Turn to the Lord

October 1, 2024 Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor of the Church
Daily Readings: Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Luke 9:51-56

I am sure that each one of us has had this lowest point in our life. How did you cope? Was there any point that you felt so low that you somehow lost faith or maybe you questioned God because you felt like the Lord had abandoned you?

Such speaks of our humanness. We see that in Job at his lowest. Don’t we see ourselves in Job’s story? Don’t we curse everything we could when we are at our lowest?

I remember a good friend who shut herself off from the world and God because after she lost her mother; she also lost her job, her boyfriend of many years broke up with her and she found out that she had a tumor in her brain. She stopped praying. She stopped going to church. She had one big question: Why?

Our human mind finds it difficult to understand why a loving God allows bad things to happen to us. Job was faithful to the Lord. Didn’t he love Job? Why did he allow Job to suffer much? Can we blame Job for cursing the day of his birth? Many of us, when we experience deep pain and sorrow, also curse the day of our birth.

But God sees beyond this human nature which He very well knows and understands. There is something that he is teaching Job in his great suffering. This is clearly expressed in the Psalm: to turn to God alone in our distress; to entrust ourselves to God alone at our lowest. This is a strong invitation to keep our focus on God especially in our moments of distress—moments that the evil one uses to take away our focus from God.

The Gospel reading shows us how Jesus was focused on embracing his own suffering. He was set out to Jerusalem where he would find His ultimate suffering – His death on the cross. He could have turned back or delayed his journey to Jerusalem but the Gospel clearly tells us that no one can look back and be fit for the kingdom of God. 

Call to Action for Catholic Living: We cannot brag of anything if we do not embrace our cross just like Jesus did. This is only possible when we turn to God in prayers. This is exactly what St. Therese of the Child Jesus did. In her every small suffering, she turned to God and made these her small acts of offering.