People of every age have asked, “Why suffer?” While we may trace some of our suffering to foolish behavior, much of the suffering, like Job’s, remains mysterious and undeserved.  

Today’s first reading is the happy ending after a long period of suffering. Job’s preceding prayerful lament challenges God to explain why he is in such agony. God, however, never speaks directly to a single complaint. Rather, God invites Job to reframe his suffering by questioning his knowledge of and control over the order of the universe. God insists that the order of the universe is still intact, but it is largely hidden and under God’s control. 

The hard truth for us is that we must learn to live with our inability to control everything and accept a certain amount of ambiguity and unresolved anxiety about why we suffer. The lesson from Job lies in his speaking directly to God (prayer) to sustain his relationship to God (spirituality). His personal relationship with God allowed him to accept God’s reframing his experience inviting him into a deeper relationship.  

Our take-home message: living in relationship with God helps us to cope with ambiguity and to bear the burden of mystery while maintaining faithfulness. We look to the death and resurrection of Jesus as our ultimate hope that we are in good hands—God’s hands.