33 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A -2020

Ø  The first reading  is a praise to the perfect woman according to some translations and to the strong woman according to other translations.   

Ø  The second reading speaks of the Second Coming of the Lord and  

Ø  Third reading or Gospel speaks of the talents as our treasure.   

If we look at the Gospel the central theme for this Sunday is the “gifts” we have received for us to administer, that in the perfect woman these gifts have been well used for the good of her servants and for her family. Talents or money given to the servants to make them fruitful.  

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

v At the beginning of this book that belongs to the group of the wisdom books of the Old Testament we read: The proverbs of Solomon, the son  of David, king of Israel: That people may know wisdom and discipline…

v The contents of the book seem a compilation of popular sayings from the popular wisdom that exists in all cultures, but re-written by literary experts, and this has given us  this work of art  of wisdom and literature

v The book of Proverbs can offer a valuable contribution to the Christians as well as to Jews of our time. 

o   Firs it puts the search for wisdom above the wise or prudent isolated acts. 

o   Second it describes this search full of obstacles. There are men and women who offer wisdom substitutes.   

o   Third it explains that acquisition of  wisdom is at the same time a human task and a divine gift. 

FIRST READING – Proverbs 31: 10-13. 19-20.30-31.

     The perfect woman, who will  find her?  

     Who is that perfect woman?  

o   She is more precious than pearls, but her beauty is inside her being, it is not her physical aspect, this has no importance, what is important is her inner being, because as the wise man says beauty is deceitful, it is not only deceitful but it also vanishes.   

o   The perfect woman brings joy to her husband who can trust in her, because with her the servants and her family  will lack nothing.   

o   This woman works with her hands, and she know how to open her hands to the needy.  

o   The reading ends with an invitation to congratulate that woman who fears the Lord, to praise her for the fruit of her work.

 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – 128

R.  Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.

R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

v Once I heard that everything in creation goes from the inside to the outside.

v Reading the verses of the responsorial psalm we can see this same movement from inside to outside.

o   The first verse is about the man who is blessed, his work.

o   The second verse is about the wife and children of this man. It is about those who are his immediate family.

o   The third verse takes us to Zion which is he mount on which Jerusalem is built. The author wishes that this man be blessed from Zion and he could see the prosperity of Jerusalem. Indeed with his work and his family he is already contributing to the prosperity of Jerusalem.

GOSPEL  - Mt 25:14-30

v This gospel goes after the gospel we read last Sunday, the parable of the 10 virgins. Today the parable is about the gifts each one of us has received from the Lord. We are stewards of these gifts and next Sunday the gospel will present the parable of “the Judgment of the Nations.”  Indeed all these parables want to prepare us for the end of the liturgical year, and also for the encounter with the Lord when he will call us to him. Let us see today’s parable.   

v It is about a man who plans to go on a journey and he leaves his possessions in the hands of his servants. 

v Each servant  receives a different amount of money according to each one’s capacity.   

v Each one of them acts in a different way in response to the trust their master have showed to them; two of them  make those talents they have received to produce other talents. However the third one was afraid and kept the money intact without doing anything with it.    

v The talent   (the Greek talent τάλαντον, talanton means scale or weight). The talent was a unit of coinage of high but varying value depending on its metal (gold, silver, copper) and its place of origin. It is mentioned in the New Testament only in the Gospel of Matthew in the parable of the unforgiving servant 18:21-35 and also in Matthew in the parable of the talents 25:14-30. In Medieval Latin the sense was extended to ability through the influence of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14–30)

v On the Master’s return the first two give an account of the talents they had received and both had doubled what they were given.  They have the praise of their Master and the promise to receive greater amounts and the invitation to enter into their master’s joy.   The third servant, however, gave back to his Master the talent he had received without having invested it for fear, the Master orders that the only talent he had be taken from him and given to the one who had more.

v Let us reflect on the last words that the Master says to the diligent servants “Come share your Master’s joy.” How will that joy be since it is given as a price to the faithfulness of those servants? Joy which may be the image of eternity or of the entrance in the house and joy of  our God and Father.  The joy of Jesus at his resurrection, the joy we experience when we allow the wonderful love of God invade us and fill us.   

v We all have gifts “talents” and not only one buy many, let us seek how many we have, let us not be afraid to make this journey, once we find them let us put them to produce for the wellbeing of the human race, beginning by those closer to us. Do not be like the lazy servant; on the contrary let us open our eyes to see how and where to use our talents. Never say that we do  not have talents because this is an offense to God the author and giver of our talents.

SECOND READING  1 Thes 5:1-6

Ø  Paul writes to the community of Thessalonica to clarify some question they have. He does not mention what these questions are, but through his words we can have a good idea what those questions are.   

Ø  The first seems to respond to “When will the Lord come in his last coming?”

o   Paul says that he (the Lord) will come suddenly like a thief in the night

§  Thief in the night. Thief we do not expect but we prepare our home for his   coming. We have  also the theme about being prepared… that Jesus repeats so many times in his teachings and parables.  

§  Another comparison is that it will come like the pains of childbirth come to a woman, they are sudden and the woman cannot escape from them only going through them, that is suffering them.   

Ø  The second question would be the concern about how to prepare ourselves since the Lord Willy come without notice.   

o   Paul tries to calm them saying that they are already sons of light and not of darkness.   

o   What does he mean? If they are sons of light they will be able to be prepared along their journey, they will be like the virgins, the young women who were prudent and that had brought extra oil for their lamps.  

o   Thus this day will not surprise them like a thief.   

o   However, Paul invites the whole community of Thessalonica and us as well not to be asleep but awaken and sober.   

o   Sober from what? From wine? I think there are many “wines” that make us drunk, let us seek what wine are those in our personal life now.   

CLARETIAN CORNER

We imagine how happy you are of having been wounded for teaching the Holy Law of our Lord Jesus Christ. I and all your daughters, we want to share in the great reward that the Lord will give to you in the eternal life; because you might remember that in a sermon you said to us that we will share the remains.  O, that we could have the blessing to seal our life shedding our blood in confirmation of the Holy Law of the Lord! No doubt that our Most Holy Mother wanted to give you this special decoration on the eve of her feast, and we owe to her your recovery for which we thank the Lord, wishing to have as soon as possible the pleasure to receive your paternal blessing; from now I request it for all of us asking you to receive our most respectful expressions […]   your daughter in Jesus Christ, who loves you in Jesus and Mary…  Ma.Antonia París, foundress of the Claretian Missionaryt Sisters, fragment of a letter written in Santiago de Cuba on February 28 1856.  Cartas de los orígenes, n. 52  

You must know that the Sisters or better the professed Nuns are very happy since the time I got   the Brief of His Holiness for them.  Before this, His Holiness had written to me a very encouraging letter. Now I have written  to His Holiness  letting him know about my wounds, one in my face of seven and a half inches, […] and another in the right arm of two inches; […] this happened on February 1 at 8:30 of the evening after having preached about Mary Most Holy, right now I have recovered; on  March 3 we have sung the Te-Deum   and every day I am administering  the Sacrament of Confirmation to 150, and next week I will travel to the capital city so that I will be able to  celebrate the solemnities of Holy Week.    St. Anthony Marie Claret, founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, fragment  of a letter written to his friend Bishop Caixal in which he explains the attack suffered in Holguin. The date of the letter is March 8  1856. Cartas de los orígenes n.53. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RR. de María Inmaculada Misioneras Claretianas. Cartas de los orígenes, 2009.

Schökel, Luis Alonso, adaptación del texto y comentarios en La Biblia de nuestro pueblo. 2015.

The New American Bible, Revised Edition, 2010.

Wikipedia evolution of the meaning of the word “talents”.