On the front of the Bulletin today is the heading Suffering and the Book of Job. Under it is a reflection on suffering based on the writer’s encounter with someone called job in Bangui the capital of the Central African Republic. He says that he was very much like the description of Job that we come across as the book progresses. The suffering endured by Job is immense and throughout the time of suffering he reflects in different ways on what has happened to him and why. He struggles with the big question “why is suffering inflicted on a just man?” However, at no point does he throw in the towel. There is suffering; there is a man who finds it hard to cope with it, a man who finds patience at times while trying to tease out why this is happening to him, there is the one who hopes, there is the man who in today’s reading says “Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy’ and the man who eventually recognises the importance of faith even though understanding of what is happening is not present. Through 42 chapters there is a deep exploration of the relationship between sin and suffering, our relationship with God and the hope that we are called to hold on to while patiently trusting God.