The Light of Loss

Appreciating our blessings before we lose them

10/03/2018

Job 9:1-12 Job answered his friends and said: I know well that it is so; but how can a man be justified before God? Should one wish to contend with him, he could not answer him once in a thousand times. God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed? He removes the mountains before they know it; he overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars beneath it tremble. He commands the sun, and it rises not; he seals up the stars.

There is an age-old maxim that states: you never know what you have until it is gone. We tend to take for granted what we have and hold in our hands. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said memorably: “Jewelers get used to fine diamonds.” We blithely ignore our blessings.

When I was young I was blessed with a head full of curly hair, but I hated it. I wanted to have flat, straight hair like my older brother had. So, I used to sleep every night with a hairnet to force my hair to flatten, and I would remove it each morning before school. That way, I would have straight, flat hair like all the cool kids. Well, one day in eighth grade I got up late and rushing to get to school, I forgot I still had the hairnet on my head. I did not realize it until lunch recess and I was so embarrassed. No doubt my friends had a good laugh at my new hair-style. Now that I have very little hair left, I would give anything to have that thick curly hair back. I would pile it on top of my head like a Turkish turban and drag my hands through it every five seconds like some boys do. We often fail to appreciate what we have until we lose it; only then we do see what a blessing it was.

The Old Testament book of Job presents the most striking example of loss and appreciating one’s blessings. Job was an exceedingly prosperous person. Chapter one lists his many blessings: he had seven sons and three daughters, he had seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-donkeys, and a very large household. But one by one, Satan touches and takes away each blessing so that Job is left with nothing. Then, even Job’s body was blotched with boils, and he probably lost his thick curly hair, too. It is precisely this tragedy of titanic loss that sets the stage for the rest of the story. In other words, now you and I (who are listening to the story of Job) can fully appreciate what is at stake for Job because this great loss casts everything in a new light. We feel viscerally what all Job had when we hear what all he lost. Every loss, therefore, is a kind of light that helps us see our blessings better, we appreciate them and do not take them for granted.

I want to bring this lesson home for us here at Trinity by talking about our greatest blessing as a Catholic school, namely, being able to attend Mass every week. Last week one of our teachers found a Host – that is the bread we consecrate at Mass and it becomes the Body of Christ – in the hallway in school. Now, we do not know if it was in fact consecrated or not, it might simply be a little bit of bread, but to be safe we assumed it was. The right thing to do in such instances is dissolve the Host in a glass full of water and pour the entire contents into a special sink in the sacristy called a “sacrarium.” The sacrarium goes straight into the ground.

I want to emphasis to you that a consecrated Host is more precious to a Catholic Christian than his right arm or his right eye. We would rather main that member than hurt the Host. If a church catches on fire, a good priest will run into the burning building and rescue the Blessed Sacrament, or he will die trying. That is why we genuflect on one knee when we come close to the consecrated Host, because you bow and kneel before a King. That is the proper posture for a servant or a slave before his Master and his Maker. So, when you come up for Communion during Mass, you should receive Jesus very reverently on your tongue or in your hands and put the Host in your mouth immediately, that is, before you turn away from the minister and walk away. Jesus should be in your stomach and in your heart by the time you return to your seat. You should never walk away with the consecrated Host in your hand. Of course, if you are not Catholic, please fold your arms over your chest as you come forward to receive a blessing.

I wanted to emphasize this today to remind us all how easy it is to take our blessings for granted. A jeweler gets used to fine diamonds and a Catholic gets used to Holy Communion, and Communion is infinitely more precious than a diamond! My parents are getting older and they will probably have to move out of their home into an assisted living center soon. They only have one request: they want to be able to go to Mass every day, and be able to receive Holy Communion. In a sense, they are a little like Job: they have lost most of the blessings God bestowed on them in this life, one by one, they have to let these things go, my dad even lost most of his thick curly hair. But the light of that loss has helped them to appreciate the one blessing they never want to lose: the Blessed Sacrament, receiving Holy Communion at Mass. That blessing they can hold on to in this world and in the next, in time and in eternity.

Praised be Jesus Christ!