" Humility is nothing but truth,

and pride is nothing but lying. "

＊＊＊ 1st Reading＊＊＊                                                                                                                               

Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23

At length it was Job who spoke,

Cursing the day of his birth.  This is what he said:   Cursed be the day I was born, and the night which whispered: A boy has been conceived.   Why didn’t I die at birth,

or come from the womb without breath?

 Why the knees that received me, why the breasts that suckled me?  For then I should have lain down asleep and been at rest  with kings and rulers of the earth

who built for themselves lonely tombs;   or with princes who had gold to spare and houses stuffed with silver.   Why was I not stillborn, like others who did not see the light of morn?

 There the trouble of the wicked ceases, there the weary find repose.   Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the embittered?  To those who long for death

more than for hidden treasure?

  They rejoice at the sight of their end, they are happy upon reaching the grave.   Why give light to a man whose path has vanished,

whose ways God blocks at every side?

 

Ps 88:2-3m 4-5, 6, 7-8

Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

 

＊＊＊＊ 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 had 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.

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Kind of Spirit

Some of the disciples have witnessed the Transfiguration, Peter has declared Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus has just spoken about his paschal destiny….. but the disciples are still in a narcissistic cocoon:

They are fighting about who is the greatest among them; they stop someone from healing people in Jesus’ name because he isn’t one of them; and they now want fire to come down and burn the Samaritan village because it was not hospitable to them ….Jesus turns and rebukes them. Some earlier versions of the Bible tell us that he rebuked them saying, “Ye know now what manner of spirit Ye are of.

For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them” (King James)Version, 9:55b-56). This must become daily examination of conscience for (Christians:”What kind of spirit do I have? Is it one of tribal humility, fraternity, inclusive love, and delight in the other?”