FIRST SUNDAY
OF LENT – 2018
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We begin Lent, a time of grace in which we
prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Jesus.
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Although we do every year almost the same, this
is not so. We change over time, God is always new, thus Lent is always a new
time of grace, a time of encounter with the Lord, who invites us to follow him
more closely during this season and to participate in his saving cross.
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This Sunday’s readings remind us of the covenant
made between God and Noah in the name of humankind. Peter reminds us about our
baptism and the Gospel presents Jesus who goes to the desert, where he will be
tempted. At the end of his “retreat” he will proclaim to us that the time is
fulfilled, that the Kingdom of God is at hand.
FIRST
READING – Gn 9:8-15
Ø The
blessing which we read in the first reading today, comes after the story of the
flood.
Ø The
biblical author of these texts uses a mythical account of the countries found
in the Mesopotamian region, and it transforms it into a theological reflection
on the consequences of the bad use of freedom on the part of the human being,
this leads him to drown, to his or her own destruction and, also to the
destruction of the whole creation.
Ø It
is a waste of time to ask whether the flood happened, because the author has
used a myth to explain a truth of faith.
The author is not interested in the truth about the flood, because he is
interested in the message he wants to convey.
Ø The
author uses a composition full of color, images which become engraved in our
memory, but these images have to lead us to the message which the author wants
to tell us.
Ø God
makes a universal covenant with Noah, who represents the whole human race, and
also the entire creation, is thus a universal covenant, which goes beyond the
chosen people, it is for all the peoples of the earth, and for the rest of creation.
The emphasis is on the universality of the covenant.
Ø As
in the beginning, God blesses now his
creating work, and in a very especial way the human beings “… and God saw that
it was good…” “and saw that it was good…” … and saw that it was good…” God
gives a new opportunity to man, God does not go wearied to start anew.
Ø The
author describes the sign of the covenant with a natural phenomenon, a sign of
great beauty, “when I see the bow on the clouds I will remember this
covenant…”
Ø God
is portrayed like a human person. God needs to see to remember, this is how the
human being remembers…
Ø When
two nations or tribes were fighting, it was customary that the one who did not
want to fight anymore would hang his bow at the entrance of his tent as a sign
of peace.
Ø God,
who has his tent in heaven, hangs his bow on the clouds, at the entrance of his
abode, as a sign of peace.
Ø People
believed that God was he who sent the rain, God who punished the human beings
either with drought or with floods; these are the weapons of God.
Ø The
story of the flood says that God is tired of the evil of the human being, of
his sin and uses one of his weapons “the flood” to destroy him.
Ø Now
he makes peace and, the sign of that peace is that wonderful bow on the clouds.
When I will send clouds over the earth, my arc will appear on the clouds, and I
will remember my covenant with you, and with every human being.
Ø We
know that the colors of the rainbow are produced by the light passing through
the water drops, but, even knowing it,
we are in awe when we see it, and from our heart we praise and give thanks to
God our Creator and Father.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Your ways,
O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant
Your ways O Lord, make
known to me
Teach me your
paths
Guide me in your
truth and teach me
For you are God my
savior.
Your ways,
O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant
Remember that your
compassion, O Lord
And your love are
from of old
In your kindness
remember me
Because of your
goodness, O Lord.
Your ways,
O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant
Good and upright
is the Lord
Thus he shows sinners
the way
He guides the
humble to justice
And he teaches the
humble his ways.
Your ways,
O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant
« The
psalmist asks God to teach him his ways and to guide him.
« That
he remember his compassion and his kindness
« God,
who is good, teaches the way to the sinner, guides the humble to justice, to
what is right.
« Let us remember that the justice of God is to
make us just like Him, it is not a retributive justice like ours, it is God’s justice, who loves and gives without
measure to all, just and sinners, and he calls all to his love. He pays the same salary to the one who worked
all day long and, to the one who worked only one hour.
SECOND
READING 1Pe 3:18-22
Christ’s suffering is a suffering for doing good
to all.
Christ in his sufferings is our savior and
example.
Peter reminds the
story of the flood.
He compares the story of the flood with the
baptismal bath, which is not for a small group alone, but for everyone who
accepts Christ.
Baptism is not a bath that cleanses material
dirt, but it is the commitment done with God to cultivate an
Irreproachable
conscience through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. With his death and resurrection he has open
for us the way to the Father.
Christ Jesus is glorified by the Father “at his
right hand”. This image reminds us of the courts of the kings where he or she
who sits at the right hand of the king is the most important person of the
kingdom after the king.
GOSPEL OF
MARK 1:12-15
ü After
the baptism of the Lord, the same spirit of God who came on him at his baptism,
leads him to the desert.
ü The
desert was for the people of Israel the place of temptation and also the place
to make decisions.
ü In
the desert the people will learn to trust in God
ü Jesus
who has taken our human condition will be tempted
ü He
is the perfect Israel, who in the peace and contemplative silence of the desert
chooses the way of the Father. He is also the new Adam who lives in harmony
with the wild animals, thus transforming the desert into an inner Paradise
where the angels of God are present.
ü Mark
does not tell us what the temptations were.
ü But
Mark makes clear the triumph of Jesus over the devil, and his complete trust in
the Father’s providence.
ü Jesus
the new Adam has a peaceful relationship with creation, which reminds to us the first Adam in the garden, in peace with
the animals to whom he gave their names, this means that the animals were
subjected to him.
ü Jesus
in the desert makes also real the prophecy of Isaiah… the lamb with the wolf,
the cow with the bear… Jesus makes
real the dream of God over creation .
ü The
forty days makes us think of the 40 years of the people of Israel in the
desert Ex 34:28,.
ü Satan the tempter,
o In
the book of Job Satan accuses Job, (see
the beginning of the book of Job)
o In
the book of Revelation he is the one who opposes the divine plan
Rev 12:7-9
ü When
John is put in prison Jesus returns to Galilee to begin his ministry of
proclaiming the Kingdom.
ü He proclaims:
o
That
the time is fulfilled, what time? The time of God’s promises
o The
kingdom of God is at hand, so close that Jesus is this Kingdom. He is close to everyone, but not all of us
allow him to enter into our heart.
o What
does he ask from each one of us, and
from society in order that the kingdom may be present.
§ To
believe in the Good News. Sometimes they are so good that it is difficult for
us to believe them.
§ To
believe is to allow God to enter in our heart, to change us, to make us like
his Son who died for all. This is the reason why we cannot exclude anyone.
§ Only
in this way the world will believe and will be able to change.
CLARETIAN CORNER
Time revealed the false vocation of some of these free women, one of
them escaped by the roofs after 14 months to the great scandal of all the
people who until then considered us as
angels. The other two died without any vocation to religious life. The ones,
who professed, were good religious even though they gave me much work.
I cannot say of these young
ladies what St. Teresa says about her first nuns: that it seemed God was
choosing those fitted for that house. I can also say that God our Lord sent
them to me expressly to purify my soul. I only found rest with the first three,
for it seems God gave them to me for my consolation and help. They have been
untiring in works and hardships, always contented and happy in the midst of the
many trials and tribulations we experienced in the beginnings. I think the Lord
will make the three of them saints.
A
few days after the apostate escaped, our Lord told me: “How could third order
be a perfect copy of the Apostolic College had you not had a Judas?” then, I
felt the pain that pierced the Most Holy Soul of our Divine Savior for the loss
of the unfortunate Judas. That time we
remained twelve and the devil was roaming around sowing weeds everywhere
seeking how to dissolve this holy house,
but, since this happened, all became much more fervent, what they were not
before. Our Lord always acted in this His work in the same way: from all things
that the Devil tried to get evil, God our Lord was obtaining greater good.
Blessed may He be for so much goodness! (María Antonia París, Foundress of
the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 200-201)
With God's help
this situation was completely changed. I appointed Father Anthony Barjau, a
priest whom heaven had endowed with a gift for educating young men and boys, as
rector of the seminary. This good churchman by his winning ways put them back
on course again, bringing them to practice their religion and apply themselves
to their studies. Thus they finally began to show some progress, both in virtue
and learning, and many of them have been ordained or soon will be.
Since the need for
priests was pressing and the seminary could provide none for a long time, I hit
upon the plan of writing to several Catalonian seminarians who were nearing the
end of their studies and inviting them to come to Santiago to finish them. I
ordained 36 of them with title to the benefice of a sacristy and the right to
apply later for a parish of their own. (Anthony
Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary
Sisters, Autobiography 556-557.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CERVANTES GABARRÓN, Juan, “Primera Carta de Pedro” en Comentario al Nuevo
Testamento. La Casa de la Biblia. Estella, Navarra 1995.
GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Génesis” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La
Casa de la Biblia, Estella Navarra, 1997.
LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros
Claretianos, 2010.
RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las
Escrituras. Doble Comentario de las
lecturas del domingo. Año B. San Pablo,
Bogotá,Colombia 2005.
VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO,
Jesús, cmf. “Autobiography” of St. Anthony Mary Claret.
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