SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY
TIME – A - 2023
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We have taken a leap in time from the child Jesus
to the adult Jesus. Again, we are in Ordinary
Time, which as a liturgy teacher I had said, is nothing ordinary.
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It is the time of the daily life of every human
being, of the ordinary things, the extraordinary is the least in our life.
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The first Sundays of the ordinary time have the
same meaning as the Epiphany, they tell us about events that are true
epiphanies, manifestations, revelations, of Jesus
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I copy here two antiphons that we recited in the
prayer of Lauds and Vespers of the Solemnity of Epiphany:
o
Today the Bridegroom claims his bride, the
Church, since Christ has washed her sins away in Jordan’s waters; the Magi
hasten with their gifts to the royal wedding; and the wedding guests rejoice,
for Christ has changed water into wine, alleluia.(Lauds)
o
Three mysteries mark this holy day; today the
star leads the Magi to the Infant Christ; today water is changed into wine for
the wedding feast; today Christ wills to be baptized by John in the river
Jordan to bring us salvation. (vespers)
Ø
Today and in the next Sundays we will celebrate
what these antiphons have announced: the manifestation of the Lord, his
epiphany in our world.
FIRST READING: Is 49:3, 5-6
·
God
speaks to Israel and says that he (Israel) is his servant.
ü And Israel adds, Israel here is not a
people but an individual person, that God has fashioned him from his mother’s
womb.
ü And God gave him a mission, to make
the tribes of Israel return to their God.
·
The Lord adds:
ü It is too little for you to be my
servant to restore the Tribes of Jacob
ü God wants him to be the light of the
nations (the nations are the pagan
peoples)
ü that his salvation
may reach to the ends of the earth.
·
What
a beautiful statement from God, that he had always told Israel; He intends that
everyone know him.
·
Let
us rejoice, those of us who are worried about our relatives far from religious
practice, the Lord wants them to know Him and He will manifest himself to them
in his time, but for this, He needs their cooperation.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Sal 39: 2 y 4ab. 7-8a. 8b-9. 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do
your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do
your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished
not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do
your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for
me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do
your will.
I announced your justice in the
vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD,
know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do
your will.
Let us meditate in the sentence we will repeat after each
stanza.
HERE I AM LORD, I COME
TO DO YOUR WILL
o These
words of the Servant remind us of the words of Mary when the angel proposed to
her the plan that God had upon her, that will change her own plan.
o
She said “Be it done unto me according to
your Word”, that is, I am ready to accept God’s
will and I will do it.
o And what do I do when I feel that God wants something from me, something unforeseen that will make changes in my life.
GOSPEL John 1:29-34
v
This is the Lamb of God, who takes away
the sin of the world.
v
From the many images of Jesus, Lamb of
God, I like the one we read in the books of Numbers 29:11 and Leviticus 16:7-10.
Where
we find the rules for the celebration of Yom Kipur, Day of attonement
In that day the liturgical assembly
convenes to offer prayers and sacrifices for the sins of the people.
Two goats are chosen, one to be offered
as a holocaust. On the other by a symbolic sign, they will cast out all the
sins of the people. Then they will take the goat outside the camp and send it into
the wilderness where he will surely die.
These two goats are images of Jesus, one
is offered as a holocaust, Jesus died on the cross as a holocaust he offered of
himself to the Father for our sake; the second the one that carries the sins of
the people and dies in the desert is another image of Christ on the cross,
since he carries all our sins and nails to the cross the document of our
condemnation and thus gains our
salvation for us.
v Another point of interest in this gospel is the second testimony given by John. He says that he has seen the Spirit under the appearance of a Dove descend from heaven and remain upon Him. He had been told that the one on whom the Spirit descended, this is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.
SEGUNDA LECTURA 1 Cor 1:1-3
We begin the reading of the first letter
of Paul to the Christian community in Corinth as Paul says in his greeting
By his greeting we also know that he has
a companion, one of his collaborators, Sosthenes.
He says that his greeting is for all who
have been sanctified in Christ Jesus and he wishes them grace and peace.
o Grace
means the life of God that the Father gives to us gratuitously, and that has
been won by Christ for us.
o Peace
that we all wish, but to have it we must cooperate trying to be persons of peace
and of reconciliation.
Paul calls the Father, God our Father,
and he calls Jesus Lord, as did the first communities, that were full of
enthusiasm because of the resurrection. They had not been witnesses of the
resurrection, but the apostles had been.
Let us begin this new year 2023 with enthusiasm and let us be bearers and doers of peace wherever we might be.
CLARETIAN CORNER
Antonia
París y Florentina Sangler, Novices of the Convent of the Teaching Sisters of Our
Lady, present here, in the City of
Tarragona; with the greatest respect for Your Excellency make present that
having reflected slowly, during these days of the Holy Spiritual Exercises, on
their vocation and, having judge in the presence of God that they do not have
to profess in this House, because they feel themselves called to another
Institute; for this and in order to fulfill the desires of their vocation they
resort to the benignity of Your Excellency,
so that you deign grant your license and
authorization, that we need, in order to exist from the cloister. Grace,
they trust they will obtain from the benign heart of Your Excellency this
afternoon.
Tarragona, 27 of January 1851. (This document seems to be the most ancient letter of María Antonia Paris, that has been kept in the archives)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PARIS, MARIA ANTONIA. Epistolario.
Presentación, introducciones a las cartas y notas por el P. Juan Manuel Lozano, cmf. 1993.
EQUIPO BIBLICO VERBO. Un tesoro escondido. Encuentro
con el evangelio dominical desde la Lectio Divina. 2022.
Book of
the Liturgy of the Hours and “ la Biblia de nuestro pueblo”2015.
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