Holy Hour Reading and Reflection

We're starting a new tradition! Following our monthly Holy Hour of adoration, the reading (which is always the Gospel reading for the following Sunday) and reflection (which will be written by a different Young Adult each month) will be posted here. Here is the reading and reflection from the February Holy Hour. (Make sure to check back after each Holy Hour for new readings and reflections!)

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Mk 1:29-39

On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.


Last November Fr. Daniel said in one of his homilies that, “everything, everything is open to the healing power of the Lord”. His statement gave me, and everyone who heard it, so much hope. Fr. Daniel is correct. Everything, especially as demonstrated in tonight’s reading, is open to the healing power of the Lord, but only if it is His will. Still, I must admit that this reading presented me with quite a challenge. My first thought, which took me quite a while to shake, was, “Well, Jesus, you went around curing people in the area of Galilee. You cured Simon’s mother-in-law. Why didn’t you cure Fr. Tom?” Admittedly, it’s a question we won’t be able to fully answer. And yet, we can look to Fr. Tom’s own words for guidance. On the feast of the Epiphany this year, Fr. Tom wrote, encouraging us to look to Jesus, our Christ “who shows us how to live life, in simplicity and holiness, always focusing our thoughts on the Lord and doing His will as we serve others.”

And truly, that gentle reminder to follow the “will of the Lord as we serve others” is the example incarnate in this evening’s reading, both in the action of Jesus, and in the action of Simon’s mother-in-law.

Tonight we are presented with Jesus’ first healing miracle that we read about in the Gospel of Mark. In this passage alone, we hear a reference to Jesus healing many others in Capernaum, and in the rest of the region around Galilee. Why did Jesus heal these people? Well, it was done out of deference to the will of the Father. He had, after all, just left the synagogue, which incidentally was right next door to Simon’s home, and surely he had spoken with the Father there. Jesus was, and is, in constant communion with the Father. The healing, too, was also done out of tenderness and love. Mark doesn’t tell us that Jesus ordered the fever to leave Simon’s mother-in-law. Rather, it says that Jesus took her by the hand and helped her up – a true act of mercy, one borne out of tenderness and love – a tenderness and love that can only come from the Father, through his will.

After Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, he healed more people in Capernaum. The next morning, he woke up early, “left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” This action further highlights how we too (as Fr. Tom said) must "focus our thoughts on the Lord and doing His will". It also offers a response, in some sense, to the question of not understanding Fr. Tom's death. Shortly after Christmas, Fr. Tom wrote, “My duty is to subject my life totally to the Lord in prayer and service and He will do the rest; Jesus is my only desire.” And so it should be for us as well. Fr. Tom asked that we turn to the Lord and offer our lives in the service of others, just as Jesus does in this evening’s reading through his own example of prayer and service. Only by answering that call to holiness will we be able to let go of the questions and anxieties that often plague us and keep us from living with peace and joy.

Let’s look now at Simon’s mother-in-law. The moment the “fever left her”, “she waited on them”. It is a beautiful action. Here is a gravely ill woman who was bestowed a beautiful gift – the gift of life. Her gratitude is simply stated in the words of Mark “she waited on them”. She served Her Lord and Saviour and his disciples too. We also are called to follow in the example of Simon’s mother-in-law. For, we too have been given the gift of new life though our baptism with the Lord. And every time we receive the Eucharist, we are also receiving Christ, (as He is before us now) – the gift of new life, Christ dwelling within us. Like Simon’s mother-in-law, we are called to give thanks to that gift of life, to honour our Christ by serving Him (through our service of others) in our thoughts, words, and actions in every facet of our lives.

And so, as we adore the Eucharist this evening, let us like Simon’s mother-in-law, and like Fr. Tom so often did, “focus our thoughts on the Lord and [on] doing His will as we serve others” so that we, too, may live our lives in the “simplicity and holiness” and peace of Christ.