Thursday October 4
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.
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?
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.
Reading 1 JB 19:21-27
Job said:
Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has struck me!
Why do you hound me as though you were divine,
and insatiably prey upon me?
Oh, would that my words were written down!
Would that they were inscribed in a record:
That with an iron chisel and with lead
they were cut in the rock forever!
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another's, shall behold him,
And from my flesh I shall see God;
my inmost being is consumed with longing.
Responsorial PsalmPS 27:7-8A, 8B-9ABC, 13-14
R. (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
Alleluia MK 1:15
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 10:1-12
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them,
"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter, first say,
'Peace to this household.'
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you,
for the laborer deserves his payment.
Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you,
eat what is set before you,
cure the sick in it and say to them,
'The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.'
Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you,
go out into the streets and say,
'The dust of your town that clings to our feet,
even that we shake off against you.'
Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand.
I tell you,
it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day
than for that town."
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.
Commentary
When we contact an organization, the person we talk to over the phone or at the reception counter becomes the first contact and thereby the face of the organization. The first impressions resulting from such encounter are significant in shaping our attitude toward the organization. Similarly, before a president of a country visits another nation, a batch of diplomats is dispatched who will prepare the ground and set the tone for the presidential visit. From the preparations we have some inkling of the direction the visit and the high-level talks will take.
Jesus sends ahead of him seventy-two disciples in pairs to various towns and cities which he himself is to visit later. For those towns and cities, the visit of the disciples will be the preparatory ground for Jesus’s own visit and ministry later. Thus, what responsibility do the disciples carry! They are to put on the mind of Christ and embody his Gospel which Jesus himself would later come to proclaim.
Jesus has sent us as well, ahead of him, to prepare the ground for his visit. How well do we embody and prefigure him to the nations?