*** 1st Reading ***

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

 I could not, friends, speak to you as spiri­tual persons But as fleshly people,

For you are still infants in Christ. I gave you milk and not solid food, for you were not ready for it and up to now you cannot receive it for you are still of the flesh. As long as there is jealousy and strife, what can I say but that you are at the level of the flesh and behave like ordinary people.

 While one says: “I follow Paul,” and the other: “I follow Apol­los,” what are you but peo­ple still at a human level?  For what is Apollos? What is Paul? They are ministers and through them you believed, as it was given by the Lord to each of them. I planted, Apollos watered the plant, but God made it grow.

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who makes the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work to the same end, and the Lord will pay each according to their work. We are fellow-workers with God, but you are God’s field and building.

 

Ps 33:12-13, 14-15, 20-21

Blessed be the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.

 

**** Gospel ****

Luke 4:38-44

 Leaving the synagogue, Jesus went to the house of Simon. His mother-in-law was suffering from high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Bending over her, he rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and waited on them.

 At sunset, people suffering from many kinds of sickness were brought to Jesus. Laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Demons were driven out, howling as they departed from their victims, “You are the Son of God!” He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, for they knew he was the Messiah.

 Jesus left at daybreak and looked for a solitary place. People went out in search of him and, finding him, they tried to dissuade him from leaving. But he said, “I have to go to other towns to announce the good news of the kingdom of God. That is what I was sent to do.” And Jesus continued to preach in the synagogues of Galilee.

 

Gospel Reflection

Peter’s mother-in-law gives a model of how to make use of the healing received from Jesus. “She got up and waited on them.” If all the recipients of Jesus’ miracle imitated Peter’s mother-in –law, the people in the village did not have to dissuade Jesus from leaving.

When God comes to us, He does not just address our need; He wants us to sustain His presence by serving others. When he performs a miracle, He transforms the healed person into a miracle worker himself.

The healed persone may not be able to replicate the power of Jesus, but he can empower the person in need to have faith. Then such a faith replicates Jesus’ miraculous power.

Jesus’ miracles are not meant to give a happy ending, but to give a new beginning in people’s lives. And that new beginning has to be shared to everyone we know and meet.