Invitation
May I hereby draw your attention to
the daily reading of the Gospel?
This invitation wants to share with You the joy
of the Gospel. Everyone, no one excepted,
can experience that joy by opening their hearts
to the healing power of God’s word.
Available every day.
Consideration
The author wrestles with the problem of retribution failing in this life. The wicked often fare well and the pious are not rewarded. We also find this issue in many psalms and in the book of Job. Only faith in eternal life can bring light into this. However great the injustice, we find peace in the thought that the worst criminals, the greatest instigators of evil and sin, all those who escape trial on earth, will one day stand before God and be judged by Him.
FIRST READING Wis. 2, 23-3,9
In the eyes of men they seemed to die, but they are at peace.
From the Book of Wisdom
God created man for immortality,
made him into the image of his own being.
Through the envy of the devil, however, death came into the world,
and taste him,
all who belong to the devil.
But the souls of the righteous are in God’s hand,
no suffering can harm them.
In the eyes of men they seemed to die,
their end was considered a disaster,
their passing from us as a ruin:
But they are at peace !
For though it seemed to men
that they were being punished,
yet their hope will be rewarded
with a life without end.
After a short time of trial
they will be overwhelmed with great benefits :
For God has tested them,
and found them worthy of Himself.
Like gold in the furnace of fire, He has purified them,
and accepted them as a fragrant burnt offering.
When the time of retribution comes,
they will shine,
they will sparkle
like sparks of fire in a field of stubble.
They shall judge the nations,
they shall rule over the nations,
and their Lord shall be King for ever!
Those who hope in God will experience His faithfulness,
who remain faithful to Him shall be secure in His love:
For mercy and pity fall to his elect !
INTERLUDIUM Ps. 34(33), 2-3, 16-17, 18-19
The Lord I will praise every day.
The Lord I will praise every day,
His praise is always on my lips.
My spirit is proud of the Lord’s favour,
let every one who hears it rejoice.
The eye of the Lord is on the pious,
His ear turned to their supplications.
From evildoers He turns His face away,
they are forgotten on earth.
To the pious who cry out the Lord listens,
and rescues them from every need.
The Lord is near to grieving hearts,
He helps those who acknowledge their guilt.
ALLELUIA cf. Acts 16, 14b
Alleluia.
Make our hearts receptive, Lord,
and that we turn to the word of your Son.
Alleluia.
GOSPEL Lk. 17, 7-10
We are useless servants ;
we have only done our duty.
From the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to
Luke
In those days Jesus spoke :
“Which of you shall speak to the servant
whom he employs as a ploughman or herdsman
on his coming home from the land say :
Come immediately to the table and grope?
“Will he not rather say :
Prepare my meal ;
gird yourself and serve me while I eat and drink ;
after that you can eat and drink yourself ?
“Should he sometimes be grateful to that servant
because he has carried out what he was told to do ?
“So is it with thee :
When thou hast done all that thou art commanded ,
then say : We are useless servants ;
we have only done our duty.”
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Laudato Si
Encyclic of
POPE FRANCIS
On caring for the common home
The globalisation of the technocratic paradigm
106. The fundamental problem is another, even deeper problem; the way humanity has in fact taken up technology and its development together with a homogeneous and one-dimensional paradigm. In such a paradigm, a conception of the subject emerges that increasingly in the logical-rational process understands and thus owns the object that is outside it. This subject manifests itself in establishing the scientific method with its experimentation, which is already explicitly a technique of possession, domination and change. It is as if the subject were facing a formless reality entirely at the disposal of its manipulation. The intervention of the human being in nature has always taken place, but for a long time it has had the character of a guiding, a sustaining of the possibilities offered by things themselves. It involved receiving what natural reality makes possible as from its own hand in itself. By contrast, what is more important now is to extract all that is possible from things by putting the human hand on everything, which tends to ignore or forget the reality itself of what it has before it. Therefore, the human being and things have ceased to shake hands amicably and have thus become each other’s adversaries. From here, one easily arrives at the idea of infinite or unlimited growth, which has so enthused economists, theorists in finance and technology. This presupposes the lie about the infinite availability of the planet’s goods, which leads to “squeezing them out” to the limit and beyond. It concerns the false assumption that “there exists an unlimited amount of energy and usable resources, that their immediate regeneration is possible and that the negative effects of manipulating nature can be easily offset”.
To be continued
The Bible text in this issue is taken from The New Translation of the Bible,
©Dutch Bible Society 2004/2007.
Considerations from Liturgical suggestions for weekdays and Sundays
Laudato Si Official English translation
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