Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 357
TB 11:5-17
PS 146:1B-2, 6C-7, 8-9A, 9BC-10
MK 12:35-37
Here today we see the homecoming of Tobiah to Nineveh in which he brings not only the cure for Tobit’s blindness but also his new wife. Tobit has been in darkness, blinded by the unfortunate event of sleeping under a wall where birds were nesting. While Tobiah has been gone people have had to lead him around and even now we find Tobit sitting blindly at the gate waiting for the return of his son. His wife, Anna, serves as his guide and watches the road for him and likely for herself. As their son returns Tobit is healed, Anna feels completed, and a daughter is added to the family. An event that could easily have been a sour one now brings joy to Tobit and glory to God. His blindness was not God’s desire, but God has taken something unpleasant and made it into something powerful.
The message here to me is not that God will heal every pain or deficiency. Life is full of suffering that God doesn’t intend for us. Many of those circumstances we bring on ourselves. Sometimes we get diseases that we don’t know why we have them, or conditions that leave us unable to work, or even like Tobit, leaving us in physical blindness. I still believe God can and does heal some of that. I also think that true healing can occur without removing those physical ailments at all. Attitude. Gratitude. How do we respond to life? Do we bring glory to God? Joy to those around us? Do we have gratitude for the mystery of life and the mystery of who God is?
Jesus tries to awaken those around Him in Mark’s Gospel this morning as He tries to broaden their understanding of who the Messiah is. They are looking for a Son of David, and Jesus fits that bill. He’s not the only one though. The line of David isn’t exhausted and He has many cousins that we hear about in other parts of the Gospels. What Jesus wants people to realize is they are in darkness. They have limited their vision of who the Messiah is and God wants them to understand the entirety of the message, suffering and all. That the Messiah will be not a warrior king who comes to free Jerusalem from physical oppression, but a Spiritual King who will die for their sins and free them from the Spiritual bondage they are in regardless of where they live. True freedom is being joyful to God regardless of where we live, how much we have, or the conditions we find ourselves in. Notice those around Jesus respond with joy. “The great crowd heard this with delight.” How do you respond to the Gospel? The presence of God in your lives? The mystery of suffering and redemption? That’s the true mystery of the Messiah, giving us freedom from sin that we might find joy even in the midst of the storm.
His servant and yours,
Brian Mullins
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. – Psalm 19:14