Background Checks (2012-02-05)

This is my homily for Sunday 5 February 2012. I am a Catholic chaplain in Teaneck at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Evening (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ.

[_00_] There are background checks and there are background checks. Paying a bill with a credit card sometimes involves a very quick identification check. Who are you … But, a new job, new employer, or to a new school, requires more extensive review of our statistics, transcripts, “report card”.

The principal or the boss wants to know the story, the history of our lives. It’s only fair right that everyone should be examined, check out … right ?

Our first reading this Sunday is from the Book of Job. And, Job himself – known also for his great confidence and patience – has also been halted for a background check.

Or, so Job has been told.

It was not always this way for Job.

Now, as the song goes … he is sweeping the streets he used to own.

But, now, Job has lost control, the autonomy that he once had over his life. Job used to be the boss, the lord of the manor. He had 10 children, property, crops, money. (The 1 percent).

Job has suffered collapse (materially, financially). And, Job describes himself as the “hireling”, the hourly wage worker who waits to be hired, and even less, the slave who longs for shade. (cf. Job 7:1-7)

[_02_] In the book of Job, a friend visits Job with an explanation of Job’s status, of his woes/disadvantages.

Actually, the book introduces 4 visitors. But, we’ll consider just a few examples.

For example, there is first friend, Eliphaz who clearly believes in retribution, in revenge.

In other words, as one commentator writes, – “obviously, these calamaties have been sent to punish Job for some transgression or culpable negligence, perhaps unnoticed.

Eliphaz intends to help Job examine his conscience, to repent of his sins, and so to regain God’s favor.”(Jerome Bibl Comm (1968), Job, 31:23)

[_03_] This idea of retribution is certainly attractive, sometimes plausible to us as well …

I might be tempted to say about my situation or that of another person .. that God has been made angry by sinfulness or selfishness.

What we believe as Catholics and as Christians is not that God punishes us for our sins… but that our sinful actions themselves … when we come to know them… that our memory of the actions will indeed be a punishment.

When we come to the Lord in penance and confession, we are not completing a background check. In fact, the Lord knows our sins even before we tell him.

What is beneficial for us is to speak these sins out loud and, thus, be free of them and be forgiven.

[_04_] The life story of Job reminds us of the problem of evil, of temptation and injustice in the world.

The “friends” of Job have a relatively easier answer, considering only retribution.

And, if Job is guilty..they remind him that he has a right to remain silent. In fact, he’d be better off not saying so much…lest the Lord become even angrier with him.

The friend Zophar tells Job … “can you penetrate the designs of God, dare you vie with the perfection of the Almighty” (Job 11:7). In other words, Job is being told to chill out…

[_05_] The Good News of Job tells us of someone who continues to speak, to question, to lament his condition… even to ask why.

Job is not really given a clear answer. But, Job continues to question – to call out to God – because he knows that “retribution” is not the answer. Job is quite correct.

But, ultimately, Job also remains a listener.

The Good News of Job is also that the Lord is not interested in how rich Job once was ..or how poor Job is now. This is not a background check.

The Lord is interested in the present moment for Job, for you, for me.

[_06_] What we read in Job is that the so-called friends do not provide true love and affirmation during Job’s crisis, his “background check”. Only the Lord is his true friend, his redeemer, vindicator.

“I know that my redeemer lives”… this is Job’s profession of faith. (Job 19:25)
(pause)

Isn’t it true that when we feel blessed, affirmed, forgiven… we are better able to serve and to be with others who are difficult, maybe this is a family member, neighbor, friend?

When we lack the will to serve, to help, to endure, we need to be renewed in God’s grace ourselves.

In the Gospel of this Sunday, we also see this change, this conversion, in the example of Simon’s mother-in-law.

Jesus enters the house where Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. Being healed, Simon’s mother-in-law immediately rises. And, we read, “the fever left her and she waited on them … began to serve.” (cf. Mark 1:29-39)

The fact that she immediately starts to serve is significant. For example, isn’t it true that when we feel blessed, forgiven, loved, affirmed .. that we also wish to serve and help others.

Simon’s mother-in-law does not rise and serve simply to make up for lost time to do the tasks that were unfinished.

There is no background check, no history.

Rather, Simon’s mother-in-law gives us the further example of one who is also interested in the present moment. Having been healed, she is similar to the sinner who has been absolved, or who starts over with a restored background and identity.

[_fin_]