FIRST
SUNDAY OF ADVENT - CYCLE A - 2019
- We begin a new liturgical cycle and with it the reading of a new Gospel, the Gospel of Matthew.
- During this year Matthew will present Jesus as the Emmanuel.
- The Emmanuel who is where two or three gather in his name.
- The Emmanuel who receives as done to him our loving and our unloving actions.
- The Emmanuel who will be with us until the end of time.
- Today the three readings will speak to us about the coming of the Lord at the end of times, we have to be ready and watchful because with the Lord will come the restoration of everything and the destruction of all evil .
FIRST READING Is
2:1-5
ü The prophet sees in the future a time
of peace and good that comes from mount Zion where Jerusalem is built.
ü Jerusalem the holy city that in the
book of Revelation will be the model city, which comes down from heaven, the
bride, adorned for her spouse.
ü The peoples will walk toward this
city because in it they will find the house of God.
ü The prophet gives an idyllic and
quasi heavenly description of society when it will be built according to the
model of the holy city.
ü Their swords and spears will be
transformed from tools of death into tools of
life.
ü Nations will be sisters to each other
and none will train its inhabitants for war.
ü The text ends with an invitation to
walk toward the light of the Lord.
ü All of it is a foreshadow of what
happens in each man or woman who accepts the Lord in his or her life; in each
nation that decides to acknowledge that God is God and thus decides to
eliminate the idols of oppression.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM 122,1-2.3-4.4-5,6-7,8-9
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
I rejoiced because they said to me
We will go up to the house of the Lord
And now we have set foot
within your gates,
Jerusalem.
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity
To it the tribes go up
the tribes of the Lord
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
According to the decree for Israel
to give thanks to the name of the Lord
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
May those who love you prosper
May peace be within your walls
prosperity in your buildings
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
Because of my brothers and friends
I will say "Peace be within you"
Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will pray for your good.
LET US GO
REJOICING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
ü
Last Sunday, Solemnity
of Christ King of the Universe, we have read this same psalm.
ü
The holy city
whose external beauty in its buildings and other constructions, captivates the
eyes and the heart of those who see her,
ü
has also an
internal beauty given by the peace her dwellers enjoy, and the justice which is
administered at her doors.
ü
The psalmist ends
in the last stanza speaking about friends and brothers, he does not speak about
enemies as other psalms do.
ü
Finally the
members of the human race we have realized that we are all brothers and
sisters, children of the one and only God, and Father, creator of all.
GOSPEL Mt 24:37-44
On the XXXIII Sunday in Ordinary Time Jesus said to
his disciples not to be troubled by those who announce the end of times to be near,
because it will not happen so soon.
The author of the Second letter to the Thessalonians
was saying the same thing to his community.
What the Lord tells us is to be prepared to welcome
him, and he gives some examples taken from the flood. When it came everyone was
doing his or her own thing, without worrying about other things and they were
surprised by the flood like it happens to us with the hurricanes and
earthquakes
The Lord says also that when he comes everyone will be
doing their normal tasks, some will be working, and among them some will be
ready and some not.
To help us understand his teaching he gives the
example of the man who has many possessions, if he knew when the thief was coming,
he will be ready to protect his house.
Thus, it should be with us who are waiting not for a
thief but for the Lord of our life, who presumably we are waiting for.
At the end of the reading the Lord says again, more
clearly BE PREPARED, because you do not know when I will come to you.
And this preparation is neither to neglect our
responsibilities, nor to repeat prayers
like the pagans, nor kneeling hours and hours in the church to "please the
Lord" so that he will not be angry with us. No, this preparation is
described by Matthew in chapter 25 of his gospel: I was hungry, I was
thirsty.... each time you did to one of my brothers you did unto me.
SECOND READING Rm 13:11-14
v
Paul, like Jesus,
invites us to be vigilant
v
He uses images of
night and day
v
When day comes we
prepare ourselves for the day.
v
When we realize
that the Lord is present and wants to be part of our life, we leave our
negative and sinful actions and we begin a new journey of life "let us
cast off the works of darkness and put on the our working clothes.
v
Paul gives a list
of these works of darkness, of the night clothing which we have to cast off: drunkenness,
unlawful and dehumanizing sexual relations, rivalries and jealousy.
v
Then he invites
us to change our night clothing and put on the clothing of light which is Jesus
the Lord.
v
At our baptism we
were given a white clothe and we were told to put it on, use it, and keep it
until the day when the Lord will call
us.
v
This white clothe
is the symbol of Jesus our Lord, of the life of grace, the life of God which is
offered to us so that we may be able to live as children of the Father.
CLARETIAN CORNER
As for me, everything was to
cry and to pray day and night to my God and most blessed Mary to deign to
enlighten them so we could go out at once from the situation. I said to myself
what will they say at home if I make them spend uselessly and I will not
profess? And what will Mo. Prioress say except that all is a fiction and a lie?
How I can repay her delicacies with such ingratitude? So many proofs of love
especially in those last days that she was overflowing with joy (foreseeing me
already professed, as she said, for the great desires she had, that I do not
know why she loved me so much) every loving expression in her was for me like a
dart penetrating my soul thinking of the pain that my separation would give
her, because as for me, the Lord was already giving me grace for any sacrifice.
So I said to God: “This, Lord, makes me multiply my tears and nag you more with
my pleas.” Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress
of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 103
But God's ways are unsearchable, for although I really enjoyed manufacturing and had made considerable progress in it, I couldn't make up my mind. I felt an inner repugnance for settling down and also for causing my father to contract any further liabilities on my behalf. I told him that I thought the time was not ripe, that I was still very young, and that because I was so short of stature, the workers wouldn't take orders from me. He told me not to be concerned about that because someone else could handle the workers and I would only be involved in the directorship of the business. I continued to decline, however, saying that we would consider the matter later but that just now I didn't wish to accept. My decision proved to be truly providential. This was the first time I had ever opposed my father's plans. The reason, of course, was that God willed something else for me: He wanted me to be a priest, not a businessman, although at the time such ideas never entered my head.. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 64.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A. El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012
PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía
.
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