Resolute Determination

Homily for Tuesday of the Twenty-Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

As I am sure you know by now that we have reached the point in St. Luke’s Gospel which I find to be the most inspiring. With resolute determination, fully knowing what lies ahead when he reaches his destination, Jesus completes his Galilean ministry and makes his way to Jerusalem. This is the turning point in St. Luke’s Gospel. Everything that we read in the following chapters of the Gospel must be interpreted in the light of this decision.

Interestingly enough, this important moment in the life of Jesus is paired up with a reading from the Book of Job. After a brief introduction to this work yesterday, the Lectionary for Daily Mass throws us headlong into the discursive chapters of this particular wisdom text. Today’s reading presents us with Job’s lament which is summed up in the first words out of his mouth: “Perish the day on which I was born.” Lacking any kind of hope, Job simply wishes that he were dead.

I can’t say that I have ever personally had the same wish. We have all suffered setbacks or disappointments. It is just part of human nature. Literature is filled with proverbial statements about overcoming setbacks and disappointments. However, those proverbial statements fall on deaf ears when we are up to our necks in difficulties. Proverbs about disappointment only make sense after we have overcome obstacles which block our path to success. It is for this reason that St. Luke refrains from saying anything more about Jesus’s decision to go to Jerusalem. Jesus knew and we know what will happen when he reaches his destination. He chooses to set aside any misgivings he may have about what God is asking of him and resolutely determines to move forward.

While we all face hardships and losses as both Job and Jesus did, we have a kind of advantage that they did not. We who follow Jesus know that we have reason to hope, even in the midst of hardship, because we know that Jesus died so that we might live for all eternity. Because he knew that we would become downhearted and disappointed as we made our way through life, he gave us the gift of the Eucharist as a promise of what lies ahead of us. Each day we get just a taste of what heaven will be like – eternal bliss enveloped by God’s love.