14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – C –
2022
·
The
key word which gives the meaning to the
readings of this week is “Rejoice”.
·
Isaiah
invites all to rejoice for Jerusalem and Jesus in the Gospel says to the
apostles to rejoice because their names are written in heaven.
·
On
his part Paul says that he glories only in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
·
The
cross of Christ is the source and origin of our Christian joy.
BOOK
OF ISAIAH
ü The fragment we will read toay is
taken from the last chapter of Isaiah, the prophet invites us to contemplate
the promise of the Lord “joy and consolation”.
ü This is the promise which runs through
the entire book of Isaiah, it is like a thread that unifies this work, despite
the many differences.
ü This fact has convinced many biblical
exegetes that in the book of Isaiah there are:
o
The
First Isaiah chapter 1-39
o
The Second Isaiah chapters 40-55
o
The
Third Isaiah chapter 56-66
Ø The images used by prophet Isaiah in this reading are taken from the
relationship between a mother and her child; between the earth and the
water.
Ø The prophet invites those who love Jerusalem to rejoice, because she
experiences a great joy after a long time of suffering, probably due to wars with
other political powers.
Ø This joy is described like the joy of the baby that is breastfed by
his/her mother.
Ø Another way to describe this joy is in the following phrase “peace like a
river.” This peace image is very pretty,
it is a peace, which fills everything like a river, that waters the plants and
trees wherever it flows, and awakens the life that was sleeping.
Ø The prophet describes the joy of the person who experiences the
tenderness and peace of God saying that the heart rejoices and the bones
flourish, we could say also that the old bones rejuvenate.
Ø The result of all these experiences will be, that the servants will know
the power of their Lord, which is a power that creates and recreates but never
destroys.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16,
20
Ø
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Shout
joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R.
(1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
"Let
all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R.
(1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
He
has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R.
(1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Hear
now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Ø The works described in
the first reading, the works that give joy to the city and her inhabitants, to
us, are described in this psalm as folows:
o
“He transformed the Red Sea in dry land, and did the same with
the Jordan River, for the people to cross without danger.
o
These are the great works of liberation, accomplished by God for
his people in danger, and in need of help.
o
The psalm ends with this praise “Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!”
o Let us look at our life, let us acknowledge in it the beautiful works that God has done, and thus be able to repeat sincerely “the works of the Lord are awesome!
GOSPEL Lk 10:1-9
Jesus chooses other disciples to send
them. Before, he had sent the 12, those who lived with him.
Now, He sends these other disciples, two by two, he does not send them alone,
probably so that they might be able to share the mission with somebody else.
Jesus asks them to pray because the
harvest is abundant, many are the persons in need of hearing the good news that Jesus has brought to
us.
Do we pray for this intention? And, if
the Lord chooses my son, my daughter, my grandson or my granddaughter, do I encourage
them? Or, on the contrary, I do not, because I want to have grandchildren… ?
A Bible commentator says that Jesus
invites those He sends to look, contemplate the harvest and pray. In a second
moment of the mission they will have to go forth, proclaim and make present the
kingdom.
The Lord tells them the difficulties they
will encounter “like sheep among wolfs.”
These words make us think of
persecutions, scorn, disdain… when these things happen in my life, because we are
all sent in a way or another. How do I
behave? Do I look for vengeance, or do I act like Jesus, who did always listen
to those who ask him for help?
He says to them, not to carry any
money or any other thing. This makes us understand the absolute trust that the
disciple needs to put in the divine providence of his/her Master, who takes
care of us.
Afterwards, He adds some other
recommendations, that seem to tell us that we should neither look for comfort
nor to our own interests, but that we need to accept what is given to us, and
also to accept all peoples without distinction
Only then we will be able to announce
that the “Kingdom of God is near” because we will be the trustworthy heralds of
the Kingdom.
SECOND
READING Gal 6: 14-18
v Paul want to glory in nothing else than in the cross of Christ.
v He does not want to glory in anything, not even in what was revealed to
him when he encountered the Lord on the way to Damascus, “eye has not seen, ear
has not heard…” He is only interested in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
v On this cross the world is crucified for Paul, that is, it has no value,
it is something not worthy to be looked at.
v We perceive between lines the continuous discussion of Paul with the Jews
about the value of circumcision. It is worthless, what is worth is to have discovered
Christ and his cross, to be a new creature a new creation.
v I copy hereunder a fragment of Bishop Helder Camara’s creed:
I want to believe in the rights of every human being,
in the open hand, in the power of the non-violent.
I do
not believe either in race, or in wealth, or in privileges, or in the
established order.
I want
to believe that the whole world is my home
I want
to believe that the law is one for all, and that I am not free if there is a
single man who is still slave.
I do
not believe that war and hunger are unavoidable, and that peace is inaccessible
[…]
I do
not believe that man’s dream will be only a dream and that death will be the
end […]
I dare
to believe in God’s dream: A new heaven and a new earth where peace will dwell.
v I think that we do not need to add anything else to this description of the
“new heaven and the new earth.”
v Do we dare to work to make God’s dream a reality: the new heaven and the new earth?
CLARETIAN CORNER
TERESITA ALBARRACÍN
Her offering to
God as a victim is combined with a total surrender to divine mercy. This was a
very remarkable aspect of her spirituality during the last years of her life. She
gives herself to divine mercy when she feels her weakness in her falls
"not to be discouraged
in my falls, no matter how many they might be, cast them into the Heart of
Jesus and begin again. To live completely abandoned in his arms, trusting completely
in his mercy..." (spiritual exercises August 1944)
She abandoned
herself in the arms of God’s mercy when the sufferings of the spirit oppressed
her. Sometimes the memory of this Mercy of God gave her peace, at least for a
while:
"[...
] I have had to endure struggles that
have made me cry; sometimes, I have not been
generous enough with Jesus and this has caused me sadness, but I have
remembered his Mercy, I have thrown myself into his arms and the deepest peace has reigned in my heart
again. Thanks my God". (Spiritual Exercises, August 1944)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Helder Camara’s
Credo, officecatechese.qc.ca
Mariae Teresiae – Positio
super virtutibus
US Conference of Catholic
Bishops, usccb.org
ZEVINI, Giorgio y CABRA, Pier Giordano. Lectio divina para cada día del
año. Vol.15 Domingos del tiempo ordinario, ciclo C. Traducción Miguel Montes.
Editorial Verbo Divino.
