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

FIRST READING  Is 66: 10-14

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.