Reflection - 2020

By Steve Hall

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/100320.cfm
Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17
Luke 10:17-24

Don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit worn. 2020 started off ok, but that didn’t last long. As the year began, the interminable process of presidential impeachment seemed to finally be approaching it’s climax. But before that 2019 political residue could be concluded we had the first intimations of a worldwide virus which initially threatened to rival the panic and terror of Europe’s bubonic plague. Soon stores, entertainment and travel were shut down, millions lost jobs, and all were required to entertain themselves in the tedious confinement of their homes. 

And it got worse. While politicians and scientists argued among and between themselves about what to do, the doldrums of home incarceration emulated the dog days of summer. Boredom can be a drag. In the meantime politicians debated who should be the next president, political conventions became virtual (finally exemplifying in reality what they had long ago become) and everyone developed a penchant for playground name calling. But that wasn’t the end. The drought in the West intensified as the Southeast was drenched in rain. Forest fires appeared to be without limits, hurricanes appeared to be endless in numbers and earthquakes came in swarms. Most recently, protests and riots and shootings have generated new paths for pain to infest our cities; and social justice — or injustice — has threatened to upend the social structure once again. 

And, in case your oblivious to the calendar, the year is only three-fourths over. All in all, it’s not been a year I would like to repeat.

So, how about you? Would you like to add your own fond memories of 2020 events to those we’ve all experienced?

Maybe you were trying to work as the kids stayed home from school. Maybe there were the ever recurring life events of illness, hospitalization, or even death. Maybe you were restrained from comforting a loved one, prevented from traveling to assist in a family tragedy or required to let a family member suffer and die alone. Is your list longer? Loss of a job for yourself or your spouse or a friend? Loss of a business you had worked so hard to build? Confusion over how to merge charity and justice and need. Depression and addiction taking on new energy.

Some level of chaos has always been part of life. Seldom, however, has mankind endured such a global phenomenon as that brought on by this virus. Seldom does history record such turmoil in national events while global confusion and illness reign. So let’s bring our present universal circumstance down to a more circumscribed level: the life of one man.

“Then Satan answered the LORD, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?
Have you not put a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side?
You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’
And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself do not put forth your hand.’
So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.” (Job 1:9-12)

In a very short span of time Job’s servant’s were slain, his oxen, donkeys, sheep and camels either perished or were taken by an enemy. His property was destroyed. His children all died. His good health was overcome by disease. Finally, in the midst of all these calamities, his ‘friends’ began to accuse him of a sinful life. Yet, their arguments are without foundation and their speeches reflect little more than platitudes. The author of the book of Job doesn’t mention a date; but I’m guessing all this happened in 2020 BC.

Job’s story is not unusual. His questions persist through the centuries. The guilty — the innocent; the sinner — the saint; the righteous — the unrighteous. All suffer. Some minimally — others grievously. Some for a time, some throughout their lives, some even to the point of death. The proposed explanations for suffering continue to plague us though no one has anything better to offer than the words of Job’s supposed friends.

Ultimately it is the Lord Himself who provides the only meaningful explanation to the problem of suffering — and it is no explanation at all. God first dismisses the teaching that suffering is a punishment for sin; but he also dismisses Job’s demand for an answer. He began by challenging the presumed authority behind Job’s question:

‘Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind:
“Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you declare to me.
Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be justified?”’ (Job 40:6-8)

But the Lord is not finished. His queries become more specific:

“Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?
[Can you] Deck yourself with majesty and dignity; clothe yourself with glory and splendor. [Can you] Pour forth the overflowings of your anger, and look on every one that is proud, and abase him. [Can you] Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked where they stand. Hide them all in the dust together; bind their faces in the world below.[When you can do these things] Then will I also acknowledge to you, that your own right hand can give you victory.

In simple language, I read the text as follows:

Who is man to question God? Is he even remotely able to do all that God has done? When man can provide justification and authority for his questioning, God will answer. Job’s response needs to be ours as well.

“Job answered the LORD and said:
I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be hindered.
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand;
things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.
I had heard of you by word of mouth,
but now my eye has seen you.
Therefore I disown what I have said,
and repent in dust and ashes.”

It is following such an acknowledgment that God blesses Job’s latter days.

2020 is a unique year, one without a recent comparable. Ultimately, however, it is beyond our understanding to know what eternal image God is creating. In the meantime, our only reasonable response to God is voiced by Job himself:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25)