What Do We Know?

October 3: Friday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5; Psalm 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14; Luke 10:13-16

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus... Step Five).

What Do We Know?

“Lord, you have probed me and you know me” (Psalm 139:1).

Job complained, understandably, about his suffering. In one of the most dramatic passages in Scripture, God answers Job, and through him every person who blames God for what he allows to happen:

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?

Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?

  Tell me, if you know all…

Job realized that, compared to God, he knew nothing at all. God has been present in every place, time and person since the world exists. God created, formed and rules the universe. We may not understand what he is doing, but we cannot presume to judge. Job answered in the name of all:

Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?

  I put my hand over my mouth.

Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again…

The “problem of evil” is not the problem. The problem is people thinking they know what God should do about it. All we need to know is what we should do about it, which is “anything we can.” We leave the rest to God.

PRAY: “Lord, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life. Guide me.”

PRACTICE: Judge and act on what you can see; not on what you can’t.