Word to the Wise
Monday, September 26, 2022 - Monday in the 26th Week in Ordinary Time
[Job 1:6-22 and Luke 9:46-50]"Naked I came forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!" In all this Job did not sin, or did he say anything disrespectful of God." [Job]
For the next few days, the first scripture for Mass will be taken from the Book of Job. It is one of the most profound books of the Bible and it confronts us with the mystery of human suffering. Today's passage speaks of a kind of wager between God and Satan that Job will lose faith in God if all God's blessings are taken from him. In the end, Satan loses, but the challenge goes from the loss of family, friends and property to Job's very person and spirit. It has been said that Job's greatest suffering comes from the friends who gather and sit around him trying to get him to admit that he has done something wrong to "deserve" what has happened to him.
Today, we have Job's initial losses and his reaction to those losses. He sees those blessings as gifts which God could take away as easily as God gave them. He is in pain but he acknowledges God's sovereignty. The author says that Job does not ever curse God, but there is no question that Job does complain and asserts his innocence.
In the Book of Job we are invited and challenged to join Job in asking "Why?" The journey through the book will give us much to consider, and God's answer at the end of the book may leave us unsatisfied with a continued mystery, but no other book in the Old Testament is more worthy of our attention than the Book of Job. AMEN