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SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019
The
theme of the celebration seems to be “faith”
Ø
Faith so full of
trust that allows us to present to
God our complains and supplications
Ø
Faith so strong
as the strength needed to uproot a strong tree
Ø
Faith so full of
novelty as it would be to plant a tree in the sea
Ø
Faith so simple
that discovers the presence of the God that is behind all reality.
THE PROPHET HABAKKUK
Ø
The name of this
prophet is unique in the Bible, it might come from the name of a plant “basil”
Ø
We know neither his origin, or his family, or
his hometown
Ø
The three chapter
of this book are difficult to understand.
Ø
The content is a
proclamation received during a vision
Ø
The prophet does
not understand and, suffers for the social situation, and asks God for an explanation
Ø
The time of its
composition is between 606 a.C and the Babylonian exile 587 a.C)
Ø
The message seems
to be: we must abandon the traditional way to understand the retribution from
God. We must understand the intervention
of God in our human history in a different way.
FIRST READING Habakkuk 1:2-3;2:2-4
ü The prophet complains because he asks help
from God, and it seems that God does not listen
ü Why do I have to see violence and
destruction?
ü The answer from God is to tell the prophet to
write the vision
ü “If it delays, wait for it, because it will
certainly come, without delay.”
ü The reading ends saying “the just will live by
his faith”
ü We have this same reading in the Liturgy of
the Hours one of the days of Advent.
ü To know that He will certainly come, fills our
heart with hope and enkindles in it the fire of love.
ü In addition, certainly, the Lord has come, and
He continues to come into our life; sometimes we complain, like the prophet, because
we do not realize that He is already here.
Salmo 95, 1-2.
6-7. 8-9
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not
your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
v The psalmist invites
us
o
To praise God,
o
To adore God
o
To listen to
God
GOSPEL Lk 17:5-10
Ø
This Reading has two parts.
Ø
In the first part
the Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith
Ø
Maybe when they heard
the mission that Jesus wanted to entrust to them, they realized that the
traditional faith, still childlike, would not help them.
Ø
Thus their
petition, sometimes we do the same petition to the Lord.
Ø
It does not mean
that we do not have faith, but that our faith is still the faith the First
Communion Catechesis, or the faith taught to us by our grand-mother, but that
we have not made it our own yet, thus it does not help us.
Ø
Jesus gives them
a surprising answer.
Ø
It seems that
with this comparison He wants to tell them that they need:
o
A faith as strong
as the strength needed to uproot a
mulberry tree, a strong tree, difficult to uproot
o
A faith able to
accept and propose the novelty, as it would be a novelty to plant a tree in the
sea.
Ø I copy below a fragment from a book of José Antonio
Pagola, it has helped me a lot, and I wish to share it with you. (it is my own
translation from Spanish)
The
theologian Karl Rahner said, this
“abandonment” proper of faith is the “maximum audacity of man.” A tiny particle of the cosmos (universe) dares
to enter into a relationship with the “incomprehensible and foundational
wholeness of the universe,” and it does
it, trusting absolutely in his power and in his love. As Christians we have to
be more aware of the audacity of daring
to trust in the mystery of God.
The original
message of Jesus is precisely, to invite the human being to trust
unconditionally in the unfathomable Mystery, which is at the origin of
everything. This is
what we hear in his proclamation “do not fear… trust in God…. call Him Abbá,
loving Father. He takes care of you. Even the hairs of your head are counted.
Have faith in God.”
SECOND READING 2Tm 1,6-8;13-14
ü
Rekindle the
gifts you received with the imposition of my hands. Return to your first love.
ü
God does not want
us to be cowards but daring, motivated by love and not by fear
ü
Do not be ashamed
to witness to Jesus.
ü
Carry the hard
work allotted to you. What work? The proclamation of the Gospel with words and deeds.
ü
Keep the treasure,
which is in you, and in all of us, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
ü
What treasure?
The faith we have received at our Baptism, and which we need to make it grow,
with the friendship and intimacy with Jesus in our prayer and in our life.
CLARETIAN CORNER
Now that I have said something about how much God
our Lord is pleased by a disinterested heart, this great king of heaven and
earth has protected, guided and governed me since the moment His powerful hand
took me out of the convent of Tarragona (which was my first heaven) until he
brought me to this new world, Santiago, Cuba city, with so great security in
the midst of so many and imminent risks that only your infinite power, my God
could save my life. Venerable María Antonia París,
Foundress of the Claretian Sisters. Autobiography 93
As a small child I and my sister Rose, who was very devout, made frequent visits to the shrine of the Virgin called Fussimanya, a league away from my home. I cannot describe the devotion I felt at this shrine. Even before I got there, as soon as I could see the outline of the chapel, I felt so emotional that tears of tenderness welled up in my eyes. We started saying the rosary and kept praying all the way to the chapel. I have visited the shrine at Fussimanya whenever I could, not only as a child but as student, priest, and even as archbishop before I left for my diocese. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 49.
BIBLIOGRAFÍA:
CLARET, St. Anthony Mary. Autobiography.
PAGOLA,
José Antonio. El camino abierto por Jesús.
Lucas.
PARIS,
Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography
SAGRADA
BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferecia Episcopal Española.
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