“HONEY FROM THE ROCK”
Daily Reflections
Saturday, 7th October2017.
Twenty Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
Bar 4: 5-12, 27-29;
Ps 69: 33-37 (R) 34;
Lk 10: 17-24.
EVERLASTING JOY
Prophet Baruch gives hope to God’s own people who chose to forget the Everlasting God and provoke His anger by sacrificing to demons and not to Him. Baruch asks them to now repent and return to the Lord with a tenfold zeal. By doing this, they would receive everlasting joy and salvation.
This everlasting joy is depicted in the gospel reading in a threefold way:
1) The joy of service: The seventy returned to report their victories to Jesus. He had given them power and authority to heal, to cast out demons, and to preach the Word, and they were successful! In the midst of their great joy, they were careful to give God the glory. Their victory was in dethroning and defeating Satan. We are called to continue the mission.
2) The joy of salvation: The Lord cautioned them not to ‘go on rejoicing’ over their victories but to rejoice because their names had been written in heaven. As wonderful as their miracles were, the greatest miracle of all is still the salvation of a lost soul. The Greek word translated ‘written’ means ‘to inscribe formally and solemnly’. It was used for the signing of a will, a marriage document, or a peace treaty, and also for the enrolling of a citizen. The perfect tense in the Greek means, “it stands written.”
3) The joy of sovereignty: But our highest joy is not found in service or even in our salvation, but in being submitted to the sovereign will of the Heavenly Father, for this is the foundation for both service and salvation. Here we see God the Son rejoicing through God the Holy Spirit because of the will of God the Father!“Father such has been your gracious will.”
Prayer: Lord let me find such everlasting joy in service, in salvation and above all in submitting myself to Your will. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.