Two Sides To Suffering

In some moment of our lives, probably in a moment of chaos and difficulties, we doubt God’s power, justice, fairness and most of all his love for his people. When the sun keeps shining over the disasters that have happened in history we ask ourselves, does He really exist, is there really an intelligent overseeing power that rules everything and even destroys our lives? That is what unites Job’s and Elie’s lives, their suffering and their never-ending consternation and doubting of God’s traits. “Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God himself. Never.” –Pg. 32 Our self- importance, desire to live, common sense and knowledge of good and evil makes us sit down and consider our beliefs in a distant way which comes back to the same question. Does God really exist?

Elie’s narration even talks about Job’s example which really makes us consider what we would think about God’s rightfulness in their case. “How I sympathized with Job! I did not deny God’s existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.” –Pg. 42 Elie’s great life and believer traits perfectly match up to those of Job in different contexts. We can even consider the similarities between the opposing forces to their truthful lives: the Nazis and Satan! We can also see how each of the characters act upon the horrible events in their lives. Elie is completely disappointed by God’s word, instead Job still considers God’s existence and power. We can see how each of their lives completely changed after these events. Job was favored and he received back what he had lost but on the other hand we see Elie as the only survivor and witness of his family’s suffering. This makes us ask ourselves, is the Old Testament’s promise of giving us back our lives after the dark tunnel true and does it apply to modern society? After such intense, dark suffering, such as the kidnap victims in Colombia by the FARC, one can never be the same but the spiritual thread seems to tie all these nefarious events together.

People come out of these hells battered and changed, many times even more gentle, wiser, vulnerable, appreciative and spiritually stronger then when they walked or were forcefully taken into Hades.