Sunday February 7, 2021 - Fifth Sunday in ordinary time - Christ took on our sufferings, he bore our diseases - Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1, 29-39

Dear listeners, we are still at the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Mark. It began on the third Sunday in ordinary time, a Sunday when the Lord Jesus called us to walk the path of conversion (Convert, he said), a Sunday when he also defined the duty of disciples: it is a question of delivering men from the force of darkness and the grip of evil. This is what He means by: "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men." It is therefore essential for Christians to avoid, as much as possible, pushing others into temptation or becoming complicit in all evil. What tools do we have to manage this task? The answer was given last Sunday (fourth Sunday in ordinary time). The terms "teach" and "teachings" are invoked there several times (He taught as a man who has authority, say the Scriptures). Then Jesus freed the man possessed by the demon. All of this means that when Jesus is in us the demons are terrified, and when we have his teachings the works of darkness and the power of evil will flee from us. Therefore, let Christ enter us, not as a passerby, but to dwell there permanently. May neither our hearts be hardened, nor our souls asleep - insensitive to the teachings - listening to Jesus in the Gospel.

Today, the work of Jesus, healer of body and soul, continues. It started with Simon's mother-in-law: when Jesus came by, took her hand and lifted it up, the fever left him. It is a gesture that strongly resembles an act of resurrection. It was surely she who then prepared lunch for Jesus and his disciples.

Brothers and sisters, many areas of our time are sick and even dying: agriculture is suffering from drought, animals are suffering from lack of rain, the whole world is suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic, the economy family is in decline, sick are the many people who use technology indiscriminately and even indecently, sick are those who reject culture and wisdom, the person supposed to be the fisherman is not doing well, the profiteers and rapists are sick, religious charlatans and simoniacs are sick. Also, that it is not only by scholarly consultations or by wanting to designate a culprit that we would hope to redress the situation, but that each family, each ecclesial community and each individual present it to Jesus, as it is said in the Gospel: "The whole city was rushing to the door." That is to say, to turn to the Lord a gaze without the slightest doubt or hesitation. Moreover, He has already offered us His benevolence: "Come to me, all of you who toil under the weight of the burden, and I will give you rest." So, we, to whom the Lord has granted the grace of health, how will we respond to Him?