WITH JOB WE RECOGNISE OUR FRAGILITY AND MORTALITY

V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME -  Job 7:1-4,6-7

While in Lubengele Parish, in Chililabombwe, Zambia, I used to visit the sick in Konkola Mine Hospital every Friday. It happened one day to find a lady who had come from a different town. She was with cancer in the terminal phase. She was catholic and she had the Bible by her side. Before giving her the holy communion as the food for the journey, I asked her if I could read a passage from the Scriptures. Receiving an affirmative response, I asked again from which book she would like me to read. And she said: From the book of Job. In her dire situation, experiencing pain and making deep questions about suffering and the meaning of it in life, she could find in Job a role model to put before God her questions.

The book of Job is an extraordinary book that leaves us puzzled by its daring in dealing with the problem of suffering and death. Job is not afraid to address God and to ask difficult questions, the questions which humanity has always asked. Why is there suffering and death? Why does the upright suffer while the crooked and the oppressor enjoy life?

It was a traditional belief that the righteous are blessed by God and God protects them and fills them with honour and wealth. On the other side, the ungodly are punished by God and that punishment happens here on earth. The book of Job is written against this misconception. It is easy to discover as Job did, that wealth, power and honour are not signs of God’s blessings. Many times, they go together with injustice, exploitation and oppression. If we look around at the realities of life, we discover that many good people go through all kinds of suffering. It happened so with Jesus. We may even be led to think that it is a waste of time to be committed to God’s ways because he seems to abandon us and to ignore our plight. Job went through that experience, feeling the pain of anguish and despair, which led him to face God and ask: Why?

There are times in life when we struggle with ourselves and with God in an attempt to make sense of our lives. Before suffering, we cannot accuse the sufferer of a lack of faith. God allowed Job to raise questions, even when they seemed to show revolt. God knows that sometimes pain is so acute that one may enter into delirium. The important is that Job turned to God and felt confident enough to approach Him and ask.

Looking at human life, Job became aware of its fragility and vulnerability. Our “life is but a breath” and “swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.” Death is part of life. We are mortal and all those who were born will go through the gate of death into the unknown.  Those who believe in Jesus Christ approach that gate with the hope that on the other side a loving Father is waiting to embrace us. United with Jesus in death, we will be with him as well in the resurrection.

The pandemic we are going through leads us to the same experience of Job. Like him, we approach God with a heavy heart and with difficult questions. And God will listen to our cry and have compassion on our bleeding hearts.