We are in good hands!……..Lord, let your face shine on me…….I am your servant; give me discernment”

Today at Holy Mass we hear from Job again in the first readings…Remember…Everything was taken from Job and he came full circle…He came to accept the lose and learned from it….”Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.”…Interestingly enough…Once Job came to this “understand”…The Lord gave him back everything he lost - And much more!……”Thus the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. And he had seven sons and three daughters, of whom he called the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Kerenhappuch. In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Then Job died, old and full of years”…………..God’s ways are not our ways and God’s ways are mysterious!….God is the potter and we are the clay…..He molds us into his image and likeness - If we permit him too…..How do we respond as he molds us?…Do we cooperate?

“Teach me wisdom and knowledge, for in your commands I trust.”

People see and hear what they want to see and hear….Why bring that up?…Its how we view the events of our life juxtaposed against what the goal of our life truly is that determines how we react and move forward when things “do not go as we planned”…As all adults know full well…Life is not scripted…We can only plan so much…When things “happen” that were not accounted for…And as we all know…Sometimes those “things” are not “wrapped in a nice pretty box with a red bow”…How we react to those events makes all the difference….If we view our lives as a journey back to God for where we began…That we are a work in progress…That everything happens for a reason…Both the good and the bad…All working towards our sanctification…….We can accept bad times and difficult events when they happen much more easily…However, if we view our life to be lived solely for the here and now…And when things don’t work out….We can become despondent and even destroyed in extreme circumstances….Because we built “an earthly castle” - Our “heaven” is in the here and now…..When we take that view, we forget everything that happens, both the good and the bad, works towards our sanctification, even if we do not understand it

“According to your ordinances they still stand firm: all things serve you”

Most people, Catholics included, misunderstand how we are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven…We have “Americanized” heaven….We “think” when we die, we just “walk in the door” of heaven…Does not work that way!…Before we stand before the beatific vision of God for all eternity…We must be made PERFECT…That process of purification begins here on earth…That is why God is the “potter and we are the clay”…God is constantly molding us…Do we cooperate with him?…Sadly we do not (myself included in that “we”) fully cooperate with him…That is why there is Purgatory…Its in Purgatory that God “completes the job”…To make us PERFECT (Which is a great act of mercy believe it or not!) before we stand for all eternity before the beatific vision of God...…So before we get to Purgatory…And make no mistake…I will be there!… To limit our time in Purgatory - We should allow God to be God in the here and now…Allowing him to be “the potter” and accept being the “clay” and allow him to “mold us” into who we were created to be

“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Getting back to Job in the first reading from Mass…Job figured it out and he came “full circle”!…Everything was taken from him…He at first did not understand…In time, Job accepted the loss…Learned from it…Never gave up his faith in God….And in the end came away better for it….God on his part rewarded Job…This story is an allegory for life and for all of us to learn from!…..How many of us have experienced events similar to what Job went through?…Something bad happened and in time…When the “dust settled”…We learned from the difficult event…Only to be a better person as a result….God’s ways are not our ways….Its for us to simply accept our role…That we are mere “clay” in the hands of the “master potter” and if we cooperate with the “potter” make no mistake about it…God will turn us into a master piece!….We are in good hands!……..Lord, let your face shine on me…….I am your servant; give me discernment”