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.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment