With Job we see someone who always returns to God. This gives me hope when our days and our newsfeeds are filled with so much suffering. How can I possibly see God in all this? Wave after wave of refugees and their children forced to make the impossible choice. And when we are given the opportunity to practice hospitality and empathy, so many respond in fear and trepidation.
We will not always understand why suffering seems so great in our world. We are dealing with things ‘that we do not understand,’ like Job. It’s a way of understanding that God is with us even when we can’t or refuse to see God. It is part of the mystery of redemption. Job always found a way to return to God during or after a time of suffering. How can I return to the knowledge of God’s love for me and act out of that love?
—Emily Schumacher-Novak lives in Milwaukee, WI, and works in Jesuit Higher Education and Ignatian Spirituality.