From the responsorial psalm: “Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days. And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours; prosper the work of our hands for us! Prosper the work of our hands!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 9:43B-45)
While they were all amazed at his every deed, Jesus said to his disciples, “Pay attention to what I am telling you. The Son of Man is to be handed over to men.” But they did not understand this saying; its meaning was hidden from them so that they should not understand it, and they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
The events that Luke relates in the Gospel all take place in quick succession and include the feeding of the five thousand, the healing of people possessed by a demon, and the Transfiguration. Amazed witnesses to all of this, the disciples fail to understand what Jesus tells them about his coming passion and death. Yet, what they fail to understand Jesus asks them to pay attention to. Unaware of the martyrdom that some of the disciples would face, they are unable to reconcile that the Son of Man would be handed over to men. But in hanging on Jesus’ every word, they would remember that the crucified Christ, obedient to the Father even to death, would destroy death and rise triumphant to new life to save us.
God, help me understand what Jesus prepares me for as he speaks to the disciples. Although you call few to martyrdom, I want to take to heart the words of Jesus when he asks that I pay attention to what he is saying. In the world, there are plenty of people ready to hand over those who follow Jesus and the teachings of the Church. There are those who would persecute and kill missionaries who preach the Gospel. As Saint Lawrence said, who witnessed to the truth of the Gospel: “We have come to Japan only to preach faith in God and to teach salvation to little ones and to the innocent and to all the rest of the people.” God, help me understand persecution and suffering in light of rising to new life through Jesus Christ your Son. Shelter me, Lord; in every age, you have been our refuge. Saint Lawrence Ruiz, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.