9/30/22 - +St. Jerome, Priest, Doctor of the Church

 These are hard readings. Who can bear them?

Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss? Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness

If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, Even there your hand shall guide me, and your right hand hold me fast. 

For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented.

The Word of God weighs heavy in my heart today. These are not easy words.

God’s words to Job and his friends are an affront to my pride. I have science, don’t I? Doesn’t this answer all the questions I could possibly care to have an answer for? What my eyes, ears and hands experience is enough for me. The fifty-five years I've walked the earth have told me everything I need to know. 

I don't need tradition, social norms, family ties, and least of all God and His revelation or His Church, to guide me. I am totally self-sufficient. 

How dare God, if he really exists, tell me my vision is limited, that the number of years I have in this world are beyond insignificant when compared with God’s eternal vision. Humans have built the world I live in. We claim the technology, the medicine the standard of living. That was all our doing... 

I will end the conceit right here, lest anyone take me seriously. The opening of this post is obviously meant as a parody of how many atheists think. They want to own the human advancements, but point fingers at others for the dark side of modernity. They blame poverty, war, genocides, starvation and oppression on the "unenlightened" and religious. What is ignored is the wholesale slaughter of the 20th century, all done in the name of creating a new world order, free of God and tradition. They ignore slavery happening right now, while tearing down statues of slaveholders from 200 years ago. Maybe the statues need to go, but how is that freeing slaves today? Or maybe the concern isn't over slavery at all.

Questioning why evil happens is a natural thing. The prophets and psalmists never feared putting God in the dock. Evil is a mystery that confounds us, and is a major stumbling block to faith for many people. 

What God is saying to Job and his friends is that our vision is limited. That the number of years we have in this world are beyond insignificant when compared with God’s eternal vision. I can come to know creation from the outside, as an observer. God knows creation from the inside out, all around and through. He knows where everything is and where it’s going. He knows every contingency and choice we can make and has adjusted things to account for it, and still have His eternal plan come to fruition, even if He would have preferred it happen a different way.

So, question, certainly. But maybe with a dose of humility.

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Quickly, on the Gospel reading:

Jesus is being very blunt. He' saying straight out that the gentile cities will receive a lighter punishment than the Jewish ones who rejected Him on the day of judgment. 

(I have to offer the clear proviso that this is not some wholesale condemnation of the Jewish people. Jesus, His mother, his first disciples were all faithful Jews. He's speaking to these communities in particular, and needs to stand as a warning to us who think that just because we are Catholic the day of judgment will be easier for us).

We often go to the Word for comfort, but it is also a two edged sword. Do not be afraid to sit with it, let it pierce us; challenging us to that deep conversion God is calling all of us to. Jesus is the good shepherd. He wishes to give us comfort and rest. But like any good shepherd, He's not afraid to use the rod once in a while. Do not be afraid, for He heals even as he appears to wound.