By Colleen O’Sullivan
Job
answered his friends and said: I know
well that it is so; but how can a man be justified before God? Should one wish to contend with him, he could
not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and
remained unscathed? (Job 9:1-4)
Piety
When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there. (Anonymous proverb)
Study
Suffering is a great mystery, a reality to a greater or lesser degree in
each of our lives. Job, a wealthy,
upright and pious chieftain, loses his property, his children, and his
health. He wants to know why. He demands an answer from God. His friends serve as the Greek chorus in the
story, telling him he’s being punished for sin and should seize the opportunity
to repent. (Today’s reading is taken
from Job’s response to his friends.) That
doesn’t feel right to Job, so he continues to seek an explanation from
God. He never gets a direct answer, just
a powerful reminder that there are some things intended only for God to know
and understand. With humility, Job
accepts God’s answer because he trusts God.
It’s natural when we’re suffering to wonder why. Why did my child die? Why did my spouse get Alzheimer’s
disease? Why did I lose my job? Why do I have cancer? Why, why, why? We don’t get direct answers any more than Job
did.
The older I get, though, the more I can see that the way to God is often
the way of descent or, as Richard Rohr puts it, the way down is the way
up. Suffering isn’t a totally negative
thing. I don’t believe God deliberately
inflicts suffering on us (we’re talented enough at that ourselves), but I can
see how suffering has been a means at times to spiritual growth in my own life. Suffering sometimes gives me the chance to
see ways in which I need to change if I really want to follow Jesus. If everything went along smoothly all the
time, would I ever look at myself with a critical or appraising eye? Suffering can provide the opportunity to be
drawn closer to God. If my life had
never had any bumps in it, would I ever have sought out spiritual
direction? Would I have missed out on hearing
the voice of a God who loves us beyond telling?
Would I ever have realized the depths of what Jesus was willing to
endure to compassionately be with us in every trial we undergo in this life?
Action
Job suffered but trusted in God’s goodness. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, as
our saint for today is also known, experienced her share of suffering in her
short life, losing her mother at age 4½; her older sisters one by one to the
convent; and dying of TB at 24.
Although she experienced a dark night of the soul in the weeks before
her death, she never stopped trusting in God.
What about
you? What suffering have you
experienced? How has it affected your
relationship with the Lord?
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