XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – OCTOBER 11, 2015 

«  The readings for the liturgy of this Sunday speak to us of  the true wisdom, the wisdom that comes from God.   

«  In the Gospel we will read how Jesus shows to the young man who asks him about eternal life, the way to perfect happiness and true wisdom  

FIRST READING: Wis 7:7-11

Ø  In the verses 1 to 6 of this chapter, the King introduces himself and confesses that he is like everybody else.    

Ø  And thus he prays to obtain the wisdom he needs to live his mission of king of Israel.  

Ø   The text that follows beginning on verse 7 is very similar to what we find in 1 Kg 3 about the dream of Solomon at Gabaon, where God tells him to ask whatever he wishes, and the only thing Solomon wishes is wisdom to govern his people.  

Ø  He mentions first prudence and afterwards he speaks of wisdom.  

Ø  He prefers it to   

o   royal power, 

o   wealth which is nothing compared to her  

o   the most precious stones   

o   gold which compared to wisdom is like the sand  

o   silver which is like mud compared to wisdom  

Ø  He prefers her to health and beauty 

Ø  He chose her as the light to guide him   

Ø  And he says that with her came all that is good for him.   

Ø  Because in her hands there are innumerable riches.   

Ø  What a beautiful text, which describes the wisdom that comes from God.  

Ø  Alonso Schökel writes in his commentary found on the Bible of our People:  

The wisdom of God cannot be recognized if we do not become reconciled with our human nature, and from there to consider it as a gift from God, a gift which surpasses all the other goods which man might acquire. It is a gift which as every gift grows as we share it.    

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM– Ps  90  

ü  This psalm is a meditation on the value of time.      

ü  In the verses we will sing on Sunday, we ask God to have mercy on us, that his kindness may descend upon us.  

ü  The last verse helps us to understand that at the end, man will be what he had worked on himself and what God had done on him.    

R Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy! 

GOSPEL  Mk 10:17-30

«  Jesus continues on the road  to Jerusalem.   

«  A man approaches him; he is very much interested in speaking to Jesus.   

«  He wants to know what he has to do to obtain eternal life. It is a very valid  question.   

«  John Paull II in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor (the Splendor of Truth) says that this is a vital question which every human being has, and wishes to find an answer.     

«  It is not a question about laws and rules; it is an existential question on the way how to live.   

«  Jesus reminds the man that only God is good. Yes we are faced with a God which is incredibly good and kind.   

«  The answer of Jesus is about the teaching of the Law, to enter eternal life keep the commandments.  

      What commandments? All those we call the commandments of the second stone which have to do with our relationship with our neighbor: you shall not kill (5) you shall not commit adultery (6) you shall not steal (7) you shall not bear false witness (8) you shall not covet what belongs to you neighbor (9-10) you shall respect your  father and mother(4).    

      The man has lived according to these commandments since his young age. We do not know if this man is a mature man or a young man.    

«  The dialogue takes a different turn now:    

      Jesus looks at the man with love and offers him something else, he reveals to the man the true richness that he is missing:  

§  Leave all that you have, but do not throw it away, instead, sell it   

§  Give this money to the poor, so that your possessions will help others  

§  Afterwards come and follow me. You can only follow me if you leave everything behind.   

§  Only the following of  Jesus is what gives meaning to “leave, sell and give”.   

      We have been told that this man is rich. The riches are not bad since they come from the goods of creation which have God as the author.   

      The riches are bad when they become our god, and we cannot live anymore without them.   

      This man is really rich, he is unable to discover the beauty, the wisdom that Jesus offers him.   

      Thus he goes away sad, he was joyful and ready when he came but he heard what he did not want to hear.

«  Now Jesus looks at his disciples and  

      He tells them how difficult it is for he who has his heart fixed on riches to enter the kingdom of God.  

      They are surprised, but Jesus says to them that man cannot do this, but God can do it.   

      Jesus uses one of his exaggerations to help us understand his point, the camel and the needle.  

      Peter asks, probably in the name of all of them, what will we have at the end  since we have left everything behind to follow you.   

      You will have one hundred fold in this life for each thing you have left behind, but this will be accompanied by persecutions, that are difficulties and sufferings.  

      You will have eternal life in the “future world.”    

SEGUNDA LECTURA: Heb 4,12-13

ü  The Word of God is not like man’s word, which is changing and sometimes false. 

ü  The Word of God is living and effective; it does what it says, the Word is creative.   

ü  Sharper than any two edged sword, the word discerns between good and bad. It does not act on appearances but from the deepest recesses of our truth.      

ü  Nothing is concealed for her, her light illumines everything;  nothing and nobody can escape from her. 

ü   Verse 13 ends saying that we will give an account of our life to her. Yes, we will give an account of our truth and our lie, to her. 

  

CLARETIAN CORNER

Very soon the Lord consoled me, because His Majesty always acts this way: He made me reach the peak of tribulation and then , when nobody can help me, His divine majesty puts his powerful hand and, in a moment, the tribulation stops because the Lord has this art, to interchange pain and joy.Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Aut. 89. 

The first time I read these words of the Apostles I was horrified to learn that he called knowledge without meekness "devilish." Good God! Devilish! Yes, it is devilish, for experience has taught me that a bitter zeal is a weapon that the devil uses, and that the priest who works without meekness serves Satan, not Christ. When such a man preaches, he frightens away his listeners; when he hears confessions, he frightens away his penitents (and if they do confess their sins they do so badly because they are embarrassed and hide their sins out of fear). I have listened to many general confessions of penitents who had hidden their sins because of so-called confessors who had harshly reprimanded them. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 376.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía  en Escritos.

PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus – Meditations on the Gospel for Year B.

RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras – Año B. Traducido por Justiniano Beltrán. Bogotá 2005.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.