31 - SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME –  B – 2021 

Ø  Last Sunday the readings invited us to reflect on the need of faith, as a loving adherence to the will of God, and as the longing to see the face of God, as   the blind man said to Jesus.    

Ø  Today we are reminded of the need to keep, during our entire life, the commandments of the Lord our God.  

BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

Ø  The book of Deuteronomy is placed at the end of the Pentateuch and it is the summary of the first four books of the Pentateuch and the prologue to the Historical Books.   

Ø  Some scholars consider that this book should not be included in the Pentateuch and should be part of the Historical books, since it shares with them the same Deuteronomist theology. 

Ø  Other scholars, on the contrary, believe that it should be part of the Pentateuch, as   the book of Joshua should be as well.    

Ø  The Deuteronomy develops its own  spirituality and a theology which have had a decisive influence on the faith of Israel, which could be summarized as follows:  

Obedience to the Lord brings prosperity; disobedience brings devastation and death.  

FIRST READING   Dt 6,2-6 

Ø  When Israel is about to enter into the land God promised to his ancestors, Moses speaks to the people and tells them to keep the commandments all the days of their live.  

Ø  Commandments, which Moses enjoins on the people; if they keep them they will have a long life. For the people of the Old Testament, “long life” was a sign of God’s blessing and thus of a just life.  

Ø  The fidelity to the law of the Lord goes together with “to receive and to keep the land from which flows milk and honey” that is the land of abundance.  

Ø  Only in this way could Israel make sense of the Babylonian exile. According to the Deuteronomist theology, when Israel behaves well it prospers and things go well; but when Israel is unfaithful, it suffers defeats, exiles and all sorts of calamities.        

Ø  Many centuries will have to pass until Israel questions the equation: prosperity= just life, and realizes that it is not so easy to explain the sufferings and difficulties in life. They belong to the mystery of life, the mystery of God, and mystery of man.   

Ø  Moses concludes with these words addressed to the people: “Listen Israel, love the Lord your God with all your being. “  These words are also for us Christians from the XXI century, Listen… truly love your God more than anybody or anything else. Maybe we should say: be in love with Jesus, your Lord and Savior.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM. Ps 18

R.   I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength. 

Ø  The author of the psalm says that God is our strength, protector, liberator, refuge, shield, hope

Ø  Is this our experience of God? 

Ø  In the third stanza, we bless the Lord for all he does for us.    

GOSPEL Mc 12: 28-34

Ø  Following the theme of the first reading, the Gospel presents a scribe who wants to know from Jesus, which one is the first commandment. 

Ø  Jesus tells him what Is written in the Deuteronomy, and which the scribe knows by heart after repeating it so many times in his life,  

Ø  When he hears Jesus saying that the first is to love God above all, he is very happy.  

Ø  Jesus adds that there is a second commandment, which is as important as the first; it is to love our neighbor.  

Ø  There is no commandment above this two.  

Ø  Jesus summarizes for the scribe all the commandments in these two: the first three that are about God, and the other seven, which are about our neighbor.  

Ø  The scribe says to Jesus that to fulfill these two commandments is more that any holocaust or sacrifice.  

Ø  Jesus says to the scribe: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”   

Ø  Let us often reflect on these words of Jesus about the law, let us ask ourselves if it is true   that the love of God and the love of neighbor govern our life.  

SECOND READING  Heb 7:23-28

Ø  Jesus since he remains forever can always intercede   for us. 

Ø  The author of the letter says “he is always able to save those who approach God through him”

Ø  Jesus does not need to offer constantly sacrifices as other priests do; he only offered one sacrifice once and for all, the sacrifice of his life. 

Ø  These words fill us with trust and invite us to rest peacefully in God’s arms, like the baby sleeps calm in the arms of his or her parent. 

CLARETIAN CORNER

LETTER OF ANTHONY MARY CLARET AND MARÍA ANTONIA PARÍS

J.M.J

To Mother María Antonia

Rome, January 1st 1870

My dear Mother in J. C.: I have received your letter of the 18th of the last month and year; I read it and handed over to Bishop Caixal the letter that was for him; we have received the Rules, I have read them and so did he. We are doing the appropriate diligences to obtain the approval we desire so much.     

You will probably ask me, what is the cause for not obtaining the approval?   I do not have time to write; however, I will do it to get you out of grieve.  The Church puts all possible difficulties to    prevent so many different religious orders. She wants , yes, that there are Religious men and women but she does not want new religious orders; in some occasions she has clearly forbidden it: Innocent III and the Lateran Council  banned it; so it is that when St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers they did not accept  the Rules he presented, they told him to present the Rules of one of the ancient Institutes, and he took the Rules of St. Augustine, and on these he arranged his Constitutions with which they are governed today; so did the Jeronimos, the Mercedaries …     

The Church did so; and to me it seems good, because I know the inclination of humankind to novelty.  (this letter will continue next week)        

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FALEY, Roland J. From Genesis to Apocalypse, Paulist Press 2005.

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditation on the Gospels of Year B. Convivium, Bogotá 2011.

Ravassi, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras- Año B. San Pablo  Bogotá 2005.

RR. of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Letters of the Origins. Madrid 1009.

Schokel, Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.