XII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  - 2020

We have returned to the Ordinary Time, time of our daily life without great lights or profound darkness, ordinary as the word says, simple but at the same time it can be very profound and favor in peace a meaningful and transforming encounter with the Lord.

FIRST READING  - Jer 20: 10-13

Ø  The first reading is taken from chapter 20 of the book of Jeremiah, chapter called “the confessions of Jeremiah.” 

Ø  The prophet is suffering from the betrayal of his friends, but also because his best friend “God”, who has called him from his mother’s womb to be his prophet, in some way, has also deceived him (seduced) or disappointed.   

Ø  Or at least he had never told him the consequences of his faithfulness to God’s call.   

Ø  The whole chapter 20 shows feelings of sorrow, and at the same time, of trust in the God whom Jeremiah loves with all his being. 

Ø  Maybe in the feelings expressed by Jeremiah we might be able to see our own sufferings.

Ø  May God grant us that our love for Him might be a fortress as it was for Jeremiah.

Ø  And may we be able to say and truly mean “I know whom I have trusted.”     

Let us see what the first reading for this Sunday tells us  

v On verse 10 Jeremiah describes the cause of  his sufferings and fear.  

v He hears the people and also his friends speak on his back, with falseness.

v They try all sorts of things to make him falter, to seduce him for their “cause.”

v However Jeremiah, has been seduced by God, and the fire he has inside does not allow him to abandon God from whom he feels seduced, attracted in such a way that he cannot get away from Him.

v On verse 11  Jeremiah seems to rise from prostration and despair and tells us what is the cause of his strength and security.  

v It is the Lord who is with him.  The Lord that has seduced him allows him to experience his loving and mysterious presence.

v He does not fear because his enemies are the ones who will stumble and be confused by their own evil actions.  

v On verse 12 Jeremiah speaks to the Lord whom he loves so much and in whom he trusts unconditionally.

v He invokes God as the one who knows the heart of every man and woman.

v But Jeremiah has not reach a love similar to the love God has for us, because we will need that the Son of God himself come to dwell among us, for us to learn that we cannot avenge ourselves.

v On verse 13, which is very short, only two lines, Jeremiah invites us to sing and praise the Lord, who has liberated the poor. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 68: 8-10. 14 y 17. 33-35

R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!''
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.

The three parts of this psalm follows the same movement of the first reading     

     First

o   He says what is happening to him, he has become a stranger for those of his town, of his race, of his family.    

o   The reason is because “zeal for the  house of God consumes me”   and

o   Thus the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.

     Second   

o   He calls and invokes God to come to deliver him   

o   But in the psalm there is a peace and tenderness which is not found in the confessions of Jeremiah, who is still struggling with his sufferings.  

o   For the psalmist God is good and kind.     

     Third    

o   The responsorial psalm ends inviting heaven, earth and sea 

o   Because God is never deaf to the cry of the poor whom he never abandons. 

And as a background choir the assembly repeats the theme of this Sunday:  God is good and listens to us, even  when our experience is that God keeps silence, and it seems as though he does not hear the cry of our suffering. 

GOSPEL Mt 10: 26-33

v vv. 26-27 Jesus says to his disciples

o   Do not  fear men, because there is nothing hidden that will not be known. 

o   And he invites them to speak and say what he has told them even those things which were whispered to their ears. 

v v. 28 Who we have to fear is the one who can not only kill you but throw us into hell. 

v vv. 29-31 Jesus tells them the reason why they do not have to fear  

o   He invites them to look around, to creation and fix their eyes on the birds which nobody pays attention to, like “the sparrows.”  

o   And however none is forgotten by the Father who takes care of them.  

o   And he leads them to look at themselves, “all the hairs of you head are counted…”  Do we realice what he is saying?    

o   Then,  if even our hairs are important for our Father, and if the sparrows are important too, why do we fear?  

o   Because we are worth much more than many sparrows.  

v vv.32-33 I have never been able to understand the two verses that follow, I do not understand what the Lords really wants to say  

o   If I acknowledge him, he will acknowledge me, but if not….  

o   These words are written by the evangelist because he had heard them from Jesus.   

o   But my difficulty to understand is because from the Gospel we know that the heart of the Lord forgives always. We have examples like Peter, “I do not know this man…” “Peter do you love me…” Feed my sheep, my lambs…  

o   I am sure that one day I will understand these two verses,  because I truly believe thatg all the words of Jesus contain a message of love and mercy for all.    

LETTER OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS  

     Before meditating on today’s message, maybe it will help us to know more about the letter to the Romans.

     Paul wrote it probably from Corinth the years 57-58.

     Paul wants to go to the center of the Roman Empire, the center of paganism, to share there his faith, but he wants to go there as a stop in his visit to the ends of the world known in that time “Spain.” In the coast of Galicia in the North West of Spain there is a place that was considered the end of the world, it is called Finisterre, which means End-of-the-world.

     It is a profound letter, which takes again all the central themes of Paul’s preaching and which we can summarize as follows: Salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, dead and risen, offered to all men and women without discrimination.

     Letter, which during many years and centuries has been point of controversy with our brethren from other Christian traditions, the Protestant Reformation.

     Maybe it will help us during this week to meditate the main theme of this letter.

SECOND READING  - Rom 5: 12-15

§  Paul reflects on the reality of sin  

§  That, he says, entered the world through the sin of a man  

§  This helps us to think about the consequences of our sins, even those that nobody knows or sees. Any sin affects the entire human race as well as any good deed also affects it but in a positive way. 

§  The transgression of the first man brought death to all,  however the death of one man Jesus Christ brings life to all.  

§  Paul sees Adam as the first man and as a figure of Jesus Christ, the New Adam.

CLARETIAN CORNER 

Venerable María Antonia París -   The first thing that [the bishops]  should do is renew their lives, houses and families; that is, they should fix their houses with the most essential and absolutely necessary, without allowing superfluous things that serve vanity more than necessity. 

The Bishops should live in community with their associates, and there should not exist a distinction of what is yours and mine between them.  

Everyone’s income from properties and interest from dowries belongs to the poor (deducting exactly what each one needs), and therefore it should be given to them, and among these it could be taken into consideration if there is someone poor who is a relative of one of the associates.  The Bishops should not see this as childish, and take into consideration that if being poor was being childish, Our Lord would not have chosen to be born and live his entire life in a poor house.  Moreover, in these times people’s concept of our holy religion has gone down so much that to now give it its value and esteem, it is necessary to bring it up by where it has come down, first persuading through the eyes rather than through the ears. (París and Claret, Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. “Plan for the Renewal of the Church” ch.3, 15-18).

St. Anthony Mary Claret - Saint Jerome, writing to the Supreme Pontiff, says as follows: «I speak with the successor of the Fisherman. I follow no one but you: he who does not gather with you, scatters. I know that the Church is build upon you; I hope in the Crucified One, that by the authority you have, you let me know how do I have to speak about this matter.”(Epist. 57 ad Damasum). (París and Claret, Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. Plan to Restore the Beauty of the  Church ch.3, ‘About the Obedience to the Pope,” words of the Holy Fathers)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BAKER OFM, John R. and BELLINGER Karla J. Living the Word – Year A 2019-2020.

MUÑOZ, Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina, Paris y Claret. Dos plumas movidas por un mismo Espíritu. 2010 

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, Adaptación del texto y Comentarios- Biblia del Peregrino. 2015