Feb 4, 2024

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Feeling Like Job Today?

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

If you ever feel like complaining to God, crying out, “Why me…Why must I suffer? Job is the book for you. He appears in our first reading today and he laments his situation. What lesson can Job teach us?

Job was a prosperous, pious, and upright chieftain but Satan had set his sight upon him. Satan wanted to prove to God that Job was a “fair-weather-believer,” that the only reason Job believed in God was because Job’s life was going smoothly. God allowed Satan to turn Job’s life upside down to prove to Satan that Job was faithful no matter what might befall him.

So, Satan does his worst to ensure that Job suffers a sudden and complete reversal of fortune. He loses his property and even his children who die in a storm. And if this were not enough, Job was afflicted with a disease that leaves him completely incapacitated, covered in sores from head to toe. Despite these sorrows, Job remained faithful and did not complain. His friends insist that his plight can only be a punishment for some terrible sin he had committed and they urged Job to repent. Job’s wife was hardly supportive of her husband. She said, “Are you still holding on to your innocence? Curse God and die!”

After a long time, Job lost his patience and began to complain to God: “Lord, I have been faithful. Look at what you have done to me. Why me? Why these terrible things? You are unjust! The Lord finally responds in the midst of a frightening storm and says: “Who is this that obscures divine plans with words of ignorance? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.”

Job had gone too far in questioning God’s wisdom. The Lord reminded him that he was the one who created the world, the oceans, clouds, life and death, light and darkness, the stars, the weather, and the seasons.

God told Job that being human, certain things were beyond his understanding. Who was he, a creature, to try to fathom the mystery and majesty of God? In humility Job had to understand that God’s wisdom is far beyond our understanding. Rather than trying to fathom or scrutinize God’s motives, Job had to trust, respect, and honor God.

When difficulties befall us—when life seems illogical, or unfair—at such times, our task is to do the same, realizing that God, who sees the wider picture, is stretching us, molding, and shaping us, strengthening us for something greater. Job had no idea what was going on behind the scenes—that Satan was putting him to the test. He had no idea that God was always “in his corner” planning to restore his health and give him more than he ever had.

I’d like to share with you the reflection of the Catholic journalist, Antoinette Bosco who wrote about “Life’s Tough Courses:”

“When all is well and life is pleasant, faith is an easy part of the package. But life also brings the death of a child, the divorce of parents, a grown child turned selfish and ugly, a debilitating illness, a desperate boredom, an untouchable loneliness, or confinement in an old age home. How many of us are so strong in our faith that we can face these terrifying conditions with the clarity of knowing that God is still with us? I am always walking a tightrope between the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ of my faith. But I haven’t fallen off yet because of Jesus. I go back with him for those forty days of searching, scared stiff about the crosses lying in wait for me, yet gaining courage from the remembrance that Jesus himself wasn’t spared the cross…Can’t I go on believing that no matter where I stand in the darkness, there is a hand there to lead me to the light? The answers to my questions lie in Jesus. Louis Evely, the noted French spiritual writer, expressed his faith in these words: ‘I give thanks to Jesus Christ for having revealed to me the human countenance of God and the Power of love which is stronger than all evil.’ I second that.”

       
My friends, let us also second that sentiment, asking for the grace to trust, respect and honor the Lord, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding and who is with us always, never to abandon us, no matter how bumpy and difficult the road of life becomes.