the prophet job on the death of ruby

I chose our first reading today from the book of Job to mark the passage of Ruby from this world to the next.  I chose this reading because I believe this passage appropriately describes my one and only meeting with her, my struggle to understand with her what she was going through.  Our meeting in her home was not a confession although we ended with the anointing of the sick by laying our hands on her and praying over her and by giving her the viaticum.  It was not a confession for she said she already did.  Rather it was a consultation, a consultation she deems very important in her experience of sickness, “Can I pray to God for death, can I ask God to take away my life, can I, is it a sin?”  These questions were not asked in some emotionally charged exchange we often see in teleseryes.  No.  These were straightforward questions, an attempt I believe to deal with what she was going through as rationally as possible – typical I guess of Ruby.  “Can I pray to God for death, can I ask him to take away my life.”

I chose the reading from the book of Job today because Job speaks a lot about Ruby’s questions.  Sometimes we only think of Job as a person who had to wrestle with the problem of suffering in the world and why a good God, why a just and loving God would allow his children to suffer.  It was no longer a question Ruby had to go through at that point when we met.  15 years of remission was enough, she said, and these were the best years, the years she felt truly blessed, the years she felt she was truly gifted.  It was no longer a question of why God allows her to suffer.  She was already done with that. 

But behind the question of Job why man has to suffer is a more basic question, and I believe an even more important question.  And what is this question – who is God for me, how does God relate with me in my situation?  That too I believe is the question behind Ruby’s question – who is God for me.  “Can I pray to God for death, can I ask him to take away my life.”  Why Ruby, who do you understand God to be, who do you understand God to be in your pain, who do you understand God to be as you come face to face with the certainty of death, who do you understand God to be now that you have come to the brink of the great unknown.

At certain important transitions of our lives we will be hounded by questions like these.  For Ruby it was a reassessment of her relationship with God now that she was no longer the strong woman that she was before, now that she was no longer in control, now that she was helpless and powerless.  Who do you understand God to be in this situation – Can I ask God to take away my life?

These are important transitions which we need to face in our lives as believers because these are transitions when God is leading us to a deeper relationship with him.

When Job was confronted with a life that has gone to such a mess he declared his faith before his friends who came to console him.  He exclaimed,  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.”  It is no longer a why, it is no longer a what, it is no longer an attempt to take control of a situation I surely have no power over with.  It now becomes a who, it is about my Redeemer, whom I shall see by my side.  I may not understand everything now but I know that I have someone who will rescue me from this mess that I am in.

Only when you have that faith can you be ready to meet God face to face.

To Manong Rene, to Jinky and Din you are also going through a transition in her passing over. In this transition may you come to know God your Redeemer who stands by your side so as to love him more deeply in order that you can trust him exceedingly.