Thursday, September 6, 2012

XXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B - SEPTEMBER 9, 2012-

The readings of last week liturgy
Ø  Said to us that it is not enough to listen to or read the Law, we have to practiced it.  
Ø  And they also helped us to reflect on what is the true law which God has given us:
o    To love and to serve those who need us most   
o   To love one another as Jesus has loved us. 
o   To love also our enemies. 

This coming Sunday the liturgy will present to us readings which speak of: 
Ø  Opening the ears and the mouth in order to be free to live and to proclaim the Law, the Good News of Christ Jesus. 
Ø  Of allowing God, allowing Jesus to liberate us from all that enslaves us and do not allow us to be free.   

FIRST READING: Is 35:4-7
*      Chapters 34,1-35,10 of Isaiah have the same literary genre and style as the Deuto-Isaiah or Second Isaiah. The scholars believe that these two chapters have been written by the author of the Deutero-Isaiah.  
*      Tell to those whose heart is frightened, fear not!  Your God comes! 
*      The liberation is described in poetic words and images: 
o   The eyes of the blind will be opened, 
o   The ears of the deaf will also be opened and  will allow the sounds to go thru and thus 
o   The tongue of the mute will sing 
o   The lame will leap like a dear 
o   What will the tongue, which had been mute, sing?  It will sing the marvels God has made in the desert. 
o   Not only in the natural desert, but also in the desert of the human heart which remains closed to the beauty of our God. 
o   As God passes by, everything regains its original beauty.
*      The Church puts in its liturgy this Reading for us, men and women of the 21st century, of St. Juliana Parish and from any other parish. 
o   No matter what our blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis might be, our God will transform it in freedom and joy, if we cling to him.
o   Our work will be to allow Him to fashion us so we may be able to walk in his ways. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Psalm 146  
This psalm is a hymn to God the Creator and the Protector of the poor. It is psalm of praise. 
RESPONSE:  PRAISE THE LORD MY SOUL   
*      The God of Jacob is faithful for ever. 
*      He defends the oppress, gives food the hungry, frees the captive and protects the foreigner. 
*      He gives sight to the blind, protects the orphan and the widow 
*      But keeps the wicked far from him    

GOSPEL Mark 7: 31-37   
ü  Jesus leaves the región of Tyre goes thru Sydon towards the Sea of Galilee, and goes to the region called Decapolis. 
ü  The Decapolis = ten cities : deka= ten  and  polis= city). The ten cities were not a political unit, but a cultural unit .
ü  Jesus is performing his ministry in the pagan cities. 
ü  And Jesus adapts himself to the customs and believes of the region’s inhabitants.  They needed that the miracle worker touched the sick or suffering part of sick person body, and also that the miracle worker be with the sick alone.
ü  Jesus responds to that need of the region’s inhabitants and takes the man apart, puts his finger into his ears and with his saliva touches his tongue, and pronounces the word EPHPHATHA which means BE OPEN.
ü  It was also common belief that the saliva had healing properties.  
ü  Immediately the man hears and speaks.  
ü  Jesus commands them not to say anything to anyone. This is what is called the “Messianic Secret.”  
ü  This secret is necessary here in pagan territory more than in Israel. The miracles that Jesus perfoms will not be completely understood only after his resurrection, which will shed light  over the life and mission of Christ among us.  
ü  The Church uses this word at the end of the baptismal rites.   
ü  OPEN YOUR HEART? To listen to and to preach the Good News, the Gospel.  

SECOND READING: Jas 2:1-5
«  Brothers show no partiality. Do not make distinctions, do not discrimínate, if you adhere to the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.   
«  If someone well dressed and another in shabby clothes comes into our assembly, let us not make distinctions between them. 
«  We cannot give to the rich a place of honor and abandon the poor.   
«  Listen and reflect dear brothers and sisters, did God not choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom of God?  
«  This words of James question  our behavior as Catholics of the XXI century. It questions our actions but more than so our heart.  
«  Among ourselves we make distinctions in the same way as the Jerusalem community was doing. 
«  Let us not forget  that
o   All of us  have been created by God himself 
o   All of us have been redeemed by Christ Jesus 
o   We are all brothers and sisters by creation and by redemption.
o   All of us  have been called to be part of the Church through baptism, and we have all been sealed by the same Spirit. 
o   We have all been entrusted with and sent to the same mission: to proclaim the Good News of Salvation.  
o   Each one from its own way of life and all together as the Church community we have to accomplish the mission entrusted to us.   

 
CLARETIAN CORNER
   
 
The main concern of the missionary is to conform his life with that of Christ, as we have said in the first number of these notes, in his most holy life he will find hidden manna, which he will find good at any time. Therefore, do not get apart from his divine Model if he wants to fulfill the mission entrusted to him by God.  María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. The Apostolic Missionary 2.30. 

 I had observed that the holy virtue of poverty not only edified people and upset the idol of mammon but also helped me greatly to grow in humility and advance in perfection. I can sum up what I learned by experience in the following comparison: The virtues are like the strings on a harp. Poverty is the shortest and thinnest chord and hence gives the highest sound. The shorter we are in life's conveniences, the higher we reach on the scale of perfection. Thus we see that Jesus spent 40 days and nights without anything to eat. He and his Apostles ate barley loaves, and they even ran out of these at times. Once the Apostles were so short of food that they took ears of grain and rubbed them in their hands to kill their hunger with the grains. They were even criticized for this by the Pharisees because they did it on a sabbath. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography, 370. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María . Autobiography 370.
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus.  Convivium Press 2011.
PARIS, María Antonia. “The Apostolic Missionary ”.
RAVASSI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras. Año B. Bogotá Colombia 2005
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO (The Bible of our People). Claretian Missionaries. China 2008.

   

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