Job's Complaining

5B WELCOME TO THIS SPECIAL LITURGICAL HOLY DAY KNOWN AS SUPER BOWL SUNDAY.

No use fighting it.

I heard about one young guy who is really in a difficult situation. He bought two tickets for today’s Super Bowl far in advance. He forgot that he and his fiancé had scheduled their wedding for this same day and time. Now he realizes he can’t go. It’s out of the question. So, if you’re a guy who wants to go instead of him, here’s the relevant information: it’s at St. Peter’s Church in New York City at 5 p.m. Her name’s Louise. She’ll be the one wearing the white dress.

Of course, even priests can get caught up in Super Bowl fever. I heard at one parish, after the General Intercessions, the time came for the collection. The celebrant, a true sports enthusiast, reached into his pocket, took out a quarter, flipped it into the air, glanced at it as it landed, then in typical referee fashion joyfully announced: “The ushers will receive!”

Enough about football.

I want to focus on sociology…

…from the point of view of how baptized believers can minister based on our Readings today.

In today’s Gospel Jesus’ heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.

Do you ever think of Simon Peter, upon whom Christ built his Church, as being married?

Obviously he was.

St. Paul deliberately chose not to marry, and work as tent-maker on the side to support himself.

An early Christian historical writing says that Peter’s wife was eventually martyred in Rome while Peter was still alive. However, earlier, in 1 Corinthians 9:5, which refers to the right for evangelists to travel with their wives and receive living expenses for both, Peter’s wife is mentioned.

My question is how do you react when Jesus heals you from a physical, emotional, or mental infirmity involving faulty thinking?

The desired response is service.

When “the fever left her, she waited on them.” The Greek verb used is related to the word for “deacon.”

We are healed and made spiritually whole for service to others, for the benefit of their spiritual and temporal needs.

Next, how would a nurse today console Job as a patient? (From our First Reading).

Studies show that consolation begins when the nurse simply lets Job be Job, with his cursing and complaining behavior.

The patient is welcomed, i.e., is accepted as the one he or she is (Eriksson 2006), which may strengthen both the patient’s self-confidence and sense of dignity (cf. Barbosa da Silva et al. 2009).

The complaining words of the patient matter, for they reveal whether or not suffering has put the sufferer out of touch with reality.

Keenan (2004) maintains that the sufferer often is struck silent before being able to articulate the suffering.

Bottled up anger can hurt oneself and others. For this reason, the honest speech of Job directed to God is preferable to silence.

Authentic and caring consolation allows the suffering to be suffered as well as it receives and bears the other’s suffering.

To receive and bear are key words in a caring consolation.

Being present to his or her way of suffering, with a tolerant and non-judgmental attitude.

It is not ‘‘consoling’’ advice, even though wise, that a suffering person needs.

The paradox is that to suffer one’s suffering is one path to consolation.

The opposite, the ‘‘tweezer consolation’’ that plucks away the suffering and thus quickly consoles produces no lasting consolation, or any lasting health.

They have to find their own answers to why they suffer, as there is no one who can provide that answer.

It is the Lord, who heals the broken-hearted and gives consolation as we hear today in our Responsorial Psalm.

“God alone!” Are words that can be found over the doors in Cistercian monasteries.

God desires our greatest good, namely union with Him, because he is source of all good.

Consolation means to live amidst consolation in the presence of God. Living in consolation means to transcend and come in communion with the sacred (Santama ¨ki 2007).

Praying the Rosary and Chaplet of Mercy is a good vehicle to create the conditions for them connect them to Jesus.

3). Lastly, Jesus is coaching us on how caregivers should take care of themselves, spiritually and physically.

Respite time. Jesus took it. Respite activities. For Jesus it meant some alone time in prayer.

Don’t let your prayer life go.

Busyness is a state of mind and a habit of the heart rather than merely the result of the number of tasks to be accomplished.

Unrealistic expectations, desires to feel important, the need for security can drive over-activity.

Jesus did not cave-in to feelings of guilt.

Everybody is looking for you.

Jesus is the answer to a person’s deepest longings.

How might we encounter more deeply communion with God the Father in contemplative meditation in order to help others hear a saving word?