ü The first reading and the Gospel
invite us to trust in God.
ü Both sacred authors choose images of
a tenderness and beauty
ü After listening during two Sundays
the demands of the Law, now Jesus invites us to rest trustfully in the hands of
the Father that, not only makes rain fall and sun rise on good and bad, but he
also takes care of all his creatures even the flowers and the birds.
FIRST READING Is 49:14-15
v Isaiah presents Zion, the holy city,
as a woman who complains that “her Lord” has forgotten her, has abandoned
her.
v And th Lord answers her using an
image so tender that she will not doubt anymore about the love of her God.
v The tender love of a mother is what
almost all of us have for sure in the first years of our life and throughout of
our life.
v In her arms the baby feels secure and at peace, they reassure him or her that they are not abandoned.
v The author says that such is the love
of God for all of us.
v And he adds something else to give us
full peace and security, and in this way conquer our love: Even if a mother
could forget and abandon the baby she has conceived in her womb I will never
forget you, never abandon you.
v We need to hear this words, but more
than hear we need to believe them and abandon ourselves in the arms of our God
like a baby in her mother’s arms.
v God is described in different ways in
the different books of Scripture, especially like a father, but also as a
mother. From him we, human beings, have learned to be father and mother, we
have received from him the capacity to have love and tenderness.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM 62: 2-3. 6-7. 8-9
Rest in God alone, my soul
Only in God is my soul at rest
From him comes my salvation
He only is my
rock and my salvation
My stronghold, I shall not be disturbed at all.
Only in God be at rest my soul
For from him comes my hope
He only is my rock and my salvation
My stronghold I shall not be disturbed.
With God is my safety and my glory
He is the rock of my strength: my refuge is in God
Trust in him at all times, O my people
Pour out your hearts before him
This psalm has
the same tone as the first reading and the Gospel that we will see.
God is hope,
salvation, refuge, saving rock.
There is an
invitation to trust, to pour out our soul before God
We all are in
need of pour out our heart in someone, the sacred author says that we can do
that with God since he is our refuge.
GOSPEL , Mt 6:24-34
Ø
Today we will rea
done of the most beautiful pages of Scripture
Ø
In the first
reading Isaiah invited us to trust, and he uses the tender image of a
mother.
Ø
Matthew takes us
by hand and invites us to look the creation who surrounds us with all its
beauty, and he helps us to realize what God is doing, and that maybe we have
given for granted.
Ø
In the past
Sundays Matthew presented Jesus teaching and unfolding the deep truth and demands of the Law
Ø
Today he says to
us that we cannot serve two masters God and money. Maybe we could rephrase this
saying that we cannot serve God in large case and god in small case, that is to
say a false god an idol,
Ø
After that
Matthew invites us not to be worried and to trust
o
He invites us to
look at our life with all its needs, he mentions only some basic ones and then
he asks us, what is more important life or food o clothing….
o
The birds do not
sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, but the Father feeds them.
o
The flowers of
the field, he does not say the flowers that we use to decorate our churches,
banquets…, no, but those flowers that we step on, those we do not pay attention
to, and are not object of our profit.
o
Jesus invites us
to look at them and see their beauty, he makes us realice that these flowers do
not weave but they dress up better than Solomon, because the Father clothes
them.
o
If God feeds the
birds and clothes the flowers, will he not do much more for us
o
And Jesus, as he
asks us this question says also “men and women of little faith.
o
Do not worry for
tomorrow, when it comes it will bring its own worries but it will bring also the presence of God in our life.
Ø
This reading is
not an invitation to do nothing, but to trust.
Ø
Work is not only
to cover our needs, work is a right of the human being called to be co-creator
with his God.
Ø
Through our work
we are called to develop this gift that we have received, to be co-creators, to
transform the creation that God has begun and that now he continues creating
with our cooperation.
Ø
Thus this reading
is an invitation to work, to provide, to do whatever is needed, but knowing
that there is a Father who takes care of
us with the tender love of a mother.
Ø
There is another
theme, that probably we will share some other day, is the sin of those who
change the human being from co-creator
into an instrument of production, of profit, not respecting the dignity given
to them by God. The dignity to be the
image of the creator and thus with the capacity to transform creation, and not
to be used as an object.
CLARETIAN CORNER
After some months, that I wrote to Archbishop
Claret, this most Rev. MGR. was pleased to answer my letter saying that we
could go already, that we would be most welcome. That, by the moment, he could
not be able to found a monastery that we could live of our work and he promised
all his protection as he was sure that all our activities would be pleasing to
God.
So, we ought to sail
as soon as possible – I think he said on October of that year. On the “Teresa
Cubana” whose captain was for him, totally trustworthy and he would bring us
with much care. I received this letter as an express call of God because, since
His divine majesty had assured me that this holy man would give me a hand to
found the first house of the order, I did not harbor the least doubt that this
New World was the place where God our Lord
had determined to start His work. In spite of the many difficulties of a
travel so frightful for a woman, nothing intimidated me always trusting in the
all powerful grace of God to whom everything is subject, the earth as well as the
sea.
This letter calmed all the anxiety with which the whole hell
had tormented me since I left my beloved enclosure until this moment, because
since this good servant of God delayed his answer so much I thought: “Who knows
if this step has been permitted to be mistaken as a punishment for my sins? So,
all my doubts being banished, and I myself certified of the Divine will, I did
not think of anything but to make plans
for the long trip. Venerable Maria Antonia
Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, 126-127
Toward the beginning of May, 1849, I left the Islands.
The bishop wanted to give me a new hat and coat, but I wouldn't hear of it. All
I took away with me were five big rips in my old coat, which I got from the
crowds that always used to press about me as I went from town to town. I spent
15 months in those islands and worked every day, with God's help. I had no
appetite whatsoever, and I underwent a few trials, but I did it all gladly
because I knew that it was the will of the Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and, furthermore, because so many souls were converted and saved.
My God, how good you are! What unexpected means you use
to convert sinners. The worldly sought to discredit me in Catalonia, and yet
this was the very thing you took advantage of to send me to the Canary Islands. Thus you freed me from the prison that was
planned for me and took me to those islands to pasture those sheep of your
heavenly Father's flock, for whom I would gladly have laid down my life to see
them living the life of grace. Blessed be your love and the great providence
you have always shown me. Now and forever I shall sing your eternal mercies. Amen.
Saint
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography
486-87.
