XVI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE A - 2020
The
readings for this Sunday increase in us the trust in God, because he is
powerful and uses his power to take care of us with compassion and
tenderness.
FIRST READING: Wis 12: 13, 16-19
Ø The
reading speaks about God:
Ø God
is Lord of all:
o God
takes care of everything and of everyone, things, animals and human beings whom
he treats with kindness and tenderness.
o God
has power over all, and he does not have to explain himself.
o Because
his power is the foundation of justice, and he uses
this power to show mercy to all his creatures.
Ø God shows his strength:
o To
those who doubt of him
o Punishes
those who knowing him, defy him
o To
punish is not to destroy, it is to teach, to build.
o He
judges with mercy and governs with kindness.
Ø With his behavior God :
o
Has taught
his people
o That the just has to be
humane, behave as God behaves, who being Lord uses his power as he wills, and
this is caring and loving.
o And fills his children
with a sweet hope because he waits for us sinners, and gives us enough time to
repent.
Ø What a beautiful
description of who God Is! We find it in the Old Testament in this book which
is considered deuterocanonical or apocryphal by our Jewish and Protestant
brothers and sisters; but the church has always recognized it as inspired and
uses it in its liturgy.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM : Ps 85: 5-6. 9-10. 15-16a
R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.,
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.,
v This psalm is full of tenderness and trust in God.
v It conveys the same message as the first reading
v God is compassion, tenderness and above all he is slow
to anger
v I would rather say that God does not get angry, on the
contrary, he suffers our wrong behavior because this harms us and causes us to
be detached from him.
v But, as the first reading puts it, God gives us time,
he waits for us, and he continues calling us.
GOSPEL Mt 13:24-43
The Gospel for today is the continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel
All these parables found in chapter 13, are about the kingdom.
Through them we are able to understand what Jesus felt and thought
about the kingdom of God that he had come to announce to us.
And also to approach the
experience of Jesus himself about the way God acts.
Not in theory, but as a proclamation which requires a response to
be understood, those who do not accept it do not understand it either.
The parables of the kingdom are short and suggestive accounts with
images and comparisons taken from the daily life in order to help us to think.
They want to help the listener to question his/her own life and situation
in relation to the kingdom.
The parables we will read today speak about what is hidden, what
is little.
o The weed grows together with the wheat, it grows silently
o The mustard seed is insignificant but it gives origin to a tree
where the birds make their nests.
o The yeast which is not seen but makes the batch of wheat flour leaven.
It is always hard for us to look for God in the daily
events of life, in what is little, common. We prefer to look for God in
the spectacular.
This also was the way Jesus’ contemporaries looked at the
kingdom
He had to teach them and help them to discover the
presence of God who works in silence in the daily life, in what is
insignificant.
To discover how God works always in the silence. Even
if we cannot see anything extraordinary, God continues to work in the world and
in each human being.
.
SECOND READING: Rm
8: 26-27
· Paul in this fragment of
the letter to the Romans explains how the Spirit works.
· The Spirit comes to our
aid and teaches us how to pray in the way Jesus taught us
· And he does so interceding
for us, because we do not know what to ask for, but the Spirit knows.
· And God, who knows our
hearts, knows also what the Spirit wants to say.
CLARETIAN CORNER
My
very dear Prelate and Father in J.C., Since Your Excellency is our first father and support, I can but to tell
you the sadness I have… that a third part of the wall, which separates
the cloister from the section which is not built, collapsed but not only the wall,
but the land as well; you can imagine
how I worry having the cloister open, because since during winter the
weather here is humid due to the frequent rains and fogs, it is not easy under
those conditions to rebuild the wall, because the land is crumbling away and
there is no firm ground, and besides, this causes more expenses over the ones
we already have with the construction….(Letter of María
Antonia París to St. Anthony M. Claret January 11 1961)
I have received your letter from the 18th of the
present month, and, informed of its content, I tell you in respect to holy
poverty that I know very well what the sacred canons of the church say, and
what is ordered by the laws of the kingdom; but this is in relation to what is
normal and ordinary, and it seems good to me. But what is happening with us is
something exceptional, that God wants, and I will prove it with two simple
explanations: the first is that experience has already manifested it, as you well
know, that you have not lack anything, and your will lack nothing in the
future, if you put your trust in God; the second reason is that God wants that
a public testimony in favor of poverty be given, since regrettably, in the
present time, people have more trust in money than in God. I only
say to you that you do what is in your power; but may poverty reign over all,
since it is a virtue very much loved by Jesus and Mary. (Letter
of Saint Anthony M. Claret to María Antonia París, January 30 1962)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, St. Antonio María
Claret, Letters. To María Antonia París
CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA. Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial.
MARÍA ANTONIA PARÍS, Letters. To San Antonio María Claret.
PAGOLA, José Antonio, El camino
abierto por Jesús – Gospel of Matthew.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.
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