Now is the Winter of Our Discontent - A Lesson From the Book of Job

The Book of Job is a fascinating book from the Old Testament. Fr. Shane reflects on what the Book of Job can tell us about ourselves and our relationship with God.

By Fr. Shane Gallagher

Job and His Friends by Iyla Repin. (Public Doman)

The  Bible is the greatest literary work ever produced because it was directed and willed by God. God directed the hands and minds of men to put on paper what He wanted them to know. The Bible is a living work and is as alive today as it has been through the pattern of time. We do not just read the Bible as Catholics, we live the Bible and pray with it too.  God speaks to us in many ways and particularly through the experiences of one man -a man called Job.

Job is mentioned in the Old Testament book of the same name-the Book of Job. The Book of Job is a fascinating book that tells us about the humanity of Job who is suddenly beset with suffering and unspeakable pain. His response tells us a lot about ourselves as human beings and our relationship with God. Job is a good living man who is loyal to God and neighbour. He is blessed with family, livestock, property and wealth. The story begins in heaven. God is there with the angels. God points out Job showing how righteous and good he is. One angel called Satan speaks up. He questions how God is running the world. He proposes that Job might not actually love God, that he is in fact a good person because God is good to him. If God were to take away all the good things from Job then we would see what he was made of. Satan argues that Job is obedient just to get what he wants. God agrees to an experiment. He allows Satan to impose suffering on Job but not to take his life.

Job Mocked by His Wife by Georges de La Tour. (Public Domain)

Job loses everyone and everything that he cares about. His family and his property are destroyed. To make matters worse God allows Job to be inflicted with bodily sores. God admits that Job deserves none of this. In the midst of suffering Job still praises God in the early chapters. In Chapter three we find out how he is truly feeling. He unleashes a long poem cursing the day he was born. After this some of Job’s friends visit him to offer help. They all say that Job must have done something sinful to deserve this. They say that God is a just God who wouldn’t allow this to happen.

For the next part of the book, his friends go over Job’s life speculating why God would have punished Job. They make lists of sins that Job might have committed. Job responds to all of it with a strong defence. Job at this stage is emotional. One moment he is confident in God’s wisdom and in other moments he accuses God of being reckless.

Job eventually demands that God come and answer his questions in person. God comes in the form of a storm cloud . God doesn’t answer in the way that Job expects. God takes Job on a tour of the universe. He shows Job how huge the world is and asks Job if he is capable of running it or understanding it. God shows all the detail of His creation to Job. Job sees God as unjust but from God’s point of view the picture is infinitely bigger-a huge universe of complexities. God’s defence is His Wisdom which makes Job’s demands that God justify Himself as ridiculous. Job is left in humility. He still does not know why he suffered and yet he is now in peace and in fear of God. God restores to Job what was taken from him. Job now is able to trust God’s wisdom and lives the rest of his life in prosperity.

St. Ignatius of Loyola by Peter Paul Rubens. (Public Domain)

So how do we apply this to life in 2020? Shakespeare once penned the following in his work Richard III; “now is the winter of our discontent”. We live in an age of unhappiness where we question even if the smallest things go wrong. We demand good results in all our human endeavour. We fail to see the bigger picture like Job.

God in His Wisdom occasionally allows human beings to experience trial and failure. Sometimes disappointment is a part of life and can spur us on to greater things. If you research the fortunes of any inter county football team that had lost an All Ireland final and then years later had won an All Ireland title, then the players involved will likely say that the stench of defeat brought each man to a higher plain of determination. Another aspect of life that causes discontent is illness and suffering. Time spent on a hospital bed can lead to the conversion of a soul combined with humility. St. Ignatius Loyola for example was an arrogant wealthy young man who underwent a dramatic conversion in hospital. His illness slowed him down to the point where he read religious books and was deeply touched. The trial of illness guided him to holiness. God allowed this to happen to St. Ignatius as it destroyed his arrogance and pride.

Another pearl of wisdom that we can take from Job is in how we relate to God as human beings. Job dialogues with God. He converses with him even when he does not get the answers he wants. I have heard people tell me that they have been praying for peace in their family or for a wayward son who has lost all sense. They say I have been praying for this long. Many people will say that they have been getting Masses said for ages or that they keep a blessed candle lit in the kitchen. We can draw inspiration from St. Monica who prayed solidly for thirteen years for the conversion of her son Augustine. God might possibly respond by saying that people might not pray or talk to Him as much if they did not have a wayward son or a warring family. There is an old adage “eaten bread is soon forgotten”.  Sometimes God has to take the bread away to get our focus. You never miss the well until the water runs dry.

St. Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne. (Public Domain)

When times were good many were falling away from the faith. On a positive note since March 2020 more people are visiting Churches and souls are picking up the Rosary beads as they storm heaven. People are in a way now doing what Job did in his time. In a time of difficulty the Irish people will be brought back to their knees to dialogue with God just like Job. Prayer is dialogue and God perhaps in His Wisdom is allowing the current difficulties to bring us to an awareness of Him. Prayer reflects the strength of our relationship with God. The question that I pose after having read the Book of Job is; “What is the state of my prayer life”? St. Teresa of Calcutta once said that the wealthy western world as in Europe, the US and Canada are spiritually impoverished-the worst type of poverty. Maybe an impoverishment such as the one Job experienced is necessary for our modern world so that we might open ourselves to our spiritual impoverishment. The lost children of the Celtic Tiger generation are slowly but surely being brought back to their Christian heritage as the economic statistics point downwards and the summer wine dries up.

A manuscript fragment containing text from the Book of Job in Coptic, dating to the fifth century AD. The illustration of Job and his family on the same page is a later seventh century addition. (Public Domain).

The third thought that we can draw from Job’s experience is based on the word “humility”. Job was humbled by his experience. He dares to question God. He accepted God’s response even if it didn’t directly address his questions. He realised that he was limited in his understanding of the bigger picture. We all are as human beings. St. Paul states that we are “earthenware jars”. We are fragile and finite. The word “humility” and by extension the word “humble” come from the Latin word “humus” meaning earth or ground. To be grounded means that we are close to the ground in reality and not up on the air of self importance. Job is brought to his knees. There is a wisdom in going on ones knees to pray in that it brings us closer to the ground and reality.

Pope Francis. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)

Job’s grounded position reminds us that at the end of the day we are “earthenware jars”. Some will say that the confident secular Ireland of the beginning of the millennium is now in ashes. Many struggle to adapt to changing circumstances in late 2020. In August 2018 the then Taoiseach of Ireland, Leo Varadkar proudly boasted to Pope Francis in Dublin that the Irish people had shaken off the Catholic ideas/beliefs that had characterised 20th Century Ireland. Job’s experience might just encourage us to re-evaluate that statement and return to our faith that can still easily be resurrected if we try. Job’s experience encourages us to be humble. Without God and dialogue with Him, we are nothing. We have a lot to learn from the Bible and from characters like Job who allow us to reflect more on God and our at times shaky human condition. “Remember man that you are dust and onto dust you shall return”. Gen 3:19.