Sunday Vigil

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Job 42,1-3.5-6.12-16

This was the answer Job gave to Yahweh: I know that you are all-powerful: what you conceive, you can perform. I was the man who misrepresented your intentions with my ignorant words. You have told me about great works that I cannot understand, about marvels which are beyond me, of which I know nothing. Before, I knew you only by hearsay but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes. Yahweh blessed Job's latter condition even more than his former one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters; his first daughter he called 'Turtledove', the second 'Cassia' and the third 'Mascara'. Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers. After this, Job lived for another one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and his children's children to the fourth generation.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Job meets with God personally. He understands that nothing is impossible with God. This is the recognition of a man of faith who relies on God's love even in difficult times, when everything seems impossible. This is why Job acknowledges that he dared to deal with things that exceeded his capacity, that he could not understand. For who can understand the divine mystery without listening to God's word? Job spoke at length, but now he understands that God is not far away and that his prayer should give room to God's presence and word. "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you," says Job. Many times we know God by the hearing of the ear or we claim to know Him because we have heard of Him since childhood, or perhaps because we have an idea of Him by what we heard. But who knows the God of the Bible? We can know God only when we meet Him. He is a person who comes to meet each one, who talks to everyone, who listens to whoever turns to Him. He is not a God who is known by hearsay. Job and his friends had engaged in a theological debate about God and his righteousness. Job now meets him, sees God next to him, not distant anymore as distant is one with whom we want to have a discussion. The central question of the Bible is how to meet God. The very biblical pages are the best place for this meeting to happen. The meeting will be fulfilled with the Lord Jesus. He will say: "Who has seen me has seen the Father." The book of Job ends as it opened. There is an unfathomable mystery, before which no one can claim to have understood everything. This is why in the end Job was ready to accept the divine word and manifestation, and to understand that he had not been left alone in suffering and trial. Job's restitution to his initial condition is the sign of God's blessing for every man and woman who continually turns to Him and does not lose hope in the benevolent presence of the Lord.