28 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME- CYCLE A   -  2023

ü   The first reading and the Gospel speak of the Kingdom of God by means of analogies.  

ü  For Paul his strength is in God.   

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH

Ø  The first reading for this Sunday liturgy is taken from the first part of the book we call Book of Isaiah, whose author is the First Isaiah or Isaiah from Jerusalem. 

Ø  His prophetic activity can be situated between the years 740 to 687 B.C. 

Ø  It covers three periods:   

o   First period that is short, it goes from the death of King Uzziah to the death of his son Jotham in 735.  It is a time of peace; the country enjoys a good prosperity.   

o   Second period 734-733 time of political unrest. 

o   The third period longer than the previous ones, the leaders of the country seek the contact with Egypt to free themselves from the Assyrian protection.  

Ø  Isaiah is the model of the religious man who from a profound and intense experience of God (Is 6) will interpret his whole life and the life of society.

Ø  He defends the rights of the widow and orphan. 

Ø  He speaks of the emptiness and hypocrisy of the worship.   

Ø  God  waits for the opportunity to manifest to his people his compassion. 

Ø  This compassion will be manifested by means of the promise of the messianic king (9,1-6; 11,1-9). 

 FIRST READING   Is 25:6-10ª

-          The change they experience is provoked by God, the author uses four symbols to describe it:   

o   The mountain, place of the banquet  

o   The banquet   

o   The presence of a multitude of peoples  

o   The change from suffering to wellbeing.   

-          Isaiah speaks of what will happen on this holy mountain, Jerusalem.    

o   The holy mountain is, at the beginning, Jerusalem; but it becomes the happy eternity where death will be destroyed. 

o   Not only death or the end of our earthly life, but the many interior and exterior deaths we suffer, provoked by others or by us.

o   Whenever we speak of wellbeing we speak of abundant and tasty fruits, good wines. 

o   All veils will be destroyed on this holy mountain, the veil that covers the peoples, the veil of ignorance, of lack of freedom, of everything that darkens in us the capacity to discover the presence of God in us, in all and in everything.   

o   Death will be destroyed forever on this mountain which symbolizes the heavenly Jerusalem, as well as every place and situation of encounter with God.  When He is present even if we die, we will live.    

o   On this mountain God will wipe out the tears from the eyes, what a beautiful and consoling promise! How many tears are shed in our world, how much human suffering.     

o   All this which the prophet describes is the work of God to whom we turn our eyes to be saved. 

 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Sal 23: 1-3a. 3b – 4.5.6 

R. (6cd) I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. 

      Psalm of a great beauty that describes the peace and security of the person who feels the presence and company of God in his or her life.  

      Company and security which the psalmist describes with very evocative images: the prairies, the water of the springs, the table and the oil which anoints and perfumes.  

      The psalmist ends the psalm saying that goodness and kindness will always be his companions throughout his life,  

      All of this and much more surround us when we feel and experience the presence of the Lord in our life.   

GOSPEL Mt 22: 1-14

Ø   Jesus is speaking again with the leaders and priests of his people, he is trying to convince and conquer those men who pull away more and more from their vocation as representatives of Jesus’ Father, the God of Israel, who has called them to be his representatives on earth. 

Ø  It is a wedding banquet, the wedding is the most joyful and lovely celebration in all the cultures, and for every couple that are in love with each other. 

Ø  The kingdom of God is like a feast, a wedding celebration. 

Ø  As in the parable of the vineyard, here the king sends his servants and messengers to remind those invited to the feast of his son’s wedding that everything is prepared.   

Ø  But we are told that those invited ignored this reminder.    

Ø  A second time he sends other servants, and they are told that those invited cannot go to the feast because they have other more important things to do.  

Ø  The King becomes angry and sends his servants to invite anyone they find on the roads, any place. God does not abandon his project despite our little or no cooperation, he looks for other solutions.   

Ø  And all sorts of people come to the celebration some are good others are bad….  

Ø  There is even one who does not wear the wedding garment.  

Ø  Is that man, like us when through the journey of our life, so many times, we refuse to wear the wedding garment that was given to us in our baptism when the priest gave us the white garment and, he told us to keep it until the time when the Lord will call us?    

Ø  Jesus describes the consequences of not using the wedding garment as: “bind his hands and feet (lack of freedom), darkness, bad relationships with others…

Ø  May the Lord grant us to cultivate the joy in our life, joy which will help us to recognize the Lord always walking with us during the journey of our earthly life, and this conviction will in turn increase our joy.   

SECOND READING    Phil 4:12-14. 19-20

Ø  Paul thanks the community of Philippi for their help. He had a very especial and loving relationship with this community that always show its love for him.   

Ø  But he tells them something that is very good for a missionary and evangelizer, maybe for all of us also: I have learned the secret of being satisfied when I am fed and of going hungry, of living in abundance and of being in need.

Ø  God will provide according to their needs, probably this is his experience.   

Ø  Yes, even if we are in need, God continues to provide for us in one way or another, sometimes we do not understand it.  

Ø  God creates us, provides for us, we only must open the eyes of faith and love to discover his work in us.  

CLARETIAN CORNER   

We will continue with the book of Maria Soledad Galeron, rmi. 

THE OUTCASTS awaken Claret’s most sensitive fibers and  generosity.   By the end of 1853, he sent to the Marquis of la Pezuela the great Project of the Casa de Caridad in Puerto Principe, a “city” with sections for the abandoned elderly and young people of humble origin, counting on the resources from the part which I will be able to spare from my episcopal income and the inexhaustible treasures of God’s providence… 

 He dreams with the construction of that house to welcome above all the "marginalized", abandoned children and young people, helpless elderly, sick without family. The project takes into account the distribution of spaces, both in the buildings and in the fields, the form of construction, the materials to be used and he entrusts Fr. Currius the management and administration of the work. Claret called it House of Charity, maybe it will be better to give it this name according to the words on my episcopal seal “Caritas Christi urget nos”  (the love of Christ impels us.) 

On January 8, 1855, he bought the land to build the new house. He frequently wrote to Fr. Paladius Currius giving orientations on the construction, economic contributions and distribution of the same. When I left the island, I had spent twenty-five thousand pesos from my savings.  On how to build the roof... It seems to me that it should be done with wood... It must be with materials from the country... 

Divide the land and start the cultivation of bananas, sweet potatoes, yames and cassava... I am glad that the orange trees that I planted are beginning to be born... Later he asks him about how things are going and says the amount he can give to continue the works... 

He requests a Royal Order so that six Sisters of Charity can embark and help in the establishment of Charity of the City of Santiago de Cuba. In Port-au-Prince there are four establishments that all need sisters... and finally the House of Charity , which I am building with my savings, to be able to pick up  and educate the many children who are abandoned and are lost on the streets. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPANOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial. 2012.

GALERÓN, María Soledad, rmi. Llamadas que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos Hacen Hoy. 2023.