The First Thing First

September 30: Tuesday of Week 26 of Ordinary Time, Year A-II:

Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23; Psalm 88:2-3, 4-5, 6, 7-8; Luke 9:51-56

What is Jesus saying to us as stewards of his kingship? 

(To support Reaching Jesus:5 Steps to a Fuller Life... Step Five).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“Jesus…resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

The First Thing First

Not many people say like Job, “Perish the day I was born!” But more than we think may long to leave this earth for heaven, “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” They are giving in to discouragement. They “cannot see the way,” feel “fenced in,” see nothing ahead that they can and want to get to.

If anyone had reason to be discouraged, Jesus did. Few listened to his words; fewer still followed them. He failed to convert his home town, Capernaum and Jerusalem (Luke 4:28; Matthew 11:23; 23:37). Finally, he had nothing to look forward to but the total defeat of capture, torture and death. But “when the days drew near for him to be taken up,” he “resolutely determined” to go to Jerusalem and die. Why?

Jesus came to give humans the fullness of life. But more basically it was “to do the will of him who sent me.” He preached because “the Father has given me a commandment about what to say.” When, in the garden, he felt the futility of his life and death, his response was, “Your will be done!” (John 6:38; 10:10; 12:49; Matthew 26:42).

Our first job is “to do the will of him who sent us.” Success or failure is irrelevant. Faithful stewardship is to “keep on keeping on.”

PRAY: “Lord, help me to do your will.”

PRACTICE: Keep trying, regardless of results.