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| “Saint Therese of Lisieux” artist and date are UNKNOWN |
Readings and Commentary:[3]
Reading I: Job 9:1-12, 14-16
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.
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.
Should he come near me, I see him not;
should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?
Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”
How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.
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Commentary on Jb 9:1-12, 14-16
This reading picks up Job’s second response to his friends
(although they are for the most part ignored in his response). He focuses his response not on Bildad (Job 8) but on a comment by Eliphaz on the
justice of man before God "Can a man
be righteous as against God? Can a mortal be blameless against his Maker?”
(Job 4:17)
Job reflects upon God’s omnipotence and omnipresence – he is
almighty and everywhere. God created all
things and has power over them. Mankind
has no options but to endure God’s judgment, even if that judgment seems unjust
(“Even though I were right, I could not
answer him, but should rather beg for what was due me.”). “God’s justice is
really his power; he can do what he chooses; none can withstand him; and if he
declares a man to be guilty, then it is so.
No appeal can be made, and no other standard of justice can be
invoked. Yet if the man’s conscience is
clear, what he suffers is not felt as justice but as divine anger; thus it is
with Job.”[4]
He concludes in humility that even in his situation he would be surprised if
God noticed his plea.
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Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15
R. (3) Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
Daily I call upon you, O Lord;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work wonders for the dead?
Will the shades arise to give you thanks?
R. Let my
prayer come before you, Lord.
Do they declare your mercy in the grave,
your faithfulness among those who have perished?
Are your wonders made known in the darkness,
or your justice in the land of oblivion?
R. Let my
prayer come before you, Lord.
But I, O Lord, cry out to you;
with my morning prayer I wait upon you.
Why, O Lord, do you reject me;
why hide from me your face?
R. Let my
prayer come before you, Lord.
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Commentary on Ps 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15
Reminiscent of Job, Psalm 88 is an individual lament. The psalmist cries out at having been
afflicted and deserted by his friends.
The song implores the Lord to hear the living (feeling the hand of death
the singer urgently prays) asking why God has seemingly rejected him.
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Gospel: Luke 9:57-62
As
Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on
their journey, someone said to him,
“I
will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus
answered him,
“Foxes
have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but
the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
And
to another he said, “Follow me.”
But
he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But
he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
But
you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
And
another said, “I will follow you, Lord,
but
first let me say farewell to my family at home.”
Jesus
answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow
and
looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”
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Commentary on Lk 9:57-62
This passage from St. Luke’s Gospel
gives us three sayings of Jesus about the requirement to place the values of
Christian discipleship above all other requirements of life. Proclaiming the Kingdom of God
In the first, “Foxes have dens…” Jesus does
not deceive anyone – he lives in poverty, dedicated to his mission.
The second; “Let the dead
bury their dead” is a play on words; let the spiritually dead bury the
physically dead; Jesus message is the message of life. This saying was never intended to be taken
literally as filial piety is deeply ingrained in Jewish life.
The third saying; “No one
who…looks to what was left behind” Jesus demands more than Elisha (see 1 Kings 19:19-21). “Ploughing for the Kingdom demands
sacrifice.”[5]
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Reflection:
The
sheer weight of the day demands we think about our obedience to God’s will and
to the mission in which we have been called to participate. It starts with Job whose remarkable faith
allows him to have a relationship with God that is at once submissive and at
the same time familiar. He speaks in the
9th chapter of God’s power over all things and how mankind is
powerless to stand against the will of God.
Job’s only answer is to depend upon God’s mercy and accept God’s answer
to his prayer. (We later see the
familiarity as Job begs God to just leave him alone.)
In
front of the backdrop of God’s majesty, His Son comes apparently trying to
dissuade potential followers from accepting the call to follow him. The Lord makes it very clear that what he
asks is difficult. He himself has no
place to call home (recall he has already been rejected by the members of his
hometown and just recently by the Samaritans).
To others he makes it clear that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God
From
a spiritual perspective, this same prioritization comes to us. If we are to be obedient go Christ as his
followers, our efforts must always proclaim that message. Quoting St. Francis of Assisi
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture is “Saint Therese of Lisieux” artist and date are UNKNOWN
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4]
See Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc., © 1968, 31:39, pp. 518
[5]
See Jerome Biblical Commentary, Prentice Hall, Inc., © 1968, 44:97.
