Speak, Lord: February 2019

Thursday, February 28, 2019

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019

Ø The readings for this Sunday help us to reflect on our words and to take care of them, since they are the reflection of our inner life.

Ø Jesus invites us not to judge.

BOOK OF BEN SIRACH

v It is the only book of the Old Testament that has the signature of its author (50,27)

v It was written originally in Hebrew, by the master of wisdom Jesus Ben Sirach.

v Around the year 180 a.C. in Jerusalem.

v Ben Sirach studied what we now call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures: The Law, the Prophets and the other Writings of his ancestors.

v He wrote for the young people of the rich families of Jerusalem

v He wanted to transmit the religious heritage of Israel to the new generations.

v He knew how to instill in the young people the values of their traditions and above all, his unconditional faith in God.

v His grand-child translated the book into Greek, language that was more familiar to the new generations ( 132-117 a.C)

v This book was excluded from the canon of the books accepted as revealed by the Jewish community, because they believed it had been written originally in Greek.

v Thus also excluded from the canon of the books accepted by the communities of the Reformation, because they adopted the Hebrew Scriptures.

FIRST READING Sir 27: 5-8

ü According to the author, our defects are visible in our discussions.

ü The proof of who we are is manifested in our arguments.

ü Our words reveal our mind, which is manifested in our discussions.

ü Thus the wise advice is not to praise anyone before listening him/her to speak, that is to say, to manifest their inner being and reveal how it has been formed through the life experiences.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Psam 91 (92)

R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

· This is an individual thanksgiving psalm, whose structure is:

o Introduction (2-4)

o The body of the psalm where the works of the just alternate with those of the wicked. (5-12)

o Conclusion (13-16) the actions of God are a stumbling block for the foolish.

· Following the theme that we began in the first reading, the psalm, by means of suggestive images, praises God because for the just

· These will grow like palm trees, like cedars, in the house of the Lord

· In their old age they will still be fruitful

· With their lives, they will proclaim that in our God there is neither malice nor injustice.

GOSPEL Lk 6:39-45

In the Gospel we will read on Sunday there are 3 sayings or teachings of Jesus to his disciples, related to a life of wisdom, not only human but also divine.

Something very easy to understand is that a blind cannot be a guide, because he or she does not see

o Jesus continues to say that the disciple is not superior to his master, but

o When the disciple will finish his or her training he /she will be like the Master

o When will the training be finished? When we will attain holiness, or in eternal life.

The next example participates of the exaggerations that sometimes Jesus uses

o A straw can be in the eye but not a wooden beam

o Maybe Jesus wants to help us to reflect that, if we do not see, it means that we are like the blind of that saying who cannot guide because he does not see

o How easy it is for us to judge, to criticize the actions of the others, without realizing that we have the same defects, and maybe still more!

Each tree gives the fruits according to its nature and its health

o Jesus says that we will know the tree by its fruits

o The same is true about us, because our mouth speaks of what we have in the heart

o This is the same thing that the wise man Ben Sirach wanted to tell us in the first reading

Am I so blind that I do not see how my fruits really are?

SECOND READING 1 Cor 15: 54-58

v Paul says that death will be destroyed by the victory, the victory of Christ

v And the apostle invites us to be fully devoted to the work of Christ

v The work of Christ is our salvation, the salvation of all

v With our works we collaborate in the work of Christ

v Paul adds that our labor, the labors for to announce the salvation, will not be in vain

v Do we work with enthusiasm; do we cooperate with fervor and joy in the work of the Lord, the salvation of our brothers and sisters?

CLARETIAN CORNER

I was shocked at this because I had always believed that all persons who profess perfection served God faithfully and for this I wanted to be a religious. Here, once more our Lord put, as of what I can understand, before the eyes of my soul, because with my bodily eyes I did not see anything, His most Holy Law and Evangelical Counsel.Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters . Autobiography 4

The first ideas I can remember date back to when I was five years old. When I went to bed, instead of sleeping—I never have been much of a sleeper--I used to think about eternity. I would think "forever, forever, forever." I would try to imagine enormous distances and pile still more distances on these and realize that they would never come to an end. Then I would shudder and ask myself if those who were so unhappy as to go to an eternity of pain would ever see an end to their suffering. Would they have to go on suffering? Yes, forever and forever they will have to bear their pain ! Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 8.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA. Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019

INTRODUCTION.

v Last Sunday we meditated on the vocation of the first disciples who the Lord called to make them fishers of men and women.

v Today the Lord teaches us where to find the true happiness.

FIRST READING : Jer 17:5-8

ü We find this theme in the prophet Jeremiah. He says:

o Cursed he who puts his/her trust in human beings. I do not think the prophet invites us to mistrust everyone.

o I think that what he is saying is that all of us need to put our trust in the God, who manifests himself through the other human beings that live together with us on our planet.

o Using images taken from nature, Jeremiah describes for us the person that departs from God.

§ a barren bush in the desert

§ that enjoys no change of season,

§ but stands in a lava waste,

§ a salt and empty earth.

On the contrary the person who trusts in God:

§ Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

§ He is like a tree planted beside the waters

§ that stretches out its roots to the stream:

§ it fears not the heat when it comes;

§ in the year of drought it shows no distress,

§ but still bears fruit.

ü We may apply what Jeremiah says about the tree to our own life.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 39

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

v This psalm has the same theme as the first reading.

v It explains a little bit more, what it means to be “blessed.”

GOSPEL LK 6:17.20-26

Ø In this same Gospel in Matthew, Jesus goes up to the mountain to speak with them of the beatitudes. To go up requires an effort, entails a difficulty.

Ø Luke says that He went down the mountain with the “12”. If they go down it means that they had gone up before.

Ø Luke tells us that they stood on a stretch of level ground. Could that mean that the beatitudes are for everyone, not only for very special persons? For the wise and those who are not wise, for the simple, the sinners, the good people, those nobody knows and those the newspapers speak about, those who are happy and those who are not…

Ø Who are the happy, the blessed?

o The Poor, what poor?

§ Those that do not have food, clothing, house…? According to what we read in the Scriptures, in the Old and in the New Testament, we are called to work to eliminate these situations that produce poverty. Than Jesus is not speaking about this. Probably he is speaking about the “anawin” the poor, those who trust their lives in the hands of God.

o Those who are now hungry, hungry of what? If we look at the beatitudes in Matthew we see that they are hungry and thirsty for justice. Happy and blessed those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, goodness, mercy, respect for the dignity of every human being. Happy because if that fight seems wasted on this earth, God will satisfy their hunger and thirst for all eternity. Than they will see that, their efforts neither were in vain, nor wasted.

o Those who weep, why do they weep? Probably they weep for all the things that do not go well in this world, for what is sin, for what goes against the human dignity. Luke says that they will laugh. They will be happy because they will see that what they always wanted and for what they suffered has become a reality, they did not suffer in vain, because God the Father never left them alone even when they felt lonely and abandoned, God was always there.

o And the fourth beatitude is very interesting; we do not speak too much about it, and much less we think about it:

§ Happy when they insult you, exclude you and denounce you because of the Son of man-Jesus.

§ Why do they insult us? Because we seek the good of our brothers and sisters, and Jesus has said to us that when we do good to one of our brothers or sisters we do it to him. v

§ Luke says not only “happy are they” he adds “jump for joy on that day.” What day? The day we are insulted, persecuted…

§ Because your recopense will be great in heaven. I think that the recompense begins during our life time on earth. We are happy when we allow the Lord to make us able to answer with love...

Ø Luke speaks to us also of what is the contrary of the blessings.

SECOND READING 1Cor 15:12.6-20

Ø Paul continues to speak to his community of Corinth, and the Church does the same to the community of believers.

Ø How is it possible that we doubt o we do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and we even dare to say it to our brothers and sisters?

o If Jesus is not risen, nobody will be.

o And if we only believe in Jesus during our life time on earth, because we do not believe that there is anything else after death,

o Than as Paul says if for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.

Ø But Jesus is truly risen as first fruits of those who sleep, that is the dead.

If he is risen, we will also, because he is our head and we are his body.

CLARETIAN CORNER

In this petition which, later I understood, was very much to the liking of His Divine Majesty, because it was done with much simplicity and good will, our Lord has deigned to teach me with much pleasure how He would like to be served by this ungrateful creature, it was in this how He set before my eyes the observance of His most Holy Law and evangelical counsels, and told me to observe them with much perfection; he told me with intense sorrow that He had no body in Hid house to observe them, for the great extend that all the religious orders had gone lax in the observance of His most Holy Law and because of this He permitted with grief, their destruction. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 3.

I was christened Anthony Adjutor John. My mother's brother, Anthony Clara, was my godfather, and he wanted me to be named after him. My father's sister, Mary Claret, was my godmother. She was married to Adjutor Canudas, so they gave me her husband's Christian name. My third name, John, was my father's name. Later, out of devotion to Mary Most Holy, I added the sweet name of Mary, my mother, my patroness, my mistress, my directress and my all, after Jesus. Thus my name is Anthony Mary Adjutor John Claret y Clara. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder if the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary, Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia, Autobiography.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019

INTRODUCTION

Luke has presented several different ways to look at Jesus in order to discover who he is.

Today Jesus calls his first disciples, collaborators in the mission he has come to accomplish among us.

The call will help Peter to acknowledge his indignity, his sin, and at the same time to learn that our sins do not make the Lord depart from us, on the contrary he comes closer to us to save us, to give his life so that we may have life.

Today the liturgy of the Church invites us to reflect on our own vocation, looking at the vocation of the first followers.

FIRST READING Is 6:1-2a, 3-8

Ø Isaiah tells us about the vision he had of the Majesty of God.

Ø He tells us that the vision happened in the year of the death of King Uzziah around the year 740 or 739 BC.

Ø In the second book of Kings and in the 2 book of Chronicles this King is also called Azariah (2 Kings 14:21; 2 Chronicles 26)

o Isaiah sees God seating on a high throne. Isaiah was an official at the court of the King, it seems very normal that when God wants to reveal himself to him he uses images, which Isaiah will understand. God is seen as a Monarch, a King.

o The description of the celestial liturgy performed by the Seraphims reminds us of the liturgy or worship in the Temple of Jerusalem, the smoke of the incense.

o Over the throne Isaiah sees some winged celestial creatures, he calls them seraphim, which reminds of the word “serap” which means “to burn.”

o They cry out to each other “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts! His glory fills the earth!

o The voices are so loud that the place is shaken.

o This is an awesome vision in which God is seen as a King of an extraordinary majesty, surrounded by those creatures which are on fire.

o In the presence of God the human being experiences his or her indignity, his or her sin and becomes conscious of his or her sinfulness.

o Thus Isaiah acknowledges that his lips are impure, and also those of his people.

o Fear invades Isaiah, since it was a common belief, that whoever sees God dies.

o God does not abandon his sinful people, on the contrary through the incarnation; God comes to live among us.

o To purify the lips of Isaiah God sends a Seraphim with a burning coal to touch his lips.

o God who always calls us to entrust a mission to us, seems to speak to himself saying: whom shall I sent? Who will go in our name?

o Isaiah who is burning in divine love responds with enthusiasm “Here I am, send me!”

Ø This is how Isaiah tells us his vocation, his call to be a prophet.

Ø His mission will be difficult, since he will speak but they will not listen to him, they will not understand because they are afraid that if they understand they will have to change their lives, they will have to allow God to convert them.

Ø This vision of the Majesty of God will help Isaiah all his life long to see the injustices committed against the poor, the least of society as an idolatry, a worship of an alien god, the god of selfishness, of money, of power. Injustice will become an offense against God, before being an offense against another human being.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 138