5 October 2024 Saturday, 26th even-numbered week

Job 42,1-3,5-6,12-17; Luke 10,17-24

Dear Brothers,

For several days now, the first Eucharistic reading of the week has been taken from the Book of Job, and today we are finishing precisely this book, which is very important from the point of view of monastic tradition - for several reasons. It is important, of course, because of its central theme of suffering, which prepares us for the New Testament teaching on the mystery of the Cross. The author of the book is reacting against the traditional teaching that God is just and therefore rewards the good and punishes the wicked. To this theory, the book of Job contrasts a concrete man, who is as good as they come, and yet is terribly afflicted. He wants to understand the mystery of suffering, and in the end he has no explanation. It is an unfathomable mystery. Suffering has no meaning. There's no point in trying to make sense of it. And in the New Testament, the Son of God will give an answer, not by explaining the mystery of suffering, but by taking it on, by dying on the Cross and thus finally giving it meaning. If God suffered, suffering certainly has a meaning, and it is a meaning of redemption. All our sufferings, great and small, take on their meaning -- the only meaning they can have -- by being a participation in the Cross of Christ, in that suffering freely assumed out of love - not out of love for suffering, but out of love for man.

Homily for Tuesday of the 26th week in the O.T.

1 October 2024

Job 3, 1-3.11-17.20-23; Luke 9, 51-56.

Dear brothers and sisters,

When Jesus made his last long ascent from Galilee to Jerusalem, he had to pass through Samaria. Tensions between the Jews of Jerusalem and the Samaritans were high, and in the first Samaritan village where Jesus wanted to stop with His disciples, they refused to receive Him, precisely because He was going up towards Jerusalem. The two disciples, James and John, would like to bring down fire from heaven on these Samaritans, to destroy them. A bit like Saint Paul, who persecuted Christians as enemies of God until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Homélie pour le mardi de la 26^ème semaine du T.O.

1 octobre 2024

Jb 3, 1-3.11-17.20-23; Luc 9, 51-56.

Chers frères et sœurs,

Lorsque Jésus entreprend sa dernière longue montée de Galilée vers Jérusalem, il doit passer par la Samarie. Or les tensions entre les Juifs de Jérusalem et les Samaritains sont fortes, et dans le premier village de Samaritains où il veut s’arrêter avec ses disciples, on refuse de le recevoir, précisément parce qu’il monte vers Jérusalem. Les deux disciples Jacques et Jean voudraient faire descendre le feu du ciel sur ces Samaritains, pour les détruire. Un peu comme saint Paul qui persécutait les Chrétiens comme ennemis de Dieu, jusqu’à sa rencontre avec Jésus sur le chemin de Damas.

29 September 2024-- 26th Sunday “B”

Num 11:25-29; Jas 5:1-6; Mk 9:38...48

Homily

              In the Book of Numbers, from which our first reading is taken, the people are very often complaining. Life in the desert is demanding and hard. For months they had had no food other than manna. They were fed up with this manna, which had certainly prevented them from starving to death, but which was beginning to make them nauseous. And Moses, who has been their guide since they left Egypt, has had enough of them. So the People complain about God and Moses complains about the People. God then becomes angry too (Num 11:10) and says to Moses: ‘All right! It's too much for you to carry all the people on your own. Gather 70 elders in the tent of meeting and I'll give them some of the Spirit you have received’.