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.