Fifth Sunday of Year - The Spirituality of Pain

Why is such a little word and yet we use it such a lot. We start questioning at an early age and it becomes the habit of a lifetime (by the way, my three-year-old nephew asks this question more than a hundred times a day). Perhaps the biggest why of all is the subject of our today's readings - why suffering? Many great minds, philosophers and theologians, have wrestled with this great question and found no real answers.

The problem of human suffering was a theological problem at all times. Why does a loving and merciful God allow us to suffer? To understand this we have to go back to the very beginning. We have to go back to the paradise and the fall of Adam and Eve (Genesis, chapter 3). God said to the woman: I shall give you intense pain in childbearing, and then to the man: Painfully will you get your food as long as you live. We see here the suffering as a punishment for their disobedience to God. In other words, the suffering was not part of God's original plan; it came into the world because of sin.

 The problem of pain is powerfully present in our first reading today, from the book of Job. Job, though he is a good man, suffers greatly. He loses his home, his children, his livestock, his health... everything. He is in agony. I think some of us can deeply identify with Job. Physical pain, psychological pain, anxiety, loss of those whom we love - whatever it is, maybe the combination of all these things - accompanies us at different times of our life. Then we ask: Why does it happen to me? Is there God's will in my suffering?

In the gospel we hear that a whole army of Jobs comes to Jesus. That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. Jesus is surrounded by those who suffer. The blind, the lame, the crippled, the mentally ill... all come to him. They come because, as we heard last Sunday, Jesus speaks and acts with authority. They see that in Jesus there is the power of God. And what does he do? Jesus reaches out to them and heals them. He has compassion on the sick and makes them well.

The question remains, however: Why didn't Jesus heal everybody? Yes, Jesus cured some blind people, but not all blind. Blindness did not come to an end with Jesus. Yes, he cured some of the deaf, but not all of them. Yes, he raised Lazarus from the dead. Why couldn't he raise everybody? We have a lot of questions like these. Meanwhile, what we see in all the gospels is not Jesus' answer to these questions but rather his solidarity with those who suffer. He didn't simply say from a distance: Trust me, I have a plan. Jesus came to take on the agony of those who suffer. He showed his solidarity with them. We can clearly see this on the cross. This is God's plan to save the world. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

In the course of the Church's history many people gave us an example how to accept the suffering. I think one of them was Pope John Paul II. It is no secret that as a young man he was skilled in football, swimming, canoeing and skiing. During the early years of his pontificate, he was a picture of health and vitality. However, in his 60s, after the assassination attempt (and even more in his 70s and 80s) a series of health problems revealed. He was hospitalized many times and then a Parkinson-like condition began to reveal its visible effects. This part of his life was marked by great suffering. It was his way of imitation of the suffering Jesus. Finally he couldn't even speak. But there was something powerful and noble in the Pope's witness. Crushed with suffering he was a heart-lifting example for many of us. He bore his infirmities as if they were badges of honour. It was his way of imitation of the suffering Christ. The pope offered the world a wonderful model for responding with grace to the test of suffering.

Dear Parishioners. Suffering is still a big problem. There are lots of people today who could identify with Job or with the sick from today's gospel. I think of all who suffer from poverty, hunger, sickness, injustice, oppression, tragedy... If something like this happens to us we usually start to complain. When confronted with suffering, most of us desperately seek answers to the following questions: Why me? Why now? Why in this unexpected form? I don't know the answer... but I know who does. When we look at the cross we can see that our suffering is an ingredient in God's plan of salvation. Our suffering is a small but essential part of this plan!

The homilies from the previous Sundays are stored in the Archive