From The Abyss

The LORD addressed Job out of the storm and said: Have you ever in your lifetime commanded the morning and shown the dawn its place.   For taking hold of the ends of the earth, till the wicked are shaken from its surface? The earth is changed as is clay by the seal, and dyed as though it were a garment; But from the wicked the light is withheld, and the arm of pride is shattered. Have you entered into the sources of the sea, or walked about in the depths of the abyss? Have the gates of death been shown to you, or have you seen the gates of darkness?...

Many people find themselves in a storm – a storm of dismay, depression, loneliness, and fear.   It’s as a storm at sea with sinking into the abyss being expected.  The light is withheld for it is dark in the depths. 

We’d love to have God speak to us from out of the storm as in this reading from Job.  Better yet and more reasonable, we need to pray and today’s responsorial psalm provides the text:

Guide me, Lord, along the everlasting way.  O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. Where can I go from your spirit?  From your presence where can I flee?  If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I sink to the nether world, you are present there.

These are words of optimism and hope.   God is always with us especially in life’s sad moments we might call the nether word.  God knows us and understands our thoughts.  For this reason we should take heart for when we are at the gates of death or the gates of darkness, God can bring us back to the light.  We only have to reach out.

Deacon David Pierce