Homily for Wednesday of the 1st Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel passage, we encounter two distinctive traits of the person of Jesus. The first is His ministry of healing. Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law, who was sick with fever, by grasping her hand and helping her to stand up. Later that evening, people brought to Him many people who were ill or possessed by demon. The entire town was there as he cured the sick and drove out many demons. So, it was a very public event.

The gospel passage then describes the second trait of the person of Jesus; this is a much more private trait. It says that, in the morning, He left to go to a deserted place to pray but Simon and many others pursued Him and would not let Him have this private time for prayer, rest and refreshment. They wanted Him to move on and continue His work. Wearily, perhaps, He gave in and said, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come."

Jesus’ need for quiet time, rest, and solitude was not appreciated by Simon Peter and the others. They actually gave Him a kind of rebuke, saying, “Everyone is looking for you.” But Jesus knew that the source of His life-giving work was His relationship with God, which needed some time for prayer. The time given to prayer was as important to Him as His work of healing.

Prayer is as fundamental for us as it was for Jesus. We need to keep close to the Lord if we are to live as He wants us to live and if we are to share in some way in the Lord’s work. In prayer we acknowledge and give expression to our dependence on the Lord; we open ourselves to the Lord’s life-giving presence so that we may be channels of that presence to others.+