Theme: Go and Proclaim: Bring Forth Jesus Christ in Your Life, Preach His Life and Heal Other’s Life
First Reading: Isaiah 40: 21-24, 27-31
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 147
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Gospel Reading: Mark 1: 32- 39
Homily by Fr. Romie-Jun Peñalosa
GO AND PROCLAIM: BRING FORTH JESUS CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE
(A RECAPITULATION BASED ON THE HOMILY OF +FR. ROMIE JUN PEÑALOSA)
“When we lose hope, life becomes so dark and drudgery.”
Father Jun started his homily with the story of an OFW who suffered tremendous depression during the COVID pandemic. The man, after knowing his family was infected with the virus, started to become anxious. He tried everything to come home to be with his family but failed. In his misery, he intentionally infected himself and committed suicide.
Father Jun shared this story out of concern especially for the youths of today. They suffer a lot of problems and troubles in life which causes in them restlessness, overthinking, and depression. The gospel today actually teaches us how we can avoid these burdens. It is through prayers.
Prayer is life; it sustain us. Jesus, in our gospel reading, showed us how to deal with all the troubles and chaos life brings us. Jesus is Son of God but also Son of man, so He also gets tired. But He was focused on His purpose in life. Knowing our purpose in life motivates us to get up from our tiredness, gain our strength, and glide back to the fulfilment of our purpose. Prayer connects us to God Who is the source of all our strength. He caters all our worries and problems and let us rest on Him. In our gospel reading, we see Jesus after a tiresome day of teaching, healing, casting of demons, etc. He recharged by getting up early in the morning to find time to be alone with the Father. Prayers strengthened Him and kept Him focused on His purpose. See, life becomes a burden when we lose our purpose. When we get too busy, we lose that balance in life. We no longer know that sense of purpose we have causing us to lose also that meaning of life.
How did Jesus maintain that sense of purpose, despite His busy ministry? Prayers. No matter how tiring His day was, He sets time to pray so that on the next day He can walk and do His ministry again with tranquility. And so, Jesus must be our inspiration when we serve the Lord. “Serving the Lord is our joy. He doesn’t need servants but He invites us to serve so that we can experience the joy of serving God.”
There is strength in life when we know our purpose. And when we have a clear purpose in life, we have a different perspectives in life. We are not overwhelmed with the problems; we soar above the circumstances in life. Just like Saint Paul we should live a purpose-driven in life, balancing our active life and ministry life, with prayers. Prayer must not just be an activity, it must be our life. This way, we can pass it on to our youths so that they will learn to overcome burdens and see life as beautiful as God.
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