This week we are going to hear Jesus saying that whoever wants
to follow him has to take up his or her own cross and follow him. It is the only way to be servants as he is.
FIRST READING: Is 50:5-9a
This Reading is taken from the second part of
the Book of Isaiah, called the Second Isaiah or the Deutero-Isaiah. The author
may be an Israelite who had returned from exile or an Israelite who never left
his country.
He is a anonymous poet who sings the wonders of
the return from the exile, using images and words that remind us about the
first exodus from Egypt. God repeats now the marvelous things he did for his
people, the Lord who walks in front of his people in this happy and wonderful
return.
In the book of the Second Isaiah we find four
poems dedicated to a mysterious figure the Servant of Yahweh.
The servant may be the people of Israel, it may also
be a faithful Israelite.
These texts open, in the Old Testament, a new
perspective on human suffering:
o
The suffering is a way that may lead us to God
o
It is not only a reality that we want to avoid
and be freed from, as we read in the psalms.
o
This suffering may be useful not only for the
person who suffers, but also to help other people.
o
The Church teaches that in these poems we may
find a prophesy of the sufferings of Jesus
the suffering servant who offers his life for his people and for the glory of
God.
Let us reflect on this
first Reading:
The Lord has opened my ear so that I may be able
to hear, and I have not turned back
As we continue to read, we realize that the
words that are pronounced over the Servant will bring on to him insults,
persecutions, tortures, but he does not offer resistance to it.
The Servant says that the Lord is his help and
thus he will not be destroyed.
Meanwhile the only thing he can do is to accept
the word and also the mistreatments, because he knows that he will not be disgraced.
He is so confident in his Lord that he provokes
his opponents, because he knows that God is with him.
And if God is with him, who can hurt him?
These words are said for us, if God is with us,
who will be against us?
During this week it might be good to ask
ourselves, this same question, if God is for me, who will be against me? And
let us try to examine ourselves and discover whether these are simple words
without any meaning, or these are words which respond to the reality of our
faith in our God.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 116
Psalm 116 is a psalm
of trust and thanksgiving.
RESPONSE: I SHALL WALK BEFORE THE
LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING.
This response is used very frequently in the
funeral liturgies. We understand the land of the living, as the “dwelling
place” of those who are already in the eternal embrace of God.
The psalmist loves the Lord because the Lord has
listened to him in his distress.
He does not explain what kind of distress, but
it is something that made him suffer, and God bent over to him and helped
him.
God takes care of the lowly.
We are
all invited to WALK BEFORE THE LORD IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING ALL THE DAYS OF
OUR LIFE.
GOSPEL Mc 8:27-35
ü Last
Sunday Jesus was in the region of the Decapolis, this week we find him in the
region of Caesarea of Philippi.
ü This
region is at the northeastern border of Galilee, so Jesus is again outside his
native country. The region was governed by Philip the son of Herod the Great.
ü
Jesus walks with his disciples. He knows that
people say many things about him; they are puzzled by his words, his actions.
But Jesus is interested in knowing what the disciples think about him.
They have been with him for almost 3 years; it is time for
them to take a stand and answered the question. Why do they follow Jesus? They
need to answer the question, because they are the ones who will have to
continue Jesus’ mission.
ü Peter,
as usual, is the one who answers and he says YOU ARE THE CHRIST.
ü Does
Peter know the meaning of his answer, does he know what CHRIST means? The life
of the disciple may be changed according to the answer given to this question.
ü
This episode marks a turning point in the
ministry of Jesus according to the Gospel of Mark. If we look at the book
itself we see that it has 16 chapters and we are in the 8th chapter.
But there is more than that:
o
Up to this moment Jesus has called them and has
tried to teach them what in turn they will have to teach to us.
o
Now he is going to teach something else, what does
it mean that he is the Christ.
o
It means that Jesus is the mysterious Servant of
Isaiah’s book, the servant who gives his life for the people.
ü Peter
did not understand what he said to Jesus; Peter still thinks like a human
being, he has not yet grasped the mind of God.
ü In
suffering Peter will learn what it means to follow Jesus,
o
He will hear from Jesus, words which will hurt
him, he will be called Satan which means tempter.
o
And Peter will also be told by the Lord to go
behind him, not ahead of him. Who leads the disciple is the Teacher, not the
other way around.
ü And
Jesus says to the crowds, and also to all of us: that we have to take up our
cross and follow him wherever he will go.
ü
Whoever wishes to come after Jesus must deny
himself or herself, take his or her cross and follow him.
ü For
whoever wishes to save his or her life will lose it, and whoever loses it for
the sake of Jesus and the gospel will save it.
ü Like
Peter we learn to be disciples in suffering
o
Because we need to learn to follow the Teacher
and not to go in front of him with our plans, dreams, wishes without asking him
first.
o
Our cross is anything which causes us pain of
any kind: physical, psychological, spiritual. We are invited to take up our
cross with joy and enthusiasm because on the cross we find the Teacher.
SECOND READING. Js 2:14-18
«
James discusses here a problem as old as the
church itself.
«
What does it mean that I believe?
o
Are these only empty words, high concepts that
lead to nowhere, that are worth nothing as James says?
o
Because if I say that I believe in the Lord who
has commanded me to love as he has loved us, but I do not help my brothers and
sisters in need, this faith is worthless.
«
This has been the discussion between Protestants
and Catholics for centuries.
«
But the truth is that faith cannot be faith
without love, without a loving relationship between the Lord and each one of
us, without taking up our cross everyday and helping our brothers and sisters
in need.
«
It is not enough to say I will pray for you,
which is good; but I must be the hands and the heart of the Lord for that
person. This is the way in which God
answers our prayer for help, through each one of us.
«
The Pope has declared a Year of Faith from
October 11, 2012 to November 24, 2013. He invites us during this year to
question ourselves on our faith, to ask the Lord to transform us. We are
invited to live our faith as a loving relationship with the Lord Jesus, with
any one of the Three Divine Persons of the Trinity according to our own
spirituality.
This
relationship will enable us to have eyes, like the Samaritan man, to recognize human
suffering as we encounter it on the journey of our life, and it will also give
hands to alleviate human, and enthusiasm to invite others to do the
same.
“They (the Junior sisters) shall join action
with contemplation, the most necessary point for our Institute.”
During this time they
should exercise themselves in the practice of prayer, in accepting day by day
the vicissitudes of this life, as coming from the hand of God. Thus they will
not depend on times and happenings, but they will fix their souls in God, who
never changes. María Antonia
París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Relación a Caixal (Report to Caixal)
20, quoted in n. 97 of our Constitutions.
I knew that the virtue an apostolic missionary needs
most, after humility and poverty, is meekness.
Jesus told his beloved disciples,
"Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest
for your souls." Humility is like
the root of the tree, and meekness is its fruit. St. Bernard tells us that we
please God by humility and our neighbor by meekness. In the Sermon on the
Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the
land" --and not just the promised
land of those living in heaven but also the earthly hearts of men. St.
Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography
372.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
CLARET, Antonio María . Autobiografía.
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the
Footsteps of Jesus. Convivium Press 2011.
PARIS, María Antonia. Relación a
Caixal.
SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española.
SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos.
China 2008.
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