Bible Diary for September 26th – October 2nd

September 26
Sunday

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

1st Reading: Am 6:1a, 4–7
Woe to those proud people who live, over-confident on the hill of Samaria!

Woe to you, men of renown, from the first among the nations, to whom the people of Israel come!

You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and sprawl on your couches; you eat lamb from the flock and veal from calves fattened in the stall.

You strum on your harps, and like David, try out new musical instruments.

You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you do not grieve over the ruins of Joseph.

Therefore you will be the first to go into exile; and the feast of sprawlers will be over.

2nd Reading: 1 Tim 6:11–16
But you, man of God, shun all this. Strive to be holy and godly. Live in faith and love, with endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith and win everlasting life to which you were called when you made the good profession of faith in the presence of so many witnesses.

Now, in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus who gave the good testimony before Pontius Pilate, I command you to keep the commandment. Keep your-self pure and blameless until the glorious coming of Christ Jesus, our Lord, which God will bring about at the proper time, he, the magnificent sovereign, King of kings and Lord of lords. To him, alone immortal, who lives in unapproachable light and whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and power for ever and ever. Amen!

Gospel: Lk 16:19–31
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Once there was a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and feasted every day. At his gate lay Lazarus, a poor man covered with sores, who longed to eat just the scraps falling from the rich man’s table. Even dogs used to come and lick his sores. It happened that the poor man died and angels carried him to take his place with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. From hell where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham afar off, and with him Lazarus at rest.

“He called out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus with the tip of his finger dipped in water to cool my tongue, for I suffer so much in this fire.’

“Abraham replied: ‘My son, remember that in your lifetime you were well-off while the lot of Lazarus was misfortune. Now he is in comfort and you are in agony. But that is not all. Between your place and ours a great chasm has been fixed, so that no one can cross over from here to you or from your side to us.’

“The rich man implored once more: ‘Then I beg you, Father Abraham, to send Lazarus to my father’s house where my five brothers live. Let him warn them so that they may not end up in this place of torment.’ Abraham replied: ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’ But the rich man said: ‘No, Father Abraham. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“Abraham said: ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the grave.’”

REFLECTION
“If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone were to rise from the dead.”

We are given everything we need to see and understand the greatness, the goodness, of God–creation, love, life, and the Gospels. We don’t need miracles to prove the existence of God. We simply need to repay Goodness with goodness.

September 27
Monday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Vincent de Paul

1st Reading: Jb 1:6–22
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before Yahweh, and Satan came with them. Yahweh asked Satan, “Where have you been?”

Satan answered, “Going up and down the earth, roaming about.”

Yahweh asked again, “Have you noticed my servant Job? No one on earth is as blameless and upright as he, a man who fears God and avoids evil.”

But Satan returned the question, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not built a protective wall around him and his family and all his possessions? You have blessed and prospered him, with his livestock all over the land. But stretch out your hand and strike where his riches are, and I bet he will curse you to your face.”

Yahweh said to Satan, “Very well, all that he has is in your power. But do not lay a finger upon the man himself.” So Satan left the presence of Yahweh.

One day, while his sons and daughters were feasting in the house of their eldest brother, a messenger came to Job and said, “Your oxen were plowing, and your donkeys were grazing nearby when the Sabaeans came and carried them off. They killed the herdsmen. I alone escaped to tell you.”

While he was still speaking, another messenger came, “God’s fire fell from the sky and burned all your sheep and the shepherds as well. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

He had hardly finished speaking when another messenger arrived, “Three raiding teams of Chal-deans have killed your servants and carried off your camels. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

He was still speaking when another messenger came and said to Job, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking in the house of their eldest brother when suddenly a great wind blew across the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they all died. I alone have escaped to tell you.”

In grief Job tore his clothes and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshiped, saying,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked shall I return. Yahweh gave, Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be his name!”

In spite of this calamity, Job did not sin by blaspheming God.

Gospel: Lk 9:46–50
One day the disciples were arguing about which of them was the most important. But Jesus knew their thoughts, so he took a little child and stood him by his side. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. And listen: the one who is found to be the least among you all, is the one who is the greatest.”

Then John spoke up, “Master, we saw someone who drove out demons by calling upon your name, and we tried to forbid him because he doesn’t follow you with us.” But Jesus said, “Don’t forbid him. He who is not against you is for you.”

REFLECTION
“An argument broke out among the disciples as to which one of them was the greatest.”

When we criticize others because they live the gospel differently than we do it is important to remember that Jesus wants us simply to love one another–without distinction.

September 28
Tuesday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Wenceslaus

St. Lawrence Ruiz and Companions

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?

Gospel: Lk 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.

REFLECTION
We forget, like the apostles, that Jesus did not repay rejection with rejection. Those who do not accept Jesus are not our enemies. They are people going to God another way. Our only obligation is to love them, too.

September 29
Wednesday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels

1st Reading: Dn 7:9–10, 13–14 (or Rev 12:7–12a)
I looked and saw the following:

Some thrones were set in place and One of Great Age took his seat. His robe was white as snow, his hair white as washed wool. His throne was flames of fire with wheels of blazing fire. A river of fire sprang forth and flowed before him. Thousands upon thousands served him and a countless multitude stood before him.

Those in the tribunal took their seats and opened the book.

I continued watching the nocturnal vision:

One like a son of man came on the clouds of heaven. He faced the One of Great Age and was brought into his presence.

Dominion, honor and kingship were given him, and all the peoples and nations of every language served him. His dominion is eternal and shall never pass away; his kingdom will never be destroyed.

Gospel: Jn 1:47–51
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming, he said of him, “Here comes an Israelite, a true one; there is nothing false in him.” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” And Jesus said to him, “Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree and I saw you.”

Nathanael answered, “Master, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But Jesus replied, “You believe because I said: ‘I saw you under the fig tree.’ But you will see greater things than that.

Truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

REFLECTION
“Here is a real Israelite. There is nothing false in him.”

Opening ourselves to the eye of God is the grace it takes to grow. Until there is ‘nothing false in us,’ Until we face in ourselves what’s lacking in both what we do and what we don’t do, we will not really turn our lives around.

September 30
Thursday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Jerome

1st Reading: Job 19:21–27
Have pity my friends, have pity, for God’s hand has struck me! Why do you hound me as God does? Will you never have enough of my flesh? Oh, that my words were written, or recorded on bronze with an iron tool, a chisel or engraved forever on rock!

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he, the last, will take his stand on earth I will be there behind my skin, and in my flesh I shall see God. With my own eyes I shall see him – I and not another. How my heart yearns!

Gospel: Lk 10:1–12
The Lord appointed seventy-two other disciples and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place, where he himself was to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is rich, but the workers are few. So you must ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest. Courage! I am sending you like lambs among wolves. Set off without purse or bag or sandals; and do not stop at the homes of those you know. Whatever house you enter, first bless them saying: ‘Peace to this house.’ If a friend of peace lives there, the peace shall rest upon that person. But if not, the blessing will return to you. Stay in that house eating and drinking at their table, for the worker deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house. When they welcome you in any town, eat what they offer you. Heal the sick who are there and say to them: ‘The kingdom of God has drawn near to you.’ But in any town where you are not welcome, go to the marketplace and proclaim: Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off and leave with you. But know and be sure that the kingdom of God had come to you.’ I tell you that on the Judgment Day it will be better for Sodom than for this town.”

REFLECTION
“There is a large harvest but few laborers to gather it in.”

This gospel confronts us with the central question of our lives: What am I myself doing, actually, here and now, to bring to fruition what God has planted for us so that the whole world can profit from it?

October 1
Friday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

1st Reading: Job 38:1, 12–21; 40:3–5
Then Yahweh answered Job out of the storm: Have you ever commanded the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it, when it takes a clay color and changes its tint like a garment; when the wicked are denied their own light, and their proud arm is shattered?

Have you journeyed to where the sea begins or walked in its deepest recesses? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of Shadow? Have you an idea of the breadth of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this. Where is the way to the home of light, and where does darkness dwell? Can you take them to their own regions, and set them on their homeward paths? You know, for you were born before them, and great is the number of your years!

Job said: How can I reply, unworthy as I am! All I can do is put my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once, now I will not answer; oh, yes, twice, but I will do no further.

Gospel: Lk 10:13–16
Jesus said, “Alas for you Chorazin! Alas for you Bethsaida! So many miracles have been worked in you! If the same miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would already be sitting in ashes and wearing the sackcloth of repentance. Surely for Tyre and Sidon it will be better than for you on the Judgment Day. And what of you, city of Capernaum? Will you be lifted up to heaven? You will be thrown down to the place of the dead.

“Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me; and he who rejects me, rejects the one who sent me.”

REFLECTION
“God will show more mercy to Tyre and Sidon than to you.”

Miracles have been performed for us just as they were for the Israelites: Life is a miracle, for instance. The fact that we know Jesus is also miracle. The only question is whether or not we, like Jesus, We also make our lives a miracle for others.

October 2
Saturday

26th Week in Ordinary Time

Guardian Angels

1st Reading: Ex 23:20–23
See, I am sending an Angel before you to keep you safe on the way and bring you to the place I have made ready.

Be on your guard in his presence and listen to him; do not resist him for he will not pardon your wrong-doing, for my name is in him.

If you listen to him and do what I say, I will be enemy to your enemies and the opponent of your opponents. My Angel will go before you and bring you to the land of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites; all these I will destroy.

Gospel: Mt 18:1–5, 10
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child, set the child in the midst of the disciples, and said, “I assure you that unless you change and become like little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes lowly like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoever receives such a child in my name receives me.

“See that you do not despise any of these little ones, for I tell you: their angels in heaven continually see the face of my heavenly Father.”

REFLECTION
“See that you don’t despise any of these little ones. Their angels in heaven, I tell you, are always in the presence of my Father in heaven.”

To struggle with sin ourselves is only human. To lead another into sin–especially a child who, imprinted by adults gone wrong, is too young to choose for itself, is to shake heaven to the foundations of justice. Beware that that justice does not fall on you.