Let us learn to listen to Jesus and those whom he sends us.
Whoever listens to you listens to me.
Whoever rejects you rejects me.
And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.
This applies not only to those in the Church speaking authoritatively in the name of Christ but also in a smaller way to every message he sends us. None of what we receive from Jesus is merely suggestion about how to better organize our lives. Every word he speaks is an invitation to either draw closer to him or to move away. We can't tell Jesus that we love him but that we want to ignore some of his teachings. The teachings are inseparable from the teacher. Jesus himself is the true content of the word proclaimed.
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
As souls and bodies are healed and lives are transformed we must pay heed. These signs are meant to show us where the power of God is at work. They are meant to show us the possibility, necessity, and even also the beauty of repenting.
Job discovers this awesome beauty when God finally spoke. Job himself never spoke in sin but his was perhaps holding onto the fact that he hadn't done wrong a little too tightly. He still had more that he needed to surrender to God in terms of reasoning and comprehending. The temptation when God spoke as he did would certainly be to flee or become angry. But Job took this mighty deed as an opportunity to repent.
Behold, I am of little account; what can I answer you?
I put my hand over my mouth.
Though I have spoken once, I will not do so again;
though twice, I will do so no more.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. Let us never reject his voice whether in matters large or small. He is only trying to bring us closer to himself.
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.
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