Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B Mark 1,29-30

Dear brothers and sisters! Each of us has overcome some illness in our life. How did it affect my insides? Did I accept her, or did I grumble, why am I the person she impacted? What does Jesus do when he meets the sick woman?
“He approached her, grabbed her hand, and lifted her up. The fever left her, and she served them” (Mk 1:31).
Peter’s mother-in-law is bedridden. Sometimes illness can cause those we used to serve to now have to serve us. It does not have to be only a physical illness, but also a mental one, when a person feels anxiety and suffering. We should ask the best doctor, Jesus, not only for ourselves, for our physical and mental healing, but also for those who need it even more. This requires sincere, humble supplication, which is perhaps the best medicine for the fever of the spirit. It should come from a pure heart, full of love.
It is appropriate to remember the words of the Lord Jesus: “Whatever you did to one of the least of these, you did to me.” He gives us an example worth following in his sacrifice. It should be a matter of course for us to help the sick and suffering in the neighborhood, whom few people remember. Even for a glass of water given out of love, we will be rewarded, so let’s be attentive and kind to those who depend on others. It only takes a little effort and sincere effort for a person to feel love and a new motivation for life. We have many examples of healing in the Holy Scriptures – the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ robe, the centurion’s servant.

Lord Jesus came to this earth to help us so that we can heal diseases among people. We feel the need to heal the world in its relationships. How do we like it when we meet a person who likes others when we meet with cordiality towards us? How we don’t like it when someone wants to dose the cordiality drop by drop. Cordiality dosed drop by drop kills and destroys joyful well-being. We must fully and spontaneously show interest in the person in our love. She is the best medicine for the disease. It requires firm faith. She is the truth and illuminates our mind, protecting it from error. Heals our wounds and remnants of original sin that make us prone to go astray. Sometimes illness is necessary for our spiritual growth. Here it is always important to examine God’s will. In the New Testament, Jesus first reveals his power through miraculous healings, that is why they brought the sick and those possessed by evil spirits to him and he healed them. He shows his power over pain by giving it a new meaning in the kingdom of God. But Jesus gives the most personal answer to the mystery of pain through his passion and death on the cross. Through pain and suffering, the Father calls us to his love.
Someone is lying on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. He is waiting for someone to show him mercy. Someone is lying on the road towards Golgotha. He fell, and he’s half dead. He is waiting for someone to help him carry the burden. Many lie injured, abandoned, lost, or half-dead on the roads. They walk the roads lost, resigned, helpless, waiting. Neighbors are waiting and looking for those who believe, hope, and love on our roads. Here one brings Bread along the way. Bread for you. Bread for giving, for healing, bread for life. Bread of life. Someone is on the way – God for you, for us. For salvation, for healing, for life. God the physician, God of life. One thing is certain: in suffering, or illness, a person recognizes that he does not have the keys to the secret of life and death in his hands; pain refers him to Someone greater. A painful question is a special way to talk with God.
In the visiting hospital, the priest asks an elderly, sick woman: “How are you?” The woman answers:
“Hardly, very badly.” – “What hurts you, what troubles you?” – “My children have not been with me for more than five weeks. He thought she would complain about body pains, but what hurts her is that her children ignore her.

More than once, when we give medicine to a sick person, he still says: “Give me your hand!” He doesn’t just want the healing of his body, but also the healing of his life, his soul.

When Mother Teresa came to Czechoslovakia, two newly married couples came to her to give her a large sum of money. She asked them: “Don’t you need money?” – “Mother Teresa, we are happy. There are people who do not like each other and cannot like each other, either because of hunger or poverty.” Then the youths said: “We have decided to give all the wedding gifts to the poor, the suffering, and the sick.” Lord, you are also in charge of the well-being of people, and you want to heal it for us in your son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Help us to be less selfish and to realize that the healing of human well-being is not only allowed in drop-by-drop favors. Help those who do not rule, are used, or abused in their surroundings, let them not become bitter, and give us strength to be doctors of warm, pleasant coexistence. Each of us knows how to make medicines of goodness and love, and can test our medical skills in this way.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, who loves all and forgets no one, we pray to you for all your creation and all your children. We remember all those on whom you placed the cross of suffering, physical illness, and weakness. To all who are without relatives and friends, to all who are troubled by the suffering or sin of those they love, to all who are affected by loss, that in the dark days, they may find security and peace in you. We ask you, for all who are immersed in their sorrows, to begin to share their worries with their brothers and to know the mysterious and blessed community of the cross. We beg you for all who are lonely and sad in the midst of the joy of others, that they may know you as their Friend and Comforter. Remember all those who pass through the valley of shadow, so that they may know that the resurrected Christ is with them and that he is a light even in the evening.