Wednesday, February 12, 2014

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - CYCLE A - FEBRUARY 9, 2014


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.   
 
CLARETIAN CORNER

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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