St. Cosmas & Damian, martyrs 

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

Ecclesianstes 11:9-12:8

Rejoice, young man,

In your youth and direct well your heart when you are young; follow your desires and achieve your ambitions but recall that God will take account of all you do. Drive sorrow from your heart and pain from your flesh, for youth and dark hair will not last.

  Be mindful of your Creator when you are young, before the time of sorrow comes when you have to say, “This gives me no pleasure,”  and before the sun, moon and stars withdraw their light, before the clouds gather again after the rain.

 On the day when the guardians of the house tremble, when sturdy men are bowed and those at the mill stop working because they are too few, when it grows dim for those looking through the windows, and the doors are shut and the noise of the mill grows faint, the sparrow stops chirping and the bird-song is silenced, when one fears the slopes and to walk is frightening;

Yet the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper is fat and the caperberry bears fruit that serves no purpose, because man goes forward to his eternal home and mourners gather in the street,  even before the silver chain is snapped or the golden globe is shattered, before the pitcher is broken at the fountain or the wheel at the mill,  before the dust returns to the earth from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Meaningless! meaningless! the Teacher says; all is meaningless!

 

Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 & 17

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊

Luke 9:43b-45

 And all who saw it were astonished at God’s wonderful work.  While all were amazed at everything Jesus did, he said to his disciples, “Listen and remember what I tell you now: The Son of Man will be delivered into human hands.” 

But the disciples didn’t understand this saying; something prevented them from grasp­ing what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him about it.

 

Gospel Reflection：

“Something prevented them from grasping what he meant.” Living with somebody everyday does not make you capable of predicting his or her fate. A wife can still be surprised about her husband.

A skillful assistant can still be caught off-guard before his manager. Our inability to predict and make sense of people we deeply know is caused largely by our self-focused expectations. The apostles are shocked by Jesus’ pronouncement even if Jesus  already intimated these things before.

They read Jesus’ words only according to the way they receive them not how others could be hurt by them. They do not read well the many oppositions to Jesus along the way. Above all, they do not sense that even in their very own circle there is an opposition. As disciples of Jesus, we can suffer the same fate.