XXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  – CYCLE C – AUGUST 21, 2016

FIRST READING  Is 66:18-21

v  The text which we are going to read this coming Sunday belongs to the third part of the Book of Isaiah, Third Isaiah.   The historical time is the time after the return from the exile.

v  The Lord says:

o   I know their works and their thoughts, I know them.

o   I come to gather the nations, the peoples who speak different languages. 

o   But in spite of this diversity they will come and they will see the glory of God. 

o   How will God go about to gather the peoples? He will send the fugitives to their nations. The name given to those nations reflect a great variety and extension of territory.     

§  Tarshish this name is mentioned sometimes in the Bible in the OT as well as in the NT.  It might refer to a great city, a faraway region or a land far from Israel beyond the seas.  

§  Put and Lud translated also as  Libya y Lydia.

§  Mosoch –  could be  Macedonia in Greece.   

§  Tubal  .  there is in the OT someone called Tubal-Cain, a descendent from Cain, and maybe there was later on a place with his name.  

§  Javan was the name frequently used to designate Greece. 

o   Mentioning these places the author of the book wants to give us a vision of mission and universality, accomplished by the same people that had flee.  On reaching these places they will proclaim the greatness of God, and sing their praises to God.

o   And on coming  back to Israel they will  bring the exiled, their brothers and sisters from Israel, as an offering to the Lord. 

o   Those who had been exiled will return in glory, riding horses and camels, proud and strong animals.   

o   They will arrive into Jerusalem, the sacred mountain of God  

o   The author compares this return to the worship which the chosen people was giving to God in the temple   

o   From among them, God will call priests and Levites, men who will serve God in the temple.  

o   What a grandiose vision of the return.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:  Ps  117:1-2

This psalm belongs to the hymns, psalms which are considered as hymns, which praise God singing his  the greatness.  

R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
 Praise the LORD all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
 

GOSPEL – Lk 13:22-30

      Jesus on his way to Jerusalem passes through towns and villages.  

      In one of these places or on the road, someone asks: Lord, are they few those who will be saved? 

      Jesus does not give a concrete answer, but he says that each one is called to follow the way of goodness “the narrow gate.”

      As humans, we  are very much accustomed to measure everything by means of statistic. How many?    

      I think that this question is wrong, each human being is the work of God who loves him or her because they are his work of art, his son or his daughter.    

      He works mysteriously in the human heart. We see only the outside and we dare to judge what we do not know. 

      In each human heart, we say, that a battle takes place between good and evil, and this is certainly true  

      But I prefer to think that in each human heart, during the lifetime of each one of us, a love story between the Creator and his creature is being weaved.  

      And many of us, we do not realize this until some especial moment in our life, moments of joy  but especially moments of suffering, then we are more ready to discover the presence of our God in our life.  We become aware of his tender and merciful love for us.

      Jesus speaks of those who believe they save themselves, that it is due to their efforts that they have the “passport” to enter into God’s Kingdom. They do not know that the Kingdom is a  gift.

      They know much about God and speak also very much about him, but they do not speak to Him. 

      Jesus does not recognize their teaching, probably because they did it for their own pride not for the service of their brothers and sisters.   

      And again here in the Gospel we are given a description of universality: East, West, North South… This is the image of the eternity, of salvation with Jesus. 

      Let our heart be filled with this light, this hope, this trust and security in the unconditional love of God our Father.  

      But let us be at the same time vigilant and alert, to avoid the possibility to be of those who teach with pride and treat their fellow men and women with arrogance, oppressing them instead of serving them.  

SECOND READING : Hebrews 12:5-7.11-13

ü  The author  of this letter reminds us the exhortation  that had been given to us 

ü  “Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord “

ü  These words can help us in difficult times, when it seems that God is deaf when we call him, that he does not listen to our prayers. 

ü  And thus we think that what is happening is his punishment for our sins  

ü  I do not think that God sends the sickness, or the accidents, or the bad relationships among the members of the family, between the couples….   

ü  But I really believe that when we find ourselves in any difficulty, when we found ourselves completely lost; it is the moment when we are ready to discover the presence of God in our life.  

ü  The suffering we endure, may sometimes for a while, harden our heart,  make us bitter, proud, rebellious,  but it will eventually help us to open up  to God, whom we have ignored for so many years.   

ü  It is the time to begin a journey of conversion, a change in direction in our life, to encounter the God who has been waiting for us since the first moment of our conception, when he has created us and loved us. It is also the time when we realize the existence of the other human beings, our brothers and sisters.     

ü  God says to us the same words he said  to Jeremiah “before  you were fashioned in your mother’s womb I had chosen you, before you were born I consecrated you….  

ü  Let these thoughts and words fill us with tenderness, trust and thankfulness to our Father for loving us unconditionally  

ü  His commandments, his calls, his admonitions and exhortations have the purpose to make easy the way of salvation, there are not meant to make it difficult or complicated.

ü  Let us always remember that he knows us and loves us.     

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In the section below I use to put some texts from the Autobiographies or our Founder and Foundress. From now on, at least for a while, I want to do something different. Since the Pope has written a letter on the family, I  will copy each week one of the paragraphs

POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION- THE JOY OF LOVE - AMORIS LAETITIA
OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

The Bible is full of families, births, love  stories and family crises.  This is true from its very first page, with the appearance of Adam and Eve’s family with all its burden of violence but also its enduring strength (cf. Gen 4) to its very last page, where we behold the wedding feast of the Bride and the Lamb (Rev 21:2, 9).  Jesus’ description of the two houses, one built on rock and the other on sand (cf. Mt 7:24-27), symbolizes any number of family situations shaped by the exercise of their members’ freedom, for, as the poet says, “every home is a lampstand”.   Let us now enter one of those houses, led by the Psalmist with a song that even today resounds in both Jewish and Christian wedding liturgies:  

“Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,

who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;

 your children will be like olive shoots round your table.

Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

The Lord bless you from Zion!

May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem

all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children!

Peace be upon Israel!” (Ps 128:1-6).