Reflection by Deacon Russ for 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Many of you probably know some other Jobs. There are some in our parish community; you may know some in your family or in your neighborhood, real people who have gone through one trial after another; people who show us faith in a way that no one else does. The book of Job deals with the perennial question: Why do I suffer? Why do the innocent suffer right along with the not so innocent? There are certainly times in our lives when life seems out of control, as if someone with an evil intent is running the show. The covid pandemic raises all kinds of issues. We do suffer, and there is not a satisfactory answer for the suffering. Job starts to question God. “My pain is more than I can bear,” he laments; “I can’t sleep at night. I shall not see happiness again.”

How many of us have been there? Job’s lament is the cry many of us have felt when we or someone we love became seriously ill; when we watched a spouse or parent slowly weaken and die; when we lost a job and wondered how we would care for our family; when a marriage that started out so promising suddenly falls apart; when a child we tried to care for chooses a life of drugs and booze. Life is full of losses and, consequently, pain and suffering. We didn’t want those losses. We weren’t expecting pain and suffering. Job’s words were our words: “My pain is more than I can bear; I shall not see happiness again.”

But what does Job do? He complains to God. His prayer is a lamentation, a complaint of a faithful person to God. It is a prayer of great faith, for it expresses belief in the one who is listening. It says that we are not alone, that our words do not fall on deaf ears. Job does not get a full answer from God, but he does learn that God is not deaf and hears the complaint of this pained and trusting servant who will not accept simple answers about suffering. He speaks boldly to God; it is a prayer of truth, a prayer of courage, and a prayer of trust. I might learn from Job that when life takes a hard turn I can express myself to God without any inhibition and know that God will not strike me dead! It is better than silence, better than turning away from God.

Did it strike any of you as odd that right after we heard the deep lament of Job, ending with: “I shall not see happiness again,” we sang in the psalm, “Praise the Lord who heals the broken hearted. Praise the Lord for he is good. Sing praise to God for he is gracious.” Even when we are in pain, God cares and wraps his loving and healing arms around us. Even in the midst of lamenting, we are called to praise God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is a sign of God’s desire to deal with suffering. Jesus went over to Peter’s mother-in-law, grasped her hand and helped her up. And the fever left her. She is given new life. And what does this new life look like? She began to serve. When people experience new life from Jesus, they are willing and able to serve others. Jesus has power over suffering; he takes on suffering; he suffers so others can be set free. That is the power of the cross. And what Jesus did for Peter’s mother-in-law, he does for us, individually and as a community. He extends a hand to us, raising us up from sin and death to a new life. His new life gives us the power to see the needs of others and respond with energy and joy.

But suffering is still hard – for those who are suffering, for the Jobs in our community, for the Jobs in our lives. Mark’s Gospel has many healings. How often do we pray for healing – for ourselves or for others –and the healing doesn’t happen. The cancer is still there, the Covid is still there, the paralysis is still there, the dementia is still there. Jesus is a sign of God’s desire to deal with suffering. We do not deny the presence of suffering and tragedy in our lives; in fact, we do what we can to overcome it. But while Jesus deals with suffering and cures illnesses in these stories, he doesn’t eliminate all pain from the world. Somehow we deal with that suffering and its causes as we can, and are left with the awesome mystery of what remains. And, as Job teaches us, it’s okay to complain to God.

If you have a brief faith reflection on today’s reading that you would like to share, please send it to me at deaconruss@holyspiritunoh.org.