The readings for
this Sunday put in front of our eyes the greatest of the commandments.
In the time of
Jesus the people of Israel had already understood that the greatest commandment
had two parts: love of God and love of
the human being, which is the image of God.
THE BOOK OF EXODUS
Before reflecting over the
Reading let us say a word about the book of Exodus.
v Exodus means exit, this is the name that the book has
in the Greek translation.
v In the Hebrew Bible it is called “Semot = names” because the book begins
with a list of the sons of Jacob who migrated to Egypt.
v In this book we find the beginnings of the people of
Israel:
o Its physical birth as a nation: the liberation from Egypt,
the crossing of the sea.”
o Its spiritual biryt “the covenant on Mount
Sinai.”
o Between these two events we have the desert. The desert has always been
seen as the place of the temptation and, of the encounter with God.
o This meaning continues to be true in the spiritual
life, in the journey of faith of each person in search of God.
v The theology of this book is rich, it presents several
important questions such as: liberation, covenant, theophany, law, sanctuary.
v The God of Exodus is the God who speaks to Moses, the
God who hears the cry of his people and comes down to liberate it and introduce
it into a land abundant in honey and milk.
He is
the Liberator God.
FIRST READING Ex 22:20-26
Ø Today’s Reading begins with the words “Thus says the
Lord”
Ø What does he say?
He says that he sees, hears and listens to the suffering of the poor and
he also sees the behavior of those who hurt their brothers and sisters.
Ø He says that the evil we do will, come back to us.
Ø Than he says how we have to behave in some concrete situations. The reading presents to
us three categories of persons whom God protects because they are more vulnerable and he wants
us to do the same:
o The alien who lives in our land, the reason is because “you were once aliens
yourselves in the land of Egypt. This is really interesting when we see how we
treat the aliens among us.
o The widow and the orphan, the two categories of the
most vulnerable and abandoned persons in that society.
o The poor who only has a cloak to cover himself during
the day and also during the night.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Ps 18: 2-3; 3-4; 47,51
I
LOVE YOU, LORD MY STRENGTH
I love you, O
Lord, my strength
O Lord my rock, my
fortress, my deliverer.
My God, my rock of
refuge
My shield, the
horn of my salvation, my stronghold
Praised be the
Lord, I exclaim
And I am safe from
my enemies.
The Lord lives,
and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my
savior.
You who gave great
victories to your King
And showed
kindness to your anointed.
v
The Lord is
invoked by the psalmist as rock, fortress, shield, stronghold, saving power.
v
And the Lord
continues to be so for each one of us, and for all our families and
communities.
GOSPEL Mt 22:34-40
Ø
The Sadducees had
asked Jesus a question on the resurrection because they did not believe in it, and Jesus answers
them in such a way that they could not ask him anything else.
Ø
Their opposite, the Pharisees, want also to ask Jesus a
question to get him in trouble.
Ø
Their question is
“what is the greatest commandment of the Law”?
Ø
Jesus answers
with the very same words that are found in the Torah:
o
The first: You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… (Deut 6:5)
o
The second, is as
important as the first one: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18) .
o
The whole Law (Torah) and the Prophets (the remaining
books of the Old Testament) depend on
these two commandments.
Ø
Jesus reminds
them that the whole law is concentrated in the words we find at the beginning of
the commandments in the book of Exodus: “I am the Lord your God who brought you
out of the land of Egypt, the place of slavery.”
o
The Lord is
our only Lord because he has created us,
and he has saved us.
o
The rest of mankind, men and women who are our
neighbors, are the image of God who has created, liberated and saved us.
o
We do not love
the Lord if we destroy his image. We keep with love and respect the pictures of
our loved ones, in the same way we have to respect and love our neighbor.
SECOND READING 1 Tes 1:5c- 10
ü
Paul continues to
praise the community of Thessalonica.
o
In imitating the
behavior of Paul they have imitated the Lord.
o
Can we say the
same thing, that those who imitate us imitate the Lord?
o
He says also a
paradoxical thing, but which is true in our relationship with God: you have
received the word with great affliction, but at the same time with the joy of
the Holy Spirit.
ü
In turn the
community of Thessalonica has become an example for all the people and the
communities in Macedonia and Achaia.
o
How they welcomed
Paul and the Word he proclaimed to them.
o
How they turn
away from the idols to believe in the true God.
o
How they await
the Son of God, whom God raised from the dead and who will come again from
heaven, Jesus who has liberated us from the coming wrath. muertos y que vendrá desde el cielo, Jesús que nos libera
de la ira venidera.
ü
Paul and the
communities waited for the immediate return
in glory of Jesus. They were
convinced that the second coming would take place in their life time, but it
has not been so, and we continue to wait for his return.
ü
Certainly he will
come again, but maybe while we are looking up into the sky, like the apostles
after the ascensión, we are missing the opportunity to encounter the Lord who
comes to us in humble appearances in the poor, the marginalised, the abandoned
and vulnerable of any kind with whom we partake our life and whom, so many
times, we do not see.
ü
They are close to
us, in our families, in our communities, in our society and in all of them the
Lord is waiting for our love.
Because the disorders caused by
the earthquakes, the archbishop came from the holy visit on console the
extremely afflicted people. On this occasion he came to visit us on the same
day of his arrival, September 3.
He received us showing his great
pleasure and told me that he planned to come again to deal purposely with our
affairs. My companion and I were very happy thinking that he was very eager to
deal with the matter, but God our Lord willed to fulfill the promise he had
made to me many years before, when he wanted to console me saying one day that
Fr. Claret would give me a hand for the
foundation of the first house, and then, added that he would be the one to make
me suffer most. That is why His Divine Majesty willed that I remember his
promise since the first conference. .Venerable María Antonia París, foundress
of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography-173.
During the first two years, despite the earthquakes and
the cholera epidemic, we managed to visit all the parishes in the archdiocese.
In every one of them a mission was led either by myself or my companions, and
in rural parishes with a very large territory, several missions were given.
Every two or three leagues we would hold a mission in one of the many large
tobacco sheds. We would set up an altar, a pulpit, and a confessional with the
help of some chairs and gratings we brought along for that purpose.
Throughout those first two years it rained a great deal.
On one occasion it rained for nine months without skipping a day; and there
were days when it rained through the night as well. This made traveling
difficult, but I and my companions kept on going and the people kept on coming.
We were all happy and in good spirits, although we sometimes lacked even the
necessities of life. Saint Anthony
Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian
Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 538-539.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.
SAGRADA BIBLIA, Traducción oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española, 2012.
