26 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME –  A –  2020

§  The liturgy invites us again to reflect on the meaning of the justice  of God

§  The justice of God, which is the only true justice, is different from ours; maybe we should say that our justice is not like God’s.  

§  He says in Scripture that his ways are not like ours.  

§  We forget many times about this and we complain because we do not understand his justice, maybe we do not understand the meaning of the word.   

§  But if we want to participate in the true justice, we better try to understand the justice of God and imitate him.   

FIRST READING  – Ez 18: 25-28

v We have in chapter 18 of Ezequiel a reflection on the personal responsibility, Israel looked at the persons only as part of a people or community.  However here Ezequiel  in exile presents to them this reflection on each one’s responsibility ,that is whatever each one of us choses in life. 

v The Lord disputes with his people about the justice in His works. 

v The people say that God is not just in his works.   

v And God confronts his people and asks them, is it my ways or yours which are not fair? 

v And He presents an example….  If the just man/woman decides to do evil he/she is responsible of his/her  actions and of its consequences… if the sinner realizes his/her  error and decides to act righteously, he/she is also responsible of his/her acts and its consequences.     

v In the first situation the consequences are of condemnation, in the second of salvation.  

v Why?

v Salvation as well as creation is not given to us once and for all, because we are human beings in process, we are not completed yet during our life time, God creates and saves us in a lifelong process. 

v During this process I can open or close the door of my being to God. 

v The only one responsible to open or close it is me.  

v Certainly God will continue to knock at my door, but it will be I who is going to open or close.  

v Some verses towards the end of this chapter we read “Because I do not want the death of anyone – oracle of the Lord – Convert and you will live!” Let us remember that according to Jesus’  teaching God is love, thus He wants that every human being enjoys the fruits of redemption on the cross. 

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. ) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. ) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. ) Remember your mercies, O Lord.

ü  The congregation gathered in the Eucharistic celebration will next Sunday repeat the humble and trusting supplication remember your mercies, O Lord.  

ü  We hope in God our creator and our savior; He will lead us through the right path.  

ü  We know he will remember us and thus we call upon him.  

ü  This psalm helps us  in our life: to live day by day the love with which God loves us.     

GOSPEL Mt 21:28-32

Ø   In this chapter we find several instances of tension and discussions between the authorities and Jesus. The tension between Jesus and the Scribes and Pharisees is increasing. 

Ø  Today Jesus addresses the high priests and elders of his people,  with this parable

Ø  What is your opinion? A father has two sons and he says

To one of them….. go to work in my vineyard  … I will not … but afterwards this son changed his mind and went.

To the other …… go to work in my vineyard   … Yes, sir, ‘but did not go.

  ….. which one of the two made the will of his father?  The first one they said.  

Ø  Jesus shares with them what he carries in his heart, those dearest to him: the sinners, those we despise because they are sinners and we are saints.

Ø  Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you.

Ø   Jesus has a personal experience of what he is saying: Zacchaeus, the sinner woman, Matthew,  the adulteress,

Ø  Those who seem to live far from God are frequently closer to Him than we, who believe we know Him.  

Ø  Because they open wide their heart to welcome the forgiveness and goodness of God.  

SECOND READING : Phil 2:1-11

     Paul invokes the love that the community of Philippi has for him and the love he has for the community.   

     And he asks them to give him the joy to see the community united 

     And he continues recommending them to do nothing for rivalry, or vainglory, but to act with humility, that is, in truth. 

     And he asks them something else, to look at the others as superior to them, not because they have a better education, or they belong to a higher social class, no, he simply says to consider the others superior to oneself. And this first paragraph ends inviting the community of Philippi to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus  

     Who being God   became one like us. The people in his town saw him as the carpenter of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, the carpenter,  and of Mary the wife of the carpenter. He was not important….    But He was the Son of God through whom all things were made.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

  We are living on a time of great transformations which affect   the whole human race in all the different aspects of its existence.  The world is changing profoundly with a vertiginous speed; this fact causes an unavoidable vital tension in front of a difficult present, and an uncertain future constantly changing. 

We are faced with the challenge to discern the signs of the times; to discover in our historical reality what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the Church; and to question ourselves about the role that we are playing as a Church, in this crucial time.   The task is not easy, in the same way as it was not easy for Claret and Paris. We need a superabundance of optimism, hope and courage, to accept this challenge in which we find ourselves. We have to face our mission with humility and complete trust in God; only in this way we will be able to be signs of peace and joy in our world. Only having our eyes open to see the concrete circumstances of our time, we will be able to look for the means to fulfill  this task, so charismatic for us, to  “Restore the beauty of the Church.”  París and Claret: Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. Called to Renew the Church, p.169 of the Spanish edition.)  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Ma. Hortensia & TUTZO, Regina, Misioneras Claretianas. París and Claret: Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. Called to Renew the Church.  2010.    

PAGOLA, José Antonio sj. El camino abierto por Jesús. 1 Mateo. 2010

PAGOLA, José Antonio sj. La Buena noticia de Jesús. Ciclo A. 2016

La Biblia de nuestro pueblo. Luis Alonso Schökel. 2015.

 

 

XXV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME     - A - 2020

ü  During the last two weeks the Gospel for the Mass was taken from chapter 18 of Matthew, chapter called “gospel of the community,”   because it says how our behavior has to be if we want that Jesus be in the midst of the community: correct each other with love, pray together and forgive each other seventy times seven, always.  

ü  Today the parable that Jesus tells us is another invitation to love selflessly like the Father, represented in the owner of the vineyard. This is a wider love that goes beyond our community, beyond our “boundaries,” it embraces persons until now unknown for us.  

FIRST READING   Is 55:6-9

o   Today’s Reading is taken from the Second Isaiah called also Deutero-Isaiah and Book of Consolation. 

o   It is of an exceptional beauty whose words give comfort to the heart.   

o   Seek the Lord while you may find him, while he allows himself to be found.  

o   This is an image of a father or a mother who plays with her young child; image also of the lover who seeks his or her love, and also allows the loved one to find him or her.    

o   After that there is an invitation to abandon evil, to change, to go back to the Lord who is generous in forgiveness.    

o   And here the prophet, the voice of God, says words that he has heard from God: my thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are high above your ways. 

o   My thoughts are generous no mean like yours.  

o   The Lord is all mercy, forgiveness, compassion and tender love. 

o   His thoughts do not judge us negatively, but only to save us. On the contrary we judge others to condemn with our tongue without mercy in our heart and,  without even realizing who we really are.   

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 145:2-3; 8-9;17-18 

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM

Every day will I bless you    

And I will praise your name forever and ever

Great is the Lord and highly to be praised

His greatness is unsearchable.

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

The Lord is gracious and merciful

Sallow to anger and of great kindness

The Lord is good to all

And compassionate toward all his works

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

The Lord is just in all his ways

And holy in all his works

The Lord is near to all who call upon him

To all who call upon him in truth

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

     This psalm sings the goodness of God

     It is a fitting prayer response to the text of Isaiah where the prophet says how good is God toward all.    

     Do we not feel the desire to be like him?   

     So that with him we may work to transform this world of ours, and also our communities filling them with love and compassion. 

     Thus having a society in which we all can live, no matter what is our condition: having talents or not having them; having a doctorate or having gone to school only to the first grades… We are all loved by God, let us allow Him to enkindle in our heart his flame of love toward everyone. Let us pray insistently without getting weary, He listens to us.    

GOSPEL  Mt 20:1-16a

Ø  Chapter 19 ends with the sentence “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” 

Ø  At the beginning of chapter 20 Matthew tells us this parable that Jesus told about the owner of the vineyard.  

Ø  This parable tells us what the kingdom of God is all about.  

Ø  It is like a land owner who has a vineyard and needs workers who can work in it, who will be willing to pick up the grapes that probably are  ready.  

Ø  This image of men waiting for someone to give them work,  was something that Jesus had seen many times .  

Ø  Still today in many places people who need to work and people who need workers meet at certain points of the towns .     

Ø  According to the parable the owner goes out very early in the morning, and then many more times until 5 in the afternoon and to all he says the same I will pay you what is just.   

Ø  He continues to go out, but the Lord does not tell us if this is because he needs so many workers or because he wants to give work to everyone.  

Ø  No one has hired you? No one. Go to my vineyard and I will pay what is just.    

Ø  All go, some work all day long, some work some hours and the last work only one hour.  

Ø  The great surprise comes at the end, when the owner says to his steward, start paying the last first and continue until you have paid all. Give to each one the usual daily wage.  

Ø  What is this!  What an injustice! Some have worked more than 12 hours and the last only one hour… 

Ø  My friend, if I want to be good, am I not free to give to this one the same as to you? I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?   

Ø  Why is this way of retribution just?    

o   This is what they had agreed   

o   But if we now look at our life, at our relationship with the Lord, what is this parable telling us?

§  The call, the mission and the recompense in the eternal life is complete gratuitous and it depends only on the loving will of God.  

§  God loves us all equally; he creates all and redeems us all with the same love.   

§  I say creates and redeems because creation and redemption are ongoing realities.   

§  The reward, the wage is God himself, and God cannot be divided in different parts, the salary is such that it is only one which is eternal life.

§   The extra salary or reward for those who have worked all day long is the possibility to work a longer time, happy and blessed those who have been able to work for the Lord since their childhood.  

§  The salary does not depend on us, because we are not entitled to any reward, but it depends on the loving disposition of our God.   

§  When you have done all you had to do, say we are useless servants, and we have done only what we were supposed to do.  

§  Do you think that the owner of the house will praise the servant who has done what he was told to do?   

o   For me this is the most interesting parable among the parables that the Lord has told us. Our human categories, our human justice, our own calculations are excluded in the parable.     

o   My thoughts and my ways are far from yours. I think and act in a very different way than you, but you need to learn from me.    

SECOND READING    Phil  1:20c-24,27a

Ø  The community of Philippi was the most cherished community by Paul, and Paul was loved very much by the community.   

Ø  This letter belongs to the group of letters called “captivity letters” because they were written in prison.    

Ø  Paul was in prison twice thus it is difficult to date this letter. The date will be between the years 50-60.    

Ø  It is a short letter, filled with love. It is addressed to the first community that Paul evangelized; maybe this can explain his preference for them.  

Ø  The contents:

o   A theological jewel: the Christological Hymn  

o   Some autobiographical notes   

o   The church organization:  bishops and deacons   

o   The teaching of Paul about the encounter of the believer with Christ after death.    

o   The financial cooperation of this community to help Paul. 

Let us see the contents of today’s Reading

v Christ will be glorified either by my life or by my death   

v Because my life is Christ, and I consider death as gain

v Paul does not know what to choose, to continue to live in this world to serve the community, or to die and go with the Lord forever. He says that his heart is divided between these two wishes.  

v O that our love be like his! and we might experience too this inner struggle, between being with the Lord in heaven or remaining here  with our brothers and sisters to serve them.   

v Today’s reading ends with an exhortation to behave in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ. 

v  This invitation is not only to the community of Philippi, but also to us, to our community.  

CLARETIAN CORNER  

Love and communion with the Church, the spouse of Christ,  are profoundly rooted in our Congregation of Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters. We show it in many different ways, above all being aware that we are sent by the Church to proclaim the Gospel.

 Our love for the Church, to which we belong, has to be critical and prophetic, as was the love of Claret  and Paris  for the Church of their own time.  Both uncovered and denounced the evils that the Church was experiencing in the concrete persons of the Bishops, Clergy, Religious men and women and Laity. 

The prophetic dimension, which is a characteristic of the religious life in general, has for us a especial nuance: to feel the burden of the Church as María Antonia felt it, to analyze in truth the reality and to discover what does not coincide with the Gospel in order to work unceasingly to bring the Holy Law of the Lord to all creatures and thus cooperate in the permanent renewal of the Church.  Like Claret, we have to work so that “God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be known and loved by all men.”   In that journey we commit ourselves completely to the service of the Church; going to the places which we recognize are most in need of evangelization. (Paris and Claret…. Beginning of chapter 4.)  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Ma. Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina, Claretian Missionary Sisters. Paris and Claret, Two Pens Guided by the same Spirit. Called to Renew the Church. 2010.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012  

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo)  2007

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.     

 

24 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   - A –  2020

ü  The central theme of this Sunday’s liturgy is the fraternal love under the aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness that we are called to share among ourselves, like the Father forgives us in Christ Jesus who has died for all of us without exception.  

BOOK OF  BEN SIRA - ECCLESIASTICUS 

o   The designation “Liber Ecclesiasticus” meaning Church Book is probably due to the extensive use the Church made of this book.   

o   It belongs to the group of Wisdom Books. Books that reflect on fundamental issues related to our human life. Issues that worry all of us, questions we try to answer no matter who we are and where we life. Life,death, suffering, sin, justice… God or some other superior being.  

o   It is the only book of the Old Testament that bears the signature of its author (50,27).

o   The book was written originally in Hebrew in 197 B.C in Jerualem. 

o   It was translated into Greek by the grandson Ben Sira of the author in 132 B.C.

o    For many centuries it was beleived that the book was written in Greek and thus was not accepted as revealed. In the XIX and XX centuries fragments of the original manuscript were found written in Hebrew.

o   Though not included in the Jewish Bible after the first century A.D. not therefore accepted by the Protestants, the Wisdom of Ben Sira has been recognized by the Catholic Church as inspired and canonical.

o    The contents of the Wisdom of Ben Sira are if a discursive nature, not easily divided into separate parts. 

FIRST READING   Sir 27:30—28:7

Ø  Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.

Ø  The author invites us to forgive and thus when we pray we will be heard.  

Ø  How can we expect to be forgiven if we do not forgive? 

Ø  What do I answer to this question?  

Ø  If we harbor wrath in our heart, who will be able to forgive us? Because when our heart is filled with wrath there is no more room to anything else, thus we are unable to accept the light of God, to hear his voice that invites us to forgive, to love.  

Ø  El author invites us to think about our last moments,  are we going to be at peace with that wrath in our heart when we face our Creator and Redeemer?

Ø   Jesus has invited or called us to love one another as He has loved us.

Ø  The reading ends saying: Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High's covenant. In so doing we will be happy   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 103   

R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful,

slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful,

slow to anger, and rich in compassion
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
The Lord is kind and merciful,

slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
The Lord is kind and merciful,

 slow to anger, and rich in compassion
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
The Lord is kind and merciful,

slow to anger, and rich in compassion. 

We can find the central message of this psalm in the last stanza. Between the behavior of the Lord and his love and our behavior and love there is a distance that we could call unsurmountable, only him can do this rapprochement.    .

GOSPEL Mt 18:21-35 

Ø  We continue reading chapter 18 that we began last week, chapter in which Matthew speaks to the community about the requirements of being a community.  

Ø  The Gospel was written for a given community, with its own needs and shortcomings.

Ø  The community of Matthew needed to forgive those who persecuted them, those who killed their loved ones…   

Ø   And the evangelist says to them what Jesus had said to Peter long time before: Peter you have to forgive always, without getting tired of forgiving.

Ø   And to help us to understand,  the evangelist tells us one of the parables of Jesus on forgiveness and on the lack of forgiveness.  

Ø  For us to forgive is very difficult,  because the offense is an attack on our own being, thus is like being deprived of our life.

Ø  But Jesus who has died for us, who have offended him more than anyone could offend us, asks us to forgive as He did.

Ø  I think that if we learn the lesson on forgiveness we will experience such happiness that we will never want to go back.

Ø  Lord transform our heart and make it like yours.

Ø  The parable presents a scene well known by us. There are different characters:   

o   The King who decided to settle accounts with his servants.  

o   The servant who has a debt  and is forgiven because he begged the king.   

o   The fellow servant who has with the above mentioned servant a small debt, and who asks him also to be patient because he will pay it.   

o   The other fellow workers who do not understand the behavior of this man toward his fellow servant.   

o   The King appears again in the scene and he says to the first servant that he forgave  

§  The servant remains in silence   

§  The King rebukes his lack of compassion toward his fellow servant who is in the difficulty as he is. He condems him to be punished. 

Ø  To forgive is the hardest thing for us.  Only if we are deeply united to the Lord we will  be able to forgive as the Lord teaches us.

Ø  If we learn this lesson our happiness will be such that we will never go back to rancor and bitterness.    

SECONG READING:  Rom 14:7-9

ü  The Lord invites his community to understand and accept one another, especially those weaker inb their faith.     

ü  And Paul says very comforting words: 

o   None of us lives or dies for oneself.   

o   But we live and die for the Lord.  

o   Because he has rescued us and in life and in death we belong to Him.   

ü  Do I truly believe that I belong to the Lord? And if there is any doubt in our heart let us ask the Lord to change our heart and make it like his.

ü  In our prayer let us meditate and ask ourselves: from what has the Lord recued me?   

CLARETIAN CORNER 

For María Antonia the cause of the evils of the Church is very clear. The authentic evils are in those who have a greater obligation to live in fidelity. This is the reason why there is no faith, no charity.  The situation is alarming…  María  Antonia  is strong in her denunciation.  She sums up it in two sins: love for riches and lack of proclamation of the Gospel...  There are only two remedies for these two sins:  poverty and proclamation of the Gospel.   

 Like  María Antonia he repeats the theme of the imitation of Christ and of the Apostles as the foundation for the life of the Prelate, with the themes of poverty, humility and meekness.   But this is not for him alone, he has to see that his clerics live in poverty and simplicity, following the example of the Lord, because Jesus Christ did not have a place to lay his head. He has to take care that his ecclesiastics have knowledge and all the necessary virtues, among them, to be charitable and without greed.

As for the Religious he insists that they have to be always busy and keep their rules and their vows. He considers them as collaborators of his mission. Paris & Claret: To Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, Called to Renew the Church.  164-165.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, M. Hortensia & TUTZO, Regina, Claretian Missionary Sisters. Paris & Claret, Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit, Called to Renew the Church. 2010.  

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo)  2007

THE NEW AMERICAN BIBLE. Revised Edition. 2010.