XXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B –
2018
The readings for this Sunday’s liturgy are an
invitation to choose between the true God and the false idols:
o
Joshua asks the Israelites whether they really
want to follow the God who liberated them from Egypt, or whether they prefer to
go back to the securities of the bondage in Egypt.
o
Jesus asks his disciples whether they want to leave him too, because his words are tough.
o
Who are we going to choose and follow?
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
« This
book narrates que conquest of the Promised Land by Israel.
«
The
conquest is described
o
In a synthetic and simple way
o
Probably it was neither so easy, nor so
straightforward.
o
The tribes must have conquered different parts
of the land of Canaan during a long period of time and not only by
fighting.
o
Some would have come as workers, other as nomad
shepherds…
« This
book is essential to realize the fulfilment of the promises to the Fathers, of
giving them the land; otherwise the exodus from Egypt would have been in vain.
« The
Scripture scholars look at this book in different ways:
o
Some consider it so much close to the rest of
the Pentateuch that they believe it should be part of it, and that would make
an Hexateuch (6 books).
o
Others consider it so much similar to the
Deuteronomy but very different from the other four books, thus they speak of a
Tetrateuch (4 books).
« The
composition of this book:
o
Most of the books seem to have been written by a
Deuteronomist author.
o
Later an author or several authors from the
priestly tradition added the following:
§
The distribution of the land
§ The sanctuary cities
§ The levitical cities
« THEOLOGY
OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA:
o
The land is a gift from Yahweh to Israel, his
chosen people, it is the land promised to the fathers.
o
This gift comes with a condition: faithfulness.
o
Whenever Israel forgets about this, it loses the
land
o
This was the way that Israel could explain and understand the meaning of the exile to
Babylon, because it had not been faithful
to God.
o
If it dreams to go back, it will have to be faithful
and not contaminating itself with the non-believers.
FIRST READING : Joshua 24,1-2ª,15-17,18b
Ø Joshua,
Moses’ successor, who has led the people in its entrance in the promised land,
now, before his death he assembles the tribes in Shechem , the heart and the
center of the promised and conquered land and he asks them the great question:
who do you want to serve?
Ø In
the Old Testament the verb, “to serve” does not have a servile meaning, but it
means to adhere joyfully and freely to the project of God.
Ø Joshua
reminds the people what God has done for them since the call to Abraham, and
how he has fulfilled his promises, and he adds AS FOR ME AND MY FAMILY WE WILL
SERVE THE LORD.
Ø The
people answer, “we Will serve the Lord. He is our God!
Ø This
section of the book is presented in the form of a covenant, as the pacts made
among the Hittites between the lords and their vassals: the remembrance of what
the Lord had done for his vassals, the terms of the pact and the witnesses.
This pact has two directions one vertical between the tribes
and Yahweh, the other one horizontal, the pact with Yahweh establishes a union
pact between the tribes, giving them a sense of being a people.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3,
16-17, 18-19, 20-21
R.
(9a) Taste and see the goodness of the
Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Ø
The Lord has eyes and ears for the poor.
Ø
The Lord is not far from his faithful, from
those who are abated.
Ø
Those who
trust and hope in the Lord will not perish.
GOSPEL John, 55.60-69
ü We
have reached the end of chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. Jesus has fed the crowd, He has called himself the bread
come down from heaven, he has said that we have to eat his flesh and drink his
blood to have life eternal. Those who heard him were not able to accept this
vocabulary and have left.
ü Jesus
addresses his disciples that have doubts also, with the great question: Do you
want to leave too?
ü Peter,
as in the confession at Caesarea Philippi, which Matthew presents in his
gospel, says: to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and you
are the Holy One of God.
ü This
episode of Jesus’ life has a great importance in the Gospel of John. It has
been called the Galilean crisis. It establishes
a before and an after. Afterwards Jesus leaves his native land and travels to
the South, toward Jerusalem which will be the end of his earthly life.
ü Here
the disciples are faced with a decisive choice in their lives, like Israel in Shechem.
ü The liturgy presents to us the same question, who
do we want to follow? Jesus who gives
life, but whose following is difficult and his proposals are most of the time incomprehensible?
or do we prefer the comfort offered by our society, which is a way that leads
to death?
ü The
choice is ours, we will find at the end of our journey whatever we may have chosen
during our life.
ü Hopefully
our answer will be like Joshua’s “I and my family we will follow the Lord, or
like Peter, to whom will we go? You have
the words of eternal life, you are the holy one of God.
SECOND READING
Ephesians 5: 21-32
We continue with the letter to the Ephesians.
« The
author of the letter has spoken up to this point about the union and harmony
that have to exist among the members of the Church.
« Now
he turns his eyes toward the family, the domestic Church, to remind them also
about unity and harmony of its members among
them and with Christ.
« The
author uses the expressions of his time, that he does not want to make it the
Word of God, what is the Word of God is the meaning of what it is manifested in
human words. Probably in our time we would use other words to convey the same
meaning that “submission” conveys.
The marriage union is called to be the image of the union
between Christ and the Church. The
relationship between man and woman united in matrimony has to be the reflection
and the image of the relationship existing between Christ and his Church: a
union of mutual love and surrendering.
Thus making use of the
apostolic faculties granted to Us in the
already mentioned Rescript we accept
the time they have spent in strict closure
as Novitiate, and we also approve and adopt from now on as more conformable and
apt to this Institute, the habit and religious veil of the Order of St.
Benedict which they put on when they began the Novitiate by virtue of the authorization that We gave
them, while we elevated to His Holiness our plead; and indeed we admit them to the Religious
Profession, which We will receive in the way established by the same Sacred
Rescript, from our beloved daughter Ma. Antonia de San Pedro, on the twenty-seven
day of the current month of August; and that of her Sisters and our beloved
daughters, we will receive it on the third day of next September, and once the
profession will be done, we will pronounce them as RELIGIOUS OF THE APOSTOLIC
INSTITUTE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD AND OUR
LADY.
Given in our Archbishop’s
Palace of Santiago de Cuba, on the twenty-five of August and in the Lord’s year
one thousand eight hundred fifty-five.
Anthony M. Archbishop of Cuba
So, I made my long –awaited
profession on August 27 of the same year in the hands of my prelate, to the joy
of everybody, and more happiness in my soul-this one cannot be expressed-
notwithstanding the difficult preparation with so many cares in the assurance
of the foundation, the lower a point in the fervor of my spirit. With my
thought fixed in the moment of pronouncing the holy vows, the moment seemed to
me like centuries, and even, with so many serious circumstances met in my
profession, none of them was sufficient to disturb the peace and calm of my
soul. Venerable María Antonia París, Autobiografía 225.
BIBLIOGRAFÍA
CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA,
Document of the Foundation of the
Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters.
PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA, Autobiografía
RAVASSI, GIANFRANCO, Según las Escrituras Año B.
San Pablo Bogotá Colombia 2005.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Official version of the
Spanish Conference of Bishops. B.A.C. Madrid 2011.
SCHOKEL, LUIS ALONSO, La Biblia de nuestro pueblo.
Misioneros Claretianos, Ediciones Mensajero, China 2010.
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