You wouldn't think that our last prayer group meeting with Fr. L. would have covered such broad ground ... but then y'all don't know Fr. L. He's a wide ranging thinker.
There is no way I can do our discussion justice but I will put a few of the "holy 2x4" moments I had when we were talking about the upcoming
readings for next Sunday.
Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Of course, there was the obvious conversation about extreme depression that anyone would be likely to suffer when losing one's home, business, children, health ...
and after having your friends come and beat on you for a while.
However, Fr. L. drew us into a discussion of free will and predestination after saying that the very short take on Job is "why do bad things happen to good people?" Is it random? Is it because God is smiting you? Does God have a plan for your life? If so, just how specifically does He work in our daily lives? Well, of course, there's no concrete, provable answer to that. It is all opinion and interpretation depending on many factors in each person's viewpoint.
I realized that one of the reasons I have never really taken to Job's story is that, in many ways, it is like reading a blog with too many arguing commenters. Everyone spends a lot of time fervently advancing their arguments but there often is no concrete answer because the question is too theoretical
(or theological in the case of St. Blog's which quite often is the same thing). It is a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. And that is basically what we are left with in the end of Job ... as life and God are mysteries that none of us can truly comprehend.
The big revelation for me was when Fr. L. pointed out that Job and his friends are, at least in part, arguing from the basis that all good things come from God who rewards you for your righteousness. So when those good things are taken away, you must have done something wrong. That is a way of thinking that is all too easy for any of us to fall into in daily life, much less when total disaster hits as it did for Job. What we forget is that all good things come from God and we are not owed any of them. Which all made for an interesting discussion.
Mk 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
A couple of things here. First, is the way this story fits the "miracle story" format (which I had never thought about ever). When Jesus heals someone it is instantaneous and absolute. Simon's MIL doesn't just start feeling a bit better. She hops up and starts working away serving everyone.
The big "aha" was when Fr. L. asked if anyone saw the possiblity of a "subtle temptation" of Jesus in this story. He pointed out that in St. Luke's gospel, after Jesus has been tempted in the desert, St. Luke says that the devil left him for a while. Which leads to the inference that Jesus was tempted more later.
Basically, without a solid grounding in prayer, in God's will for him, it would have been so easy for Jesus to go back with the disciples to the people of the town who were waiting for him as if he were a rock star. He could have settled down and been the "god" of the town and made everyone come to him. They'd have fed him, he'd have looked out for them. These are temptations which come from the human spirit just as easily as from the devil. It is a reflection of Jesus' wholly human nature to think about how that temptation would have been there for him.
But Jesus never settled. He never took the easy way out (as we know all too well). He always went to the people instead of making them find their ways to him.
All of the above leads to some big questions for our lives which are easy to keep mulling over through the rest of the week. How are we grounded? In what do we place our trust? What has to be taken away from us before we question God? Do we settle?
