In today’s first reading we meet Job, who is complaining to God about his lot in life. But who is Job? He was once a rich man who had a large farm with seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels. Five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys. He had many servants at his beck and call. He had a family that was the envy of the community. But now all that was lost. He had lost his animals, his crops and his family. On top of that he has become very sick. In today’s first reading we hear what is going on in Job’s heart.

Have we not all been in this pit one time or the other? Maybe it was when we discovered that we had been struck down by a life-threatening illness like cancer, or the loss of a livelihood, or the death of a near and dear one. Maybe it is when we look back on our lives and see all the missed opportunities, the unfulfilled dreams, and potential. Maybe it is when we look back at that bad decision that destroyed ¬a promising future. Maybe it is the fallout of a decision made by someone else over whom we have no control or influence. We have all had that special Job moment in our lives at one time or the other. During such times, Job’s prayer may as well be ours.

Unknown to Job, there was a different drama being enacted in heaven. Satan had entered the courts of heaven and scoffed at God claim-ing that Job remained faithful only because he was blessed with a good life. God then gave Satan permission to test Job. If we belong to God, Satan cannot touch us without God’s permission. We also learn that there is a higher purpose in the tragedies, disappointments, and setbacks that God allows into our lives. As today’s responsorial psalm proclaims, God is good all the time, not only when things are going well for us.

My Job moment came four years ago at a time I thought I had a promising career and a rosy future. But then, an activist investor bought a significant number of shares in the company I worked for, earned a place in the board, and demanded that we reduce staff by a significant amount. There I was in my fifties, without a job, and with little of hope finding a new one. Unknown to me, a family member had contacted a terminal illness, which would eventually cost me more than all my assets and savings put together. When I lost my job, my employer gave me a golden handshake. If not for this money, the sickness would have turned me into a pauper. When I lost my job, I felt as though the world had come to an end. As I look back I realise that there was another drama being enacted in heaven.

In today’s Gospel proclamation we meet our Lord Jesus, who is returning from the synagogue soon after he had exorcised a demon. It was still the early days of our Lord Jesus’ ministry and people were probably stunned by the events that happened there. God, who had seemed dormant and distant for ages, had suddenly come alive wherever our Lord Jesus walked. The healing of St. Peter’s mother-in-law may sound trivial to us today, but in those days of primitive medicine, it could have been a life-threatening sickness. By evening the place was teeming with people who had come to seek divine intervention for their own Job moments. As soon as St. Peter’s mother-in-law is healed, she starts serving. Even today, many who are touched by divine intervention, start wanting to do more for the Lord. The miracle is the beginning of a new way of life. Yet there are others who take the miracle and go back to living the way they were. Those who walk away miss the opportunity to continually see a drama in heaven being enacted through their lives. It would have been logical for the Lord to build on the success he had on that Sabbath day. However, when he goes up the mountain early next morning, He hears His father’s voice guiding Him in a different direction. Now, not only is heaven enacting another drama, it is interacting with the earth, and revealing how to co-operate with the heavenly drama. This is the privilege of those who do not walk away after the miracle but choose to remain for more. We see the whole of Galilee impacted because one person (our Lord Jesus) cooperates with the heavenly drama.

In today’s second reading we discover that the Lord Jesus has passed the baton to St. Paul. He is now cooperating with the heavenly drama. He concludes the reading with the words “All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.” By cooperating with the heavenly drama, he is given eyes to see the heavenly drama that takes place in his own life. Like St. Paul we are invited to live our lives participating in the drama of heaven.

Prayer: Abba Father, grant us the grace not to waste away our tribulations, but to ride upon them to respond to your invitation to a life that receives meaning and purpose from heaven. Amen