The Compassion of our Lady seen Through Job(2024.3.22)

My dear brethren,

 The Compassion of our Lady helps us to understand the great mystery of Redemption. St John in his epistle gives us two definitions of God: “this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is Light, and in him there is no darkness” (1 Jn. 1:5). Light of the mind, of the intelligence. God is the Supreme Intellect, the source of all understanding, enlightening all; He is the Supreme Truth: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6). The Son of God proceeds from the Father by way of intelligence, because God is Light! God the Son is “God from God, the Light from the Light, true God from the true God.” (Credo).  He said: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (Jn. 1:4). “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). So, this is the first definition of God: God is Light.

 

 God is not only supreme Knowledge; He is also supreme Love. Faith is not sufficient, there is need of Charity. So, St John says in the same epistle a little after: “We have known, and have believed the charity, which God hath to us. God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him” (1 Jn. 4:16). And the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as a Fire of Divine Charity!

 This mystery of God is the supreme mystery. In His Divine Bounty God called us to contemplate Him for ever in Heaven. And the Incarnation and Redemption manifest both this Light of God and this Charity of God. Now precisely God is above; His Charity seems very demanding for us, and it is. How far did God loved us? To the point of sending His only-begotten Son to us on earth – this is the mystery of the Incarnation: “God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (Jn. 3:16). And why did He come on earth? To save us: “God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him” (Jn. 3:17). And how? By the offering of Himself on the Cross: “He spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10).

 

 Now, it is difficult to understand more this mystery of Redemption: why suffering? Why Redemption by the Cross? To understand better, it is good to turn to a book of the Holy Scripture precisely dedicated to that mystery of suffering, the book of Job.

 “There was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, and that man was simple and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil. And there were born to him seven sons and three daughters. And his possession was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a family exceeding great: and this man was great among all the people of the people of the East” (Job 1:1-3). To better appreciate Job’s social position, consider that a camel at that time is equivalent to a truck in our times, to carry lots of thing for commerce: a company with 3000 trucks is a big trucking company! A yoke of oxen at that time is equivalent to a tractor in our times: a farmer with 500 tractors is a big farming company! The donkey at that time is like a car or a little van in our time: Job had 500 vans for his employees. So, Job was in big business! But above all he was very holy, and did not use his position to crush others, but rather to do lots of good deeds.

 Later, protesting his innocence, he says: “The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me: Because I had delivered the poor man that cried out; and the fatherless that had no helper. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow. I was clad with justice: and I clothed myself with my judgment, as with a robe and a diadem. I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame. I was the father of the poor: and the cause which I knew not, I searched out most diligently. I broke the jaws of the wicked man, and out of his teeth I took away the prey. And I said: I shall die in my nest, and as a palm tree shall multiply my days.” (Job 29:11-18). “I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin. ” (Job 31:1) And the whole chapter 31 continues his protestation of innocence.

He was a man of prayer: “Job sent to them [his children], and sanctified them: and rising up early offered holocausts for every one of them. For he said: Lest perhaps my sons have sinned, and have blessed God in their hearts. So did Job all days” (Job 1:5).

 The book of Job continues: “Now on a certain day when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Whence comest thou? And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it. And the Lord said to him: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a simple and upright man, and fearing God, and avoiding evil? And Satan answering, said: Doth Job fear God in vain? Hast not thou made a fence for him, and his house, and all his substance round about, blessed the works of his hands, and his possession hath increased on the earth? But stretch forth thy hand a little, and touch all that he hath, and see if he blesseth Thee not to thy face” (Job 1:6-11). Now, the expression “to bless God to His face” is a Hebrew expression that means: to curse God. The Devil thought that, if Job would lose his riches, he would curse God.

 See how God Himself testified to the innocence of Job. Satan asked permission to tempt him, to afflict him, and what did God say? “OK, try!” This is an amazing answer from God: God granted the prayer of the devil. God allowed the devil to hurt the innocent Job!

 So, the Sabeans steal the oxen and donkeys; thunder came down on the sheepfold and burnt all the hay with the sheep too; Chaldeans stole all the camels, and a tornado fell on the house with all his children and they all died!

 “Then Job rose up, and rent his garments, and having shaven his head fell down upon the ground and worshipped, And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God” (Job 1:20-22). Job did not love his riches more than God; he knew they were gifts of God and God had the right to withdraw them; he remains a friend of God whether in riches or in poverty: great virtue of Job!

 “And it came to pass, when on a certain day the sons of God came, and stood before the Lord, and Satan came among them, and stood in his sight, That the Lord said to Satan: Whence comest thou? And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it. And the Lord said to Satan: Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man simple, and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil, and still keeping his innocence? But thou hast moved me against him, that I should afflict him without cause. And Satan answered, and said: Skin for skin, and all that a man hath he will give for his life: But put forth thy hand, and touch his bone and his flesh, and then thou shalt gee that he will bless thee to thy face” (Job 2:1-5).

 “So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with a very grievous ulcer, from the sole of the foot even to the top of his head. And he took a potsherd and scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill. And his wife said to him: Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity? bless God and die. And he said to her: Thou hast; spoken like one of the foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil/sufferings? In all these things Job did not sin with his lips.” (Job 2:7-10). See the marvellous acceptation of God’s Will by Job!

 Then three friends come to him to console him; but when they see how much he is afflicted, they do not know what to say, and remain silent for three days!

 Afterwards Job speaks. To sum up his plea in one word, he says: “WHY?” He does not put in question God’s Justice. He means: God must have good reason to do what He does, but I do not understand them, so he simply asks: why?

 The three friends judge that he must have been quite guilty, otherwise God would not have afflicted him that much. So, they practically turn against him, accusing him of sins he did not do. For them, there is only God’s Justice that never condemns the innocents, therefore Job must be guilty.

 The first, Eliphaz, says: “Blessed is the mall whom God correcteth: refuse not therefore the chastising of the Lord” (Job 5:17). The presupposition is that you Job are a sinner needing chastising!

 The second, Baldad, says: “Doth God pervert judgment, or doth the Almighty overthrow that which is just?” (Job 8:3). The implication is again that the very fact Job is greatly punished implies that he must be a great sinner.

 The third, Sophar, argues thus: “thou hast said: My word is pure, and I am clean in thy sight” (Job 11:4). He turns Job’s claim of innocence as an attack on God’s Justice. This becomes really perverse judgements.

 Yet, Job remains convinced of his innocence: “If I shall be judged, I know that I shall be found just.” (Job 13:18). In his suffering, Job had become one of the Old Testament figures of Christ suffering, and the Church uses some of his verses in this Passiontide applying them to Christ: “Deliver me O Lord, and set me beside thee, and let any man's hand fight against me.” (Job 17:3).

 There is this beautiful profession of faith in the Redeemer, Christ Incarnate: “For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom. ” (Job 19:25-27).

 And there is this beautiful entreaty to us by Christ crucified: “Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you my friends, because the hand of the Lord hath touched me.” (Job 19:21).

 The discussion goes on for some time, each accuser becoming harsher and harsher, and Job maintaining his innocence while refuting the attacks of his bad friends.

 

Then one Eliu intervenes shortly: he is picky and argues against Job for small things. But at the end, a great tempest rises and a theophany – that is, a manifestation of God – and God speaks: “Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said: Who is this that wrappeth up sentences in unskillful words? Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? ” (Job 38:1-5).

 To summarise God’s response: it is itself a question, that manifests the transcendence of God; in one word: “Who are you to question God? I know what I am doing; just trust me!” This is a good answer; we should always trust God, even when we do not understand His Providence and the suffering we are going through.

 Though the original question of Job is not answered, there is a temporary solution in the Old Testament. God “said to Eliphaz the Themanite: My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends, because you have not spoken the thing that is right before my, as my servant Job hath. [They had calumniated him, by affirming that he was guilty; they had presented a distorted notion of God’s Justice.] Take unto you therefore seven oxen, and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer for yourselves a holocaust: and my servant Job shall pray for you: his face I will accept, that folly be not imputed to you: for you have not spoken right things before me, as my servant Job hath. ” (Job 42:7-8). See again how God takes Job’s defence. But mostly, God asks Job to pray for his enemies, an excellent act of Charity. And God rewarded that act of charity of Job by healing him, and giving him twice as before! Yet, Job’s question remained unanswered.

 In the New Testament, we find again that same question, asked by someone even more innocent that Job: the Blessed Virgin Mary. You remember the occasion, the third of the Seven Sorrows of our Lady: the Child Jesus has parted company with Mary and Joseph, and had remained in Jerusalem when they had left with the caravan back to Galilee after the feast day in Jerusalem. Not finding him in the caravan they searched for him for three days in deep sorrow: that sorrow was caused by Jesus Himself! God directly afflicting the innocent? And our Lady said: “Son, WHY hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing” (Lk. 2:48). You have here the same why? Why the suffering of the innocent? And as in the case of Job, our Lord answers with a question: “How is it that you sought me? did you not know, that I must be about my father's business?” (Lk. 2:49). And neither St Joseph nor even our Lady understood: the Scriptures say: “And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them” (Lk. 2:50).

 

 But Mary meditated on these words (verse 51) and for twenty years she meditated on them until again, our Lord Himself made Mary suffer – the fourth Sorrow of our Lady, the fourth Station of the Cross, when she met him on the way to Calvary. But then she did not ask why? She was indeed overwhelmed with sorrow seeing her beloved Jesus in such a pitiful state. But she does not asks why? SHE HAD THE ANSWER: Jesus is doing His Father’s Business: THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD! And she understood her duty to accompany Him, and she was the very first at the foot of the Cross, the New Eve, given to the New Adam as a helper (Gen. 2:18). By her Immaculate Conception, she is perfectly united with the Immaculate Lamb: together one immaculate victim, for the salvation of the world.

 How does that work? Isn’t the suffering of the innocent unjust? Precisely because God is Just, He cannot let the innocent Jesus suffer without giving Him an overwhelming compensation: the salvation of the world! The willingness to offer oneself to restore the honour of God and to save souls is the most sublime act of Charity, by which Christ redeemed the world.

 And our Lady is intimately bonded with Christ-Redeemer. The suffering of the Innocent Christ made Him the Redeemer; the compassion of the Innocent Mary made her Co-redeemer; she is Coredemptrix; as the New Eve, St Irenaeus says boldly, “she saved us”!

 Salvation is given to us, but is merited by Christ in strict justice, and by our Lady in “congruent justice”. The saints as St Paul “rejoice in his sufferings for [the Colossians], and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in [his] flesh, for his body, which is the church:” (Col. 1:24). They participate in the mystery of Redemption, by the offering of their sufferings with Christ’s Sacrifice.

 It is the very justice of God who, by not preventing the sufferings of Christ, the Innocent Lamb, OWES HIM the redemption of our souls.

 Now since Redemption is such a great mystery of Charity, it requires a return on our part: “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn. 4:10).

 “My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:11). We must love God, and love our neighbour for God’s sake. When we consider what Christ suffered for our salvation, how could we offend Him anymore? How could we not give ourselves entirely back to Him, Who gave His life for us?

 May the Blessed Virgin Mary give us a great appreciation of the Sacrifice of the Mass in which this Mystery of Redemption is offered again and again to the honour of the Most Holy Trinity and applied to our souls for their salvation. Amen.

fr. Laisney