If have ever traveled with other people en route to gambling weekend, on the way, there is hope in the air. People are full of optimism and everyone seems to have a vision of what it will be like to win in a large way. On the journey home, the atmosphere tends to be much more subdued as the dreams of riches have generally speaking not been realized and now a much more realistic vision of life must once again be embraced. However, if by chance, luck did pay someone a pleasant visit, their joy is usually measured in equal proportion to the amount they won. If they share the news of their winning, some will rejoice with them, others may be jealous, but oddly, no one seems to question God, as to why this has happened. If tragedy befalls our lives, we turn to God and ask why, if good fortune comes our way, the why doesn’t seem to be a part of the equation.

In the first reading today, Job speaks of the drudgery and pain of life. How life is a burden and passes slowly, how life is full of pain and suffering. Job’s friends conclude he is suffering because he has sinned, but Job has not sinned, he is a righteous man and through a broader picture of Job than the reading today provides, we find in his example a deep and abiding faith which recognizes and embraces the total healing of the love of God. Because of this, Job never curses God, nor does he ever question God, except to say, that if we accept good things from God, should we also not accept the bad things, and Job has plenty of reason to complain as, if we follow his story more closely, we discover he has tragically lost everything.

The thing about life and suffering is that we can’t get away from suffering, it’s part of our human condition. While we may question suffering and blindly accept good fortune it is important from a faith perspective to realize that in as much as Jesus bore all of our infirmities, He gave dignity to suffering when through His suffering, He won salvation for all the world. The experience of illness and suffering does in fact prepare the way for a deeper understanding of people and events, and should never be minimized because of the debilitating effects of illness upon the human person, but, no illness is a match for the power of Christ that comes through His passion, a reality that intimately links those suffering, with our Savior.

It is this message of hope and salvation that St. Paul tells us that he has an obligation to preach and that if he doesn’t it will be to his own detriment. In the gospel, when people are in pursuit of Jesus, it is not out of coldness that Jesus leaves behind the crowds, it is in order to proclaim the real message of salvation, to people far and wide, which is not about incidental healing, but about a Messiah who will win salvation for all through His suffering and death. In the face of human misery, the very best words of comfort cannot take away suffering, but proclaim the good news that Christ bore our sickness and endured our suffering as we do and thus gave dignity to our suffering and suddenly we can see the power and authority of Jesus Christ in the world and know that true healing comes through suffering. In other words, there can be no resurrection without the agony of the cross. Jesus does not just watch our suffering from afar, rather, through His love for us, He has entered our world to be with us, to share our suffering and our pain and as result, offer healing to the wounded of spirit the sick and brokenhearted.

From our perspective as sharers in the message of Christ, it is important to remember that we are not expected to bear our burdens apart from the Lord’s always availing grace. His power and authority make us realize that the healing presence of Christ is a mystery of grace granted to those who see the redemptive dimensions of illness and suffering. It does not guarantee physical healing but opens the door to divine healing of the entire person, body and soul and thus calls us to live our faith as an example of hope in the world, proclaiming a vision that is beyond our mortal ability to see.

In health, sickness, sorrow or joy, we are called to follow the example of Saint Paul and proclaim the gospel of Jesus, not just in attitude, but in service to others. Job received platitudes from his friends rather than a real understanding of what a genuine relationship with God is all about, recognizing that God is with us and blesses us in adversity as much as God blesses us in triumph as well. Since there is no satisfactory worldly or human explanation for suffering or sickness, we must look beyond our own limited horizon to the grace of God and what is ultimately a part of the mystery of the cross. As with all grace it elevates us to a level of participation in the Divine and comprehension of mystery otherwise unavailable on an exclusively human plane which means that in as much as we may question God in sorrow and accept triumph without cause, our growing faith demands that we look beyond the definitions of this world and see in service to Christ a message of hope and healing that we proclaim in service to the gospel, out of love to others and as vision for our eternity.