My beloved spiritual children in Our Risen Lord, Only True God, and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS RISEN! TRULY HE IS RISEN!
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ON MAY 6TH OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE HOLY PROPHET JOB.
Job, the righteous and wise man, was living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia. He was the grandson of Esau and fifth from Abraham. In the Old Testament book of his name, we learn how he loses wealth, large family of ten children, and health. Saint Andrew of Crete (660-740) writes: "Once Job sat upon a throne, but now he sits upon a dunghill, naked and covered with sores (Job 2:7-8). Once he was blessed with many children and admired by all, but suddenly he is childless and homeless. Yet he counted the dunghill as a palace and his sores as pearls. The book records a number of debates, an extraterrestrial one between God and Satan, and an earthly one between Job and three of his acquaintances (Eliphaz the king of the Minaeans). Job, in the end, acknowledges the sovereignty of God, and he is restored. God blesses Job, and the man of God receives more than what he had lost in cattle, sheep, camels, oxen, and she-asses. He also begot other children, three of whom were daughters. And he (Job) called the first Day, and the second Casia, and the third Amalthaea's horn. And they were not found, in comparison with the daughter of Job, fairer women than they in all the world. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brethren (Job 42:14).
Satan's idea of theology is that if Job were to be blessed by God, then Job would be faithful. If Job is not blessed by God, then he would be unfaithful. Job's friends believe that only when Job is faithful, shall he be blessed; but if he is unfaithful, he shall be punished. At God's challenge, Job could only humble himself. He was absent at creation and cannot explain the forces of nature. Conspicuously, Job admits his ignorance and keeps silent. Job also admits that neither can he overrule God's ways nor can he control the forces of nature. Thus, he confesses his presumption and repents. Saint Ambrose (339-397) observes that the devil knows that when the book of Job is explained, "the power of his temptations is shown and made clear."
Saint Ambrose describes the holy man thus: "Job, also, in prosperity and adversity, was blameless, patient, pleasing, and acceptable to God. He was harassed with pain, yet could find consolation." And, speaking of how fortitude should be used in struggling for virtue, he writes: "What of all this wanting in holy Job, or in his virtue, or what came upon him in the way of vice? How did he bear the distress of sickness or cold or hunger? How did he look upon dangers which menaced his safety? Were the riches from which so much went to the poor gathered together by plunder? Did he ever allow greed for wealth, or the desire for pleasure, or lusts to rise in his heart? Did ever the unkind disputes of the three kinglets, or the insults of the slaves, rouse him to anger? Did glory carry him away like some fickle person when he called down vengeance on himself if ever he had hidden even an involuntary fault, or had feared the multitude of the people so as not to confess it in the sight of all? His virtues had no point of contact with any vices but stood firm on their own ground. Who, then, was so brave as holy Job? Can he be put second to any, on whose level hardly one like himself can be placed?"
Saint Ambrose continues: "The three royal friends of Job declared him to be a sinner because they saw that he, after being rich, became poor; that having many children, he had lost them all, and that he was now covered with sores and was full of welts, and was a mass of wounds from head to foot. But holy Job made his declaration to them, 'If I suffer thus because of my sins, why did the wicked live? They grow old also in riches, their seed is according to their pleasure, their houses are prosperous, but they have no fear; there is no scourge from the Lord on them' (Job 21:7-9). A faint-hearted man, seeing this, is disturbed in mind, and turns his attention away from it."
Let us close with the counsel of Saint Basil the Great, who speaks on detachments from world goods. This homily was prompted when a devastating fire had occurred in the neighborhood of the church. "Recall to your mind the patience of Job. No one should be led by his sufferings to think or to say that no providence rulers our affairs. Nor should any man cast aspersion upon the government and decree of the Lord. Let him contemplate the athlete just mentioned and provide himself with an adviser of wiser counsel. Let him review in his mind all the trials, once after another, in which Job distinguished himself and reflect that, for all the many shafts aimed at him by the devil, he did not receive a mortal blow. The devil took from him his domestic prosperity and planned to overwhelm him with reports of disasters, following closely upon one another. While the first messenger was announcing a heavy misfortune, another came, bringing news of more serious calamities, Evils were linked, one with another, and the catastrophes were like onrushing waves. Before the first lamentation had ceased, cause for another was at hand. That just man, however, stood firm as a rock, receiving the blasts of the tempest and reducing to foam the dash of the waves...He deemed worthy of tears none of the evils which were befalling him. But, when one came to report that, while his sons and daughters were feasting, a violent wind had blown down the chamber where the merrymaking was going on, he rent his garments, showing his natural sympathy and proving by the action that he was a father who loved his children. But even that moment he set a limit and measure to his grief. And he graced with words of piety the misfortune that had occurred, saying that 'the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away; as if hath pleased the Lord, so also is it done' (cf. Job 1:21).
"Thus, Job repulsed the devil's attack and brought upon Satan the disgrace of total defeat. What happened then? His malady left him as if it had visited him to no avail and had gained no advantage. His flesh regained the health of a second youth. His life prospered again with all the good things of his former wealth and doubled riches flowed in from all sides upon his house. One-half consisted of his former wealth as if he had lost nothing, and the other half represented the reward of patience which is bestowed upon a just man. But why did he receive in double measure houses, mules, camels, sheep, fields, and all the accouterments of wealth while the number of children born to him remained equal to those who had died? It was because brute beasts and riches of all kinds are completely destroyed when they perish. Children, on the other hand, even if they are dead, live on in the best part of their nature. Therefore, when he was favored by the Creator with other sons and daughters, he possessed this portion of his goods also in a double measure--one family abiding with him to give joy to their parents, the other children gone before to await their father. All of them will stand about Job when the Judge of human life will gather together the universal Church, when the trumpet, which is to announce the coming of the King, alls loudly to the tombs and demands the bodies which have been entrusted to their charge. Then, they who now appear to be dead will take their place before the Master of the whole world more quickly than will the living. For this reason, I think, the Lord allotted to Job a double portion of his other wealth, but judged that he would be satisfied with the same number of children as before? Do you see how many blessings the just Job reaped from his patience? Therefore, you too, bear patiently any harm enkindled by a demon's treachery. Alleviate your feelings of distress over your misfortunes with more courageous thoughts, in accordance with the words of the Holy Scripture: "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He will nourish thee" (Psalm 54:25). To Him is due glory everlasting. Amen."
We read in the Septuagint that "Job lived after his affliction a hundred and seventy years. And all the years he lived were two hundred and forty. And Job saw his sons and his sons' sons, the fourth generation" (Job 42:16).
And, "Sickness and health, riches and poverty, are become the glory of thy life, O blessed Job; for through all things thou art shown to be illustrious." (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in Our Risen Lord,
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George