” Does not man have hard service on earth? Are not his days like those of hired man? Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired man waiting eagerly for his wages so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. When i lie down I think ” How long before I get up?`The night drags on, and I toss till dawn.

In the first reading in the Book of Job, these verses are telling us how fast our days are passing.  Living here on this earth, we have our own difficulties,  our struggles, and sometimes,  our God appoints difficult times to discipline us, to prepare us, to become stronger, to teach us through the pain, sorrow, and to remind us how we are nothing  without His presence in our lives.  Without Him we can not face  the problems of our days.  Through our suffering we become humble; we become one with the character of Christ in our suffering.  We become similar to Him, so much so that we want to follow Him everyday.  He was carried His cross to Calvary.  We must carry ours daily, that is our daily passion.  We all of us have problems, hard moments, sad and bad  things with which we must deal.  How merciful it  is that we have Him to take our sorrows and pains!  Through His wounds, we become more compassionate to our neighbors, knowing that they also need help.

Now think of your own situations and acknowledge that we seldom know what God is orchestrating behind the scenes. At any point we might become characters on the stage of suffering. When we face the same kinds of decisions that were thrust upon Job, will we bless the Lord or curse Him? We will acknowledge that God both gives and takes away, He gives us days, years, decades with difficulties and through that we build our character to be more strong, He teach us how to behave when life is not sweet, He is not leaving us, we do not going to forget that this is the valley of tears, and in the verse 8:17 from the Gospel of Matthew, we learn that he took our infirmities and carried our diseases, so in difficult times we always have our Lord Jesus who will take our problems with Him.  He takes our illness, our struggles.  The proof of His actions are so so many, for with God anything is possible!

Danger? No. I do not expect danger. God will deliver us, in the Gospel of MARK verses 1:29-39 ” So He went to her (Peter`s mother in law) took her hand and helped her up and the fever was gone, and so many sick people, demon-possessed, all town came to the gate of that house that evening, and all receive healing, powerful God`s healing, restoration, renewal bodily and spiritually making their faith to grow.”

This also our mission,   as Christian and Dominican as well.  We are to help alleviate the suffering, to bring healing to the spirits of the least, the lost, and the forgotten.  Won’t you accept that mission?

Amen