Can you imagine how perplexed and anxious the disciples must have been in hearing the words of Jesus preparing them for what was to come in today’s Gospel? What do You mean Lord? How is it possible? What will happen to us if anything happens to You? How can we go back to what life was before You Lord?
Does that anxiety not exist in us as we are aging? Our youth has come and gone? We are young at heart but old in body and mind! Our eyes were bright but now are dim!
Remember Your creator! This is the hope our Lord reminds us to cling to. For just as the Lord kept His promise to His disciples by rising from the dead, and that they would be with Him when returned to the Father; we too have hope when pass on from this earth.
Let us then remain in the light of our Resurrected Lord as we bring hope to all who have none! Amen
Saints Wenceslaus, Saints Laurence Ruiz and his Companions, pray for us…
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First reading
Ecclesiastes 11:9-12:8 ·
Remember your creator in the days of your youth
Rejoice in your youth, you who are young;
let your heart give you joy in your young days.
Follow the promptings of your heart
and the desires of your eyes.
But this you must know: for all these things God will bring you to judgement.
Cast worry from your heart,
shield your flesh from pain.
Yet youth, the age of dark hair, is vanity. And remember your creator in the days of your youth, before evil days come and the years approach when you say, ‘These give me no pleasure’, before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
the day when those who keep the house tremble
and strong men are bowed;
when the women grind no longer at the mill,
because day is darkening at the windows
and the street doors are shut;
when the sound of the mill is faint,
when the voice of the bird is silenced,
and song notes are stilled,
when to go uphill is an ordeal
and a walk is something to dread.
Yet the almond tree is in flower,
the grasshopper is heavy with food
and the caper bush bears its fruit,
while man goes to his everlasting home. And the mourners are already walking to and fro in the street
before the silver cord has snapped,
or the golden lamp been broken,
or the pitcher shattered at the spring,
or the pulley cracked at the well,
or before the dust returns to the earth as it once came from it, and the breath to God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, the Preacher says. All is vanity.
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Gospel
Luke 9:43-45
They were afraid to ask him what he meant
At a time when everyone was full of admiration for all he did, Jesus said to his disciples, ‘For your part, you must have these words constantly in your mind: “The Son of Man is going to be handed over into the power of men.”’ But they did not understand him when he said this; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about what he had just said.
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