“But now my eye has seen you.” // Job 42: 5
I was overseas when Dad called. “She’s okay,” he said, but I heard something behind his voice. My brothers were the ones who had to tell me mom had been pretty seriously injured in an accident. It took a few days to piece together what happened because the time difference made it hard to catch my family for any length of time.
I was a handful of months into a year-long overseas program, and leaving would mean starting from the beginning.
Dad told me to stay put, saying he would tell me when my coming home would be helpful.
I remember how my heart ached at memories of joy during my annual home visits. It was a trying time and I felt like I couldn’t pray.
I could relate to Job then, at least in a small way. The throes of trials brought my spiritual poverty to the foreground and there was no way around—only through.
Weeks passed. Mom demonstrated her amazing resilience again in spades.
Once she was able to have a semi-long conversation, my mother declared, “Do not forget who you are.” Her call to faith pierced me to the heart.
As I look back on all that has transpired in our family’s life in the many years since this incident, I can trace God’s merciful closeness. We learned so much, and I can’t imagine how we would have learned the lessons as deeply any other way.
The conclusion of Job’s dramatic searching ends in his striking declaration in today’s First Reading: “By hearsay I had heard of you, but now my eye has seen you” (Job 42:5).
Sister, perhaps you, your family, or your friends are wading through the tumult of trials right now—or maybe you’ve just come out the other side. Either way, I pray that we will be able to hold our good Jesus’ hand through the storms and then reorient our lives as Job did, sharing his prayer to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be hindered” (Job 42:2).
May we discern and discover the sweetness of trusting in God come what may.
Maria Kim-Ngân Bùi, after twenty years in religious life, is discerning a call to found a community of consecrated religious women dedicated to Our Lady and who will pray reparation for sins against the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, pray for conversions, and work for the evangelization of those who have left the Church or feel furthest from the Church.
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