THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT – 2018
« The readings for this Sunday put in front of us God’s
Law, and Jesus as the incarnation of the Law and of the Temple.
FIRST READING – Ex 20:1-17
Ø
The people that
had been liberated from Egypt by God, and that made a covenant with God on
Mount Sinai, is called by his God to translate this covenant into a behavior
which reflects this love between God and his people, and the response of the people.
Ø
The Law, the
Torah is about the behavior towards God, towards the other persons and towards
the whole of creation.
Ø
The covenant has
been made between God and the people. From now on there will be no more sins against
God and sins against the people, all sins will be against God.
Ø
This explains why
Jesus in his farewell to his disciples gave only one commandment, the
commandment of the fraternal love, because this love presupposes the love of
God.
Ø
The gratitude
towards Yahweh who loves and liberates is the reason for living the Decalogue,
if we separate the Decalogue from the covenant it loses its value.
Ø
The biblical
morality goes from the love of thanksgiving to the Lord, to a marital
commitment and then to the morality of imitation.
Ø
The people of
Israel have to continue in the world the liberating work begun by God.
Ø
With its fidelity
to the covenant manifested in the content of the Law, it will help its brothers
and sisters, members of the human race, to discover, through the witness, the
God who loves them.
Ø
The code of the
covenant is formulated in the negative form. It is the most ample way to
express the precept, much more than the positive way.
Ø
The negative
formulation of the law allows all the other actions which are not prohibited.
Ø This way to formulate the law makes it universal and
forever, no matter what culture, what time. This law is valid always and
for all.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM –Ps 18: 8. 9. 10. 11
Lord,
you have the words of everlasting life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
v
This psalm is a hymn
to the Law of God, to its beauty, its perfection, its power to give us joy.
v
In this four
stanzas the law is:
o
Perfect and it
refreshes the soul
o
Clear and
enlightens the eyes and gives joy to the
heart
o
pure, permanent, just
o
more attractive
than any other appealing thing.
SECOND READING 1Cor 1:22-25
«
The Jews asked
Jesus for a sign to be able to believe, or to accept his message.
«
The Greeks, so
full of human wisdom, ask for what they call
”wisdom”
«
But Paul says
that Christ is this “wisdom” of God, which seems foolishness or a scandal.
«
And Paul adds
something very hard “the weakness of God=Jesus on the cross” is more powerful
than men.
« Christ on the cross on mount Golgotha is the Covenant
which is expressed in the New Law, the Law of the scandal of the cross. THIS IS OUR LAW!!!
THE LAW OF THE FOLLOWERS OF THE CRUCIFIED
AND RISEN CHRIST!!! Fable, scandal, foolishness…
GOSPEL Jn 2:13-25
This Gospel has
two parts: the purification of the Temple and the sign that Jesus gives
This episode
takes place during
o
The first
Passover of Jesus during the first year of his ministry
o
John mentions
three Passovers: that of the Temple, that of the Bread of Life; and that of his
death and resurrection.
o
The synoptic
Gospels speak of only one Passover, the
last one, and they introduce this episode of the purification of the Temple
during that Passover.
§
Jesus at the same
time that he overturns the tables of the money changers (they changed the
profane currency, that had the image of Cesar, by the sacred currency to give it to the Temple) says some words from
Scripture: “stop making my Father's house a marketplace. “
§
The evangelist
John adds that his disciples recalled the words of the Scriptures “the zeal for
your house consumes me.”
§
“To recall: it is
not to look back but, to make present, it is to enter into the meaning of the
words, that is what the disciples did
after the resurrection.
o
The second part
of this reading has to do with the sign they asked for:
§
Jesus gives a
mysterious and provocative sign.
§
The destruction
of the Temple and its being raised again.
§
John says that
only after the resurrection did the disciples “recalled” and understood that He
was speaking of the temple of his body.
§ Jesus is
·
The true Temple
where God is truly adored.
·
The Temple where
we worship God as the first word pronounced on Mount Sinai says.
·
But Jesus is also
the Law, the fullness of the Words spoken by God on Mount Sinai.
·
Because God is
the LAW, and Jesus is the Word=the Son=the Second Person of the Trinity made
man and thus He is the Law made visible among us.
·
From the moment
the Incarnate Word=Jesus has come among us, we do not have any other LAW than
His WORDS echo and fullness of the WORDS OF LOVE PRONOUNCED BY YAHWEH ON MOUNT
SINAI.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Éxodo” 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.
- LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”. Barcelona 1985.
- 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. “Autobiografía ” de
San Antonio María Claret.
CLARETIAN CORNER
I
was very attentive, overwhelmed to what was happening, and it seemed to me that
I was reading the Holy Law of God, but without seeing any books nor letters;
I was seeing it written, and I was
understanding it so very well, that it seemed to me it was imprinting in my
soul but in a particular way the book of the Holy Gospels, which till then I
had never read, neither the Sacred
Scripture (O.T). After, by God’s grace, I have read something and I have seen
it written word by word, as our Lord taught it to me from the holy tree of the
cross. It seems to me that the words I understood were coming out from his host
holy mouth. Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of
the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography
5).
From the very beginning I have been
thrilled by the preaching style of Jesus, his likenesses and parables. And how
He was persecuted! He was a sign of contradiction, persecuted for his teaching,
his works, and his very person. Finally, they took his life amid affronts,
torments, and insults, making Him suffer the most shameful and painful death
imaginable.
(St. Anthony Mary
Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary
Sisters, Autobiography 222)
No comments:
Post a Comment