Monday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, September 30, 2024

Job 1, 6-22

One day, when the angels of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “Whence do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming the earth and patrolling it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job, and that there is no one on earth like him, blameless and upright, fearing God and avoiding evil?” But Satan answered the Lord and said, “Is it for nothing that Job is God-fearing? Have you not surrounded him and his family and all that he has with your protection? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his livestock are spread over the land. But now put forth your hand and touch anything that he has, and surely he will blaspheme you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand upon his person.” So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.  And so one day, while his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were ploughing and the asses grazing beside them, and the Sabeans carried them off in a raid. They put the herdsmen to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Lightning has fallen from heaven and struck the sheep and their shepherds and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another messenger came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three columns, seized the camels, carried them off, and put those tending them to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was yet speaking, another came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, when suddenly a great wind came across the desert and smote the four corners of the house. It fell upon the young people and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” Then Job began to tear his cloak and cut off his hair. He cast himself prostrate upon the ground, and said, “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” In all this Job did not sin, nor did he say anything disrespectful of God.

The question of why bad things happen to good people is one which has vexed the human race for many thousands of years.  And yet, the question is phrased wrongly.  It should be, “Why should bad things not happen to good people?”  We phrase the question wrongly because we fall into the non-Christian’s way of thinking that the world of nature is more or less in balance and that people come into the world as “blank slates”, either as neutral in terms of a predisposition towards either good or evil or as predisposed towards good.  None of this takes into account the utter catastrophe of Original Sin, which greatly harmed the original harmony that existed and was meant to exist between humanity and nature, between human beings, between men and women, and even the inner harmony that our First Parents were created with.  As a result of this sin, which damaged our human nature, we are indeed born into the world predisposed to do evil.  That is, we are predisposed to selfishness, pride, anger, envy, lust, and greed.  The grace of baptism helps to mitigate this, but grace is not magic: it gives us the ability to overcome temptations and the disharmonies in our lives.  Careful parenting and good examples help us as well.

The Book of Job looks at a man who is doing everything right.  He obeys the law and is even conscious of the behavior of his children, lest they sin.  And calamity comes upon him anyway.  Job appears to be a character in an absurdist play in which a cold, heartless, universe plays a game with him that he cannot win even though he plays by the rules.  In fact, that is how we feel when calamity comes upon us, especially when it seems not to come as the consequence of our actions.  It is only later, through reflection, that we can begin to make sense of it all.  This is what happens at the end of the Book of Job: God himself speaks to Job and Job accepts the truth.

In God’s marvelous Providence he foresees all the evil that will befall his people as a result of sin — their own or someone else’s, and he uses that evil to bring about a greater good than would have been achieved if the evil had not happened in the first place.  He allows a car accident which prevents a person from getting to work where there will be a fire.  He allows a pestilence so that people will be reminded of the shortness of life and the urgent need for conversion so that they do convert and attain eternal life.  He allows evil so that the wicked suffer an end, cutting short their reign over the good.  And he permits evil, such as temptation and persecution, in order to give the good man the opportunity of becoming a great man, encouraging him to strengthen the virtues he already has.  We recall how, in speaking of future persecutions to those who would suffer them, the Lord said, “Through perseverance you will save your souls” (Luke 21, 19).

It is so necessary to pray for the gifts we need in order to grow ever closer the the Lord Jesus in faith and in good works.  He is that most perfect One, the Son of God, who willingly suffered for our sakes, who took on all that hell could throw at him, and destroyed it through his obedience to the Father.  However much we suffer in this life, we have him as our model and as our source of grace to help us so that he may overcome in us the evil that necessarily comes to us through sin. St. Paul urges us, “Be steadfast and unmovable: always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15,  58), and with him let us cry out, “Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15, 57).