32 SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME - CYCLE C - 2019
Ø We are approaching the end of the liturgical year, and
the Church invites us to reflect on the last events in our earthly life.
Ø Somehow the question for us today is: how is my faith
in the resurrection of the dead?
Ø Do I really believe that I will be raised up as Jesus was?
Ø Nobody asks me if I understand the question, they ask
me if I believe what I say every Sunday standing among the members of the
congregation "I believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life
eternal." Am I conscious of what I am saying or do I just repeat words
without any meaning for me?
Ø Maybe we can move one-step further and ask ourselves,
do I wait with anticipation, as if I await the beloved, the final encounter
with our Creator and Redeemer?
SECOND
BOOK OF THE MACCABEES
v The second book of the Maccabees is
not the continuation of the first, some chapters in both books overlap 1Mc 3-7
and 2Mc 8-15 have many similarities. .
v These two books tell us how Israel fell
under the influence of the Hellenistic culture, and how did the people deal with
this situation. Some remained faithful to the traditions and beliefs of their fathers;
others let themselves be assimilated into the new culture that surrounded them.
v We are talking about a period of
history that reached its highest point in Athens during the V century before
Christ.
v Up to that time, Israel had
experienced the influence of the kingdoms from the Middle East.
The influence of the Greek
culture puts Israel and other peoples under the influence of the Western
culture.
v These two books tell about the
resistance of the faithful of Israel to be assimilated into the Greek culture.
The author reflects on several points of interest for the faith of Israel and
for our faith too. We also live surrounded by a foreign culture different from
the culture of our fathers, and we experience its influence, which questions
some aspects of our faith. Let us see some of these points:
· The sufferings the people experiences
are the consequence of its own behavior, the consequence of the choices each
person has made. God does not inflict the suffering over his people. Either we chose to be with God, or we chose to
be far from God, ignoring his presence in our life.
· Martyrdom that is the possibility for
the human being to be faithful to the rules and demands of his or her faith up
to the point of giving up his or her own life.
· Martyrdom is the consequence of the
fidelity and love of God, and the faith in the life after death.
· Thus faith in the resurrection of
those who have died in the Lord.
v The books of the Maccabees are among
the "Deuterocanonical books" that is the books, which the Catholic
Church considers revealed and which are not accepted by the Jewish tradition
and by the other Christian traditions.
FIRST READING: 2
Mc 7:1-2, 9-14
ü This part of the book of the
Maccabees tells us the story of seven brothers and their mother who preferred
to die instead of eating pork, because the law of God forbade it.
ü Maybe we think that it is a nonsense
to die instead of eating pork, because there is nothing wrong about eating
pork, God has made all things right and good.
ü However, the point is not to eat or
not to eat pork, but to be faithful to our faith in God. In a word it is about clinging
to God because we love him, and thus for his love we prefer to be faithful up
to the point of giving up our own life, because we do not want to be separated
from him.
ü As one of the psalms says "because your love is better
than life"
ü For us, living in a very pragmatic
culture, it is difficult to put faith first above our wellbeing even our life,
and thus understand the value of martyrdom.
ü One of the young men that is tortured
confesses his faith in the life after death, even more, he confesses his belief
in the resurrection "you are depriving us of this present life, but the
King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws
that we are dying."
ü Another one of the young men says
"It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope that God will
give life to me again."
ü This reading calls us to look into the
depth of our being and ask ourselves how is our faith and love for God, do we
love him to the point of being able to give up our life for him? It is certainly
truth that martyrdom is a gift and a call from God, by ourselves, we cannot endure
it, but we can ask ourselves about how is the thermometer of our love.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM 17:1.5-6.8.15
LORD WHEN
YOUR GLORY APPEARS, MY JOY WILL BE FULL
Hear O Lord a just suit
attend to my outcry
hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.\
My steps have been steadfast in your paths
my feet have not faltered
I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God.
incline your ear to me; hear my word.
Keep me as the apple of your eye
hide me in the shadow of your wings
But I in justice shall behold you face
on walking I shall be content in your presence.
LORD WHEN YOUR GLORY APPEARS, MY JOY WILL BE FULL
Ø
The author of
this psalm tells his faith and love for God, repeating in some way the theme of
the first reading.
Ø
In his words, we
sense a deep trust in the love God has for him.
Ø
His words are
like fire, which can help us to light up again the fire under the ashes of our
daily worries and responsibilities.
GOSPEL Lk 20:27-38
Some Sadducees that is the group that did not believe
in anything else than what can be touched and seen, nothing else was true for
them thus they did not believe in the resurrection after death.
They make fun of Jesus who speaks of the reality of
life after death, and they present to him a situation which they invented which
shows their lack of faith in anything spiritual, we may even say that this
story is really disgusting
Apart from the theme of life after death, which they
do not believe in, their story shows their lack of respect for women, whom they
see as an object of their fulfillment of the law, not as a person.
Jesus answers them saying that in the future life no
one will be taken or given in marriage, because they will life forever.
He reminds them that God is the God of life, and makes
them realize that this is a belief of Israel even from the time of Moses
"I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
In some way, Jesus wishes that they return to the
faith they say they profess, that the faith in the resurrection is not a
novelty but something which has existed from the beginning.
This gospel, in spite of not being attractive, can give
us the opportunity to see if we really believe that our God is the God of life,
the God who calls us to live forever from the moment of our conception in our
mother's womb, more than that, since the moment when God thought of us, and God
is eternal. God thought of us and loved us because his name is Love.
This text can help us to reflect on the value of human
life, conceived in the heart of God and destined to go back and become united forever
with its God, Creator and Redeemer.
Maybe this text can also help us, believers, to
reflect on the tendency of our modern culture to eliminate any life which
bothers us, and so think only about our wellbeing: abortion and euthanasia, and
all the other ways of killing that we have: wars, death penalty, hunger in the
world, unemployment, psychological, sexual and physical abuse, discriminations
of all sorts, defamation… The Heavenly Fathers awaits each one of us, when we
see Him face to face what will we answer to his question: ”where is your
sister? Where is your brother?
SECOND READING 2 Tes 2:16-3,5
v
The author of
this letter asks God to strengthen his readers in every good deed and word
v
He asks them to
pray for him
v
He adds that he is
sure that the word preached among them will continue to be fruitful in
them.
v
He ends this
section of the letter asking God to lead them to the love of God and grant them
the same endurance of Christ.
v
This may also be
our prayer.
CLARETIAN CORNER
This
circumstances permitted by God placed my confessor in a great compromise. Then,
everything was already depending on his decision. The days of the exercises
were nearing the end. I did not opt either for going out or remaining; I only
chose not to choose anything but to be hanging on obedience. I passed whole
nights at the foot of Christ the crucified or in the presence of the most
blessed sacrament praying unceasingly to God our Lord not to permit, for his
infinite mercy, that this so important step would be a mistake. But the heavens
had become as bronze and the continues tears did not soften it. Venerable
María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 99.
One day I told the shop superintendent that the pattern
we both had in hand could be worked out in such and such a manner. He took a
pencil and drew a plan of the way the loom should be set up for the job. I made
no comment but told him that if he didn't object, I would study it. I took the
pattern and his sketch for the loom-setting home with me. In a few days I
brought him a sketch of the setup needed to produce the pattern and showed him
how the one he had sketched would not have produced the pattern in question but
a different one, which I also showed him. The superintendent was amazed at my
sketches as well as at my reasoning and explanations. St. Anthony
Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 60
BLIOGRAPHY
CLARET,
St. Anthony Mary. Autobiography.
PAGOLA,
José A. Following in the Footsteps of
Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.
PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography.
RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según
las Escrituras, Año C.
La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo . Luis Alonso Schökel.
The Catholic Study Bible -New American Bible.
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