February 4 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Saved to Serve

 

First Reading Job 7:1-4,6-7

Job laments his sufferings and his life.

 

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 147:1-6

A song of praise for the Lord's goodness to the lowly.

 

Second Reading  1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23

Paul explains the conditions under which he preaches the gospel and the reasons why he will not accept financial help from the Corinthians.

 

Gospel Reading Mark 1:29-39

 

God hasn't saved anyone so they can just sit around but so we can serve. Just as there is no such thing as a non-functioning member of your human body, so there ought to be no such thing as a non-functioning member of the body of Christ. If God has saved you from your sin, He has called you to serve Him in some way in accordance with your gifts and abilities. God does not want us to stand before Him with “empty hands” in that day when we give an account of our lives. If we do not know God’s purpose for our life, then we are actually “missing the mark” of what it means to be a Christian. Every Christian is saved to serve! The matter of how you are supported may depend on the type of service to which you are called. But every person God saves is conscripted into serving Him according to how God has gifted him. This is what we see in the Gospel today. In Mark's direct and uncomplicated style he says, "...and the fever left her and she served them” . ... Simon Peter's mother-in-law "served" immediately after having been raised. The verb is diakoneo, the same verb Jesus uses to describe the essence of his own ministry in Mark 10:45. It is "to serve" rather than "to be served" that characterizes the Christ of God. It is also "to serve" that characterizes his disciples. Let us remember that we have been saved and healed to serve. We each have some define service do for the Lord.