XXXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2018  

Ø  Last Sunday the readings invited us to reflect on the need of faith, as a loving adherence to the will of God, and as the longing to see the face of God, as   the blind man said to Jesus.    

Ø  Today we are reminded of the need to keep, during our entire life, the commandments of the Lord our God.   

BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

Ø  The book of Deuteronomy is placed at the end of the Pentateuch and it is the summary of the  first four books of the Pentateuch and the prologue to the Historical Books.   

Ø  Some scholars consider that this book should not be included in the Pentateuch and should be part of the Historical books, since it shares with them the same Deuteronomist theology. 

Ø  Other scholars, on the contrary, believe that it should be part of the Pentateuch, as   the book of Joshua should also be.    

Ø  The Deuteronomy develops its own  spirituality and a theology which have had a decisive influence on the faith of Israel, which could be summarized as follows:  

Obedience to the Lord brings prosperity; disobedience brings devastation and death.   

FIRST READING   Dt 6,2-6

Ø  When Israel is about to enter into the land God promised to his ancestors, Moses speaks to the people and tells them to keep the commandments all the days of their live.  

Ø  Commandments, which Moses puts on the people; if they keep them they will have a long life. For the people of the Old Testament, “long life” was a sign of God’s blessing and thus of a just life.   

Ø  The fidelity to the law of the Lord goes together with “to receive and to keep the land from which flows milk and honey” that is the land of abundance.   

Ø  Only in this way could Israel make sense of the Babylonian exile. According to the Deuteronomist theology, when Israel behaves well it prospers and things go well; but when Israel is unfaithful, it suffers defeats, exiles and all sorts of calamities.        

Ø  Many centuries will have to pass until Israel questions the equation: prosperity= just life, and realizes that it is not so easy to explain the sufferings and difficulties in life. They belong to the mystery of life, the mystery of God, and mystery of man.   

Ø  Moses concludes with these words addressed to the people: “Listen Israel, love the Lord your God with all your being.“  These words are also for us Christians from the XXI century, Listen… truly love your God more than anybody or anything else. Maybe we should say: be in love with Jesus, your Lord and Savior.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM. Ps 18

R.   I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.

Ø  The author of the psalm says that God is our strength, protector, liberator, refuge, shield, hope

Ø  Is this our experience of God? 

Ø  In the third stanza, we bless the Lord for all he does for us.    

GOSPEL Mc 12: 28-34

Ø  Following the theme of the first reading, the Gospel presents a scribe who wants to know from Jesus, which one is the first commandment. 

Ø  Jesus tells him what Is written in the Deuteronomy, and which the scribe knows by heart after repeating it so many times in his life,  

Ø  When he hears Jesus saying that the first is to love God above all, he is very happy.   

Ø  Jesus adds that there is a second commandment, which is as important as the first; it is to love our neighbor.   

Ø  There is no commandment above this two.   

Ø  Jesus summarizes for the scribe all the commandments in these two: the first three that are about God, and the other seven, which are about our neighbor.   

Ø  The scribe says to Jesus that to fulfill these two commandments is more that any holocaust or sacrifice.   

Ø  Jesus says to the scribe: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”    

Ø  Let us often reflect on these words of Jesus about the law, let us ask ourselves if it is true   that the love of God and the love of neighbor govern our life.   

SECOND READING  Heb 7:23-28

Ø  Jesus since he remains forever can always intercede   for us. 

Ø  The author of the letter says “he is always able to save those who approach God through him”

Ø  Jesus does not need to offer constantly sacrifices as other priests do; he only offered one sacrifice once and for all, the sacrifice of his life.  

Ø  These words fill us with trust and invite us to rest peacefully in God’s arms, like the baby sleeps calm in the arms of his or her parent. 

CLARETIAN CORNER

Fragments from letters of  the Founder and Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters.     

I have just received a letter from our most beloved Nuns of Santiago de Cuba and with great pleasure I send to Your Excellency the copy of the Act of the Holy Visit that the Most Rev. Archbishop ordered to be copied in the book of the House;  because I have no doubt that it will please you very much to see, that Our Lord gives us another father so good that not only likes our Holy Poverty, but that with great love confirms us in it; this is a great consolation for me. Our most beloved Mother Mª Rosa has told me that when he was visiting the different offices he kept saying “everything is poor, everything in order;” I do not have to tell you the satisfaction of all, they keep giving thanks to God to have given them another father who with so much love and concern provides for their spiritual and temporal wellbeing. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress. Letter to Bishop  Caixal, March 15, 1863, in History of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, chapter X note 29.    

In the Granja and now in Madrid I have met several times the Archbishop of Cuba, and I know he values very much the nuns of Cuba and all the nuns of this Order. His secretary Rev. Ciriaco is a blessed man and he values you very much. S. Antonio María Claret, Fundador. Letter to   M. María Antonia París, Septiembre 27  1967 in History… chapter X note 30.

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

ALVAREZ, Jesús , History of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, 1980.     

FALEY, Roland J. From Genesis to Apocalypse, Paulist Press 2005.