From: Mark 1:29-39

The Curing of Peter’s Mother-In-Law

[29] And immediately He (Jesus) left the synagogue, and entered the house of
Simon and Andrew, with James and John. [30] Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay
sick with a fever, and immediately they told Him of her. [31] And He came and
took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her; and she served
them.

Jesus Cures Many Sick People

[32] That evening, at sundown, they brought to Him all who were sick or pos-
sessed with demons. [33] And the whole city was gathered together about the
door. [34] And He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast
out many demons; and He would not permit the demons to speak, because
they knew Him.

Jesus Goes To a Lonely Place To Pray

[35] And in the morning, a great while before day, He rose and went out to a
lonely place, and there He prayed. [36] And Simon and those who were with
Him followed Him, [37] and they found Him and said to Him, “Everyone is sear-
ching for you.” [38] And He said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that
I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.” [39] And He went through-
out all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

*********************************************************************************************
Commentary:

34. Demons possess a supernatural type of knowledge and therefore they recog-
nize Jesus as the Messiah (Mark 1:24). Through the people they possess they
are able to publish this fact. But Our Lord, using His divine powers, orders them
to be silent. On other occasions He also silences His disciples (Mark 8:30; 9:9),
and He instructs people whom He has cured not to talk about their cure (Mark
1:4; 5:43; 7:36; 8:26). He may have acted in this way to educate the people
away from a too human and political idea of the Messiah (Matthew 9:30). There-
fore, He first awakens their interest by performing miracles and gradually, through
His preaching, gives them a clearer understanding of the kind of Messiah He is.

Some Fathers of the Church point out that Jesus does not want to accept, in
support of the truth, the testimony of him who is the father of lies.

35. Many passages of the New Testament make reference to Jesus praying. The
evangelists point to Him praying only on specially important occasions during His
public ministry: Baptism (Luke 3:1), the choosing of the Twelve (Luke 6:12), the
first multiplication of the loaves (Mark 6:46), the Transfiguration (Luke 9:29), in the
garden of Gethsemane prior to His passion (Matthew 26:39) etc. Mark for his part,
refers to Jesus’ prayer at three solemn moments: at the beginning of His public
ministry (1:35), in the middle of it (6:46), and at the end, in Gethsemane (14:32).

Jesus’ prayer is prayer of perfect praise to the Father; it is prayer of petition for
Himself and for us; and it also a model for His disciples. It is a prayer of perfect
praise and thanksgiving because He is God’s beloved Son in whom the Father is
well pleased (cf. Mark 1:11). It is a prayer of petition because the first sponta-
neous movement of a soul who recognizes God as Father is to ask Him for
things. Jesus’ prayer, as we see in very many passages (e.g. John 17:9ff) was
a continuous petition to the Father for the work of redemption which He, Jesus,
had to achieve through prayer and sacrifice.

Our Lord wants to give us an example of the kind of attitude a Christian should
have; he should make a habit of addressing God as son to Father in the midst
of and through his everyday activities—work, family life, personal relationships,
apostolate—so as to give his life a genuinely Christian meaning, for, as Jesus
will point out later on, “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

“You write: ‘To pray is to talk with God. But about what?’ About what? About
Him, about yourself: joys, sorrows, successes and failures, noble ambitions,
daily worries, weaknesses! And acts of thanksgiving and petitions: and love
and reparation. In a word: to get to know Him and to get to know yourself: ‘to
get acquainted!’” (St. J. Escriva, “The Way”).

38. Jesus tells us here that His mission is to preach, to spread the Good News.
He was sent for this purpose (Luke 4:43). The Apostles, in turn, were chosen
by Jesus to be preachers (Mark 3:14; 16:15). Preaching is the method selected
by God to effect salvation: “it pleased God through the folly of what we preach
to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). This is why St. Paul says to
Timothy: “Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince,
rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:1-2).
Faith comes from hearing, we are told in Romans 10:17, where St. Paul enthu-
siastically quotes Isaiah: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good
news!” (Romans 10:15; Isaiah 52:7).

The Church identifies preaching the Gospel as one of the main tasks of bishops
and priests. St. Pius X went so far as saying that “for a priest there is no duty
more grave or obligation more binding (to dispel ignorance)” (”Acerbo Nimis”). In
this connection Vatican II states: “The people of God is formed into one in the
first place by the Word of the living God (cf. 1 Peter 1:23; Acts 6:7; 12:24), which
is quite rightly sought from the mouths of priests (2 Corinthians 11:7).

For since nobody can be saved who has not first believed (Mark 16:16), it is the
first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to
all men (2 Corinthians 11:7). In this way they carry out the Lord’s command ‘Go
into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15) (cf. Mala-
chi 2:7; 1 Timothy 4:11-13; etc.) and thus set up and increase the people of God”
(”Presbyterorum Ordinis”).

Jesus’ preaching is not just limited to words: He backs up His teaching with His
authority and with deeds. The Church also has been sent to preach salvation and
to effect the work of salvation which it proclaims—a work done through the Sacra-
ments and especially through the renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary in the Mass
(Vatican II, “Sacrosanctum Concilium”, 6).

In the Church of God all of us should listen devoutly to the preaching of the Gos-
pel and we all should feel a responsibility to spread the Gospel by our words and
actions. It is the responsibility of the hierarchy of the Church to teach the Gospel
authentically—on the authority of Christ.

*********************************************************************************************
Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Mass Readings

First reading	1 Samuel 3:1-10,19-20 ©

The boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli; it was rare for the Lord to speak in those days; visions were uncommon. One day, it happened that Eli was lying down in his room. His eyes were beginning to grow dim; he could no longer see. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying in the sanctuary of the Lord where the ark of God was, when the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ He answered, ‘Here I am.’ Then he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ Eli said, ‘I did not call. Go back and lie down.’ So he went and lay down. Once again the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ He replied, ‘I did not call you, my son; go back and lie down.’ Samuel had as yet no knowledge of the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Once again the Lord called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, since you called me.’ Eli then understood that it was the Lord who was calling the boy, and he said to Samuel, ‘Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The Lord then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Samuel answered, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’

Samuel grew up and the Lord was with him and let no word of his fall to the ground. All Israel from Dan to Beersheba came to know that Samuel was accredited as a prophet of the Lord.

Psalm	Psalm 39:2,5,7-10

Gospel	Mark 1:29-39 ©

On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.

That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.

In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.