Daily Mass Readings for October 04, 2024: Gospel — Lc 10, 13-16

¹ Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: 1 ² Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, or made the dawn know its place, 2 1 :¹ Then Job answered: ² “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me. ³ Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken you may mock. ⁴ Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient? ⁵ Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths. ⁶ For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder. ⁷ “Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power? ⁸ Their children are firmly established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes. ⁹ Their houses are safe and without fear; and no rod of punishment from God is upon them. 1 ⁰ Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry. 1 ¹ They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about. 1 ² They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute. 1 ³ They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. 1 ⁴ So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways. 1 ⁵ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?’ 1 ⁶ But their prosperity is not their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me! 1 ⁷ “How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger? 1 ⁸ How often are they like straw before the wind and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind? 1 ⁹ You may say, ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’ Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may be humbled! 2 ⁰ Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the anger of the Almighty. 2 ¹ For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off? 2 ² Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those that are on high? 2 ³ “One man dies in his full vigor, completely secure and prosperous, 2 ⁴ his body well nourished, and the marrow of his bones moist. 2 ⁵ And another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted anything good. 2 ⁶ Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover over them both. 2 ⁷ “Yes, I know what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me. 2 ⁸ For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ 2 ⁹ Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts— 3 ⁰ that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered from the day of God’s wrath? 3 ¹ No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done. 3 ² And when he is carried to the tombs and watch is kept over the funeral mound, 3 ³ the clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng. 3 ⁴ So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” 4 0 :³ Then Job answered the Lord: ⁴ “Indeed, I am completely unworthy—how could I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself. ⁵ I have spoken once, but I cannot answer; twice, but I will say no more.”