September 30 - Monday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Theme: LIKE CHILDREN
Readings:
Job 1:6-22; Lk 9:46-50
Note. September 30 - Feast of ST. JEROME, Priest - see also Celebration of Saints
Opening
Prayer
Lord our God,
your Son Jesus Christ became a child of people.
He made children the privileged symbol
of the truly adult disciple.
May we have the openness and receptivity
of the child: humble, authentic,
and open to your love and to your gifts.
For only then will you fill our emptiness
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture Readings
First
Reading Introduction:
Today
we hear the beginning to the book of Job. Job is not historical but a
reflection, mostly in a poetic form, on the existence of evil, particularly
as it comes to good, innocent and God-fearing people. For his answer,
because he lacks the perspective of eternal life, the author cannot go
beyond this: God is wise, we are too small to understand him. God knows.
Leave everything to him. Be patient and trust him.
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan came with them. Yahweh asked Satan, "Where have you been?"
Satan answered, "Going up and down the earth, roaming about."
Yahweh asked again, "Have you noticed my servant Job? No one on earth is as blameless and upright as he, a man who fears God and avoids evil."
But Satan returned the question, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not built a protective wall around him and his family and all his possessions? You have blessed and prospered him, with his livestock all over the land. But stretch out your hand and strike where his riches are, and I bet he will curse you to your face."
Yahweh said to Satan, "Very well, all that he has is in your power. But do not lay a finger upon the man himself." So Satan left the presence of Yahweh.
One day, while his sons and daughters were feasting in the house of their eldest brother, a messenger came to Job and said, "Your oxen were plowing, and your donkeys were grazing nearby when the Sabaeans came and carried them off. They killed the herdsmen. I alone escaped to tell you."
While he was still speaking, another messenger came, "God's fire fell from the sky and burned all your sheep and the shepherds as well. I alone have escaped to tell you."
He had hardly finished speaking when another messenger arrived, "Three raiding teams of Chaldeans have killed your servants and carried off your camels. I alone have escaped to tell you."
He was still speaking when another messenger came and said to Job, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking in the house of their eldest brother when suddenly a great wind blew across the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they all died. I alone have escaped to tell you."
In grief Job tore his clothes and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshiped, saying,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
naked shall I return.
Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken away.
Blessed be his name!"
In spite of this calamity, Job did not sin by blaspheming God.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 17:1-3,
6-7
Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
From you let my vindication come; let your eyes see the right.
If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress.
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me, hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love, O savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.
Gospel Introduction:
Childlike,
but not childish... We are God's children, yet not infants. We have to
grow up constantly to the maturity of Christ, to remake with the help
of the Spirit, our unity, the center of ourselves.
One day the disciples were arguing about which of them was the most important. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he took a little child and stood him by his side. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. And listen: the one who is found to be the least among you all, is the one who is the greatest."
Then John spoke up, "Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he doesn't follow you with us." But Jesus said, "Don't forbid him. He who is not against you is for you."
General Intercessions
- For those who are the greatest in the Church, that they may serve with great dedication and without looking down on them the weakest, the poorest, those wounded in life, we pray:
- For the mighty of this earth, that they may care about the rights, the dignity and the well-being of especially the lowliest under their charge, we pray:
- For those who work in lowly jobs shunned by others, for those who have unhealthy and dangerous tasks, for those who care for the old and the handicapped, that we may appreciate them and that the Lord may reward them, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Lord God, we come before you
with our human wisdom:
self-assured, sophisticated, and world-wise.
Make us see, Lord,
that we have to accept your wisdom,
the wisdom of trust and simplicity,
the wisdom that is hard to fully accept,
the wisdom of Jesus crucified.
Only then are we ready to accept
a God who became man and dwells among us,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
Our God and Father,
we are your sons and daughters, your children,
and you are our Father.
May we all grow up
to the full maturity of Jesus Christ,
for this is your wish, Father,
that we retain the openness to you of the child,
yet that we reach the full adulthood
of Jesus Christ, God like you,
yet your loyal Son and fully human.
He is our Savior for ever.
Blessing
"Whoever welcomes a child in my name welcomes me, says Jesus." Let us love children and learn from them; forget the ridiculous competition to be the greatest. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
How pathetic the scene was! Instead of seeking to know what Jesus' discourse on his passion meant, the disciples argued as to who among them mattered more. In such a scene, Jesus made a totally unexpected gesture of taking a tiny child to symbolize the reversal that takes place in God's reign. Those who do not matter are the ones who are more open to Jesus' preaching and activity, which he directed to "little ones." If they could not see this, how could they do the same? Competitive argumentation would surely be the agenda of the day. This is brought home further in the following episode. One becomes exclusivistic, arrogating to oneself the credit for working for God's reign. But God distributes graces freely, using whomever God wants to manifest his ultimate intention for humanity and creation. Especially within the pluralistic nature of our Asian societies, we need to recognize the hand of God in authentic traditions of other cultures and religions.
October 1 - Tuesday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Feast
of ST. THERESA OF
THE CHILD JESUS
Virgin, Church doctor
Readings:
Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Lk 9:51-56
Note. October 1 - see also 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Introduction
Theresa Martin entered the Carmel at the age of fifteen. Nine years later she died of tuberculosis. In these few years she lived the "little way of spiritual childhood." It is not an infantile way but one demanding great strength and much grace. She had to fight her stubbornness and to struggle with aridity and depression. Hers was the way of the little people, the poor of the beatitudes. It shows what God can do in us notwithstanding our human limitations, provided we let him.
Opening
Prayer
Father in heaven,
your Son recommends to us
to have the attitude of a child
if we wish to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
We thank you for St. Theresa,
who lived the little way of the beatitudes.
As your preference goes to children and the humble
we ask you to give us the heart of a child,
unpretentious and receptive of love,
trusting and believing in you and people,
that we may become wise with your wisdom
and grow to the full size of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture Readings
First
Reading Introduction:
Job cries out his misery in complaints to the Lord. He cannot take it,
he doesn't see any sense in it, and he asks God why. Jesus knows how to
take suffering. He does not run away from it, for he accepts the consequences
of his task: to be faithful, whatever the cost, to his mission of love
of reconciling people to his Father and of saving us.
1st Reading: Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23
At length it was Job who spoke, cursing the day of his birth. This is what he said:
Cursed be the day I was born,
and the night which whispered:
A boy has been conceived.
Why didn't I die at birth,
or come from the womb without breath?
Why the knees that received me,
why the breasts that suckled me?
For then I should have lain down
asleep and been at rest
with kings and rulers of the earth
who built for themselves lonely tombs;
or with princes who had gold to spare
and houses stuffed with silver.
Why was I not stillborn,
like others who did not see the light of morn?
There the trouble of the wicked ceases,
there the weary find repose.
Why is light given to the miserable,
and life to the embittered?
To those who long for death
more than for hidden treasure?
They rejoice at the sight of their end,
they are happy upon reaching the grave.
Why give light to a man whose path has vanished,
whose ways God blocks at every side?
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 88:2-8
[L]et my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help,
like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape...
Gospel
Introduction:
The
prophet Elijah did not find God in the storm wind or the earthquake or
the fire, but in the gentle breeze. The "sons of thunder," James
and John, wanted fire to come down on the Samaritan village that did not
receive Jesus, but Jesus reprimanded them. Violence is not God's way.
As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. He had sent ahead of him some messengers who entered a Samaritan village to prepare a lodging for him. But the people would not receive him because he was on his way to Jerusalem. Seeing this, James and John, his disciples said, "Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?" Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.
General
Intercessions
- Lord Jesus, forgive us when we cry out our pain when it is hard to bear; help us, we pray:
- Lord Jesus, help especially people who are broken and discouraged and alone, that they may carry their burden with you, we pray:
- Lord Jesus, let those who are in a long and painful sickness feel your presence, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Almighty and eternal God,
your Son Jesus voluntarily gave up
all divine honors and privileges
to become one of us and die our death.
He gives himself to us here
in the form of a humble piece of bread.
Give us the attitude of Jesus,
self-effacing and respectful
before you and people
and available to all calls and needs.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
No one as great as you, Lord our God,
has made oneself as small as you;
no one as distant as you
has made oneself as near to us in our weakness
as you in your Son Jesus Christ.
Make us see your Son
and make us grow in him
Make us unassuming and spontaneous
with you and with one another,
in trust, hope and joy.
like Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
Yes, we have a Lord who was crucified, and we are his followers. But sometimes we forget and complain too easily. Of course, pain hurts and we have not to ask for it. May God stand by your side and bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This Gospel episode is the turning point of Jesus' life and ministry according to Luke. From this moment on, Jesus is presented as intent to accomplish his mission in Jerusalem. His ministry in his home province of Galilee came to an end. Between Judaea and Galilee lies Samaria, against whose inhabitants - the Samaritans - the Jews had been at odds for more than a couple of centuries. Mutual biases reigned between them, leading even to violent sentiments, as expressed here by the two sons of thunder, James and John. But Jesus had nothing to do with such religious fanaticism. In fact, later on he, a Jew, could present a Samaritan as a model of neighborly charity (cf Lk 10:25-37) to the shock and dismay of his compatriots, especially the Jewish religious leaders.
October 2 - Wednesday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
The GUARDIAN ANGELS
Readings:
Ex 23:20-23; Mt 18:1-5, 10
Note. October 2 - see also 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Introduction
As people constantly struggling to grow up to attain Christ's maturity, we are before God like children, relying on his help more than on ours; for we have experienced that our own forces are not always trustworthy. We know that God protects us, sends us angels to guide us, especially in the person of Jesus Christ, and in those who come closest to Christ. Jesus guides us with his Spirit to work out our project in life. We in our turn are called to be guides, "angels," to others on the way to God. Guardian angels… or do you prefer horseshoes, amulets, horoscopes, mascots?
Opening
Prayer
God, our loving and caring Lord,
as we celebrate our guardian angels,
we profess our deep faith
in your ever-present protection.
Let the guardian angel be the voice in us
that warns us against the evil we might do
and prompts us to be the good person
each if us should be and remain.
Let this angel remind us
that you know and love each of us personally
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Scripture Readings
See, I am sending an Angel before you to keep you safe on the way and bring you to the place I have made ready.
Be on your guard in his presence and listen to him; do not resist him for he will not pardon your wrong-doing, for my name is in him.
If you listen to him and do what I say, I will be enemy to your enemies and the opponent of your opponents. My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; all these I will destroy.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 88:10-15
Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?
But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?
Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.
Gospel
Reading: Mt
18:1-5, 10The disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, "I assure you that unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in my name receives me.
See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you: their angels in heaven continually see the face of my heavenly Father."
Prayer over the Gifts
God, our Father,
in this bread and this wine
we want to express with faith
that however little and powerless
we may feel in our impersonal world,
we know that for you we count
and that you, Creator and mighty God,
care for each of us
with a love stronger than that of any mother.
For you hold us dear in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
Our loving God,
your Son Jesus said about children
that their angels always see the face
of you, their Father in heaven.
Let this eucharist too
strengthen us in the certainty
that you surround children
and also us if we don't think
that we are too great and important for it,
with your protection and tender love.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Angels have been in fashion during the last years. Shelves in bookstores have multiplied with books about angels. And we might even have held a holy card with the image of a small and infantile, chubby and rosy-cheeked being. That is not the way I imagine the guardian angels of today's Gospel. Jesus says that they are the angels of the smallest of this world. They are the angels of those who cannot defend themselves. They are continually in God's presence guarding the life of these innocents. How it pains me to think that today they must be so busy. The innocents, the poor, the battered women, the enslaved workers, the elders abandoned… are so many! Their angels in heaven must be claiming for justice with Father God. Can we not hear their plight?
October 3 - Thursday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Theme: MISSIONARY AND POOR
Readings:
Job 19:21-27; Lk 10:1-12
Opening
Prayer
Lord our God,
you possess nothing
because you are everything.
In poverty your own Son
was born and lived and died.
Make us first aware, Lord,
of the poverty of our own heart,
that we may be disposed to listen,
to expect and to receive
with the attitude of those who are poor,
and that we may learn to give
what we have and what we are,
as Jesus did, your Son,
who lives with you and with us for ever.
Scripture Readings
First
Reading Introduction
Nothing can destroy the faith of Job in God. Notwithstanding all his suffering,
he knows that God lives and is his Redeemer. Job remains convinced that
God does not want to crush people.
Have pity my friends, have pity,
for God's hand has struck me!
Why do you hound me as God does?
Will you never have enough of my flesh?
Oh, that my words were written,
or recorded on bronze
with an iron tool, a chisel
or engraved forever on rock!
For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and he, the last, will take his stand on earth
I will be there behind my skin,
and in my flesh I shall see God.
With my own eyes I shall see him -
I and not another. How my heart yearns!
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 27:7-9,
13-14
Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
"Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, LORD, do I seek.
Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Gospel
Reading Introduction
Few
people are impressed by the fact that a bishop lives a life of poverty
in a big palace or that priests or sisters are sober and restrained in
their personal living when they use rich and powerful means and institutions
to bring God to people. Missionaries, however dedicated and serving they
may be, are not very convincing and have a hard time to build community
if they import powerful means from outside. When Jesus sends out his missionaries
to evangelize the poor, he wants them to be, like him, poor among the
poor. True, evangelical poverty is an ideal not easy to attain. But does
it still move us?
The Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place, where he himself was to go. And he said to them, "The harvest is rich, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest. Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know.
Whatever house you enter, first bless them saying: 'Peace to this house.' If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house.
When they welcome you in any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there and say to them: 'The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.'
But in any town where you are not welcome, go to the marketplace and proclaim: Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off and leave with you. But know and be sure that the kingdom of God had come to you.' I tell you that on the Judgment Day it will be better for Sodom than for this town."
General Intercessions
- For missionaries, that they may go to the people to whom they are sent humbly and with a poverty of means, we pray:
- For evangelizers, that they may respectfully discover whatever good there is in the hearts and minds of people and their culture, we pray:
- For the young Churches, that they may be deeply rooted in their own people as communities of faith and love that enrich the whole Church, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Lord our God,
your Son comes here among us
to give himself to us in the poverty
of an ordinary piece of food.
Make us ready with him,
to live with no other security
than to know that we are in your hands
and that you dispose people to accept
the Good News of your Son through us
if we become poor and available
together with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
Lord our God,
your Son sent out his disciples
to preach the Good News of salvation
with a disarming poverty of means.
Keep your Church today
from the permanent temptation
of trying to impress people
with riches, power and prestige.
Make it a humble and serving Church
that not only knows what poverty is
but also has the difficult courage to live it
in the strength of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
There is a large harvest waiting. The peace of God's kingdom is to be brought to many. Church, go on your way. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
When we hear the words of Jesus "The harvest is rich, but the workers are few," we usually think of the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Seminaries always have room to spare for more students. And the novitiates look half empty and ready to accept more candidates who never come.
Are priests and religious the workers about whom Jesus is talking? The truth is that he sent disciples in general, without any distinctions. We ought to think also about the need for lay people committed to the Gospel witnessing in various places. Without these "workers" the harvest of the Kingdom will not be collected either.
October 4 - Friday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Theme: SIN - IN US
Readings:
Job 38:1-3, 12-21; 40:3-5; Lk 10:13-16
Note. October 4 - Feast of ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI - see also Celebration of Saints
Opening
Prayer
Lord our God, merciful Father,
it is easy for us to condemn wars, civil strife,
corruption, exploitation, slavery of any kind.
But we ask you, Lord God, though very timidly,
to open our eyes to the evil in us.
Make us see, Lord, that we are doing
on a small scale, in our own little worlds,
the evil for which we blame the big world.
Make us see that we too are sinners in need of forgiveness
brought us by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture Readings
First
Reading Introduction
Now
that he has heard God explain to him that his righteousness does not entitle
him to special treatment, Job humbly says that he entrusts himself to
God.
1st Reading: Job 38:1-3, 12-21; 40:3-5
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the storm:
Have you ever commanded the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,
that it might grasp the earth by its edges
and shake the wicked out of it,
when it takes a clay color
and changes its tint like a garment;
when the wicked are denied their own light,
and their proud arm is shattered?
Have you journeyed to where the sea begins
or walked in its deepest recesses?
Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of Shadow?
Have you an idea of the breadth of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
Where is the way to the home of light,
and where does darkness dwell?
Can you take them to their own regions,
and set them on their homeward paths?
You know, for you were born before them,
and great is the number of your years!Job said:
How can I reply, unworthy as I am!
All I can do is put my hand over my mouth.
I have spoken once, now I will not answer;
oh, yes, twice, but I will do no further.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 139:1-3,
7-10, 13, 14
O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
Gospel
Reading Introduction
Modern means of communications
have brought the world more closely together and shown us more clearly
too the presence of sin and evil in the world; more than half of the world
is hungry and exploited, the world economy has gone out of hand notwithstanding
dole-outs for development aid and whole nations are not free from inside
or from outside. And in our own little worlds there is repeated selfishness,
pride at the expense of others, suspicion... While condemning the sins
of society, let us not lose our personal sense of sin in the process;
let us not forget our solidarity of sin and at the same time live better
our solidarity with love and life on account of Christ. Sin is a rejection
of Christ and his message.
Jesus said, "Alas for you Chorazin! Alas for you Bethsaida! So many miracles have been worked in you! If the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would already be sitting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better than for you on the Judgment Day. And what of you, city of Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead.
Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me."
General Intercessions
- That the world of today may not lose its sense of sin and "legalize" things that are wrong, we pray:
- That all those hardened in sin may be touched by the Spirit of the Lord to repent and change their ways, we pray:
- That the many who bear a heavy burden of sin and guilt and those who suffer from the sins of others may keep trusting in God's liberating and forgiving goodness, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Lord our God, merciful Father,
in these signs of bread and wine
your Son comes among us with his cross
to put an end to all pride of sin
and to be the starting point of our new existence.
In him you showed us the new person.
Give us his strength to repent and to be converted,
to rise above our petty selfishness
and like him, to love and serve
without counting the cost.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
Lord our God, merciful Father,
you respect and educate our freedom.
You do not give us guarantees against failure
but you call us to choose and decide.
God, forgive us and help us
when in our clumsy, awkward efforts
to see your Son's freedom become real and alive,
we take risks and make mistakes.
We want to remain faithful to you
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
We regret it, and in our best moments we don't really want it, but sin always returns. May God have mercy on us and help us. May God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Tyre and Sidon were proverbial cities of old for commercial prosperity and prestige. It was through them that the pernicious pagan influence entered into Israel. That is why we find them cursed by the prophets like Isaiah (23), Ezekiel (26-28), Joel (4:4-8), Amos (1:9-10), and Zechariah (9:2-4). Their grandeur as international commercial centers dwarf the reputation of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, where Jesus taught and performed his deeds, signifying the coming of God's reign. Nonetheless, the latter places did not acknowledge their being graced, but remained incredulous. The hyperbole, therefore, becomes more pronounced, sounding the urgency of conversion. In your littleness, see the gracefulness and generosity of God's dealings with you.
October 5 - Saturday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
Theme: SUFFERING AND GOD'S WISDOM
Readings:
Job
42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17; Lk 10:17-24
Opening
Prayer
Lord our God,
in your bewildering wisdom
you let us stand at times
all alone before you with our miseries
and we barely know where you are.
Give us then the courage
to keep our trust in you alive,
as people without pretensions,
humble, without illusions,
but aware that you too have a Son,
who all alone and disfigured,
died one day on a cross for us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Scripture Readings
First
Reading Introduction
Today
we hear the closing words of the book of Job. In his sufferings he has
voiced his complaints, his friends have tried to justify God, but Job
cannot understand fully; finally his eyes have seen, he accepts that God
is greater and wiser and that God knows best. We should understand better
than Job, for we have seen the suffering face of the crucified Christ.
1st Reading: Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17
This was the answer Job gave to Yahweh:
I know that you are all powerful;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
I spoke of things I did not understand,
too wonderful for me to know.
My ears had heard of you,
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I retract all I have said,
and in dust and ashes I repent.Yahweh blessed Job's latter days much more than his earlier ones. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-donkeys. He was also blessed with seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Dove, the second Cinnamon, and the third Bottle of Perfume. Nowhere in the land was there found any woman who could compare in beauty with Job's daughters. Their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. He died old and full of years.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 119:66,
71, 75, 91, 125, 130
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
It is good for me that I was humbled, so that I might learn your statutes.
I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you have humbled me.
By your appointment they stand today, for all things are your servants.
I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know your decrees.
The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
The seventy-two disciples returned full of joy. They said, "Lord, even the demons obeyed us when we called on your name." Then Jesus replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. You see, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the Enemy, so that nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, don't rejoice because the evil spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven."
At that time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit and said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and made them known to the little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. I have been given all things by my Father, so that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and he to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."
Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said to them privately, "Fortunate are you to see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings would have liked to see what you see but did not, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."
General
Intercessions
- For the poor and the suffering, for the victims of injustice and exploitation, for the lonely and the desperate, that we may not only show them compassion but help them to lighten their burdens, we pray:
- For the dying in their hour of struggle, that by his agony in the garden the Lord Jesus may be their strength, we pray:
- For all of us, that we may learn to accept our crosses and carry them with Jesus, we pray:
Prayer
over the Gifts
Our God and Father,
we bring before you this bread and wine
to be one with Jesus, your Son.
With him, may we not insult those who suffer
with hollow pious words
but stay by their side,
perhaps in silence listening to their plaints
and just let them feel
that we are there,
with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer
after Communion
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
in this eucharist your Son has been among us
as the person who died one day for us
but who lives now a life of glory.
In him we hope and trust
that no pain is suffered in vain
but that our mourning, our sickness or misery
may make life more bearable and worth living
to someone whom perhaps we may not know,
on account of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
The mystery of suffering and evil remains a problem. To many of its questions we have no answer and a superficial reference to the cross does not satisfy. We know that God wants our happiness. We also know that there is much suffering, much of it caused by people to other people. We keep believing in God's love, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus made the disciples partakers not only of his mission of proclaiming the good news of God's reign but also of the wondrous deeds pointing to such reign. Of course, the disciples, who were not yet clear as to their priorities, were all excited about the wonders they could do in the name of Jesus. What they did was what mattered more to them, because it also accrued to their honor and people's acclaim of them. Their attention was not so much to what their deeds were meant to be a sign of - the coming of God's reign on earth and the dislodging from it of the power of the Evil One. Something still to be learned more profoundly was that they were already partakers of that reign and chosen to be also its proclaimers because of God's unconditional predilection of them.
To realize this is what true discipleship is all about. It gives one a new vision of reality.
Taken
from Liturgy
Alive for Weekdays
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