Certainly conversion is an ongoing task, but the Church offers some special days during the year, like if they were spiritual exercises made in community, in which we help each other, through the readings and through our own life, to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus.
Today the Old Testament puts in front of our eyes the consequences of our sins, of our departing from God. The Gospel presents to us the confrontation between the official Judaism and Jesus.
Allow these readings to challenge us.
FIRST READING –2 CHRONICLES 36:14-17, 19.23
« The book of Chronicles was written around the 400’s B.C. that is on the V century B.C.
« The author used the information found in the other historical books of the Bible, and composed a new history with these materials united by long genealogies.
« The books of the Chronicles go from Adam to Ezra.
« The reason to write another historical book was the situation in which the community of Israel found itself among the Persians.
« They needed to strengthen their identity among the gentiles, and also before Samaria which reclaimed for itself the paternity of Moses.
« It seems that the intention of the author helped the community of Israel to maintain its identity.
READING FROM 2 CHRONICLES
Ø The people of Israel represented by their authorities, and their priests had accumulated sins and infidelities.
Ø The prophets that God sent to them invited them to change their ways, to be faithful, but the efforts of the prophets were in vain.
Ø A powerful King from Babylon takes them in exile. The text says that it was God who made that, this is because for the man of the Bible God is the author of everything, the good and the bad.
Ø If we look with attention we will see that what has happened to them is the consequence of their actions, of their sins against the Covenant made with God; the God who gave them the Law-Torah to guide them in the way of happiness and freedom.
Ø Another powerful King, several years later, gives them the freedom to go back to their country and rebuild it, especially the Temple.
Ø What are our infidelities to the love of our God and Savior?
Ø What difficult moments have we experienced in our life, and who did cause them?
Ø What joyful moments have we experienced, and who or what did cause them?
Ø Have we been able to discover in each one of those moments the caring and loving hand of our Father?
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 138: 1-2,3,4-5,6
It is the psalm of those exiled in Babylon who remembered their beloved country.
« Far from their homeland, the Israelites sit by the rivers of Babylon to remember their country and weep.
« Their oppressors mocked them and ask them to sing a song of God for them.
« But, how is it possible to sing a canticle to Yahweh in a foreign land, in the land of the gentiles?
« If it would be possible, it we would dare to desecrate our love and our dedication to Yahweh, let us lose our voice, let us lose the movement of our hands.
« We do not want to prefer our joys over you Jerusalem, because you are the symbolic image of the presence of God among us, his people.
GOSPEL OF JOHN 3: 14-21
The Gospel for the fourth Sunday is taken from the conversation of Jesus with Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee which is member of the Sanhedrin, the political and religious body of the people of Israel. In the Gospel of John each character represents a given group of human beings. Nicodemus represents the Judaism which is closed to the newness of the Messiah, the traditional Judaism. On the contrary John the Baptist, whom John the evangelists has presented to us earlier, represents the Judaism which is open to the newness of the Messianic times, who is willing to diminish so the Messiah will be able to grow. Nicodemus is most probably a historical person, but the dialogue with Jesus, with all the details is a theological reflection of the author of the fourth Gospel. Let us go back to Nicodemus o In the conversation which John puts before the text we will be Reading on Sunday, Nicodemus is surprised and does not know how it is possible to be born again. He really needs to be born again in order to be able to accept the newness presented by Jesus.
o Jesus explains to Nicodemus that in the same way that the bronze serpent was lifted up in the desert, and all who looked at it were healed and lived, so it will be with the Son of man when he will be lifted up. Who will believe in Him (to look at the serpent) will have not only the temporal life, but the eternal life.
o John continues to narrate the conversation with Nicodemus
§ God so loved the world, He has created, that He has sent his Son to save it
§ The Son has not come to condemn but to save the world.
§ The division between saved and condemned is made by faith (in the desert those who looked at the bronze serpent were saved).
§ There is a constant judgment in this world: the light came into the world, but men preferred the darkness
§ Because whoever sins looks for the darkness, and whoever does the good comes to the light.
o The central dimension of John’s Gospel is vertical. It goes from us to God.
§ The cross of Christ on mount Calvary rises from the earth to the heavens.
§ This cross marks the division between the two sides of the mountain.
§ On one side we find all who accept and acknowledge Christ Jesus as the Messiah, they follow Him, and they come to the light.
§ On the other side we find those who look for the darkness, they close themselves to the Messiah, and do not accept the salvation offered by Christ Jesus.
SECOND READING FROM THE LETTER TO THE EPHISIANS 2:4-10
ü God is rich in mercy. There is an author who says that God knows only one thing “To love, and to be compassionate and merciful.”
ü God gave us life in Christ when we were dead because of our sins.
ü He raised us up in Christ.
ü He did all of this out of love.
ü It is not our doing, it is not a recompense for what we might have done, IT IS A GIFT FROM GOD, thus let no one be proud because of this.
ü We are God’s master piece, created in Christ Jesus, to lead us to a life of good works. A life which He has prepared for us beforehand.
CYCLE A
GOSPEL OF JOHN 9:1-41
§ It is the story of the man born blind.
§ John presents this story as a theatrical representation, very much in accordance with the way John writes
§ This blind man represents all those who come to Christ from their unbelief. In the Synoptic Gospels we find also the healing of one or two blind men, it seems that it is the same one John presents to us today.
o Mark (10:35-40) speaks of one blind man. This blind man is at the side of the road outside the city. The blind man symbolizes the first step which we need to do in order to follow Jesus: to distance ourselves from the mundane life. We have to leave “Jericho, which represents the mundane city”; but the blind man cannot do this by himself he needs the help of Jesus.
o Matthew (20:29-34) instead of one blind man has two blind men. Matthew is always interested in the community, so these two men help each other. Once cured they follow Christ together, they follow Him in community, not individually.
o Luke goes a step further (l8:35-43). The blind man is not at the exit of the city, but at the entrance of the city. Jesus cures him, and enters into the city, the blind man follows Him and proclaims what He had done to him. He becomes an apostle.
o John, puts the blind man not in Jericho, but in Jerusalem next to the Temple. He does not become an apostle but someone who has a mystical relationship with Jesus.
o Through the story of these blind men we may see our own journey in the following of Jesus.
o During the time of our preparation for the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, or the Sacraments to complete our Christian Initiation, we need to do the same journey as these blind men. This is a journey of a progressive conversion.
§ John puts many references about creation in this narrative
o Jesus makes clay with the dust and his saliva, this reminds us of the second story of creation when God makes man from the dust.
o But this smearing this mud over the eyes of the blind man, reminds us of the pre-baptismal anointing and also the anointing at Confirmation.
o The newly baptized will be called “illuminated”, filled with the light of Christ, “they will see” as the blind man saw after he had washed himself at the pool of Siloam.
o The water of the pool called Siloam or “Messiah.” When the soldier pierced the side of Jesus with his lance, blood and water came from the side of Jesus. The Church has always seen in that episode the origin of the sacraments, especially the sacraments of Christian Initiation.
o Those who saw the blind man did not recognize him, although they saw some similarity with his former appearance.
o The new man, born of the Spirit, is the same but looks different because he has reached his full stature.
o After all the dialogues asking and answering about the identity of the blind man, and how he was cured, the gospel text describes:
§ First the conversation of Jesus with the blind man
· Do you believe in the Son of Man?
· Who is he Sir, that I may believe in him?
· You have seen Him, it is He who speaks with you.
· I believe Lord, and he made homage to Him.
§ Second the conversation with the Pharisees
· Jesus has come for a judgment
· That those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.
· Are we blind also?
· If you were blind you would not have any sin, but because you say that you see, you really are in sin and sin remains in you.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- CASTRO SÁNCHEZ, Secundino. Evangelio de Juan, compendio exegético-existencial, 2da. Edición. Comillas, Madrid 2001.
- LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.
- LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos(Writings) María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico- The Apostolic Missionary.” Barcelona 1985.
- RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras. Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B. San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.
- VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf. Autobiography of Saint Anthony Mary Claret.
The first time our Lord showed me His Sacred Heart so pierced by thorns, it seemed that I was going to die because of the terrible pain that I felt. I would have died of pain had not the grace of God sustained me; because aside from seeing the thorns that penetrated to the most intimate of His soul, our Lord told me with much pain, “ see, my daughter, that is how they repay the benefits that this loving heart has done to those ungrateful children of my church”. These words with the same feeling that our Lord told me seemed to engrave in my soul, because it always makes the same echo in my heart. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 15.
My God, how good you are! How rich in mercy you have been to me! If you had given others the graces you have given me, they would have cooperated with them so much more. Mercy, Lord: I'll begin to be good from now on, with the help of your grace. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 21.
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