Today’s readings for Mass are a lot more upbeat and positive than they were yesterday. It is a joy to read happy thoughts, to reflect on joy and goodness. When we are in the midst of turmoil in our lives, like Job was in yesterday’s readings for Mass, it is difficult to picture joy, or that we can ever be happy again. But, Job’s story in the first reading for Mass today gives us a great deal of hope for our own future. Things turned out so profoundly well for Job. His cup overflowed with all of the blessings and long life that God gave him. What else could a man want? What else was life all about? Faith and family are the foundations of life and God blessed him abundantly with these things in his old age. Life isn’t over, until it’s over, and Job’s last years were the happiest of his life.
None of Job’s blessings would have been possible without his conversion of heart, and Job’s conversion of heart was brought about because God explained things to Job in a way that he could understand. Job said this to God in today’s first reading, “I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you.”
Other people taught us about Christianity when we were young, and we in turn teach our own children the faith when they are young. However eventually, a good example and education alone isn’t enough. A person has to discover God for himself, and come to personally believe in Jesus Christ as the savior of the world. Faith isn’t genuine if it is merely based on education, habits and tradition. Young adults sometimes seem to have strayed far from the faith in their early years after leaving home, but just like Job, God isn’t finished working in their lives yet. They just have to sort things out for themselves sometimes.
Children, teenagers, and young adults have to test things for themselves, to see if what they have been taught is really true or not. When they do embrace the faith for themselves, whether that is immediately as a child, or much later as an adult, their faith is deeply rooted and genuine. This is what happened to Job in today’s first reading for Mass. He disowned what he said and repented in dust and ashes.
Jesus talks about the truth being revealed to the childlike in today’s gospel too:
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike.”
Who is to say whether a period of rebelling, or questioning, or testing of their faith that young people go through will result in a faith much deeper than the ones who originally taught them the faith, in the long run? Great sinners often become great saints and people are a work in progress all of their lives. Apples do not fall far from the tree. Saint Monica and Saint Augustine are wonderful examples of this process. However, sometimes very good and holy parents like King David will have a rebellious son, like Absalom, through no fault of their own.
Freewill can not be controlled. Divine revelation of the truth is a true gift from God, that can be freely accepted or rejected. That is why Jesus said to rejoice when your name is written in heaven. You have triumphed over your own self will and entered into communion with Jesus Christ himself.
Jesus spoke about divine revelation in the gospel today too, that:
“No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
The ordinary way that God reveals Himself to us is through tradition and sacred scripture. And Jesus reveals himself to us through the sacraments of the Church. The Holy Spirit also reveals things to those who are far from God, in His own time, and in His own fine fashion.
Daily Mass Readings:
Job 42: 1-3, 5-6, 12-17 / Psalm 119 / Luke 10: 17-24
