Devotional Thought of the Day:

After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you did not speak the truth about me, the way my servant Job did. 8 Now take seven bulls and seven rams to Job and offer them as a sacrifice for yourselves. Job will pray for you, and I will answer his prayer and not disgrace you the way you deserve. You did not speak the truth about me as he did.”
9 Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar did what the LORD had told them to do, and the LORD answered Job’s prayer. Job 42:7-9 GNT.

13 I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. 2† I may have the gift of inspired preaching; I may have all knowledge and understand all secrets; I may have all the faith needed to move mountains—but if I have no love, I am nothing. 3 I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned—but if I have no love, this does me no good. 1 Cor. 13:1-3 GNT

Many men and women are experiencing more and more today serious lowliness and neglect as a result of their excessive zeal for autonomy which they inherited from modernity. But mostly they have lost the support of something that transcends them.

It is hard to communicate across Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. It is even harder to develop relationships where we love one another. Yet these odd relationships appeal to so many.

I think part of it is the illusion of safety, the idea that we can have “friends” while still being autonomos. Yet these social media platforms are more addictive and the relationships less satisfying, and more frustrating. It is so easy to write off that person who has a different outlook in regards to religion, politics, sex, etc. And because the relationship is not really a relationship (in most cases) we just unfriend, unfollow, and even block those who annoy us.

Yet we have both a great capacity and a great need to love. It is what we are created to do. To deeply care, be deeply devoted to others, so much so that reconciliation is more important than frustration. That forgiveness is an automatic response rather than a thirst for revenge. ( I do believe that “unfriending” is more often a response of revenge than anything else!)

As St. Paul indicates, without love we are nothing. Without love, nothing is beneficial. Even sacrifice is worthless, if it is not done because of love.

As I was reading these passages this morning, I wondered why Job even bothered allowing his “friends” to hang around. Their words may have been sincere, but they were wrong! (And God let them know it!) They were annoying, they were judgmental, they didn’t offer comfort and support in the midst of some pretty dark times in the life of Job. Yet, he didn’t send them away. He would argue with them, he would struggle with their “help”, but he didn’t turn his back on them

Once Job was justified, he even did something for them that was remarkable. He prayed for their healing! He prayed that they didn’t get what they deserve! They were his friends, and so he did what they needed, no matter how much they had been a pain in the ass while he was suffering.

That is the kind of love that Paul tells us makes all the difference. That is the kind of love that makes life abundant. That is the love that tells us that while there is a time for solitude, we are meant to live in fellowship, in relationships that are deep, that result in our laughing when they laugh, and sobbing when they sob. (see Romans 12)

This is the love that transcends life, that happens because we know we are loved. For it is God’s love that enables us to set aside the zeal for autonomy, to realize the emptiness of narcissism, and risk truly loving those around us.

Even those who treat us like Job’s friends and family.

We need to know that we are loved. To look at the cross, to realize the depth of sin, our sin, that Christ would take on himself. To do so, because He loves us, and therefore could look at the cross and see the joy of reconciliation that would result from that cross, from that pain. His love is infectious, the more we explore its dimensions the more we can love, the more we desire to, and the more unfollowing, unfriending and blocking doesn’t make sense. Laughing and crying with people will be our norm, for that is what happens when we love each other.

And the more we want to see people face to face, and not settle for social media interaction.

Pope Francis. (2013). A Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections from His Writings. (A. Rossa, Ed.) (p. 227). New York; Mahwah, NJ; Toronto, ON: Paulist Press; Novalis.