How Can We Answer God?

Title: How Can We Answer God?

Date: September 30, 1988 - Friday of the Twenty-Sixth Week of the Year (II)

Readings: Job 38:1,12-21;40:3-5 / Psalm 139:1-3,7-8,9-10,13-14 / Luke 10:13-16
Our first reading and psalm remind us of how small we are in comparison to the glory of God. Job is almost shamed by God who in rhetorical question after question asks if he could possibly have been as great as him. Have you commanded the morning? Have you entered the sources of the sea or its abyss? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? "Tell me, if you know all," God taunts him. Job, a mere human being like ourselves, came to his senses and responded, "Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?"

In our own words and deeds, we also need to pay homage to God who is the source of everything which exists. How often have we cast God's help aside, believing that we could handle our lives fine enough without him? And, how often has this strategy failed? How often have we allowed our words, or those of others, to pamper us and bloat us in prestige, while forgetting also to use our lips in prayer? The trouble with us who have been wondrously made, only a little less than the angels, is that we tend to think of ourselves too much and of God too little. Unless we are going through trial, as Job would, we tend to shove God into a corner of our lives. And like children, we not only hesitate to thank our heavenly Father for the gifts he gives us; we make our love conditional, and curse him when things fail to go our way.

It is only in Christ that we see that our faithfulness and praise of God needs to transcend all our personal wants and desires for elevation. Hearing Jesus, and following him, where ever he goes has to be the cornerstone of our lives. Loving and praising the glory of God, in thought, word, and deed, summarizes the very reason for our birth and now our rebirth in Christ.