4-5 FEBRUARY, 2012 – YEAR B
SCRIPTURE: 1ST Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7
2nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
Do you sometimes find yourself in a conversation that deals with the latest pain you have been experiencing or someone else’s painful experience? I would imagine the conversation would sound something like this: “Well Tom, I saw the doctor today and found out that I have a very severe case of arthritis. That is why I have so much pain when trying to bend my fingers. It hurts all the time.”
Or maybe the conversation sounds like this: “The pain is so great. Losing my spouse is intolerable. I don’t know what I will do.” Then you have the ones who try to calm. “I know you are in pain but your spouse is in a better place.” Or “Just pray to God and all will be O.K.”
How many times do we who are moving up in years find ourselves conversing with our friends about the newest ailment that has come upon us? Yes, I have heard many of these conversations and have also been privy to some myself.
All these conversations sounds like Job in our first reading, doesn’t it? We are not so different from Job than we think! Of course, who in there right mind wants to suffer? Some would say the saints would but I feel it is not that they wanted to suffer as much as it was the acceptance of using there suffering to get closer to Jesus.
In our first reading, Job tells us that he doesn’t understand why God allows him to suffer so much. Do we at times feel the same way?
Job says; “I have been assigned months of misery and troubled nights have been allotted to me.” Did Job have an understanding of 2 his suffering? Do any of us have a real understanding of why there is suffering? It is bad enough seeing any human being suffer let alone the righteous.
Much of our suffering is caused by sin, our own and those of others. A lot of our suffering is self imposed. It may be by our own fault by taking unwise chances, rejecting good advise, choosing bad companions, and even not tending to our own health. Of course, there are those times that are unexplainable why we find ourselves suffering emotionally or physically.
The important thing here is not to blame it on God. Jesus heals, Jesus saves. Jesus suffered greatly himself. Yes, it is hard for any of us to fully understand suffering but I can tell you this; I find in my visits to the sick, the home bound, those in hospitals, and even those who suffer even till death, that Jesus seems to be close to them and He even seems close to us when we are suffering or when we are in the presence of one who is suffering.
There may be much pain and we may sometimes feel that God doesn’t care, but eventually we discover that Jesus is helping us carry our cross; that He is with us, side by side, on our journey of faith.
So, why is there so much suffering? Do any of you remember the movie titled “Oh God, Book 2”? If you remember, George Burns plays God. We see God returning to earth as an old man in a blazer, spreading PR with the help of a fifth grade girl named Tracy Richards. They were walking alone when Tracy looked up at God and asked: “God, why is there so much bad in the world?” God replied; “You see, there is a left and there is a right. There is up and there is down. There is good and there is bad. Without bad there would be no good. Do you see?”
Today’s gospel shows us how we can thrive and flourish even in the midst of suffering. The gospel is centered on Jesus continuing His proclamation of God’s reign not only by preaching the Good News, but also by entering into the lives of the sick, the suffering and those in need of healing.
Jesus reached out and healed Simon’s bed-ridden mother-in-law and then she started to wait on Jesus. One point to remember is that when she was healed, she began to serve. This is what happens when we find an example of Jesus’ healing love.
Jesus later demonstrates His high regard for service by serving his disciples at table. Jesus asks the disciples”For who is greater, the one at table or the one who serves? Surely the one at table. Yet, here am I among you as the one who serves.”
Jesus the servant, bearing our infirmities, relieves us of carrying our burdens, our sufferings alone. He calls us to follow Him as fellow servants. You know, Job was enslaved by sickness and catastrophes in his life but kept his conversation with God. Paul, in our second reading, was a slave to all, as he put it, and prayer was the vehicle he used to receive guidance and strength from God. Jesus was the servant to God and always turned to prayer for guidance and strength.
All three are models for us when we experience service as a type of slavery or when the burden of suffering from an illness, or the boredom at work, or the friction with family members, wears us out. It might be to much for us if we had to go this route alone. But we are not alone!
Job, Paul, and Jesus have gone this way before us, having run into problems and have turned to prayer. It is important for us to take a cue from these three who brought their problems, their concerns to the Father in prayer. This is our lesson.
Prayer allows us to draw back from the immediate concerns that pre-occupy us right now (as the people of Capernaum pre-occupied the Apostles ) and to see the larger picture as Jesus saw the whole of Galilee as His next mission after He prayed to the Father. Prayer gives us a larger perspective-a better idea of our options and choices and helps us give these choices proper priority in the lifelong journey to bring us closer to God.
Prayer helps us discern God’s will for us. Do we sometimes weaken? Do we sometimes question “why Me?” Do we sometimes think that in our suffering God does not care? Yes, we do! But through prayer, Jesus is there to pick us up, to walk with us if we just talk with God as Jesus talked with the Father.
My sisters and brothers, we gather at the table of the Eucharist just as the multitude gathered outside the door, where Jesus waits to give us life and healing. In the Eucharist we gain the strength from the Lord so that we may cheerfully join our suffering to His and to gain the strength to serve others, to discern God’s will for us, and to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom by our example.
Blessed Pope John Paul II, no stranger to sacrificial suffering, said:
“Those rendered helpless by illness continue to be active members for the building up of the Church, especially by virtue of their union with the suffering Christ and with so many other brothers and sisters in the Church who are sharing in the Lord’s Passion.
Do we fully understand suffering? Well, maybe what I have talked about will help but we can find that in our suffering we also find dignity as a child of God. We find the love of the Son, Jesus Christ, walking along side us where our pain is his pain, and we find the Spirit giving us strength of heart to endure what this life throws at us. And we enter into the gift of the Father’s love bringing us closer to the likeness of His Son.