27 - SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME - B – 2021
The teachings this Sunday are about love between the married couple.
THE BOOK OF GENESIS
« Genesis is the name of the first book of the
Greek translation of the Bible. In the Hebrew Bible the name is Beresit= In the beginning.
« It is the book about the origins. It has
two parts, the first about the origin of the universe and humans, the second
about the origin of the people of Israel.
« The book is formed by narrations and
genealogies of Israel’s ancestors.
« Chapters 1-11 show mythical
characteristics, like in the literature of the surrounding peoples.
« The myths are part of the system of
beliefs of a given culture or community, that considers those myth to be true.
Very often the myths try to explain the origins of that culture, or the origins
of the world, or try to respond to the questions human beings have about:
suffering, evil, death, sickness…..
« In the case of the narrations in the book
of Genesis the sacred authors used the myths from the surrounding peoples and
modified them according to their faith in God. By means of these 11 chapters
the people of Israel want to give the message that God is the creator who
creates by his word.
« In these 11 chapters we find especial
characters, among them Adam the first man created by God. Noah
who represents the prototype of the just man. Adam represents humanity created by God. Noah represents humanity
saved by God, he is like a new Adam, since the story of the flood is the story
of a new beginning.
« As we proceed reading the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we realize
that running parallel to God’s kindness, we see the human creature going deeper
and deeper into a world of sin and evil: from the disobedience of the first
couple, to the killing of one brother by another driven by jealousy in the
story of Cain and Abel, to Noah spared from the waters of the flood that
eliminated the human beings because of their general sinfulness, to the climax
of human pride, ungratefulness and mistrust in the story of Babel.
« In contrast to all this corruption and sin,
when everything seems lost God enters into human history changing its course,
saving it from its own sinfulness with the call to Abraham in chapter 12.
FIRST READING :
Gn 2:18-24
§ God realizes that man cannot be
alone.
§ The narration tells us that God molded
with clay all the animals, but when the man saw them, he could not find a
suitable partner for him.
§ Then God decides to make another being
like Adam
§ Adam is so surprised on seeing the beauty
of this new creature, who goes beyond his expectations, that he exclaims: this is truly bone of my bones and flesh of
my flesh! That means, “she is like me”.
§ The first couple of humanity has appeared
on earth, couple that is united in love. A couple that is joyfully surprised
when they see each other face to face. A couple that is the image of God who is
love.
§ The sacred text says that this is the
reason for man to leave his family to unite himself to his woman, and the two become
one flesh.
§ The love that is born from this union and the strength of the commitment that springs from this covenant goes beyond the blood strings of the family of origin thus, the text says: man will abandon his father and mother…
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM – Ps 128
May
the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
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. May the Lord bless us all the days of our
lives.
Your
wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our
lives.
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. May the Lord bless us all the days of our
lives.
May you see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel!
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our
lives.
ü
The
blessing of the man who fears the Lord is his work, his wife, and his children.
ü
His
blessing is to be blessed by the Lord in Zion, and to see the prosperity of the
holy city Jerusalem all the days of his life.
ü Peace is part of the blessing from God to those who fear the Lord.
GOSPEL MK 10:2-16
« The liturgy allows us to use the long or
the short version of this gospel, in this commentary I will use the short one
which has to do with the matrimony.
« Jesus leaves from his native land and goes
to Jerusalem, where, according to what he has told them, he will suffer, die,
and rise from the dead.
« The Pharisees want to know what Jesus
thinks about Dt. 24:1 on divorce.
« Some interpreters of this text said that a
man could repudiate or give a document of divorce to his wife, for any reason
whatsoever: he did not like his wife anymore, the wife had burned the meal etc.
However, the wife could not divorce her husband.
« Jesus asks them what Moses says about
that, and then he explains to them, that since the people were not ready to
understand, accept and live the commitment of matrimony as it had been thought
and designed by the Creator, Moses allowed them to divorce their wives.
« He speaks to them about the text in
Genesis. We have already commented on this text in the first Reading.
« It is true that the word of God has to be
interpreted according to the reality of the present moment in order to be fully
understood, however there are some foundations put by God which cannot either
be changed or ignored. It is the case
of the present theme.
The
equality between man and woman.
Love
as the foundation of the conjugal union.
Jesus
insists on the fidelity to the covenant of love.
Marriage
is a covenant of love, which implies equality of rights, dignity and, excludes
any relationship based on dominion of one over the other.
I
write below a sentence from Luis Alonso Schökel, which I consider very
beautiful:
As long as there is love, there will be a matrimony and there will also be a heart able to dream and to forgive.
LETTER
TO THE HEBREWS
Ø The Letter to the Hebrews is not a letter
as such, because its literary style does not correspond to that of a letter, it
is an exhortation as we read on 13,22 “a word of exhortation”
Ø It is one of the most important
theological writings of the New Testament.
The formulation of
the doctrine about the priesthood of Christ, and about the sacrificial value of
his death is found in this letter
Ø It is not probable that Paul be the author
of this letter, as it has been considered in former times.
Ø The style of the letter is not Paul’s
style, but the themes are very close to the theology of Paul.
Ø Some authors believe that the writer could be Apollo, whom we know through the writings of the New Testament.
SECOND READING: Heb 2:8-11
ü One of the messages of this text is the
solidarity between Jesus and humanity.
ü His death brings good to us
ü Because the Creator wants that all his
children have part in his glory, maybe we could formulate this in another way
saying that, he wants all of us to partake his joy and happiness without end.
ü The author continues saying that it was
fitting that God should make perfect through suffering Jesus the author and
leader of our salvation.
ü This statement challenges us on the value
of suffering which we try to avoid because we do not understand it.
ü The sanctifier and the sanctified have the
same human condition that is why he is not ashamed to call us “his brothers and
sisters.”
ü The beauty of this text goes beyond our
capacity to fully grasp the meaning of the Word that God says to us.
J.M.J
To Mother Antonia París
Rome, July 21 1869
My
dear Mother in J.C. : Through Rev. Fr. Naudó I have received your letter and
after reading it, I have to tell you that the first thing I did when I got to
this city was to go with Most Rev. Fr. José Reig, General of the Mercedarians, in
whose house I live in Campo Vaccino, to see the situation of your rules… I do
not doubt that it has been a Providence of God that I had come to Rome for your
good. I tell you that the above mentioned
Fr.José Reig is your main agent, by himself or through another agent of his
trust, or through me, we will do all that is necessary to achieve what it is
intended. I am convinced that everything will go well. Now I only ask your patience and prayer with trust in Jesus and Mary.
Now
let us go to my things; what is happening in Spain, that I had foretold so long
and so many times has come. I offered
myself as a victim and the Lord deigned to accept my offering, because all sorts
of calumnies, infamies, persecutions, etc have fallen upon me. I only had the
testimony of my good conscience; and thus, I have remained always tranquil, in
silence, thinking in nothing else than in Jesus.
When
we left Spain at the end of September, we went to France and in the first days
of April of the present year, I have gone to Rome only with my chaplain. On arriving I have requested an audience with
the Pope who received me with the most evident signs of love and kindness. He called
me “caro mío” (my dear). Alleging
evidence and authorities of the Holy Scriptures and the most convincing reasons
to console me, he was speaking, and I remained in silence. When he gave me the
opportunity to speak, I told him: “Holy Father, neither the disciple can be
more respected that his Master, nor the servant than his Lord.” When the Pope heard these words, and on seeing
my peace, he manifested the joy that his heart felt. Afterwards he spoke with me about other subjects.
(Fragment
of letter 283 in Letters of the Origins.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the
Footsteps of Jesus – Meditations on the Gospel for Year B.
RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras – Año B. Traducido por Justiniano Beltrán. Bogotá
2005.
CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPANOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión
oficial. 2011
RR. DE MARIA INMACULADA MISIONERAS CLARETIANAS, Cartas
de los Orígenes (Letters of the Origins) Madrid 2009.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.
