TRAGEDY and God's Healing Presence

LITURGY AND LIFE

By Tom Saretsky

God's healing presence is in those who lend support

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Feb. 8, 2012

Job 7: 1-4, 6-7
Psalm 147
1 Corinthians 9: 16-19, 22-23
Mark 1: 29-39

I'm a member of the tragic events response team for our school division. When tragedy strikes a school community, my partner MaryLynn and I are called to help the staff and students deal with the tragedy.

Unfortunately, we have been very busy these past few years, and the scope of the tragedies to which we have responded can make a person ask, "Where is God?"

MaryLynn and I have faith in a God who is intimately present in the midst of despair. God enters our "Gardens of Gethsemane" and stands beside us, even though we may feel alone and abandoned. God is a God who loves and who desires the best for us, despite all the sadness. In helping school communities deal with tragedy, we portray an image that our God is a God who feels, who commiserates with us as we suffer and who mourns as we mourn. We express that tragedy, suffering and death is not God's will.

When I was a kid, and even more when my parents were young, there was a prevalent mindset that bad things were the result of God's will. After being taught this, is it any wonder that people have difficulty with God and religion in general? The belief that God is the cause of all pain and suffering is simply bad teaching and bad religion.

In the first reading, Job has much in common with those who despair the hardships they feel God gives to them. Job suffers greatly in his life, lamenting to God about the misfortunes that plague him. "Does not the human being have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a labourer? I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me."

When tragedy strikes, it is convenient to blame God. It takes a great deal of faith to feel that God is present throughout all of the pain, and not the source of it. It is faith that helps a person get through tough times. Jesus did everything he could to convince people that God is good and not vengeful. Jesus valiantly tried to change the mindset of the people through his healing touch, comforting words and strengthening presence.

The psalm today reads: "The Lord heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds." Jesus reached out to those who suffered. He cured the sick and the lame. He identified with the powerless and the oppressed, and brought the untouchables of society, the outcast and sinners, back into community. By Jesus' words and through his actions, people were given hope and a feeling of worthiness. Though "Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons," he never idealized suffering. Instead, Jesus used suffering as an opportunity to reveal the face, compassion and love of God.

Our experiences of suffering reflect a common characteristic. They all provide opportunities for individuals and the larger community to step forward and offer support and assistance. This is how we reflect the face of Jesus to others, and by living the words, "whatsoever you do," becomes a responsibility the community has to extend the boundaries of the kingdom, and to share the love, compassion and healing touch of God.

Suffering is never God's fault, nor is it ever God's will. "The world said, 'Love cuts like the cold wind, and the will of God is plain as the winter. Where is the summer will of God? Where are the green seasons of God's will? Where is the spring and summer of God's will?' "(Flannery O'Connor).

Suffering is part of the human condition. How we deal with it, how we with God's help use suffering in order that we might make a difference in the lives of those who need support is what is important to remember.

God's will, therefore, is that we extend our hands to those who need help in carrying crosses made heavy by sorrow and pain. God's will is that we express words of love to those who feel unloved, and God's will is that we accept all and recognize everyone as children of God created in God's image and likeness.

Saretsky and his wife Norma have two children, Nathan and Jenna. He is a teacher and chaplain at Bishop James Mahoney high school in Saskatoon.