XVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME -  CYCLO B – 2018

Ø  On the XVII Sunday we began the reading of chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. The chapter that reflects on the Bread of Life.    

Ø  John does not have in his gospel the narration of the institution of the Eucharist, but he devotes chapter 6 to Jesus, the Bread of Life.     

FIRST READING  – Ex 16: 2-4, 12-15

Ø  God has liberated Israel from the slavery in Egypt by means of Moses, helped by  his brother Aaron and his sister Mary. 

Ø  Now faced with the difficulties of living in the desert, which separates them from the promised land where they are heading, that people complains, and needs to blame someone, and it blames Moses and his brother and sister, who convinced them to leave Egypt.   

Ø  It is a natural reaction of the human beings, to blame others of the negative things that happen to them.   

Ø  The Israelites were used to be slaves, to do what they were told, and to eat well in order to be able to work, and now they complain. They did not know the high price of freedom. 

Ø  Maybe we complain when things do not go as we wish, and we question God. Why You do not do anything? Why you do not eliminate those who are opposed to what is good?  Where are you when those things happen…? When we speak like that, we forget that we have been created free, with all the positive and negative consequences of this gift, the most precious that God has given to us.   

Ø  However, God rich in mercy has patience with his people, and he gives them the food they ask for. He gives them meat and bread. 

Ø  An unusual bread which they will have to collect early in the morning. They will have to collect only what they need for the day, if they collect more than needed it will be wasted.   

Ø  Maybe this is happening nowadays, whenever we accumulate goods which are of no use either for us or for those in need. 

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 77:3 y 4bc. 23-24. 25 y 54

R. (24b) The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.

Ø  The reflection, which this psalm does about the history of God’s people, is like a parable, which can be perceived between lines.   

Ø  At the end we know the meaning of the parable: Israel is the flock taken out of Egypt (vv. 52-454) and entrusted to David  (vv. 70-72.)

Ø  Besides, the psalmist introduces us to the wonderful action of God and to a people which does not understand.  This people favored by God, liberated, taken from slavery repeatedly continues to mistrust.   This same situation is found in the Gospel.     

Ø  Maybe we mistrust also.  

GOSPEL   Jn 6: 24-35

Ø  The people has eaten the bread which Jesus has given them,  when they do not see him, they look for him. 

Ø  Jesus helps them to discover the truth that is in their hearts: they look for him not because of the sign that Jesus has performed, but because they have eaten bread without having to do anything to get it. 

Ø  The Gospel of John calls the miracles, signs. Signs of what? Of the presence and work of God in the midst of his people and,  in the young prophet Jesus, whom we acknowledge as the Son of God.    

Ø  Jesus exhorts them not to work for what perishes. 

Ø  Those men and women want to know what they have to do, to perform the work of God. We also want to  know what we have to do.   

Ø  We like to do because it gives the satisfaction to have the control of our life in our hands, so that we do not depend on somebody else, neither on humans, nor on God.  

Ø  But the answer of Jesus is confusing and we do not like it, like they did not either. Now they begin to show their  aggressivity and pride.  

Ø  The only thing we have to do is to believe,  what? Who? In the one, the Father God has sent… what works do you do so that we may be able to believe in you? But they have already forgotten that they ate bread without cost?   

Ø  Yes Moses gave to the people the bread of life to eat. However it was not Moses, but my Father, and now I have given you food to eat. I the one sent by the Father, whom you called your God. “I am the Bread of life.“   

Ø  He who comes to me will never be  hungry and he who believes in will never be thirsty.  

Ø  What a mystery,  the human heart! How inscrutable the mystery of God’s mercy!   

SECOND READING  Eph 4: 17. 20-24

Ø  When Paul visited Ephesus (Acts 19,1) he encountered some Christians, whom he instructed and with whom he formed a community of converted pagans. He lived in Ephesus three years, during this time he  had successes as well as difficulties. 

Ø  Three things in relation to this letter: 1) It does not seem to be a letter, it does not have the personal touch, it looks like a homily.   2) The scholars have doubts that Paul had written the letter  because it does not have Paul’s style.   3) There are also doubts whether this letter had been addressed to the Ephesians. Some believe it had been written to the people in Laodicea, and others think it was addressed to a large audience from those regions.  

Ø  In any case, the letter has a message for the Church of all times.  

Message for this Sunday

Ø  The first thing that we are told is, not to act like pagans. 

Ø  Because it is not what we have learned from Christ, from Him we have learned the truth.  

Ø  We are invited to put way our old self, that is our wrong past; and to renew our spirit and our mind and to put on the new self.   

Ø  In baptism we have been transformed to live Christ life.   

CLARETIAN CORNER   - from the letters of the Founder and Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters.   

To Sister María Antonia París                                                                                                                                                         Manzanillo, June 3   1852.

Dear sister in Jesus Christ: I have received your two letters, one written in the Canary Islands and the other in Cuba.  Thanks to God you have arrived.  Now rest, pray for me to God so that He let us know the way he wants you to serve Him.   According to what you tell me, although I am not present, all the things that I ordered before I left, are done.   

My regards to all the sisters .                                  ANTHONY MARY CLARET, archbishop of  Cuba.

But we suffered everything and we abandoned everything for love of Jesus Christ, wishing a greater perfection and willing to dedicate ourselves to his Holy Service where the spiritual needs might be more urgent and where, being the religious education less served, our efforts might be more acceptable to the eyes of God,  since we proposed nothing  else than his greater glory in the fulfillment of the Holy Rule that we embraced.   Not without great difficulties during the long and difficult navigation that we undertook,  we finally arrived to this shores, and the pious inhabitants of Cuba welcomed us with open arms,  receiving every day unequivocal proofs of their charity and, many parents, from the best considered among the population for their social situation and profound religiosity, manifested strong wishes that as soon as possible we requested the due authorization for the canonical and legal establishment of the Holy Institute for the education that we want to profess.   (From the petition of María Antonia París to St. Anthony Mary Claret to begin the process of the foundation of the Institute) María Antonia and companions.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, SAN ANTONIO MARÍA, Letters.

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, Adaptación del text  and commentaries by Luis Alonso Schökel.

PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA, Letters