XXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2018    

Last Sunday’s readings   

Ø  told us that it is not enough to listen to or to read the Law, we have to practice it. 

Ø  And it described also on what is the true Law that God has given us:    

o   To love and to serve those in need    

o   To love one another as Jesus has commanded us    

o   To even love our enemies.   

This  Sunday the liturgy offers readings that speak to us about  

Ø  Opening ears and mouth (EPHETAH = OPEN  ) to be free, to live and to proclaim the Law, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  

Ø  Allow God, Jesus, to liberate us from everything that prevents us to be free. 

FIRST READING: Is 35:4-7

      The section of the book of Isaiah from chapter 34:1 to 35:10 has the same style that the part of the book called Second Isaiah (Deutero-Isaiah), thus it seems  that these chapter have been written by the same author, poet and cantor of Israel’s return to the promise land. 

      Tell those who fear, do not fear your God, himself, comes to liberate and save you. 

      This liberation is described in a poetic, beautiful and graphic language.    

o   The eyes of the blind will be opened, as if they had been closed,  and that was the reason they could not see. 

o   The ears of the deaf will be opened too,  thus the sound will be able to go through and thus  

o   The tongue of the mute will sing    

o   The lame will jump around as does the most agile animal the deer.   

o   What will the tongue, that was mute until then, sing? It will sing the wonders that God has made, makes and, will make in the desert.    

o   Not only in the natural desert, but also in the desert of the human heart, that lives closed to the beauty of our God.   

o   On God’s path, everything will recover its original beauty, and even more.  

      This reading is in the liturgy for us, men and women, from the XXI century.  

o   Regardless of our deafness, muteness, paralysis, regardless of what we are lacking, our God will transform it in freedom, in joy, if we allow him.    

o   Our job will be to allow him to make us able to walk on his ways. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM : Ps  146

This psalm is a hymn to God creator and protector of the poor. It is psalm of praise.    

 Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

      The God of Jacob keeps his fidelity forever.

       He does justice to the oppressed, give food to the hungry, frees the captive and protects the foreigner.   

      He gives sight to the blind; he lifts up those who are bowed down.    

      He protects the widow and the orphan.   

      However he removes from him the wicked who goes through crooked ways.  

      Here we found the same theme as in the first reading; our God is not only  Creator and Liberator, but King as well.    

GOSPEL Mark 7:7.31-37

ü  Jesus leaves the region  of Tyre  goes through  Sidon toward Galilee, and from there to the Decapolis

The Decapolis = Ten cities: [deka=ten and polis=city]  was formed by a group of cities in the Eastern border  between the Roman Empire, Judea and Syria. They did not constitute a unity among themselves, but they were considered together for their language, culture, geographical and political situation.  All of them are situated now in what are Jordan, Syria and Israel.  

ü  Jesus is ministering in these pagan cities.     

ü  He adapts himself to the traditions and beliefs of the inhabitants of the region. They need the miracle worker to touch the place that hurts or to touch the sick person, and that he be alone with the one that need to be healed.  

ü  Jesus answering to this need of the people of the region, takes the man apart from the crowd, puts his fingers in the ears of the man, and touches his tongue with his saliva. There was a common belief that the saliva had medicinal properties.  

ü  Afterwards he pronounces the Word “EPHPHATHA” BE OPENED.”

ü  And immediately the man could hear and speak.    

ü  Jesus gives them the order not to say anything about that. We are again confronted with Mark’s “messianic secret.” 

ü  This secret is now necessary because this miracle cannot be understood, in due form, until after the resurrection of Jesus. 

ü  The Church has introduced at the end of the celebration of the sacrament of baptism an optional rite, in which the celebrant says  “EPHPHAHA” BE OPENED!

ü  Why? To listen to the Word and to proclaim it.   

SECOND READING . James  2:1-5

«  Brethren do not show any preferences  or distinctions  or discrimination, if you have accepted the faith in Christ Jesus. 

«  Because if, someone comes to you assembly well dressed and wearing rings, while another comes with dirty and old clothes. If you believe in Christ you cannot treat them differently. 

«  You cannot give to the rich a place of honor and forget about the poor. 

«  Is it not that, what you have done, says James? You have allowed yourselves to judge between those two persons.  

«  Listen and reflect my dear brethren, does not God choose the poor of this world to make them rich in faith and heirs of his Kingdom, Kingdom promised to those who love him?   

«  This reflection of James challenges us Catholic Christians from the XXI century, on behaviors and on our heart.  

«  We, like those members of the community of Jerusalem, make differences, but we do not bend over those that God has bend himself over, but we bend ourselves toward our selfishness and our sins.   

«  Let us not forget that:   

o   We have all been created by the same God   

o   All redeemed, by the same Christ Jesus.    

o   All brethren,  by creation and by redemption.  

o   All called to the Church by the same baptism and sealed by the same Spirit.   

o   All sent to the same mission: to proclaim the Good News of Salvation.   

o   Each one of us according to his/her way of life must accomplish the mission of the followers of Jesus, of the Church. The responsibilities in the Church are services and not honors, for which they had to treat us differently, better than the rest.  

 CLARETIAN CORNER   

Fragments of the Writings of the Founder and of the Foundress of

the Religious of Mary Immaculate  Claretian  Missionary Sisters.

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.

Beside what I saw in these sacred letters (without seeing anything with my bodily eyes as I have said above) an interior voice in the depths of my soul, was explaining me their meaning and the way to practice (…)  To my understanding I saw everything in Christ Crucified who, as he was teaching me the divine letters, was explaining me their meaning… Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress. Autobiography 5-6.  

            Furthermore, this lack of resources abates pride, banishes arrogance, clears a path for humility, and disposes the heart to receive new graces. Thus it makes us ascend in perfection, just as lighter liquids rise to the top and heavier liquids sink to the bottom. O my Savior, make your ministers understand the worth of the virtue of poverty. Make them love it and practice it as you have taught us to, in deeds as well as in words. How perfect we would all be if only we practiced it well. What a great deal of good we would do and how many souls would be saved! On the other hand, if your ministers do not practice poverty, souls are not saved and the ministers themselves bring about their own condemnation out of avarice, as Judas did.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder. Autobiography 371.   

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María . Autobiography.

PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus.  Convivium Press 2011.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography

RAVASSI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras. Año B. Bogotá Colombia 2005

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.

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