The readings of this Sunday’s liturgy are an
invitation to choose between God and the idols, the false gods:
o
Joshua asks the Israelites whether they really
want to follow God who delivered them from the slavery of Egypt, or they rather
prefer to return to the slavery in Egypt.
o
Jesus asks his disciples if they also want to
leave him, because his words are difficult to accept.
o
And what about us, whom are we going to choose
and to follow?
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
« This
book narrates the conquest of the promised land by the Israelites, and its
distribution among the tribes.
« The
conquest is presented
o
In a very synthetic and simplified way
o
Probably it was more difficult, and surely it
was not homogeneous
o
The tribes would enter and conquer different
places of the land of Canaan over a long period of time, sometimes even without
any war at all.
o
Some people would enter as workers, others as
nomad shepherds, others as immigrants…
« The
book of Joshua is indispensable to know the fulfillment of the promises made to
the Fathers, about the promised land.
« The
Biblical scholars see this book in different ways:
o
Some consider it to be so close to the themes of
the Pentateuch that they think it should be part of it. We would have an
Hexateuch (six books) instead of a Pentateuch (five books)
o
Others see it together with the Deuteronomy so
different from the rest of the 4 books that they should not be included and
therefore become a Tetrateuch (4 books).
« The
composition of this book:
o
Most of the chapters are written by a deuteronomistic
author or authors.
o
Later on an author o several authors from the
priestly tradition introduced the texts about:
§
The distribution of the land
§ The cities of asylum
§ The levitical cities
« THEOLOGY
OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA:
o
The land is a gift from Yahweh to Israel, his
chosen people, it is the land promised to the fathers.
o
This gift comes with a condition:
faithfulness
o
When Israel forgets about its faithfulness it loses
the land.
o
This is the way they could explain the meaning
of the Babylonian exile: they had been unfaithful to Yahweh.
o
If they dream to go back to the land they will
have to be faithful and not contaminate themselves with the pagan nations.
«
JEREM (EXTERMINATION)
o
We find in the theology of the book of Joshua a
dark side which is difficult for us to
explain and to understand.
o
The institution of the Jerem or God’s ban.
o
They could not take anything and not spare the
life of anyone of the inhabitants of the places they conquered.
o
This was a common practice of the peoples of the
ancient Middle East that were neighbors of Israel, all of them offered the
goods and the persons of the conquered places to their divinities.
o
The scholars say that probably they did always
apply this law, and even when it was applied they did not kill more people than
in a regular war.
« This
is the way Israel explains
o
The events of history to understand them. For
all those peoples, including Israel everything that happens is because God
wants it, and if it is something that God does not want, punishment will
follow, and destruction.
o
But we have learned something more from Jesus,
who is the full and final revelation of God:
§
He has told us that the Father loves us all
§
And that we should love one another, even the
enemies.
FIRST READING Joshua 24:1-2ª,15-17,18b
Ø Joshua
is the successor of Moses who has led the people into the promised land. Now
when he is near to his death he summons the tribes at Shechem, the heart of the
promised land which they have conquered. He asks them: whom do they want to serve?
Ø The
word “to serve” does not have a servile meaning in the Old Testament. It means the joyful and free acceptance of
God’s project.
Ø Joshua
reminds the people what God has done for them since the call of Abraham, and
how he has fulfilled the promises, and Joshua says AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSEHOLD,
WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.
Ø The people answered “we will serve the Lord,
He is our God!
Ø This
passages is written in the form of a covenant similar to the covenants between
the masters and the vassal among the Hitites:
o
First a reminder of what the lord had done for
the vassals
o
The covenant
clauses
o
The
witnesses
Ø This
covenant had two directions:
o
One vertical between the tribes and Yahweh
o
Another horizontal among the people, this
covenant with Yahweh helps them to become a people,
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 34
We continue to read psalm 34 like in the previous Sundays and the
response is the same TASTE AND SEE THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD.
GOSPEL Jn 6: 60-69
ü We have reached the end of chapter 6
of John’s Gospel. Jesus has fed
the crowd, He has declared that He is the bread that has come down from heaven,
He has said that we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have eternal
life, those who heard him could not accept these words and left.
ü Now
Jesus asks his disciples, who also have doubts, the great question, do you want
also to leave?
ü And
Peter, like at the confession at
Caesarea of Philippi which we read in the gospel of Matthew, says to the Lord
in the name of the group of apostles: to whom shall we go, you have words of
eternal life, you are the Holy One of God.
ü In
the gospel of John this episode of the life of Jesus has a great importance. It
has been called the Galilean crisis. At this point the life of Jesus changes.
He leaves his country Galilee, and starts
his journey towards the South, towards Jerusalem where he will end his earthly
life.
ü The
disciples have to choose like the people of Israel had to choose at
Shechem.
ü The
liturgy of this coming Sunday asks us to face the key question of our life,
whom do we want to follow? Christ, who gives us life, but whose following is
difficult and many times incomprehensible? Or do we prefer the comfort which
our society offers to us, road that will lead us to death.
ü The
choice is ours, each one of us will find at the end of his or her journey what
he or she has chosen during his or her life.
ü May the Lord grant us that our response be
like Joshua’s response “As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Or
like the words of Peter “to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal
life, you are the Holy One of God.”
SECOND READING Ephesians 5:
21-32
« The
author of the letter has spoken about the need of unity and harmony among the
members of the community, the Church.
« Now
he turns his eyes towards the family, the domestic church, to remind also the
need for unity and harmony among its members and with Christ.
« He
uses the vocabulary of his times, which he does not want to make them the word
of God, becvause what is the word of God is the meaning of the words he uses. By
sure that today he would not use the word “subordinate” when he speaks to the
wives.
« The union
between husband and wife is called to be the image of the union of Christ and
the Church. This union between man and woman bound in matrimony has to be the
image of the relation which exists between Christ and the Church: a union of
love and of reciprocal self-giving.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA, Autobiography.
PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA, Autobiography.
RAVASSI, GIANFRANCO, Según las Escrituras Año B.
San Pablo Bogotá Colombia 2005.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española. Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid 2011. (Conference of Bishops of Spain, oficial translation
of the Bible.)
SCHOKEL, LUIS ALONSO, La Biblia de nuestro pueblo (The Bible of our
People) Misioneros Claretianos, Ediciones Mensajero,
China 2010.
CLARETIAN CORNER
While I was traveling I would strike up a conversation
with those who chanced to join me about the various things we saw. If I
happened to see some flowers, I would point to them and remark that, as these
plants produced beautiful and fragrant flowers, we should produce virtues. The
rose, for example, teaches us love, the lily symbolizes purity, the violet,
humility, etc. We must, as the Apostle says, be "the good odor of Christ
in every place.'' If I saw a tree laden with fruit, I
would remark that we, too, should bear the fruit of good works, so not to end
up like the two fig trees in the Gospel. If we passed by a river, I would say that the
running water reminds us that we are passing on toward eternity. If we heard
birds singing or music being played, I would refer to the new and everlasting
song of heaven, etc. I have personally witnessed the great value of
conversations like these; their effect was like that of the conversation Christ
held with the two travelers on the road to Emmaus. I also found that they had the further advantage of avoiding useless talk and
grumbling Saint Anthony
Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography
336.
No comments:
Post a Comment