St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin & doctor 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

 

Zechariah 8: 20-23

 Yahweh, the God of hosts speaks, “People will come from other nations, people from great cities.

  The inhabitants of one town will talk with those of another and say:

‘Come, let us go and implore the favor of Yahweh, and I, too, will seek Yah­weh.’  Many great peo­ples and powerful nations will come seeking Yahweh, God of hosts, in Jerusalem and pray to him.”

Yahweh, the God of hosts assures you, “In those days ten men of different languages spoken in various lands, will take hold of a Jew by the hem of his garment and say: We, too, want to go with you for we have heard that God is with you.”

 

Ps 87: 1b-3, 4-5, 6-7  God is with you.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

 

Luke 9: 51-56

 As the time drew near when Jesus would be taken up to heaven, he made up his mind to go to Jerusalem. He sent ahead of him some messengers who entered a Samaritan village to prepare a lodging for him. 

But the people would not receive him because he was on his way to Jerusalem.  Seeing this, James and John, his disciples said, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

 

Reflection gospel：

“HE MADE UP HIS MIND TO GO TO JERUSALEM.”

The Lord could very well be considered among the pioneer advocates of non-violence. In the world where discord and disconnect among people are common, the Lord does not see retaliation and revenge as solution; avoidance of conflicts is still the best option.

St. Therese of Lisieux learned this at a young age. In her Autobiography, she recounted her story with a fellow nun” who has the faculty of displeasing me in everything, in her ways, in her words, her character, everything seems very disagreeable to me.”

She could have given in to what she called natural antipathy but she taught herself, with much struggle, to become nice to her by charity, service, and smile that the other nun became completely convinced that she was a pleasing character. For this young saint this is her way of showing her authentic desire to love God: by possessing a truly loving soul.

If we possess even just a bit of this saint’s paradigm of love, as our way of avoiding conflicts and violence, we have better chances of creating a world at peace.