I continue to slowly work my way
through the book of Job and Richard Rohr’s commentary on it entitled Job and the Mystery of Suffering. Rohr, a Franciscan, has some very insightful
comments, with a heavy emphasis on Job’s honesty and enormous struggles with
God, coupled with his enduring faith in God’s goodness and desire to be in
relationship with God in spite of his suffering.
I keep coming back to the
touchstone verse in the first chapter at the beginning of this series of
discourses where Job simply declares:
“The Lord gave and
the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
Or as some translations state the
second phrase: “Blessed be the name of
the Lord.”
The remainder of this amazing book
chronicles Job’s struggles to come to full terms with both sides of this
declaration.
Job vacillates from intense
arguments with God – actually screaming matches and fits of rage and sarcasm
from the tone of the words recorded – to tender pleas for God to not abandon
their relationship. Job’s friends bumble
their way through and offer advice and perspective that they think will be helpful,
though they are mostly focused on trying to explain away the mystery of the
first half of this declaration with some “rational” explanation as to “why” God
gave and then took away. Their
explanations are simply distractions for Job in his ultimate struggle to
reconcile the terms of this declaration and live beyond his overwhelming losses.
Job knows better than his friends –
there is no “rational explanation” for his loss from a human point of view
– his losses are simply a mystery and will remain so. We cannot really understand where life comes
from – we can choose to believe that God somehow gives it, an impossible leap
of faith for some, or not. “The Lord
takes away” might mean a number of things as well and theologians and
philosophers have debated this phrase since it was written. As humans, we simply cannot fathom the ways
and means of life and death – it is a mystery to us for the time being – there
are no clear answers.
Yet in spite of this profound
tension Job wants to find it in his heart to choose to bless or praise the name
of the Lord, continuing to trust in the goodness of God and wanting to nurture
this relationship that he will not give up on.
In comparison to Job’s enormous
losses, our loss of Daniel seems so simple, but it is far from so. I am
now experiencing some of these same struggles – can I live in the mystery of the
Lord giving life and then it being taken away?
And, will I choose to bless the
name of the Lord in spite of my discomfort with this very mystery and with the pain
of this loss?
God give me strength to say yes to
both.
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