October 1, 2026
Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and
Doctor of the Church
Lectionary: 458
Reading 1
Job said:
Pity me, pity me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has struck me!
Why do you hound me as though you were divine,
and insatiably prey upon me?
Oh, would that my words were written down!
Would that they were inscribed in a record:
That with an iron chisel and with lead
they were cut in the rock forever!
But as for me, I know that my Vindicator lives,
and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust;
Whom I myself shall see:
my own eyes, not another’s, shall behold him,
And from my flesh I shall see God;
my inmost being is consumed with longing.
Responsorial Psalm
R. (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the
Lord in the land of the living.
Hear, O LORD, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living.
Your presence, O LORD, I seek.
Hide not your face from me;
do not in anger repel your servant.
You are my helper: cast me not off.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The Kingdom of God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus appointed seventy-two other disciples
whom he sent ahead of him in pairs
to every town and place he intended to visit.
He said to them,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.
Go on your way;
behold, I am sending you like lambs among wolves.
Carry no money bag, no sack, no sandals;
and greet no one along the way.
Into whatever house you enter, first say,
‘Peace to this household.’
If a peaceful person lives there,
your peace will rest on him;
but if not, it will return to you.
Stay in the same house and eat and drink what is offered to you,
for the laborer deserves his payment.
Do not move about from one house to another.
Whatever town you enter and they welcome you,
eat what is set before you,
cure the sick in it and say to them,
‘The Kingdom of God is at hand for you.’
Whatever town you enter and they do not receive you,
go out into the streets and say,
‘The dust of your town that clings to our feet,
even that we shake off against you.’
Yet know this: the Kingdom of God is at hand.
I tell you,
it will be more tolerable for Sodom on that day
than for that town.”
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100126.cfm
Commentary on
Job 19:21-27
Job asks his ‘comforters’ for some genuine compassion,
saying:
Have pity on me, have pity on me, O you my friends,
for the hand of God has touched me!
His body is covered with sores and his family destroyed. He
is not sure yet why this has happened, but the words of his friends do not seem
to be of much help. He asks them:
Why do you, like God, pursue me,
never satisfied with my flesh?
It is bad enough having God do these things to him without
them aggravating the situation.
And then, in stark contrast to what goes before and follows
after (not in our readings), in the very depths of his misery, Job bursts out
in a marvellous statement of faith and hope. According to the NIV Bible,
it is:
“…probably the best-known and most-loved passage in the book
of Job, reaching a high point in Job’s understanding of his own situation and
of his relationship to God.”
So strongly does he feel about what he is going to say that
he would like it to be inscribed in stone so that it would survive his death
and endure until the day when his vindication will take place. Job says:
For I know that my vindicator lives…
‘Vindicator’ or ‘Avenger’ translates the Hebrew word goel,
a technical term in law. It is frequently used of God as the saviour of his
people and the avenger of the oppressed; early rabbis also used it of the
Messiah. In the Latin translation of St Jerome (the Vulgate) the word is
translated ‘Redeemer’. The word seems analogous to the title given in the New
Testament to the Spirit—the Paraclete (parakletes)—which means someone
who comes to protect you and stand by your side, such as a defence lawyer in
court.
Job now in deep faith awaits his God to come and vindicate
him before his friends, who have condemned him as a sinner and wrongdoer. The Jerusalem
Bible comments:
“Job, slandered and condemned by his friends, awaits a
Defender who this time is God himself. Job still believes his happiness to be
lost for ever and his death to be at hand: when God undertakes to avenge his
cause, it will be after his death. Nonetheless Job hopes to witness this and to
‘see’ his vindication. In 14:10-14 he had envisaged the possibility of a
temporary shelter in Sheol, and here it would seem that he is counting on a
brief return to earthly life to see his vindications accomplished; in this he
is prompted by his faith in a God who can bring men back from Sheol. Job’s
faith thus momentarily defies mortal horizons in his desperate need for
justice; it prepares us for the explicit revelation of bodily resurrection…(see
2 Macc 7:9).”
Job expresses his confidence that ultimately God will
vindicate his faithful servants in the face of all false accusations.
Job’s words of faith and hope are probably best known to us
in the famous aria from Handel’s oratorio the Messiah, “I know that my Redeemer
liveth”, although ‘Redeemer’ or ‘Vindicator’ here, with the hindsight of the
New Testament, has a meaning going far beyond what Job is saying.
God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of
all things. He will “stand upon the earth” as judge. And that will be the
moment of Job’s justification. Job expects to die from the physical afflictions
of his body, but “then in my flesh I shall see God”. God will be close to him
and perhaps he will even be able to return to earth for a short period.
In spite of his sufferings, Job knows in his heart they are
not the result of his sin, and that his basic innocence and goodness will be
finally recognised by his being brought face to face with the one who will
vindicate him.
Job’s great hope should be the basis of our faith, too. We
too know that our Avenger, our Vindicator, our Redeemer in the person of Jesus
Christ lives, and that he has gone ahead of us so that we can share with him
the life that no one can take from us.
Commentary on
Luke 10:1-12
Two days ago we saw Jesus firmly setting out for Jerusalem
and the accomplishment of his mission. Yesterday we saw how he responded to
people who wanted to or were being invited to join his mission. During the
coming days we will see Jesus preparing his actual disciples for their work.
In addition to the inner circle of the Twelve, we are told
today that he appointed another 72 (12×6) and sent them two by two to the
places he himself would be visiting (note that only Luke mentions this group).
That is a good description of our Christian role. We are supposed to go first
to prepare the ground, but then it is Jesus himself who comes to plant the seed
of faith.
Jesus then goes on to give an instruction to his disciples.
We, too, should be listening to his words. First, he points out that the
harvest is great and there are very few labourers—few who are willing to do the
harvesting work with Jesus.
This is a text which is often thrown at us during ‘vocation’
campaigns. We tend to hear it as a call for more priests, brothers and nuns. It
is that, of course, but when Jesus spoke there were no priests, brothers or
nuns. The challenge was being thrown out to all his followers to find more
people to join in the harvesting work.
We have to be careful as we listen to these words not to
exclude ourselves because we are middle-aged, or married, or already have a
career. The words are addressed to all of us and call for some kind of response
from every one of us. It is never too late to respond to the call.
Second, Jesus warns his followers that it may not be easy.
I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.
In spite of the message of truth, love, compassion and
justice that we bring, it does not mean that we will be received with open
arms. On the contrary, we may meet with strong opposition and even persecution.
Our message will be seen as threatening. It will be distorted and
misunderstood.
Third, the disciples are called on to travel light. Jesus
himself “had nowhere to lay his head” and he only had the clothes he wore.
So many of us are weighed down by the things we own. Some of
us have to protect our property with the latest in security devices. In our search
for prosperity and material security we have lost the more precious gift of
freedom. The disciples are not to stop to greet people in the sense of carrying
on lengthy conversations. Their mission was urgent—there are few labourers for
a potentially huge harvest.
Fourth, they are to be bearers of peace. Peace, shalom,
is much more than an absence of violence. It is a deep inner harmony with
oneself, with others, with one’s environment, with God:
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children
of God. (Matt 5:9)
We could hardly bring a more precious gift to others than
this inner peace. It is, in fact, the heart of our Christian message. Faith,
hope and love are the keys to peace.
Fifth, the evangeliser is to stay in the first house that
accepts him. He should not be going around looking for better accommodation. At
the same time, he is to be provided with shelter and hospitality:
…for the laborer deserves to be paid.
This, it seems, was the way Jesus himself lived. And this
was the overall ideal of the Christian community: a network of mutually
supporting people sharing their resources with each other and with those in
greater need than themselves.
Sixth, their work is primarily to heal the sick in the
places they go to. ‘Healing’ should be taken in a wider sense of including
body, feelings, mind and spirit. And ‘healing’ should also be seen not just as
getting rid of a sickness, but of making a person whole again. Bringing healing
and wholeness into the lives of individuals and communities is of the essence
of the Kingdom and at the heart of Jesus’ work and that of his followers. The
sign of that wholeness is inner peace. Today it is no different.
And they are to say:
…the kingdom of God has come near.
This is not just a statement they are to throw out. It is
the core of Jesus’ message and an explanation of why people are experiencing
healing and wholeness coming into their lives. This is the effect of the coming
of the Kingdom; this is what the coming of the Kingdom means. God’s power is penetrating
their lives, transforming them and making them whole again.
Luke mentions the Kingdom of God more than 30 times; Matthew
more than 50 times. Matthew’s is truly a Gospel of the Kingdom.
The term can have a number of meanings:
- the
eternal Kingship (basileia) of God;
- the
presence of the Kingdom in the person of Jesus; he is the embodiment, the
incarnation of the rule of God in himself, an incarnation he wishes to be
found in his disciples and the communities they establish;
- the
future Kingdom in the life that is to come.
In short, the Kingdom—the rule of God—is intended to be both
a present reality as well as a future hope.
And finally, seventh, if there is any place where they are
not received, the disciples are to leave it to its own fate. Even then those
people are to know that the Kingdom of God is near to them also. There is
always the hope that the results of their very rejection of the Kingdom will
lead to a deeper awareness later on. By rejecting the messengers of God, they
have opened themselves to a fate worse than that of Sodom, a city utterly
destroyed because of its shameful lack of hospitality to divine visitors. But
those hearing the message of Jesus are even more accountable for hearing the
message of the Kingdom proclaimed to them and turning their back on it.
Clearly, we cannot literally apply all of these points to
our own work on behalf of the gospel, but we need to make the underlying
principles and values ours too. It will require some reflection on our part,
both as individuals and as communities, on how we should effectively share the
gospel with those around us and be the harvesters that are so badly needed.
Indeed, let us pray for vocations, but let us remember that every single one of
us is being called to work in the harvest field and not just some chosen souls
who are totally unknown to us.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary
Ordinary Time
Opening Prayer
Father, you show your almighty power in your mercy and
forgiveness.
Continue to
fill us with your gifts of love.
Help us to hurry towards the eternal life your promise and come to
share in the joys of your kingdom.
We ask this
through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Reading - Luke 10: 1-12
In those days the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them
out ahead of Him in pairs to all the towns and places He himself would be
visiting. H He said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so
ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to do his harvesting. Start off
now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Take no purse with
you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.
Whatever house you enter, let your
first words be, "Peace to this house!" And if a man of peace lives
there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you.
Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the
laborer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house. Whenever you go
into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you. Cure those
in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to
you." But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go
out into its streets and say, "We wipe off the very dust of your town that
clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of
God is very near." I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable
for Sodom than for that town.’
Reflection
•
Context: Chapter 10, which begins with this passage,
presents a characteristic of revelation. In 9: 51 it is said that Jesus
“resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem.” This journey, an expression of
his being Son, is characterized by a two-fold action: He is closely united “to
the fact of being taken away” (v. 51), and his “coming” through the sending out
of his disciples (v. 52). There is a bond of union in the double movement: “to
be taken away from the world” to go toward the Father, and to be sent to men.
In fact, it happens that sometimes the one sent is not accepted (9: 52 and,
therefore, He has to learn how to be “delivered”, without allowing himself,
because of this, to be modified by the rejection of men (9: 54-55). Three brief
scenes make the reader understand the meaning of following Jesus who is going
to Jerusalem
to be taken
out of the world. In the first one, a man is presented who desires to follow
Jesus wherever He goes. Jesus invites him to abandon all that he has - all that
gives him well-being and security. Those who want to follow Him have to share
his destiny of a nomad life. In the second scene it is Jesus who takes the initiative
and He calls a man whose father has just died. The man asks to delay in
responding to the call in order to comply with the law and to his duty to bury
the parents. The urgency of announcing the Kingdom exceeds this duty. The
concern of burying the dead is useless because Jesus goes beyond the doors[1] of death and He fulfils this even
for those who follow him. In the third scene, a man is presented who offers himself
spontaneously to follow Jesus but He places a condition: to bid farewell to his
parents. To enter into the Kingdom one does not delay. After this three-fold
renunciation, the expression of Luke 9: 60, “Once the hand is laid on the
plough, no one who looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God”, introduces the
theme of chapter 10.
• The dynamic of the account. The passage which is the object of our meditation begins with somewhat dense expressions. The first one, “After these things, it sends us back to the prayer of Jesus and to his firm decision to go to Jerusalem. The second one concerns the verb “appointed”: He appointed seventy-two others and sent them out...” (10:1). Where it is said concretely that He sent them ahead of him, it is the same resolute Jesus who is journeying to Jerusalem. The recommendations that He addresses to them before sending them are an invitation to be aware of the reality to which they are sent: abundant harvest in contrast to the few laborers. The Lord of the harvest arrives with all his force but the joy of that arrival is hindered by the reduced number of laborers. Therefore, the categorical invitation to prayer: “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers to do his harvesting” (v. 2). The initiative of sending out on mission is the competence of the Father but Jesus transmits the order: ”Start off now” and then He indicates the ways of following (vv. 4-11). He begins with the luggage: no purse, no sack nor sandals. These are elements that show the fragility of the one who is sent and his dependence on the help that they receive from the Lord and from the people of the city. The positive prescriptions are synthesized first in arriving to a house (vv. 5-7) and then in the success in the city (VV. 8-11). In both cases, the refusal is not excluded. The house is the first place where the missionaries have the first exchanges, the first relationships, valuing the human gestures of eating and drinking and of resting as simple and ordinary mediations to communicate the Gospel. “Peace” is the gift that precedes their mission, that is to say, fullness of life and of relationships; the true and real joy of the arrival of the Kingdom. It is not necessary to seek comfort and it is indispensable to be welcomed. Instead, the city becomes, the most extensive field of the mission. It is there that life, political activity, the possibility of conversion, acceptance, and rejection are developed. This last aspect is linked to the gesture of shaking off the dust (vv. 10-11). It is as if the disciples, in abandoning the city that has rejected them, would say to the people that they possess nothing as an expression of the end of the relationship. Finally, Jesus recalls the guilt of that city which will close itself to the proclamation of the Gospel (v. 12).
Personal Questions
•
You are invited every day by the Lord to announce the
Gospel to those close to you (in the house) and to all persons (in the city).
Do you assume a poor, essential style in witnessing your identity as a
Christian?
•
Are you aware that the success of your witness does not
depend on your individual capacity but only on the Lord who orders and on your
availability?
Concluding Prayer
Your face,
Yahweh, I seek; Do not turn away from me.
Do
not thrust aside your servant in anger, without you I am helpless. Never leave
me, never forsake me, God, my Savior. (Ps 27,8-9)
Saint Thérèse of the Child
Jesus, Virgin and Doctor
Marie Francoise Thérèse Martin was born on 2 January, 1873
at Alencon, southwest of Rouen in the north of France. She was the youngest
daughter of Louis Martin, a watchmaker, and his wife, Zelie-Marie Guerin, a
lacemaker, who died of breast cancer when Theresa was four years old. Both
parents had wanted to enter religious life and, when they could not, hoped
their children would do so. There were nine children, but only five girls
survived.
Thérèse grew up in a traditional religious home having
little contact with the world, typical of middle-class Catholicism of the time.
In 1877, the family moved to Lisieux in Normandy, where an aunt helped to look
after the girls and where Thérèse went to the Benedictine convent of Notre Dame
du Pré. One after the other her elder sisters entered the Carmelite convent in
Lisieux. At 15, after her sister Marie entered the convent, Thérèse tried
follow her, but the superior of the convent would not allow it on account of
her age. Later, her father took Thérèse on a pilgrimage to Rome and, during a
general audience with Pope Leo XIII, she asked him to allow her to enter at 15,
but the Pope said: “Well, my child, do what the superiors decide.” Soon after,
the Bishop of Bayeux gave his consent for her to enter as a postulant in 1888.
Her name in religion was Sister Thérèse of the Infant Jesus and of the Holy
Face. The following year, 1894, her father suffered a stroke and died, and the
fourth sister, who had been looking after him, was now able to enter the
Carmel.
Not surprisingly, the overall description of Thérèse’s life
is easily told. She followed the daily routine of a Carmelite sister from day
to day, but did so with great commitment and devotion.
Apart from being made assistant to the novice mistress in
1893 at the age of 20, she never held any other significant responsibility in
the community.
Thérèse is known for her “Little Way”. In her quest for
sanctity, she realized that it was not necessary to accomplish heroic acts, or
‘great deeds’, in order to attain holiness and to express her love of God. She
wrote:
Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love?
Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering
flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word,
and the doing of the least actions for love.
Thérèse would later be known as the “Little Flower”.
Thérèse’s final years were marked by a steady decline that
she bore without complaint. In 1895, she suffered a haemorrhage which was the
first sign of the tuberculosis which was to bring about her early death. On the
morning of Good Friday, 1896, she began bleeding at the mouth brought on by her
pulmonary condition. Her TB had now taken a turn for the worse.
As a result, she was not able, as she had so dearly wanted,
to offer herself for a Carmelite mission foundation in Hanoi, Vietnam (then
French Indo-China). She remained at the Lisieux convent, accepting great
suffering without complaint. In July 1897, she was moved to the convent
infirmary, and just three months later died on 30 September, 1897 at age 24. On
her death-bed, she is reported to have said:
I have reached the point of not being able to suffer any
more, because all suffering is sweet to me.
Carmelite convent in Lisieux
It is most likely that, like most Sisters in her secluded situation, nothing
more would have been heard of her. However, she had been told, under obedience
to write a short spiritual autobiography now known as L’Histoire d’une Ame
(The Story of a Soul). In 1895, she began writing a memoir of her childhood
under instructions from her sister, Pauline, known in religious life as Mother
Agnes of Jesus. While on retreat in September 1896, Thérèse wrote the second
part, consisting of a letter to her eldest sister, Sister Marie of the Sacred
Heart. In June 1897, when Mother Agnes realised the gravity of Thérèse’s
illness, she immediately asked Mother Marie, the prioress, to allow Thérèse
write another memoir with more details of her religious life. It was published
after Thérèse’s death, after editing by her sister, Pauline (Mother Agnes).
The book became a religious best-seller of the 20th century,
and was translated into most European languages. It was also a best seller in
Asia as well. Its publication was accompanied by reports of miraculous cures
and countless ‘favours’ granted through her intercession—and it is still in
print.
Since 1973, further editions (including the original version
of The Story of a Soul), her letters, poems, prayers, and plays she
wrote for convent recreations have been published.
Pope Pius X signed the decree starting the process of
canonization on 10 June, 1914. Pope Benedict XV, in an unusual move, dispensed
with the usual 50-year delay required between death and beatification. On 14
August, 1921, he promulgated a decree on the heroic virtues of Thérèse and gave
an address on Thérèse’s way of confidence and love, as a model for the whole
Church.
Thérèse was beatified in April 1923, and canonized two years
later, on 17 May, 1925, by Pope Pius XI, just 28 years after her death. Her
feast day was added to the Catholic liturgical calendar in 1927, to be
celebrated on October 3. In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved it to 1 October, the day
after her death.
Thérèse of Lisieux is the patron saint of those with
HIV-AIDS, aviators, florists and missions. In 1927, Pope Pius XI named her a
patron of the missions (with St Francis Xavier) and in 1944, Pope Pius XII
named her co-patroness of France (along with St Joan of Arc).
By the Apostolic Letter, Divini Amoris Scientia (The
Science of Divine Love) of 19 October, 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a
Doctor of the Universal Church, one of only three women so named (the others
being Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena). In fact, Thérèse was the only
saint named as a Doctor of the Church during John Paul II’s pontificate.
While presenting a deceptively simple and even pious image,
it is clear that Thérèse was very close to the message of the gospel and, in
her sufferings, she showed a great spirit of courage, strength and
self-sacrifice. Her interior asceticism was based on selfless and unconditional
obedience rather than on simple exterior acts of penance.
The influence of her spirituality would lead many in her own
convent, in her Order and in the Church generally to a greater appreciation of
the asceticism arising from a faithful living out of ordinary community and
daily life. In art Thérèse is represented in a Carmelite habit holding a bunch
of roses in memory of her promise to “let fall a shower of roses” of miracles
and other favours.
Some things which Thérèse said:
- I
am a very little soul, who can offer only very little things to the Lord.
- I
will spend my Heaven doing good on earth.
- After
my death I will let fall a shower of roses.
- While
desiring to be a priest, I admire and envy the humility of St Francis of
Assisi and I feel the vocation of imitating him in refusing the sublime
dignity of the priesthood.
https://sacredspace.com/commentary/f1001s
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