God and Jesus each give us slaps today

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

Slap! Kiss! Slap! That’s how the word of God comes down today. Job listens to God’s address to him in humble silence. Not that Job had questioned God exactly; but he questioned why he had to suffer so, and therefore, was questioning God’s purpose, and so to speak, if God really knew what he was doing.

His ‘woe is me’ became a ‘why is me?’

And so God had to “set him straight,” as he shot out a series of questions, following his direct slap —

“Tell me, if you know it all.
What is the way to the dwelling of light,
and darkness — where is its place?”

Maybe that was God’s fancy way of asking Job if he could point out or take God to the sunrise and the sunset. At any rate, Job was silent. Job was mortified. And he admitted that to God. He swallowed his medicine, as he said outright to God —

“Look, I am of little account; what can I answer you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
I have spoken once, I will not reply;
twice, but I will do so no more.”

It was as if Job went down on his knees before the almighty, admitting and even praising the “almighty-ness” of the almighty!

Jesus administers the other slap!

Jesus addresses the three cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. He chastises them for failing to acknowledge their sinfulness and their need for repentance, suggesting that they should have shown that with the traditional “sitting in sackcloth and ashes.”

Then, Jesus directly addresses his disciples after this almost enraged eruption of words and all but condemnation, telling his disciples the worth and need of their ministry that he gave to them —

“Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

What an incredible statement of blessing upon them and the ministry he both called them and sent them to do.

The kiss in the middle that the word gives today is the incredible Psalm 139 —

“Lord, you have probed me, you know me.
you know when I sit and stand;
Where can I go from your spirit?
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there;
if I lie down in Sheol, there you are.”

Perhaps, at the very moment that Jesus was speaking to the disciples, they were all recalling Psalm 139. Who knows? And perhaps, if we are lucky, we hear the same calling and sending of Jesus to be true disciples of his word. In humble appreciation, we also want to sing out Psalm 139 both in gladness and also in a spirit of dedication to be bearers of his word, the bearers of the Gospel!