The 4th Sunday of Easter

    This weekend is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of today’s Gospel reading. However, I think we could also call this “Scandal Sunday.” The word scandal comes the Greek word that means “to put a stumbling stone in front of someone.” So it is something offensive and inconvenient.
    Jesus referring to himself as the Good Shepherd would not be scandalous for the Jewish people at that time. Oh, the Scribes and Pharisees might have disagreed with him, but they knew that both in the Psalms and in the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel the Messiah was described as the one, true shepherd of Israel. By calling himself the Good Shepherd, Jesus was making the claim to be the long awaited promised Messiah. Again, while some would disagree with his claim, they would not have been scandalized by his making the claim.
    What would have scandalized his listeners — both those who believed in him and those who did not — was this line, “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus was declaring that he was going to die for the salvation of the people. This would have been shocking to the people because they would never have thought of the Messiah dying. The Messiah was going to rule them forever; he could not die. Of course this is because they had a wrong idea of who the Messiah was going to be, but also because they did not have the correct understanding of what salvation is.
    The salvation that Jesus proclaims, and the Church still holds to, is not an eternity in a garden of sensual delights. Rather the salvation that Jesus Christ offers us is to share in the very life of God. Salvation is to become a child of God, enjoying God forever. The early Church Fathers called this divinization or deification. This does not mean that we will become gods — that was the lie the serpent told our First Parents when he told them that if they ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they would “be like gods” (Genesis 3:5). Rather, deification is a participation in the divine nature.
    The founders of the other major world religions do not claim to offer a way to this kind of salvation.

    Buddha said that the problem of human existence was the illusion of our selfhood. He offered a way by which we would lose this illusion and cease to exist as personal beings.

    Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, basically adopted the position of the serpent in the Garden of Eden; that if we lived a good life we would be rewarded by becoming a god over our own planet or solar system.
    Mohammed’s view of salvation was that as a reward for obedience to the mono personal god, “Allah”, we would be given an eternal afterlife of sensual pleasure and comfort.
    None of these are what Jesus taught and what we as Christians believe about salvation. Jesus teaches us that God is our loving Father and that by, through and in him we become a child of God, sharing in the divine life.
    In today’s first reading, St. Peter concludes his message with the line, “There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” 

    It is this line that is scandalous to our modern, pluralistic society. Our modern world finds it arrogant for St. Peter to claim that Jesus is the sole way to salvation. The world today says we must all be tolerant of other views. If by that we mean be respectful of others who have different beliefs than we have, then absolutely. As Christians we know that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God, and therefore have a basic dignity that cannot be taken away. However, if by tolerant the world means that every opinion is just as good as any other, then we must say NO! There is a single TRUTH, and Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the only one to say that salvation is a participation in the very life of God as His child.

    If there are three fruit venders, one only sells oranges, another only sells apples, and one only sells bananas, it is not arrogant to say, “If you want bananas, you must come to me.” It is not arrogant for Jesus to say “If you want salvation, to be a child of the one true God you must come to me.”

    I learned a new word this week, “Christophobia.” This is the fear of Christ, the world’s fear and hatred of the truth that the Church continues to preach — a divisive and intolerant truth — that Jesus Christ alone is God, He alone is the Savior from sin, and that we are all sinners in need of the Salvation Christ offers.

    St. John in his letters speak of the world being the AntiChrist; teaching lies in opposition to the Truth revealed by Jesus Christ. In today’s world, the “sacraments” of the Antichrist, the sacraments of the anti-Christian “sexual revolution” are pornography, fornication, divorce, contraception, abortion, same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism. As followers of Christ we cannot embrace any of these sacraments of the Antichrist. We cannot reconcile light and darkness.

    St. Peter did not expect everyone, especially in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, to smile and love him and agree with him. He expected to be murdered and martyred for what he said. And eventually he was, as were all the other Apostles with the exception of St. John. However, it was that courage, that willingness to be hated by the world that changed the world and saved the world. 

    Today our cowardice to speak the hard truth is losing the world. Every Christian is called by God to become a saint and an apostle. We are all called to be a warrior of love and truth, which are our only two weapons in this great spiritual war of Christ versus the Antichrist. At stake is something much more than the American Dream or Western Civilization. The real stake is the souls of every human being, each of whom have an eternal and immortal and absolute value. St. Thomas Aquinas says that the first thing that love and charity to our neighbor demands of us is to lead them to the truth.

3rd Sunday of Lent (B)

In today’s first reading from the Book of Exodus, we hear God giving Moses the Ten Commandments; the kernel of the Mosaic Law. When you hear “the law” what is your reaction?

Most Americans have a negative attitude towards the idea of law. We tend to view laws as mostly restrictive. A slightly more positive attitude that many of us have is to view law as something that is protective; the law protects the innocent from the guilty. 

Few if any of us would have the attitude that the composer of today’s psalm had for the Law. The Psalmist praises the law as “refreshing the soul” and “rejoicing the heart.” The law is seen as something “more precious than gold” and “sweeter also than syrup or honey.” In another Psalm, King David describes a person as “blessed” if he is able to “meditate on his law day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

Why such a difference of attitudes between us today, and the Jewish people of the Old Testament? Why did they love the law?

For the Jewish people, the Law was so much more than a list of rules and regulations. Oh, they will create quite a list of rules and regulations to further those of the Ten Commandments — all you need to do is read the Book of Deuteronomy, which literally means “Second Law.” For the Jewish people the Mosaic Law was a covenant, which is an extension of kinship by oath. In other words, the Mosaic Law was God’s inviting the Jewish people to become members of His family.

Every family has rules; whether it be about bedtimes, chores, letting people know where you are. And for all the kids in the congregation who have thought “I can’t wait until I’m all grown so that I don’t have all these rules to follow,” let me tell you — I am 59 years-old and I still have rules to follow where I live: I have to let them know if I am going to be “home” for a meal, and I have to mark on a board by the door if I am out or in. Like all “family rules” the Mosaic Law was meant to help the family — God’s family — to live in peace, both with God and with each other.

Now we might better understand why King David described as “blessed” the person who “meditates on his law day and night.” We meditate, or spend time thinking about, that which we love. A person who has just fallen in love with someone might just sit there staring into space; they are thinking about their beloved who is so beautiful that they cannot get their face out of their mind. For today’s Psalmist, the law was loved, dreamed about, more than the face of any human beloved. It is our loss if we do not have that same kind of love for God’s law.

The law — God’s Law — is like an umbilical cord connecting us with God, the God of all meaning and goodness and hope. For pious Jews, reading the Mosaic Law was like reading a love letter from their beloved. Love asks the beloved, “What do you want? What do you desire? What do you love? I want to fulfill your desire because I love you.” Well, God, their beloved, answers those questions with the Law, starting with the Ten Commandments. It is God saying to them, “This is what I love: these values, this kind of person, this kind of life. Being that kind of person and living that kind of life is what would make me proud of you and happy.” [This is largely taken from Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings (Cycle B) by Peter Kreeft, “Third Sunday of Lent”].

With the coming of Jesus, the Law receives that face of the beloved that we should never be able to get out of our minds. Jesus is the embodiment of the Law. Jesus gives himself to us so that God’s Law may be inside us. We can see this in today’s Gospel reading.

I already noted that the Mosaic Law became more than just the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments could not explicitly cover every possible circumstance, so over time the Jewish people elaborated on the Ten Commandments. We can find many of these “elaborations” in Deuteronomy, but also in Exodus and Leviticus. As we will see in today’s Gospel, the elaborated laws often had “loopholes.”

Why were there merchants and money changers in the Temple area at the time of Jesus? One of the elaborated laws that was intended to make the worship of God easier was to allow the people of Israel to sell their livestock for money, travel to the Temple, and then purchase other livestock for sacrifice. The original law called for people to take the sacrificial offering from their own flocks, however, if you have ever tried to get a flock of sheep or goats from one place to another, you know that it is not easy. So this “second law” made things much easier; you still had to get rid of one animal from your own flock, but then just take the money — which travels much more easily — to Jerusalem, buy another sheep or goat to then offer for the sacrifice. Sadly, this second law, which was intended just to make worship of God more easy, became corrupt as the businesses near the Temple took advantage of the Jewish pilgrims by making a lot of profit. The merchants and money-changers were basically breaking the commandment, “You shall not steal.”

Jesus enters the Temple as the very embodiment of the Law. Written laws can be abused and develop loopholes; persons do not have loopholes. Jesus points out boldly, clearly, and violently the abuse of the second law. The merchants and money-changers could no longer be deceiving themselves; Jesus tells them explicitly that they are thieves.

Lent is a time for us to allow Jesus to do the same thing for us. We should invite him into our souls, which are all “Temples of the Holy Spirit.” If we allow him, if when we receive the sacraments in docility and faith, Jesus will enter and clean up our “Temple.” He will help us see how we are deceiving ourselves, not living God’s Law as a love letter from our beloved, but as merely a set of rules which we look for loopholes to let us off the hook.

As we continue our Lenten journey, especially as we prepare ourselves to receive the Eucharist — the Body and Blood of Jesus who is the embodiment of God’s Law which is God’s Love — let us ask him to continue to “clean our Temple,” as we stay faithful to our practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

First Sunday of Lent

  How many of you are dog lovers? What about cats? Birds? OK, what about snakes or lizards? Me, I am a dog lover. My dog’s name is Dymphna. One of the most difficult thing about having to go on disability and living at the priest retirement home is that I was not allowed to bring her there to live with me. I had gotten her as a puppy, and she will be 12 years-old next month. While I am sad that she cannot live with me, Dymphna has a good home — she is living with my Mom, so I get to see her often.

    This week I came across a story that really moved me, and I think has an important lesson as we start our Lenten journey. 

A little boy went into a pet shop to buy a puppy. He saw five puppies for sale, and asked the shop owner how much they cost. The man replied, "Some are fifty dollars, some are more."

The little boy pulled out his change, counted it, and announced that he had $1.47. The man said, "I'm sorry, but you'll just have to save your money and come back again."

Just then, the man's wife brought out another puppy from the back of the store. It was smaller, had a crippled leg, and limped badly when it tried to walk. They explained that this one had been born without a hip socket and would always be lame.

"I wish I had the money to buy that one!" exclaimed the little boy with excitement. "It's not for sale," said the man, "but I'll gladly give him to you for free.” But the little boy refused, saying: "No, sir. That little dog is worth just as much as the others. I'll give you a dollar and forty-seven cents now, and fifty cents a month until I have paid in full."

Confused, the man asked, "Why do you want a dog that will never run and play like the other puppies?” The boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg, supported by a metal brace. He said, "Mister, I don't run and play too well myself. I think this little puppy will need someone like me who understands."

That's the Catholic faith in a nutshell: Jesus became just like us, paid the full price of our sins, and offers us salvation, just because he loves us.

Two images from nature dominate this First Sunday of Lent. In these images we find the key for living the next six weeks deeply and fruitfully, as God is hoping we will live them.

The first image is that of the desert. After Jesus was baptized, but before he began his years of public ministry, St Mark tells us in today's Gospel that the Spirit "drove Jesus out into the desert," where he experienced temptation.

Throughout the Bible, the desert is often referred to a place of testing, where we experience our weakness and dependence on God. Water and food are hard to come by there, and the temperatures and emptiness are oppressive to both the body and the mind. The desert is a place where our illusions of self-sufficiency and comfort fade away.

When we are in the desert, either literally or figuratively, we quickly realize that we need God. In other words, the desert is the opposite of the Garden of Eden. It is the place of suffering and hardship that sin has led us to. Both original sin and also our own personal sins have interfered with God's plan for our lives and for our world; they have put us in need of salvation.

The second image in today's Readings is the flood, the abundance of water that cleansed the world of sin at the time of Noah. That ancient flood of water foreshadowed Christian baptism, the flood of grace that purifies our souls from sin, bringing new spiritual life into the desert of our sin-damaged hearts. 

Sin and salvation: our sins, and Christ's loving sacrifice that leads to salvation. These are the most fundamental aspects of our Catholic faith, and these are the themes that should fill our hearts and minds throughout the season of Lent.

Besides the desert and the flood, there is another, third, image from nature in today's Readings: the rainbow. Noah probably didn't know the scientific explanation behind rainbows, but he did understand their spiritual meaning.

All of creation has a physical nature that science explores and explains. But creation also has a spiritual meaning - it is a gift from our God, a gift full of messages, lessons, and inspiration. Science can explain the prismatic refraction of light in a rainbow, but it cannot explain the thrill of wonder that fills our hearts we behold that same rainbow.

A rainbow appears when sunlight and storm clouds come together. And God chose this as a symbol of his covenant, of his promise that salvation would conquer sin. That covenant and that promise still stand; we have to put our hope in them.

Jesus, as today's Second Reading reminds us so beautifully, has suffered, died, risen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, conquering sin and evil once and for all. The crucifix is our rainbow; the cross of Christ is our Ark. No storm can cancel out Christ's victory over evil; no clouds can reverse it; no flood can extinguish it. And so, while we suffer in the storms of hardship and sin that make our lives and world so painful and difficult, we still continue to follow Christ, because the light of his love shines brightly even in the midst of the storm.

Today we have the privilege to renew our hope once again through this Mass and Holy Communion, to be freshly inspired by a glimpse of our rainbow. When we see a rainbow in the sky, the first thing we do is tell those around us, so they will see it too. This Lent, let's do the same with the rainbow that shines in our Christian hearts.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

 Do you want to please God? I would say that most of us would like to please God, but the question is what must we do to please God? Luckily for us, God tells us what we should do to please him. 

In today’s first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, God says that if we want to please him we should focus on doing three things, namely guarding against lying and malicious speech; exercising charity, especially towards those who are hungry; and making the Sabbath holy.

 For the Jewish people of Jesus’ time a lot of attention was placed on being careful about what one placed in one’s month. Certain foods were unclean, so it was important to keep Kosher. Yet in Scripture, God expresses more concern about what comes out of our months than what we put in our months. St. Paul writes to “only say the good things that people need to hear.” The gift of speech was given to praise God, and to build up our brothers and sisters, but we are often so careless in what we say. We gossip, we blaspheme, we speak ill of others. To please God we should strive to be the person about whom others say, “I never heard them say a bad word about anyone.” To be a saint we should strive to be like St. Dominic of whom it was said, “He was always speaking to God, or speaking about God to others.”

 We only need to open our eyes — especially the eyes of our hearts — to recognize that there are a lot of people in need, not just in the world in general, but right here in our neighborhood. It is not as easy to provide the necessities of clothing and shelter for others, but all of us can share food for the hungry. Most of us here in America can always go with a little less food for ourselves so to share some with those in need. This morning, members of St. John the Baptist parish Knights of Columbus were over at the soup kitchen at the Cathedral to share a meal of baked ziti with the hungry. Everyone in the parish were all invited to participate, even if it was just preparing a tray of ziti for them to take to the soup kitchen. I wonder how many of parishioners made a tray of food, or make a donation of socks? I am sure each of your parishes offer similar opportunities to help the poor; do you participate?

 Finally keeping the Sabbath holy is important because it consists in “holding back … from following your own pursuits on my holy day” says the Lord. The Sabbath is made holy by doing God’s “thing” rather than our own thing. Even the type of recreation and relaxation that we do on Sundays should not be merely for our pleasure. In someways I regret the decision to let people fulfill their Sabbath obligation by going to the Saturday Vigil Mass; I think it makes it too easy to forget that we are not suppose to give God just an hour, but an entire day.

 If we wish to please God, if we want to become a reconciler in society and bring people closer to one another and to God, we must live by worshipping God on the Sabbath the whole day, curb our tongue so as to only say the good things that people need to hear, and perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

Ash Wednesday

Today Jesus is reminding us of a tough lesson. He tells us to stop being hypocrites, to stop looking like Christians on the outside while being self-centered, arrogant, and egotistical on the inside. 

The word "hypocrite" comes from the Greek word for “actor". Actors pretend to be someone they're not. That's OK on stage, but not in real life.

Jesus is encouraging us to take off our masks, to stop pretending, to once again be true to our true selves. That is a hard lesson for us, for two reasons.

First, we don't like to admit that we sometimes act like hypocrites. But the fact is, we do. We try to deceive, to give the right impression, even if it's false. We try to hide our motives. We are all hypocrites in some way.

Second, we are afraid that if we take off our mask, God may reject us. And no one wants to be rejected.

But Jesus gives us a reason to trust him enough to accept this hard lesson. The reason is that he already knows us through and through, and even so, he loves us. He repeats this three times, when he says that the Father sees what we do in secret. That means he has seen all of the most selfish, vitriolic, and morose chapters of our ongoing interior monologues. Everything. He knows it all. And yet, he still loves us with the tender love of the perfect Father, the perfect friend. He still wants us to live close to him - closer and closer, actually.

That's why he keeps telling us to give alms and pray and fast "in secret". He wants us to stay close to him, to live our lives in intimate friendship with him.

The ashes that we use today are meant to remind us of these things.

First, they remind us that we are sinners. Although we are children of God, at the same time we are still children of this fallen world. Ashes are lifeless dust. Insofar as we still give in to our tendencies to selfishness and sin, we too are lifeless dust. Sin separates us from God, who is the source of all life. Without God's redeeming spirit in us, we would have no hope of eternal life.

Second, the ashes remind us that our sins, our acts of selfishness, cause damage. These ashes are made from the palm branches we used on Palm Sunday last year. They symbolized Christ's victory over sin. Our sins forfeit that victory. They destroy the life that God means us to live, just as the palm branches from last year's Palm Sunday were destroyed to make these ashes.

Third, and most importantly, the ashes remind us that in spite of our sins, in spite of our deep-seeded selfishness, God hasn't given up on us. Christ is our Redeemer! He claims us for his own. We still have a mission in his Kingdom; he still wants us to be his ambassadors. Yes, we are marked with ashes, because we are sinners, but the mark is given in the sign of Christ's cross, which won for us the grace of a fresh start and a new life. We are marked on our foreheads, because Christ wants us to go boldly into the world as his representatives. He is not ashamed of us; he wants our friendship. He is our Savior.

Jesus wants the truth and the power of his love to penetrate and transform our lives in a fresh way this Lent. But he needs us to take off our masks in order for that to happen. He needs us to peel them away, like peeling away an old bandage, so that his grace can heal our wounds. He points to three masks in particular. 

First, we have the mask the blocks our relationship with God. This is the one Jesus points to when he tells us to work on our prayer life, to pray from the heart, sincerely, not just to go through the motions.

Second, we have the mask that blocks our relationship with other people. This is the one Jesus points to when he tells us to give alms in secret. He wants us to open our hearts to our neighbors. He wants us to care about them, to be interested in them, to look for ways to serve and encourage them instead of looking for ways to take advantage of them.

Third, we have the mask that blocks our own growth to maturity. This is the one Jesus points to when he tells us to fast in secret. He wants us to learn the art of self-governance and self-discipline, of humility and nobility. He wants to free us from the degrading slavery to our base instincts.

In this Mass, he offers us the grace we need to make a fresh start in our friendship with him. He offers us the strength we need to peel away whichever mask is blocking out his love, a love which never wavers. 

Let's accept this grace and put it to work. Let's not leave this Mass without having committed to peel away one of those masks, to move up a notch either in our relationship with God, or with our neighbor, or with ourselves. If we promise to do our part this Lent, we can be sure he will do his part.

Wednesday, 5th Week of Ordinary Time

 Do any of you keep a food log or journal? I know I did for years. Since I have struggled with my weight most of my life, I used to record everything that I put in my mouth: what I ate for each of my meals, any snacks, and how much I drank. It was a help because it allow me to become more aware of not just how much I was eating but what I was eating.

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus is kind of encouraging us to do the reverse: instead of recording everything we are putting in our mouths, maybe we should become more aware of what is coming out of our mouths. Jesus gives us a list of vices to consider, “evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.” It is not just what we say with our mouths that Jesus says defiles us, but what is in our hearts. What is in our heart?

Who wants to be considered greedy? It is easy to say that one is not greedy, especially if we do not look at greed as greed. Do we spend a lot of time wishing for and talking about getting more money, a bigger house, a nicer car, a fancy vacation? If we do, we are being greedy, whether we like to think about it or not.

By naming this long list of vices, Jesus does us an incredible act of mercy. He rattles us and calls us to step back and look at sin for what it is. Jesus also makes it clear that when we live one or more of these vices, we become defiled. We become greedy, a liar, cruel, a gossip, hateful, arrogant, etc. Objectively speaking, no one wants this.

What is it in that list of vices that you struggle with the most? What do you see within your own heart? Be honest with yourself before God. Jesus desires that your heart be pure and holy, freed from these and every filth. But unless you are able to look at your own heart with honesty, it will be difficult to reject the sin with which you struggle.

Today reflect upon this list of sins identified by our Lord. Consider each one and allow yourself to see each sin for what it truly is. Allow yourself to despise these sins with a holy wrath and then turn your eyes to that sin with which you struggle the most. Know that as you consciously see that sin and reject it, our Lord will begin to strengthen you and purify your heart so that you become freed from that defilement and become, instead, the beautiful child of God you were made to be. As today’s psalmist exclaims, “Commit to the LORD your way; trust in Him and He will act.”

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

  The ill and those possessed by demons, whom were brought to Simon and Andrew’s house to see Jesus certainly could relate to the saying of Job in today’s first reading, “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” They were suffering — physically, psychologically, emotionally — how could their life be anything but a drudgery? They were desperate and they had heard that Jesus was a miracle worker. Of course they wanted him to work a miracle for them.

Why were they suffering? Why were they sick, blind, deaf, lame, possessed by a demon? Why was Simon’s mother-in-law sick with a fever? Was it because of something that they had done? Were they being punished for their sins, or the sins of their parents? Was it all just because of random chance? This is the so-called “problem of evil,” why is there bad in the world? To put it a bit more formally, if God is all-good, all-loving, and all-powerful why is there evil in the world?

We only read from the Book of Job twice in the cycle of Sunday readings, which is a shame because it has a lot to say about these issues. The Book of Job is structured like a drama — in fact it has been turned into a play. In a nutshell it starts by telling the reader how prosperous Job is — he has a large flock of sheep, cattle, and camels, and a beautiful family. Job himself is a very holy man, fearing God and acting uprightly. Satan says to God that of course Job is upright, everything is going well for him, but if he experienced hardship, Satan says that Job would curse God. So God allows Job to lose his property, his children are killed, and he is afflicted with boils. Then some of Job’s friends come to grieve with him, but mostly to tell Job that he must have sinned, and if he would just acknowledge his sin, then God would forgive him and make things right for him. Job insists that he has not sinned. I’ll leave the conclusion of the Book for you to read.

The Book of Job looks at the doctrine of divine providence; that is, the way in which we understand God’s sovereignty over creation and history, and how God guides all things to a good end. For much of the ancient world, it was believed that everything was governed by chance. In fact, it seems that much of the world today has gone back to that belief, that everything is random. St. Thomas Aquinas used the Book of Job to demonstrate why such a belief is wrong. He said that “this opinion . . . is found to be especially harmful to the human race, for if divine providence is taken away, no reverence for or fear of God based on truth will remain among men.” (The Literal Exposition on Job: A Scriptural Commentary Concerning Divine Providence, #68).

As St. Thomas correctly recognizes, before we can be led to praise God and to pursue wisdom, we must first deal with the question of why there is suffering in the world. Is a God who permits such suffering just and worthy of our praise? There is also the question of how does suffering relate to sin. There is a sense in which suffering and evil is related to sin: if our First Parents did not disobey God and Fall, there would be no evil and suffering in the world. However, it is wrong to view suffering as a punishment from God for our personal sins. Such a view would run counter to God’s love for humanity.

St. Pope John Paul II wrote on this question, “To put an end to this petty and unjust way of thinking, it was necessary to reveal in its essential profundity the mystery of the suffering of the Innocent One, the Holy One, the ‘Man of Sorrows!’ Ever since Christ chose the Cross and died on Golgotha, all who suffer, especially those who suffer without fault, can come face-to-face with the ‘Holy One who suffers’ and find in his passion the complete truth about suffering, its full meaning and its importance.” (“The Meaning of Suffering in the Light of Christ’s Passion” nos. 6-7, General Audience of November 9, 1988). In other words look towards Jesus — he was totally sinless yet he chose to suffer for the redemption of the world. Suffering is not punishment for sin, rather it is an opportunity to participate in Christ’s redemption.

OK, so what can we learn from the Book of Job? First, and this is probably the most important lesson, that our first response to the classic “problem of evil” is NOT a philosophical explanation. Rather our first response should be personal empathy with the suffering person. This was the problem with Job’s friends — they first tried to explain to Job why things were going so wrong for him. They should have first empathized and loved Job.

Looking more specifically at our first reading, Job first complains about life seeming like a drudgery, almost like a form of slavery. From this we can learn that we should not settle for a job where we are working just for money. We should, through discernment, look for a job that will give our lives meaning. A well paid slave is not as happy as a poor artist doing the work they love. Any job has its bad times, we need to remember our reasons for choosing the job in the first place to recapture our motivation and purpose.

Job also complains about time. He longs during the day for sleep, but at night he longs for the day. In other words, he is restless. That really is a good thing because as St. Augustine said, “my heart is restless unless it rests in thee.” The world is NOT enough, and it is not meant to be. Our ultimate happiness is not in this time or any time, no matter how meaningful our work is. Our ultimate happiness is in eternity with God.

Job also complains about death. Job is tired of living, but he is also afraid of dying because he is not sure about the next life. What Job needs to learn, and we as well, is hope. Hope is one of the three greatest things that last as St. Paul writes; the other being faith and love. Nothing we have in this world will last forever. Everything in this universe is going to end in death — even the sun in the sky, and the entire universe.

If there is no life after death, our hearts are restless for something that simply does not exist. But how could that be? Every other need can be met, even if just for a while, like hunger for food. Well if there is a hunger for life in the human heart than there must be a way of satisfying that need, that hunger. If all ends forever when we die, then even the most glorious, happy and meaningful life is hopeless in the end. Our hero Job proclaims later in the Book, “I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust; Whom I myself shall see” (Job 19:25-26). Faith and Hope — they are what got Job through the suffering in his life, and they are what will get us through our sufferings and life.

Finally there is a lesson in Job’s complaints themselves. God approves of them. Let me say this very clearly — it is not a sin to complain. In fact it can be more of a problem if we do not complain about evil — whether it is physical, emotional, or moral evil. God does not what us to passively sit back in the face of evil and say “Oh well, whatever will be will be.” God does not want us to be doormats or disarms. We just need to be honest about our complaints, and then patient and open to God’s response.