Thursday, December 25, 2014
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – CYCLE B – YEAR OF MARK - November 30, 2014
We begin a new
liturgical year, the year of Mark. Every
year the Church invites us to
contemplate Jesus through the eyes and the perspective of a different
evangelist, Gospel writer. Let us allow Mark to lead us during this year
to discover and know Jesus as Mark did, we will really enjoy it.
Let us not do a
synthesis of the 4 Gospels, because the Gospels are not incomplete biographies
of Jesus which we can mix together and get a complete biography. The Gospels narrate real events of the life
of Jesus, but the Gospel writers are not interested so much in the event as in
the meaning of the event. Thus each one uses some parables that maybe the
others do not, or if they use the same they narrate them in a slightly
different way. They do the same with the mirables, the sayings of Jesus and the passion, death
and resurrection The Gospels are
theological reflections of each one of the Gospel writers. Let us enter fully
into the Gospel of Mark and let us allow him to lead us during this liturgical
year.
THIRD
ISAIAH
The first Reading is taken from the third part of the
book of Isaiah, called the Third Isaiah.
This prophet has
the difficult mission to maintain the
hope of his people that has turned back from exile, and does not see the
promises fullfilled in the way they had understood.
As we read this
section of the book of Isaiah we perceive a tension between the present
worries, and the future hope; between denouncing the crimes, and the messages
of courage; the present desilusion and the messianic expectation; the openess
to the foreigner and the condemnation of the foreigner. At the end of the book
the theme of the exodus which is found in this section, is replaced by the
theme of the future Jerusalem, the transfigured city by the fulfillment of the
promises.
READING FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT, Is 63:16-17.19.64:2-7
o
In the liturgy of
the church as well as in the liturgy of Israel we commemorate, we remember in
such a way that we make the events of
the past present.
o
In the beautiful
reading of this Sunday, the author says to God that he wants to remember who
God is for him, how has his experience been in the past. We say the same thing
also.
§ You are our Father and our Redeemer, this is O God
your name for ever (63, 16)
§ Eye has not seen, ear has not heard any god who does
the wonders that you do for those who hope in you .(64,3) We find this same
exclamation in the letter of Paul to the Romans.
§ At the end of this passage the prophet says again to
God, You, O Lord, are our father; we are the clay and you are the potter; we
are the work of your hands.
§ How much trust do these word reveal, trust in these
hands which are fashioning us, cherishing and protecting use even when we
are not aware of it, in spite of our sins and our imperfections. His love is unconditional.
o
The prophet also
remembers the wonders of the past which God has done for his people,
§ In a way it is to remember and to wish also that God
make himself present again.
§ That he protect us so that we do not go back to our
wrong doing.
§ The prophet says what are these wrong doings and ends
up saying to God that in spite of all of this he continues to be our Redeemer
and our Creator.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM : Psi
80:2-3.15-16.18-19
LORD,
MAKE US TURN TO YOU, LET US SEE YOUR FACE AND WE SHALL BE SAVED
O shepherd of Israel hearken
From your throne upon the cherubin, shine forth.
Rouse your power And come to save us.
Once again O Lord of Hosts
Look down from heaven and see,
Take care of this vine
And protect what your right hand has planted
The son of man whom you yourself made strong.
May your help be with the man of your right hand
With the son of man whom you yourself made strong
Then we will no more withdraw from you
Give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
This psalm is both a
lamentation and a supplication.
We can see in this psalm three parts:
§ An initial invocation vv. 2-4
§ A lamentation (vv. 5-8)
§ A supplication (vv. 6.9-20)
The responsorial psalm is taken from the initial
invocation and from the supplication.
§ We invoke God as our shepherd, as Lord of hosts and,
as creator.
§ We tell him that if he helps us and is with us, we
will never abandon him, the last supplication is “give us new life and we will
invoke you.”
§ The new life has been given to us in baptism, we can
invoke him with complete trust, but also with responsibility.
SECOND READING : 1 Cor 1:3-9
«
We read the
beginning of this letter of Paul to the community of Corinth.
«
In the two first
verses, which we will not included in this second reading, Paul introduces
himself as an apostole and he introduces also his collaborator Sostenes.
o
Sostenes was very
well known in Corinth. He had been the head of the local synagogue. His conversion awoke much interest, and maybe
he was also a good preacher. All these
circumstances were probably the reason for Paul to associate this man to his
ministry. To mention him in his letter
could help Paul with the community of Corinth, which so often shows so little
appreciation for the apostole.
«
Today’s reading
begins with a greeting in which he wishes the grace and peace of The Most Holy
Trinity for the community.
«
After that Paul gives
thanks to God for the community.
«
The Lord will
keep them firm until the day of the
Lord, which the first communities called “parousia.”
o
This word, of
Greek origin, was used when the coming of some one was announced. Over time it
was used specially for the coming of the emperor o a prince.
o
But in this
passage Paul does not use the word “parousia”, but the word “apocalypse” which
means revelation.
o
The use of
apocalypse=revelation for the day of the Lord, instead of parousia=coming,
helps us to understand the meaning of the Second Coming of the Lord as his
manifestation at the end of the human history.
«
The community can
trust in the Lord because He is the one who called them, and the Lord is
faithful to his promises.
GOSPEL: MARK 13:33-37
During the liturgical cycle B we will read from the
Gospel of Mark
Ø It is the shortest of the 4 Gospels. It has 16 chapters.
Ø
The research at
the end of the XIX century and beginnings of the XX century has helped the
Church to understand that this Gospel was the first to be written, probably
around the years 65 or 70 of our era.
Ø
The Gospels of
Matthew and Luke use the Gospel of Mark as the base for their Gospels.
Ø
This Gospel has
been called also the Gospel of the Disciple.
Ø
This means that
Mark wanted his community to learn how to behave as a disciple of the Lord.
Ø
In our liturgy
this Sunday we do not read from the beginning of the Gospel, because the Church
wants us to reflect on the end of our human history and this is not found at
the beginning but towards the end of the Gospel.
Ø
The theme of this
first Sunday of Advent is the continuation of the theme we were reflecting on
in the last Sundays of Year A “Be alert,
be vigilant”
Ø
We say to the
Lord LET US SEE YOUR KINDNESS AND GIVE US YOUR
SALVATION.
Ø
Be alert but
without fear, without worries, with great expectation and confidence because
when the Lord comes he will show us his salvation the fruit of his tender love
for us.
Ø
The person who
loves is always waiting for the loved one, Jesus must trully become the Loved One for each one of us, and for the community as such
Ø We expect the Lord with great anticipation, with the
desire to be united with him in an
eternal embrace.
Ø
The one we are
waiting for is Jesus. We expect the fulfillment of the promises about the new
heavens and the new earth where there will be no more fear, doubts, tears
or suffering of any kind. There will be only peace and
harmony
LET US CRY OUT WITH THE FIRST COMMUNITIES
COME LORD
JESUS! MARANATHA!
AND LET US HEAR THE LORD SAYING TO US
YES, I COME
SOON!
CLARETIAN CORNER
The procurator desired very much to please people and, ourselves no
less, and, in view that the house we had was not able to admit girls, he looked
for one according to his taste and fit for the purpose, and rented it for 80 pesos per month. He did all this, looking
for our convenience to please people, but he knew very well that, at that time,
neither do I desire more comfort nor was it convenient to please people. What I
desired at that time was to be very quiet until the coming of the Royal license
for the foundation. I had many motives to think so, and all the rest seemed to
me nonsense.
In this occasion I felt very
weight down because when he told me to visit the house to arrange the
distribution of the rooms, he was already committed up to the point of having
already the keys of the house and the contract signed, as I said before. I had
great pity of embarrassing him and, at the same time, I desired to please him,
but seeing that it was of no profit for our purpose and that the months fly and
it is very hard to earn 80 pesos, I did not know what to do. But God our Lord
who, in everything has given me a hand and takes care even of the most tiny and
domestic things, as a father of families, provided a very easy way in part to
please the procurator but not with much noise as with the transfer to another
house. Venerable María Antonia París,
Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters,
Autobiography 184-185.
As I said, we had the earthquakes and cholera epidemic
during the first two years; and yet, between me and my companions, we managed
to give missions in every parish in the archdiocese. I made my pastoral visit
to each of them and administered the sacrament of Confirmation, remaining as
long as it took to confirm everyone. Everywhere we went,
we distributed books, holy cards, medals, and rosaries, with the result that
everyone was as pleased with us as we were with them.
During that first round of visits and missions we took
the trouble to keep a count of all the articles we distributed Journey to
Baracoa, First visitation and found that we had given away 98,217 books, either
gratis or in exchange for the bad books that people brought in and we
destroyed--and there were very many of these bad books. We also gave away
89,500 holy cards, 20,663 rosaries, and 8,931 religious medals. After the first
visit we no longer kept track of these things because we ordered such large
quantities from Spain, France, and elsewhere that we distributed them
throughout the diocese and beyond. May it all redound to God's greater glory
and the good of the souls redeemed by Jesus Christ. Saint Anthony Mary
Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 544-545.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A. El camino abierto
por Jesús. PPC 2011.
PARIS, María Antonia,
Autobiografía.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, La Biblia
de nuestro pueblo, adaptación del texto y comentarios, 2010.
CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA,
Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial, 2012.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST KING OF THE UNIVERSE
Ø
We are at the end
of the liturgical year, and of the ordinary time.
Ø
In the first
Sunday in ordinary time we contemplated the young carpenter from Nazareth,
Jesus, go to the Jordan River, like the other men, to be baptized by John.
Ø
At his baptism
Jesus heard the voice of the Father telling him “you are my son, my beloved
son.” And after describing the baptism of Jesus, Mark narrates the missionary
activity of the young Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of love of his Father.
Ø In the Sundays in ordinary time that followed up to
now we have seen Jesus developing a
ministry of compassion and tenderness never experienced before, thus many said what
is this? Who
is he? We have never seen such a
thing.
Ø
As Jesus makes
his option to be with the abandoned and marginalized of society, the poor and
the sinners, he invites his disciples, he invites us to do the same.
Ø
Today we
celebrate this same Jesus as King of the Universe, but not a King of worldly power and glory, but a King of endless compassion,
tenderness and kindness.
Ø
His judgment over
the life of our society, our relationships is very surprising and we also
exclaim, what is this? Is that the judgment that Jesus will pass on our
life?
Ø
Let us see what
the readings for this Sunday tell us.
FIRST
READING – Ez 34:11-12,15-17
Ø
The Lord our God
by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel tells us that he himself will take care of
his flock.
Ø
The flock that
has been dispersed during the storm and the darkness. Yes the people of Israel, the
flock of Yahweh, has been dispersed by the political ambitions of the powerful
countries, but most of all because the heart of the people of Israel was far
from its God, and each one went its own way.
Ø The Lord says
§
I will rescue
them from every place where they were scattered
§
I myself will
pasture my sheep
§
The lost I will
seek out
§
The injured I
will bind up
§ The sick I will heal
Ø
Is it not this
what Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, has been doing during his mission
and his ministry among us?
Ø
This passage from
Ezekiel is of a great literary beauty, it describes the tender love of our
Shepherd.
Ø
The reading for
today ends with a verse which makes us think, and which put us in relation with
the Gospel: I will judge between one sheep and another…
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM – Ps 23:1-2.2-3.5-6
THE
LORD IS MY SHEPHERD THERE IS NOTHING I SHALL WANT
The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want
In verdant
pastures he gives me repose.
Beside restful
waters he leads me
He refreshes my
soul
He guides me in
right paths
For his name’s sake.
You spread the
table before me
In the sight of my
foes
You anoint my head
with oil
My cup overflows.
Only goodness and
kindness follow me
All the days of my
life
And I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord
For years to come.
We never get
tired of reading and meditating this psalm, which describes in such a graphic
way and, with words so suggestive what God does for us, his tender care for
each one of us
As the shepherd
he knows each one of us by name.
GOSPEL
Mt 25:31-46
v The Gospel for this coming Sunday is
a continuation of the one we read last Sunday.
v Jesus tells us another parable, and
with this parable he wants us to learn on what will the last judgment be.
v As a good teacher he wants us to know
now what will the test be, so that we may prepare for it during our entire
life.
v He calls himself the Son of Man. This
mysterious character is found in the book of Daniel. The Son of Man is a humble
person, he is the son of a man, but he receives royal power and dominion, power
to judge all the peoples of the earth, nations and languages, his kingdom will
have no end, it is eternal.
v And Jesus in his parable describes
how is his dominion.
v What is the matter of this judgment,
on what will we be examined?
v We will not be examined on our
religion, our faith, our knowledge of Scriptures or theology, or many other
sciences, not even how many Sundays have we attended Mass, or if we attended
religious education classes to learn about God, or if we prayed many rosaries
or if we have served our church in many ministries, none of these things will
be the matter of judgment. All
these things are good, but they will not be the object of the judgment that our
Shepherd will pass on us.
v We will be examined on our human
relationships.
v Human relationships which have to be
like those of our Shepherd who seeks, heals, cherishes, in a word he cares for
others and not for himself.
v This is a very simple judgment, maybe
we do not like it because it is too simple and, it does not help our pride and vanity.
v What a simple think to give something to drink, to eat… The powerful
and leaders of this world have other
people to help others in their name. They do
not have time for this, they are too busy with other things more “important”
v What a powerful message for all of us
the followers of Jesus, who believe to be of the ones at his right hand.
v Will that be so? Is that the way we
relate with our brothers and sisters, all the human beings? Because these are
the ones that will be at his right hand.
v This judgement scares us, but at the
same time it is very consoling, because
all of us can give food, drink, visit… those who are learned and those who have
never gone to school or very Little. We all have been given a human heart able
to love, to be compassionate and to be tender.
v As we read the parable we realize that many of those at
the right hand of the shepherd did not even know the shepherd, the Lord, they
acted following the human instincts that God has given them, they lived as true
human beings, images of God our Father.
The Lord who has showed to us what it
means to love, that is to be compassionate, tender, merciful, in the service of
our brothers and sisters, tells us that this will be the judgment he will pass
on the human history.
v How much work do we have as followers
of Jesus, he has called us in order that doing the same things he did, we work
on the transformation of our world helping in the transformation and conversion
of all the human hearts to the love of our Father God.
v This is our task, may our Shepherd
help us to discover anew in us the ability to love and let us be filled with
missionary enthusiasm to live and proclaim with our whole being that our God is
compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and rich in compassion toward all his
creatures.
SEGUNDA READING 1
Cor 15:20-26,28
ü Paul tells us that Christ was risen
from the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection of all those who
sleep.
ü Afterwards the end will come and then
Christ will hand over the kingdom to his Father.
ü Then all power and sovereignty will
end since the only power will be Christ’s
ü The Son himself will be subjected to
the Father
ü So that God will be God
ü So that God can be all in all.
ü Paul in his letter puts before our
eyes a fascinating and promising life program, but we must work united to
Christ to make real the kingdom of our God, kingdom where we all will be
brothers and sisters, kingdom where the human relationships will not be
difficult as they are now, kingdom in which all will live in peace, we will be
happy, we will have become as individuals and as a society the true image of
God “let us made man in our image.”
ü How awesome is this project of God
who wants to make of all of us as the human race his image, thus the judgment
at the end will be on how well we have
accomplished our mission, our call.
CLARETIAN CORNER
It has been fulfilled literally
because oftentimes, when I was weighed down not knowing how to do so many
things overloading me, I invoked her favor for me and for my sisters and she
always - helped me, especially in the
beginning when our whole community consisted of only these four little ants.The continuous petitions of
people for the religious education of girls, helped me much to obtain complete
enclosure. Even though we had always observed it never going out of the house,
our visitors were permitted to enter, a thing that I did not like at all, and
even though we had scheduled days and hours for visits, I was always desiring
more seclusion. Venerable Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 182-83.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A.
El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
SCHOKEL, Luis Alonso - Adaptación del texto y comentarios
a La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo. 2010.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española. 2012
.
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