Monday, November 6, 2023

 

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32 - 32Sunday in Ordinary Time  – Cycle A – 2023

The readings speak of wisdom, a wisdom that helps us to live a life in vigilance, attentive to the successes and persons, seeking the meaning of the events.   

FIRST READING  – Wis  6:12-16

Ø  Wisdom is represented as a person  

o   The first two verses speak about something radiant, without corruption  

o   But in the other verses it seems to speak about a person: who wants to be found, who hastens to make herself known…   

o   He who watches for her at dawn will find her sitting at his door, this wisdom might also be God himself, who is always near us, waiting for us.  

o   Those who seek her in their thoughts will reach prudence and freedom.  

o   Wisdom is full of kindness and collaborates with our human projects.   

Ø  In this text we find the verbs to seek and to find.  

o   The human being seeks wisdom  

o   She (Wisdom) makes herself to be found…  

Ø  This text is of a great literary beauty and it projects a very attractive image of wisdom.   

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM:  Ps. 62: 2. 3-4. 5-6. 7-8

R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
For your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
I will remember you upon my couch,
and through the night-watches I will meditate on you:
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.

 

Ø  This psalm does not speak of that attractive character called wisdom, but  here the soul is thirsting for the living God.  

Ø  It is as thirsty as the soil when it has not rained for a long time.   

Ø  The psalmist seeks God, in the same way as the person in the first reading was seeking wisdom.  

Ø  The psalmist says that the love of God is more valuable than life itself.  

Ø  And his whole being joins in this praise: he raises his hands, and his lips sing with joy.  

GOSPEL    Mt 25: 1-13

Ø  Jesus has compared the Kingdom to a field, to a wedding feast, to a treasure…  

Ø  Today the Lord says that it is like, the 10 maids who accompanied the bride to the house of the bridegroom.    

Ø  Five of them lacked wisdom and the others were prudent, they allowed themselves to be guided by the wisdom the first reading speaks about.   

Ø  All did the same, they fell sleep waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom. 

Ø  The bridegroom here seems to be the main character and the most desired one. The maids will supplicate the bridegroom to allow them to be part of the celebration “Lord, Lord open the door for us?” 

Ø  When they got up on hearing that the bridegroom is near, they all have to trim their lamps. Five are oil besides the oil in the lamp, they can follow the bridegroom…   

Ø  The others do not have the oil for their lamps, so they cannot enter into wedding feast, which is the symbol of the kingdom. 

Ø  There is something strange in this parable, which makes us ask: what do you want to tell us, Lord?  You always urge us to help others and here you say, in some way, that it is ok not to share the oil. Why Lord?    

Ø  I have tried to understand this parable and I have sought to answer this question, because being a parable of Jesus it must have a message of kindness and truth. 

Ø  This oil may be the grace, the good works,  and we cannot give  any of these because it is not ours.

Ø  Following my search, I found some explanation that I think may help us. New Testament specialists say that Matthew here used two sources of documents to write his gospel. These were difficult times and he wants to urge his community to live as the Lord taught us and be ready. In this parable of the 10 maidens, the original parable of Jesus is mixed with other teachings or sayings of Jesus, in which he  speaks of the end, but what end?  the destruction of Jerusalem (the firs parable, 5 of the maidens were prudent and 5 not...) on the one hand and the second coming of Jesus at the end of time at the end of history, (“I do not know you,” from the second source).[1]

Ø  The Gospel ends inviting us “To be prepared…” 

Ø  This means let us allow wisdom to lead us.    

SECOND READING:   1 Tes 4, 13-14

Paul says to the community of Thessalonica:  

Ø  That he does not want them to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep  

Ø  Why? In order not to be sad like those who are without hope  

Ø  What is that hope?  

Ø  It comes from the faith that those who die in the Lord Jesus united with Him by faith and love, God the Father will take them with Him.    

Ø  Death continues to be something we are invited to accept in faith; if He has died and is risen, being united with Him we too will be raised after death.    

CLARETIAN CORNER

Given the urgency of the integral education of children and young women and the desire to carry out an evangelizing education, so that women could respond to their lofty mission in the family and society, she calls   Maria Antonia Paris and her companions, to come to Cuba. As soon as the archbishop told them, through Caixal, that they could travel to Cuba, they set themselves in motion sure that "the New World was the point where God Our Lord had determined to begin His work" without doubt that it was an express call from God. There María Antonia  and the bishop Claret  founded in Santiago de Cuba a school to attend to this promotion and comprehensive education of women especially the poorest.

To Caixal, Claret explains, that “I have read the Laws of the Indies and by reason of the Royal Patronage that Spain has in this island  no foundation can be  made without the royal permission. This perhaps will have its difficulties but, I am  of the opinion that they come as lay women and I will take care, to seek for a way to make  the foundation, even with the adverse legislation.”   (Galeron)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial. 2012.

EQUIPO BIBLICO VERBO. Un tesoro escondido. Ciclo A. 2022.

GALERÓN, María Soledad, rmi. Llamadas que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos Hacen Hoy. 2023.

PAGOLA, JOSÉ ANTONIO. El camino abierto por Jesús. 2011.

WIKIPEDIA,  (The free Encyclopedia.)





[1] Source Q (also known as Document Q, means collection of sayings. The theologian who named it was German and Quelle in German means collection. It is a collection of sayings of Jesus, which Matthew and Luke used, in addition to other sources,  to write their gospels;  Mark did not use source Q .   This ancient text is supposed to be based on the oral tradition of the early Church and contains sayings of Jesus.

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

 

31 -   SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  –A – 2023

ü  Two Sundays ago the Lord said that we have to give to Cesar what is his, the coin with his face and inscription, but we have to give back to God his image, which is each one of us. We belong to Him.  

ü  Last week Jesus said that the love of neighbor is a commandment of equal importance than the first commandment “to love God…”  

ü  Today the Lord invites us, he urges us that our works agree with our words, he wants us to be sincere and honest about our responsibilities.   

Prophet Malachi

·         The book is the echo of the situation of Judah and Jerusalem in the Persian era, around 450 B.C.  

·         The situation looks seemingly normal in relation to society in general.   

·         The main interest of this book is the “worship” 

·         Malachi recriminates the priests who are negligent and cynical in the service of the Lord. 

·         He does not forget either about the fundamental requirement of Israel’s faith: justice. 

FIRST READING      Mal 1:14–2, 2. 8-10

Ø  The Lord introduces himself as the sovereign king whose name is fearsome among the nations, among those who do not belong to the people of God.   

Ø  And He gives some warnings to the priests:  

o   They have strayed from the road of righteousness

o    They have been the cause for others to stumble, because they wanted to imitate them.  

o    The consequences of this are that the priests were not respected by the people.   

Ø  And the prophet asks a question that  we still continue to ask    

o    Is it not God our Father and Creator of all?  

o    Do we imagine that God has preferences as we do?   

o    Or does God has a double standard, one for those he loves and another for those he does not love, but we say that God loves all of us equally. 

o    Why do we desecrate the covenant betraying one another among brethren?

Ø  This Gospel   deeply challenges our behavior: if all of us are brothers and sisters:  

o    How come we destroy one another? Not only with weapons, but with our words and our discriminations.  

o    How can we remain day after day insensitive to the cry of so many  human beings mistreated by hunger, by need,   things which are the consequence of  the selfishness of other human beings, our brothers and sisters ?      

Ø  Lord transform please our heart, help us so that our works correspond to what we preach, teach and   believe.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   -  Ps.  131: 1.2.3

R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
O LORD, my heart is not proud,
nor are my eyes haughty;
I busy not myself with great things,
nor with things too sublime for me.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
Nay rather, I have stilled and quieted
my soul like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child on its mother's lap,
so is my soul within me.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
O Israel, hope in the LORD,
both now and forever.
R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.

Ø  This psalm is the prayer of

o   A humble heart, that does not want to be more than what he is  

o   Someone who feels secure in the arms of God like the baby in his/her mother’s arms.  

o   And the last verse invites Israel, and all of us to always trust in the Lord.    

o   Is that my relationship with God, of a trust we could say without limits like the trust of a baby in the arms of who loves him or her, father or mother. 

GOSPEL – Mt 23:1-12

v  In this gospel Jesus denounces the dishonesty, the lack of transparency and sincerity in the works of the representatives of his Father before the people. 

v  He asks the people to obey what they teach because they teach the truth.  

v  But he says   not to do what they do  

o   They preach but do not practice what they preach.   

o   They put many demands on the life of others with the excuse that this is what God wants but they themselves do not do it. 

o   They do everything to be seen, and Jesus someplace else says that they already have their reward. [1]  I have found the definition of the things the Jewish men wear to shoe how pious they were.

o   They seek and love the places and the treatment of honor, but it will not be so among you says Jesus do not allow anyone to call you with titles which will distinguish you from the rest.     

o   And why, because all of you are brothers and sisters, thus do not allow anyone to call you teacher and do not call anyone father on earth, because there is only one Father in heaven.  

v  The one who humbles himself will be exalted, and the one who exalts himself will be humbled.   

v  I do not think that God has any problem when we call teacher or father an human being, as long as we know, believe and act recognizing that we are all brothers and sisters, that the knowledge or the responsibility that we might have inside or outside the church does not make us superior, but it makes of us servants of all.   

v  This truth about our equality is a source of peace and joy because we do not have to do anything to exceed others because, no matter what we do, the truth is always the same: all of us have been created and redeemed   and all occupy a place of preference in the heart of our Father.   .

v   I think that we need to ask the Lord every day the grace to really believe that we are all equal, so that the Lord does not have to say to us what he said to the Pharisees on this Gospel.   

v  I sense that in different places, different groups, of different religions, political affiliation, not believers, that are advocating for this reality of our universal equality. This can be only the work of the Holy Spirit who is teaching us and calling us to do this transcendental step to really accept and live according to the truth of our equality, we are all  human beings true brothers and sisters.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          SECOND READING   1 Thes 2: 7b-9, 13

v  Paul gives a description of his ministry which is a lesson about evangelization, ministry done with compassion and tenderness like a mother. 

v  Paul did not want only to share the Gospel but also his own life, thus he has worked tirelessly in order not to be a burden to anyone.  

v  And he gives thanks because the community of Thessalonica received the message as coming from God and not as a message from Paul.  

 CLARETIAN CORNER

Attention to slaves was also a painful concern. The plague of slavery, which given the social, political and legal circumstances, he did not know well how to face directly and radically "the owners of blacks are men who make their slaves baptize, it is true, but otherwise they live as brutes and they themselves point the slave woman to the slave man,... he defended the slaves before the civil authorities. He regretted their inhuman situation and complained to those responsible to monitor the behavior of traffickers and landowners and punish them as the law itself demanded. (Galeron p.38)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial. 2012.

EQUIPO BIBLICO VERBO. Un tesoro escondido. Ciclo A. 2022.

GALERÓN, María Soledad, rmi. Llamadas que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos Hacen Hoy. 2023

PAGOLA, JOSÉ ANTONIO. El camino abierto por Jesús. 2011

 

 



[1] phylacteries either of the pair of blackened square cases containing parchments inscribed with biblical passages, bound by leather thongs to the head and left arm, and worn by Jewish men during weekday morning prayers.