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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2009 /  Freedom to choose is not without responsibility

by Richard C. Macey special to The Michigan Catholic
Published January 30, 2009

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

The Book of Job is a poetical book. Some scholars include it in the list of wisdom books of the Old Testament. It addresses the issue of the innocent who suffer. It does not give a definitive answer to that question. In the end, Job is rewarded in this life with more than he had before his unearned suffering. That is the traditional theory of retribution – God rewards good and punishes evil in this life. In later wisdom literature, the just person is rewarded with life after death.

In this work, God answers Job by telling him that the ways of God are mysterious to mankind.

Job complains about the burdens of life. The word, “drudgery,” literally refers to military service. Conscripted soldiers were often treated like slaves. The “shade” can mean the end of the work day, when the slave returns home, or death. Daily wages were necessary for survival. Many people lived from day to day, based on what they were able to earn or obtain for their families that day.

Job says that he has “been assigned months of misery.” Some exegetes believe that it consisted of one year, the same time that the Flood covered the earth in the time of Noah. The apocryphal Testament of Job says that his condition lasted seven years, a full term until the year of Jubilee in the Old Testament.

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

Paul refers to the Gospel four times in these few verses. They are the core of his preaching. Paul does not show any knowledge about the four canonical gospels in any of his letters. He does not refer to them, nor does he quote from them. For Paul, the Gospel is the oral tradition of apostolic preaching about Jesus Christ.

Paul’s trump card is his own example. His recompense does not come from material reward or payment, but from the satisfaction of having fulfilled his “stewardship,” a word which means “household management” in Greek and echoes the same term used earlier in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2. He submits himself to whatever is required of him – including the hardships! He puts together two opposing ideas: freedom and slavery (1 Corinthians 7:22). Once he has chosen Christ, he is free even from the burden of freedom!

Although he claimed to be “all things to all,” Paul could not be accused of being wishy-washy in his faith. He put aside the superficial elements in order to build strength from what was true and lasting, the core of the Gospel. He called people together and built bridges on what they shared, rather than putting up barriers between different groups. Too often, the people he addressed in his letters quibbled over the least important issues, such as food and dress, rather than the basic beliefs, which became incorporated in our creed.

Freedom can become an unwelcome burden! When my mother died, my father became a “free man.” But he dreaded going into the “dating world” again, as he described it. (My father was not a man who could live alone!) He began going to dances with his best friend’s widow. They had known each other longer than I had been alive. So there was no period of getting to know each other and discovering their strengths and weaknesses. True, casual friendship is not the same as marriage, but it took away all the decisions and judgment that come with those “first dates.” Friends, who had been committed spouses to others, preferred to take on that role again with each other. They chose being bound by that covenant love of marriage. I thought that the marriage worked well for both of them … and for our families! Dad didn’t depend upon me or my sister for companionship!

Gospel: Mark 1:29-39

The healing of Simon’s mother-in-law is connected with the previous story of an exorcism. The expulsion of the unclean spirit is described similarly: “the fever left her.” Although these four disciples “followed Jesus,” their decision to be with Jesus brought His presence and healing power into their house and family. This is also on the same day as the exorcism. It is the sabbath, the Lord’s Day (Mark 1:21). The fact that the people brought their sick and possessed in the “evening, after sunset,” may show that they observed the rules of the Sabbath.

Jesus went off to pray. This is the beginning of His public life of signs and wonders. He will do the same before the final sign of His Passion and Death at the end of the Gospel in Gethsemane. Simon “pursued Him” in order to bring Jesus back. But Jesus was not content to remain in one place and have people look for Him. He went on to “the nearby villages.”

Jesus continues to expand His mission with disciples in His following. The Gospel is not a history, frozen in a past age, but a blueprint for a vibrant and living Church of His followers today.

Fr. Richard C. Macey is pastor of Our Lady of the Woods Parish, Woodhaven.