Job 7:1-4, 6-7; Ps: 95:1-2, 7-9; 1 Cor. 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28
Purpose of life drives our spiritual wellbeing and our mental health when we are “free” in order to surrender as a “slave” for the cause. “For this purpose, have I come” says Jesus. Jesus had a clear vision of his purpose and all the worldly distractions including that “Everyone is looking for you” did not deter him from continuing his mission. Do we have a clear vision of our purpose for living?
Purpose of life is critical for spiritual health and wellbeing. Let us look at the purpose of life through the eyes of Job and then through the eyes of Paul and consider are they opposite views or two sides reflecting a common purpose of life. I will propose that both Job and Paul are living a common purpose, to serve God but are responding differently to their experience. Job speaks of the purpose of life as a victim of the conditions of life and Paul as a free willing slave of life but in Jesus we have both, the victim and the free surrender as a slave for the purpose of our lives.
Is Job having a brokenhearted “pity-potty” feeling sorry for himself or is he speaking a reality of life? Job claims “man’s life on earth a drudgery…He is a slave who longs for the shade”. Job is trying to cope with things outside of his control thus feeling as a victim of life. Job is addressing the very real human condition as we hire ourselves out to do the “work” someone is willing to pay us to do, that otherwise we might be tempted to say “take this job and shove it” or just not show up unless that work becomes a calling of life.
We share Job’s “restlessness” with the anxieties of life whether our work is housework, homework, fieldwork, or hired work as we wait “for our wages” out of obligation in the form of appreciation, love, good grades, or a paycheck. Job is brokenhearted at the swiftness of time and loss of hope waiting for happiness to return because of the many happenings outside of his control. Job’s purpose of life seems lost in his “misery”. When sickness, loss of a job, or even a tragedy happens in our lives we suddenly come to terms with the frailty of life and the uncertainty of the immediate future.
When we find ourselves in our circumstances “brokenhearted” we often fail to consider how God allowed Job to pass through this darkness of his life with a purpose in itself. We look at our struggles as keeping us away from “our” purpose as we want to define it. We have goals, ambitions, and hopes for tomorrow and our suffering is in the way of getting on with fulfilling our wishes. Let us simply stop and consider how our suffering also has purpose of life including a Godly purpose. In suffering, God is with us helping us to grow spiritually, to separate us from a sin, to remind us of our mortality, to experience a taste of purgatory in purging us toward a saintly purity, and always to bring us closer to him on the cross as well as in looking forward to the resurrection. Our hearts are readied through suffering.
Pain is an alarm to warn us that something is affecting our homeostasis. Our physical wellness has been invaded by a virus, bacteria, suffering a trauma, or is breaking down from abuse and neglect. Our mental health wellness is suffering from a strained relationship at home or at work, from a genetic predisposition or circumstances outside of our control. Our spiritual wellbeing is suffering from attachment to sin, from following false prophets of the world, from the omission of God in our daily lives. So much suffering for what purpose? This is Job’s search for meaning in suffering.
Pain and suffering outside of our control have purpose in itself. Suffering is a reminder of the “swiftness” of life and keeping God at the center of our purpose according to his will and not as a fairy God mother to help us with our wishes. Suffering brings us closer to Jesus on the cross who reminds us to carry our cross as an offering as he accepted the cross for us. “Us” is not a generalized us in the world, it is a personalized us in atonement for each of our sins. Jesus suffers for you and me. Suffering is a worthy grace when we lift it up to him in faith, hope, and love. Pain is a warning of our decisions that may be leading us to greater pain if we don’t stop and take account of our lives. God may also be leading away from pain to health and wellness including spiritual health of the soul. We don’t romanticize pain we consider it a reality that has a purpose in God’s creation.
Suffering is an opportunity to bring us closer to God, to change our ways into his ways, to listen to him and the voice that speaks to where we are in our spiritual life. We recognize the role pain and suffering had in the life of our Blessed Mother Mary at the feet of Jesus on the cross as Simeon foretold “and you yourself a sword will pierce” for what purpose? He said “so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”, in other words a purpose greater than herself. In the ordinary of life as the mother of Jesus, if we can conceive her life in some way as ordinary the extraordinary happened. Her purpose in motherhood was extended to the disciple and to us all for all eternity.
Let us also look at the beauty of living our purpose of life through the eyes of Paul. Paul speaks that although he is “free” says “I have made myself a slave to all to win over as many as possible”, in other words a purpose greater than himself. Paul recognizes in his conversion from Saul to Paul a purpose of life from God and for God. He is called and willingly accepts the call to be a slave for Christ even though persecution will come to him just as he once persecuted the early Christians. Paul reminds us that anything good, just, and holy worth doing is worth the sacrifice. Paul also teaches us that not living our purpose in life has “woeful” consequences that in itself keep us from the joy of life and bring[JG1] s on pain. Done willingly there is a “recompense” of love which is God himself present in our lives. He is the gift we receive. Done unwillingly there is a “stewardship” of obligation imposed with the pain of Job.
We recognize that the saints have suffered great pain and many suffered martyrdom in acceptance of doing the will of God. They did not wait for the reward to come after death from heaven. They were already filled with the strength and holiness of God that gave them the joy and the courage to suffer for Christ by living out their purpose of life as the Holy Spirit was directing them. In baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us in our journey of faith but we must nourish the spirit within with prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and by bringing the gift of ourselves to the altar of the Mass to be fed by the Word of God and by his body and blood in the Eucharist.
There was a religious sister who shared her testimony on EWTN in her call to religious life. She was not raised as a church goer but one day as a young teen was invited to a retreat. She went to it for the fun and left with the same mindset. The next year she was invited again and agreed to go only for the fun of being together with other youth. She had a spiritual encounter at the retreat and felt God directly calling her to religious life. She dismissed the idea thinking she wanted to go out and enjoy life but going out did not give her the joy she wanted. She wanted to date but dating did not give her the joy she wanted. She thought marriage and children would give her purpose some day but it was not until she decided to try the convent life that she found the joy she was seeking. Not all are called to religious life but all are called to a God given purpose. We need to remain open to this revelation from God “lest we die” having missed our calling and purpose.
Pain has a redemptive role in salvation in saving us from sin, error or evil. Jesus pain on the cross for our sins redeemed us as a willing slave both victim of the hate and torture he received and by his free surrender to the will of the Father out of love for the Father, himself, the Holy Spirit and for all humanity. When we serve our purpose of life and sacrifice for it then it too is an act of self love for the recompense of God. The church recognizes the willingness to suffer as an offering to Christ, for the souls in purgatory, for atonement of our sins, for the grace of a greater good, for the God given purpose we are called to live.
We come to Mass with a purpose and we should examine ourselves regarding the purpose of our actions. Do we come as a matter of compliance to family pressure, compliance with church norms of obligation or just as part of the social and cultural fabric of our society? We come to give thanks for our blessings, to worship God in the Eucharist, and to gather together as a community of faith in order to spread the gospel message beginning in our homes, our work place and in the public square. At the end of Mass, we are called to “go forth” to serve our God given purpose.
In life we all face circumstances outside of our control like the pandemic that has taken over the world and as Job be victims to it from sickness to death. Within what we cannot control lies our freedom to respond with what we can control in taking care of ourselves whether by prevention measures or by treatment. In Paul we recognize he understood that by accepting his calling he would face many challenges outside of his control including the risk of death yet he willingly surrenders himself to this purpose of life in the sacrifice of a “slave” because the cause was greater than his life. He received the gift of life from God and he gave his life to God in return to fulfill a greater purpose than himself, a divine purpose, a legacy purpose that he left us in his writings by his own testimony as a slave for the Lord. Priesthood is a calling to be slaves for the Lord without the distractions of the world but as an offering of themselves to win over as many souls as possible.
Many of us have heard the Serenity Prayer but only the first statement. In closing, here is a complete version of this prayer. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen. (Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971) Let us go forth in the ordinary of life to discover the extraordinary calling to sainthood awaiting each of us as the doorway to heaven in living our God given purpose of life.
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