Is it not a warfare that man has on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
or like a hired hand who waits for his wages,
so months of disillusionment are my inheritance,
and my lot is nights of suffering…
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
JOB 7, 1-7
Is it not a warfare that man has on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
or like a hired hand who waits for his wages,
so months of disillusionment are my inheritance,
and my lot is nights of suffering.
When I lie down, I say: “When will it be day?”
When I rise: “When will it be evening?”,
and I am filled with restlessness until the twilight.
My flesh is covered with worms and crusts of earth,
my skin cracks and oozes.
My days have been swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
they have vanished without a thread.
Remember that my life is but a breath,
that my eyes will not see happiness again.
It is a “sapiential” book. The sapiential books, as we know, develop the “Wisdom of Israel,” always drawn from The Law or The Prophets.
Thus,
· The Proverbs
· The Book of Wisdom of Solomon
· Ecclesiastes (Qohelet)
· Ecclesiasticus (Sirácida)
There are also other sapiential books in the Old Testament, but under different literary forms: thus, Jonah, Esther, Judith, Tobit, and others.
At first glance they seem to be historical or prophetic books, but that is only the literary wrapping. A story has been invented (or a famous event has been used) to reflect on various themes derived from Scripture.
The book of Job is the work of an anonymous author, who lived after the exile, and in it the influence of the Psalms and the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel is evident. The book presents a character who is righteous, pious, and “therefore” blessed by God with great material prosperity, who is “tempted by the devil” with poverty and diseases.
Almost the entire book is a dialogue of Job with some friends, who defend the traditional thesis that if misfortunes befall him it is because he has sinned against God. Job defends his innocence, cannot explain why the ills befall him, does not understand why God treats him like this.
The text for this Sunday is a marvel: it is the deepest and most heartrending expression of a man who has lost everything, for whom life is nothing more than a burden, and who cannot explain it, and who bitterly laments. Evil is a terrible trial for the believer.
This raises the most profound problem of the human condition: the problem of evil, of pain, suffering, sin, ignorance of God, most especially, the pain of the innocent. Traditionally, Israel has understood evil as punishment for sin, whether of the one who suffers the evil or even of his parents. In the Book of Job this conception is abandoned for the first time.
The solution to the problem of evil given by the author is primitive and radical: God speaks to Job at the end and refuses to give explanations: “Who are you to ask the Creator for explanations?”
But the book has raised the heart of the problem: we cannot explain evil, but we need some explanation. We need it because we are intelligent: God gave us the need to understand, to understand Nature and to understand the human being. And when we do not understand, we rebel.
All attempts to explain the origin of evil, the origin of sin, to explain why there is evil if the Creator is God, have failed. The same brilliant attempt of the book of Genesis – the account of “The Original Sin” – does not go beyond posing the problem, but does not provide any solution.
And so, only the solution of Job remains: “Who are you to call God to account?” But this is submission, not explanation, and we are not satisfied either.
In any case, the book of Job remains a jewel of the OT, which must be read in its entirety and slowly; a singularly “modern” book, provocative, not suitable for conformists. Reading it one feels challenged, forced to take sides.
1 CORINTHIANS 9, 16-23
Preaching the Gospel is not for me a reason for boasting; it is rather a duty that is incumbent upon me. And woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel…!
Now then, what is my reward? To preach the Gospel freely, giving it up without charge, renouncing the right granted to me by the Gospel. Indeed, though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, to win over as many as possible… I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some. And I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, to share in its blessings.
It is, as always, completely disconnected from the other two. Paul “boasts” of having “become all things to all people” to preach the gospel. The most beautiful thing, without a doubt, is the assertion that the reward for preaching the gospel is precisely preaching the gospel, and doing so freely. However, although the text does not have a direct relationship with the theme posed by the other readings, it does contain phrases that fit within the same context.
Preaching the Gospel is a mission: Paul’s mission is to preach it as an itinerant preacher. The mission of every Christian is, above all, to preach it by making it present through their deeds, their way of being, and their actions. The way to evangelize is to make oneself a slave to all.
This is a metaphor from those times. The image comes from the Washing of the Feet. It is the posture of the Christian before others: to serve, to “become all things to all people.” And not because we like to live this way, nor to obtain a reward: the reward is to live as a Son, to participate in the Gospel. It is the Mission, to immerse oneself in the things of Jesus, “to be in the things of my Father.”
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.