I was touched by a reflection from Molly Cahill in America magazine (A Jesuit theology publication) on the book of Job (read at weekday Masses this past week). The writer returned to college from a mission trip overseas and realized she had experienced a profound change. Here is the excerpt:

(Jack Morris, the Jesuit who started the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, coined the phrase “ruined for life” to describe the impact the service program had on its young participants.)

“The poetry of Job brings this truth vibrantly to life, describing God’s earth-shattering grandeur. In a bit of a harsh rendering, he asks, ‘Who has withstood him and remained unscathed?’

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is a force who comes into your life and shakes it up — maybe for the better, but rarely for the more comfortable. When followers promise to go wherever he goes, he warns them they won’t have a consistent place to call home; it won’t be easy. When they ask for time to wish their families farewell or even to bury a dead parent before joining Jesus, he urges them to look forward, not back, and makes no bones about the sacrifices a life with him will require.

When we have a real encounter with God, life as we have known it ceases to feel the same, and truth be told, that usually doesn’t feel very good at first. The change is uncomfortable, and we can’t guarantee that the people around us will understand or will follow our exact timeline of knowing and learning.

It will sting, and that’s for sure. But that sting is the sign that you’re growing — and even better, that God’s love is behind it.”

Fr. Gary