By Prof. Joy Philip Kakkanattu, CMI –
The book of Job dwells more on the suffering caused by sickness and the resultant social alienation. It is a treatise on human suffering from a theocentric perspective. What Job teaches is that suffering is a mystery which cannot easily be understood or explained. Through the various dialogues and monologues of the book, it conveys that only in relation to God can the problem of human suffering be understood.
Also Read:
Part I: A Biblical-Historical Perspective of Healing Ministry of the Church
Part III: Healing and Forgiveness
Suffering is an impenetrable mystery for human beings. In order to have access to this mystery, humans would have to assume the role of God, and this is folly as Job realizes now that he has seen God. Job says: I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). He is not in a position to answer the questions regarding the cosmos and the creation, and hence he stays in silence, acknowledging the presence of God – a presence that is no longer intimidating but a presence of trust and adoration. The abandoning of self enables one to welcome God as he is, and in this relationship with God who is a mystery one recognizes one’s own existence.
The story of Job teaches the greatest lesson for every believer in God that ultimately we as humans cannot take the place of God. Our strength lies in accepting God’s greatness and our finitude and limitation. “His suffering is the suffering of someone who is innocent and it must be accepted as a mystery, which the individual is unable to penetrate completely by his own intelligence.” (SD 11)
God’s Mercy on the Sick
As the biblical revelation culminates in Jesus Christ, the attention to the sick and the vulnerable becomes a concrete expression of God’s mercy. Whenever Jesus was approached by a sick person, he never refused to pay attention to him/her and showed his compassion in curing him/her from the infirmity. When two blind men cried to Jesus for cure, he stopped and “moved with compassion (spalanchnixomai), Jesus touched their eyes…” (Mt 20:34). Thus we can say the healing miracles of Jesus were manifestations of God’s mercy.
In the NT, Jesus compares himself to a physician. The healing activity of Jesus is interpreted as “an expression of divine endowment of the Spirit.” The healing miracles done by Jesus underscore the fact that taking care of the sick is an essential aspect of God’s self-communication of love (DV 1) and is “an indication of the presence of the Kingdom of God, in which restoration of bodily wholeness, emotional well-being and mental functioning takes place in the context of spiritual advancement.”
Further, Jesus commanded his followers to heal the sick (Mk 16:18). As in the OT, “salvation and health were integrally related; both were seen as blessings from God, who opposes sin and evil of which sickness and personal disorder are expressions.” Hence our ministry also ought to insist on these two dimensions: healing and salvation considered as a unified whole, leading to holistic understanding of human persons and their need for holistic medical care.
The hopelessness visible in some of the passages of the OT that convey the idea that there is no hope of healing is to be read in the light of passages which proclaim the ultimate triumph of God’s mercy manifested in the promise of healing and restoration. Jer 30:17 says: Surely I will bring you restoration, and will heal your wounds. And this promise of healing and restoration is fulfilled in the life and mission of Jesus, who manifested his power (Lk 5:17) – and the power and authority (exousia) (Mk 2:10) of the Lord was with him to heal (iaoma) the physically sick, to restore dignity to the socially and morally deprived like the women caught in adultery, or the blind man in John 9.
In many cases the social stigma associated with some physical depravity added to the suffering of the sick. Hence, in many healing miracles Jesus not only cured the physical illness, but restored the human dignity, too. In the Pauline letters, healing is understood as a gift of God (charismata iamaton) (Rom 15:29; 2 Cor 12:12).
To be continued…
Prof. Dr. Joy Philip Kakkanattu, CMI is a Catholic religious priest belonging to the Congregation of the Carmelite of May Immaculate (CMI). He is a resident faculty at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram (DVK) Bengaluru for the last 13 years. He is currently the president of Catholic Biblical Association of India (CBAI). He holds a bachelor degree in Chemistry from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Licentiate in sacred Scripture from Pontifical Biblical Institute, Rome and Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Biblical Theology from Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He is a visiting faculty to many theological institutes and formation houses. Besides scholarly articles, he writes and composes Christian devotional songs. He can be reached at: [email protected].