proclamation of Job

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for Canada today describe the relationship with God which is eternal. We hear the proclamation of Job that he knows that his Redeemer lives. The strength of his faith and the experience of attraction he has known in his relationship with the Divine convince him that he shall continue to grow toward God after death. The understanding he expects is that of our most powerful sense, our sight. The psalmist understands that the love of God for us, like the love between parent and child, is eternal and is not diminished by death. The experience of the steadfast love of God is true in all times and beyond time. The letter of Paul to the Corinthians and the description, in the Gospel of John, of the Way to be a follower and servant of Jesus can be taken together to emphasize the importance of service to God and others in life which of necessity causes the disciple to know little deaths to self and self interest. Perhaps we do see some of the fruit of our death to self. Paul preaches from the certainty of his encounter with the Risen Christ which becomes the experience of intimacy with the Divine that bears fruit in attracting people to Jesus in Paul’s time and for as long as people accept the eternal and Divine invitation to live as members of the Body of Christ.