October 3rd, 2018

Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time

LECTIONARY
457

FIRST READING
JB 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.

PSALM
PS 88:10BC-11, 12-13, 14-15

Response: 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?

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?

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?

GOSPEL
LK 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.”

Daily Reflection

3rd October 2018

French philosopher and priest, Teilhard de Chardin, speaks of God as ‘eternal discovery’ and ‘eternal growth’. He says that the more we think that we understand God, the more God reveals Himself as the other. The more we think that we have a hold on Him, the further He withdraws drawing us into the depths of Himself.

Job certainly had some insight of this, evident from today’s first reading. Job’s friends who came to console him, dismissed his suffering as being retribution for his sins of the past. However, Job did not agree with this conventional wisdom that sought to provide a very child-like explanation of God’s mysterious ways. He believed that God has a far greater purpose, other than merely administering justice; and claiming to know God’s mind would be limiting God! So rather than be presumptuous in explaining God’s ways, one would be wise to surrender and trust completely in His providence. In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains that true discipleship calls for total commitment which, in turn, is possible only if one trusts completely.