"Now Simon's mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told Him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her."
Gospel of Mark
Who do you take your troubles too? Do you allow Jesus to be the Lord, healer and guide of your personal life?
There is a quote from St. Jerome, an early church scholar and producer of the Jerome Biblical commentary:
"Can you imagine Jesus standing before your bed, and you continuing to sleep? It is absurd that you would remain in bed in Jesus' presence. Where is Jesus? He is already here offering Himself to us. Faith beholds Jesus among us."
As we get older and after dealing with many situations and problems (whether through work, family or encounters with others in community) we can begin to think that we can handle everything on our own. After all, we have the experience to back up what we say and do. What we often fail to realize is that everything is constantly changing. We are changing ourselves. Although our experience is good, it may not necessarily apply to our changing circumstances.
Jesus is the only one I know who can keep us in touch with changing circumstances, and then give us the guidance and direction we need. A simple reflective question we may ask ourselves: "Jesus, how would you handle this situation which has come up in my life?"
In order to do this, we have to follow Jesus' practice of going off to a lonely place for a while, and being there in prayer. We need a place where we can ask the right question and listen for His response.
In the above Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus helped Simon's mother-in-law, and He went on to help many others who came to Simon's door that evening. The next morning, He went off to a lonely place to pray. When Simon and his companions saw that Jesus was missing, they went out in search for Him. They were quite anxious to continue on with what they experienced from the previous successful evening. "Everyone is looking for you" they exclaimed after finding Him. But the continuation of yesterday's success was not a part of God's plan for Jesus. "Let's go elsewhere to the neighboring towns so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came."
Who do we take our troubles too? Do we allow Jesus to be Lord, healer and guide in our personal lives in changing times? Where do we go when the way we've done things in the past no longer seems to be working?
As St. Jerome says in his commentary: Jesus is always there offering Himself to us. Our faith beholds Jesus among us. Why do we continue our sleeping?
It is in prayer; the going off by ourselves to a lonely place, to seek the Lord as our guide that we will find the answers.
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