Daily Mass Readings for September 30, 2026: Gospel — Lc 9,57-62

¹ Then Job answered: ² “Truly, I know that this is so. But how can a human be just before God? ³ If someone wishes to contend with him, he cannot answer him one time in a thousand. ⁴ He is wise in heart and mighty in strength— who has resisted him and remained safe? ⁵ He who removes mountains suddenly, who overturns them in his anger, ⁶ he who shakes the earth out of its place so that its pillars tremble, ⁷ he who commands the sun, and it does not shine and seals up the stars, ⁸ he alone spreads out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. ⁹ He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the constellations of the southern sky; 1 ⁰ he does great and unsearchable things, and wonderful things without number. 1 ¹ If he passes by me, I cannot see him; if he goes by, I cannot perceive him. 1 ² If he snatches away, who can turn him back? Who dares to say to him, ‘What are you doing?’ 1 4 :¹ “Man, born of woman, lives but a few days, and they are full of trouble. ² He grows up like a flower and then withers away; he flees like a shadow and does not remain. ³ Do you fix your eye on such a one? And do you bring me before you for judgment? ⁴ Who can make a clean thing come from an unclean? No one! ⁵ Since man’s days are determined, the number of his months is under your control; you have set his limit, and he cannot pass it. ⁶ Look away from him and let him desist, until he fulfills his time like a hired man. ⁷ “But there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. ⁸ Although its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump begins to die in the soil, ⁹ at the scent of water it will flourish and put forth shoots like a new plant. 1 ⁰ But man dies and is powerless; he expires—and where is he? 1 ¹ As water disappears from the sea, or a river drains away and dries up, 1 ² so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor arise from their sleep. 1 ³ “O that you would hide me in Sheol, and conceal me till your anger has passed! O that you would set me a time and then remember me! 1 ⁴ If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait until my release comes. 1 ⁵ You will call and I—I will answer you; you will long for the creature you have made. 1 ⁶ “Surely now you count my steps; then you would not mark my sin. 1 ⁷ My offenses would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sin. 1 ⁸ But as a mountain falls away and crumbles, and as a rock will be removed from its place, 1 ⁹ as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope. 2 ⁰ You overpower him once for all, and he departs; you change his appearance and send him away. 2 ¹ If his sons are honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it. 2 ² His flesh only has pain for him, and he mourns for himself.” 1 5 :¹ Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered: ² “Does a wise man answer with blustery knowledge, or fill his belly with the east wind? ³ Does he argue with useless talk, with words that have no value in them? ⁴ But you even break off piety and hinder meditation before God. ⁵ Your sin inspires your mouth; you choose the language of the crafty. ⁶ Your own mouth condemns you, not I; your own lips testify against you. ⁷ “Were you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? ⁸ Do you listen in on God’s secret council? Do you limit wisdom to yourself? ⁹ What do you know that we don’t know? What do you understand that we don’t understand? 1 ⁰ The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men far older than your father. 1 ¹ Are God’s consolations too trivial for you, or a word spoken in gentleness to you? 1 ² Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, 1 ³ when you turn your rage against God and allow such words to escape from your mouth? 1 ⁴ What is man that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous? 1 ⁵ If God places no trust in his holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in his eyes, 1 ⁶ how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, who drinks in evil like water! 1 ⁷ I will explain to you; listen to me, and what I have seen, I will declare, 1 ⁸ what wise men declare, hiding nothing, from the tradition of their ancestors, 1 ⁹ to whom alone the land was given when no foreigner passed among them. 2 ⁰ All his days the wicked man suffers torment, throughout the number of the years that are stored up for the tyrant. 2 ¹ Terrifying sounds fill his ears; in a time of peace marauders attack him. 2 ² He does not expect to escape from darkness; he is marked for the sword; 2 ³ he wanders about—food for vultures— he knows that the day of darkness is at hand. 2 ⁴ Distress and anguish terrify him; they prevail against him like a king ready to launch an attack, 2 ⁵ for he stretches out his hand against God, and vaunts himself against the Almighty, 2 ⁶ defiantly charging against him with a thick, strong shield! 2 ⁷ Because he covered his face with fat and made his hips bulge with fat, 2 ⁸ he lived in ruined towns and in houses where no one lives, where they are ready to crumble into heaps. 2 ⁹ He will not grow rich, and his wealth will not endure, nor will his possessions spread over the land. 3 ⁰ He will not escape the darkness; a flame will wither his shoots, and he will depart by the breath of God’s mouth. 3 ¹ Let him not trust in what is worthless, deceiving himself; for worthlessness will be his reward. 3 ² Before his time he will be paid in full, and his branches will not flourish. 3 ³ Like a vine he will let his sour grapes fall, and like an olive tree he will shed his blossoms. 3 ⁴ For the company of the godless is barren, and fire consumes the tents of those who accept bribes. 3 ⁵ They conceive trouble and bring forth evil; their belly prepares deception.” 1 6 :¹ Then Job replied: ² “I have heard many things like these before. What miserable comforters are you all! ³ Will there be an end to your windy words? Or what provokes you that you answer? ⁴ I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could pile up words against you, and I could shake my head at you. ⁵ But I would strengthen you with my words; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. ⁶ “But if I speak, my pain is not relieved, and if I refrain from speaking, how much of it goes away? ⁷ Surely now he has worn me out; you have devastated my entire household. ⁸ You have seized me, and it has become a witness; my leanness has risen up against me and testifies against me. ⁹ His anger has torn me and persecuted me; he has gnashed at me with his teeth; my adversary locks his eyes on me. 1 ⁰ People have opened their mouths against me; they have struck my cheek in scorn; they unite together against me. 1 ¹ God abandons me to evil men, and throws me into the hands of wicked men. 1 ² I was in peace, and he has shattered me. He has seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has made me his target; 1 ³ his archers surround me. Without pity he pierces my kidneys and pours out my gall on the ground. 1 ⁴ He breaks through against me, time and time again; he rushes against me like a warrior. 1 ⁵ I have sewed sackcloth on my skin and buried my horn in the dust; 1 ⁶ my face is reddened because of weeping, and on my eyelids there is a deep darkness, 1 ⁷ although there is no violence in my hands and my prayer is pure. 1 ⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood, nor let there be a secret place for my cry. 1 ⁹ Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. 2 ⁰ My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; 2 ¹ and he contends with God on behalf of man as a man pleads for his friend. 2 ² For the years that lie ahead are few, and then I will go on the way of no return.