October 3, 2012

Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 457

A Reading from the holy book of Job

Jb 9:1-12, 14-16

Yesterday, Job was cursing the day he was born.  Today, he is talking to three friends that came to comfort him.  But their comfort turns into admonitions.  Because they believe only the wicked are punished as harshly as that suffering which Job is experiencing.  Whereas Job maintains his innocence before God.

Job answered his friends and said:

I know well that it is so;
but how can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

Job agrees which his friends and admits that no man is just before God.

He removes the mountains before they know it;
he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place,
and the pillars beneath it tremble.
He commands the sun, and it rises not;
he seals up the stars.

He also recognizes God's omnipotence.

He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.

And Job recognizes the mighty wisdom of God beyond all knowledge of man.

Should he come near me, I see him not;
should he pass by, I am not aware of him;

And admits that God is beyond knowing and beyond man's understanding.

Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?
Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"

And then he admits God's surpassing right to do whatever He wants.  He is speaking hypothetically saying that if God were to act capriciously, who could stop Him.  We know, of course, that God is not capricious.

How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.

And he wisely says that he will not argue with God.  Even if he were right and God were wrong.  He would simply accept what God said was his due.   By faith, Job knew that God is always just and righteous in all His ways.  By faith.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15

Response. (3) Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

Daily I call upon you, O LORD;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work wonders for the dead?
Will the shades arise to give you thanks?

R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

Do they declare your mercy in the grave,
your faithfulness among those who have perished?
Are your wonders made known in the darkness,
or your justice in the land of oblivion?

R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

But I, O LORD, cry out to you;
with my morning prayer I wait upon you.
Why, O LORD, do you reject me;
why hide from me your face?

R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

The Psalm continues to describe the righteous man's plight when he feels abandoned by God.  A wonderful poem which also describes this situation is St. John of Cross', "Dark Night".

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke

Lk 9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

Jesus seemed to challenge anyone who wanted to follow Him.  To this one, who expressed a desire to follow Him, Jesus warned that he had better be ready to suffer.  Because Jesus Himself did not even have a home or a bed to rest in.

And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."

Jesus invited another to follow Him.  But that fellow hesitated saying that he must bury his father.  That doesn't necessarily mean that his father was dead.  But that his father was possibly aged and he didn't want to leave him without assistance.  But Jesus said in another place:

Matthew 10:37
King James Version (KJV)
³⁷ He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

By faith, this young man should have left his father, knowing that God would provide.  Scripture doesn't say what he decided.

And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."

And again, Jesus reiterated the message.  If you want to follow Him, there is no turning back.

Sincerely,

De Maria