Daily Readings Reflection for 9/28/10

Reflection on Today’s Daily Readings by Fr. Bertrand Buby, SM

Today’s Readings


Scripture: Lectionary 456. Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23. Psalm 88:2-3,4-5,6.7-8.
Luke 9:51-56:

Sometimes we are overcome with tensions about our work and our ministries
to others. There is the heavy weight of anxiety that grabs at us.  Even the
Scriptures seem to be tense at times because of what is being transmitted
to us from the readings at the liturgy.  Our spiritual life and our normal
life experiences are bound together and this helps us to reflect upon
ourselves in the light of the Scriptures and to realize that people whether
real or created by the inspired writer give us a way out of tension and
anxiety.  Most often it is by prayer or by doing our lectio divina, our
meditating on the Scriptures in view of what is happening to us this day.

Job, for example, is cursing the day he was born and would have preferred
to be stillborn.  Not exactly what the right to life would tell us to do!
Then we meet the psalmist who cries out night and day for God's help in his
misery and oppression.  Jesus, too, warns us and his disciples that the day
on which he ascends to Jerusalem will usher in his last visit there. He
will be crucified just outside its walls.  Palm Sunday will be a fleeting
day and the ordeal of his suffering, death, and ultimate vindication
through the resurrection will ensue.  All this is pretty rough to reflect
upon, but we know it was true then and that it is true today. Jesus is with
us always. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we pray after the Lord's prayer to be
delivered from anxiety especially the type that haunts us throughout the
day. We pray to be set free from every evil. We take the time to pause, to
think, and to pray that we may enter into the peace of Christ through the
Eucharist and the Word of God. It is in this sacrament of our encounter
with Jesus that we are united with him as our peace and our freedom from
evil and anxiety.  We are nourished by him as he is present to us and
within us. He is the source for overcoming the fears and anxieties we
experience.  Life then is worth living when we are aware that we are not
alone in this troubled society and world of ours. We need to recall the
moments of the Sacrament and bring them into the present moment of our day.
We unite ourselves with Jesus in our personal difficult moments and join
him as he goes up to Jerusalem. Life does not end there; it is the
beginning of a new day and we know that Jesus abides with us throughout
these experiences.  His love overcomes anxiety in all of its nefarious
forms.  Amen.