things you can do…
- Sign up for the prayer outreach through the Evangelisation Brisbane website, something we can all do to support and encourage those responding to this call to go on this journey of faith.
- Offer yourself as a volunteer to accompany those starting the journey by enrolling on the Evangelisation Brisbane website (we may need 10, 100 or a 1000 depending on the response we draw).
- Be a welcoming presence in your community to ensure that new faces are greeted in a warm and friendly way, so that in finding you they will find Jesus.
My prayer is that, on this Word of God Sunday, the Holy Spirit will move in the life of every baptized Catholic, so that in the time ahead everyone will discover the deep meaning of their baptism and have their lives changed by the encounter with the Word of God himself, with Jesus crucified and risen.
Since the pandemic came upon us, I've been listening a fair bit to the music of Leonard Cohen who's long been a favourite of mine. His seems just the right voice for a time like this – sombre but truthful and in the end hopeful. In one of his songs, Cohen says, "There's a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in". There's also a crack in everyone, a crack in you and me. But that's how the light gets in – the light of Jesus which nothing and no-one can dispel. The call to you and to all whom you may know is a call from the light and to the light. Whatever the darkness may be, let the light in…then come, walk with us.
+ His Grace, Archbishop Mark Coleridge
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*Prologue- (Fr Paul) - On the 1600th anniversary of the death of the great Scripture scholar and biblical translator, St Jerome, (on 30th September last year), pope Francis announced a new Sunday celebration (around the world it is to be celebrated on the Third Sunday of Ordinary time – but the local conference of bishops moved it here in Australia to the first Sunday in February – due to our national Holiday celebration overlapping it earlier), This celebration will be known and commemorated as the "THE SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD" .
The Risen Jesus, instructing two disciples on the Road to Emmaus, "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45). Christ continues to do this in our day too.
Also, in this week focusing on the word of God, has everyone discovered that wonderful gift to the whole church that is the Prayer of the Church, or the Liturgy of the Hours.. also known as the Divine Office? This is an official series of prayers, psalms and readings for the different parts of each day. This is of course not just for priests or religious, but for all people…
Liturgy of the Hours (online service called Universalis)
{The prayer of the universal Church, seven times a day.
Office of Readings - Morning Prayer (Lauds) - Mid-Morning Prayer (Terce) - - Midday Prayer (Sext) - Afternoon Prayer (None) - Evening Prayer (Vespers) - Night Prayer (Compline)}
There are also official books available with the whole set of four weekly cycle prayers. To truly savour God's living word, day and night!
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The book of Job haunts me. It is a powerful reflection upon the reality of suffering and loss in our lives. Job calls out to God in prayer and God is faithful to him, but it does not preserve him from the suffering, tragedy and disasters of life, which befall him in a massive way. God does not give him clear answers to his question about why there is suffering, but God does something even better.. He tells Job, trust in my goodness, justice and care. Never doubt my faithfulness to you, even in terrible seasons. Never stop trusting in my compassion and love for you even when you don't understand. In Job, his friends come to support and comfort him. We are told that they sit with him for seven days and say nothing. One Jewish tradition is that people who come to offer comfort to a bereaved person should not speak until the mourner speaks. This is really good wisdom. As shown in this book too,.. for when the friends eventually start speaking they try to explain and justify why these terrible tragedies have occurred. And they make Job's suffering worse. In fact, Job is tempted to listen to their well-meaning platitudes, and start to doubt God's goodness. His friends tell him, you must have done something to deserve this. Not helpful at all. Job is a just man. He has not done anything to deserve this. Their speculation is wrong and hurtful and amplifies his pain. They mean well, but they do damage. They are right that God is good but they are wrong that bad things only happen to bad people. Very wrong. They should have helped more by staying silent and supporting Job in his grief and depression. God cares very much about Job's condition and wants to heal his broken heart and smashed dreams. Eventually God's healing and faithfulness does indeed bring him renewed hope and strength.
Jesus travels the countryside preaching his message of the Kingdom of God, and enormous crowds of people gather. He teaches them, he heals them, he frees them from their sins, and he releases their burdens….
One gets a sense of a sea of need…. - a vast, continuous, endless line of people seeking help, searching for hope, reaching out for a helping hand.
Jesus responds to this…. what is to be done??…….So much!! – It is truly overwhelming how much need and pain and suffering there is in the world.
Then, we hear that he rises very, very early, and goes off to a lonely place to pray to his Heavnly Father…..to connect…. To re-focus… to re-energise. (He didn't have any time in his busy day, so he made time in the quiet hours, because it was the absolutely vital source and meaning of everything he did. This gospel also shows us the importance of prayer…… Connectedness in our relationship with God…… it is absolutely vital that we too, take time out…. take a step back…. and see the big picture…… to connect to (God the father), the source and the power and the reason behind all our efforts and actions
Meanwhile, the crowds continue to search for him, and his disciples search for him and inform him that everyone is looking for him…..
The needs of these crowds are most certainly real… and they are urgent…. and immediate….. Yet, Jesus informs them that the message of his gospel is absolutely vital and so he needs to continue his journey to other people and places.
Jesus, aware of the many urgent demands of the crowds… chooses to move on… to keep moving on;…. because "vital" overrides "urgent"…./ just as "important" overrides "pressing". (also, a worldly person might think to themselves, I will stay in this place, help these people, I can live comfortably having impressed this group of people and there is more than enough work here in this one place… but Jesus is a perfect leader.. he is here to serve all, not just some, and he is not here to cement his own situation but for the good of others. He must continue on his way… moving once more out of the familiar into the new…
It must have been heartbreaking that he couldn't alone have individually touched and transformed each and every person he met. But there was no time.. and his mission was urgent, vital, and time was short// and his mission was on-going……
He leaves behind crowds of people still looking for healing, peace and hope….but he does not abandon them….His message… his presence for a short time has already brought the seeds of that hope taking root there…. In each of those many people in the many crowds, in all the places Jesus visited - ……. so many people will take away with them, deep in their hearts and minds, Christ's lifegiving message… and they will run with it…….
As Jesus message spreads to other communities… those people, too, receive his message and consolidate it, nurture it, allow it to become part of them, abiding deep within them. The holy Spirit builds on it (in and through the people who hear and respond to this)….. //
It's reassuring to us…. There is still so much to be done… so much we can do…. so little time to do it….. never enough hours in the day, //…days in the year….. // we do what we can…// and keep our eyes on the big picture…. and draw strength, inspiration and vision from our prayerful "time-out with God"…. to focus our energy… direct our choices and …. lead us mindfully through the "busy-ness" of our days with its many different possibilities and needs….. We can't do everything… We are all too aware of our limitations…. so we ask the Lord to help us do what we can do, well! – With focus, clear priorities, and above all with love and compassion.
Lord, (in this), help us to know what is urgent… And help us to know what is vital - ….. (and adapting the words of the serenity prayer), Lord, give us the strength to leave behind even the urgent, when the vital calls us…….. and help us to know the difference…….
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5th Sunday – Ordinary Time- Year B – 2021
Homily by Fr Peter Dillon:
If you were ever looking for a symbol of someone who personifies the adage "Life is not fair", then you need look no further than our dear suffering, put-upon friend from today's first reading, Job.
He lived an upright and blameless life. He had loving wife, seven sons and three daughters and a very large plot of land. He used his wealth and influence to help others. No one who came to Job's house for help ever left disappointed.
However in a series of disasters he lost his family, his friends, his fortune and his possessions. He lost everything, except his faith in God. Job, himself, along with many others asks, what he had done to deserve such a terrible fate. Why is he chosen to be God's victim?
This question, although very prevalent in Old Testament times, is still being asked today. It was thought then that suffering was connected to a person's conduct or that they might have been paying for the trespasses of their ancestors. They argued that Job must have sinned and that he should admit his guilt before God. If enduring this suffering wasn't bad enough, he had others telling him he should repent. God would not do this to an innocent person.
In today's reading we hear Job asking the eternal question, "why me?" Even though he pleads with God for an answer, he does not seem to be graced with that answer. Job is familiar to all of us: if few of us share his innocence, all of us can share his hurt and anguish. We have all lived through some of his despair and asked some of those ame questions.
Suffering is still a big problem. Every day we witness poverty, hunger, sickness, injustice, oppression and tragedy, and every day we ask why, often adding, "Why would God do this"?
In the gospels, Jesus did not so much answer "why suffering", as much as respond to it. He did not insulate himself from people's pain. As we hear today from the Gospel, he often surrounded himself with those who were physically and mentally ill. He made himself totally vulnerable to the wounded and the sick, yet he did not preach resignation to it. He did not like to see people suffer, and while he did all that he could to make them well again, he used the problem of suffering as an opportunity to show them what God is like. By the way he gave himself to the sick, he reveals to us the compassion of God in the face of human suffering.
It is very confronting for us to have to see those we love suffer and feel helpless to make to suffering end. While it is no easy thing, while we cannot always relieve the suffering, we can share it in some way. While we come to those who suffer with empty hands, we can use those hands for comforting. We can help someone to heal but not necessarily cure them.
If only those around Job had thought to help him with his difficulties instead of adding to them with their accusations, then he may have found a strength within himself to manage his life better.
Often within our prayers for the suffering we ask God 'to fix it', we forget sometimes that Jesus himself went down that lonely and narrow road himself. We should take comfort that Jesus followed that road to the end, and it has never been the same for Christians since he travelled it. He showed us that though it might lead to Calvary, it doesn't end there. It ends at Easter, where the passion leads to glory.
Let us also pray for those who have to witness that suffer every day. Those nurses, doctors, hospital chaplains, aged care workers, ambulance officers and so many others. These are the ones who are God's compassion in human flesh, God's care in motion. While they may wonder as we do what is the reason for all this suffer, theydo not have to luxury of stopping to seek the answer. Like Christ they know they must just continuing to care, in case others do not.
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References:
HOMILY – FR PETER DILLON
PROLOGUE - Fr Paul W. Kelly
Life Application Study Bible Large Print. 2007. Carol Stream, Illinois.: Tyndale House Publishers. Pp 1054-1055.
Image Credit: Shutterstock Licensed. ID: 666869200 Job and his three friends. By askib
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B (Sunday, February 7, 2021) (EPISODE: 277)
The Lord be with you.
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{{Peace and Goodness to you all}} welcome everyone, we gather - Reflection upon God's word, and encounter Christ's presence.
Coming together as brothers and sisters, on this Sunday of the Word of God, let us ask the Fathers forgiveness, for he is full of gentleness and compassion
You were sent to heal the contrite of heart. Lord, have mercy.// You came to call sinners: Christ, have mercy. //You are seated at the right hand of the Father to intercede for us: Lord, have mercy.//
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
2. When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
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PREFACE: Sundays IV
EP I
Communion side. pwk: LH
(theme variation: 3 )
(pre+post variation: 1)
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{I pray that you have a wonderful and grace-filled week. }
Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.
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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
To listen to my weekly homily audio podcast, please click this link here.
NB - It is often a week or so Ahead: https://soundcloud.com/user-633212303/tracks
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Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins publishers.
Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg'. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney Australia).
Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The Gloria, Copyright © 2011 ccwatershed.org.
- "Faith, Hope and Love" theme hymn - in memory of William John Kelly - Inspired by 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Music by Paul W. Kelly. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.
- "Today I Arise" - For Trisha J Kelly. Original words and music by Paul W. Kelly. Inspired by St Patrick's Prayer. Arranged and sung, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. 2019.
[ Production - KER - 2021]
May God bless and keep you.
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