20  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A – 2020   

v Last Sunday Jesus said to those men frightened by the storm on the lake “Do not be afraid, It is I” 

v Today we will hear Jesus telling to a pagan woman, who asks Jesus to heal her daughter “O, woman great is your faith!”   

v Faith in the goodness of God who has created us is in the heart of many men and women followers and non-followers of Jesus, believers from other religious groups.   

v This is wonderful! And I do not believe we can fully grasp it, it goes beyond our way to look at each other!    

FIRST READING Is 56:1. 6-7  

This text is taken from the third part of the book of Isaiah, called the Third Isaiah. These prophets had the mission to console and encourage the people on the return from the exile. The descendants of those who left and now come back and the descendants of those who remained in the country had lived very different experiences and now have great difficulty to become a unified people.  The prophet  encourages and sustains their hope.     

 In today’s reading we read the first verse of chapter 56 which is like an introduction, and afterwards we read verses 6-8. 

o   Observe what is right   

o   Because my justice will come 

o   And will be revealed   

Ø   The justice we all await and want, although some seek it by wrong roads, and many times we get discouraged but our Father God and Creator says to us, my justice will be seen.   

Ø  And it is already visible in many parts of our world where people from different beliefs do good and fight for others.    

Ø  I want to remember here the Claretian Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga who dedicated 52 years of his life to minister the indigenous people of the Amazonia, in Matto Grosso, Brazil and fought for the respect and recognition of the equal dignity of all peoples. He died at 92 years old a couple of days ago.   

Ø  After reading the first verse we go to verses 6 to 8 in which, the Lord speaks to the foreigners who follow the Lord, and promise them to taken them to his holy mountain, to his home, to Him and He will unite them with the people of the promises.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Sal.67(66)

R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

Ø  It is a psalm of praise but at the same time of supplication “let all the nations praise you! Lord grant us that little by little all the peoples discover You and surrender to your love.  

GOSPEL Mt 15:21-28

     After teaching, healing and feeding the people that followed him, Jesus went to the mountain to dialogue with his Father, he walks on the waters of the lake, discusses with the Pharisees about traditions of hygiene that have become part of the religious laws  of Israel.   

     After that, Jesus goes to the land of Tyre and Sidon, probably to rest since nobody knew him there. 

     But, o what a surprise! Somebody shouts “Son of David…! They know me here too?   

     I am going to transcribe below a very interesting narration explaining this Gospel.  It is as if the girl that was healed, when she is an adult tells the story to a group of people of the first  communities that were eager to know stories about the Master, about Jesus

o   My mother was seated outside our home stroking a puppy.   

o   My difficulties started when I was 4 or 5 years old, when I began to feel the sickness, the demon. (for the people of that time sickness was a demon or was caused by a demon.)   

o   One day a group of foreigners, maybe we could say tourists from Israel came to our town   

o   Among them Jesus the Healer. She called out to him “Have pity on me, Lord Son of David!  

o   Here she explains all that her mother had to endure: Jesus at the beginning seemed not to pay attention to her, the Apostles, like in the episode of the loaves, ask Jesus to send her away, she is disturbing them. But Jesus did not. 

o   At that moment the heart of her mother swelled with hope. Maybe, could the mercy of the God of Israel extend even north of the border?

o   Hope and love made my mother persist, Help me, sir!

o   She said that she will never forget how gently Jesus said “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the puppies.”

o   My mother felt the Holy Spirit swell up within her. “Even the little dogs eat the scraps under the table!

o   Jesus was astonished. His face shone as he looked in her eyes. Woman great is your faith. At that very moment I was healed!

o   Until the day she died, she told everyone about God’s mercy toward me. (cf. Living Word p. 186)

     I believe that this story does not need any explanation, let us reflect in silence and pray, dialogue with Jesus about this episode, giving him thanks for all the anonymous persons some Christian others from other religious traditions that live their faith and love of God in a very beautiful way without noise with much humility.  

SECOND READING   Rom 11:13-15, 29-32

ü  Last Sunday Paul told us that he suffered for his people 

ü  Today he reflects on the same theme but from another angle 

o   Il is called apostle of the gentiles, and he glories in this ministry   

o   With the hope to make his people jealous and to see if they accept the faith in Jesus.    

o   He asks if their rejection of Jesus is the reconciliation of the world  

o   What consequences will their acceptance bring? I will be life   

ü  In the second part of the reading he speaks of the gifts of God  

o   The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.   

o   He suffered for his people and he reaches to the understanding through prayer and reflection that the gifts and the call of God are forever.   

o   What a relief for us that suffered so many times for members of our family, friends or even us, when we journey separated Fromm God. Let us keep praying because what God gives and when God calls it is forever.  

o   Thank you Paul for sharing your thoughts with us because they give us much peace.   

CLARETIAN CORNERVenerable María Antonia París, Foundress -  .  

Bishops therefore look at the Rules and order that they be observed with all its purity, getting rid of all the negligence that the mundane spirit has favored saying that poverty does not consist of not having goods or riches or any other thing, but in having the heart detached from it:  to those who speak in this manner, destroying the spirit of Religion, His Majesty says that if they pay attention to those words:  blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, to pay attention to the words he responds to the young man who asked him what to do to be perfect:  Sell what you have, give it to the poor and follow me.  Notice that he did not tell him detach your heart from riches and follow me, but: sell your riches or goods, give them to the poor and follow me.  “Renewal of the Church 49”in París and Claret Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit. 

San Antonio María Claret, fundador - The Prelate is the father of the poor, and when these are sick they are twice entitle to his compassion and pastoral zeal, for this reason he will call the Sisters of Charity to take care of them in hospitals and houses of charity.  And may the Prelate keep in mind that if the sick are not taken care of by the Sisters of Charity or any other similar sisters, like the Tertiary Carmelites, they will suffer much; thus he has to do whatever is in his possibility to bring Sisters to the Archdiocese.   “Notes of a Plan to Keep the Beauty of the Church and to Preserve it.”   in  París and Claret Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit.     

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BARKER, John R. – BELLINGER, Karla J. Living the Word – Year A.

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

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, Madrid 2012.