June 20, 2021: 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Job 38:1-11; Psalm 107:23-32; 2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Mark 4:35-41
Bishop Ariel P. Santos
In our first reading, Job was a man who was upright and blameless and yet evil befell him. We have these questions in front us in Job’s life: Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? What about karma? What about sowing and reaping? How do we reconcile God’s love and goodness in the presence of suffering especially of the innocent?
Twice it was said in the Bible that Job was upright, blameless, blessed with family, health, possessions, and position. God had a conversation with Satan and God somehow allowed Satan to oppress Job. In one fell swoop, Job loses everything including his health. In all of it, he doesn’t curse God. He continued to trust and to be faithful to Him, but he fell into depression. His three friends visited him and they wisely sat with him silently for seven days until they unfortunately opened mouths. For several chapters in the book of Job, his friends told Job one thing, “You must’ve done something wrong.”
The principle of sowing and reaping is a good principle in the kingdom of God and it is true except when it is not like in the case of Job and of Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do to deserve insult, betrayal, abandonment, and suffer the most cruel form of execution, which is crucifixion? Jesus Christ was sinless, so in His case, it was an exception where what He sowed He reaped but He also reaped what He did not sow. On the side, in Psalm 37, the Psalmist was asking God, “Why are these bad people prospering? Why do the good people strive and yet they hardly make ends meet? Why are these unrighteous people eyes’ bulge from fatness? This is so because there is sometimes an exception and we don’t understand why.
Job, after being bombarded by his friends, insists on his innocence, and tells his friends, “I am innocent. I didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t deserve this.” He dismisses his friends, turns to God and starts complaining to God, “Why, Lord, is these happening to me?” Job’s questions represent all of our questions. “What did do wrong, Lord?” “Why am I going through this?” “Why did my girlfriend break up with me?” “Why didn’t I get that job?” “Why didn’t I pass the entrance exams for the school that I like?”
Instead of answering Job’s questions, for four chapters, He lets Job know how much he doesn’t know.
God asks Job, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” Sometimes when we complain and we air it, especially in social media, we darken counsel. Job’s mouth is ahead of him, of his wisdom. God takes Job on an elaborate tour of His creation and asks Job, “You think you know? You think you are entitled to know and to understand? But where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth. How do you know how I feed the animals? How do you know how I created my creatures? How do you know how the earth is suspended in the universe? How can your infinite mind fathom the infinity of the universe?”
God makes Job know that it is not just a simply myopic world. A child would not understand why he is not allowed to use a gadget or to eat a certain food that is good for him. They don’t understand because of their limited mind. What the parents tell their child is, “Trust me. It is good for you even if you don’t understand.” If two basketball teams are praying to God for a win, how would God answer their prayers? One team will win and another will lose. This is a simple illustration so how much more complex is creation, of the universe. We cannot fathom with our human mind the intricacies of what God manages everyday. He runs the universe, not just our individual lives.
God was just talking about the earth to Job which was a dot in the universe. What about the other planets? Who knows if there are living beings in them? If there are, do we think that we are the only children of God? We don’t have to know because we just need to trust, but God doesn’t just say, “You don’t understand; just trust Me.” What He does is He dwells with us. He becomes one with us and He becomes our Emmanuel. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Jesus sails with us; He goes through the storm with us, and He will drown with us IF the boat sinks. One of His disciples went to Him and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that we are perishing?” Jesus told them, “What do you mean “we”? Is it we, excluding Me or we, including Me? I am in the boat with You. I am a human being! If the boat sinks, all of us sink with it, and we can drown and die.”
God is betting His life on us – He will never leave us nor forsake us. We are with God in all together and He will bring us to the other side. The Word of the Lord does not return to Him without accomplishing what it was meant to be. We may not understand everything, but we know that He is with us. This not only makes us trust Him, but assures us of His love. If God says we will go to the other side, we will get to the other side despite challenges along the way.
Sometimes, what we think is adverse is not really meant to destroy us, but to build us up if the adversity comes from God. Nothing bad comes from God. There are evil things that come from the enemy and what God does is to turn all things and cause them to work together for good. We are in a no-lose situation with God. Whatever comes our way, whatever life throws to us, we can trust Jesus because as He said, “In the world, we will have tribulations but trust Me and do not fear because I have overcome the world and I am in the boat with you.
The disciples asked, “Who is this man that even the waves, the sea and the wind obey Him?” Who is He? He is the God of Job 38 that tells the water, “Thus far you can go; no further!” God is the God who stills the sea and takes His people to their destination. Jesus told His disciples, “Let us go to the other side. That is our destiny, and I will take you there. I am the Lord of the flood and the winds, the sea, and the waters obey Me.” We cannot move without God. He will bring us to our desired home. When He says that we will go to the other side, we will get there.
Did God tell us that we will do something? Did God tell us to build a building? Will it happen? If He did, He will get it done. The Word of the Lord will not return to Him empty and will accomplish that for which it was sent. We may not understand it just like the prayer in the Resurrection Mass: in the midst of things that we don’t understand, Lord, help us to trust You!
Trust God and obey Him for there is no other way to be happy in Christ Jesus. Besides, this is the way it is in the kingdom of our God.
