Integration

26th Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday; Memorial of Guardian Angels (2 October 2018)

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

Matthew 18:1-5,10 

“Why did I not perish on the day I was born?”

The poetic part of the Book of Job begins in chap. 3 as we see in today's first reading. Let us try to understand a little more. The Book of Job, named after its protagonist (apparently not an Israelite; cf. Ezekiel 14:14,20), is an exquisite dramatic treatment of the problem of the suffering of the innocent. The contents of the book, together with its artistic structure and elegant style, place it among the literary masterpieces of all time. This is a literary composition, and not a transcript of historical events and conversations.

The prologue (chaps. 1–2) provides the setting for Job’s testing. When challenged by the satan’s questioning of Job’s sincerity, the Lord gives leave for a series of catastrophes to afflict Job. Three friends come to console him. Job breaks out in complaint (chap. 3), and a cycle of speeches begins. Job’s friends insist that his plight can only be a punishment for personal wrongdoing and an invitation from God to repent. Job rejects their inadequate explanation and challenges God to respond (chaps. 3–31). A young bystander, Elihu, now delivers four speeches in support of the views of the three friends (chaps. 32–37). In response to Job’s plea that he be allowed to see God and hear directly the reason for his suffering, the Lord answers (38:1–42:6), not by explaining divine justice, but by cataloguing the wonders of creation. Job is apparently content with this, and, in an epilogue (42:7–17), the Lord restores Job’s fortune.

As mentioned yesterday, we need to break our dualistic or binary thinking in order to understand this Book, which deals with mystery and complex issues that cannot be resolved. It says that life is a bundle of contradictions and paradoxes, we need to live without conclusions or answers. That is biblical faith. It calls for complete trust, surrender, and abandonment into God's hands as Job witnesses in the Book. God answers none of Job's questions, but rather leads him deeper into mystery. The Book of Job does not definitively answer the problem of the suffering of the innocent, but challenges readers to come to their own understanding.

There always seems to be one part of us that begs for recognition and integration, and that often holds the key to our maturity. There are some things in our life that we can control, that points to a God who is in charge of everything. As God says in the Book of Prophet Isaiah, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so my ways are beyond your ways, and my thoughts are beyond your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9).

You need to have the patience to accept all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves. For everything must be lived. Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will gradually, without noticing, live into the answer. Dare to know that God is always good, his compassion is always great, even in all your sufferings.