Wednesday of the
Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
(Job 9:1-12.14-16; Luke 9:57-62)
Scientist Richard Dawkins once stated in an interview that
he would be interested in a supreme power that gives rise to the forces producing
the universe. The statement raised
eyebrows because Dawkins is well known as a “new atheist.” This kind of god is described by Job in today’s
first reading.
Job speaks of a god who moves mountains and creates
stars. But he believes that this god
would not bother to care about him personally. “If I appealed to him…” he says,
“I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.” Whatever Job has in mind here, the god he
describes is not the one Jesus proclaims in the gospel. For Jesus God is so good,
so loving that one would rather tell others about Him than bury a dead mother
or father.
We have come to know the gracious God that Jesus proclaimed. It is not that there are any other gods, but
there are many mistaken conceptions of God. However, through his death and
resurrection Jesus has shown his Father to be both just and merciful, both firm
and loving.
