Monday, September 30, 2024

Memorial of Saint Jerome, priest and Doctor of the Church

(Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50)

St. Jerome has been named one of the four great Fathers of the Western Church.  Having mastered both Hebrew and Greek, he gave to the Church the authoritative Vulgate translation of the Bible.  Jerome also defended Catholic orthodoxy, especially against the popular Pelagian heresy.  He possessed enormous knowledge and ability, but also had a dark side.  His irascible temperament often exploded in offensive, sarcastic criticism.

Artists frequently portrayed Jerome with a lion at his side and holding a stone.  The lion symbolized Jerome’s ferocious personality and the stone, his need for doing penance.  One Renaissance pope remarked that without having done penance, Jerome could scarcely have been considered a saint.

Jerome may be contrasted with Job in today’s first reading.  He would never have suffered all the setbacks that appear in the passage but would have raged against them.  Job, on the other, had no quarrel with the Lord for his suffering.  He models Christian patience as he proclaims, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”

Monday, September 28, 2020

 Monday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50)

In a Civil War movie a group of Black recruits are training for war.  One fellow, known for having a good eye, hits the practice target.  Then the trainer gives the marksman a true test of combat readiness. He comes near and shoots his gun while the man is aiming his rifle.  The recruit becomes unglued and fires way off the mark.  Today’s first reading tells a similar story.

It is said that the measure of a person is taken not in good times but in times of adversity. So perhaps Satan has a point in wanting Job’s righteousness tested when events turn against him.  In the passage Job is sent a series of horrible setbacks.  Despite losing both family and fortune, however, he still praises the Lord.  He will be tempted even more viciously but will always remain loyal to God.

Can we do the same?  We hope so.  But it is wise to prepare ourselves for hardship by discipline and compassion.  We might fast regularly from food and visual stimulation to prepare for times of deprivation.  We could also go out to the grieving and distressed.  Sharing their pain, we anticipate the days when a heavy load will be placed on our shoulders.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Memorial of Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church

(Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50)

Genetic selection is talked about as a certain reality in the not so distant future.  It is said to provide couples with the ability to have the kind of offspring they desire.  If they want a baby with as much brawn as Serena Williams or as much brain as Albert Einstein, they have only to arrange it with their geneticist.  Genetic selection has also the possibility of avoiding medical defects like autism.  What is disturbing about genetic selection, however, is that it obscures the consideration of children as a gift from God.  We hear Job declaring this truth in today’s first reading.

The Book of Job is a brilliant gem in the Bible’s jewelry shop.  For millennia it has provided a way to understand both the incomprehensibility and the ultimate goodness of God.  It also gives a portrait of a truly good man.  Job is not only notable for his patience but also for his faith.  He believes that God is the author of life and that children are His gifts to the parents who give them birth.  They do not belong to anyone except the Lord.

A theologian has expressed a valid stance for parents in the process of having children.  He said that they should be “open to the unbidden.”  That is, rather than trying to plan every aspect of children’s lives including genetic features, parents are to accept their children as they are.  Of course, they should provide their needs and instill in them moral values.  But they are to recognize that children are a gift from God not to be fabricated and engineered but cherished.  

Monday, September 27, 2010

Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, priest

(Job 1:6-22; Luke 9:46-50)

Fr. Jack Hickey founded the original Dismas House, a refuge for ex-offenders just released from prisons. He died a premature death twenty-five years ago but is recognized within Dismas Inc. as its inspiration. Of course, to establish such institutions requires money which Jack pursued with all due urgency. He is quoted as saying that he would have accepted money from the devil for Dismas Houses. Of course, such establishments must avoid material and most formal cooperation with evil, but we see the writer of Job picturing God in a certain sense colluding with evil in the first reading today.

Very critically, God does not perpetrate evil in Job even though He does not restrain it entirely. The reason for this reality will be explained by the story in due time. Today we should only make a few notes. First, as we have said, God does not directly cause evil. Second, the whole of creation, even Satan himself, serves God’s purposes. And third, the good person Job complies implicitly with God’s will to give us a model of how to respond when evil touches our lives. Faithful Jews and Christians for millennia have said with him, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!”

More often than ever, perhaps, humans are tempted with the idea that God as we know Him from the Bible does not exist. Science seems to explain most everything that humans once attributed to God. But we should not become disillusioned. Science can and should explain the natural universe. But it cannot explain nature’s creator whom we know as “God.” We believe God is completely beyond us, a being infinitely more mysterious than even general relativity and quantum mechanics. Yet God has chosen to reveal Himself to us out of love. We have prospered with this belief and following His same love.