XXX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  – CYCLE  A – 2017

The theme for this Sunday is: which commandment of the law is the greatest?  And the answer of Jesus it is the love of God and love of neighbor.   

BOOK OF EXODUS

Exodus means “exit”  “departure”  

Ø  This is the title the authors of the Greek Bible gave to the second book of the Pentateuch. The Jews call it   “Semot”= names, from the first words of the book. The book begins with a list of the children of Jacob/Israel, to establish the transition from the family of Jacob to the people of Israel.   

Ø  In the Exodus we find the beginning of the people of Israel   

o   Its physical birth = liberation from Egypt  

o   Its spiritual birth = the covenant on Mount Sinai   

o   Between the departure from Egypt and the arrival to Mount Sinai there is the desert.   

Ø  Exodus is one the books of the Old Testament with the largest theological content: liberation, covenant, theophany, law, sanctuary…  

Ø  God has a name that has to do with the verb “to be”

o   His name is Lord  

o   He is the God who saves   

o   God considers Israel his first born  

o   The song of Moses sings the victory of the Lord over Pharaoh.   

o   As the sovereign of Israel God takes care, guides and protects it.   

FIRST READING   Ex 22: 20-26

v  God gives three rules to his people  

o   Do not oppress the alien; you have been foreigners in the land of Egypt.    

o   Do not exploit the widow and the orphan.  They were the image of the marginalized and the destitute of society.  

o   Do not act as an extortioner toward the poor  when you lend money to him   

o   And if you take the cloak of your neighbor as a pledge, return it to him before sunset because it is the only thing he has to protect himself from the cold at night.   

v  When all these poor call to me, I will listen to them and I shall make justice.   

v  Because I am merciful    

v  In a course on  Social Justice the teacher explained to us that there is like a connecting thread that runs through all the books of the Old Testament, like the thread that  hold together the beads of a necklace, and this thread  is : God is merciful and takes care of the poor and destitute.    

v  This Sunday the reflection is on the main commandment,   

o   And the reading that the church has chosen for the liturgy of the Word is this reading from the book of Exodus where God teaches us how our life has to be in relation with one another.     

o   We are not told anything either about the respect due to God, or the love He is expecting from us, because to respect our neighbor we need to be full of the love of God.  

o   If I love my neighbor it is because I already love God.    

RESPONSORIAL SALMO: 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.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
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.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
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.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

Ø  The five books of the Pentateuch have its replica in the five books in which the psalms have been organized.   

o   First book: psalms  1-41

o   Second book  – psalms 42-72

o   Third book  – psalms  73-89

o   Fourth book   – psalms 90-106

o   Fifth book – psalms 107-150

Ø  After each stanza that the lector will read or the cantor sing, the assembly will repeat   “I love you, Lord, my strength. “     

Ø  Maybe we could during the week think in what situations has God been our strength during the journey of our life.

GOSPEL – Mt 22: 34-40

      The Sadducees had asked Jesus on divorcing one’s wife, with the ill intention to embarrass him in relation with the resurrection of the dead in which they did not believe.   The answer of Jesus silenced them.

      Now it is the turn for the Pharisees, they want to catch him asking a question about the Law. Which is the first and most important commandment?  because there were more than 600 rules in the Law.  

      And Jesus answer with the words of the “shema” Dt 6,4-9  prayer that each good Israelite would recite morning and evening. In his answer Jesus uses Dt 6,4-5 part of the shema and adds one verse from the Leviticus, which is about the love of neighbor Lv 19,18.   

      Jesus unites them as the first and second most important commandment…..    

      And Jesus adds “These two commandments are the foundation of the law and the prophets. That is to say the Old Testament which the Israelites called the Law(Pentateuch) and the Prophets.    

      This explanation of Jesus continues to question us about the suffering in the world caused by our selfishness, suffering of those who die from hunger while those who have enough as ourselves waste it. God says that he will make justice….. because He is merciful.   

SECOND READING  : 1 Tes 1: 5-10

§  Paul reminds the community of Thessalonica his behavior among them and how they have imitated him.   

§  This has happened in the midst of suffering and also of great joy due to the presence of the Holy Spirit.    

§  They helped Paul and this is known by all the communities    

§  This is one of the main characteristics of the church of all times, to be a community, a family in which we rejoice and we suffer together in spite of our shortcomings and sins, but always with the renewed desire to encounter the Lord here and in the everlasting life.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

This vision was impressed me in my hearts and all the words that Christ our Lord told me so very present, that even now that I am writing, and have already passed 14 years, it seems to me that I see and hear our Lord Jesus Christ in the same very way.

Ever since this vision I have loved very much evangelical poverty ( I loved her already very much before) because our Lord told me that Holy Poverty should be the foundation of this new Apostles, and for lack of this holy virtue all religious order has collapsed. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 10-11.   

I often say to myself: It is of faith that there is a heaven for the good and a hell for the wicked. It is of faith, too, that the pains of hell are eternal. It is also of faith that a single mortal sin is enough to damn a soul because of the infinite malice of mortal sin, which is an offense against an infinite God. Since these principles are all so certain, the thought of the ease with which people sin--as if it were like taking a glass of water, as if it were something funny or amusing--the thought of the crowds that stay continuously in mortal sin and are thus on the road to death and hell--this thought robs me of rest, and I feel like running and crying out. And I tell myself:

If I saw someone about to fall into a pit or a fire, I would surely run and cry out a warning to save him from falling. Why shouldn't I do the same to save someone from falling into the pit and fire of hell? Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters,  11-12

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, SAN ANTONIO  MARÍA. Autobiography.

PAGOLA, JOSÉ ANTONIO. El camino abierto por Jesús. 2011

PAGOLA, JOSÉ ANTONIO. La Buena Noticia de Jesús. Cycle A. 2016

PARIS, VENERABLE MARÍA ANTONIA. Autobiography.

SAGRADA BIBLIA – Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, 2010.

STOCK, Klemens . La Liturgia de la Palabra. Comentario a los Evangelios dominicales y festivos. Ciclo A 2001