Remembrance of Saint Therese of Lisieux (+1897), a Carmelite monk with a deep sense of mission of the Church.

Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 9,51-56

Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him, but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem. Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, 'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?' But he turned and rebuked them, and they went on to another village.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

With this passage, Luke begins the central part of his gospel, Jesus' journey with the disciples toward Jerusalem. The disciples wanted to stop him, but Jesus "with his face set" walked toward the holy city. With the expression "with his face set" the evangelist shows the firm will of the Teacher. Jesus did not remain in the places which were secure and familiar to him, safe from the violence of enemies. In other words, he did not want to yield to the temptation of the tranquillity of his own usual horizon, as it happens often to so many of us who may cover ourselves with the excuse of our limits, or our diocese, of our parish, of our neighbourhoods and so on. The Gospel does not stand limitations and provincialisms, even if this includes difficulties and clashes. Pope Francis repeats that the Gospel must go into the streets and reach the human and existential peripheries. It is destined to go there because it is in those places that it must bring freedom and comfort. Obedience to the Father and the urgency of the Gospel of love have absolute primacy in his life. Therefore, Jesus starts toward Jerusalem with decision, that is obeying God willingly and in a radical way. The evangelist notes that Jesus sent a few disciples before him to "prepare his entrance." The first stop would be a village in Samaria. However, the disciples who had reached the village found a distinct rejection by the Samaritans there. They did not want them to go toward Jerusalem, so much was their hostility toward the Hebrew capital. James and John-rightly annoyed-would like to exterminate the entire village. But Jesus responds with love to the coldness of who does not want to welcome him and, as the evangelist Luke notes, reprimands harshly the violent zeal of the two disciples. Once again, the gospel vision of life that Jesus proposes to us emerges again with clarity: for him there are no enemies to beat or to destroy, only people to love and to make brother and sister.