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WHY DO INNOCENT PEOPLE SUFFER?
Written sometime around the seventh century BC, the Book of Job raises the question // why do innocent people suffer?
Job a blameless and upright man // with many blessings from god,
Had wealth and family, yet is suddenly put to the test by Satan.
Will Job remain strong in his faith // when all is lost //
And suffering follows?
Job speaks for all the dejected, miserable, hopeless people in the world and it seems that no one listens. Job’s pain is too great. “I shall not see happiness again.”// this sounds like us.
Life is short and hard, full of drudgery and suffering // is surely a sad prayer on human existence.
Not exactly an upbeat message // for a weekend Mass.
The Book of Job // does not answer the problems of suffering // of the innocent, but challenges us to come // to our own understanding.
The lesson the author intended to teach // was that the prevailing belief among the Jews for centuries//
That God rewards the good, in this life// and God punishes the bad in this life. However, this was not based on fact or well founded. //
Earthly sufferings are not always a punishment –
Since Job was an innocent man.
Now enters the hero of Job’s story and our Gospel story, Jesus.
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God:
“this is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
Mark begins the public ministry of Christ in Galilee, a ministry of healing. Jesus preached as one having authority in the synagogue at Capernaum and Jesus with one word of clear, simple, brief authority--expelled the demon from the man.
Jesus begins his ministry in last Sunday Gospelby healing a man of an unclean spirit in the synagogue at Capernaum. Later that same day, after sundown, Jesus preformed many miracles of healing, beginning with Peter’s mother-in-law, and he cast out many other demons. The evangelist Mark // begins this week’s Gospel account // emphasizing Jesus’s powerful deeds. In fact, the extensive focus on Jesus miracles here in Galilee seems to make his deeds more important than his words.
There are four parts to this Gospel: first-the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, second-the healing of all the sick andpossessed in Capernaum, third-Jesus at prayer, and fourth-Jesus leaving of Capernaum.
Beginning with the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law we learn Peter is married. In first CorinthiansPaul tells us Peter traveled with his wife. Peter and his brother Andrew lived in the same house in Capernaum. Mark’s account indicates that it is Peter and Andrew who interceded for Peter’s mother-in-law; so too // will they // and all the saints // intercede for us. Lying in bed with a fever, no one likes to be sick. However, the lying in bed // shows the degree of illness // and the weakness of the mother-in-law. It is the nature of fevers to cloud our minds. How true it is of sin in our life // that our minds become cloudy, and we can only think clearly // through the healing of Jesus Christ.
“he touched her hand, the fever left her, and she rose and waited on them.”
Touching is different from speaking, grasping, sticking with a needle, etc. Jesus elected to touch her // as he elects to touch our lives. There is an element of compassion // understood in the act of touching. It is a personal interaction // between god and an individual. God is not // some all powerful, unreachable entity, but a personal god.
He touched her hand.
The hand is significant. Jesus could have touched her on the shoulder, or upon the head. He did not. Jesus chose to touch the hand. The hand, more than any other body part, is how we touch with the outside world. When someone grasp // your hand, if you like the person, there is a mutual grasping back of the other person’s hand. There is an interaction not possible with any other body part. Everyone has felt the hand shake // of someone // who likesyou, and someone who doesn’t like you. I believe the mother-in-law responded to the touch of Jesus, and he responded // with his healing. The fever left her.
The response is instantaneous. She didn’t get well over a period of a few days // but instantly. There can be no other reason, than Jesus taking upon himself our infirmities. Not only is the fever gone, but the healing is so complete // that the mother-in-law acts as if she had never been ill. This further demonstrates // the miraculous nature of the healing.
God comes out of the temple in Jerusalem to the house of peter in Capernaum. God is with us always. // does that make sense? The Hebrews believe God was present in the temple in Jerusalem, // we believe god is everywhere, the difference between the old law and new law.
The second part of the reading is the healing of all the sick: Jesus continues his healing and exorcizing demons, careful to keep the demons quiet.
But the demons knew him to be the Messiah // and they would have spread the news about the people // but Jesus prohibits them, they knew that Jesus was the Messiah // and the reign of the Messiah was the end of the demons and they had to obey.
Jesus as the Messiah // wanted to manifest himself gradually, first preparing the minds and hearts to understand the true nature of his mission.
The people had the wrong idea of what the Messiah would be—a political leader who would free Israel from the hated Roman and pagan government—this wrong idea // Jesus the savior gradually corrected. “Jesus kingdom was not of this world.”
The third part of the reading is Jesus in prayer, next in the midst of Jesus’s solitary prayer, his intimate communication with his father, Jesus prayed daily // but the Gospels mention special occasions // like the present one—the beginning of his preaching and healing mission—when he put himself in his Father’shands. In prayer we give the perfect mind of god an opportunity to feed our mental powers. Jesus knew this: he knew that if he has to meet with men he must first meet with god. If prayer was necessary for Jesus, how much more must it be necessary for us?
Peter and Andrew with James and John come to tug Jesus back to his public work.
The forth part of the reading // Jesus is leaving Capernaum and from Jesus himself we hear the main purpose for his public ministry: to preach the Gospels to the nearby villages.
“so Jesus went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.”
The evangelist Mark makes an important statement here:
While Jesus’s deeds are truly amazing and astonishing, // it is his words // that also communicate // the good news of the kingdom of god.
So that brings us back // to the instructional story of Job. With the example of Christ suffering // and cruel death before us--we can see now the value of suffering in this life and the full meaning of the Book of Job.
Jesus Christ suffered for us // and died the excruciating death of the cross, so that we might have eternal life. Jesus asks us to take up our crosses daily // and follow him. That daily cross of ours // cannever be as heavy as his, // for he was the innocent son // of God and ofman. If, we carry our cross patiently, it will be turned into our crown of glory // when we meet Jesus at the moment of our death.
Jesus never separated earth and heaven. In the prayer‘the Our Father’ (or the Lord’s Prayer) we say “thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
In the responsorial Psalm 147 we sing “praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.” Yes, our lives our often devastated with grief and loss. But our loving God is with always with us in our suffering.
Yes, our loving God is always with us.