GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 27TH SEPTEMBER 2016
TUESDAY OF THE 26TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
(MEMORIAL OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST)
1ST READING: Job 3;1-3, 11-17, 20-23
PSALM: Psalm 88:2-8
GOSPEL: Luke 9:51-56
THEME: FAITH IN THE MIDST OF PAIN
There is an old saying: “Never judge a person until you have walked a mile in his (her) shoes”. Pain is real and everyone you meet is going through an unpleasant sensation or experience that you may know nothing about. We are all wounded in one way or the other. It ranges from mild discomfort to agony. It may be physical, emotional or spiritual.
The pain of job was an excruciating one. In fact we are told that when his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, came to visit him on his sick bed, they were so much overwhelmed by the agony they saw that for seven days and seven nights, they just sat down upon the ground with him without uttering a word (cf. Job 2:13).
The lamentation of Job in our First Reading gives us a feel of what he was going through – “Perish the day on which I was born and the night that told of a boy conceived…Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?” (Job 3:4, 11). We can infer from his cry that he had lost taste for living. However, in spite of the pain, he did not snuff his life in suicide or lose faith in God.
Faith is not saying, “I am fine” when you know very well that you are not fine. It is not pretence, acting as if nothing has hit you. Rather, it is holding on to a lighted candle in a dark tunnel in spite of tears rolling down one’s cheeks. It is holding on even though it hurts badly. It is admitting that one is soaked in the rain and yet believing that the sun will shine again.
Are you in pain? Courage, you are not alone. There are many others going through similar dark tunnels. Hold on and keep moving, for there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, hear my cry in this moment of pain. Draw me out from the mire and put me on a solid rock that I may stand and glorify your name. Amen.
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).