by Fr. Tommy Lane
“The patience of Job” is an expression with which we are all familiar. Twice in the first two chapters of the book, the Lord says, “There is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil” (Job 1:8; 2:3, see 1:1). He was a really good man, but four major disasters befell Job in one day causing him to lose everything except his wife, and yet he kept his faith in God. He said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21) But then it changes. Job questioned God about suffering. He demanded answers from God. He did not deserve to suffer but yet he had suffered one catastrophe after another. In our first reading today (Job 7) we heard, as we might describe it, Job complaining. He depicted life as if it were slavery. When reading this and other similar complaints by Job we wonder why we have the expression, “the patience of Job” and wonder should it be “the impatience of Job!” He is reacting against having to suffer because he knows he did no wrong. Near the end of the book (chapter 38 onwards), God answers Job but not with the type of answer Job expected. God answers Job by asking him questions about the universe and about creation and of course Job did not know the answers. Then Job said, “I have spoken but did not understand; things too marvelous for me, which I did not know...I disown what I have said and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3, 6) So in the Book of Job the answer to the mystery of good people suffering is that it is a mystery we cannot understand. It is all somehow taken into God’s plan, and when we suffer, we can ask questions like Job and wrestle with God over it, but suffering is also a call to us to trust in God no matter what, to continue loving God like Job at the beginning of the book when he was patient.
Such trust in God is what we see in the Psalm today. The Psalm following our first reading is always linked or connected with our first reading in some way. The Psalm is always a prayerful response to our first reading. The Psalms were the prayer book of Israel and of Jesus. In today’s psalm we prayed,
Praise the Lord, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him. (Ps 147)
Following our reading about the suffering of the innocent man Job, the psalm responds and tells us how we can react when suffering comes our way: continue to praise God. It is like Job who said before he started to question God, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21) So no matter what happens, stay close to God.
Just as Job repeatedly questioned God about his suffering, we can turn to the Lord also and ask him questions about our suffering and ask him to help us solve our problems. In fact, not only can we do that, but the Lord wants us to turn to him when things are not going well. That is what we see in today’s Gospel (Mark 1:29-39). After leaving the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus went to the house of Simon Peter and Andrew, and cured Peter’s mother-in-law and all the sick who came to him. Commenting on today’s readings, Pope John Paul II said,
One can say that the ancient figure of Job, the just man struck with terrible suffering, —undeserved from the human point of view—is a big question for mankind of all ages. Man continually poses the question about the reasons for human suffering and about its meaning in the context of the entire worldly existence. . . The Gospel gives the answer. Christ, always close to those who suffer; Christ, who at the end will take the cross on his shoulders—a sign of disgrace—and will finish his life on it, is himself the answer. God gives in him the answer to Job of the Old Testament and to all Jobs down through the centuries and generations. The answer is discreet and at the same time strong and definitive. Christ is this answer.” (Pope John Paul II, homily visiting a parish, Sunday February 7, 1988, my translation)
So in our suffering of whatever kind, turn to Jesus as the people in Capernaum did. As Pope St. John Paul II said, Jesus is the answer to Job’s questions about suffering. Jesus knows all about undeserved suffering. He said on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34) In his encyclical letter, Salvifici Doloris, On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering, Pope St. John Paul II wrote,
Christ does not explain in the abstract the reasons for suffering, but before all else he says: “Follow me!” Come! Take part through your suffering in this work of saving the world, a salvation achieved through my suffering! Through my Cross. (Salvifici Doloris 26)
Jesus gives us the answer to suffering from his cross. When you are suffering, spend time with the Lord on his cross, sharing in his suffering for the salvation of the world. Time and again he has invited us to turn to him in difficulties, such as “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt 11:28)
There was no one like Job on earth but terrible suffering came his way. When suffering comes our way, continue to trust in God no matter what, and turn to Jesus suffering on his cross, sharing in his suffering for the salvation of the world.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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