After listening to the first reading from the book of Job, we might be tempted to say “Well, that certainly wasn’t very uplifting!” Listen again to some of the statements Job says: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of hirelings? … So I have been assigned months of misery. … I shall not see happiness again.” This brings up a subject that we are all familiar with, and that is suffering. Each one of us has suffered in some way. Whether it’s been physically, mentally, or spiritually, we have all either experienced suffering, or we know someone who has.
In our three-year cycle of readings proclaimed on Sunday, we only hear from the book of Job twice. Today’s reading comes from the seventh chapter of Job, so it might help to have a little background. The book of Job was probably one of the first books of the Bible written, and it tells the story of a righteous Gentile, blameless and upright in the eyes of God (Job 1:1). He is tested by Satan, who believes that Job is God-fearing and pious simply because he is blessed with much material wealth and many children. But if he was deprived of these goods, certainly he would curse God. So God allows Satan to deprive Job of his many earthly blessings. In a short span of time, Satan wipes out all of Job’s possessions, and causes the death of all his sons and daughters. Then Satan afflicts Job with a terrible skin disease that leaves him disfigured and in terrible pain. But Job’s response to all this is stunning: instead of cursing God, he actually praises him with the famous line: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:20-22).
Three of Job’s friends who visit him in his misery try to convince him that he must have sinned against God or he wouldn’t be suffering as he is. But Job remains steadfast and maintains his innocence. This takes us to the point when Job makes the statements that we heard in today’s first reading. The suffering that Job has to endure in his Biblical account is beyond anything most of us would have to face or understand. This makes Job a “type” of Christ in the Old Testament, since he is a righteous person, “blameless and upright” (Job 1:1).
All this brings up two questions that no doubt we have all asked or heard before:
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- If God is all-good and all-powerful, why is there so much evil in the world?
In the midst of our own suffering we might also ask: “Is God punishing me for my sins?”
These are probably the hardest questions we’ll ever try to answer. When people need comfort and support because of some suffering or tragedy or loss, they want and need answers. “My God, why?” After all these years I can’t say that I’ve found or heard a really good answer to that question. But I do know that God doesn’t create suffering, sickness and death. That is not God’s will. But God does create the good that happens through suffering, sickness and death.
That’s the message that Mark wanted to convey to his readers with his Gospel – that even in the darkest moments of our lives we can put our trust in God who is always with us. Mark wrote his Gospel to Christians who at the time were being severely persecuted for their faith, and they also asked the question, “Why?” Mark was trying to give them reassurance that their suffering was not in vain. In today’s Gospel passage we see Jesus travelling throughout Galilee, relieving the sufferings that people experience: illnesses, demonic possession, and many other diseases. All the evils we face entered the world due to the fall of Adam and Eve. Jesus is restoring health and wholeness, delivering people from their bondage to Satan which Adam and Eve submitted themselves and their descendants.
And Mark’s message to his readers is the same message for each one of us. No matter what kind of suffering we might face, we often feel alone, abandoned, and even neglected. But in the midst of our suffering we can be reassured that God is always there to give us guidance, compassion, and comfort. And because Jesus was able to cry out to God the Father at the point of his greatest suffering when he was on the cross, we can be reassured that at the point of our deepest despair, when it seems that we are most alone, it is then that God is as close to us as he can possibly be.
In a general audience in 1988 Pope Saint John Paul II addresses the subject of suffering, and tells us that not all suffering is the direct result of a person’s sins. This is what he said:
Ever since Christ chose the Cross and died on Golgotha, all who suffer, especially those who suffer without fault, can come face to face with the “Holy One who suffers”, and find in his Passion the complete truth about suffering, its full meaning and importance.
In light of this truth, all those who suffer can feel called to share in the work of Redemption accomplished by means of the Cross.
Our Christian life is a passage from death to life. The great thing about all this is that because Jesus rose from the dead after his suffering and death, we can always bring about good from evil, and even happiness from suffering and death. I’ve seen it time and time again where so much good and so much gift has come out of something that seemed so terrible. So as I stated before, God doesn’t create suffering, sickness and death. God creates the good that happens through suffering, sickness and death.
It’s interesting to me that after Jesus cried out when he was on the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” it seems as if he never really got an answer. And when you read the book of Job, you will find that Job never gets a real answer to his questions either. It’s the same way with us. When we suffer, or see someone we know and love suffer, we don’t often get an answer to our questions either. At least not answers that satisfy us.
But because of what Jesus went through in his passion and death, we know that we are not alone in our suffering. It was because of our sins and our sinfulness that Jesus suffered and died on the cross. He knows our suffering even better than we do. So we aren’t alone when we suffer. Haven’t you found that just being present with someone when they are going through a tough time is enough to ease their pain? Even just a little? Maybe you’ve been the one to experience that in your own trials.
That’s the love of God at work. We are not alone. Not only is God with us in our most desperate times, but he joins us in our suffering. The love of God is so powerful that suffering, sickness and death cannot defeat it. Wars, terrorism and division can’t overcome it. Hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes can’t conquer God’s love. In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God that comes to us through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
While we won’t be able to answer those questions fully in this life, we can be confident that God will ultimately reveal to us his divine plan. In one of my favorite passages from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, it says:
“The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death.” (CCC 1040)
In the passage for this Sunday, Job laments at his suffering, and complains that life seems to be nothing more than slavery, restlessness, short on time, and lacking any type of happiness. And yet, through all his misery, he never once cursed God or blasphemed against him. He cried out to God in his suffering, knowing that he did nothing sinful to bring about all this woe. He complains to God, and he questions God, but never curses him. He actually praises and blesses him.
This is a wonderful example to us and for us how we should approach God in prayer. Honestly and boldly. Anything else would just be empty words. Let us turn to Him in prayer with humility, honesty and love.
My God, Why?
I don’t know if I can truly answer that question.
But I am certain that You are here with me now …
and You are here with all of us now …
and You always will be.
We are not alone.
And that gives us hope.