Even from the literary point of view, the verses from the book of Job (our First Reading today - Job 7:1-4, 6-7) are hard to beat. As a meditation on the perennial riddle of human suffering, it is a remarkable attempt to come to grips with such an unfortunate reality in our world. On the other hand, however, our Gospel passage (Mark 1:29-39)also dwells on the same theme of suffering. But thanks to the new era inaugurated by Jesus Christ, this time there is a more optimistic tone.
Not that Jesus is offering any instant, feel-good solutions to suffering (as if there were such a thing!). Rather He is giving a new meaning to it all, along with His compassion and concern. To top it all, His own passion and death prove that He is no stranger to it.
Busy indeed was Jesus, with cures and healings almost one after the other. Before He knew it, already “the whole town was gathered at the door.” He didn’t shy away at all from this important aspect of His ministry: to bring healing to the sick and the suffering.
But perhaps Jesus wasn’t satisfied with the way things turned out. He noticed that maybe the people were more concerned with the physical cure, and maybe not so much with the Good News of salvation, which He really came to offer. As the Jesuit biblical scholar Nil Guillemette put it, “They were more interested in getting some divine aspirin, than in hearing His aspirations for them, His promise of future health and happiness in the land of God.”
Jesus is a healer, but also more. And consequently too, more than just the aches and pains we all have, there’s something more or beyond them. This, courtesy of the same Jesus Himself — through His own suffering and death on Calvary, gave a redemptive value to suffering.
We will never find the right words to explain the mystery of suffering — even if we seek them from the greatest literary works. Only in Jesus do we find meaning and redemption in pain and suffering.
