Monday of Week 26 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Job 1:6-22 | Psalm 16:1-3,6-7 | Luke 9:46-50
What would it take to shake our faith?
What would it take to stir it?
Like many others I know, I’ve been blessed with relatively good fortune and health, and while things could be quite a bit better, they could be a whole lot worse too. I have the luxury of spending time each night meditating on the Word of God, instead of toiling away at a second job just to make ends meet.
So has my faith been shaken in my life, by misfortunes on a Job-sian scale? No.
Has my faith been stirred? A little, though it could be a lot more.
But life is comfortable now. Why court trouble by trying to be just a little more loving and pious in life? Wouldn’t that just beg for Satan’s meddling? Better to keep a low religious profile, so as not to attract the unwanted attention of the Evil One, no?
Except I don’t think it works that way.
Wouldn’t it be more likely that Satan would just love to put the kibosh on fervent God-veneration, to convince everyone that going through the motions of worship with dampened hearts, unfired by the Holy Spirit, is sufficient? That way, he could then poke us like he did Job, and laugh uproariously as we fall over ourselves cursing God for bringing us such misery. “My bungalow, my Ferrari, my supermodel girlfriends are mine, God! How dare You take them away from me?”
Job shows us a more appropriate response:
‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
naked I shall return.
The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!’ (Job 1:21)
We utter these familiar words in commiseration with others’ misfortune, and perhaps even our own, but what do we really mean by them?
The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Lord, all I have is due to You. You are not my servant, not at my beck and call. You have given me so much in life, so it is Your right to take it away as You please, and I know that I will end my mortal life as I began: with nothing except Your love. Help me hold fast to that love no matter the battering storms and raging seas, so that when the tumult ceases and I count the cost of my love for You, I may count myself fortunate among men to have been loved by You to the end. Amen.