I am currently in Rome for a conference and a few meetings, the details of which I will share in the coming weeks. God has been at work over these years, and he continues to lead and guide us every step of the way.
As I prayed and prepared for Mass this morning, celebrating the feast of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a saint whose life has shaped so many in our Catholic faith and to whom I owe much of my understanding of Christian love, my thoughts turned to Job as a model for reflection in Christian living.
In Job 42, we hear the words of a suffering believer who has grieved and endured every kind of emotional upheaval. Having heard God reveal the profound mystery of suffering, he now responds with humility and wonder: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered” (Job 42:2).
As I reflected in my recently published Volume 6 of An Encounter, this line “is the closing movement of Job’s long journey. He began as a righteous man blessed with family, wealth, and honor. Then came loss, grief, questions, arguments, and silence. He wrestled honestly. He protested, lamented, and longed for a Redeemer. At the end, he does not receive a full explanation for every sorrow. He receives something deeper, an encounter with God. Job says, “By hearsay I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you” (Jb 42:5). This may be the heart of the book of Job. Job had known about God, but now he moves from inherited knowledge to personal encounter. Through suffering and divine self-revelation, he comes to know God in a deeper way.
Experiencing God in Suffering
Knowing God in a deeper way through one’s suffering does not make suffering good in itself, nor does it make Job’s loss small. The death of his children remains a wound we should never treat lightly. Yet the book shows that God can meet a person even in the place where everything seems stripped away. He can draw the soul into a knowledge of him that is no longer secondhand. Many people I know have experienced this (and I too). Through the deep pain of loss, trauma, poverty, or betrayal, they come to see and sense God in ways they never thought possible.
The Lord also restores, as he restores Job. Job’s later days are blessed more than his earlier ones. He receives family, prosperity, long life, and the comfort of seeing generations after him. Restoration in Job is a sign that suffering and accusation do not have the final word. At the end of the day, God wins for those who trust in him. As Blessed Fulton J. Sheen says, the devil may win several battles, but God wins the war.
Job’s joy also returns from a deeper place, much like the joy of the Lord’s disciples in the Gospel, who saw themselves doing wonders in the name of Jesus (cf. Lk 10:17-24). Job’s greatest gift is not only what returns to him, but the God he has come to see and know intimately as his Lord and Redeemer.
As this week ends, Job invites us to trust that God can bring deeper seeing after the storm. Your wounds can still become a place of encounter, blessing, and praise in ways you thought were never possible. Divine blessing flows from the wounded hands and pierced side of the Saviour, pouring out for you even in your own moments of pain.”
Pray
Today I pray that in all our suffering, we may find redemptive grace pouring out on us beyond all we can see or imagine. Amen.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, pray for us.
Year II: Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17; Luke 10:17-24
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