In my youth I was an insolent atheist, and I would often ask Christians with derision: What do you mean that Christ is our Savior? What do we need saving from?
Of course, only someone who has never stood, broken by grief, over the grave of one you love could ask that question. But even those who know that death is our bitter and final enemy may not yet know or be willing to seek and follow the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and in today’s first reading, suffering Job gives voice to the despair that arises from hopeless misery.
“Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery? Are not his days those of hirelings? He is a slave who longs for the shade, a hireling who waits for his wages. So I have been assigned months of misery, and troubled nights have been allotted to me … My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.” (Job 7:1-3, 6)
The stark realism of Job’s analysis is that to live is to suffer and to live long is to suffer much. And then we die. And if that were the last word on human existence, then grim stoicism would surely be the most sensible philosophy of life, although it would always have competition from hedonism, whether of the debonair, libertine, or murderous varieties.
But thankfully Job’s analysis is not the last word on human existence. No, the last word on us comes from God the Eternal Word, who spoke to us in the Psalms long before he was made flesh:
“Praise the Lord, for he is good; sing praise to our God, for he is gracious. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:1, 3)
The same Lord is praised here in the Psalms who in the fulness of time became the Son of Mary, and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healed the sick of all infirmities of body, mind, and soul.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us to redeem us from our sins. And as we read today from Mark’s Gospel, the miracles or signs of Christ revealed his divine glory by means of his mastery over nature and his command over all the fallen powers of the cosmos who wage war against the goodness of the God of Israel and the majesty of his eternal plan of salvation for the entire human race.
At the heart of that luminous plan of salvation is the astonishing news that God himself would save us from the grave and give us a share in his own divine life by becoming man, by suffering and dying for us, and then by rising in glory to reveal the new life of grace in his Church, the grace which by Word and Sacrament unites us to the Lord Jesus through faith, hope, and love until the End of Days.
Friends, as Job knew well, we must all suffer and die, and so we do need a savior. He is the Word made flesh, from whom alone we receive mercy, healing, peace, salvation, and eternal life. And that is why, like Saint Paul, all who are born again in Holy Baptism are compelled to proclaim the Gospel that Jesus Christ is Lord.
This is the text of my homily for the Fifth Sunday of the Year.
Fr Jay Scott Newman
Thank you Fr. Newman