“DIDJA KNOW?”
by Paul Rooney 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (“B”)
February 8, 2009

Q. 514: Job really knows how to describe the painful tedium of suffering. Does he expect healing from God?

A. 514: Job was really in anguish from his suffering. Our reading today (Job 7:1-4, 6-7) indicates that he may have experienced “months of misery.” An apocryphal source called the “Testimony of Job” (5:9) suggests seven years of misery, and made the character Job into a king. Our Lectionary left out verse 5 in today’s reading to spare you from hearing about his symptoms, which the New American Bible describes as “flesh clothed with worms and scabs, skin cracked and festering.” Elsewhere in the Book of Job we discover he also suffers from fever, sleeplessness, delirium, and similar miseries.

I would guess that every person reading this has experienced an illness which caused many painful hours (or even days) and sleepless nights. Therefore we can all empathize with Job to some degree. Certainly we can remember those restless nights, when we can do nothing but lay there and be acutely aware of our pain in the total quietness and seeming endlessness of darkness. This is a time when our Faith is really put to the test, because we are faced with the “mystery” that we call “suffering.” We can only pass the test if we believe that God is with us in our pain, even though we don’t understand why he doesn’t cure us instantly (like in our Gospel story today, Mark 1:29-39).

But Job also knows Who to turn in his time of need. In our very last verse today, he addresses God directly. He is worried that his life is slipping away, almost finished, just like the weaver who is getting ready to take the final cut of the thread from the loom to complete his work. So Job argues, “Remember, God: when I am gone, and you look for me, you won’t find me. It will be too late.” The implication: “So maybe you better do something good for me now while there is still time, since I am innocent?”

KNOW YOUR CATECHISM! Turn your suffering into something valuable by offering it as a redemption for the benefit of someone else (CCC #618). Simply pray, “Lord, I offer you my discomfort and suffering, for whatever redemptive value it may bring to benefit others.” This prayer will be heard, because it is in accord with the will of God.

Deacon Paul Rooney
Mary Our Queen Parish, Omaha

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