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Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Job 9:1–12, 14–16
Job’s friends come to comfort him.
Their names are Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
At first, they sit with him in silence.
That was good.
Sometimes silence is the best comfort.
But then they begin to speak.
And their words become heavy.
Eliphaz suggests that Job’s suffering must somehow be his own fault.
Bildad says almost the same thing.
For him, suffering is the consequence of sin.
So if Job suffers, Job must have sinned.
This was a common way of thinking.
Good people are blessed.
Bad people suffer.
Job does not accept the arguments of his friends.
He knows he has not done what they accuse him of doing.
But he also knows something else:
How can a human being prove himself right before God?
God is great.
God is powerful.
God created all things.
He moves mountains.
He commands the sun.
He made the stars.
Who can argue with such a God?
Who can stand before Him and win a case?
Job feels small.
He feels powerless.
He feels unheard.
He says:
If God passes by me, I do not see Him.
If He moves near me, I do not notice Him.
These are painful words.
They come from a man who is suffering deeply.
Job does not deny God.
But he cannot understand God.
He calls out,
but he is not sure God is listening.
This is a real crisis of faith.
Many people know something of this experience.
They pray,
but feel nothing.
They suffer,
but receive no answer.
They ask:
Where is God?
Does He hear me?
Does He see me?
Today we remember Saint Jerome,
one of the great biblical scholars of the ancient Church.
He spent his life studying the Scriptures,
because he believed that in the word of God we learn to recognize the face of Christ.
Saint Jerome reminds us:
when God seems silent,
return to the Scriptures.
Not because every page gives an easy explanation,
but because the Scriptures lead us to Christ.
The Old Testament tells us that God is invisible.
But the New Testament reveals something more.
The invisible God made Himself visible in Jesus Christ.
Saint John says:
We have heard Him.
We have seen Him.
We have touched Him.
In Christ, God comes close to our suffering.
He does not answer Job with an explanation only.
He answers humanity with His presence.
Job will pass through a dark night.
But this dark night will lead him to a deeper encounter with God.
So when God seems far away,
do not stop calling.
Do not stop listening.
Do not stop returning to His word.
The silence is not the end of the story.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Content License
© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).