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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