ü On our journey following Jesus our liturgy invites us
to listen to the words of Jesus give them
some food yourselves.
ü In the first reading God invites us to eat and drink
without paying. It is an invitation to renew our covenant with our God.
ü And Paul in his letter to the Romans says that nothing
will be able to separate us from the love of God manifested in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
THE BOOK OF THE THIRD ISAIAH
The
first reading this week is taken from the last chapters of the book of Isaiah
which is called the Third Isaiah.
o
The book of the
prophet Isaiah is composed of three different books, written by different
authors and in different times very much apart from each other, and thus in
different social scenarios.
o
We do not know
who the author or authors are, probably some other prophets with a similar
theology to the theology of the First Isaiah also called Isaiah from Jerusalem
(the first 39 chapters of the book)
o
The Third Isaiah
has the prophetic mission to keep the hope of the people alive.
o
In this part of
the book of Isaiah we discover tensions between the present situation and the
future hope; between denouncing the crimes and the messages encouraging the
people; the disappointment for the present situation and the messianic
expectation; the openness to the foreigners and the condemnations.
o
The theme of the
exodus gives way to the future Jerusalem, the transfigured city in fulfillment
of the promises.
o
The Third Isaiah
goes from chapter 56 to 66.
FIRST READING Is 55:1-3
Ø
God, through the
voice of the prophet, invites all of us to go the water. It is an invitation to those who cannot
pay.
Ø
It is also an
invitation to eat wheat without cost.
Ø
The prophet asks:
why spend your money for what is not
bread, your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Ø
Listen to me and
you will eat well, listen and you will have life.
Ø
I will renew with
you the everlasting covenant, the promises made to David.
Ø
Our God invites
all of us to receive food and drink without paying.
o
Let us approach
him and we will not go hungry, not only hunger for bread, but hunger for the
bread of life, the bread of his word, the bread of an intimate relationship
with Him.
o
Yes, He can
surely satisfy all the longings and desires of our heart.
o
Everything is
given to us without cost by the loving will of our Father God, we are only
asked to listen=to obey; to come and
seek= to ask for.
o
It is given
without cost because his love cannot be paid, we cannot buy it.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 145:8-9.15-16.17-18
The Lord is gracious and merciful,
Slow to anger and of great kindness
The Lord is good to all
And compassionate toward all his Works.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon him
to all who call upon him in truth.
·
The Lord is kind
and compassionate, slow to anger. He takes care of his creation, the work of
his love.
·
Thus all, humans
and all other creatures, turn their eyes toward him hoping to receive food “on
due time,”
·
Not only is he
compassionate, but he is also just and kind.
·
The Lord who is
just makes us just when we welcome him with simplicity and humility.
·
Paul in one of
his letters says that everything turns out good for those who love God, and in
this psalm the verse who follows after the fragment we will read during the
liturgy says precisely the same God
satisfies the desires of those who fear him=love him=seek him.
GOSPEL Mt 14:13-21
v
In the last three
Sundays the Gospel of the Eucharistic Celebration was taken from Matthew’s
chapter 13. In this chapter Matthew narrates some of the parables of Jesus
about the Kingdom.
v
Today we begin
chapter 14 which begins telling us the death of John the Baptist, who had been
beheaded by king Herod.
v
The Gospel tells
us that when Jesus heard about the fate of John the Baptist, he retired to a
deserted place across the lake.
v
When he
disembarks the hungry crowd is waiting there to listen to his word.
v
And Matthew tells
us that Jesus was moved by compassion, compassion which is always the deepest
and more frequent feeling of Jesus.
v
Why is he moved
by compassion? Because they are
sick and as sheep without guidance.
v
In contrast with
Jesus’ compassion, Jesus who has eyes to see the human suffering, has ears to
listen to the silent cry of those suffering, his disciples look for the easy
way, …so they can go and buy food for
themselves…
v
But Jesus whose
behavior is so many times challenging says to them …give them some food yourselves.
v
How is that going
to happen in this deserted place, we
only have five loaves and two
fish….
v
Bring them to me…
make them sit on the grass, and raising his eyes toward his Father
o
He gives thanks
o
He breaks the bread
o
and He distributes it to the crowd by means of his
disciples.
v
All ate and were
satisfied and there were even leftovers????
o
God has created
the world, maybe it is more accurate to say that he begins the process of
creating, I say it in the present tense
because creation is a continuous process
o
And afterwards he
involves us in this process
o
Creation which
entails also everything that is going on in the human heart, in the midst of the human race, that is to say, in the
process to become human.
o
To accomplish this,
our Father God awaits for our
cooperation.
o
This is an exciting
call, to be part of the transformation of creation, of society, and of each individual
person.
o
How thankful we
have to be towards our God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
o
The Gospels says
that they not only ate, but they were satisfied.
o
This is how the
overflowing love of our God works.
v
This Gospel is a
strong call to acknowledge our responsibility in front of the worldwide
situation of hunger and death.
o
A call not to say
as the disciples tell them to go….
o
But like Jesus
who asks them to sit down and he distributes the food to them.
o
As followers of
Jesus we are called to do something, and not be satisfied just saying …poor
people they die from hunger.
o
Because our
Father has put into this world enough resources for all, but some of us take
more than what we should and thus steal from our brothers and sisters what is
theirs.
o
We need to awake! St.
John Paul II said that the Lord our God will make our generation responsible of
the hunger which our brothers and sisters suffer.
o
We all cooperate
in some way in this sin.
SECOND READING Rom 8:35.37-39
Paul asks himself what
will separate us from the love of Christ?
And gives the
answer himself “nothing”
He mentions some
of the evils which hurt us: anguish, great suffering, persecution, hunger,
nakedness, dangers, wars…
And he keeps
saying “nothing”
Why does he say
that?
Because he is
convinced that neither death nor life, neither the present nor the future,
neither the worldly powers, nor height nor depth.. NO CREATURE
Will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Jesus
What consoling
words are these!
We can firmly say
that, not because it is a nice imagination or desire, but because the Son of
God has become one of us through his incarnation, and he has given up his life
to rescue us from all that could separate us from Him.
Again we repeat,
how thankful we have to be to our God
o
For the food=all
our needs which are taken care by his love.
o
Not only the
material needs but also the spiritual ones.
I was seeing our great need to pray to God
unceasingly but, on the other hand, I did not dare to awaken my companions and
the others as all of them were sleeping very calmly. This way I passed the
whole night praying to God, in whom I had place all my trust and asked him not to let us perish, at least
for the sake of those creatures that His
Divine majesty had entrusted to me. And they, for love of Him had offered
themselves with so much good will to cross the terrors of a stormy moment. But,
O, infinite power of God! Who doubts that God in watching over all his
creatures? Venerable María Antonia
París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sister, Autobiography 145.
We were all well and happy as we set sail from Barcelona for Cuba, but on
reaching the Rock of Gibraltar we had to wait for a change of weather before we
could pass through the straits. The sea got worse, and so the captain had to
turn back to Malaga, where we had to wait three days for better weather.
Meanwhile, some work was found for me and I preached 15 sermons in the
cathedral, the seminary, schools and convents, etc
At last we set sail under fair skies for the Canary Islands, where we hoped
to land and visit with my beloved islanders. They were looking forward to it
and so were we, but the sea was so choppy that we couldn't dock there, much to
our mutual regret. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the
Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 504-505
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A. El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del
Vaticano.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española, Madrid 2012.
