04 Oct 2024 – Friday of Week 26

04 Oct 2024 – Friday of Week 26

Memorial: St Francis of Assisi, 1181-1226, founded the Friars Minor and the Poor Clares (with St Clare), suffered the stigmata. Patron of ecologists.

1st Reading: Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5

Only if Job is himself divine can he challenge God’s ways

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed like a garment.
Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.”
Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.
“Where is the way to the dwelling of light,
and where is the place of darkness,
that you may take it to its territory
and that you may discern the paths to its home?
Surely you know, for you were born then,
and the number of your days is great!

Then Job answered the Lord:

“See, I am of small account
what shall I answer you?
I lay my hand on my mouth.I have spoken once,
and I will not answer
twice, but will proceed no further.”

Responsorial: from Psalm 139

R./: Lead me, Lord, in the path of life eternal

O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you. (R./)

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?
If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave you are there. (R./)

If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea’s furthest end,
even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast. (R./)

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonders of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation. (R./)

Gospel: Luke 10:13-16

Woe to those who reject the word of Jesus

Jesus said: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades.”

“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

In time of darkness

Can one trust in God without knowing why painful things happen?

The Book of Job offers an answer through the rhetorical questions that came to Job out of the stormy whirlwind. Because Job had questioned the truth of Divine Providence, is he claiming to be as wise as God? So he is asked, “Have you walked about in the depths of the abyss? Do you know the way to the dwelling place of light? Do you command the morning light and show dawn its place?”

It is natural for people to question God’s wisdom in times of darkness. Yet even when life’s demands seem to overtax our strength, we need to trust that God will not abandon us. We try to remember the many ways we have been blessed in the past. No matter how melancholy the situation may seem, by the grace of God there is light at the end of the tunnel.