Homily for the Fifth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year B

The Non-futility of Human Suffering

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Fifth Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, February 4, 2024

The book of Job is one of the most intriguing, most profound and most challenging books in the entire Bible. It is a book that beguiles the believer and the unbeliever, the faithful and the faithless. The central theme of Job, which is the suffering of the just, has continued to be on the minds of people up and down the centuries. From the time the Book is written to the present day, it has continued to trouble a lot of people, most especially, our young people today. The great question of our day and in the time past is, how do you reconcile the existence of a loving God with the terrible suffering that we see in the world, especially the suffering of the innocent. I tell you, no OT book wrestles with that problem better than the book of God. If you are interested in apologetics, in trying to explain the faith, read the book of Job. 

Now, what’s the basic story? Job is presented as an entirely righteous man, good man, upright man that walks with God. And he enjoys the blessings of his moral excellence. He has a functional family; he is blessed with wealth and has an admirable position in the society. But then something happens in the spiritual realm. God and Satan engaged in some kind of conversation. In that conversation, Satan tells God that the reason why Job is his friend is because God has blessed Job bountifully. But if he takes away all those blessings, Job would curse God. Surprisingly, God accepts the challenge. He allows Satan to strip Job of all his blessings. Thus, in one terrible swoop, Job loses everything. He loses his family, his loved ones. He loses all of his possessions. Add to that, he loses his health. In one fell sweep, everything he had and had enjoyed is stripped away. At the beginning of his woe, Job does not curse God. He stays resolute and determined and faithful. But as his suffering persists and intensifies, he falls, understandably, into depression. As Job drowns into his own sorrow, three of his friends come to visit him. For seven days of their visit, they sit in silence. If you are involved in pastoral ministry, this approach is a welcome one. Rather than say something that might undermine or trivialize a person’s pain, just sit in silence. It is a rather beautiful gesture. When someone is in great pain, words probably may not be the best and suitable remedy. After sitting in silence for seven days, they start to speak. Unfortunately, what they said is something they shouldn’t have said. In summary, what they said to Job is like this: Job, you must have done something bad to bring all this evil upon yourself. I know you look like you’re righteous, but you must have done something wrong because God is punishing you. 

After listening to his friends accuse him of some evil deeds, after protesting that he is innocent, he dismisses the three friends. And in one of the most dramatic moments in the whole Bible, he calls God into the dock. In his anguish, Job cursed the day he was born, “Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, ‘The child is a boy!’ May that day be darkness: may God above not care for it, may light not shine upon it! May darkness and gloom claim it, and clouds settle upon it….” (Job 3:5). And about life on earth, Job says, “Is not life on earth a drudgery, its days like those of a hireling?” (Job 7:1). Job has had enough and he is speaking up, but not to his godless friends, but to God. He speaks for anyone who has endured great suffering, especially those who know they have not done some terrible things to merit the suffering, and yet they are suffering. Job calls and challenges God: Why? Why would you allow this? Why would you preside over my misfortune and pain? Isn’t this the same question we hear all the time when people suffer? We may have posed similar questions too. Growing up in Nigeria without my father and without any helper or guide, I asked that kind of question too. And as a priest for almost 17 years, people in pain and suffering have come to me expressing those sentiments.

But in chapter 38 of the book of Job, we hear “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: Who is this who darkens counsel with words of ignorance? Gird up your loins now, like a man; I will question you, and you tell me the answers! Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you have an understanding. Who determined its size? Surely you know? Who stretched out the measuring line for it?” What is God doing and saying? God takes Job on a tour of the cosmos, basically asking him “Where were you when I created all these things?…Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked into the recesses of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you…Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Have you entered the storehouse of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail? Do you give the horses its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane? Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars? Is it at your command that an eagle mounts up and makes its nest on high?” What is God doing with Job? He is taking Job on a tour of his cosmos that Job does not know and did not contribute anything into putting into place. What does Job know about the sea, hawk, horse etc? What does he know about their movements and their activities? Now, what is particularly interesting about God’s speech to Job is that it is almost about the non-human world. It is about aquatic animals, terrestrial animals, about the sea, about the cosmic realities and not about human affairs. What is God getting at? What does God want us to pay close attention to? God’s providence! God’s providence has to do with all of human affairs, but as St. Thomas Aquinas noted, God’s providence also extends to particulars, that is, to everything in the world. Everything we can see and cannot see is under the providence of God. God is in-charge!

More to it, God says to Job, “Look at Behemoth, whom I made along with you, who feeds on grass like an ox. See the strength in his loins, the power in the sinews of his belly. He carries his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thigh are like cables. His bones are like tubes of bronze; his limbs are like iron rods.” God is admiring the amazing creatures that he has made just as he has made Job. God is telling Job that his creative providence extends to everything in creature, seen and unseen, known and unknown. And at the same time asks Job if he knows anything about these beautiful and powerful animals. What’s the point of this? In God’s lengthy speech to Job, God does not provide a detailed layout answer as for why Job is suffering. But God does not dismiss Job’s suffering. Rather, God places suffering in an infinitely greater context— into his loving providence. What does that mean? Someone applies for a job they thought was their dream job; they worked towards it with all their heart. Although they competed with others for the job, that’s actually the job they really wanted and they knew they could do. At the end of the day, they did not get it. What’s their natural reaction? Devastation and brokenhearted! Oftentimes when this happens, God is questioned and God is blamed: “How could God have allowed this to happen to me?” Later on, because they did not get that job, they got another job they never dreamed of, which turned out to be so much better, and it opened up doors they never dreamed or imagined possible. Why did God allow that suffering? Within the rich complexity of his providence, God saw something else. The good God, who sees the entirety of the universe, visible and invisible, sometimes allows suffering to happen, so as to bring about a greater good that we cannot immediately see. 

To his servant God asks, “Where were you, Job?” You can substitute Job with your own name. Does anyone like to suffer? No! I don’t want it, you don’t want it too. When we suffer, we understandably feel the pain and narrow our focus on what we are going through. When we suffer, all we see is our suffering. And in our distress we wonder how God could allow this and that to happen to us. But in his response to Job, God invites us into this infinitely complex setting for all that happens to us, and then invites us into the place of trust. Do I know why God allows a particular pain? Not at all! I have no idea. My knowledge is limited in scope in this world. When I get to heaven, I may be able to know. But in the meantime, all I can do is to trust. In the here and now, I believe; I have confidence. The most basic theology my mother taught me is, “God knows!” The God who is the Lord of heaven and earth knows what he’s doing. 

Veni Sancte Spiritus!