XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2018
« The
readings for the liturgy of this Sunday speak of the true wisdom, the wisdom
that comes from God.
« In
the Gospel we will read how Jesus shows to the young man, who asks him about
eternal life, the way to perfect happiness and true wisdom.
FIRST READING: Wis 7:7-11
Ø In
the verses 1 to 6 of this chapter, the King introduces himself and confesses
that he is like everybody else.
Ø And
thus he prays to obtain the wisdom he needs to live his mission of king of Israel .
Ø The
text that follows, beginning on verse 7 is very similar to what we find in 1 Kg
3 about the dream of Solomon at Gabaon, where God tells him to ask whatever he
wishes, and the only thing Solomon wishes is wisdom to govern his people.
Ø He
mentions first prudence and afterwards he speaks of wisdom.
Ø He
prefers it to
o
royal
power
o
wealth, which is nothing compared to her
o
the most precious stones
o
gold, which compared to wisdom, is like the
sand
o
silver, which is like mud, compared to wisdom
Ø He
prefers her to health and beauty
Ø He
chose her as the light to guide him
Ø And
he says, that with her came all that is good for him.
Ø Because
in her hands there are innumerable riches.
Ø What
a beautiful text, which describes the wisdom that comes from God.
Ø With wisdom freedom is given to us.
Freedom, which helps us to overcome all the ties from our fears, sins,
envies, laziness
Ø Alonso
Schökel writes in his commentary found on the Bible of our People:
The wisdom of God cannot
be recognized if we do not become reconciled with our human nature, and from
there to consider it as a gift from God, a gift which surpasses all the other
goods which man might acquire. It is a gift, which as every gift grows as we
share it.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM– Ps 90
ü This
psalm is a meditation on the value of time.
ü In the
verses we will sing on Sunday, we ask God to have mercy on us, that his
kindness may descend upon us.
ü The
last verse helps us to understand that at the end, man will be what he had
worked on himself and what God had done on him.
R Fill us with your love, O
Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
GOSPEL
Mk 10:17-30
« Jesus
continues on the road to Jerusalem.
« A
man approaches him; he is very much interested in speaking to Jesus.
« He
wants to know, what he has to do to obtain eternal life. This is a very valid question.
« John
Paull II in his encyclical Veritatis
Splendor (the Splendor of Truth) says that this is a vital question, which
every human being has and wishes to find an answer.
« It
is not a question about laws and rules; it is an existential question about how to live.
« Jesus
reminds the man that only God is good. Yes, we are faced with our God, who is
incredibly good and kind.
« The
answer of Jesus is about the teaching of the Law, to enter eternal life keep
the commandments.
What commandments? All those we call the commandments of the
second stone, which have to do with our relationship with our neighbors: you shall not kill (5) you shall not commit
adultery (6) you shall not steal (7) you shall not bear false witness (8) you
shall not covet what belongs to you neighbor (9-10) you shall respect your
father and mother (4).
The man has lived according to these
commandments since his youth. We do not know if this man is a mature man or a
young man.
« The
dialogue takes a different turn now:
Jesus looks at the man with love and offers him
something else, he reveals to the man the true richness, that he is
missing:
§ Leave
all that you have, but do not throw it away, instead, sell it
§ Give
this money to the poor, so that your possessions will help others
§ Afterwards,
come and follow me. You can only follow me, if you leave everything
behind.
§ Only
the following of Jesus is what gives meaning to “leave, sell and give”.
We have been told that this man is rich. The
riches are not bad since they come from the goods of creation, which have God
as the author.
The riches are bad when they become our god, and
we cannot live anymore without them.
This man is rich, he is unable to discover the
beauty, the wisdom that Jesus offers him.
Thus he goes away sad, he was joyful and ready
when he came but he heard what he did not want to hear.
« Now
Jesus looks at his disciples and
He tells them how difficult it is for he who has
his heart fixed on riches to enter the kingdom of God .
They are surprised, but Jesus says to them that
man cannot do this, but God can do it.
Jesus uses one of his exaggerations to help us
understand his point, the camel and the needle.
Peter asks, probably in the name of all of them,
“what will we have at the end since we have left everything behind to follow
you.”
You will have one hundred fold in this life for
each thing you have left behind, but this will be accompanied by persecutions,
that are difficulties and sufferings.
You will have eternal life in the “future
world.”
SEGUNDA LECTURA:
Heb 4,12-13
ü The
Word of God is not like man’s word, which is changing and sometimes false.
ü The
Word of God is living and effective; it does what it says, the Word is
creative.
ü Sharper
than any two edged sword, the word discerns between good and bad. It does not
act on appearances but from the deepest recesses of our truth.
ü Nothing
is concealed for her, her light illumines everything; nothing and nobody can
escape from her.
ü Verse 13 ends saying that we will give an
account of our life to her. Yes, we will give an account of our truth and our
lie, to her.
CLARETIAN CORNER
in
brief, with what he sent us [Caixal], what the postulants brought, what had
come from Cuba and the alms that, you know,
our most dear Father His Excellency Claret has sent, we manage to go on;
and in conclusion, I say that the way it has been done is more to be experienced that to explain,
the finger of God is here, and without this nothing could be done, and it will be so in all our convents. Do you
not remember what happened to His Excellency in Cuba? That the Lord made him
buy the house without [Claret]willing
it, since he had said: “I do not know why I have bought it.” Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress. Letter to Currius in History, ch VIII note 73.
I have read them and they look
good to me; I have missed two books among those you mentioned, one is about the
Exercises of St. Ignatius explained and published by me, and the other is the
life of Mary Most Holy that is the Mystical City of God written by Mother
Agreda; I think that you know both works and maybe you have them, but if you do
not have them you may order them from the Religious Bookstore and I will pay
them…St Anthony
Mary Claret, Founder, letter to Currius in History, ch VIII note 116.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALVAREZ, Jesús, cmf. History of the Religious
of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, 1980.
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus –
Meditations on the Gospel for Year B.
RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras – Año B. Traducido por Justiniano Beltrán. Bogotá
2005.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE
NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.
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