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.