The book of Job, chapter 2:10

The book of Job paints a classic picture of the just man, subject to trial and suffering. Job, a good man, is crushed by one disaster after another. “Why me?” he cries out in pain. “You must deserve it,” his neighbors reply. But Job refuses to acknowledge a guilt he doesn’t feel and he demands an accounting of God.

Most people feel like Job sometime in their lives when things go wrong, through no fault of their own.
Then God answers. His answer is a rebuke to Job’s critics. God declares that Job is innocent. But then God turns to Job and reminds him of his human condition. Line after line underscores the fact that suffering is part of life. It is a lesson worth pondering. God does not want us to suffer, but out of suffering can come good.

That is the lesson of the cross: Jesus suffered that we might be saved. The father’s love for us is vividly shown in Jesus who died for us on the cross. Jesus was without sin, but in His love for us, He died on the cross.

Sometimes we forget that suffering is part of love also. In our humanness, we tend to be selective of the message of Jesus; we choose the parts we like and we discard the parts that we don’t like, such as taking up our cross to follow Him.

It is good to listen to all the Scriptures: the story of the wedding feast at Cana; and the story of Job. Both stories deal with the love of God; the one from the point of view of a wedding party; and the other from the point of view of a good man suffering unjustly.

Job is a symbol of Jesus; the just man without sin, who laid down His life on the cross for our salvation.

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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