PENTEC0ST  – CYCLE A -  2020

     With the Solemnity of Pentecost we  have reached the end of the Easter season.   

     We will see how Pentecost has had different names and meanings over the centuries.  

     During the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to the Church.

     The Spirit will remain always in the Church, but not only with the Church but with all the human beings no matter who they are. The Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh.

     The Spirit is the source of the renewed youth of the Church, he brings the eternal newness of God to our humanity that so many times are accommodated in our ageing process unwilling to change, to accept a new lifestyle.

PENTECOST

v Every Israelite had to present himself before YHWH, three times a year:  the second of these feasts became Pentecost.  

In Ex 23:16 it is called the Feast of the Grain Harvest.

v In the book of Number 28:26  it  is called the Feast of the First Fruits.

v In the book of Deuteronomy 16:10  it is called the Feast of weeks  because this feast was celebrated seven weeks after the feast of the Unleavened Bread (Passover.)

v It was also called the Feast of the 50th day(Pentecost)  because it was celebrated 50 days after the first grain offering   Lev 23,9-14

v This feast became a historical feast in which the people remembered the Covenant on Mount Sinai, and the New Covenant promised by  God through the prophets Jeremiah 31,31-34 and Ezekiel 36  :22-28, and fulfilled by Jesus in his Paschal Mystery.

v On the day of   Pentecost, the Father sent on the Church the Spirit Jesus had promised.  

FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-11     

Ø  The strong driving wind that filled the house, takes us to the beginning of creation when the Spirit of God as a mighty wind covered the abyss. 

Ø  The noise, the fire, all these strong forces of nature remind us of the theophany on Mount Sinai, when God talked to Moses and made a Covenant with his people, giving them the Law. 

Ø  The tongues of fire: fire, enthusiasm, to proclaim the marvels accomplished by Christ Jesus.  

Ø  The "miracle" of the tongues that made possible for all to understand what the Apostles were announcing to them. This takes us back to Babel, where people of one tongue could not understand each other due to greed, pride, sin. Pentecost is the opposite of Babel. The Holy Spirit helps those who are different, opposite, enemies to recognize  each other as human beings, as brothers and sisters, loving  one another.    

Ø  I will copy below two quotations from the Jewish tradition about the event on Mount Sinai: 

·       God did not have mouth or tongue, but by means of a wonderful act he decided that a thunder should be heard in the air and a blast should be articulated into words putting the air in motion.  This became fire that had the shape of flames... a voice resounded in the midst of the fire and descended from heaven and this voice spoke the dialect of each one of those who heard it.   (Jewish Philosopher called Filon explained in this fashion the divine theophany on Sinai.) 

·       When the voice of God was pronounced on Sinai it divided itself into seventy voices so that all the nations could understand. The Hebrew people believed that there were 70 nationalities in the world.     

(My translation of both quotations which have been taken from the book   Gianfranco Ravasi  Según las Escrituras- Ciclo C").

Ø  All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.   

Ø  Through the 2000 years of history since the First Pentecost, the Church has made present the wonderful event of Pentecost among all the nations, sometimes silently, some other times loudly, through the life and mission of men and women from all nations: of parents, missionaries, catechists, priests, sons and daughters, the complete list would be too long.   The enemies become friends; the foreigner and stranger are welcomed into the local community.

Ø  The Church that becomes visible in Pentecost continue announcing with fire the Good News of God-With-Us,  in the midst of its weakness and its sin but with a great love for her Lord, like the love that that simple man from Galilee, Peter, had for Jesus.

Sequence — Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

And from your celestial home

Shed a ray of light divine!

Come, Father of the poor!

Come, source of all our store!

Come, within our bosoms shine.

You, of comforters the best;

You, the soul's most welcome guest;

Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;

Grateful coolness in the heat;

Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine,

Shine within these hearts of yours,

And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, we have naught,

Nothing good in deed or thought,

Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;

On our dryness, pour your dew;

Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful, who adore

and, confess you, evermore

In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue's sure reward;

Give them your salvation, Lord;

Give them joys that never end. Amen.

Alleluia.

 This beautiful sequence does not need any explanation, only to read it slowly meditating what we are reading and to whom we are saying it. This peace and consolation that we ask for will become little by little a reality in our being.

SECOND READING  1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13

     Paul says that no one can say, "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.  However, it is not enough to pronounce words or sounds, but this sentence must come from our faith, our trust, and our love for Jesus. 

     Paul makes his community realize that there are different gifts, that everyone has his or her own gifts, which God gives to us to equip us to accomplish a mission in the community.   

     And,  to help his community to understand better, he makes the wonderful comparison of the human body, which has many members but it is one body.

     Another comparison could be a painting or a cloth made of many threats of different colors. As the weaver works we begin to see de design.

     Through baptism we are united to Christ  

     And we were all given to drink of one Spirit.  

     In the first reading Luke uses the symbol of fire, wind and tongues. In the second reading water is the symbol used to describe who the Spirit is. 

GOSPEL Jn 20:19-23  

v In the first reading we have seen how Luke explains the coming upon the Holy the Church using images taken from the Old Testament, from the traditions of Israel and even of the peoples around it.  

v In the Gospel the Church invites us to reflect on the mystery of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the way  John explains it.   

v According to the Gospel of John, the Lord came and stood in their midst, on the evening of the same day of his Resurrection. 

v And in this meeting with them he gave the Holy Spirit  

·       But before giving them his Spirit  

·       Jesus gives them Peace  thus they will be able to offer it to others. 

·       Jesus sends them.   As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  We know that through baptism we have been submerged in Christ to participate of his life and cooperate in his mission "the salvation of all men and women."    

·       Jesus gives to them the power to forgive sins.  He will cooperate with them; he will accept and support the decisions they will make.   Maybe we need to explain this a little  more, we, his disciples,  need to be attentive to his inner voice that speaks to us, so that our decisions coincide with his “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” then what the church ties on earth will remain tied, what it unties will remain untied.”

We have seen the two accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit , one from the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his spirit the same day of his resurrection. In fact, in the Gospel of John Jesus gives his Spirit, on the cross, the gift of the Spirit comes to us thanks to the redemptive death of Christ on the cross.

For Luke the Spirit comes to the Church on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, with signs and wonders.

The Paschal mystery is only one, that has been made present to us in different steps (cross, resurrection, ascension, Pentecost) which we explain using different images to be able to grasp its deep and transcendent meaning.  

ü  The Church is born in Pentecost

ü  She has been conceived in the heart of the Father from all eternity

ü  Jesus has begun it with his community of disciples and

ü  Now it becomes visible for the world by the irresistible strength of the Spirit of God poured out upon this little and insignificant community of Jerusalem in a little and worthless country.

CLARETIAN CORNER

María Antonia understands that in order to be able to live the Holy Law, the Gospel, Christ himself Word of God, the Church needs a reformation, a renewal and a conversion, and return to the origins, to the first fidelity to the Gospel.  This  is the meaning of in imitation of the Holy Apostles.  That is how the idea of an apostolic religious life is born in the mind of María Antonia.  This  apostolic life  has its base on poverty and on the proclamation of the Gospel. 

This renewal touches all the commitments of the different walks of life; poverty according to each one’s personal call , because the lack of poverty has brought the evils which affect the Church; the communion of goods and the proclamation of the Gospel, to help the whole Church to renew herself in all her members. (Paris and Claret, two pens moved by the same Spirit, p.74)

Claret wants to make it clear from the beginning: the Bishop, who has the mission to keep and preserve the beauty of the Church, has to be a man of faith in Jesus Christ, true God and true man; and also in the Church as the fullness of Christ, Mystical Body and espouse.  This is going to be the foundation of the pastoral strategies which will follow after this Introduction.  

Claret gives the main points of his theology in a time when ecclesiology was mainly about the visible, social and apologetic  aspects of the Church.  He presents the Church from the ecclesiology of Paul, as the New Eve, the Bride of Christ, the Mother of the living, the Body of Christ, Christ in his fullness and in his Hierarchical reality.

Saint Paul has composed his theology on the Church from a double experience: his communion of life with Christ, which has its origin in the experience on the way to Damascus, and on his multiple apostolic works for the sake of the Christian community.  

It is the same with Claret. His communion of life with Christ the Evangelizer, and his multiple apostolic works, lead him to discover the mystery of the Church.  (Paris and Claret, two pens moved by the same Spirit pp. 103-104)                 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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

HAAG, H; VAN DER BORN, A; DE AUSEJO, S. Diccionario de la Biblia (Bible Dictionnary), Editorial Herder 1981.

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras (According to the Scriptures), Year C, 2006.

                                                                                                                                                           

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD  - CYCLE A - 2020

« Forty days ago we celebrated the triumph of Jesus over death, his RESURRECTION.   

« During this time, Jesus has made him visible in different ways to his apostles who will be the witnesses of his resurrection.  

« Today we celebrate in the liturgy the passage of Jesus from this way of life similar to ours,  to the Father.  

« He will not be visible anymore; he will be present in his church through the sacrament, the word and the witnesses of all the times,  explaining to us the meaning of our life if we want to listen to him,  and leading us by means of his Spirit. .

 

 FIRST READING  – Act  1:1-11

-        Jesus asks them to remain in Jerusalem until they receive the promise from the Father.   

-        Luke says in this book that the Lord has tried in different ways to convince them that he is alive. 

-        John baptized in water, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. 

-        Let us reflect on the meaning of the word “baptism.” To baptize means to submerge into water. Thus, when Jesus says they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit, he means that they will be submerged in the Spirit of God that we call the Holy Spirit.

-        In addition, this will happen to those who will follow him through the centuries.   

-        Thus, the Spirit does not come to us in a visible and external way, but we are submerged in the Spirit. 

-        They want to know if the kingdom of Israel will be restored, but Jesus says that this is known only by the Father. 

-        However, they will receive the Holy Spirit who will come upon them and make them witnesses of Jesus throughout the entire world.  

-        It is important to enter into the symbolic meaning of the vocabulary used to describe this mystery of faith, the passage or returning of Jesus to the Father. 

o   Lifted up = we always look at the blue sky when we speak about heaven, the abode of God. Thus, to be lifted up means that Jesus goes to the Father.  

o   They continue to look intently, we feel so good when we experience the presence of God, when he allows us to feel his loving and joyful presence.   

o   Why are you standing there looking at the sky? He will return  

o   Now “you have to be his witnesses”, now it is the time of the church, our time when we have to do the same works that Jesus did. In our baptism, we have been called to do that.   

-        It is not a sad farewell, it is not a day of mourning, it is the day of Jesus’ triumph, that is why the church puts on our lips the responsorial psalm:  

o   We are invited to clap our hands, to shout with cries of joy, to sing the praises of our King, to sing hymns  

o   Because the Lord has established his throne upon the heights, he reigns over the nations and he sits as King on his sacred throne. 

-        This triumph is already ours in hope, now for a little while we have to work with the Lord to invite all to the heavenly banquet for all eternity. 

-        While we journey during this life waiting to enter the banquet, we have to work with all our abilities to transform this world of ours, this society in the Kingdom of God.

-        Each one putting his/her gifts and the little we have, like the boy who had only 2 fish and five loaves, and with this Jesus fed the multitude.

-        If we give the little we have to the Lord for the good of our brothers and sisters, it multiplies to feed all and still there are leftovers.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps. 47

R. (6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
for the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 

SECOND READING   Ephesians  1:17-23

-        The author of this letter asks that the Father of Lord  Jesus     

o   May give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in  knowledge of  him  

o   May enlighten the eyes of our heart to know

§  What is the hope that belongs to his call  

§  What are the riches of his glory, the inheritance among the holy ones, destined to be distributed to the members of the Church, and among all the men and women of good will who seek God without knowing Him, but with a sincere heart.     

o   So we may experience his power in our life

o   Which is the same power that the Father has revealed in the resurrection of Jesus from among the dead and, in giving to Jesus a glory, which is above all that, has been created.  

o   He has put all things beneath the feet of Jesus; this means that he has made  Jesus Lord and Head of the church which is his body.  

o   Alonso Schökel asks a question in his commentary, a question which we may keep and meditate in our hearts over and over again: Does Paul mean that the Church is more than an earthly reality, being already united to Christ in his triumph and in his glory, being already inhabited by the fullness of the divinity? 

-        A good preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ triumph will be to reflect and try to answer this two questions:  

o   Do I really know Jesus? Do I know him in such a way that this knowledge fills me with hope, joy, strength and trust without limits? Let us have a sincere conversation with the Lord.

o   Am I aware that the Church is not the reunion of members of a club o an association, that she does not exist by our will but that she is the Body of Christ and each one of the baptized is part of this Body. Body led by the Spirit of Jesus.  

GOSPEL  Matthew 28:16-40

Ø  Matthew writes at the end of his gospel the missionary commission of the apostles by Jesus. 

Ø  The eleven, the new born Church, has gone to Galilee 

Ø  In the morning of the resurrection Jesus had commissioned the women to go and tell his disciples to go to Galilee, there they would see him. 

Ø  Why Galilee and not Judea where they were?  

Ø  Galilee was the place of their first encounter with Jesus, we could call it “their first love” when they got excited about the young rabbi who proclaimed a kingdom of love, peace and fraternity, they were excited about him and about his project.   The young rabbi who associated himself with the marginalized of society, the poor, the sick, the sinners, those who do not count, and those “discarded.”

Ø  Now after all that had happened with the crucifixion of Jesus, their cowardice, their leaving him alone, Jesus invites them to go back, we could say to go back home. 

Ø  They go to Galilee, when he comes in their midst, they adore him, although some still doubt  

o   In the Gospels and in the Acts we see how the community of the followers, after the resurrection, gives to Jesus the honor due to God, they adore him.  

o   It is interesting what Matthew says, “they doubted” why? They doubted because the joy was so overwhelming that they could not believe it to be true? They doubted because they did not believe it was he. 

o   We do not know, but certainly, this sentence from Matthew is uplifting for us, the followers of the XXI century, we doubt also during the journey of our life, we doubt about our relationship with Him. 

Ø  The fact that they doubt is not an obstacle for Jesus to send them. We are sent in spite of our doubts, our infidelities, our laziness, and our many temptations against our mission as missionaries.  Our brothers and sisters doctors and nurses and the other persons who take care of those stricken by the pandemic, doubt also, they are also afraid, they are tired but they continue caring for the sick. This is the response Jesus wants from us in any situation we find ourselves.

Ø  The one who sends us is Jesus and his will is not conditioned by our feelings or our actions. 

Ø  As a consequence of our baptism we have been sent 

o   Go and make disciples, that is to say, inspire others to follow me 

o   Not to a select group, but to all the nations, no one is excluded from this proclamation, from this happiness; we cannot put obstacles with our life to what Jesus wants: all the nations. 

o   Once they had become disciples, once they had gotten excited and are ready to follow me, baptize them in the name of the Trinity, in the name of God.   

o   That is, submerging them into the waters of life, which is to be deeply submerged in the life of our God. 

o   Teach them all that I have taught you. What we have to teach is what Jesus has taught us and the Spirit with his light explains to us, as John says in his Gospel “the Spirit will remind you all that I have taught you.” 

o   If this responsibility frightens us, if we think that we cannot do it, let us continue to listen to Jesus who says to us 

o   I AM WITH YOU UNTIL THE END OF HISTORY, THE END OF TIME. 

Ø  No fears, no laziness, no excuses the Risen Jesus who sends us is also always with us and journeys with us. 

Ø  THANK YOU  Lord to be the Emmanuel, God with us, as the angel had said to Joseph who doubted when he knew that Mary was pregnant, do not fear he will be called Emmanuel, that is, God-is-with-us. 

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

María Antonia presents with great simplicity, and sometimes even with little order, her intuitions on how   the Reformation of the Church should be, and who should do it. 

Claret kept with him these two Notebooks, and we realize the value they had for him, since he included them at the end of his Autobiography.  We have a written evidence in two letters of Father Clotet .

The text has two introductions, in which María Antonia explains the reason for writing the Notes on the Reformation.  Two parts follow: the first part on who has to do the Reformation and how the Reformation has to be . The second part  is the Rules for the Apostolic Missionaries.   There is a conclusion  in which she explains that she has written in obedience. She also mentions her hopes in the new institute. (Paris and Claret. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, pp. 73-74 )

The document has an outline easy to follow, due to its interconnection, order and coherence.  

It begins with a Prologue in which Claret explains that he has been motivated to print again this work, by the positive reactions of several bishops on receiving the first edition.  He makes them believe that this is his own personal Plan used in his service to the Diocese of Santiago de Cuba.  

A long Introduction follows. We find in this introduction doctrinal, theological and apologetic elements, which come before giving the counsels, and the practical pastoral strategies.  We are surprised that in a writing of this nature, addressed to his brothers Bishops, he starts with a profession of faith in Christ and in the Church.  This has an explanation due to the situation   they were experiencing, especially in France. This country presented itself to the world as a model of the new civilization based on the motto (theme?) of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. With the Revolution, France wants to begin a new period of its history.   Some French Bishops, in particular Govel, Constitutional Bishop of Paris, rejects Christ for the Revolution. Rationalism gave the primacy of reason over faith.  (Paris and Claret. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, pp. 103)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina, Claretian Missionaries. Paris and Claret, Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. 2010.

PÉREZ HERRERO, Francisco. “Evangelio Según San Marcos” en Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. Casa de la Biblia 1995. 

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras – Año B. San Pablo-Bogotá, Colombia 2005.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO (comentarios). Misioneros Claretianos. China 2010.   

VI SUNDAY OF EASTER – CYCLE A - 2020

It is almost the end of the Easter season. Let us review the message given by the Gospels during these six Sundays of Easter before the Ascension of the Lord. 

·       On Easter Sunday we contemplated Peter and John going to the tomb and,  on seeing the burial cloths John believed.

·       On the second Sunday we saw the goodness and tender love of Jesus in his dialogue with Thomas, and with the other apostles, and we heard the Lord saying  that those who believe without seeing are blessed.  

·       On the third Sunday we read about the two disciples on their way to Emmaus and how Jesus joined them in their journey. The Lord continues to journey with each one of us.  

·       On the fourth Sunday Jesus said that he is the good Shepherd and the door of the sheep.  

·       On the fifth and Sixth Sundays the Gospels are taken from the conversation of Jesus with his disciples in the Last  Supper: 

·       Fifth Sunday:

-        Heaven is like a house with many rooms, one for each one 

-        Jesus is the way, the truth and the life to get to this “house” 

-        Jesus is the image of God the Father, the sacrament of the Father as we read in the document Lumen Gentium of the Council  Vatican II.  

-        And Jesus tells us that he/she who believes in Him will do greater works than him, because He goes to the Father.  

·       Sixth Sunday:   

-        The promise of the Holy Spirit 

-        We are in Christ   

FIRST READING  – Acts  8:5-8; 14-17

Ø   Last Sunday we heard that, as the community of the church was growing, they had to create more ministries, and thus the diaconate was established for the first time in the Church.  Deacons were to devote themselves to serve the needs of the Church.  This ministry has experienced changes and evolved through history.

Ø  Today Philip, one of the deacons that had been chosen by the community to serve the needs of the widows and other persons in need, goes to Samaria to bring there the Good News.  

Ø  They were suffering persecution for their faith in Jesus, and Paul was more and more against the new faith of the followers of Jesus

Ø  Following what the Lord had told them, they went from one place to another to protect themselves from the persecution, and on so doing they also proclaimed in the different places the good news of Jesus. 

Ø  The Samaritans who  listened to Philip proclaiming the Good News about Jesus, accepted the faith and were baptized.   

Ø  When the news reached the Apostles, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 

Ø  And impose hands upon them so they could  receive the Holy Spirit.  

Ø  This is a beautiful image of the infant church, they take advantage of all situations to announce. The persecution is the occasion to announce the good news to other brothers and sisters. 

Ø  This young and little church makes real the mandate of Jesus “go, proclaim, baptize, teach” what? All that I have taught you.

Ø  And what has he taught   by words and deeds? That God is love, and that we are called to love, since we are the image of our Creator who knows only to love without conditions. To this we are called, and this is what we have to announce by words and deeds.

Ø  Is our enthusiasm for the Lord, like that of this young church? That we do not waste any occasion to live up to this mandate of the Lord, not so much by our words but by our life that cries out that the Lord is alive, and in encountering him in the community every Sunday, our life keeps changing? 

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM. Ps 66: 1-7.16.20.

R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
 "Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
 He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
 Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.

     This psalm is an invitation to sing the wonderful Works of God 

     What works?

Ø  Creation 

Ø  Exodus, liberation: he has changed the sea in dry land 

Ø  The Psalmist invites us to listen to what God has done for him  

Ø  What has God done in my life?  Let each one of us dedicate some time in solitude and silent prayer with the Lord thinking about the wonderful works that the Lord has done in our  life.   

SECOND READING  – 1Pt 3:15-18

ü  Peter invites us to have Christ as the Lord of our heart, the Lord of our life.     

ü  He also says that we have to be ready to give an account of our faith when we are asked. This means that we have to know what we believe, to have ownership of the faith we have received from our ancestors.  

ü  Peter tells us also that it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

ü  Because Jesus who was innocent suffered for us sinners.  

ü  He was condemned to death, but God brought him to life again by the Spirit

ü  How do I react to the unjust suffering in my life? When I suffer without having done the evil I am accused of?  

GOSPEL   Jn 14,15-21

     Jesus says to his disciples “if you love me, you will keep my commandments” 

     What are his commandments? In the Last Supper he said that he has only commandment “love one another…” but to learn how to make real this commandment in our life, we have to look at Jesus, his life, his ministry, the way he relates to other persons, because Jesus is the new Law that has come  to fulfill the Old Covenant, the Law given on Mount Sinai.  

     If we live according to his commandments Jesus will ask the Father for another advocate who will always be with us.   

     Why only with those who live according to his commandments who believe in Him? I have read something that may help us to answer this question:  

ü  The Spirit is the anointing that Jesus receives as Head of the body which is the Church 

ü  From Him, Head, the Spirit overflows as a sacred ointment over his whole body, the Church. 

ü  This Spirit that Jesus pours over his whole Church makes possible, the life, the faith and the ministries of the community of believers.  

ü  I think that this can be the explanation to what Jesus says that He will ask for the Spirit for those who keep his commandments.  

ü  That is to say to those who are united with Him the head of the body.  

     In silent prayer, united to Jesus, let us ask the grace to understand this beautiful image of Christ head of the Church-faith community- body.  

     The reading ends with these words of Jesus 

·       He who loves Jesus, will be loved by the Father  

·       Jesus too will love him/her and will reveal himself to him/her   in the intimacy of love.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

  

 After her Initial Experience, María Antonia goes through a normal process of deepening in the understanding of what the Lord had revealed to her.  Little by little she learns that the Renewal is not only about the New Order, but also about something larger and deeper; it is the whole Church that has to be renewed, converted and   returned to her first love. And in the Church, two groups of persons have a greater responsibility: the Hierarchy and the Religious men and women, because the conversion of the people of God depends on their conversion. Thus María Antonia writes this Plan to contribute, for her part, to the Renewal of the Church which she has understood as a must in the Initial Experience.  Let us see how she conceives it and how she translates it later on in the Plan for the Renewal.  (Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, Spanish edition pp.73-74)

This is the title of the second edition in 1865,   Claret edited    with notes and explanations, the first edition which he had composed on the ship on his return to Spain in 1857.   This is the edition we will transcribe in our book.  It has a simpler and more discrete title than the original one.  “Notes Of a Plan To Keep The Beauty Of The Church And To Preserve Her From Error And Vices, Which Are The Weed That The Enemy Takes Advantage of Any Opportunity To Sow It Among The Good Wheat.” 

Both titles are not too good for advertisement… but it gives us an idea about the goal of the writing.  They are Notes and thus we are going to find in them a simple style, but at the same time with a sound theological foundation.  These notes are at the same time a Plan written with a purpose, which is expressed in the title by two verbs: to keep and to preserve the beauty of the Church. (Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, Spanish edition pp.100-101)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Hortensia & TUTZO, Regina Misioneras Claretianas. Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit. 2010

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

Midwest Theological Forum. DAILY ROMAN MISSAL