Great and Holy Thursday
Great and Holy Week. Abstention from meat and foods that contain meat. According to liturgical prescriptions, the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated today.
Read
Matins – Luke 22:1-39
Vespers with Liturgy – Exodus 19:10-19; Job 38:1-23; 42:1-5; Isaiah 50:4-11; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32; Matthew 26:2-20; John 13:3-17; Matthew 26:21-39; Luke 22:43-45; Matthew 26:40-27:2
Over the last three days, we’ve read about how the wealthy Job was reduced to poverty and sickness. Tomorrow, we’ll hear about his restoration, the inheritance he gives his daughters, and the resurrection promised to him. That means that today is the only day of Holy Week that we actually read any of the poetry that makes up almost all of the book of Job when we read God’s answer to Job’s complaints and the account of Job’s repentance.
God lays out his sovereignty over creation, from the constellations to the earth, which extends far beyond human concerns. God’s plans surpass human understanding; God sending rain to the desert “where no one lives…empty of human life,” suggests His concern for creation is much broader than humanity. So Job’s suffering, as horrible as it is, is part of a wider picture. That doesn’t mean that it is good, or that God wills it, but it is part of a wider picture. The other part of the answer is found in Job’s repentance. Job recognizes that he’s spoken about things he doesn’t understand, but it’s really because God has revealed himself to Job that his thinking can change. Rather than being told to shut up about things he doesn’t understand, Job “sees God.” We too “see God” in our encounter with Christ, both in the passion and in the Eucharist. All our questions are not answered, but we see God mysteriously enter into the human condition and into human suffering. In his death, he gives himself that we may live.