Know Yourself; Know God
by Fr. David M. Knight
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Twenty-Sixth Week of the Year
Saint Faustina Kowalska, Virgin; Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, Priest
Lectionary 460
Jb 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17/Lk 10:17-24
Job 42:1-16 is Job’s “act of contrition.” He recognizes that he has been stumbling about in the dark because he was out of his depth:
I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know.
Now he has come into the light, because he has confronted a “great thing” that he can understand, though not completely: the difference between himself and God. He has gone deeper than cultural assumptions, or the platitudes everyone uses when speaking about God without really asking what they mean. The inescapable reality of his sufferings has forced him to look for realities in his religion that are inescapable. And the foundation of them all is that God is All:
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.
We can give unreflective assent to all the “doctrines”—translations of the mystery of God into human words—without using the Gift of Understanding to ask what they really mean. We can keep all the laws that tell us how to act toward God without using the Gift of Fear of the Lord to ask who it is with whom we are interacting. We can face up to all our obligations without using the Gift of Wisdom to see them all in the light of the moment when we will face God himself, who is the All behind all our partial observances. We can keep all of the Commandments and never think of the Great Commandment that rules them all: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” In short, we can accept and try to live out the gift of grace—the favor of sharing in the divine life of God—as if the Gift of the Holy Spirit were neither given nor available. This is like trying to breathe in outer space without an oxygen mask. (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30)
The whole book of Job comes down to four words: “Know yourself. Know God.” We cannot know either one except in the perspective of the other.
Luke 10:17-24: Jesus first teaches his disciples wisdom: they should rejoice, not just in the means—the success of their ministerial efforts—but look to the end—when they will see the true meaning of all “names” in heaven.
He affirms the impossibility and the possibility of knowing God’s “Name”:
No one knows the Son except the Father; no one knows the Father except the Son.
No creature can really know the infinite God as he is; much less enter into the mystery of the interactions, the divine relationship between Father, Son and Spirit. But Christians can: by sharing in God’s own life: the Son’s own act of knowing the Father: “and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Initiative: Acknowledge blindness. Learn to see by the light of faith.
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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