26th week in Ordinary Time, Tuesday, October 3,2006.

Scripture: Job 3:1-3,11-17,20-23. Psalm 88:2-8; Luke 9:51-56

Today's readings are eschatological, that is, they show us the grief and sorrow of those who are suffering seriously and who are near the end of their lives. Even Jesus will undergo this as we learn from the passage of Luke. All of us face death with a certain fear and trembling, but we all realize that we have to die. It is what comes afterwards that is a mystery that we think about as we age. Divine Wisdom, as seen in the story of Job, suggests that the only way through this ordeal is to have faith in a Living God who can bring us hope in eternal life. Job will ultimately come to this conclusion; Jesus is already for it by his union with God his Father. Only a living God can give us eternal life. Only if there is such a God can there be a resurrection.

The passage from Job is one of the most poignant and deepest when it comes to expressing human grief and sorrow. While in Fribourg, I listened to one of my professors Father Dominic Barthelemy give the best conference on Job that I have ever heard. This great scholar was also one of the first to discover and translate the Dead Sea Scrolls. He was the professor of Old Testament at the University of Fribourg. My thoughts returned me to that hour in the Aula of the University. I also thought of an aging couple who are experiencing such sorrow and are suffering profoundly. Only their belief in the Living God is bringing them through the toughest moments of their lives. I pray for them each day.

Jesus, too, being one with us in his human nature feels the same anxiety about his death and prays to be delivered of it. We have,in the episode that Luke gives, Jesus desire to go up to Jerusalem for the last time. It is his resolve to do this no matter what the consequences are. He seems to know that his death is fast approaching. He prays also in the Garden of Gethsemane that this may pass, but accepts whatever the Father's will is. It is our belief in the redemptive suffering and death that he underwent and which we too undergo. Thorugh our belief in him we, too, will come through this ultimate moment of our lives. Like the saints it is best that we live this day as though it were our last. But we do this joyfully and generously because of what we believe. Amen.