31^st   SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  - CYCLE C – 2019

• Today's Gospel reading is again about a tax collector. 
• Last week's parable was about a tax collector who acknowledged his sinfulness and asked God for forgiveness, and he returned home justified.  
• Today it is about a real character, not a parable, but a real man called Zacchaeus, the tax collector from Jericho. He wanted to see Jesus, and Jesus surprised him because he also wanted to see him. 

THE BOOK OF WISDOM

v Again the liturgy takes the first reading from the wisdom literature, the Book of Wisdom 

v This book is known as a "deuterocanonical book". In the Catholic tradition the deuterocanonical books are considered revealed by God, but this is not  so among the Jewish community of faith and   the other Christian traditions.  

v Chapters 11 to 19 are a meditation on the exodus.    

v Gianfranco Ravassi in his commentary says that chapters 11 to 19 of this jewel of the Jewish Greek literature of Alexandria in Egypt has a chapter on the invincible love of God toward his creatures. 

FIRST READING: Wis 11:22-12,2   

ü  Everything that has been created is small before God, but God takes care of all. 

ü  God takes care especially of the human being, the book of Wisdom tells us that this is so because God can do all things.  

ü  The author continues saying something surprising, God overlooks people's sins, he does not want to see our sins, to give us the opportunity to repent.     

ü  What a different image of God from the one we project sometimes with our words and our attitudes! 

ü  Another beautiful expression is found on verse 26 "but you forgive all because they are yours, O Lord the friend of life.”     

ü  God is the friend of life, and sometimes it seems that we are the friends of death, because the society we have built and continue to build is full of the violence of death.  

ü  We have allowed ourselves to be deceived by the evil spirit who has convinced us that what is good is bad, and what is bad is good! 

ü  God does much more, he reprimands us little by little, in the way only him knows and thus little by little he molds our being, and offers us the opportunity to discover his presence in our life, and when this happens we cannot   reject his love any longer, and thus we surrender ourselves to him.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  145:1-2. 8-9. 10-11. 13,14

R.  I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.

Ø  The praises to God for his works has been sung from generation to generation, up to the psalmist time

Ø  He has to continue this long chain of praises and he does it with his psalm.  

Ø  This praise is the poet's, but also ours.     

Ø  Let us join our voices to this praise, let us sing, dance, joyfully dance because our God loves us and he is great and powerful.   

GOSPEL Lk 19:1-10   

     The Gospel tells the encounter of Jesus with the tax collector, an encounter that brings salvation to that man and to  his entire household.    

     Zacchaeus, is his name, it is the Greek version of his Jewish name Zakkai.  The name Zaccheus means “clean, pure”. Is the meaning of Zaccheus name a joke or a prophecy?

     He is short in stature, but he looks for the way to see Jesus. 

     He had probably heard about this young itinerant prophet who speaks in such a different way than the teachers of the law, a man who shows so much love that it is impossible not to be attracted to him and to follow him.  

     Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore, maybe he thinks that nobody sees him, because for a prominent man as he is, this action would be very humiliating. 

     However, somebody has seen him, and when he walks under the tree, he lifts up his eyes and calls him "today I want to have dinner with you." 

      To have dinner is an expression of intimacy, of friendship. Jesus wants to be friend of Zacchaeus, trully he is already friend of Zacchaeus. Up to now, Zacchaeus does not know it, but today he will discover it and will be happy. 

      He will be happy to feel himself loved by Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God, his son. After this experience, Zacchaeus will love his fellow men and he will realize the wrong he has done, and he will have the determination to amend the evil he has done. 

     Only the unconditional love of Jesus, manifested in his going to the house of Zacchaeus, will give to this man the willingness to give away the fortune he has made stealing from others.   

     As it is customary the Gospel shows us the two tendencies  that are always found among the human beings:   

v He has entered the house of a sinner, it seems that we forget that we all are sinners. 

v Salvation has come to this house, yes with Jesus salvation comes to us and renews all the different aspects of our being. 

v Everything is restored, made a new creation.  

     This fragment of Luke’s Gospels reveals to us the joy of salvation, of the returning home, of the paternal embrace.  

      This is also our experience of forgiveness and conversion.  Is it not?

     THANK YOU LORD BECAUSE THIS CAN ONLY BE YOUR WORK, AND ALSO OUR COOPERATION, BUT AS ALWAYS  YOU HAVE THE INITIATIVE. THANK YOU!  

SECOND READING  2 Tes 1:11-22

v We are not one hundred percent sure that this letter has been written by Paul, the scholars keep looking for answers. It seems that it was written by one of his disciples.     

v The author prays to God for the community of Thessalonica, that it may be worthy of the call it has received, and thus live its faith responsibly.    

v All of this for the glory and honor of our Lord Jesus Christ's name. 

v It seems that the community was upset by things that had been told them.    

v The author says that he has not written anything of what upsets them. 

v Afterwards he calms them,  explaining that the second coming of the Lord is not as imminent as some think.

v On this theme of the second coming, there is a great difference between the first letter and the second to the Thessalonians. In the first Paul himself was speaking as if it was imminent. 

  CLARETIAN CORNER

While I and all the novices were in the holy exercises for the profession, his Excellency MGR. Claret came to Barcelona to sail. My confessor commanded me to write to him telling my anguish since it was necessary to profess or to leave. So that if he would be kind to answer me, as soon as possible, on what was the besting so difficult a case and to tell me either to go on with the profession or to postpone it, since we had only twelve days. This was the only step I needed to get tranquil, but God our Lord who never willed me to put my trust in men but in His Divine Providence, permitted him not to answer and not to depart from Spain leaving me in a sea of confusion without having anything determined. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 98.

I found copying patterns difficult at first, but by applying myself day and night, both on workdays and holidays, to study, writing, and designing, I came to be successful at it. I only wish that I had applied myself as busily to virtue, so that I might have become better than I am. When, after much thought, I had managed to take a design apart and put it back together, I felt such a sensation of joy and satisfaction that I would walk back home quite beside myself with contentment. I learned all this without a teacher. In fact, far from teaching me how to understand patterns and imitate them perfectly, my instructors in the art actually tried to conceal it from me. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 59.     

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según las Escrituras, Año C.

The Catholic Study Bible -New American Bible.