Ø
During the last 4
Sundays we have seen Jesus
·
baptized in the
river Jordan, and we have heard the Father say that He is his beloved son.
·
Afterwards John
has presented Jesus as the lamb of God who takes away sin
·
When John is
arrested Jesus begins to preach the Kingdom and invites to conversion
·
Last Sunday due
to the solemnity of the Presentation of the Lord we did not read the Gospel of
the fourth Sunday. In this Gospel Jesus was telling us where happiness can be
found, not where we usually seek it, in the beatitudes, but where we would never look for it. This
is the paradox of the Gospel.
·
Today, fifth Sunday, Jesus speaks of light and salt. He does not talk about our happiness the emphasis is
on the wellbeing of our brothers and sisters. Our life will be salt and light
if we live according to the beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus, or if we do not
want to listen to him our life will be darkness.
·
Let us reflect on
this wonderful gospel.
FIRST READING Is 58: 7-10
Ø
God, through the
mouth of the prophet Isaiah, tells us that our life will be light and will
shine in the darkness:
§
If we share our
bread, our clothing, our home with those who do not have them.
§
If this is our
life, our behavior, our way to relate with our brothers and sisters: our light
will dispel darkness, our wound (sin) will be cured and the glory of God, that
is God himself will protect us (the glory of God well be your rear guard.)
Ø
The prophets
continues saying that if we live in this way, whenever we call on the Lord or
invoke his name, or cry out to him, He will answer "Here I am".
Ø
Yes, he will
answer us because our way of living will have prepared us to acknowledge that
we need him, and so we had invoked him.
Ø
The verses that
follow are like a repetition of what has already been said.
Ø
This is a
literary technique of the Semitic peoples, and also of Israel.
Ø
Let us see how
the prophet repeats the same idea in another way. He repeats but adds something
new, it is like an spiral we go around but at the end we move to a higher
level:
§
The prophets adds
to what he has said about sharing our material needs with our brothers and
sisters in need.
§
We also have to
remove from our midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech.
Ø
When our life
will respond to this kind of behavior, then our light will shine in the
darkness and its gloom will become like midday.
Ø
What a wonderful
sentence what a poetic way to invite us to live a blessed life, a real human
life, full of the wisdom that comes from sharing our goods with others.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 112:
4-5, 6-7, 8-9
THE
JUST MAN IS A LIGHT IN DARKNESS TO THE
UPRIGHT.
Light shines
through the darkness for the upright
he is gracious and
merciful and just
Well for the man
who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his
affairs with justice.
He shall never be
moved
the just one shall
be in everlasting remembrance
an evil report he
shall not fear
his heart is firm,
trusting in the Lord.
His heart is
steadfast, he shall not fear
Lavishly he gives
to the poor
HIs justice shall endure forever
his horn shall be exalted in glory.
GOSPEL Mt 5:13-16
ü
Jesus speaks to his disciples saying to them and also to us that we are the salt
and the light of the world
v
He speaks of something very common in our daily
life, salt gives taste to the food, and helps also to preserve them in those
places where the technology has not reached.
v
He asks them, if the salt loses its taste, what
is his use? certainly it is of no use anymore, so it is thrown out and trampled
underfoot.
ü
He continues saying, you are the light of the
world
v
Here he gives other comparisons, taken also from
the experience of our life
v
If a city is built on the top of a mountain, it will
be very visible, it cannot be hidden
v
The cities were built on the top of the
mountains to defend themselves from their enemies, but at the same time this
was their danger to be too visible.
v
He gives another example, when we light a lamp
in the house we do not cover it because we have lighted it to give light to all
in the house.
ü
You are salt and light
v
Created, called to live to be salt, to give
taste to the realities of this world. Salt that will make life more tasty for
our brothers and sisters, our companions in the journey of life.
v
Called to be light, light that will make life
happy and enjoyable.
ü
Jesus invites us to live in the same way he
lived among us, to make real in our life the beatitudes, thus our life will be
a copy of his, then and only then we will be salt and light
SECOND READING :
1Co 2:1-5
This page of Paul is a work of art of spiritual
life, Christian life, the life of a follower of Jesus
He speaks to the community of Corinth, so much
loved by him, but that caused so much suffering to him.
The members of the community of Corinth were
inclined to what is external, what is admired by the world. They like the
famous preachers, who sometimes speak well but say nothing that can help us to
change our life.
Paul says to them how he decided to come among
them
·
His mission, his
decision was to preach the Kingdom of God
·
Not with sublime
or wise words
·
Because he had
decided
·
to know but one
thing, and this is Jesus and Jesus crucified.
·
He had come to
the community with fear, being conscious of his weakness
·
He did not use
wise words to convince them when he announced the Kingdom
·
but he wanted to
preach in such a way that the strength of the Spirit be visible in Paul's
weakness.
·
And thus their
faith would not lean on human wisdom
·
but on the power
of God
How much courage
and love for God and the neighbor does that decision show
The first reading
tells us to be light, the Gospel invites us to be what the Lord intended when
he created us: salt and light; Paul decides to be salt and light preaching in
humility and fear so that the light of the Spirit of God will shine through his
life.
These
three readings give us abundant matter to reflect on our life with joy,
enthusiasm and fear; no matter how intense is our darkness, the light will
shine if we decide to welcome the Lord in our life. 
When I remembered those things in the midst of my afflictions, I thought
many times of the instructions Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to his beloved
apostles before leaving this world so that they must not fail when the many
tribulations would come during the time of their mission.
I made this vow and proposed it
this way to the young ones who offered themselves to follow me, because of two
motives: the first and principal was to affirm their vocation by means of holy
obedience as it meant not to go away from the will of our superiors in the most
minimal point, because I know how pleasant to God are the works coming from
this holy virtue and this work so superior to my feeble strengths could not be
based but on it. The other was to assure them that I would never abandon them
as it was meant in the expression: “without creating division among ourselves.”
.Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the
Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 122-123.
We left Madrid for Seville, Jerez, and Cadiz, where I
preached. From there we set sail for the Canary Islands. Around
the beginning of February, we arrived at Tenerife,[1]
where I preached on Sunday, embarking from there on Monday for Grand Canary
Island. Here I conducted the Spiritual Exercises for the priests, in a drawing
room of the Episcopal residence, with the bishop presiding at all the sessions.
I also gave a retreat to all the seminarians and preached missions in all the
parishes of Grand Canary Island.
I often had to preach in public squares because the
crowds who gathered for the mission in every town were too large to fit in the
churches. With such huge crowds I always preferred preaching in public squares,
for obvious reasons. St Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian
Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 480-481.
BIBLIOGRAFÍA
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A.
El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. San Pablo 2001
Sagrada Biblia - versión oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española.
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