The World of the Gospel
From the Holy Gospel According to Mark (1:29-39)
ON LEAVING the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
Simon's Mother-in-Law
The Jews and other Mediterranean peoples in Jesus' time were patrilocal. The big family lived in the "father's house" - a residence complex where married sons cohabited with their parents and unmarried siblings. The daughter who married would live in the house of her husband's father.
In Capernaum, Simon and his family - and Andrew - stayed in the house of their father Jonah. We are told that Simon's mother-in-law was there. She should have been living in her husband's house. If he had died, she should have been living with one of the sons, or if they too had died, she should have returned to her family, her father's household. That she was in Peter's house suggests that she had no living family member to take care of her. Her state was worse than the fever she was suffering. But we can surmise that she was welcome in Simon's house. The family "told about her" to Jesus who healed her and restored her to them. That she immediately waited on Jesus and his first disciples demonstrates that her healing was instantaneous and complete. Her service of hospitality shows her gratitude, expected of those who have been healed and saved by Jesus (Mk 10:43-45). Gratefulness to the Lord is expressed through service to the community of believers.
Jesus would tell his disciples to leave behind family and property to follow him. This separation did not have to be permanent. After Jesus' resurrection, when the apostles and missionaries traveled to preach the Good News, they were probably accompanied by some family members. Paul mentions that Kephas (Simon Peter) would take along his wife in his travels and they were probably supported by the Christian communities - something that Paul says is the right of Gospel preachers, though he himself does not use it (1 Cor 9:5-12).
The kingdom of God comes to people in the ordinariness of life: in their family life and in their sickness or health.
Taken with kind permission from The World of The Gospel column in Sambuhay, ST PAULS, 7708B St. Paul Road, SAV, Makati City, Philippines; Tel.: (632) 895-9703; Fax: (632) 895-7328; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
About the author:
Fr. GIL ALINSANGAN hails from Iloilo, Philippines and is a member of the SOCIETY OF ST. PAUL, a religious congregation of priests and brothers devoted to the apostolate of communications media. He was ordained priest in 1980. In 1989, he obtained his Licentiate in Sacred Scriptures (SSL) from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.
The author is the editor of the missalette Sambuhay and of the biblical-liturgical diary 365 Days with the Lord. He also teaches New Testament exegesis at San Carlos Seminary Graduate School of Theology and Don Bosco Center of Studies. He is in the executive board of the Episcopal Commission for the Biblical Apostolate (ECBA) and the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines (CBAP). He has authored two books: In Peaceful Stillness, published in 2001 and The Gospel of the Cross, published in 2004.
