UNDERSTANDING OUR AFFLICTIONS

ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR

Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50

Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil

We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in accord with his divine mercy. We see this in the scripture when our Lord urged Peter and others to pray because Satan got permission to sieve them like wheat. We understand the importance of prayer for everyone.

Focussing on the conversation between Satan and God, we bring out the following points. First, God dwells above evil, which does not affect him in any way directly but indirectly, as pertains to our salvation, for he loves us. Second, we see his love for us in the blessings he bestowed on Job, which Satan referred to in the discussion. The gift of wealth or riches, which we mentioned in yesterday’s reflection, is among the gifts God gave Job. “Have you not put a wall round him and his house and all his domain? You have blessed all he undertakes, and his flocks throng the countryside. But stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his possessions: I warrant you, he will curse you to your face.” God inspires and blesses all of Job’s undertakings; we call this the gift of wealth. Job did nothing to merit this gift, just like we did nothing to earn the gifts God has given to each of us. Like Job, we are to use these gifts to love and serve God and our neighbours, as willed by God. Satan argues against Job, that he is serving God because of these riches; that means he loves the riches and not God. Thus, the contest is to prove Job’s faithfulness to God. This is the usual cause of our trials before God our Father. He permits Satan to test the genuineness of our faith and love for him. Because God permitted these trials, though executed by Satan and his cohorts, we must have recourse to him and not to Satan, who is just a messenger of God’s will. Job penetrated the façade of demonic attacks to the cause of his affliction, the will of God. “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken back. Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

The insight from this story of Job helps us to put the gift of casting out demons by a stranger to the apostle in perspective. The gift of exorcism is one of the gifts God gives to people without merit on their side; it is similar to the gift of wealth given to Job. These gifts we gratuitously receive from God are supposed to help us deepen our faith in God and love and serve him in our neighbours. Our merits come from these. These gifts are not indicators of our high position or influence with God. He gives them to anyone, even those who do not know Jesus Christ. But, as our Lord explained to his disciples, the use of these gifts to promote faith in God and love for him and neighbours is already a participation in the salvific work of our Lord, which is meritorious. “You must not stop him: anyone who is not against you is for you.” Anyone considering these gifts as indicators of status is self-deceived. This must have been the basis of the argument among his disciples after they went out preaching, curing diseases, and casting out demons. “An argument started between the disciples about which of them was the greatest.” Our Lord stressed loving service as the hallmark of greatness in the kingdom of God. We must use every gift we have received from God our Father to love and serve him in our brothers and sisters. These gifts are not limited to good things in our worldly estimation but include everything the Father gives us, afflictions not excepting.

St. Jerome taught us the importance of scriptures in acquiring the deep knowledge of Jesus Christ, whose mystery embraces these events of our lives. He was born in Strido, in Dalmatia. He studied in Rome, where he got baptised. Attracted to the life of asceticism, he travelled to the East and was unwillingly ordained a priest there. He came back to Rome to act as secretary to Pope Damasus. He later returned to Bethlehem, where he founded a monastery, a hospice, and a school. His most important work is the translation of the Bible into Latin. He wrote many works and commentaries on the scriptures. May his prayers help us study and pray the scriptures daily.

Let us pray: O God, who gave the Priest Saint Jerome a living and tender love for Sacred Scripture, grant that your people may be ever more fruitfully nourished by your Word and find in it the fount of life.