Mission Society of the Philippines

Homilies

FIFTH SUNDAY IN OT: GOD IS WITH US IN OUR SUFFERING

Mk 1:29-39

AS PART OF our seminary formation program, we were once exposed to the hospital for a year. The head of the chaplaincy assigned me to visit patients having terminal illness, that is, cancer patients. Patients of this sort are hard to deal with because they have a lot of questions that we could not readily answer. Their questions were “Why does God allow this to happen?” or “Why me?”

There was one woman who never smoked, but unfortunately, she was sick of lung cancer. She was a “passive smoker”, so to speak. The culprit? Her husband, who was a chain- smoker; he smoked inside their house and their bedroom. And worse, the husband left her now that she had a cancer. Her pain was too much. Her question? “Why me?”

Likewise, I encountered a twelve-year old boy who had a cancer somewhere inside his head. For a young boy, like him, the sickness was too much. His mother had a lot of questions that I could not answer. I simply listened to her and cried. I was there in the boy’s dying moments. I was helpless to see the grimace until he died. Everyone’s question was, “Why him?”

In our world today, we are confronted with misery and pain. In the television news channels, we could see some harrowing images or footages of children dying in famine, or people displaced because of internal strife and war. While we empathize them, we ask ourselves, “Where is God in these situations?”

The problem of suffering has been an all-time problem. Philosophers and theologians have never found a cogent reason why people have to suffer or to undergo such suffering.

In the first reading, we have heard Job crying out, “So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me.” As far as misery in the Old Testament is concerned, Job  can be seen as an exemplar through which we can reflect of the themes of suffering and misery. Job, a religious man, was put to the test by God. He is stripped of all possessions, and his family. It is a life full of misery. Job does not find an answer to the suffering that he experienced.  In fact, there has been no ready and easy answer.  However, Job has shown to us that in the time of suffering, we need to realize that this must be part of God’s mysterious plan for us. God does not want us to suffer, but he allows it, perhaps, for our own good.

In the gospel, we heard of Jesus’ curing of Simon’s mother-in-law. Like in the Book of Job, Jesus did not give us an explanation to the suffering of people. But Jesus demonstrated how important it is to be with the people who suffer. Being with the sick, curing the sick, and turning human suffering into joy… these are the things that Jesus demonstrated.

Perhaps, in order for us to find the meaning of suffering, we must put our own suffering in the context of the suffering that Christ experienced on the Cross. Moments of suffering, from a Christian viewpoint, are opportunities for us to share in the pains and sufferings of Christ. For some, this may appear ridiculous. The fact that the world teaches us comfort and easy living, the theme on suffering can be out-of-date. In some affluent countries, the easy response to suffering is suicide or mercy-killing. In their minds, people should not suffer. Or suffering should be terminated instantly.

For us Christians, we should look at the other side of suffering. We could understand better the suffering of Jesus on the cross when we ourselves experience it, or share in it. In doing so, there could be meaning of our suffering. A few years ago, we had a deacon who died of cancer. He was to be ordained as priest on December 12, 1995, but he died on December 1, i.e., eleven days earlier. During his dying moments, we saw how he grimaced because of unbearable pain. But, in the middle of pain, he was still able to say, “Dagdagan mo pa, Lord! At ialay ko ito para sa kasama kong mga pari” (Lord, give me some more of these pain. And I offer them for my fellow priests). Everyone in the bedside cried. They could not think that a person in a painful situation can ask for more for the sake of others. Indeed, he found the meaning of his suffering.


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