1. How does Job feel in this reading, at least sometimes? Do you feel like this? Why do you think God allows suffering? Can you still trust in God even if you don't understand why God allows people to suffer?

2. Could God have redeemed the world by saying a word, breathing on that world, or sending his son merely to be with us? Why do you think God chose a suffering Messiah to redeem humankind?

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

1. What drove Paul to say that he would do anything for the sake of the gospel? Is there a passion that drives you to do the things you do?

2. St. Paul said, “I have become all things to all, to save at least some.” How do you become “all things” to all people? Swallow pride and be humble? Seek the image of God in others? Be compassionate?

Gospel
Mark 1:29-39

1. “Everyone is looking for you.” Is that statement as true now as it was then, with all of our own “demons and various diseases”? e.g. Wars? Prejudice? Climate crisis? Starvation? Pandemics?

2. According to Pope Francis, what is one necessary thing that the Church can learn from Jesus when he bends down to take Peter’s mother-in-law’s hand, and lifts her up?

“Why are we so lofty in dignity and so fragile in condition?”—Jesus does not respond to this “why?” with an explanation, but with a loving presence that bends down, that takes by the hand and lifts up, as he did with Peter’s mother-in-law (cf. Mark 1:31). Bending down to lift up the other. Let us not forget that the only legitimate way to look at a person from the top down is when you stretch out a hand to help them get up. The only one. And this is the mission that Jesus entrusted to the Church.

The Son of God manifests his Lordship not “from the top down,” not from a distance, but in bending down, stretching out his hand; he manifests his Lordship in closeness, in tenderness, in compassion. Closeness, tenderness, compassion are the style of God. God draws near, and he draws near with tenderness and compassion. How many times in the Gospel before a health problem or any problem do we read: “he had compassion.” Jesus’ compassion, God’s closeness in Jesus is God’s style.

Angelus, 5th Sun, Ord B
Feb. 7, 2021