20261003 SEEING THE GLORY OF GOD
03 October 2026, Saturday, 26th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Job 42:1-3,5-6,12-17 |
In dust and in ashes I repent
This was the answer Job gave to the Lord:
I know that you are all-powerful:
what you conceive, you can perform.
I am the man who obscured your designs
with my empty-headed words.
I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand,
on marvels beyond me and my knowledge.
I knew you then only by hearsay;
but now, having seen you with my own eyes,
I retract all I have said,
and in dust and ashes I repent.
The Lord blessed Job’s new fortune even more than his first one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters; his first daughter he called ‘Turtledove’, the second ‘Cassia’ and the third ‘Mascara.’ Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers.
After his trials, Job lived on until he was a hundred and forty years old, and saw his children and his children’s children up to the fourth generation. Then Job died, an old man and full of days.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 118(119):66,71,75,91,125,130 |
Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord.
Teach me discernment and knowledge
for I trust in your commands.
It was good for me to be afflicted,
to learn your statutes.
Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord.
Lord, I know that your decrees are right,
that you afflicted me justly.
By your decree it endures to this day;
for all things serve you.
Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord.
I am your servant, give me knowledge;
then I shall know your will.
The unfolding of your word gives light
and teaches the simple.
Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord.
Gospel Acclamation | Mt11:25 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 10:17-24 |
Rejoice that your names are written in heaven
The seventy-two came back rejoicing. ‘Lord,’ they said ‘even the devils submit to us when we use your name.’ He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you. Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’
It was then that, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said:
‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’
Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them in private, ‘Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.’
SEEING THE GLORY OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [JOB 42:1-3,5-6,12-17; LUKE 10:17-24]
Today, we have the conclusion of the story of Job. The underlying question of the book of Job is: Why do innocent people suffer? This is our question as well. When we face a tragedy, a failure, the injustices of others, or an illness, we wonder why God allows such things to happen–especially when we have been faithful to Him and served Him in the Church and community. This was Job’s question too when tragedy struck his life. Once rich, prosperous, and revered by his peers, he lost his wealth and children, and was personally brought low by an unbearable, afflictive illness. Job demanded justice and an answer from God.
God did not give him an answer directly; instead, He allowed Job to contemplate the wonders of creation and the universe. Indeed, humanity has always marvelled at the beauty of creation–so much so that some, charmed by nature, ended up worshipping creation itself. Many forms of paganism are simply the worship of nature, as was common in the days of ancient Israel. However, Scripture makes it clear that the beauty of creation comes from God. St. Paul wrote: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.” (Rom 1:19-23)
The long dialogue reaches its turning point when Job begins to recognise the wonders of God’s creation–something far beyond his ability to comprehend. He says: “I know that you are all-powerful: what you conceive, you can perform. I am the man who obscured your designs with my empty-headed words. I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand, on marvels beyond me and my knowledge. I knew you then only by hearsay; but now, having seen you with my own eyes, I retract all I have said, and in the dust and ashes I repent.”
If Job could not even understand the marvellous creation of God and its inner workings, how could he ever grasp God’s infinite wisdom and plan? In truth, God never directly answered Job’s questions about innocent suffering. Yet, in the light of God’s amazing creation, those questions were no longer central. The truth remains that God is the Maker of heaven and earth. As the prophet Isaiah remarked: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8-9)
What Job needed was not another theoretical revelation from God, for he had already been given human intelligence to navigate life’s temporal problems. What he needed–and what we all need in the final analysis–was to see the face of God. As the Psalmist prays, “Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved” (Ps 80:7). The Responsorial Psalm similarly says: “Let your face shine on your servant, O Lord. Teach me discernment and knowledge, for I trust in your commands. It was good for me to be afflicted, to learn your statutes. The unfolding of your word gives light and teaches the simple.”
The face of God can only be seen by those who are courageous enough to ask the hard questions of life, as Job did. This does not mean we will receive answers, but rather that we will encounter the Ultimate Answer. All temporal questions of life lead us back to the primary questions: God, our origin, and our ultimate destiny. To brush these questions aside–as Job’s friends did by offering textbook answers and glossing over life’s painful contradictions–will never help us encounter the face of God as Job did.
This same theme of seeing the glory of God prevails in today’s Gospel narrative as well. The seventy-two disciples have just returned from a missionary trip. They had been sent out to towns and villages to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom, heal the sick, and cast out demons (cf. Lk 10:1-12). Now, they return full of excitement and joy because they have witnessed God’s power at work through them in ways they never imagined seeing with their own eyes.
Rejoicing, they report to the Lord: “Lord, even the devils submit to us when we use your name.” Jesus replies: “I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Yes, I have given you power to tread underfoot serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you.” Indeed, Jesus had given them a share of His authority and power over Satan.
However, the Lord also warned them against the trap of pride: “Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.” This warning echoes God’s word against the King of Babylon, who was consumed by his own military might: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” (cf. Isa 14:12-17).
This serves as a vital warning for all of us in ministry or in our daily vocations: we must never let success go to our heads! True joy does not come from feelings of self-importance, power, or worldly glory. Power and success are not the ultimate blessings God wants to give us; allowed to fester, pride will cause us to fall like Satan himself.
Instead, the Lord instructs them: “Rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.” Above all else, our deepest joy is knowing that we are God’s children. Having our names written in heaven is the assurance of our salvation. The beautiful reality of the mission God gives us is that in helping save others and proclaiming the Gospel to them, we are transformed and evangelised ourselves. A preacher or minister who speaks of God and mediates His presence is continually shaped by what he proclaims and practices. Knowing that our ultimate place is in God’s house is the greatest joy we can possess.
Furthermore, to know the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit is our other great source of joy. The revelation of God’s nature as the Blessed Trinity is a profound gift. In the Gospel, we see Jesus in complete union with the Father because they share the same Spirit. Jesus said: “Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Through Christ, the Son who reveals the Father in the Spirit, we come to experience the boundless love and mercy of God. Salvation comes through Christ, and knowing Him as our Saviour is our great joy.
Such are the privileges we have: seeing the power of God at work within and through us, revealing to us our salvation in Him, and most of all, enabling us as His adopted sons and daughters to share in His Trinitarian life. For these reasons, Jesus said to His disciples: “Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.”
We are indeed more blessed than Job, Moses, and the prophets–not only because we see God’s glory in creation, in our lives, and in our ministry, but because we have seen His glory revealed in Jesus. As St. John writes: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1:14, 16).
Humility, like Job’s, is the key to seeing God. He hides these truths from the learned and clever, revealing them instead to mere children. Only when we approach Him with the simplicity and trust of the apostles will God show us His face.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
