Robert Barron | – Why Is Life So Full of Suffering? — Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon


Friends, the book of Job is one of the most profound and most challenging books in the entire Bible. In today’s reading, we see that God does not hand-wave away Job’s suffering. Rather, the Lord places profound hurt and heartache in an infinitely greater context—into his loving providence. We must not narrow our focus on our pain; we must rather open ourselves to ever greater trust.

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About The Author

Bishop Robert Barron These are brief and insightful commentaries on faith and culture by Catholic theologian and author Bishop Robert Barron. The videos complement his weekly sermons posted and podcasted at WordOnFire.org.

Comment (49)

  1. Once upon a time I was a Baptist who got cheated on by my boyfriend (because of my boundaries, I assume). I was devastated. I didn’t want to break up, but of course that was the best thing. I said, “Lord I need to hear from you. For comfort. For answers.” And I opened up my Bible… to this exact spot. I felt both chastised for questioning, and comforted by the clear message: “I have a plan that will be so worth it.”
    Next few months, I met my husband who is the perfect one for me. I also came to look into the Catholic Church (for the first time) since he was Catholic. I was blown away, and I was HOME. Thank God. Yep, he had a plan indeed.

  2. Thank you!
    Job has given so many people hope through the ages.
    His suffering shows that no matter what trust God.
    As someone who was born sick it took many years for me to forgive God. I know that is backwards but it is true.
    I see now that is was because I was suffering that I looked for God because if there was no God, life had no meaning and the suffering was for not.
    Job also gave me hope because after he suffered and looked to God his life became better than before. It is an image of suffering on earth and riches in Heaven.

  3. Hi all right, I'm from Brazil I always wanted to please God I was always against gender ideology and such things but I never hated someone because of that, just like Jesus said to love our neighbor, but I also don't want to distort the bible, that we all know, the problem is that I didn't know that there was (mainly in the United States) an opposition to the interracial/miscegenation relationship, here in Brazil this is the most normal thing in the world and it has always been both in the churches of old and today (not that there is no racism but here things are not segregated like in the United States).
    After reading several comments I realized how much this was a problem, which for me was always normal, I didn't know it was something "wrong", most of the Facebook pages for example I see always preach that God doesn't care about color of person, in fact most black pastors marry white women. This has made me feel bad I'm mixed, and 99% of Brazil is too. I, for example, have always liked European culture, but I realize that some Americans are afraid that Europe will lose its identity or something, this is putting me in a huge depression because I had no idea that some people thought that way (here in Brazil too but it is very little and they are not Christians, but racism is everywhere).
    In Brazil there were never any segregationist laws or anything like that so it was never a problem for us here, in fact this talk that miscegenation is genocide is an agenda of the left here in Brazil that was imported by the black movement by white Americans. Help me I'm very bad because of this it's not my ethnicity's fault I just want to please God.
    Thank you God bless you.
    this has taken my sleep, I didn't know it was such a bad thing for people from other countries, something that for me has always been very common (there are even some advertisements like against miscegenation) I should never have researched on this subject I knew that in the United States things were still segregated so I saw several comments and now I'm depressed I don't know what else to do

  4. I think with the chess analogy it's also important to emphasize that we're not mere chess pieces but are individually loved by God. I say this because I've spoken to a lot of people, close family and friends, who've read the book of Job and concluded that Job had to suffer just to "win a bet" and I found it hard to give a response within the context of Job since, like you said, we don't have a response to the problem of evil in the book. Now in the NT we do know that the cross gives meaning to suffering because it is redemptive when we offer it up. Yet it is still hard to use that as a response because suffering is painful for the person going through the situation. The only response I could give when asked for one is "I don't know why there's this particular suffering and we'll probably never know till we get to heaven," like you did in the video. I say " when asked for one" because I like you said, sometimes or most times it's best to just sit quietly with the person suffering.

  5. the Lord is one
    Bishop Robert Barron I can see you speak very nicely about the Lord, yes indeed i can feel you
    because the Lord spoke to me my hearth is full with the Lord, or as we say the Lord is in my hearth, it looks like not reality but he is more real than what we think he is he said to me go and tell the others i am here tell them to call my name and I will help them Jesus is his name he mean becouse he knew, I so him and i know his name is Jesus Amen

  6. Bishop Barron, I love everything you do and this is very thought provoking!
    It seems to me that there are two kinds of suffering:
    1. Self or internally imposed: my will and desires are out of step with God's plan for me. Your examples seem to fall in this category.
    2. Other or externally imposed: The results of natural events or other people's actions. The things that happen to Job seem to fall mostly into this category.
    I think people struggle with this second category way more than the first. Why the death and suffering of the pandemic? As your atheist debater Alex kept asking. Why the Holocaust?
    The answer from Job is: who are we to understand God's ways? But people could rightly ask questions such as: what one good thing came out of the Holocaust that made all that suffering worth it?
    For me as a believing Catholic, God's Providence is almost a given, but I can see how the Church's answer through the ages that "we don't know" can leave people cold.
    The Buddhist answer that life is suffering is also quite cold. But when we finally arrive at God becoming incarnate and entering into the cold suffering of the human condition, taking it upon himself, and transforming it for all time, we finally have an answer. And that's an answer which I will meditate upon and ponder for the rest of my life, because when I gaze upon the cross, my suffering makes sense in a way that my reason is insufficient to explain, and the only answer left is love.

  7. It's incredible to think just how much 'big data' was created by the thinking and observations of our great great ancestors to be able to reach that point of the Book of Job. Thank you for reminding me of how God is incontainable.

  8. I'm really offended about how modern religion seems to view animals. I think animals often exhibit more humanity and empathy than humans. Any insight on this? Also animals don't abduct females and children and try to enslave them.

  9. I came alive in reverence and awe the 1st time I read Job 38-42. I found a Father who is infinitely searchable but intimately knowable. I found a Divine understanding of the fear of God…which was a wonderful foundation to the beginning of my understanding.
    I remember praying…"You are God and I am not……thank God!!!" Why would I want to be my own Father anyway?
    I was so grateful for His majesty.
    And I continue to grow in trust.

  10. If I may play "devil's advocate" here…..

    Bishop Barron's way of addressing the situation by equating job loss, failed dreams etc as a satisfactory way of addressing the problem of suffering is bordering on frivolity rather than reality. By not focusing on the big picture and the massive suffering throughout the millennia of mankind and the animal kingdom, seems to be skirting the real issue….that God in reality seems to be indifferent to suffering, given natural disasters, tsunamis, tornados, hurricane, earthquakes etc.

    "Critics point out that even a quick examination of devastation reveals that disasters do not carefully select between the guilty and the innocent." "Babies and infants are often among the victims. If God was permitting the destruction, could he not discern between the guilty and the innocent, or between adherents of one religion or another? This raises questions about God’s role in disasters."" Surely God can differentiate between those who try to live godly lives and those who spurn both God and man alike or maybe, God judges indiscriminately, which raises more serious theological questions about his character." "Christians themselves raise the hard question of why an all-powerful, all-loving God allows such things to happen."

    The evidence of our senses and reality seem to point to an indifferent creator. The truth is, there is no satisfactory theological explanation of suffering of the innocent that makes sense…..if the creator is a loving, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God.

  11. I’m an R. C. AND IM CONCERED ABOUT OPUS DEI ,SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT WITH THIS MOVEMENT , IS THIS A MOVEMENT THAT IS SECRETIVE IN MANY WAYS ,IM 80 yrs of age , and live in Eire ,I’m a Scot , Ive seen all the troubles of the sex scandals especially here in Eire ,I’m not accusing anyone of this movement. , I’m just asking , why the separation of men and women in this movement ,I would be grateful if it can be explained to me ,as I’ve hit a brick wall concerning this , and the self flagelasing which I watched on my I pad , I just don’t understand what this move MENT is all about ,

  12. What a beautiful way to describe our lives in relation with our Beloved Lord. This sermon has re- instilled in me the huge need to repent to ask my self were am I, viz a viz my relation to God and fellow humans! Thank you Bishop Barron a worthy shepherd of His flock.

  13. Thank you, Bishop. Suffering is the cost of doing business in the physical universe. Period. The only way to avoid it is to choose non-being. In being, it comes with the territory. The goin' up is worth the comin' down.

  14. Thank you Bishop Barron. You have explained the most difficult question with images that help us to understand. Trust in God is the answer. Beautiful sermon. May God Bless your pastoral ministry always.

  15. The Lamb – sing it to the melody of Be Thou My Vision, known as Slane. Be a lamb.

    If you love Jesus, you're kinfolk to me
    We'll sing to the Lord, in sweet harmony
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain

    Loving our neighbors, as he taught us to
    He is the model, for all we should do
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain

    Stand under his cross, and under his grace
    Sending up prayers, to his holy place
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain

    We take up our crosses, and follow him now
    Wherever he leads, we'll trust in his power
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain

    Through the dark valleys, and all of our grief
    He shepherds us to, a place of relief
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain.

    Brothers and sisters, in one family
    Singing his praises, for eternity
    Angels are singing, bless his holy name
    Bow down before him, the lamb that was slain

  16. Although a agree with what you say about Job, but I’m not sure of the value of it in evangelizing. While what God says to Job is true, it does portray, God as arbitrary and one might say, being tempted by Satan. It’s obviously an allegory. But not a good story for evangelization. Especially to those that have little biblical background. I think it’s more useful and explains better the problem of evil and suffering, by stating the obvious. As JP2 said, it all can be traced to a collection of individual sin.

  17. No matter what is said, God is truly EVIL. 1) he created Satan 2) if he knows the future with infallible certainty, he can't change it, and if he doesn't know the future, does he know what he is going to do before he does it? 3) If you play chicken with god, he has to lose because if he knows you won't swerve, he has to. 4) He claims to do ALL evil in Isaiah 45:7, and acknowledges it in Amos 3:6. 5) The reason he kicked man out of the garden of eden is found in Genesis 3:22. It has nothing to do with SIN. 6) God's business agents are corrupt. God needs money for some reason, and he can't build his own churches even though he claims to be all powerful.

  18. Excellent summary of Job. Thank you Bishop Barron, your sermons and Daily mass of the Word on Fire during the early stage of the pandemic brought me home to the Catholic Church last Easter. I was a Charismatic Protestant for 30 years and woefully ignorant of Catholicism. All that I knew in the past about RC was fed by non Catholic sources.

  19. Thank you Bishop Barron. This week’s Sunday Sermon hit close to home. A year ago I was laid off after devoting 26 years to my employer. I spent two months searching for work, receiving rejection after rejection, on,y to land the job God truly intended for me. He revealed His plan for me in His own time. I’ve learned to trust more in God and patiently await His next step for me as He manages all those stacked chessboards representing the lives of His followers. God is good all the time.

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