Gb 7.1-4.6-7; Ps 146 (147); 1Cor 9: 16-19.22-23; Mk 1: 29-39

After the exorcism in the synagogue, Jesus enters the domestic space of a house. Peter’s mother-in-law is ill and Jesus raises her “taking her by the hand”. A gesture of relationship and proximity that we can repeat many times in our day. The power of God is not manifested in extraordinary gestures, but in human and daily acts, such as taking by the hand, breaking bread, touching the tongue or the eyes … «The fever left her and she served them». After those of Jesus, here is the woman’s gesture, described with an important verb: to serve, diakonein in Greek, which Jesus will use to talk about himself. For this woman, healing consists in being made participant and conforming to the Passover of Jesus: she is healed, raised up, resurrected from her illness, to become similar to the one who came to serve. «When will I get up?» Asks Job, severely hit by such a pain as to completely close his horizon to hope. Jesus’ gesture responds to his lament. Moreover, Job evokes a “hard service” that man must perform on earth, like a mercenary who awaits his salary, or a slave who, in his toil, “sighs for ‘shadow’. Peter’s mother-in-law, on the other hand, is raised up by Jesus and consigned to a service freed from the harsh bonds of slavery, capable of living on that gratuitousness of the Gospel about which Paul wrote to the Corinthians.

Commentary by Comunità di Dumenza

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey