MEMORIAL OF SAINT DOMINIC, PRIEST - Gospel (Luke 9:57-62) - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

“No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Lk 9:62)

FIRST READING - Dt 4:32-40

"Fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, there is no other."

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

³² Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created humankind upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? ³³ Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? ³⁴ Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? ³⁵ All this you were allowed to see that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other. ³⁶ Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. ³⁷ For love of your ancestors he chose their descendants after them and by his presence and great power led you out of Egypt, ³⁸ dispossessing before you nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to give their land to you as a heritage, as it is today. ³⁹ This is why you must now acknowledge, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. ⁴⁰ And you must keep his statutes and commandments which I command you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY - Lk 9:57-62

“I will follow you wherever you go.”

✠From the Gospel according to Luke

⁵⁷ As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” ⁵⁸ Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” ⁵⁹ And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” ⁶⁰ But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.^[a] But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹ And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” ⁶² [To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”

MEMORIAL OF SAINT DOMINIC - PRIEST - Gospel (Luke 9:57-62)

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

The Word of God on the feast day of Saint Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order—commonly known as the Order of Preachers. Today's Gospel teaches the disciples, as well as all people, that whoever desires to be a disciple of Jesus Christ must go through the following conditions:

• The first condition: one must walk the path that Jesus Christ Himself walked: the path of the cross and suffering. God has made it known that when one follows Him on the path of preaching the Gospel, any place on earth is home, any place is a place where God is present and reigns. Since everything in this universe belongs to God, it is all His home.

But with the natural limited thinking of human beings, they only want a safe and stable life. Jesus knew their hearts, so He said: 'Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.' He wanted to emphasize to the disciples that, when following the path of Jesus Christ, they will have to go everywhere to do the work that God has given them, which is to preach the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven, bringing God's grace to everyone.

• The second condition: whoever follows Jesus Christ must always put God above all things, must prioritize God's work above all work in this world; that is the main purpose, the path that people must follow and seek, which is the Kingdom of Heaven. To obtain the glorious Kingdom of Heaven in the future, each person must obey God and must follow His commandments, as the Word of God invites: 'But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' That is the work of preaching the Gospel that God gives and invites everyone to: to go forth, to go to our brothers and sisters who do not yet know God: those who are still living in the captivity of Satan. As for earthly work—labor that merely sustains the body—it must be placed after the work of God. As the Word of God declares: "Let the dead bury their own dead."

• The Third Condition: When a person chooses to follow Jesus Christ, one must be resolute in committing oneself solely to God's path. The path of the world must be abandoned; only then can one fully follow the path to which God has called. As the Word of God declares, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God."

God wants to give the perfect path, the Kingdom of Heaven, to those who follow Him, so He advises His disciples: when you follow Him, do not look back, lest you waste your whole life; if anyone is not resolute and determined to give up everything belonging to this world, then he is like a person who worships two masters, and at the end of his life he will have no master.

In today's Word of God, God has taught the conditions for those who want to follow Jesus Christ: try to live and follow, be faithful to God until the last breath, put God above all things and worship and serve Him as the only One, and fulfill the work that God has given to exorcise demons, heal and preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven to all mankind, preach the work of the Holy Spirit to the whole world.

That is the noble mission of all those who walk in the Spirit of Truth as God the Father has given to the Army of Light.

St. Dominic was the founder of the Dominican Order, a preacher of the Gospel, “speaking with God and speaking about God.” The light of God has always poured out on St. Dominic, and like St. Dominic’s time, the Church today is shaking because of the rampant power of many Satanic forces. God the Father wanted everyone to remember the history of the Church in the Middle Ages, how St. Dominic and St. Francis supported the Church together. They founded mendicant orders, lived a truly poor life, and St. Dominic’s order had a noble mission as an order specializing in preaching while the priests of that time did not have the power to preach, only bishops and above had the power! That was a revolution at the time.

Likewise, today, God the Father invites those who believe in the work of the Holy Spirit in the new era to follow the example of Saint Dominic, to courageously live the words that Jesus invited in the Gospel, to be determined to stop sinning and to boldly spread the Real Word of God that everyone has received from the hands of Angel Thien Thuong, which is the compass for people to "speak to God the Father" through a life of constant prayer, and "speak about God the Father," after having lived and obeyed Him, to cooperate with the angels, to spread throughout the world the light of the Real Word of God under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Wherever the Word went, many souls were converted, their faith was strengthened, they were healed, freed from the domination of Satan, and brought Satan themselves back to God the Father.

Thanks be to God. Amen.