Sunday, February 5, 2012

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time



In our first reading, Job sounds pretty unhappy –
and with good reason.
He is a righteous man 
who has lost his wealth and his family
because, unknown to him, 
God has allowed Satan to test him.
He has no explanation for his misery
but he will not accept the conventional wisdom 
offered by his friends
that prosperity in this life is a reward for goodness
and that suffering is a punishment for evil,
since he is suffering and yet knows he has done no evil.
The only conclusion he can draw 
is that human life on this earth
is simply a life of drudgery,
that he is like a slave who can expect 
no justice from his master,
that his life is like the wind
and that his days will end 
without hope or happiness.

In other words, having rejected the idea 
that the misfortunes that we suffer
are a just punishment for our wrongdoings,
he seems to have come to the conclusion
that there is no reason why some prosper and others suffer.
And yet Job refuses to break off his dialogue with God,
hoping against hope that God will provide an explanation.
The book of Job manages in the end 
to give Job something like a happy ending,
with his property restored,
without falling back into the idea 
that prosperity in this life is a reward for goodness
and that suffering is a punishment for evil.
When God finally speaks with Job 
this is only to strengthen Job’s conviction
that the reason why there is so much suffering in this life
is ultimately a mystery to us.

And  we have not gotten very far in the centuries since
in dispelling that mystery.
Even those people of great faith 
who can sincerely say
in the face of their own tragedy and suffering
that everything happens for a reason,
that everything is a part of God’s plan,
cannot claim to know how specific tragic events fit into that plan.
The passage of the centuries has not really increased our ability
to find reasons for our suffering or the suffering of others.
Knowing that worldly attainment is temporary 
and wealth tenuous
does not take away the difficulty 
of losing a job or a home.
Knowing that relationships are fragile 
and hearts are fickle
does not lessen the pain 
of a broken marriage.
Knowing that death is the common lot 
of all human beings
does not eliminate the fear and grief that grips us
when faced with the death of someone we love.

I suspect all of us here have, at some time,
found ourselves in a darkness like Job’s.
I suspect that all of us have, at some time,
found all of the proffered explanation of the world’s pain
as unsatisfactory as the arguments made by Job’s friends.
And while we might someday be able to say
that everything happens for a reason,
that everything is a part of God’s plan,
this is really more a statement of faith and hope
than it is an explanation of tragedy, pain and suffering.

And in our Gospel today,
we find Jesus smack dab in the middle 
of our tragedy, pain and suffering.
He enters into Simon’s house 
and heals his mother in law:
“He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.”
As word of this healing spreads, Mark tells us,
“they brought to him all 
who were ill or possessed by demons”
and “the whole town was gathered at the door.”
The whole town. . .
the pain and suffering of an entire community 
brought to Jesus,
so that he could heal them of their illnesses,
so that he could free them of their demons.
He doesn’t offer them any explanation for their pain,
but plunges into the midst of that pain
to heal what is wounded and to drive out what is evil.
He is there with them not to explain 
but to grasp their hands and help them up.
God’s answer to the question of human suffering
is the healing presence of Jesus.

But it remains a mysterious answer.
Tragedy, pain and suffering remain with us
as long as we are on our pilgrimage toward God’s kingdom.
The presence of Jesus with us on that journey
is no guarantee of immunity from pain and suffering.
Indeed, Jesus himself drinks deeply 
from the cup of suffering on the cross;
God incarnate shares the lot of Job and of all who suffer,
definitively refuting the idea 
that prosperity in this life is a reward for goodness
and that suffering is a punishment for evil.
Jesus speaks to God on behalf of generations of humanity
when he cries out, 
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
But he also speaks to those same generations on behalf of God;
in his resurrection he speaks a word of comfort and a call to faith.
The mystery of human suffering remains,
but in Jesus that mystery has been taken up into God
so that it may be healed,
so that he might draw near to us, 
grasp our hands, 
and help us up,
so that we might continue with him 
on the journey to God’s kingdom.