Daily prayer
to St. Jude

O kindSaint-Jude, our faithful intercessor to Jesus, receive the following special intentions : to present them to the Almighty Lord, Root of all good. Above all, grant us an increase of our faith in His love. May each day find us closer in our relationship with our Heavenly Father. KindSaint-Jude, you who has revived hope in our hearts, you whose model merits and life bring us the divine blessings and graces, be our advocate, and lead us to Jesus and Mary. With you, blessed apostle, we give thanks and praise God with all our heart for His innumerable kindnesses. Amen.

The Monthly Note

March 2006

Experience of suffering of the holy man Job

by Fr. Émery Désilets, OP

We all know some of the main lines of the tragic experience of suffering of the holy man Job. Friends come to comfort him with theories on suffering. But for him, only one thing matters: his many misfortunes and his awareness of not deserving them. Job is shaken, distressed. He is struggling in confusion. Job’s tragedy is one of a love that feels betrayed, but that is strong enough to not believe in treason.

First, Job curses the day he was born. He experiences a period of contentiousness, of revolt. «Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, "The child is a boy!"» (Job 3, 3).

Secondly, he experiences a period of bargaining. He would like to negotiate with God: to explain his innocence and the injustice of his misfortunes. «If I appealed to him and he answered my call» (Job 9, 16).

Thirdly, Job becomes aware of God’s holiness, grandness and wisdom. He then discovers that the ways of God are not the ways of men, they surpass them immeasurably. It is the same for God’s thoughts and justice. He then experiences God and thanks Him for keeping him alive, him, a tiny grain of sand in a majestic and splendid universe. He then accepts to surrender himself to God with an unending trust. He lives in contact with trial and suffering in all their shapes. An experience of progression in faith, in hope and in love.

Job’s tragedy is also ours. Let us think of stages of terminal phase: denial, aggressiveness, wrangling, acceptance and, for believers, the anticipation of the after-life. These are all stages of growth.

Living, as Job did, an experience of growth in contact with suffering in all its shapes and forms means keeping faith in God’s proximity in the middle of trial, discovering that God’s love has other standards that ours, putting our hope in God who is strong enough to rise life out of death. However, it is only in the light of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection that we may come to discover the inmost meaning of suffering.

Émery Désilets, o.p., Director

«But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives, and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust...» (Job 19, 25)