Give me a break ...

     Job is a wonderful story that tells of Job's trust in God's love.  In today's readings we experience Job at his worst, nearing his lowest moments, touching on despair and recounting the darkness that envelopes him.  I can almost hear his say "Give me a break!"

     Paul tells the Corinthians that he has been compelled to share the gospel message in season and out, whether convenient or inconvenient.  He has emptied himself so that he can be all things to all people.  This is so unlike the "old" Saul of Taursus.  Everything about the "new" Paul must be sacrificed so that the gospel can be proclaimed.  I can almost hear him say "Give me a break".

    Jesus experiences the endless and consistent needs of the people - for hope and healing and deliverance and love.  There is no rest.  The whole town turns out ... they follow him wherever he goes ... and he goes to every town and village to fulfill his mission.  The people are relentless, the needs overwhelming, and his compassion without end.  And yet he says "I need a break", and takes a brief one.

    Like Job, when we reach the bottom, when all seems lost and darkest, when there is no where to go but up, then the promise and the love of God surrounds us and gives us hope.  Then we can say, like Job, I don't understand the why or wherefore of my circumstances, but I know that God loves me, and that is enough.  Like Paul, when it seems that we have given everything and emptied ourselves of self, then Christ lives in me, and I am filled with gospel joy and the good news, and my life is rich.  Like Jesus and his disciples, the more people need and demand, the more we become Christ to them, the more we minister to them, the more we bring the saving message.

     But there is the need for that "break" that we long for.  May that break be an immersion into the peace and love of Christ's presence, a strengthening of who we are through prayer, and a nourishment for the journey through the Eucharist.  Let us take time to become, to be renewed, to be "all things to all people".

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     Today, February 5th, would have been my Dad's 92nd birthday.  His birthday celebration has a cute story to it.  For the first 62 years of his life, he celebrated  his birthday on February 5th.  When he went to retire, be got his birth certificate from the Commonwealth, and was surprised to learn that his date of birth was actually February 9th.  For the next twenty years, till his death, we had cake on both dates!