Suffering in Faith

A Reflection on the First Reading for Sunday, June 23rd, 2024:
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Job
​38.1-4, 8-11

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me if you have understanding.

“Who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb? --
when I made the clouds its garment,
and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped’?”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

​The First Reading for this Sunday comes from the book of Job, a story of suffering and striving to remain faithful to God in the midst of that very suffering.
 
How often do I look at a difficult situation in my life and question why God is permitting me to suffer or ask what I did wrong that is causing God to punish me! I have to remind myself that God does not work to bring me suffering, and it is not His desire for me to suffer. It is God’s desire for me to grow in holiness and love of Him, and a consequence of that desire can be pain and suffering. I may never fully understand the “why” of my suffering, and that is the essence of God’s message to Job in the First Reading.
 
There are things we cannot comprehend or fully understand – and we may not ever need to understand – but in the midst of suffering we are called to trust in the love and mercy of God. We are called to see beyond the moment of suffering and look to the goal of eternal life in God.
 
The words of God to Job are a reminder to me that I am not God. I do not have infinite knowledge. Therefore, I am called to trust in the God who is all knowing, all loving and merciful.
 
The greatest consolation I receive when I meditate on the story of Job and his relationship with God is that the sufferings I initially see as a punishment from God often reveal themselves to be the truest signs of God’s love.
 
When I became a religious sister, I was certain that the vow of poverty would be my worst suffering, but I can honestly say that it has been the greatest gift and a most freeing path to the great love of God. I share that not to say everyone needs a vow of poverty but to point out how easy it is to assume that something is terrible because the world says it is or that another thing is great because the world says it is.
 
What I strive to remember in my suffering is that none of us lives in this world as if it is our goal. Instead, we travel through the world as pilgrims, learning to recognize God as true goodness and suffering as an opportunity to appreciate the depth of that goodness.


Sr. Teresa MacDonald

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