26 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A – 2023 

Ø  In the previous Sundays Jesus taught us about fraternal love 

Ø  And about  how different are the ways of God from our waysle o

Ø  Today the Lord tells us a very short parable about the two sons,

Ø  One said no, but did what the father asked him, the other said yes but did not do it

Ø  Which one are we? Maybe we are both.

FIRST READING – Ez 18:25-28

v  God says to the prophet and through him, to everyone.

v  If the just choses to follow what is sinful and wrong, in so doing he is killing himself

v  Maybe he continues to live like everybody else, but his spirit is dead.

v  But if turns away from his wrong path and does good, he has saved his life,

v  God always waits for us, he also seeks us an call us, like Jesus told us in the parable of the lost sheep.

v  When we return to him we live because he is life.

v  Let us always remember his love and that he never gets tired of seeking us and forgiving our sins.

v  He loves us, he is our Creator, our Redemer, our Teacher,  our companion in life.

 Responsorial Psalm   -  Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.

The congregation gathered in the Eucharistic celebration next Sunday will repeat the humble and trusting supplication “remember your mercies, O Lord.”

WWE hope in God our creator and our savior; He will lead us through the right path.  

ü  We know he will remember us and thus we call upon him.  

ü  And all of this because the Lord is just and kind, he reveals himself to the humble.

ü  We know that, but we need to repeat it over and over to attain peace and trust in our loving Father.  

GOSPEL Mt 21:28-32

Ø  Jesus addresses the high priests and elders of his people, the highest representatives of the chosen people  

Ø  What is your opinion?

….. go to work in my vineyard  … yes sir … but the eldest son did not go   

…… go to work in my vineyard   … I do not want to   …. But the youngest son changed his mind and went …  

  ….. which one of the two made the will of his father?  The second one they said.  

Ø  And now Jesus will share with them what is dearest to his heart: the sinners of all sorts, those we despised because they are sinners because we think that we are holy; they have taken the first place in the road to God before those who live very secure in their own “holiness and justice.” 

Ø  And he tells them something they had all been witnesses of: John was austere, strong, demanding…. And you did not believe him, but the prostitutes believed…. 

Ø  Does that same situation happen in our Christian communities?  How do we look at those who living a life of sin, one day they have encountered the Lord and want to follow him? Do we make it easy for them or do we continue to mistrust them not sharing our groups and ministries with them? …. 

SECOND READING : Phil 2:1-11

      Paul invokes the love that the community of Philippi has for him and the love he has for the community.   

      And he asks them to give him the joy to see the community united .

      And he continues recommending them to do nothing for rivalry, or vainglory, but to act with humility, that is, in truth. 

      And he asks them something else, to look at the others as superior to them, not because they have a better education, or they belong to a higher social class, no, he simply says to consider the others superior to oneself. And this first paragraph ends inviting the community of Philippi to have the same attitude as Christ Jesus.  

      Who being God became one like us. The people in his town saw him as the carpenter’s son and of Mary, being carpenter himself. He was not important….   

      Let us reflect on this during this coming week. 

      All of this for our sake.

CLARETIAN  CORNER  

There are many kinds of poor, among them, he dedicated a special attention to the common prisoners.   He had frequent personal contacts dignifying them with the dedication of his time, his concern and pastoral care.  I visited prison inmates; I catechized and preached them very often, and then gave each one a peseta, and so they listened to me with pleasure... He writes in his Plan of Reformation.  They shall be kept in every comfort possible and instructed in religion and morals, they shall be given a mechanical occupation and part of their earnings shall be allocated to the establishment and the rest shall be given to the prisoner on the day of his departure, so that this prison sentence will have been for him a principle of his happiness, he will be instructed in religion and morals and in trade to earn his livelihood and with money to undertake it, and the once pernicious member comes to be from prison useful to himself and to society.   He became spokesman for the project "Workshops in the prisons of the province of Cuba". (Galerón)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GALERÓN, María Soledad RMI. Llamada que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos hacen Hoy.  Santiago de Cuba 2023.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

 

 

 

25 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME     - A – 2023

ü  Two Sundays ago, we were invited to love our brothers and sisters caring for them and advising them with love.  

ü  Last Sunday in the Gospel Jesus says that we must forgive seventy times seven if someone sins against us. 

ü  Today the parable of the owner of the vineyard and the workers is another way to invite us to be generous and to understand that the reward is God himself, and therefore it cannot be divided, we all receive the same gift, eternal life. 

FIRST READING   Is 55:6-9

o   Today’s Reading is taken from the Second Isaiah called also Deutero-Isaiah or Book of Consolation. 

o   It is of an exceptional beauty, its words give comfort to the heart.   

o   Seek the Lord while you may find him, while he allows himself to be found.  

o   This is an image of a father or a mother who plays with her young child; image also of the lover who seeks his or her love, and allows the loved one to find him or her.    

o   After that there is an invitation to abandon evil, to change, to go back to the Lord who is generous in forgiveness.    

o   And here the prophet, the voice of God, says words that he has heard from God: my thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are high above your ways. 

o   My thoughts are generous no mean like yours.  

o   The Lord is all mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and tender love. 

o   His thoughts do not judge us negatively, but only to save us. On the contrary we judge others to condemn with our tongue without mercy in our heart and, without even realizing who we really are.  

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 145:2-3; 8-9;17-18 

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM

Every day will I bless you    

And I will praise your name forever and ever

Great is the Lord and highly to be praised

His greatness is unsearchable.

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

The Lord is gracious and merciful

Sallow to anger and of great kindness

The Lord is good to all

And compassionate toward all his works

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

The Lord is just in all his ways

And holy in all his works

The Lord is near to all who call upon him

To all who call upon him in truth

THE LORD IS NEAR TO ALL WHO CALL UPON HIM 

      This psalm sings the goodness of God.

      It is a fitting prayer,  response to the text of Isaiah where the prophet says how good is God toward all.    

      Do we not feel the desire to be like him?   

      So that with him we may work to transform this world of ours, and our communities, as well,  filling them with love and compassion.      

 

GOSPEL  Mt 20:1-16a

Ø  Chapter 19 ends with the sentence “the last shall be first and the first shall be last.” 

Ø  At the beginning of chapter 20 Matthew tells us this parable that Jesus told, about the owner of the vineyard.  

Ø  This parable tells us what the kingdom of God is all about.  

Ø  It is like a landowner who has a vineyard and needs workers who can work in it, who will be willing to pick up the grapes that probably are already ripe.  

Ø  This image of men waiting for someone to give them work, was something that Jesus had seen many times .  

Ø  Still today in many places people who need to work and people who need workers meet at certain points of the towns.     

Ø  According to the parable the owner goes out very early in the morning, and then many more times until 5 in the afternoon and to all he says the same I will pay you what is just.   

Ø  He continues to go out, but the Lord does not tell us if this is because he needs so many workers or because he wants to give work to everyone.  

Ø  No one has hired you? No one. Go to my vineyard and I will pay what is just.    

Ø  All go, some worked all day long, some worked some hours and the last worked only one hour.  

Ø  The great surprise comes at the end, when the owner says to his steward, start paying the last first and continue until you have paid all. Give to each one the usual daily wage.  

Ø  What is this? What an injustice! Some have worked more than 12 hours and the last only one hour… 

Ø  My friend, if I want to be good, am I not free to give to this one the same as to you? I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?   

Ø  Why is this way of retribution just?    

o   This is what they had agreed.   

o   But if we now look at our life, at our relationship with the Lord, what is this parable telling us?

§  The call, the mission and the recompense in the eternal life is complete gratuitous and it depends only on the loving will of God.  

§  God loves us all equally; he creates all and redeems us all with the same love.  

§  I say creates and redeems because creation and redemption are ongoing realities.   

§  The reward, the wage is God himself, and God cannot be divided in different parts, the salary is such that it is only one which is eternal life.

§   The extra salary or reward for those who have worked all day long is the possibility to work a longer time, happy and blessed those who have been able to work for the Lord since their childhood.  

§  The salary does not depend on us, because we are not entitled to any reward, when you have done what you had to do say we are useless servants. Te salary depends on the loving disposition of our God.   

§  Do you think that the owner of the house will praise the servant who has done what he was told to do?   

o   For me this is the most interesting parable among the parables that the Lord has told us. Our human categories, our human justice, our own calculations are excluded in the parable.     

o   My thoughts and my ways are far from yours. I think and act in a very different way than you, but you need to learn from me.    

SECOND READING    Phil  1:20c-24,27a

Ø  The community of Philippi was the most cherished community by Paul, and Paul was loved very much by the community.   

Ø  This letter belongs to the group of letters called “captivity letters” because they were written in prison.    

Ø  Paul was in prison twice thus it is difficult to date this letter. The date will be between the years 50-60.    

Ø  It is a short letter, filled with love. It is addressed to the first community that Paul evangelized; maybe this can explain his preference for them.  

Ø  The contents:

o   A theological jewel: the Christological Hymn  

o   Autobiographical notes   

o   The church organization:  bishops and deacons   

o   The teaching of Paul about the encounter of the believer with Christ after death.    

o   The financial cooperation of this community to help Paul. 

Let us see the contents of today’s Reading

v  Christ will be glorified either by my life or by my death.  

v  Because my life is Christ, and I consider death as gain.

v  Paul does not know what to choose, to continue living in this world to serve the community, or to die and go  with the Lord forever. He says that his heart is divided between these two wishes.  

v  O that our love be like his! and we might experience this inner fight, between being with the Lord in heaven or remain with our brothers and sisters to serve them.   

v  Today’s reading ends with an exhortation to behave in a way worthy of the Gospel of Christ.   

v  This invitation is not only to the community of Philippi, but also to us, to our community.   

CLARETIAN CORNER

In this petition which, later I understood, was very much to the liking of His Divine Majesty, because it was done with much simplicity and good will, our Lord has deigned to teach me with much pleasure how He would like to be served by this ungrateful creature…He set before my eyes the observance of His most Holy Law and evangelical counsels, and told me to observe them with much perfection; he told me with intense sorrow that He had no body in Hid house to observe  them, for the great extent that all the religious orders had gone lax in the observance of His most Holy Law and because of this He permitted with grief, their destruction.I was shocked at this because I had always believed that all persons who profess perfection served God faithfully and for this, I wanted to be a religious. Here, once more our Lord put, as of what I can understand, before the eyes of my soul, because with my bodily eyes I did not see anything, His most Holy Law and Evangelical Counsel. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 3-4. 

I was christened Anthony Adjutor John. My mother's brother, Anthony Clara, was my godfather, and he wanted me to be named after him. My father's sister, Mary Claret, was my godmother. She was married to Adjutor Canudas, so they gave me her husband's Christian name. My third name, John, was my father's name. Later, out of devotion to Mary Most Holy, I added the sweet name of Mary, my mother, my patroness, my directress and my all, after Jesus. Thus my name is Anthony Mary Adjutor John Claret y Clara.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 5-6.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Anthony Mary Claret, Autobiography.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo)  2007

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.     

 

24th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   -CICLE A – 2023

ü  Last Sunday we were invited to correct one another with respect and   love and, to pray together 

ü  The central theme of this Sunday’s liturgy is the fraternal love under the aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness that we are called to share among ourselves, like the Father forgives us in Christ Jesus, who has died for all of us, without exception.  

ü  Paul says that none of us lives for himself and that we belong to the Lord. 

BOOK OF BEN SIRA - ECCLESIASTICUS 

o   The designation “Liber Ecclesiasticus” meaning Church Book is probably due to the extensive use the Church made of this book.   

o   It belongs to the group of Wisdom Books. Books that reflect on fundamental issues related to our human life. Issues that worry all of us, questions we try to answer no matter who we are and where we life. Life, death, suffering, sin, justice… God or some other superior being.  

o   It is the only book of the Old Testament that bears the signature of its author (50,27).

o   The book was written originally in Hebrew in 197 B.C in Jerusalem. 

o   It was translated into Greek by the grandson Ben Sira of the author in 132 B.C.

o    For many centuries it was believed that the book was written in Greek and thus was not accepted as revealed. In the 19th and 20th centuries fragments of the original manuscript were found written in Hebrew.

o   Though not included in the Jewish Bible after the first century A.D. not therefore accepted by the Protestants, the Wisdom of Ben Sira has been recognized by the Catholic Church as inspired and canonical.

o    The contents of the Wisdom of Ben Sira are if a discursive nature, not easily divided into separate parts.

 

 

FIRST READING   Sir 27:30—28:7

Ø  Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight.

Ø  The author invites us to forgive and thus when we pray, we will be heard.  

Ø  How can we expect to be forgiven if we do not forgive?  

Ø  What do I answer to this question?  

Ø  If we harbor wrath in our heart, who will be able to forgive us? Because when our heart is filled with wrath there is no more room to anything else, thus we are unable to accept the light of God, to hear his voice that invites us to forgive, to love.  

Ø  El author invites us to think about our last moments, are we going to be at peace with that wrath in our heart when we face our Creator and Redeemer?

Ø   Jesus has invited or called us to love one another as He has loved us.

Ø  The reading ends saying: Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High's covenant. In so doing we will be happy   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12

The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion. .

GOSPEL Mt 18:21-35 

Ø  We continue reading the same chapter we began last week, chapter in which Matthew speaks to the community about the requirements of being a community.  

Ø  The Gospel was written for a given community, with its own needs and shortcomings.

Ø  The community of Matthew needed to forgive those who persecuted them, those who killed their loved ones…   

Ø   And the evangelist tells them what Jesus had told Peter long time before: Peter you have to forgive always, without getting tired of forgiving.

Ø   And to help us to understand the evangelist tells us one of the parables of Jesus on forgiveness and on the lack of forgiveness.  

Ø  For us to forgive is very difficult, because the offense is an attack on our own being, thus is like being deprived of our life.

Ø  But Jesus who has died for us, who have offended him more than anyone can offend us, asks us to forgive as He did.

Ø  I think that if we learn the lesson on forgiveness, we will experience such happiness that we will never want to go back.

Ø  Lord transform our heart and make it like yours. 

SECOND READING:  Rom 14:7-9

ü  God invites his community to understand and accept one another, especially those weaker in their faith, 

ü  And Paul says very comforting words: 

o   None of us lives or dies for oneself.   

o   But we live and die for the Lord.  

o   Because he has rescued us and in life and in death we belong to Him.  

 

ü  Do I truly believe that I belong to the Lord? And if there is any doubt in our heart let us ask the Lord to change our heart and make is like his.

ü  In our prayer let us meditate and ask ourselves : from what has the Lord recued me?   

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

Year 1842, one night while I was at prayer pleading to Christ crucified to remedy the necessities of the church, which in that time were many, that had cost him so much, I offered him my life in sacrifice as I have done before many times, well aware that my life was not of much value to sacrifice for so many evils, but as I had no virtues to offer him, I begged him to deign to teach me what should I do in order to give him pleasure and glory accomplishing his most holy will. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters.  Autobiography 2.

I was born in the village of Sallent, deanery of Manresa, diocese of Vich, province of Barcelona.

 My parents, whose names were John Claret and Josephine Clara,  were married, upright, and God-fearing people, very devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Most Holy.

I was baptized in St. Mary's Parish, Sallent, on December 25, Christmas Day, 1807, although the parish books say 1808. The reason for this is that they counted the year as beginning on December 25, and so it is that mine is the first entry in the books for the year 1808. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters,    Autobiography 3-4.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo)  2007

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.