21 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B – 2021 

 

      The readings for this Sunday’s liturgy are an invitation to choose between the true God and the false idols:

o   Joshua asks the Israelites whether they really want to follow the God who liberated them from Egypt, or whether they prefer to go back to the securities of the bondage in Egypt.  

o   Jesus asks his disciples whether they want to leave him too, because his words are tough.  

o   Who are we going to choose and follow?  

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA

«  This book narrates que conquest of the Promised Land by Israel. 

«  The conquest is described    

o   In a synthetic and simple way 

o   Probably it was neither so easy, nor so straightforward.   

o   The tribes must have conquered different parts of the land of Canaan during a long period of time and by fighting. 

o   Some would have come as workers, other as nomad shepherds…   

«  This book is essential to realize the fulfilment of the promises to the fathers, of giving them the land; otherwise the exodus from Egypt would have been in vain. 

«  The Scripture scholars look at this book in different ways:   

o   Some consider it so much close to the rest of the Pentateuch that they believe it should be part of it, and that would make a Hexateuch (6 books).  

o   Others consider it so much like the Deuteronomy but very different from the other four books, thus they speak of a Tetrateuch (4 books). 

«  The composition of this book: 

o   Most of the book seem to have been written by a Deuteronomist author.  

o   Later an author or several authors from the priestly tradition added the following:  

§  The distribution of the land   

§  The sanctuary cities  

§  The levitical cities  

«  THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA:   

o   The land is a gift from Yahweh to Israel, his chosen people, it is the land promised to the fathers.  

o   This gift comes with a condition: faithfulness. 

o   Whenever Israel forgets about this, it loses the land

o   This was the way that Israel could   explain  and understand the meaning of the exile to Babylon, because it had  not been faithful to God.  

o   If it dreams to go back, it will have to be faithful and not contaminating itself with the non-believers.  

 

FIRST READING : Joshua 24:1-2ª,15-17,18b

Ø  Joshua, Moses’ successor, who has led the people in its entrance in the promised   land, now, before his death he assembles the tribes in Shechem, the heart and the center of the promised and conquered land and he asks them the great question: who do you want to serve? 

Ø  In the Old Testament the verb, “to serve” does not have a servile meaning, but it means to adhere joyfully and freely to the project of God.  

Ø  Joshua reminds the people what God has done for them since the call to Abraham, and how he has fulfilled his promises, and he adds AS FOR ME AND MY FAMILY WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.   

Ø  The people answer, “we will serve the Lord. He is our God!   

Ø  This section of the book is presented in the form of a covenant, as the pacts made among the Hittites between the lords and their vassals: the remembrance of what the Lord had done for his vassals, the terms of the pact and the witnesses.     

This pact has two directions one vertical between the tribes and Yahweh, the other one horizontal, the pact with Yahweh establishes a union pact between the tribes, giving them a sense of being a people. 

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

 

GOSPEL John, 55.60-69

ü  We have reached the end of chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. Jesus has fed   the crowd, He has called himself the bread that comes down from heaven, he has said that we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life eternal. Those who heard him were not able to accept this vocabulary and have left. 

ü  Jesus addresses his disciples that have doubts also, with the great question: Do you want to leave too?  

ü  Peter, as in the confession at Caesarea Philippi, which Matthew presents in his gospel, says: to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and you are the Holy One of God.     

ü  This episode of Jesus’ life has a great importance in the Gospel of John. It has been called the Galilean crisis.  It establishes a before and an after. Afterwards Jesus leaves his native land and travels to the South, toward Jerusalem which will be the end of his earthly life.   

ü  Here the disciples are faced with a decisive choice in their lives, like Israel in Shechem. 

ü  The liturgy presents to us the same question, who do we want to follow?  Jesus who gives life, but whose following is difficult, and his proposals are most of the time incomprehensible? or do we prefer the comfort offered by our society, which is a way that leads to death?   

ü  The choice is ours; we will find at the end of our journey whatever we may have chosen during our life.  

ü  Hopefully our answer will be like Joshua’s “I and my family we will follow the Lord, or like Peter, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; you are the holy one of God.  

 

SECOND READING Ephesians 5: 21-32

We continue with the letter to the Ephesians.   

«  The author of the letter has spoken up to this point about the union and harmony that must exist among the members of the Church.   

«  Now he turns his eyes toward the family, the domestic church, to remind them also about unity and harmony of its members  among them and with Christ. 

«  The author uses the expressions of his time, that he does not want to make it the Word of God, what is the Word of God is the meaning of what it is manifested in human words. Probably in our time we would use other words to convey the same meaning that “submission” conveys. 

The marriage union is called to be the image of the union between Christ and the Church.  The relationship between man and woman united in matrimony has to be the reflection and the image of the relationship existing between Christ and his Church: a union of mutual love and surrendering.   

 

             CLARETIAN CORNER 

These texts are related to the foundation of my Congregation RR. of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters.   During the month of August there are 3 dates very meaningful for us Claretians.   On August 15 1851 we remember what we call the charismatic foundation, date when the foundress María Antonia Paris and four companions made a vow not to separate from each other and go wherever the bishop would send them in mission.  On August 25 1855 the bishop of Santiago de Cuba Saint Anthony Mary Claret signed the decree of the foundation of the Congregation in Santiago de Cuba and on August 27 of the same year 1855 María Antonia París made her profession also in Santiago de Cuba,  being the first member of the new congregation. Thus, a new congregation was founded in the church. 

Thus making use of the apostolic faculties granted to Us in  the already mentioned Rescript   we accept the time they have spent in  strict closure as Novitiate, and we also approve and adopt from now on as more conformable and apt to this Institute, the habit and religious veil of the Order of St. Benedict which they put on when they began the Novitiate  by virtue of the authorization that We gave them, while we elevated to His Holiness our plead;   and indeed we admit them to the Religious Profession, which We will receive in the way established by the same Sacred Rescript, from our  beloved daughter  Ma. Antonia de San Pedro, on the twenty-seven day of the current month of August; and that of her Sisters and our beloved daughters, we will receive it on the third day of next September, and once the profession will be done, we will pronounce them as RELIGIOUS OF THE APOSTOLIC INSTITUTE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD AND OUR LADY.     

Given in our Archbishop’s Palace of Santiago de Cuba, on the twenty-five of August and in the Lord’s year one thousand eight hundred fifty-five. Anthony M. Archbishop of Cuba

 

So, I made my long –awaited profession on August 27 of the same year in the hands of my prelate, to the joy of everybody, and more happiness in my soul-this one cannot be expressed- notwithstanding the difficult preparation with so many cares in the assurance of the foundation, the lower a point in the fervor of my spirit. With my thought fixed in the moment of pronouncing the holy vows, the moment seemed to me like centuries, and even, with so many serious circumstances met in my profession, none of them was sufficient to disturb the peace and calm of my soul.  Venerable María Antonia París, Autobiografía 225. 

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA, Document of the Foundation of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters. 

PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA, Autobiografía

RAVASSI, GIANFRANCO, Según las Escrituras Año B. San Pablo Bogotá Colombia 2005. 

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Official version of the Spanish Conference of Bishops. B.A.C.  Madrid 2011.

SCHOKEL, LUIS ALONSO, La Biblia de nuestro pueblo. Misioneros Claretianos, Ediciones Mensajero, China 2010.