FIRST READING: Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Job spoke out and said: Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, “The child is a boy!” Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Wherefore did the knees receive me? or why did I suck at the breasts? For then I should have lain down and been tranquil; had I slept, I should then have been at rest With kings and counselors of the earth who built where now there are ruins Or with princes who had gold and filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not buried away like an untimely birth, like babes that have never seen the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, there the weary are at rest. Why is light given to the toilers, and life to the bitter in spirit? They wait for death and it comes not; they search for it rather than for hidden treasures, Rejoice in it exultingly, and are glad when they reach the grave: Men whose path is hidden from them, and whom God has hemmed in! - Job 3:1-3.11-17.20-23

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
LORD, my God, I call out by day; at night I cry aloud in your presence.
Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.
For my soul is filled with troubles; my life draws near to Sheol.
I am reckoned with those who go down to the pit; I am weak, without strength.
My couch is among the dead, with the slain who lie in the grave. You remember them no more; they are cut off from your care.
You plunged me into the bottom of the pit, into the darkness of the abyss.
Your wrath lies heavy upon me; all your waves crash over me. Selah - Psalm 88:2-8

HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT LUKE

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village. - Luke 9:51-56

GOSPEL COMMENTARY

“The road to Jerusalem”
by Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
Bishop and Doctor of the Church

The weight of our fragility makes us bend towards realities here below; the fire of your love, O Lord, raises us up and bears us towards realities above. We rise there by means of our heart’s impetus, singing the songs of ascent. We burn with your fire, the fire of your goodness, for it is this that transports us.

Where is it that you thus cause us to rise? To the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem. «I rejoiced when I heard them say: Let us go to the house of the Lord» (Ps 122). Nothing will bring us to it except the desire to remain there for ever. While we are in the body, we journey towards you. Here below we have no abiding city; we are constantly seeking our home in the city to come (Heb 13,14). May your grace guide me, O Lord, into the depths of my heart, there to sing of your love, my King and my God… And as I remember that heavenly Jerusalem my heart will rise up towards it: to Jerusalem my true homeland, Jerusalem my mother (Gal 4,26). You are its King, its light, its defender, its protector, its pastor; you are its unquenchable joy; your goodness is the source of all its inexpressible blessings… – you, my God and my divine mercy.