FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE LORD - FEBRERO 2, 2020

Ø  The   liturgy of the ordinary time is interrupted by this Sunday because it coincides with the liturgical date of the Presentation of the Lord.      

Ø  This feast was celebrated for the first time by the Eastern Church and   was called “The encounter.” Around the 6^th century, the Western or Roman Church began to celebrate it.   

Ø  This feast has a double meaning: the presentation of the first born in the Temple after 40 days of his birth and the purification of the mother.   

Ø  It may be considered either a feast of the Lord or a feast of Mary, but the Church in its liturgy favors the feast of the Lord.      

Ø  It is a feast with a great meaning. In the book of the prophet Ezequiel, we are told that the glory of Yahweh abandons the Temple.    

Ø  This glory of Yahweh is Christ. It returns to the Temple when Jesus is presented to the Lord.  

 

FIRST READING  Mal 3:1-4

v The prophet speaks as if it were God and tells us that after the Messenger,  the Lord we seek  will come to his Temple.     

v He switches between the image of the Lord and that of the messenger, the messenger of the covenant.   

v Jesus is the mediator, the messenger of the new covenant.  

v The prophet asks who will bear his presence, when he comes.   Because he comes to purify.  

v Let us reflect on this image of the purification, he will purify like  fire, thus he will purify the sons of Levi. The sons of Levi are the priests. 

v He will purify them so that they can offer the sacrifice to God.   

v Then the sacrifice of Judah and of Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord.   

v From our baptism, we are priests and we can offer sacrifices with our life open to the Lord and to our brothers and sisters.   

v Jesus has come and with his life  he has purified us from our sin, he has taken away the sin of the world and  has   nailed it to his cross with him.   

v When he enters in our life and we allow him to purify us, we experience pain and sadness, like the gold and silver. If they could speak, they would tell us their pain, but with the joy to become what they really are.   

v This pain and sadness become unspeakable joy, freedom, justice and peace for those who let themselves to be purified.   

v God wants always what is good for us; whatever he does in us is good and gives us happiness.   

v The joy, the happiness of his presence nobody can take it from us, a new and beautiful intimacy with the living God, our Christ and Lord, begins.       

RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Ps 24

R.    (8) Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD, strong and mighty,
the LORD, mighty in battle.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Lift up, O gates, your lintels;
reach up, you ancient portals,
that the king of glory may come in!
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!
Who is this king of glory?
The LORD of hosts; he is the king of glory.
R.    Who is this king of glory?  It is the Lord!

Ø  This is a psalm of praise to God creator and victorious King   

Ø  The question, who is this king of glory? Is repeated several times in the psalm and is used as the response.     

Ø  In the psalm to this question, the answer is the Lord of hosts.    

Ø  He is the king who fights, against who or what?  

Ø  Against the forces of evil, our Lord and Christ fights so that we may get back the capacity to be and live in the way He has created us.  

SECOND LETTER  - Heb 2:14-16

     Jesus shares our same flesh, our same blood.  

     So that from our same condition and reality, he might be able to destroy the evil one, author of evil and pain, and thus free us from fear. 

     The author of this letter says that he did not liberate the angels but the children of Abraham and thus he had to be just like his brothers and sisters     

     To be able to expiate the sins of the people    

     Because he was tested through suffering he can help those who are tested in many ways by pain, limitations, temptations…    

GOSPEL  Lk 2:22-40      

§  Luke narrates the presentation of Jesus as the firstborn and the purification of Mary as a mother who has given birth to his first male child.  (See Levíticus c. 12)

§  In this gospel there are four different scenes.   

§  The first one explains what is happening. What does the Law of Moses prescribes.  

§  The second introduces an older holy man who has been waiting during his entire life for this moment in which the Lord, the Savior, would be present in the midst of his people in his temple. His faith recognizes in this defenseless and poor child, a child like any other child, the savior that God had promised. Do I recognize the presence of God in the simple and daily situations of my life?    

In this second scene or paragraph, Simeon says a prayer, which the Church repeats every day after the prayer of compline at the end of the day “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace,  according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation which you prepared in the sight of all peoples.”  

§  The third scene explains how his parents were surprised of what they saw and heard.  Simeon approached Mary and prophesized that she would suffer much because of this defenseless child she carried into her arms, this child will be a sign of contradiction. Certainly, Jesus is the great sign of contradiction of everything that is against the love and respect toward the human being and toward God. 

§  In this same scene we are introduced to the older woman Anna, she is in the temple and awaits also with eagerness the Lord coming to his temple. She thanks God and speaks of this child also. 

§  The fourth scene takes us to Nazareth where Jesus will spend the greatest part of his life.  The evangelist tells us that the child grew and became strong and the favor, the love and the blessing of God was upon Him.    

§  The son of God lives a simple life, “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.”   He is God, but according to St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians says “he did regard equality with God to be grasped at rather he humbled himself and subjected himself to death, death on a cross.  

§  Jesus lives in Nazareth like any other man from his village until his hour comes to proclaim the project of the Kingdom. He must have been like everybody else, if not,  nobody would have been surprised when he began to preach.   

§  Most of the human beings remain anonymous their entire life.   Many accept this reality of their life as something that is normal, it is their lot; others seek to go out of this situation, seeking something different.    Very few men and women discover the wealth hidden in a simple, monotonous and unnoticed life without glamour.   

§  How do I live my life?   

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

“…so, I remained in my convent as before, and he (Claret) continued in his missions, maybe without remembering me anymore, until the time God had established from his eternity, for us to transfer to this new world, where he wanted to begin his Work… and so it has happened in this foundation, that though the Archbishop was unwilling to be concerned for this or that,  he has been, by Divine impulse, concerned for everything...           

            The ongoing mutual knowledge and the great spiritual similarities between them, will little by little make possible, a sincere friendship, a mutual companionship which will manifest itself largely through  their letters.  The time they spend working together in Cuba was especially rich.  Two strong and firm temperaments, which without planning it, were united by God for the same Project.  

 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

MUÑOZ, Hortensia y TUTZO, Regina. Dos Plumas movidas por un mismo Espíritu. 2010

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía  

Sagrada Biblia - versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A - 2020

FIRST READING  Isaiah  8,23-9,3

     The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali  are situated around the Sea of Galilee  in the Northern Kingdom, Israel, the Southern Kingdom was Judah. 

     The people of Israel had been conquered and taken in exile by a foreign king. 

     Although there were always rivalries between the two kingdoms,   the people in Judah were worried about their brothers and sisters of the Kingdom of Israel. 

     In this oracle the prophet announces that a great light will appear in the region of darkness

     He describes the feelings of the people who enjoy that great light with beautiful images:

o   Abundant joy like the joy of the harvest, or when people won the war

o   The yoke that oppresses them will be destroyed. 

o   The rode of the taskmaster will also be destroyed, as it happened in the days of Midian 

o   The joy we experience when we feel the presence of the Lord in our life.

     This will be the mission of the future Messiah, future king, that God promised to David.  He will make of the two peoples: Israel and Gentiles one people. 

     This becomes true in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, and the Messiah who by his cross and resurrection makes of the two peoples one. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 27,1. 4. 13-14

R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
One thing I ask of the LORD;
this I seek:
To dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation.
I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.
R. The Lord is my light and my salvation

Psalm 27 has a great similarity to psalm 23. It  is a psalm of great literary beauty.  It has a especial spiritual meaning. It is a hymn that invites us to trust in God.  We  read this psalm also at funeral masses.

     In the biblical tradition “light” is related to “life” and  to “ happiness”. 

     If God is my refuge, whom should I fear? Of whom should I be afraid? 

     Trust, faith, is the main theme of this psalm.  

     The psalmist wants to live in the house of God all the days of his life.  House of God may mean the Temple of Jerusalem or the Temple of the New Jerusalem, Heaven.  

     To contemplate the beauty of God may mean “to see God.”  

     The psalmist is convinced that he will see the goodness of  the Lord in the land of the living.  

     He invites us to wait for the Lord with courage.

     Do I wait for the Lord?

SECOND READING: FIRST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS   1,10-13.17

ü  Paul has written several letters to the Community in Corinth. All the fragments from these letters  have been put together in the two letters that we know now.    

ü  The Community of Corinth had accepted faith with enthusiasm, but sometimes without  enough depth, they mixed with the Christian faith some of their former pagan practices

ü  Paul loved this community very much, he wrote the letters to help them understand and live the Christian message, the Gospel, he visited them several times.

ü  But the community of Corinth did not always love and respect Paul. They did not recognize  him as an apostle like the others, they did not consider him a good preacher…  

ü  In next Sunday’s Reading

o   Paul asks the community to remain united and not fight against each other. 

o   Not to be proud of having  been baptized by Appolus or Paul ….. 

o   Because we all belong to Christ, this is our glory 

o   Who has been crucified for us? Christ and nobody else.  

o   Paul is happy that he has not baptized anyone of them, because he had not been sent to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wordy wisdom  lest the cross of Christ be rendered void of its meaning.  

GOSPEL   MATTHEW 4,12-23

§  In the first part of this gospel reading we are told that Jesus leaves Judea to return to Galilee when he learns that John has been arrested. He does not remain in Nazareth but goes to Capernaum the town of Peter and Andrew.

§  When Jesus was a child he had to move to another place for safety, now when he is adult he will continue to move to safer places several times, until his hour will come.      

§  The gospel repeats what we have read in the first reading.  

§  After that, the gospel tells us that Jesus begins to proclaim the kingdom, inviting to change one’s life. 

§  His preaching is very different from John’s preaching. It is an invitation, not a command. Jesus   will bend over every human suffering; he will touch the sick to let them experience the closeness of God.  

§  He calls his first disciples. The call to the disciples is presented differently in the four gospels. Here Matthew presents Jesus walking around the Sea of Galilee and he calls some fishermen to follow him.  

§  Peter and Andrew, his brother, have a boat, probably belonging to the family business; James and John, his brother,  are working with their father Zebedee. When Jesus calls them they leave everything behind to follow Jesus .

§  In a future time He will send them to do his same mission.

§  What words did Jesus use to call them, how did he look at those men that they were so ready to follow him?   

§  The last part of this gospel gives a picture of the activity of Jesus in Galilee. 

o   He teaches in the synagogues in the different villages. 

o   He proclaims the Kingdom and heals those who are affected by different sicknesses and sufferings.   

o   Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, heard the voice of the Father telling him that he was his beloved Son. He is tempted in the desert where he has gone to prepare himself for the mission the Father has given to him.

o   Now Jesus starts to fulfill his mission among us.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

The first knowledge that Mª Antonia had of Claret was in her prayer. As she was praying to God to have compassion for the needs of the Church, the Lord made her see and hear: “This, my daughter, is the apostolic man  whom you have asked me for so many years and with so many  tears.” As it happens in the vocational stories in the Bible, Claret is the sign given to Mª Antonia  to assure her that what is required from her will be accomplished. Time and new experiences will confirm it:  “Our Lord told me: Fr. Claret  will give you a hand in founding the first houses of the Order… and he added that this same priest would give me much to suffer.”^[…] When they finally meet, Claret says to  Mª Antonia: “… not to hesitate, that it would be done … that the fruit was already ripe  but not yet in season, …now, I know already that you are here.” Meanwhile, silence was the only answer given to Mª Antonia[…]  “…so, I remained in my convent as before, and he (Claret) continued in his missions, maybe without remembering  me anymore, until the time God had established from his eternity, for us to transfer to this new world, where he wanted to begin his Work… and so it has happened in this foundation, that though the Archbishop was unwilling to be concerned for this or that,  he has been, by Divine impulse, concerned for everything... ^The ongoing mutual knowledge and the great spiritual similarities between them, will little by little make possible, a sincere friendship, a mutual companionship which will manifest itself largely through  their letters.  The time they spend working together in Cuba was especially rich.  Two strong and firm temperaments, which without planning it, were united by God for the same Project. 

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 2020

Ø  We begin  the ordinary time, which according to a liturgy professor is not so ordinary.    

Ø  During this year we will journey with Jesus in his mission of Messiah and Redeemer.  

Ø  The author of the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel which we will read during this year, writes to a Christian community from Jewish origin.  

Ø  He wants to help his brothers and sisters to discover  in Jesus the Messiah whom the prophets were announcing to us.    

Ø  However today the Gospel will be taken from the Gospel of John.  John the Baptist points out to Jesus as the Lamb of God.  

Ø  This three words "Lamb of God" have a deep meaning for a Jew, the lamb which was immolated and eaten on the night of the Passover of the Lord, the night of their liberation from the slavery in Egypt, 

Ø  Lamb, which prefigured the true lamb who would take away the sin of the world and give the true freedom to every human being.   

 

FIRST READING  - Is  49:3,5-6

v This reading is taken from one of the Servant’s Poems.   

v Servant who has been seen as the faithful servant of Yahweh, could be the people of Israel, one of the prophets, and following the theological reflection of the new people of God, the new Israel, the Church, is Jesus

v The text has words coming from God, and words coming from the Servant. It is not a dialogue, but an inner reflection, a conversation from the heart.   

v The Lord says to the Servant:

     You are my servant through whom I show my glory.   

     We may ask, what is the glory of God? Is it his power, his greatness or on the contrary it is his love, tenderness, we may say even his weakness, his ability to become vulnerable?  

     The servant speaks and acknowledges that God has formed him in his mother's womb, has given him the mission to bring his people back to the love of his God.   

     He continues saying that he has been glorified and God is his strength.   

     How has he been glorified? In living and accomplishing the mission given to him from his mother's womb. 

     God speaks again to the Servant and says that he will not only help the tribes to come back to God, but his mission will be wider, universal, he will be the light of the nations.   

     So that the salvation that the Lord offers may reach  to the ends of the earth.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Ps  40 2-4,7-8,8-9,10

R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, “Behold I come.”
R/ Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
“In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!”
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R/ Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will..

·       This is a beautiful psalm in thought and in words.  

·       The psalmist says that he has waited trustfully for the Lord, who put in his mouth a new song.  

·       And on hearing him sing the song many will fear and trust in the Lord.   

·       Then he speaks to his God and says that God does not want sacrifices or holocausts.  

·       But the psalmist realizes that he has received ears to listen  

·       and discovers that the sacrifice, the holocaust pleasing to the Lord is to listen attentively and answering to what he listens. His response is "Here I am."

·       What I have to do is found in the book of the Law, the psalmist says that he loves this will of God written in the book, and says "your law is in my heart."  

·       He ends saying that he has not kept his lips in silence but that with joy he has proclaimed the joy and the justice of the Lord to the great assembly

GOSPEL  Jn 1:29-34 

John points out to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

§  He continues saying that Jesus is that man he had spoken about to them, saying that he is above him, because he exists before him.  

§  This man is the reason for him to had been sent to baptize.   

§  He had been told that the one upon whom the Spirit would come down was the one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.    

§  I John have seen and testify that this man is the Son of God.

§  Is our life a testimony of our faith in Jesus son of God?  

SECOND READING  1Co 1:1-3

·       We begin today to read in the Sunday Mass the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

·       Paul is aware that he has received a call to be an apostle of Christ Jesus.   

·       Together with Sosthenes he writes to the church, the community of the faithful who live in Corinth.  

·       Community that has been sanctified in baptism and called to be holy.    

·       The letter is not only addressed to the Corinthians, but to all of us who in some place of the world invoke the name of the Lord Jesus.     

·       This letter is thus addressed to us the church of Miami, of Madrid, of Rome, of Milan, of Kimwenza, of Mysore, of Indonesia, of Japan.... all called to be holy as the Father in heaven who makes the sun shine on the good and the bad, who makes the rain fall on the just and on the sinner as well.   

·       All called to be servant in the way of the great Servant Jesus.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER

 On October 24, 1870 Claret dies. This event caused a deep suffering to Mª Antonia,  as she writes on her Diary. She describes this event with words of affliction but with a great hope that the Lord helps her to see in the cross:   Being very much afflicted by the death of his Excellency Claret,  I prayed intensely to God for the renewal of the Holy Church because he had taken him,   how would his work be accomplished? Then His Divine Majesty said to me,   By chance has my word been abridged?  Trust my daughter,   wait a little while, and you will see what I do…. (from the book Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, p.20.

Two month later, in a letter to Currius he explains in more detail the benefits he expects from the Council: I have been very busy in getting information for the Council… many expect material benefits from the Council… I expect spiritual benefits.  We will know what to do;   I expect that the Council and his Doctrine will be a beacon which will show us the harbor of salvation in the midst of the storm which will still become stronger and  greater. Alas of the earth![…] He does not say what these benefits are, but he says they are spiritual; and besides, from his former letters we know that those benefits are in the line of the Renewal of the Church in the difficult society of the XIX century.  From the Notes of a Plan…  we know that his  preoccupation was the Church and, in it, the renewal of the clergy and the religious men and women, the good formation of the seminarians. (from the book Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, p.11.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina. Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit. 2010

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012