Thursday, October 11, 2012

XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – OCTOBER 14, 2012


«  We may say that the readings speak of the true Wisdom, the wisdom that comes from God. The wisdom that helps  us to see everything  in perspective.  

«  In the Gospel, Jesus answers the man who wants to know about eternal life, by telling him where he will find true wisdom that will lead him to eternal life.     

FIRST READING : Wis  7:7-11
Ø  In verses 1-6 of this chapter 7, the King introduces himself and says that he is like any other man.    
Ø  And thus he prays to get the wisdom he needs to fulfill his mission as King of his people. 
Ø  The text that begins with verse 7 is very similar to the text we find in 1 Kgs 3, where we are told about a dream of Solomon at Gibeon, where God tells him to ask anything from him, and Solomon asks only for wisdom to govern his people. 
Ø  After mentioning prudence he speaks of the spirit of Wisdom 
Ø  Which he prefers to  
o   all royal power, 
o   wealth which is nothing compared to wisdom  
o   precious stones
o   gold which compared to wisdom is nothing more than dust 
o   silver which is like clay compared to wisdom. 

Ø  He prefers it more than health and beauty 
Ø  He wanted it to be his mentor
Ø  He adds that with it all good things came to him  
Ø  What a beautiful text which describes for us the wisdom that comes from God. Whoever has it, leaves  behind everything he has,  which he considers to be garbage  and nothing. 
Ø  In a commentary by the biblical scholar  Alonso Schökel found in the Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo, we read:
The wisdom of God cannot be recognized until we become reconciled with our own human nature, and from there, contemplate wisdom as a gift which surpasses all the good things we may obtain. It is a gift which, as any other true gift, increases as we share it.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps. 90 FILL US WITH YOUR LOVE, O LORD, AND WE WILL SING FOR JOY 
ü  This psalm  is a meditation on the meaning of time.  
ü  In the verses the liturgy uses, we ask God that he may have compassion, that his kindness may come upon us.   
ü  The last verse makes us understand that, at the end man will be what he has done of himself, and what he has allowed God to do in him.   

GOSPEL  Mk 10:17-30
«  Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem.
«  A man approaches him, he is very much interested in talking to Jesus: 
«  He wants to know what he has to do to get eternal life. This is a quite reasonable question. 
«  John Paul II in the encyclical Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth) says,  that the question this man  has is a vital question,  which any human being has and wants to know the answer.  
«  It is not a question about laws and rules; it is an existential question about life. 
«  Jesus reminds this man that only God is good. 
«  And gives him the answer according to the teachings of the Law, to enter eternal life, fulfill the commandments. 
*      What commandments? All those related to the relationship with your neighbor: you shall not kill (5), you shall not commit adultery (6); you shall not steal (7) you shall not lie (8) you shall not defraud (9-10), honor you father and your mother (4)  
*      This man is very much satisfied with himself because he has fulfilled these commandments since his young years. 
«  Now the dialogue takes another turn   
*      Jesus looks at the man with love and offers him something else, he reveals to him the wealth he is lacking: 
§  Leave everything, but do not throw it away, sell it
§  Give the money to the poor, so that others may profit from what you have 
§  Then, only then, after leaving, selling and giving, follow me. 
§  To leave, sell and give have meaning only in relation to the following of Jesus
*      We have been told that this man is rich; wealth is not something bad in itself, because it comes from the goods that God has given us in creation. 
*      Riches are evil when we make of them our God, and we cannot live without them.  
*      This man is truly rich in the earthly meaning; he is not able to discover the beauty, the wisdom about what Jesus is proposing to him. 
*      Thus he leaves sad, he came with joy and decision to follow the road to eternal life, but he did not hear what he wanted to hear. 
«  Now Jesus looks at his disciples and  
*      Says to them how difficult it is for whomever has the heart fixed on earthly riches to enter the kingdom of God.  
*      They are astonished, but Jesus calms them, they cannot but God can everything if we allow him to.   
*      Jesus makes a comparison which seems to us an exaggeration, to make his point: the camel and the needle. 
*      Peter asks, probably representing all the others, at the end what will we have, since we have left everything to follow you. 
*      You will have one hundred fold during this life, but this will be among persecutions and sufferings. 
*      Eternal life will come afterwards in the “future age. “ 
SECOND READING : Heb 4:12-13
ü  The Word of God is not like the human word, which changes and is false.  
ü  The Word of God is living and effective. It is the creative Word.   
ü  It is sharper than a two-edged sword, it means that the Word discerns between good and evil. And it does not do it based on appearances, but from the depth of truth.  
ü  Nothing is hidden from it, its light illumines everything.  
ü  Verse 13 says that we must render an account to the Word, an account of our truth and of our falsehood.  

CLARETIAN CORNER 

Very soon the Lord consoled me, because His Majesty always acts in this way: He made me reach the peak of tribulation and then , when nobody can help me, His divine majesty puts his powerful hand and, in a moment, the tribulation stops because the Lord has this art, to interchange pain and joy.  Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters,  Aut. 89.

The first time I read these words of the Apostle I was horrified to learn that he called knowledge without meekness "devilish." Good God! Devilish! Yes, it is devilish, for experience has taught me that a bitter zeal is a weapon that the devil uses, and that the priest who works without meekness serves Satan, not Christ. When such a man preaches, he frightens away his listeners; when he hears confessions, he frightens away his penitents (and if they do confess their sins they do so badly because they are embarrassed and hide their sins out of fear). I have listened to many general confessions of penitents who had hidden their sins because of so-called confessors who had harshly reprimanded them. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 376.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiography
PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography  
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus – Meditations on the Gospel for Year B.
RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras – Año B. Traducido por Justiniano Beltrán. Bogotá 2005.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.

 

No comments:

Post a Comment