(Fifth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on
February 8, 2015, at St. Pius X Church, Westerly
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fifth Sunday 2015]
You’ve probably never heard of “the pain chain”.
That’s because I made up the term for this homily!
But, in all likelihood, you have experienced it—many times.
Pain, of course, is a fact of life. We can’t escape it totally, no matter how
hard we may try.
And there are various types of pain. There’s physical pain; there’s mental or emotional
pain; there’s even what might be called “spiritual pain”—which often results
from physical and/or emotional pain. For
example, we contract a disease or we experience a broken relationship, and we
wonder if God still loves us; we wonder if the Lord is with us and cares about
what we’re going through.
And that wondering causes spiritual pain.
Job, in today’s first reading, is clearly a man who’s in the
process of experiencing all 3 of these types of pain—TO THE MAX! And it all stemmed from one bad day—one very
bad day!
Most of us know the story.
The Bible makes it clear that Job was a good, pious, devout, righteous
man.
And then, during the course of one 24 hour period, he lost
everything: all his animals were either stolen or killed; all his children died
when the house they were in collapsed during a terrible windstorm, and he
himself was afflicted with a horrible skin disease in which painful boils appeared
all over his body.
He was in physical pain; he was in emotional distress—and he
wondered why God had allowed him to be afflicted in that way.
He finally got to the point where he said those words we
heard in our first reading:
“Is not man’s life on
earth a drudgery? Are not his days those
of hirelings? … So I have been assigned months of misery and troubled nights
have been allotted to me. … My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they
come to an end without hope. Remember
that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.”
Here we have a perfect example of a man who was shackled by
what I would call “the pain chain.” The
pain chain has 3 links in it: one is “the past”; one is “the present”; and one
is “the future”.
Job was experiencing pain in the present moment as he sat there
in sackcloth and ashes. The problem was
that he wasn’t only experiencing the
pain of the present moment! He was also,
in a certain sense, experiencing pain from his past and pain from his future
life—which made the situation much worse.
Notice his first statement: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?”
Job’s life was not a drudgery before he had his “bad
day”! It was anything but a
drudgery! It was awesome! He had good health, and a loving family, and lots
and lots of earthly possessions. From a strictly
worldly perspective, the guy had it all!
And yet, in the midst of his present suffering, the only
things he was conscious of from his past were the bad things: the sufferings, the trials, the pain (however
minimal it might have been).
And then he proceeded to project his present suffering on
the future, saying, “I shall not see
happiness again.”
How, in heaven’s name, did Job know that? How did he know that he would never, ever,
ever experience a single moment of happiness for the rest of his days on planet
earth?
The answer is, he DIDN’T know it!
But once again, in the midst of his present suffering and
pain, all he could imagine for his future was more suffering and more pain.
Pain in the present moment (link #1), added to pain from the
past (link #2), added to anticipated pain in the future (link #3).
That’s “the pain chain”.
It shackled Job, and it can also shackle us at various
points in our lives—as most of us (if not all of us) know from personal
experience.
So how are we supposed to deal with it? How do we go about breaking the pain chain?
This is very important to know because if the pain chain
does not get broken, it can
eventually lead us to despair.
From my perspective—and from my experience—there are 3
realities that will break the pain chain, especially when we experience them together.
Those realities are faith, hope and love (which should make
them pretty easy to remember!).
By faith we know that “For those who love God all things
[including our pain and suffering] work together for good”—as St. Paul tells us
in Romans 8. By faith we know that God
will not allow us to be tested beyond our strength—as St. Paul tells us in 1
Corinthians 10. And, as today’s
responsorial psalm reminds us, God “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their
wounds.”
Faith—real faith that’s rooted in truths like these—breaks
the pain chain.
So does hope. Hope
focuses us on the reality of eternal life—which means that every problem, every
suffering, every pain that we have in this life is ultimately only temporary. Understanding that makes a difference! Notice that Job lacked this hope when he
spoke those words we heard in our first reading. There he said, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end
without hope.”
And when we experience the love of God—either directly or
through other people—that, too, breaks the pain chain.
The other day a woman who’s been battling a very serious
form of cancer said to me, “Fr. Ray, I know now why God allowed me to get this
illness. He allowed me to get it because,
without it, I never would have gotten as close to him as I am right now.”
Here’s a woman who’s battling physical, emotional and
spiritual pain but who, at the same time, has faith, hope and love: faith that
God is at work in her life and still loves her, and hope that he will continue
to draw her closer to himself unto eternity.
Faith, hope and love are breaking her pain chain—at least
for the moment. My prayer is that she
will continue to seek those gifts every day, so that her pain chain will remain broken—even if she’s never
physically healed.
Jesus once said, “Sufficient for a day is its own
evil.” Put in the terms of this homily
that means, “The pain of today is enough for us to deal with. We don’t need to add any real pain from our past
or any imagined pain from our future—like Job did.”
Which is one of the most important reasons why we should ask
the Lord to fill our hearts with faith—and with hope—and with love EVERY DAY!
