Bible
Study: Job 38, 1 to 21 and 40, 3 to 5. Luke
10, 13 to 16.
In today’s first reading,
God responds to Job after all his ranting. In fact, at the end, Job realized
his nothingness. Job thought he knew God very well and he had him all figured
out. Job thought that for a good person, there could no such thing as suffering
and even when his friends tried to make him feel guilty saying his calamity was
as a result of his sinfulness, Job refused to admit of any faults in the
matter. Job felt something might have gone wrong with God to have allowed him
suffer this much despite his innocence.
Today, God asks Job certain
questions to make him understand that no matter how much he tried, there is
just no way he could figure God out. The response of Job is similar to the
response of the greatest intellectuals who have ever tried to fully comprehend
God. He said: “Behold I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand
on mouth.” Recall, even the Angelic Doctor himself, St. Thomas Aquinas said: “Everything
I have written is rubbish.”
There is a way to question
God that we would only end up incurring his anger because as humans, we are too
limited and our knowledge is totally incapable of figuring God out or putting
him in a box so to say. We can’t even understand ourselves completely, yet we
are just one out of the millions of creatures made by God. How then do we
expect to understand God? How can we define the limits of his power? How can we
say this is what God can do and what he cannot do? Could it be that by our
questioning, we make him angry with us?
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus does not pretend out his anger
at all. He is viciously angry with the persons who received miracles from him
but refused to repent from their sins. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you,
Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” Luke
10, 13.
If we receive answers to our prayers and God blesses us with
these material things of life and we still refuse to change our ways, we still
live in grievous sin, all we end up achieving is the anger of God. Haven’t we
simply turned God to our errand boy when we seek miracles from him and yet
refuse to live our lives according to his commandments? Is God angry with me?
Let us pray: Lord, give us
grace to live authentic Christian lives. Amen
May Saint Jerome who while as
a priest serving as secretary to Pope Damasus began the task of translating the
Bible into Latin intercede for us. Amen. May his life and writings continue to
inspire our Scripture scholars who try to understand God through his word
daily. Amen
Be Happy.
Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you.
Fr. Abu
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