It is not difficult to relate the first reading (Job) to the Gospel passage. The phrases in the first reading could have been said at one time or another in life by any one of us. All of us have experienced difficulties, struggles, sufferings, anguish, and tiredness in life and sometimes even tend to believe that life is nothing more than a combination of all these. And all wrapped up in the turmoil of time that drags us along, leaving us with little to think about or enjoy. It is enough that we manage to overcome a problem, a difficulty, for another to appear on the horizon. Time passes too quickly and man is in constant frenzy to catch up. We wait for an uncertain joy that we are never sure if we will ever possess.
God is not indifferent to man’s cries of pain. God of the Bible asks us: “not to get away from those who shed tears” (Sir 7:34) and to “weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15). He too suffers, cries and comes to share our human condition made up of suffering and pain; puts himself at our side in the fight against evil and teaches us to turn it into an opportunity to build love.
From this experience, so profoundly human, the passage of Jesus is a kind of infinite relief, consolation, and joy for the soul. It is not surprising that those who had the opportunity to meet Jesus directly, or simply to learn about his existence, approached him in the hope that he would cure them of their ailments of the body and of the soul; which of these hurts more, we do not know.
Jesus took the hand of Simon’s mother-in-law and healed her. Later, perhaps aware of what had happened, a crowd of sick people crowded around the door of the house where Jesus was staying. All were waiting to be healed. All saw their hopes confirmed. And the demon of evil left them forever. The people were desperate but had finally found someone to deliver them from evil. Jesus himself is aware that this deliverance from evil is a fundamental part of his mission. He wants to reach everyone. “Let us go elsewhere, for that is why I have come”.
Today we are that saving presence of God in the world. He has placed in our hands the mission of giving hope and life to the men and women of our time who live overwhelmed by pain, poverty, or injustice. Today we Christians have to say with Paul (second reading): “Woe to me if I do not proclaim the Gospel!”
For your reflection
Do I feel sent by Jesus to free my brothers from pain and suffering of all kinds? Am I able to approach those who suffer without fear? What do I do to help them get out of these situations of death?
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by Father Alberto Rossa CMF
