God, the Healer of the Brokenhearted (Sunday, Week 5, Year B)

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INTRODUCTION

We may have been strongly tempted to give up on God on account of the contradictions of life. The good news is that God still cares about us. He remains the perfect healer and mender of broken hearts. Let us always turn to Him in prayer and remain positive in our faith.

REFLECTION

I am sure you are as disturbed as I am when you look around and see contradictions of life everywhere: oppression, sickness, poverty, misery, barrenness and so on. Much more disturbed should we be when we reflect on the fact that we have a God who is so powerful yet we see ourselves wallowing in pains, suffering and injustice. Where is God when bad things happen? Is He really with us in this world of pains? Is He powerful as we think and believe He is?

If you have ever been disturbed about the fact that there is evil in a world created and controlled by our good and powerful God, then you will better understand the feelings of Job (cf. Job 7:1-4.6-7). Job was a righteous man; he obeyed the laws of God. But Job sank from prosperity to great misery. His friends (Eliphaz, Bildad and Sophar) were speechless before him; they did not understand why such a man who claims to be righteous should be wallowing in misery: “they saw how great his suffering was” (Job. 2:13). Eliphaz, one of his friends, begged him to repent of his sins and so regain God’s favor. Reflecting further on his condition and failing to understand why things are the way they are, Job thought it wise to turn to God because he knew that God His redeemer lives.

To God, he cried aloud, “I have been allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery have been apportioned to me”. Yes, Job complained bitterly, not to man but to God. But despite his dark moments when things became much more unbearable for him, he clung to faith. He held on to hope. Sometimes, when we think about our terrible unexplainable human conditions, we may be strongly tempted to believe that God is now far away or that God does no longer care. But is it so?

Have we quickly forgotten why God sent His Only Begotten Son to the world? Jn. 3:16 tells us that He did so because He loves the world. If God loves the world, why should I count myself out? Am I not in the world? The coming/presence of Jesus is a clear message of God’s love and care for humanity. In the gospels specifically in Mark 1:29-39, we see the seriousness which Jesus attached to this mission of God’s love and care for humanity: He went about healing the sick (just as He healed Peter's mother-in-law and many sick people); He went about casting out demons, breaking the chains of all forms of bondage; He went about preaching (moving from place to place ministering to people); He went about feeding the hungry, praying for His people and for Himself. If Jesus did and is still doing all these, why do we still think that God DOESN'T care?

The problem is that sometimes we focus so much on the negatives, and forget that there are so many other things in our lives that strongly attest to the fact that God still cares for us. We may experience some darkness today, but that does not mean that we will be in the dark forever. God has a plan. Sometimes we may not completely understand Him because His thoughts and ways are not ours (cf. Isa. 55:8-9). His apparent silence doesn't mean that He is indifferent and unconcerned about what we go through. No matter how heartbroken and shattered we may be because of trials in life, we must learn to gather those broken pieces of ourselves and hand them over to God. He is the perfect healer and mender of broken hearts! Jesus was ever desirous to heal the sick and liberate those who were demon-possessed. He is still much more concerned about us and ever desirous to heal and mend our broken pieces. Let us take everything to Him in prayer and move on!


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