13th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE – 2019    

·         We are again in the liturgical time called “ordinary time”. A professor once said that there is nothing ordinary about this time.     

·         Ordinary life is  everyday  life, the life of anyone of the human beings, the life that goes unnoticed, that seems monotonous and without value. 

·         However, it is the life in which God makes himsef present to us through the  persons we meet and through the events of life. 

BOOK 1 Kings

Ø  The two books of Kings are the continuation of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel.  

Ø  These books are part of what we call the Deuteronomistic history, which goes from the conquest of the Promised Land to the Babylonian exile.   

Ø  In these books the monarchy is judged with the theological criteria of the book of Deuteronomy  following the scheme sin – exile – return  

Ø  The author usually gives a negative judgment on the behavior of kings and of the people.   

Ø  In these books, the prophets have great importance. Elijah in 1 Kings and Elisha in 2 Kings.    

FIRST READING – 1 King 19, 16b. 19-21     

Ø  The reading has three paragraphs, we could describe them as three different scenes of a play.

Ø  In the first scene, Elijah hears God’s voice that orders him to anoint Elisha as his successor.   

o   How did he hear the voice? If we read some verses before the author tells us that Elijah hears a light silence sound.  

o   Then he went out of the cave where he was hiding and the voice asked him “what do you do here Elijah?”     

o   Elijah says “I have been most zealous for the Lord, God of hosts” and he explains that things go wrong in the society where he lives.   

o   The Lord  asks him to go back and to take the desert road. He should look for Elisha to anoint him as a prophet, his successor.   

o   To leave one’s ministry to another person is difficult; it is like allowing part of one’s life to be taken from, it is to accept that life has changed, that life is close to its end, to the last encounter.   

o   We do not know what Elijah thought, what he felt, Scripture does not say anything about that.   

Ø  In the second scene Elijah goes to meet Elisha 

o   Elisha is working, he is tilling with twelve yoke of oxen.  

o   Doesn’t this scene remind us what the New Testament tells about the call of the fishermen or the tax collector…follow me?  

o   The call from God does not come to us necessarily when we are praying; it comes usually during our ordinary life. God calls me in my everyday life. Do I listen to his voice,  which resounds in the persons and in the events. How has God called me…?  

o   Elijah communicates to Elisha God’s election by throwing his cloak on him.  

o   It seems to me that some of our liturgical rites have the same meaning: the Bishop’s imposition of hands on the future priests.  It is like sharing with the future priest the gift, the grace of the priesthood;  we also say that faith goes from one to another, something like an infection….     

o   Elisha leaves what he is doing and says goodbye to his parents.                         

Ø  In the third scene Elisha  

o   Offers a sacrifice to Yahweh with the oxen he was using for his work, and invites the people to share the meal  

o   Than the text says that he went with Elijah.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM 16:  1-2a y 5. 7-8. 9-10. 11

R. (cf. 5a) You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
 I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you.
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
 you it is who hold fast my lot."
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
 even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
 with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
 my body, too, abides in confidence
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
 nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.
You will show me the path to life,
 fullness of joys in your presence,
 the delights at your right hand forever.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord.

What a beautiful prayer: You are my inheritance Lord. Is he really my inheritance? 

SECOND READING  Gal 5: 1. 13-18

v  Paul reminds us that Christ has given us freedom.   

v  I think that freedom was given to us in creation and it is given again back to us with the death and resurrection of Jesus.   

v  Do not let  anything or anyone take freedom away from us.   

v  Paul reminds us also that law and freedom are not opposed but they go together. 

v  He reminds us also the commandment:  Love your neighbor as you love yourself.  

v  Paul says something very interesting, if we allow the Spirit to guide us we will not be under the dominion of the law.   

v  I invite all of us to reflect during this week on this last sentence in order to understand what he wants to tell us.   

GOSPEL  LK 9: 51-62

v  When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.    

v  From chapter 9 verse 51 begins the last part of the ministry of Jesus. Jesus will teach his disciples on the way; this is his way to be Teacher, Rabbi.  

v  Doesn’t that remind us of the way to Emmaus when he spoke and taught them, and their hearts were burning?   

v  He determines to go up to Jerusalem where he will give his life  

v  In today’s reading Luke narrates three different vocation episodes  

o   In all these episodes Jesus says to those who offer themselves and to the one he invites, some conditions of the following, which could discourage them: the Son of man has nowhere to rest his head, not to be able to burry one’s dead, not to be able to say farewell to the family….   

o   These words have given plenty to think and to write in regards to the following. I think that the intention of the evangelist is not that we dwell on the details, but on the reality of the surrendering generously, completely and without conditions.   

o    Let us look at our own vocation history and let us ask the Lord for light to discover his presence in this history.  

RINCON CLARETIANO

On a feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, after holy communion I went to the gallery, so as to be able to talk alone with my God about the work He has entrusted me and the great difficulties I saw in its execution. I did not dare to tell our Lord what was impossible for me, because I always had firm, by the grace of God, the certitude of the power of God in his creatures. But in those days our Lord permitted that I forget all the promises that his divine Majesty had given me; I saw nothing but human causes like a strong and invisibly army. I saw my littleness and poverty as a person. I was so confused, that even to talk about it to our Lord, I was ashamed for I did not see any talent in me, not a natural talent nor one by grace in order to cooperate with  the designs of God our Lord.  So, bathed in tears I could not find other words but: How can this be Lord?” I was also very oppressed to see myself all alone in a work of so great importance that the more I thought in my nothingness, the more his Dive Majesty would show me clearly the purpose of its exact fulfillment and the glory  that would redound to God our Lord for the good of the church. Because of this I had much courage to suffer, for our Lord gave me a great love for my holy mother church, that if the cost of my life (Even if I had one thousand lives) with all the love of my heart, even if I had to go to the end of the world, I would suffer to restore her peace, the most cruel torments.  Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 35.   

Later on, when I was living alone in the city of Barcelona and witnessed so much evil, I would imagine those good people speaking to me: That is evil, you should avoid it. You had better rely on God, your parents, and teacher than on these unhappy people who don't know what they're doing or saying.

My parents and teacher not only instructed me in the truths I had to believe but also in the virtues I needed to practice. With regard to my neighbor, they told me never to take or covet what belongs to others and that, if I ever found something, I should return it to its owner. It just so happened that one day after school, as I was walking along the street toward home, I saw a quarter  lying on the ground. I picked it up and wondered to whom I should return it. Since I couldn't see anyone on the street, I decided that it must have fallen from the window of the nearest house. So I went up to the house, asked for the head of the house, and gave him the quarter. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 27-28.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE, Revised edition 2010

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia episcopal española

US Conference of Catholic Bishops, webpage.

            THE MOST HOLY TRINITY  - CICLO C – 2019

      On the first Sunday after Pentecost the Liturgy of the Church invites us to celebrate the greatness of our God, to adore him, to contemplate him, to allow ourselves to be fascinated with his beauty and goodness

      Through the readings we will   enter into the mystery of our  one and triune God. Like Moses, we will remove the sandals from our feet because we are on sacred ground.   

      Let us enter into his presence with our imagination and our feelings and overall, with our love.      

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS  

v  When we open this book, we are surprised by his miscellaneous nature.  It contains long poems as   well as very short ones, two lines in parallel.   

v  Another thing that makes us wonder, is the apparent lack of theological reflection, it is a very pragmatic book, and we ask, why  has it  been included in the Bible, which is the word of God?  

v  Together with the books of Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth),  Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus)   Wisdom  the book of Proverbs is classified as wisdom literature.    

v  I have read in a commentary that the Book of Proverbs is the most secular of these five books.   

v  Its author is not Solomon, as we could think on reading the first verse “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel” 1.1.   In the same way as the books about the Law (Pentateuch) are attributed to Moses, the Psalms to David, the book of Proverbs is attributed to Solomon, because he was such a wise man. However, he is not the author of the book, maybe he is the author of some proverbs, but not the whole book. 

v  For an Israelite there existed only the cosmos and the web of social relationships, both realities derive from the creation made by God.   The mission of the wise person was to seek the harmony hidden within these two realities and transmit this knowledge by means of sentences and instructions, to help the human beings to live a good life, a truly human life.   

FIRST READING   Proverbs 8:22-31 

Ø  Wisdom speaks and says that she existed from the beginning.  

Ø  Wisdom describes for us the works of God. Let our imagination go to the places where Wisdom takes us: 

·         oceans, springs of water, rivers.

·         mountains and hills  

·         earth and fields   

Ø  She says that she was present when God made the sky 

Ø  when he put  the sky as a dome  over the ocean.   

Ø  when he set boundaries to the sea     

Ø  If we pay attention to what Wisdom is saying, God is building a home. The home he has prepared for us to live in.  

Ø  And Wisdoms tells us that she was there beside him as his craftsman, and that she played before him, and was delighted to be with the human race.

Ø  What a wonderful word, the Wisdom of God, God himself found and still finds his delight in the human race,  in each one of us. 

Ø  The Church sees in this Wisdom the Son of God, through whom all things were made. He became one of us.  In the Eastern Churches they see in this Wisdom an image of the Holy  Creator Spirit.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  8

R.  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! 

ü  The psalmist is amazed to see how God takes care of his creatures.  

ü  In a very special way of the human being, to whom he has given power over them. 

ü  The psalmist  asks, what is man?  

ü  We repeat the same question, who are we that the Son of the Father became one like us, and put his tent among us?  Who are we that God comes to dwell in us.    

SECOND READING  Rom 5:1-5

      Paul speaks of the redemptive work of God for his creation.  

      We have been justified by faith, and this gives us peace with God by Jesus Christ. 

      Christ is he who has given us the grace in which we live, and at the same time we rejoice in hope of the   glory of God. 

      He says that we do not only rejoice in hope, but also in our afflictions.  

      Knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character hope.  

      He says that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  

      The Holy Spirit is he who completes the work that God has begun in us.   

GOSPEL  Jn 16,12-15

v  Jesus says to his disciples that, he has many more things to tell them, but they cannot bear them in that moment.  

v  The Holy Spirit will help them to understand and to live what Jesus has taught them during his earthly life. The Spirit will guide them to the whole truth. He will remind them, all the words of Jesus.

v  He will not speak on his own; he will speak what he hears in the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. 

v  He will glorify Jesus, because he will take what is Jesus' and declare  it to them.   

v  Why does Jesus say that the Spirit will not speak on his own? 

v  Jesus had said to his disciples that the Spirit was the promise of the Father, the Father was giving the Spirit to them.  However, it seems as if the Spirit was given by Jesus.

v  The answer is found in the next verse: everything that the Father has belongs to Jesus.

v  The mission of the Spirit among us has been, to make possible the creating and redemptive plan of the Father in the Church and in the world. 

v  This is our God, the Christian God, God who is a Trinity of persons, a community of persons united by the love generated between the three divine persons. He is the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier.  

        we confess your eternal holy Trinity and undivided Unity   (Prayer after Communion - Mass of the Most Holy Trinity)     

      Blest be God the Father, and the Only Begotten Son of God, and also the Holy Spirit for he has shown us his merciful love.  (Entrance Antiphon - Mass of the Most Holy Trinity)  

      Let us see what the beginning of the  book of Revelation says, before John greets the seven churches at the beginning of the heavenly liturgy: 

§  Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first born of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.  

§  We can simplify this greeting as follows: May the favor and peace of  the Father, of the Holy Spirit and of the Son be with you. 

§  At the beginning of our Eucharistic celebration  the priest greets the people saying: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.

                        CLARETIAN CORNER

 His Excellency, Mgr. Claret, already consecrated a bishop was at the point of sailing for his diocese. Since God our Lord gave me a such a firm  certainty in the words this servant of God told me when he came to talk  with me, as I have said – doubting that the work would become a reality – I was unable to remove  from my memory how could it be  to profess in that convent if it was God’s will for me to go on with the work His Divine Majesty had entrusted to me. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 95.  

In truth, the fire of love acts in a minister of the Lord in much the same way that material fire acts in the engine of a locomotive or a ship: it enables them to move the heaviest cargo with the greatest of ease.  What good would either of these two huge machines be without fire and steam to move them? None at all. What good is a priest who has finished all his studies and holds degrees in theology and canon and civil law if he lacks the fire of love? None at all. He is no good for others because he is like a locomotive without steam. Instead of being a help, as he should, he may only be a hindrance. He is no good even for himself. As St. Paul says, "If I speak with human tongues and angelic as well, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.". Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian MIssionary Sisters, Autobiography 441   

BIBLIOGRAFÍA:

CLARET, Antonio María , Autobiography.

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial, 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras, Año C, 2006

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo. 2010.

             PENTEC0ST  – CYCLE C -  2019

      With the Solemnity of Pentecost we  have reached the end of the Easter season.   

      We will see how Pentecost has had different names and meanings over the centuries.  

      During the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to the Church.  

PENTECOST

v  Every Israelite had to present himself before YHWH, three times a year:  the second of these feasts became Pentecost.  

In Ex 23:16 it is called the Feast of the Grain Harvest.

v  In the book of Number 28:26  it  is called the Feast of the First Fruits.

v  In the book of Deuteronomy 16:10  it is called the Feast of weeks  because this feast was celebrated seven weeks after the feast of the Unleavened Bread (Passover.)

v  It was also called the Feast of the 50th day(Pentecost)  because it was celebrated 50 days after the first grain offering   Lev 23,9-14

v  This feast became a historical feast in which the people remembered the Covenant on Mount Sinai, and the New Covenant promised by  God through the prophets Jeremiah 31,31-34 and Ezekiel 36  :22-28, and fulfilled by Jesus in his Paschal Mystery.

v  On the day of   Pentecost, the Father sent on the Church the Spirit Jesus had promised.   

FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-11     

Ø  The strong driving wind that filled the house, takes us to the beginning of creation when the Spirit of God as a mighty wind covered the abyss. 

Ø  The noise, the fire, all these strong forces of nature remind us of the theophany on Mount Sinai, when God talked to Moses and made a Covenant with his people, giving them the Law. 

Ø  The tongues of fire : fire, enthusiasm, to proclaim the marvels accomplished by Christ Jesus.  

Ø  The "miracle" of the tongues that made possible for all to understand what the Apostles were announcing to them. This takes us to Babel, where people of one tongue could not understand each other, due to greed, pride, sin. Pentecost is the opposite of Babel; the Holy Spirit makes those who are different, opposite, enemies to become brothers and sisters, to love one another.    

Ø  I will copy below two quotations from the Jewish tradition about the event on Mount Sinai: 

·         God did not have mouth or tongue, but by means of a wonderful act he decided that a thunder should be heard in the air and a blast should be articulated into words putting them in motion.  This became fire that had the shape of flames... a voice resounded in the midst of the fire and descended from heaven and this voice spoke the dialect of each one of those who heard it.   (Jewish Philosopher called Philon explained in this fashion the divine theophany on Sinai.) 

·         When the voice of God was pronounced on Sinai, it divided itself into seventy voices so that all the nations could understand. The Hebrew people believed that there were 70 nationalities in the world.     

(My translation of both quotations which have been taken from the book   Gianfranco Ravasi  Según las Escrituras- Ciclo C").

Ø  All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.   

Ø  Through the 2000 years of history since the First Pentecost, the Church has made present the wonderful event of Pentecost among all the nations, sometimes silently, some other times loudly, through the life and mission of men and women from all nations: parents, missionaries, catechists, priests, sons and daughters, .... the complete list would be too long.    The enemies become friends, the foreigner and stranger  are welcomed into the local community.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:  Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34 

R.  Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.

SECOND READING  1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13

      Paul says that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.  But it is not enough to pronounce words or sounds, but this sentence must come from our faith, our trust, our love for Jesus. 

      Paul makes his community realize that there are different gifts, that everyone has his or her own gifts, which God gives to us to accomplish a mission in the community.   

      And to help his community to understand better, he makes the wonderful comparison of the human body, which has many members but it is one body.

      Through baptism we are united to Christ  

       We were all given to drink of one Spirit.  

      In the first reading, Luke uses the symbol of fire, wind and tongues. In the second reading water is the symbol used to describe who the Spirit is. 

  GOSPEL Lk 20:19-23  

v  In the first reading, we have seen how Luke explains the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church using images taken from the Old Testament, from the traditions of Israel and even of the peoples around it.  

v  In the Gospel, the Church invites us to reflect on the mystery of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the way John explains it.   

v  According to the Gospel of John, the Lord came and stood in their midst, on the evening of the same day of his Resurrection. 

v  And in this meeting with them he gave the Holy Spirit  

·         But before giving them his Spirit  

·         Jesus gives them Peace thus they will be able to offer it to others. 

·         Jesus sends them.   As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  We know that through baptism we have been submerged in Christ to participate of his life and cooperate in his mission "the salvation of all men and women."    

·         Jesus gives to them the power to forgive sins.  He will cooperate with them; he will accept and support the decisions they will make.    

We have seen the two accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit; one from the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his spirit the same day of his resurrection. In fact in the Gospel of John Jesus gives his Spirit, on the cross.   

On Pentecost the Church is born,

·         it has been conceived and nurtured in the heart of God the Father from all eternity.

·         Jesus began to form it with his disciples

·         now it is made visible to the world by the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost.   

CLARETIAN CORNER          

Since I began to serve my God and Lord, He has always been my counselor and master in everything. And he never neglects me even in the most insignificant and domestic things. And He tells me how I have to deal with certain persons, what I must tell them as well as the time and moment to speak.   Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters , Autobiography 85.

The same Holy Spirit, by appearing in the form of tongues of fire above the Apostles on Pentecost, showed us this truth quite clearly: an apostolic missionary must have both heart and tongue ablaze with charity. One day the Venerable Avila was asked by a young priest what he should do to become a good preacher. His ready answer was, "Love much.''  And both experience and the history of the Church teach us that the greatest preachers have always been the most fervent lovers. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 440.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

CLARET, Antonio María , Autobiography

HAAG, H; VAN DER BORN, A; DE AUSEJO, S. Diccionario de la Biblia (Bible Dictionnary), Editorial Herder 1981.

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras (According to the Scriptures), Year C, 2006.