THE LORD IS WITH ME…

Jeremiah 20:10-13

10 For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my familiar friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived, then we can overcome him, and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous, who seest the heart and the mind, let me see thy vengeance upon them, for to thee have I committed my cause.13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.

John 10:31-42

31 The Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”
34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?
35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken),
36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;
38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
39 Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained.
41 And many came to him; and they said, “John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.”
42 And many believed in him there.  

MEDITATION

JEREMIAH THE PROPHET is experiencing the darkest time of his life, because his friends and his people have rejected him. Jeremiah reached out to God and placed his burdens and trust before God, confident that he will be delivered whilst his enemies will be shamed!

THE GOSPEL READING: Jesus faces a mob who is intent to stone Him to death because, they figured Christ commited blasphemy when assumed the status of being God! Christ reminds His interlocutors of the occasion when God refered to His people as “gods” (Psalm 82:6), with the understanding that they are sons of the Father who were made in His image.Ps2:7 Christ makes the distinction that His works are of the Father, wherefore He can rightly say that He is the Son of God! Distraught and dissipointed at the ignorance, hatred and crudeness of His people, Christ retreated to the location when the Father and the Spirit reached down to glorify Him the beloved Son.

All of us have or will experience dark moments or situations that may rock our faith in God to the extent that we want to surrender or abandon God. At the beginning of Holy Mass once the priest enters the sactuary, he bows, venerate and kiss the altar, then with extended hands he welcomes us and invoke the presence of Christ with the words “The Lord be with you!” This seminal moment is our opportunity to seek our refuge in the Lord, asking Him to shower us with His supernatural gifts of peace, deliverance, forgiveness and blessings, then returning the same blessing upon the priest!

LET US PRAY: Psalms 18:2-7
2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.
4 The cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. 7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.

Commentary. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.