Ø
We are at the end
of the liturgical year, and of the ordinary time.
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In the first
Sunday in ordinary time we contemplated the young carpenter from Nazareth,
Jesus, go to the Jordan River, like the other men, to be baptized by John.
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At his baptism
Jesus heard the voice of the Father telling him “you are my son, my beloved
son.” And after describing the baptism of Jesus, Mark narrates the missionary
activity of the young Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of love of his Father.
Ø In the Sundays in ordinary time that followed up to
now we have seen Jesus developing a
ministry of compassion and tenderness never experienced before, thus many said what
is this? Who
is he? We have never seen such a
thing.
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As Jesus makes
his option to be with the abandoned and marginalized of society, the poor and
the sinners, he invites his disciples, he invites us to do the same.
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Today we
celebrate this same Jesus as King of the Universe, but not a King of worldly power and glory, but a King of endless compassion,
tenderness and kindness.
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His judgment over
the life of our society, our relationships is very surprising and we also
exclaim, what is this? Is that the judgment that Jesus will pass on our
life?
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Let us see what
the readings for this Sunday tell us.
FIRST
READING – Ez 34:11-12,15-17
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The Lord our God
by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel tells us that he himself will take care of
his flock.
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The flock that
has been dispersed during the storm and the darkness. Yes the people of Israel, the
flock of Yahweh, has been dispersed by the political ambitions of the powerful
countries, but most of all because the heart of the people of Israel was far
from its God, and each one went its own way.
Ø The Lord says
§
I will rescue
them from every place where they were scattered
§
I myself will
pasture my sheep
§
The lost I will
seek out
§
The injured I
will bind up
§ The sick I will heal
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Is it not this
what Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, has been doing during his mission
and his ministry among us?
Ø
This passage from
Ezekiel is of a great literary beauty, it describes the tender love of our
Shepherd.
Ø
The reading for
today ends with a verse which makes us think, and which put us in relation with
the Gospel: I will judge between one sheep and another…
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM – Ps 23:1-2.2-3.5-6
THE
LORD IS MY SHEPHERD THERE IS NOTHING I SHALL WANT
The Lord is my
shepherd, I shall not want
In verdant
pastures he gives me repose.
Beside restful
waters he leads me
He refreshes my
soul
He guides me in
right paths
For his name’s sake.
You spread the
table before me
In the sight of my
foes
You anoint my head
with oil
My cup overflows.
Only goodness and
kindness follow me
All the days of my
life
And I shall dwell
in the house of the Lord
For years to come.
We never get
tired of reading and meditating this psalm, which describes in such a graphic
way and, with words so suggestive what God does for us, his tender care for
each one of us
As the shepherd
he knows each one of us by name.
GOSPEL
Mt 25:31-46
v The Gospel for this coming Sunday is
a continuation of the one we read last Sunday.
v Jesus tells us another parable, and
with this parable he wants us to learn on what will the last judgment be.
v As a good teacher he wants us to know
now what will the test be, so that we may prepare for it during our entire
life.
v He calls himself the Son of Man. This
mysterious character is found in the book of Daniel. The Son of Man is a humble
person, he is the son of a man, but he receives royal power and dominion, power
to judge all the peoples of the earth, nations and languages, his kingdom will
have no end, it is eternal.
v And Jesus in his parable describes
how is his dominion.
v What is the matter of this judgment,
on what will we be examined?
v We will not be examined on our
religion, our faith, our knowledge of Scriptures or theology, or many other
sciences, not even how many Sundays have we attended Mass, or if we attended
religious education classes to learn about God, or if we prayed many rosaries
or if we have served our church in many ministries, none of these things will
be the matter of judgment. All
these things are good, but they will not be the object of the judgment that our
Shepherd will pass on us.
v We will be examined on our human
relationships.
v Human relationships which have to be
like those of our Shepherd who seeks, heals, cherishes, in a word he cares for
others and not for himself.
v This is a very simple judgment, maybe
we do not like it because it is too simple and, it does not help our pride and vanity.
v What a simple think to give something to drink, to eat… The powerful
and leaders of this world have other
people to help others in their name. They do
not have time for this, they are too busy with other things more “important”
v What a powerful message for all of us
the followers of Jesus, who believe to be of the ones at his right hand.
v Will that be so? Is that the way we
relate with our brothers and sisters, all the human beings? Because these are
the ones that will be at his right hand.
v This judgement scares us, but at the
same time it is very consoling, because
all of us can give food, drink, visit… those who are learned and those who have
never gone to school or very Little. We all have been given a human heart able
to love, to be compassionate and to be tender.
v As we read the parable we realize that many of those at
the right hand of the shepherd did not even know the shepherd, the Lord, they
acted following the human instincts that God has given them, they lived as true
human beings, images of God our Father.
The Lord who has showed to us what it
means to love, that is to be compassionate, tender, merciful, in the service of
our brothers and sisters, tells us that this will be the judgment he will pass
on the human history.
v How much work do we have as followers
of Jesus, he has called us in order that doing the same things he did, we work
on the transformation of our world helping in the transformation and conversion
of all the human hearts to the love of our Father God.
v This is our task, may our Shepherd
help us to discover anew in us the ability to love and let us be filled with
missionary enthusiasm to live and proclaim with our whole being that our God is
compassionate and merciful, slow to anger and rich in compassion toward all his
creatures.
SEGUNDA READING 1
Cor 15:20-26,28
ü Paul tells us that Christ was risen
from the dead as the first fruits of the resurrection of all those who
sleep.
ü Afterwards the end will come and then
Christ will hand over the kingdom to his Father.
ü Then all power and sovereignty will
end since the only power will be Christ’s
ü The Son himself will be subjected to
the Father
ü So that God will be God
ü So that God can be all in all.
ü Paul in his letter puts before our
eyes a fascinating and promising life program, but we must work united to
Christ to make real the kingdom of our God, kingdom where we all will be
brothers and sisters, kingdom where the human relationships will not be
difficult as they are now, kingdom in which all will live in peace, we will be
happy, we will have become as individuals and as a society the true image of
God “let us made man in our image.”
ü How awesome is this project of God
who wants to make of all of us as the human race his image, thus the judgment
at the end will be on how well we have
accomplished our mission, our call.
CLARETIAN CORNER
It has been fulfilled literally
because oftentimes, when I was weighed down not knowing how to do so many
things overloading me, I invoked her favor for me and for my sisters and she
always - helped me, especially in the
beginning when our whole community consisted of only these four little ants.The continuous petitions of
people for the religious education of girls, helped me much to obtain complete
enclosure. Even though we had always observed it never going out of the house,
our visitors were permitted to enter, a thing that I did not like at all, and
even though we had scheduled days and hours for visits, I was always desiring
more seclusion. Venerable Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 182-83.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A.
El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
SCHOKEL, Luis Alonso - Adaptación del texto y comentarios
a La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo. 2010.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia
Episcopal Española. 2012
.
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