Friday, July 2, 2004
Fast Day
Deposition of the Robe of the Theotokos
Kellia: Job 42:1-9 Epistle: Romans 16:1-16 Gospel: St. Matthew 13:4-9
Job 42:1-9 LXX, especially vss. 8, 9: "'My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will only
accept him: for but for his sake, I would have destroyed you'....so God pardoned their sins for the sake of Job." During the
time of the Lord God's pronouncements (Job 38-41), Job responded only once and then just briefly (Job 39:33-35 LXX).
His reply disclosed that he was loath to speak more (39:34,35 LXX), being overwhelmed at the judgments of the living
God. Words seemed pointless, perhaps even offensive or at least presumptuous. Finally, however, Job struggles again to
answer, to respond, as he is able, to what God has revealed. Job's reply divulges some of what he has gleaned from the
Lord's declarations.
Observe: Job first acknowledges the unique and utterly superior nature of God's Person. He confesses the unlimited power
of God: "Thou canst do all things, and nothing is impossible with Thee" (Job 42:2 LXX). He admits that nothing is hidden
or "kept back" from God, and not merely spoken words or tangible actions, but the smallest, ill-formed thoughts buried
within one's psyche: "who is he that hides counsel from Thee?" (vs. 3). We live at every moment completely open before
God in every aspect of our being. How much there is to forgive!
In addition, Job admits frankly the deficiency of his own knowledge and also the wonder and awe he feels because God has
told him so many truths that he did not know before, "great and wonderful things which I did not understand" (vs. 3). In
these admissions, we are permitted to glimpse a bit into the heart of a Prophet of God and to see how a human being who is
humble before God may be transformed and deified by Divine grace through suffering.
What is more, we become witnesses to a conversation of a truly holy man with God, of a humble man who is not stripped
of his capacity to address God but is enabled to grow in relationship to God. See what Job says: he pleads that God will
hear him, permit him to speak creature to Creator, and will crown the relationship by teaching him that which God alone
can impart (vs. 4). Most remarkable is Job's statement that "I have heard the report of Thee by the ear before: but now my
eye has seen Thee" (vs. 5).
Concerning this remark, St. Gregory the Great notes that Job's sufferings caused "him to differ from what he was before.
And because he had seen more plainly the light of truth with the eye within, he more clearly discerned and beheld the
darkness of his humanity." The point is drawn to our attention by St. Isaac the Syrian: that when a man like Job "perceives
these invisible and by far more excellent things...then there is begotten by the perception proper to this knowledge another
faith, not one which is opposed to the first faith, but one which confirms it. And this is called 'the faith of divine vision.'"
Throughout the interaction between the Lord, Job, and Job's friends, the forgiveness and healing power of God overflows.
For His Prophet, God gives a divine vision which is greater and more certain than the hearing Job knew formerly. In the
word of the Lord to Job's friends: "My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will only accept him" (vs. 8) we see how greatly
the forgiveness and healing of God can renew one who is truly humble and repentant.
God discloses the boundlessness of His mercy in the way in which He deals with the thoughtless, insensitive, and arrogant
friends of Job. First, He taught them to turn to His Saints for intercession, and then, by the prayers of His Holy Prophet,
"He pardoned their sins for the sake of Job" (vs. 9). How clearly God encourages us likewise to seek the prayers of the
Saints.
May Christ, our true God, through the intercessions of His most Holy Mother, and of all the Saints, have mercy upon us
and save us, forasmuch as He is good and loveth mankind.
