Our readings this weekend speak of our trust in the providence of God, Who (we might say) always has the bigger picture, and knows therefore what is best at all times. He says so much to the patriarch Job in our first reading today. In the story of Job, this venerable old man had lost his family and his fortune in a series of cataclysmic events, and had finally lost his own health. Sitting in misery, he had called up to heaven that he was innocent of all wrongdoing and had practically put God in the dock, demanding that He, God, defend the attack upon Job. So came the Most High in this tempest in our reading, to put Job in his place and convince him that he should suffer patiently.
“Then, from the midst of a whirlwind, the Lord gave Job his answer: ‘Here is one that must ever be clouding the truth of things with words ill considered! Strip, then, and enter the lists; it is My turn to ask questions now, thine to answer them. From what vantage-point wast thou watching, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, whence comes this sure knowledge of thine? Tell Me, since thou art so wise, was it thou or I designed earth’s plan, measuring it out with the line? How came its base to stand so firm; who laid its corner-stone? To Me, that day, all the morning stars sang together, all the powers of heaven uttered their joyful praise. Was it thou or I shut in the sea behind bars? No sooner had it broken forth from the womb than I dressed it in swaddling-clothes of dark mist, set it within bounds of My own choosing, made fast with bolt and bar; Thus far thou shalt come, said I, and no further; here let thy swelling waves spend their force.'”
Book of Job, 38: 1-11 [link]
That is a poetic narration of the Creation story, with the Holy One calling all things out of nothing, and all of them singing to him with joy. He is in control of all things, and the end of the story is Job being given a new family and new fortune, for the whole of the earlier episode had been a test of his patience in suffering. So God provides, but He expects us to trust at the same time, and even in suffering, that He will bring all things to a good end. In the Gospel story, Christ and the Apostles are sailing west across the sea of Galilee. And He sleeps in the boat.
“That day, when evening came on, He said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ So they let the multitude go, and took Him with them, just as He was, on the boat; there were other boats too with Him. And a great storm of wind arose, and drove the waves into the boat, so that the boat could hold no more. Meanwhile, He was in the stern, asleep on the pillow there; and they roused Him, crying, ‘Master, art Thou unconcerned? We are sinking.’ So He rose up, and checked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still.’ And the wind dropped, and there was deep calm. Then He said to them, ‘Why are you faint-hearted? Have you still no faith?’ And they were overcome with awe; ‘Why, Who is this,’ they said to one another, ‘Who is obeyed even by the winds and the sea?'”
Gospel of S. Mark, 4: 35-40 [link]
Let’s compare this with the Job story: when Job was in the midst of great suffering, it seemed as if God was asleep, or at least unaware of his pain. As Job suffered, here the Apostles struggled to keep the boat on course and above water. Just as Job called up to heaven in despair, the Apostles now call for the Holy One, asleep in the stern. ‘Master! Do you not care that we are going down??’ Christ awakes and God descends to Job in a tempest. As Job’s suffering ended in an instant, now the storm dies away in Galilee. And the rebuke of the Holy One is the same. To Job He had declared that He could see far further than Job; His Apostles He accuses of unfaith and fear even in His presence. Trust in God’s providence is lacking in both places, as so often it is lacking in our own hearts. The story of the Bible and of the history of the Church is of men and women often failing in their trust in God, and then of finding it again. Repeatedly.
All of us mortal beings are subject to suffering and despair. The best of us accept it and carry on with our duties, as best we can. We may even rage against the Holy One, as Job did. We may call out in anguish, as the Apostles in the boat did. But we shall still know that it is He Who sustains all things, is aware of our predicament, and will eventually bring His purposes to fruition. Toil and suffering will one day end, the storm will abate, and we shall look about us in wonder and say, ‘Who can this be, that even the very wind and the sea obey Him? That all that we feared has fallen to its knees before Him?’
How can we maintain this trust in Him? S. Paul tells us in the second reading that the love of the Holy One overwhelms us. In this month of the Sacred Heart, we should keep that constantly in mind. Paul says that since Christ has died of love for us, so we should live our lives not for ourselves, but for His sake. What does that mean in the context of providence and trust? Surely that we must try to live without care, as Christ asked us to do in the Gospel when He said that we must seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and everything else will be added on by Him. We seek the kingdom of God – with its pursuit of virtue – and set aside the cares of this world, for God may be trusted to look after our families, our worldly needs, and our very health. The Christian sees the world in a different way to everybody else, for he or she sees the world in the light of the Resurrection, and therefore knows very well that beyond suffering and death there is new life. So, Paul says that for all who are in Christ, there is a new creation, the old having passed away. And the Christian life is lived continually in trust in the providence of God.
“With us, Christ’s love is a compelling motive, and this is the conviction we have reached; if one Man died on behalf of all, then all thereby became dead men; Christ died for us all, so that being alive should no longer mean living with our own life, but with His life Who died for us and has risen again; and therefore, henceforward, we do not think of anybody in a merely human fashion; even if we used to think of Christ in a human fashion, we do so no longer, it follows, in fact, that when a man becomes a new creature in Christ, his old life has disappeared, everything has become new about him.”
Second letter of S. Paul to the Corinthians, 5: 14-17 [link]
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 