Daily Retreat 09/30/08
2008 Sep 30 Tue: Jerome, p, dr M
Jb 3: 1-3. 11-17. 20-23/ Ps 87(88): 2-3. 4-5. 6. 7-8/ Lk 9: 51-56
From today’s readings: “Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.... Let my prayer come before You, Lord.... As the days were being fulfilled for Him to be taken up, Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem....”
Hitting Bottom
Sacred Scripture confronts the realities of life - one of the reasons it cannot be ignored even by non-believers. Having been smitten by tragedy upon tragedy, Job curses the day of his birth, and who could blame him? He bemoans his very existence, yet, he does not curse God, nor does he contemplate suicide.
Treating our faith as just a nice package of pat answers for all the problems in life is like trying to use gold coins from a treasure chest to buy junk food from a vending machine. The gold simply won’t work in the machine, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless! The gold must be used for more than junk food, and faith must be wielded for more than shallow platitudes and glib “ivory tower” explanations about life’s mysteries. Our faith is so much more than that, and, as we shall see, the Book of Job resolutely refuses to devalue this treasured inheritance.
So this lament of Job cannot be read by itself , as if to suggest that our faith offered nothing better than the poetry of existential despair! But neither should Job’s words be ignored or dismissed, as if the “right attitude” and a naive optimism were all that one needed to make everything better! In the end, it is difficult to focus on any mere snippets of this book - the whole work must be read to understand today’s and all other excerpts. Admittedly, it is a lengthy, difficult book, but that’s what is needed to go beyond the junk food of pat answers!
Jb 3: 1-3. 11-17. 20-23/ Ps 87(88): 2-3. 4-5. 6. 7-8/ Lk 9: 51-56
From today’s readings: “Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.... Let my prayer come before You, Lord.... As the days were being fulfilled for Him to be taken up, Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem....”
Hitting Bottom
Sacred Scripture confronts the realities of life - one of the reasons it cannot be ignored even by non-believers. Having been smitten by tragedy upon tragedy, Job curses the day of his birth, and who could blame him? He bemoans his very existence, yet, he does not curse God, nor does he contemplate suicide.
Treating our faith as just a nice package of pat answers for all the problems in life is like trying to use gold coins from a treasure chest to buy junk food from a vending machine. The gold simply won’t work in the machine, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless! The gold must be used for more than junk food, and faith must be wielded for more than shallow platitudes and glib “ivory tower” explanations about life’s mysteries. Our faith is so much more than that, and, as we shall see, the Book of Job resolutely refuses to devalue this treasured inheritance.
So this lament of Job cannot be read by itself , as if to suggest that our faith offered nothing better than the poetry of existential despair! But neither should Job’s words be ignored or dismissed, as if the “right attitude” and a naive optimism were all that one needed to make everything better! In the end, it is difficult to focus on any mere snippets of this book - the whole work must be read to understand today’s and all other excerpts. Admittedly, it is a lengthy, difficult book, but that’s what is needed to go beyond the junk food of pat answers!
posted by FrPitstick | 9/27/2008
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