26th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Job 42:1-3, 5-6, 12-17
Job answered the LORD and said: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be hindered. I have dealt with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which I cannot know. I had heard of you by word of mouth, but now my eye has seen you. Therefore, I disown what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes. Thus, the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his earlier ones. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. And he had seven sons and three daughters, of whom he called the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Kerenhappuch. In all the land no other women were as beautiful as the daughters of Job; and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; and he saw his children, his grandchildren, and even his great-grandchildren. Then Job died, old and full of years.
Gospel: Lk 10:17-24
The seventy-two disciples returned rejoicing and said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name.” Jesus said, “I have observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Behold, I have given you the power ‘to tread upon serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” At that very moment he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.” Turning to the disciples in private he said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
BEING CHILDLIKE: Job realizes that God’s works are too wonderful for his grasp and simply surrendering before him like a little child is the best attitude humans can have. Therese of Lisieux is the model of such simplicity before God and teaches us ‘the little ways’ to sanctity. Little Flower shows us the way – do the ordinary things with love and make them extraordinary. She invites us to grow in sanctity through simple acts of love, “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” Let us remember, “Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
Prayer: Create a loving heart in us, O Lord.
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JESUS REJOICES IN THE HOLY SPIRIT: Jesus listens to the excitement of his seventy-two recently empowered disciples in today’s Gospel as they return from having gone out in twos to many towns and villages in order to prepare the way for Jesus. They relay to him how the goodness of his spiritual teachings has been received. They are awed by the results of their preaching and prayer which have demonstrated that sin and evil can be conquered. Jesus then prays in thanksgiving to God through the Holy Spirit for revealing this truth to his disciples. He rejoices about how God’s sovereign grace has resulted in the salvation of souls through the ministry of the 72. Like Jesus we are called to rejoice only when sovereign grace is at work. What makes us rejoice in our lives? Do we get more excited about worldly things achievements or because we get and have new brother or sister in Christ?
DAILY GOSPEL 