Hope amid devastation

His children and all of his possessions have been destroyed, he is suffering great physical pain, and his friends are chastising him unjustly.

That is the context for today's first reading (Job 19:21-27) and thus it begins with a truly mournful cry:

Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!

Yet even in the depths of his devastation and his pain, Job clings with firm faith to an undying hope

Oh that my words were written!
Oh that they were inscribed in a book!
Oh that with an iron pen and lead
they were graven in the rock for ever!

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then from my flesh I shall see God…

No matter what may happen to us, no matter what distractions may come our way or suffering may befall us, may God give us the grace of unconquerable faith and inextinguishable hope through our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.