XXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  – CYCLE C –   2019

     The Word of God of today’s liturgy reminds us that the Lord trusts always in humankind. 

     Let us give fruits of justice and peace on our journey.   

     Let us believe as Jesus did in the God of the impossible.

FIRST READING  Is 66:18-21

v This text belongs to the third part of the Book of Isaiah, Third Isaiah.   The historical time is the time after the return from the exile.

v The Lord says:

o   I know their works and their thoughts, I know them.

o   I come to gather the nations, the peoples who speak different languages. 

o   But in spite of this diversity they will come and they will see the glory of God. 

o   How will God go about to gather the peoples? He will send the fugitives to their nations.  

o   And on coming  back to Israel they will  bring the exiled, their brothers and sisters from Israel, as an offering to the Lord. 

o   Those who had been exiled will return in glory, riding horses and camels, proud and strong animals.   

o   They will arrive into Jerusalem, the sacred mountain of God  

o   The author compares this return to the worship which the chosen people was giving to God in the temple   

o   From among them, God will call priests and Levites, men who will serve God in the temple.  

o   What a grandiose vision of the return.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:  Ps  117:1-2

This psalm belongs to the group of hymns, psalms which are considered hymns, which praise God singing his greatness.  

R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
 Praise the LORD all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.

The psalmist invites us, invites all the nations, to praise the Lord because his love is great and He is always faithful.   

GOSPEL – Lk 13:22-30

     Jesus on his way to Jerusalem passes through towns and villages.  

     In one of these places or on the road, someone asks: Lord, are they few those who will be saved? 

     Jesus does not give a concrete answer, but he says that each one is called to follow the way of goodness “the narrow gate.”

     As humans, we are very much accustomed to measure everything by means of statistic. How many?    

     I think that this question is wrong; each human being is the work of God who loves him or her because they are his work of art, his son or his daughter.    

     He works mysteriously in the human heart. We see only the outside and we dare to judge what we do not know. 

     In each human heart, we say, that a battle takes place between good and evil, and this is certainly true  

     But I prefer to think that in each human heart, during the lifetime of each one of us, a love story between the Creator and his creature is being weaved.  

     And many of us, we do not realize this until some especial moment in our life, moments of joy  but especially moments of suffering, then we are more ready to discover the presence of our God in our life.  We become aware of his tender and merciful love for us.

     Jesus speaks of those, who believe they save themselves  because of their efforts, that they have the “passport” to enter into God’s Kingdom. They do not know or have forgotten that the Kingdom is a  gift.

     They know much about God and speak also very much about him, but they do not speak to Him. 

     Jesus does not recognize their teaching, probably because they did it for their own pride not for the service of their brothers and sisters.   

     Again, here in the Gospel we are given a sense of universality: East, West, North,  South… This is the image of the eternity, of salvation with Jesus. 

     Let our heart be filled with this light, this hope, this trust and security in the unconditional love of God our Father.  

     But let us be at the same time vigilant and alert, to avoid the possibility to be of those who teach with pride and treat their fellow men and women with arrogance, oppressing them instead of serving them.  

SECOND READING : Hebrews 12:5-7.11-13

ü  The author  of this letter reminds us the exhortation  that had been given to us 

ü  “Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord “

ü  These words can help us in difficult times, when it seems that God is deaf when we call him, that he does not listen to our prayers. 

ü  And thus we think that what is happening is his punishment for our sins  

ü  I do not think that God sends the sickness, or the accidents, or the bad relationships among the members of the family, between the couples, or makes our children do drugs….   

ü  But I really believe that when we find ourselves in any difficulty, when we found ourselves completely lost; it is the moment when we are ready to discover the presence of God in our life.  

ü  The suffering we endure, may sometimes for a while, harden our heart,  make us bitter, proud, rebellious,  but it will eventually help us to open up  to God, whom we have ignored for so many years.   

ü  It is the time to begin a journey of conversion, a change in direction in our life, to encounter the God who has been waiting for us since the first moment of our conception, when he has created us and loved us. It is also the time when we realize the existence of the other human beings, our brothers and sisters.     

ü  God says to us the same words he said  to Jeremiah “before  you were fashioned in your mother’s womb I had chosen you, before you were born I consecrated you….  

ü  Let these thoughts and words fill us with tenderness, trust and thankfulness to our Father for loving us unconditionally  

ü  His commandments, his calls, his admonitions and exhortations have the purpose to make easy the way of salvation, there are not meant to make it difficult or complicated.

ü  Let us always remember that he knows us and loves us.     

CLARETIAN CORNER

One day, in prayer, I was crying very much asking the Lord to declare to me if it was pleasing to Him that obedience imposed by my confessor of writing the gifts and graces received from the Lord for I felt more repugnance than ever, and our Lord told me: “Yes, my daughter, obey always and in everything; this anguish you feel is hell trying to impede my glory. Tell your confessor, my servant, to help you. “I think this was on the same day our Lord told me that this servant of his, pleased Him very much because of his humility.   Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 78

      At this time I chanced upon another book called A Good Day and a Good Night , which I read with great pleasure and profit. After reading from it awhile, I would close it, press it to my heart, look up to heaven with tears in my eyes, and say, "Lord, how many good things I was ignorant of. My God, my Love, who could ever help loving you?"

      The realization of how much good I have derived through reading good and piovs books has prompted me to distribute them generously, in the hope that they will bring my neighbors, whom I love, the same happy results they brought to me. May all men know how good and lovable and loving God is. My God, make all creatures come to know, love, and serve you with full faith and fervor. All you creatures love your God, for He is good and his mercy is endless.

St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 41-42

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, San Antonio María. Autobiografía.

MATHIEU, Yvan. « Dieu toujours à l’œuvre. » Prions en Église, Août 2019.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia . Autobiografía

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