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Commentary on Job 1:6-22

After Proverbs and Ecclesiastes we now move on to another ‘wisdom’ book and one of the most profound, the Book of Job. The book is named after its central character and deals with the problem of the suffering of the innocent. It is regarded as a literary masterpiece, although the author is unknown.

Job, a good and upright man, but also a very wealthy one, suddenly loses all his wealth—including his property and his family. He himself suffers from a serious skin disease, and he is reduced to sitting miserably on an ash heap.

Yet, Job never complains against God. When some friends, Job’s “comforters”, come to sympathise, he protests his innocence, for such afflictions were usually seen as punishment for sinful behaviour. Nevertheless, Job does not complain against God. Yet he curses the day of his birth and longs for death to bring an end to his sufferings. Yet all throughout, he maintains an attitude of acceptance and trust in God, one that is strengthened by his suffering.

The overall lesson is that even good people may suffer greatly in this life and this can be a test of their faithfulness. Nor is it possible for the human mind to grasp fully the thoughts of God and to understand why things happen the way they do. So the book in general deals with a problem which is still a source of great puzzlement and contention: How can God allow a good and innocent person to suffer?

Today’s reading sets the scene for the long dialogue which forms the main part of the book. The opening verses of the book, which we omit in today’s reading, present us with a man of great wealth and with a large and united family, as well as being a man who is very close to God.

One day, we are told, when the “heavenly beings” came into the Lord’s presence, Satan came along with them. These “heavenly beings” are superhuman creatures who make up God’s court and council and are understood to be the angels. Satan was originally a general name for an evil being, but later became a proper name and here plays a role similar to the serpent in Genesis, as a tempter to sin.

There is then a dialogue between God and Satan (who is also called the “Adversary” or “Accuser”). God, taking the initiative, throws down a challenge. He asks Satan if, in his wanderings around the earth, he had come across God’s good servant Job, a man whose like cannot be found anywhere. “Servant” indicates someone with a special relationship to God and is used of people like Moses and David and, later in Isaiah, for the “suffering Servant” who is a pre-figurement of Jesus.

Satan replies:

Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.

Satan boldly accuses the man God commends—he says Job’s righteousness, in which God delights, is self-serving. This is the core of Satan’s attack on God and his faithful servant in the book.

God takes up the challenge:

Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!

Satan is given an almost free hand to do what he wants, but his power is significantly limited by the greater power of God. The question now is: Will Job curse God to his face? If Job does not, the ‘accuser’ (Satan) will be proven false and God’s delight in Job vindicated.

We are now brought to the house of Job’s eldest son where all Job’s family are dining together. One by one messages of disasters begin to come in. First, an invasion of Sabaeans have carried off Job’s herds of cattle and murdered his farm workers. All his herds of sheep and their shepherds are then struck by lightning. Again, a group of Chaldeans take off all Job’s camels and murder their drivers. Finally, Job is told that a hurricane has caused the house of his eldest son to collapse on his whole family, killing them all. In effect, his family and future generations are wiped out.

The Sabaeans were predatory nomads, probably southern Arabians from Sheba, whose descendants became wealthy traders in spices, gold and precious stones. Later in the book Job refers to them as “travelling merchants” and associates them with Tema, which lies nearly 600 km south-east of Jerusalem. Chaldeans were a Bedouin people until circa 1000 BC, when they settled in southern Mesopotamia and later became the nucleus of Nebuchadnezzar’s empire.

Job is left with nothing. How will he respond? Will he curse God or at least complain and ask why these things are happening to him?

In fact, he goes into a penitential mode, tearing his clothes and shaving his head. Perhaps these things are a sign of his sinfulness for which he needs to repent. There is no sound of complaint, but rather of total acceptance of what has happened to him:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Everything he had was a gift from the Lord and now they have all been taken back. Job’s faith leads him to see the sovereign God’s hand at work, and that gives him repose even in the face of calamity.

In fact, in the long dialogues which follow with his friends, Job will show that acceptance of what has happened to him does not come so easily. But through it all, he never questions the justice of God; it is just that it is so difficult to understand.

We can see that the problems we have with the sufferings of the young and the innocent are nothing new. These questions become perhaps even more painful and meaningless when many try to solve the problem by removing God from the picture altogether. But that does not solve the problem and does not take away the pain. If there is no God, if we convince ourselves that all is simply the result of chance, then why does the sense of wrongness still assert itself? In a world of pure chance there can be no absolute truth or falsehood, no objective right or wrong. Things just happen in a totally mechanical way.

Taking away God does not solve the problem because ultimately he is the source of the problem—as Job recognises. Somehow, the answer is only to be found in a God who is full of love and compassion, in a God who allows his own innocent Son to suffer terribly and die in agony. Somehow the answer has to be found there in the Suffering Jesus. Many have discovered that the way out is not the removal of their pain, but in being able—together with Jesus—to go through it. Pain can destroy, but it can also heal.

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Commentary on Job 9:1-12,14-16

In today’s reading Job responds to Bildad of Shuah, one of his friends and comforters. Basically, Bildad had said that punishment of the wicked is as certain as the laws of nature. There is an implication that Job’s misfortunes are somehow the punishment for his wrongdoings.

Job agrees with this in principle and does not claim that he is sinless. Still, he does wish to have an opportunity to prove that at least he is not guilty of the kind of sin that would bring down on him such terrible misfortunes as he has experienced. He will make serious complaints against God’s treatment of him, but he never abandons his God nor (as Satan foretold) does he curse him.

Much later in the book (chap 42—Saturday’s reading) it is implied that Job persevered, but in these earlier chapters he does so with impatience. We talk about the ‘patience of Job’, but the book is really concerned with his perseverance and refusal to rebel against God. “You have heard of the endurance of Job”, says the Letter of James (5:11).

In today’s reading Job admits that God is all-powerful:

…how can a mortal be just before God?

His speech is filled with the imagery of the courtroom: “answer him”, “argue with him”, “innocent”, “plead”, “Judge”, “summon(ed)”, “pronounce me guilty”, “judges”, “court”, “charges…against me”, “witnesses”. Job strongly argues his innocence, but he feels that because God is so great, there is no use in contending with him. Job’s innocence does him no good. The reason is that God:

…is wise in heart, and mighty in strength…

Job then sings a hymn to the overwhelming power of God over his creation; he is the Master and there is no other. He moves mountains and performs countless wonders. But Job feels no blessings from all this. These actions simply speak of an unchallengeable power. Job does not yet see that God’s power is controlled by goodness and justice (see Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount about the universality of God’s love, Matt 5:45). At this point, however, Job cannot see clearly that God’s power is controlled by goodness and justice. He sees simply a God who can do what he likes when he likes and against whom the creature has no redress.

The power of God is illustrated in the ways he can overturn mountains and move the earth so that it shakes on its pillars. The ancient world believed that the earth was a flat surface supported underneath by great pillars. Earthquakes, too, must have been a truly frightening experience (as they still are for us today, but we at least now understand their cause). Later in the book, the earth will be described as suspended over nothing (Job 26:7).

God can control the rising and setting of the sun and the shining of the stars. He alone made the vast heavens and “trampled the waves of the Sea”.

The Jerusalem Bible comments:

“In the Babylonian cosmogonies, Tiamat (the Sea) cooperated in the birth of the gods and was then conquered and subdued by one of their number. The imagination of the people, or of poets, seized on this story: Yahweh became the conqueror who then set Chaos in order and ever after held the Sea and its monsters in control.

Canaanite texts describe the goddess Asherah as walking on the sea (or sea-god) to subdue it. So, in the same way, God ‘treads on the waves’ to control the boisterous sea.

It is the same God who made the vast constellations in the skies—the Great Bear (Plough), Orion and the Pleiades. Although the ancients did not understand fully the nature of heavenly bodies they were overawed by their size and mystery and their movements, which were often believed to influence events on earth. There was more astrology than astronomy. They would have even been more overawed if they had known the true size and extent of the heavens.”

This hymn to the vastness of the universe, all made by an all-powerful God, only makes Job feel worse. He wishes to argue his innocence, but he feels that because God is so great there is no use in contending with him. Job’s innocence does him no good. There is no use asking God, “What are you doing?” He is answerable to no one:

How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?

For God is both judge and jury:

Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.

Job is obviously not yet clear about what is happening to him.

He acknowledges God’s absolute power over him, but at the same time, questions whether it justifies the situation he now finds himself in. Like his friends, he is still largely of the conviction that the good are rewarded and the evil punished in this life. It is the challenging of this very belief which is at the heart of this book.

The pain and the suffering of the good are not signs of God’s displeasure at all. They can in time be seen positively as signs of grace and God’s love steering us into a deeper relationship with him. Other more impersonal happenings are often simply the effects of the forces of nature (physics, chemistry and biology), and it is not reasonable to expect God to interfere with these.

This is the move from passive fatalism to a positive and welcoming acceptance of whatever way God comes into our lives. Sickness and death are not the ultimate evils; sin, the absence of truth and love, is.

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Commentary on Luke 9:57-62

Today’s passage has to be seen in the light of yesterday’s. Jesus has reached an important stage in his public life and mission. He is now irrevocably on his way to Jerusalem and all that that means for him—and us.

But he does not want to go alone. His whole purpose is to have people go with him. Already there are his disciples, but there will be more. Today we see three “candidates” coming forward with a lot of good will, but Jesus makes them aware of what following him really means. Their responses to Jesus’ remarks are not given so we do not know whether they became followers or not. The point Luke is making is to show what following entails.

The first says very generously that he will go wherever Jesus is going. Jesus answers:

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.

These words of Jesus indicate not poverty or indigence, but freedom. To follow Jesus fully one needs to be free, not to be tied down by anything and not to be anxious about having or not having things.

There is no evidence that Jesus was poor in the sense of being deprived of the necessities of life. He did not own a house, but it is never even hinted that, by necessity, he had to sleep out in the open air. He belonged to a group of people who more than willingly shared what they had with him.

The second man from today’s Gospel was actually invited by Jesus to be a follower. But he asked first to be allowed to go and bury his father. This does not mean that his father had just died and he wanted to attend the funeral. It is more likely that he wanted, as a dutiful son, to wait for his father’s death before going off with Jesus.

But that is not good enough. The call of Jesus transcends needs of family, tradition and culture. The needs of the living outweigh those of the dead. His father might not die for years; what was the man supposed to do in the meantime?

Once we are aware of Jesus’ call the only time to answer is now. In spite of that, we should not read these lines too rigidly. Clearly, for example, there would be times when one would want to be present at the death of a parent, especially to provide support for the grieving spouse. That would be in total harmony with respect for parents and love for the neighbour. But the man in the example is in a totally different situation. He is talking about an event in the future whose time and place are not known.

Finally, another would-be follower asked first for permission to go home and say goodbye to his family. It was similar to a request made by Elisha when he was called to succeed Elijah as prophet (1 Kings 19:19-21). Elijah’s answer was, “Go ahead.” So what we have here seems a very reasonable request, but it is rejected by Jesus who says:

No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

Like Jesus himself turning his face towards Jerusalem and all that it means for him, once the decision has been made to serve God and his people, there can be no turning back. Again, the words of Jesus should not be taken literally.

Read in that way, they would be totally at variance with the loving and compassionate quality of Jesus’ character. The point that is being made in all three examples is the absoluteness, the unconditionality that is required in the following of Jesus. It is a theme which is emphasised more than once in Luke’s Gospel. We cannot be fence-sitters, to have our cake and eat it too. Being a follower of Jesus can never be a part-time affair. It is all or nothing. At the same time, the demands of agape-love are always there. It is a matter each time of discerning where the truly loving act lies.

If we are honest, a lot of us are like these men in our following of Christ and in the living out of our faith. We do have our material wants (distinct from needs); we feel we cannot live without ‘our little comforts in life’. Today, let us pray today for a high degree of freedom in being able to accept unconditionally God’s will for us. To have that freedom is one of the greatest blessings and graces of our life.

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Commentary on Job 19:21-27

Job asks his “comforters” for some genuine compassion, saying:

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!

His body is covered with sores and his family destroyed. He is not sure yet why this has happened, but the words of his friends do not seem to be of much help. He asks them:

Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?

It is bad enough having God do these things to him without them aggravating the situation.

And then, in stark contrast to what goes before and follows after (not in our readings), in the very depths of his misery, Job bursts out in a marvellous statement of faith and hope. According to the NIV Bible, it is:

“…probably the best-known and most-loved passage in the book of Job, reaching a high point in Job’s understanding of his own situation and of his relationship to God.”

So strongly does he feel about what he is going to say that he would like it to be inscribed in stone so that it would survive his death and endure until the day when his vindication will take place. Job says:

For I know that my vindicator lives…

‘Vindicator’ or ‘Avenger’ translates the Hebrew word goel, a technical term in law. It is frequently used of God as the saviour of his people and the avenger of the oppressed; early rabbis also used it of the Messiah. In the Latin translation of St Jerome (the Vulgate) the word is translated ‘Redeemer’. The word seems analogous to the title given in the New Testament to the Spirit—the Paraclete (parakletes)—which means someone who comes to protect you and stand by your side, such as a defence lawyer in court.

Job now in deep faith awaits his God to come and vindicate him before his friends, who have condemned him as a sinner and wrongdoer. The Jerusalem Bible comments:

“Job, slandered and condemned by his friends, awaits a Defender who this time is God himself. Job still believes his happiness to be lost for ever and his death to be at hand: when God undertakes to avenge his cause, it will be after his death. Nonetheless Job hopes to witness this and to ‘see’ his vindication. In 14:10-14 he had envisaged the possibility of a temporary shelter in Sheol, and here it would seem that he is counting on a brief return to earthly life to see his vindications accomplished; in this he is prompted by his faith in a God who can bring men back from Sheol. Job’s faith thus momentarily defies mortal horizons in his desperate need for justice; it prepares us for the explicit revelation of bodily resurrection…(see 2 Macc 7:9).”

Job expresses his confidence that ultimately God will vindicate his faithful servants in the face of all false accusations.

Job’s words of faith and hope are probably best known to us in the famous aria from Handel’s oratorio the Messiah, “I know that my Redeemer liveth”, although ‘Redeemer’ or ‘Vindicator’ here, with the hindsight of the New Testament, has a meaning going far beyond what Job is saying.

God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. He will “stand upon the earth” as judge. And that will be the moment of Job’s justification. Job expects to die from the physical afflictions of his body, but “then in my flesh I shall see God”. God will be close to him and perhaps he will even be able to return to earth for a short period.

In spite of his sufferings, Job knows in his heart they are not the result of his sin, and that his basic innocence and goodness will be finally recognised by his being brought face to face with the one who will vindicate him.

Job’s great hope should be the basis of our faith, too. We too know that our Avenger, our Vindicator, our Redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ lives, and that he has gone ahead of us so that we can share with him the life that no one can take from us.

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Commentary on Luke 10:1-12

Two days ago we saw Jesus firmly setting out for Jerusalem and the accomplishment of his mission. Yesterday we saw how he responded to people who wanted to or were being invited to join his mission. During the coming days we will see Jesus preparing his actual disciples for their work.

In addition to the inner circle of the Twelve, we are told today that he appointed another 72 (12×6) and sent them two by two to the places he himself would be visiting (note that only Luke mentions this group). That is a good description of our Christian role. We are supposed to go first to prepare the ground, but then it is Jesus himself who comes to plant the seed of faith.

Jesus then goes on to give an instruction to his disciples. We, too, should be listening to his words. First, he points out that the harvest is great and there are very few labourers—few who are willing to do the harvesting work with Jesus.

This is a text which is often thrown at us during ‘vocation’ campaigns. We tend to hear it as a call for more priests, brothers and nuns. It is that, of course, but when Jesus spoke there were no priests, brothers or nuns. The challenge was being thrown out to all his followers to find more people to join in the harvesting work.

We have to be careful as we listen to these words not to exclude ourselves because we are middle-aged, or married, or already have a career. The words are addressed to all of us and call for some kind of response from every one of us. It is never too late to respond to the call.

Second, Jesus warns his followers that it may not be easy.

I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.

In spite of the message of truth, love, compassion and justice that we bring, it does not mean that we will be received with open arms. On the contrary, we may meet with strong opposition and even persecution. Our message will be seen as threatening. It will be distorted and misunderstood.

Third, the disciples are called on to travel light. Jesus himself “had nowhere to lay his head” and he only had the clothes he wore.

So many of us are weighed down by the things we own. Some of us have to protect our property with the latest in security devices. In our search for prosperity and material security we have lost the more precious gift of freedom. The disciples are not to stop to greet people in the sense of carrying on lengthy conversations. Their mission was urgent—there are few labourers for a potentially huge harvest.

Fourth, they are to be bearers of peace. Peace, shalom, is much more than an absence of violence. It is a deep inner harmony with oneself, with others, with one’s environment, with God:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

We could hardly bring a more precious gift to others than this inner peace. It is, in fact, the heart of our Christian message. Faith, hope and love are the keys to peace.

Fifth, the evangeliser is to stay in the first house that accepts him. He should not be going around looking for better accommodation. At the same time, he is to be provided with shelter and hospitality:

…for the laborer deserves to be paid.

This, it seems, was the way Jesus himself lived. And this was the overall ideal of the Christian community: a network of mutually supporting people sharing their resources with each other and with those in greater need than themselves.

Sixth, their work is primarily to heal the sick in the places they go to. ‘Healing’ should be taken in a wider sense of including body, feelings, mind and spirit. And ‘healing’ should also be seen not just as getting rid of a sickness, but of making a person whole again. Bringing healing and wholeness into the lives of individuals and communities is of the essence of the Kingdom and at the heart of Jesus’ work and that of his followers. The sign of that wholeness is inner peace. Today it is no different.

And they are to say:

…the kingdom of God has come near.

This is not just a statement they are to throw out. It is the core of Jesus’ message and an explanation of why people are experiencing healing and wholeness coming into their lives. This is the effect of the coming of the Kingdom; this is what the coming of the Kingdom means. God’s power is penetrating their lives, transforming them and making them whole again.

Luke mentions the Kingdom of God more than 30 times; Matthew more than 50 times. Matthew’s is truly a Gospel of the Kingdom.

The term can have a number of meanings:

• the eternal Kingship (basileia) of God;
• the presence of the Kingdom in the person of Jesus; he is the embodiment, the incarnation of the rule of God in himself, an incarnation he wishes to be found in his disciples and the communities they establish;
• the future Kingdom in the life that is to come.

In short, the Kingdom—the rule of God—is intended to be both a present reality as well as a future hope.

And finally, seventh, if there is any place where they are not received, the disciples are to leave it to its own fate. Even then those people are to know that the Kingdom of God is near to them also. There is always the hope that the results of their very rejection of the Kingdom will lead to a deeper awareness later on. By rejecting the messengers of God, they have opened themselves to a fate worse than that of Sodom, a city utterly destroyed because of its shameful lack of hospitality to divine visitors. But those hearing the message of Jesus are even more accountable for hearing the message of the Kingdom proclaimed to them and turning their back on it.

Clearly, we cannot literally apply all of these points to our own work on behalf of the Gospel, but we need to make the underlying principles and values ours too. It will require some reflection on our part, both as individuals and as communities, on how we should effectively share the Gospel with those around us and be the harvesters that are so badly needed. Indeed, let us pray for vocations, but let us remember that every single one of us is being called to work in the harvest field and not just some chosen souls who are totally unknown to us.

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Commentary on Job 38:1,12-21;40:3-5

The three “comforters” are followed in their dialogue with Job by Elihu (chaps 32-37), who adds his own advice.

In today’s reading, Yahweh intervenes with two speeches in which he gives Job the answers to his questions. They cover more than four chapters altogether (38-42). In our reading we are given short excerpts from the first speech. And, in each case, Job will give a short response of acknowledgement.

In a way, the answer to the why of his suffering is that there is no answer, in the sense that no human person is in a position to call into question the infinite wisdom and power of God. Job will now accept his situation. He is a person of tiny significance in a vast universe—one which is totally beyond his comprehension. How can he question the God who is behind it all?

Yahweh speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind”. This is a traditional way of describing an appearance of God and is evocative of his overwhelming power. Earlier Elihu had imagined the appearance of the divine presence as a display of “golden splendour” and “awesome majesty”. He had also anticipated the storm or whirlwind from which Job would hear the voice of God. Job had said, “Let the Almighty answer me.” He now receives the Lord’s answer.

Yahweh begins by asking a series of questions full of poetic images. They compare the almighty power of the creator God with the impotence of Job, the creature.

Yahweh begins by asking Job if he had ever given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its place. ‘Morning’ and ‘Dawn’ are seen as distinct entities. Obviously, the answer is ‘No’. Only the Master of the Universe could do such a thing. The light also has the effect of driving the wicked into hiding; they cannot tolerate the light and love darkness (Jesus will say something in the same vein). Again, this is clearly far beyond the capabilities of Job. When the “dawn” comes to the earth:

It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment

Here is a wonderful image of the dawn breaking over the earth and changing the colours of everything as the sun rises. The “clay” is a deep red.

Has Job ever gone to the “springs of the sea”? It was believed that there were springs under the earth which supplied the seas with water, or has he been to the “recesses of the deep”, the depths beyond the confines of the earth? Has he been to the “gates of death” or seen the janitors of “gates of deep darkness”—Sheol, the place of the dead?

Does Job have even the faintest idea of the extent of the earth? The vast majority of people in those days, even the rich, had not travelled far from their home and had no way of knowing what the rest of even the inhabited world was like. We need to remember it was not until the end of the 15th century of our era, when the great sea explorations began, that people had any idea of the size and shape of our planet, and even longer before we began to penetrate the mysteries of the skies above our heads.

Job had never been to the homes of Light and Darkness, ideas thought of as distinct from the sun and moon (as they are in the creation story of Genesis where Light is created before the Sun).

All of these are places to which only God has access. If Job did know these things, he might have some power to control them but, in fact, he is totally powerless. If he did know all these things, he would now be very ancient indeed! But so limited is Job’s knowledge that he is in absolutely no situation to question anything that God does.

In the last part of the reading, which is Job’s response to God, he is for all practical purposes reduced to stammering and speechlessness:

I am of small account; what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.

He will no longer complain because his grasp of the situation is so weak. How can he call to account Yahweh who is so vast in his power, while Job is so little? He can have no idea of the full picture of things.

We know many things about our world and environment which were completely unknown to Job. But in spite of all that we have discovered in the intervening centuries, life is still largely a mystery, and we are equally unable to explain why many things happen to us or what goes on in the mysterious wisdom of God.

The only response that gives peace is to hold on to the conviction that he is a God of truth, of love, of compassion and of justice. And, in spite of the disorder and chaos and violence, our world is shot through with Truth, Love and Beauty. As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said: “The world is charged with the grandeur of God” and “There lives the deepest freshness deep down things”. Lord, that we may see!

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Commentary on Luke 10:13-16

We hear strong words today from Jesus against towns where he had preached extensively—Chorazin, Bethsaida and especially Capernaum.

Chorazin is only mentioned twice in the Bible, here and in the parallel passage of Matthew 11:21. It was near the Sea of Galilee and probably between 3 and 4 km north of Capernaum. Bethsaida, the home of some of Jesus’ disciples, was on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had been built by Philip the Tetrarch, who called it ‘Julias’ after Julia, a daughter of the emperor Caesar Augustus. Capernaum, situated on the north shore of the lake, appears frequently in the Gospel narratives and was the centre from which Jesus did much of his missionary work. His work and preaching would have been most familiar to the people there.

Jesus says that if the gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon had witnessed all that Jesus had said and done in those towns of Palestine, they would have repented long ago—just as the pagan people of Niniveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah.

Tyre and Sidon were towns on the Phoenician coast, north of Palestine (Lebanon today). Jesus was said to have visited the area just once and only very briefly, so the people there did not have an opportunity to witness Jesus’ miracles or hear his preaching, unlike the people in the towns mentioned above.

And Jesus goes further. Addressing his disciples he says:

Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

In other words, to listen to the messengers of Jesus is equivalent to listening to him personally—to reject those messengers is to reject Jesus and to reject God.

And in our own times, perhaps we should emphasise that those “messengers” are not just bishops, priests and religious. They include all those who sincerely proclaim the Gospel by their words and their lives.

It might be no harm then for each of us today to hear those warnings of Jesus addressed to ourselves. How well have we really responded to the call of Jesus in the Gospel? How open are we to hear that message coming to us from different kinds of people in our community? How committed are we to accepting, living and sharing that Gospel with others?

Might it be true to say that there are people in other parts of our world, our country, our society who, if they were given what we have been given, who heard what we hear, would respond much more generously than we have done?

There is never any room for complacency in our Christian life. Because we have been given so much, so much more is expected of us. As Jesus says elsewhere, we may be very surprised to see others, who never had an opportunity directly to hear the Gospel, go before us into God’s Kingdom.

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Commentary on Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17

Today we have Job’s final response to Yahweh, and the restoration of his fortunes. The reading is in two parts. In the first we have Job’s last words and they are his reply to the second speech of Yahweh (which we have not read in the liturgy).

They are a final statement of total acceptance of everything that God decides and of what happens to Job:

Job answered the Lord:
I know that you can do all things
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Job now finally sees that God and his purposes are supreme and are not to be questioned by him. He says an unconditional ‘Yes’ to his Lord.

Job regrets his limitations, saying:

I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me that I did not know.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you

He has been talking about things he did not really understand. But now he has seen with his own eyes. This is not strictly speaking an actual vision of God, but rather a graced insight into the nature of God. Previously, Job had very conventional ideas about God, mainly derived from others. But now he has had a direct experience of God’s mystery and submits totally to the Almighty. His questions have not really been answered, but he now understands that he cannot question what happens under God and that there are deeper meanings to the realities of suffering and death. He can now accept that his suffering, pain and loss are not incompatible with the wisdom and power of God.

So, in his very last words, he expresses deep regret for all the things he has said, especially his complaints against God for what he has experienced. He says:

…therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.

The second part is the final paragraph in the book, and (unlike the dialogues) is in prose form. The contest between God and Satan is over. Job has not cursed God and has come triumphantly through the most painful trials. Comments the NIV Bible:

“The cosmic contest with the accuser is now over, and Job is restored. No longer is there a reason for Job to experience suffering—unless he was sinful and deserved it, which is not the case. God does not allow us to suffer for no reason, and even though the reason may be hidden in the mystery of his divine purpose—never for us to know in this life—we must trust in him as the God who does only what is right.”

Job’s fortunes are now restored; he gains back even more than he lost. The number of animals is twice as many as he had before. His seven (perfect number) sons and three daughters replace the children he lost in the hurricane.

We do not know anything about the boys, but we are told the names of the three daughters—Jemimah, which means “dove”; Keziah (or Cassia) which means “cinnamon”; and Keren-happuch (“Mascara” in the Jerusalem Bible) which means “container of antimony”. Antimony was a much-desired form of eyeshadow. The girls were all outstanding in beauty and, contrary to normal custom, would receive the same inheritance rights as their brothers—an indication of Job’s great wealth. Normally daughters would only inherit if there were no sons.

Finally, we are told that Job, in the tradition of the true biblical patriarch, lived to be 140 years old and saw his descendants to the fourth generation.

The Greek text of the book has two additions to the end of the text (which do not appear in our reading). The first indicates that, from very early on, the book of Job was thought to contain the idea of resurrection after death:

It is written that he will rise again with those whom the Lord will raise up.

The second tells us that Job lived “in the land of Ausitis on the borders of Idumaea and Arabia” and identifies Ausitis with Jobab, a king mentioned in Genesis (36:33).

The epilogue, in a way, seems to contradict the teaching of the dialogues which challenge the conventional idea that the good are rewarded and the evil punished in this life. Rather the lesson is that there is no relationship between God’s wisdom and the experiences that we have in life.

Material blessings are not a guarantee of personal virtue any more than material deprivation or sickness are punishments for sin. As St Paul will say later:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)

Paul never saw his own sufferings and hardships as a punishment from God, but rather as an opportunity and a grace to share somehow in the sufferings of Jesus his Lord.

These ideas, of course, would not come until later. The sufferings of Job are seen primarily by the biblical author as a test of Job’s virtue. Once he has passed the test, there is now every reason for his wealth to be returned to him. The idea of wealth as a concrete sign of God’s blessing has not been altogether abandoned. This notion will be radically changed when, to the astonishment of his disciples, Jesus says that:

…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. (Matt 19:25)

His Kingdom is one where the “poor in spirit” will be among the blessed.

For us, God’s blessings are seen not in our material possessions, but in internal blessings like inner consolation, joy, peace and shared fellowship.

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Commentary on Luke 10:17-24

We saw at the beginning of chapter 10 how Jesus had sent his 72 disciples out to all the places where he himself would visit. Today we see them returning full of joy and satisfaction:

Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!

They discovered that, in his name, they were able to do the same things that Jesus did.

In reply, Jesus said to them:

I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

The power of evil is being reversed and this was partly the doing of his disciples working in his name. And he further reassures them:

I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you.

‘Snakes and scorpions’ more likely represent evil powers and so the statement is not to be taken literally and still less to be tested (as some obscure sects have tried to do with predictably tragic consequences!). It is true that for the committed disciple nothing can really hurt them. Physically, maybe, but not their real selves. Nothing, as Paul says, can separate us from the love of God, that is, the love that God extends to us at every moment of every day.

Then Jesus tells his disciples the real reason why they should be happy. It is not because they have special powers over evil spirits but to:

…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

In other words, their blessedness comes not from what they are able to do, but because they have been chosen as the instruments for God to do his work, to make the Kingdom a reality. That is the origin of our blessedness too.

Then follows a beautiful prayer of Jesus to the Father. He thanks the Father because all that is coming into the world through Jesus is being made known, not to the wise and great ones of this world, but to “the little ones”, the people who, in the eyes of the majority, are of no account:

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

And, since that day on the lake shore when Jesus called four fishermen to be his followers, he has been calling very ordinary people to know his identity, to hear his message and share his vision.

And so he can say truly to them:

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

All of this applies to so many of us too. We, for reasons only known to God himself, have been given knowledge of the Son. We too, by means of the Church, have been given a vision denied to so many—we have heard the Word which is the Way to truth and life.

Whatever problems we may be facing right now, let us on this day count our blessings and express our gratitude for them. And the only way to do that is to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus and his Gospel. Let us start doing that right now.

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Commentary on Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23

A dialogue begins in chapter 2 of Job, and in it, he now curses the day of his birth, but not God. As Job was there in misery and desolation, his family and all his property wiped out, his body covered with ulcers as he sat in an ashpit, he is scolded by his wife who urges him to curse the God who brought them to this state. He replies in a phrase which underlies the whole book:

Shall we receive good from God and not receive evil? (Job 2:10)

Subesequently, Job is is joined by three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar who come to console him. They were appalled by his appearance; as far they were concerned, he was dead.

For seven days and seven nights they all sat together in total silence. Then Job broke the silence and uttered the words we have in today’s reading. He curses the day he was born and the night he was conceived:

Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man-child is conceived.

The birth of a boy would normally be good news; it would mean the continuation of the family line. But Job is now alone—his whole family wiped out. There is nothing to live for.

There now comes a series of rhetorical questions:

Otherwise he would now be with the dead:

I would be asleep; then I would be at rest
with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuild ruins for themselves,
or with princes who have gold,
who fill their houses with silver.

He would be in the company of kings and princes in their magnificent tombs, crammed with all kinds of treasure (like the kings of Ur or the Egyptian pharaohs).

Or at least why did he not enter the world:

…like a stillborn child,
like an infant that never sees the light…

Why was he not where:

…the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.

In this, he is speaking of Sheol—a word of unknown origin, indicating the deepest parts of the earth. It is the place where the dead, both virtuous and wicked alike are, leading a colourless existence where there is no praise of God. The belief in rewards and punishments after death and of bodily resurrection only came very late in the Old Testament period (see 2 Macc 12:38-45).

Why allow a man to grow up and suffer like this? Those:

…who long for death, but it does not come,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures;
who rejoice exceedingly,
and are glad when they find the grave?
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in?

Job can see no future for himself. A life like this is not worth living. He longs for the liberation of death and curses the day of his birth.

We ourselves may have somewhat similar experiences, and surely we know of others who have gone through terrible inner and outer pain. Suffering people may wonder where a loving God can fit into such a situation. Today, there are strong initiatives on the part of some to arrange an early termination of such an existence. Not a few take the way of suicide while others resort to “euthanasia”. These are very sensitive issues which need to be dealt with through compassion and understanding.

Although Job regrets now that he was born, he never contemplates suicide. And, of course, later on, when his fortunes change again for the better, his words in today’s reading will be set aside.

We too, must always live in hope. Some of our pains and sufferings are of a temporary nature and will go away. Others, such as terminal illness, we know cannot be taken away. Yet, here too, as experience has shown many times, total acceptance and inner peace is possible. And so many good things can come from pain. In pain, one may experience the deep sympathy and compassion of people who might otherwise ignore us. Our own pain can help us to understand much better the pain of others and bring a healing compassion to their situation. A world totally free of pain could become a place of total selfishness and self-indulgence.