06/02/2021
5th Ordinary Sunday B
Suffering and Faith: Jesus our Healer
Beloved, today we take our first reading from the book of Job. Job is that man in the bible who was very well to do and very well settled with his family. His only wish was to worship God and do charity. But all of a sudden, he lost everything – his family, his wealth and his health. Job became sullen, abandoned and frustration set in. But despite all he still clung to Go.
The painful experience of Job changed his outlook on life as the reading of today tells us. He became a man of sorrow and a man of grief. He saw life as a “pressed service” and his time no better than a hired drudgery- that is to say that life is laboriously difficult and meaningless. Life is full of suffering – sleepless nights of grief. In sum, life has no meaning. But despite this, Job remembered that man is but breath, the breath of God!
Sometimes in life we could come to the point of losing hope, even faith in God because of the difficulties of life – it could be a sad event in life like the death of a loved one, loss of job/ property and other things that could make us question our faith in God. The story of Job flags before us the question of suffering. This could push us to also ask ourselves the question “Why me”? and wait on God for an answer like Job. The answer lies with God alone. He knows why we suffer. Another aspect of it could be the seeming silence of God or aloofness when when we need him so much to prove us as people of faith. But God is never aloof from us.
But life has meaning. For Job, from the moment, he surrendered totally to God, he began to see the positive meaning of life. Life has meaning because God is alive and this is why Jesus came, to teach us and lead us to God.
Since two weeks, we have been reading about how Jesus has been moving about in his ministry doing good – teaching the people, healing the sick and delivering those possessed by the devil. Jesus is moved by the people’s suffering. He tells us that we are not alone in our sufferings.
Whenever he heals, or does exorcism he does so to teach us of God’s nearness to us. God loves us! Jesus is bigger than whatever our problem looks like as insurmountable as it could look like.
Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus cured many who suffered from diseases of one kind or another.
Let us listen to his voice today and we shall find meaning in life. Stay safe and remain blessed.
Job 7: 1-4. 6-7; 1 Cor 9: 16-19.22-23; Mark 1:29 -39.
