XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME- CYCLE B – 2018

Ø  The readings again this Sunday are about service, a service accomplished giving our life for the sake of others.  

Ø  Pope Francis says: All these saints, in different contexts, put today’s word into practice in their lives, without lukewarmness, without calculation, with the passion to risk everything and to leave it all behind. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us to imitate their example. (Homily of Pope Francis during the Mass of Canonization, Sunday 14  2018.)          

FIRST READING : Is 53:10-11

Ø  The Servant is faithful to God.  On verso 10 Isaiah says that the Servant has been crushed, tortured not for his own sins but for the sins of others.       

Ø  Through his suffering, and the offering of his life the Servant will see his descendants in a long life.   For the people of Israel and for other peoples, a long life was a sign of God’s blessing, for those who were pleasing to God and did his will. 

Ø  Because of his affliction, of his offering his life, the Servant will see the light. The light is always a symbol of the presence of God, of everything that is related to God, to love, to the truth.  

Ø  Through his sufferings, he will justify many, and will take away their sins.  What a beautiful description of the mission of the Servant. Very soon the Church began to consider Jesus to be that servant, who had given  his life on the cross for  our salvation.

Ø  Every Sunday the Church, through the readings, invites us to follow the way of Jesus; today the invitation is to  offer our life to the Lord,  so that he may unite us to his redemptive sacrifice for the sake of men and women, our brothers and sisters.   

Ø  Jesus invites us to return to the source of joy, which is the encounter with him, the courageous choice to risk everything to follow him, the satisfaction of leaving something behind in order to embrace his way. The saints have travelled this path. (Homily of Pope Francis during the Mass of Canonization, Sunday 14  2018.)

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22

R.  Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

ü  God’s project is instantaneous, but it unfolds through history, it takes time, a long time for us to discover it and to accomplish it; but God accompanies us and protects us on our journey.   

ü  As we have recited in the psalm, the Lord loves justice and right, his goodness fills the earth.  How encouraging are these words!   

ü  The psalmist continues saying words of peace and consolation: the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his kindness.  

ü  The last stanza that we will pray this Sunday is like a sigh of the soul: our soul waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield.  With such a protection whom shall we fear?  

GOSPEL Mk 10:35-45

«  In the verses before the text of today’s Gospel we have encountered the man who wanted to reach eternal life, but was unable to leave behind his many possessions because he had put his security on them, and he went away sad because he had renounced to follow the good master.   

«  The disciples have heard what will be the recompense for those who leave everything behind and follow the Teacher.

«  Do we content ourselves with a few commandments or do we follow Jesus as lovers, really prepared to leave behind something for him? (Homily of Pope Francis during the Mass of Canonization, Sunday 14  2018.)

«  Now the two brothers, called in another place “the sons of thunder”  come and ask for a treatment of preference for them. (In Matthew’s Gospel it is the mother who makes this petition to Jesus)  

«  In the glory, in the future kingdom, in the eternal life they want to sit in places of honor, they have not understood the lesson that Jesus wanted to teach to the man who wanted to reach eternal life, neither have they understood the lesson on service, which he had given some days before. The first shall be the last, and the one who wants to be the most important shall be the servant of all.  

«  This is the eternal weakness of all us human beings, we want to be unique, the first, the most important, but we look for all of this in the wrong places, away from what God teaches us and away from what can give us happiness.      

«  Jesus assures them that they will drink from the chalice he will drink; they will accomplish what God has prepared for them.  

«  They will also be baptized, with the same baptism that Jesus himself will be baptized, his death on the cross

«  In a word, he is telling them that they will be very close to him, as they have asked, so close that they will share in his cross, but to give the important position they ask for, this is given by the Father.   I suspect that in the kingdom of the Father there are not places of honor, the only important one is God, all the rest we are servants sometimes good, sometimes unworthy.    

«  In the Synod on the New Evangelization celebrated in 2012, a  bishop from the Philippines said something very interesting, something that may help us to reflect  on our mission as a church and as members of the ecclesial community: 

o   He wonders about the indifference toward the church and its message, on the rejection of the church and he says  

o   The new evangelization calls us to a new humility  

o   The Gospel cannot coexist with pride. When pride invades the heart of the church, it hurts the proclamation of the Gospel.  

o   The task of the new evangelization has to begin by a sense of admiration and reverence toward the human race and its cultures.  (This is like and echo of the II Vatican Council that had an optimistic sight on the goodness of the world and on the accomplishments of the human race.) 

o   The evangelization has been hurt and continues to be hurt by the arrogance of its messengers.   

o   The hierarchy has to eliminate arrogance, hypocrisy, cannot anymore cover up its faults; because we are humans in the midst of our flock.  

o   He continues saying “Our mission is to propose not to impose.“   

«  Strong words pronounced by one of the teachers and shepherds of the church; but these words are for all and every one of us. How good it is that we acknowledge the need  to be humble, one among many, only then we will be leaven in the dough; only then we will be counted among those who need the doctor, need Jesus, who has come for our salvation.

«  May our good Teacher, who is humble, teach us the beauty of this virtue which is the truth.  

SECOND READING: Heb 4:14-16

ü  We have a high priest who has passed through the heavens  

ü  This priest is Jesus, the Son of God   

ü  This high priest, Jesus, is able to understand our condition since he has shared it with us; he knows our weaknesses, because he has also experienced the weakness of the flesh, because he has been tested in everything like us, except sin.   

ü  He cannot sin because, to sin is to go back to nothingness, this cannot happen to him because he is the life, he is God himself.

ü   The author of the letter invites us to come close to the throne of grace, of mercy to find help.   

o   The throne is the symbol of the authority of our high priest, symbol because in the eternal life there are no thrones, but Scripture uses these images  to help us understand the message.  

o   It is a throne of grace, mercy, kindness, words used in the Old Testament to describe God who is compassion and mercy.    

CLARETIAN CORNER  

I am seeing in this church the Most Holy Sacrament, Mary Most Holy, Saint Joseph, St. Bonaventure and the holy angels. Yes I see the grotto of Bethlehem, and you must represent the small donkey for your humility […]  The community has to imitate the ox for its patience, constancy and love for work, and with the breath of the love of God has to warm Baby Jesus, who is shivering of cold. 

Truly, you will laugh at my simplicity. That is ok. I am happy; like David who jumped in front of the Holy Ark, I also say these simplicities before the Most Holy Sacrament that is in that little grotto. May you have the kindness to greet from me Rev. Pastor and all the other subjects who have worked so much for that foundation.  Also to all the nuns.  Sincerely, your servant and chaplain. (St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder. History ch. IX note 43.)

 This architect wants to direct our whole work of construction; he had put on the façade  a lot of gadgets, and after much supplication we could get him to agree to remove them, and he promised that he would do it;  but today we have sent a note for him to bring the plans to us, I have had a  hard time on seeing that he has done so many nonsense;[…]   You can imagine my indignation or displeasure, because, either we have to abandon  the work of construction because we can  appeal to no one, or it has to be left to the caprice of this architect, of whom all the master builders say that they tremble to deal with such a harsh  person and, since he is the architect of the city, he makes himself to be respected anyway.  I assure you that I am very overwhelmed, without knowing what to do, because, since the whole world is crazy for pride, all say to me that this is nothing, and with good conscience I can and ought to accept the laws because there is no other way. I assure you that if I had known this, I think I would   have not founded here, because I am so upset. (Venerable Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress. History ch IX note 44)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 ALVAREZ, Jesús, cmf. Historia de las Religiosas de María Inmaculada Misioneras Claretianas, 1980.

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

The Catholic Study Bible, second edition.

Information of the Synod on the  “New Evangelization” from the Whispers in the Loggia.