EIGHT SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  - CYCLE A – February 26, 2017

ü  The first reading and the Gospel invite us to trust in God.   

ü  Both sacred authors choose images of a tenderness and beauty  

ü  After listening during two Sundays the demands of the Law, now Jesus invites us to rest trustfully in the hands of the Father that, not only makes rain fall and sun rise on good and bad, but he also takes care of all his creatures even the flowers and the birds.   

FIRST READING   Is 49:14-15

This text is taken from the Book of the Second Isaiah, Deutero-Isaiah. In the ministry of the prophet we distinguish two moments: the first one  cc. 40-48, the prophet speaks to the exiled in Babylon who will very soon begin the return to their country.

The second moment  49-55 he speaks to those who have already returned to their homeland, and some of them have not been welcomed as they dreamed, but in spite of it they have remained faithful to the Lord.

This section of the book is called the Book of Consolation. Consolation not only for the people who were exiled, but also for those in Jerusalem, whose life changes with the fall of the Babylonian power.

v Isaiah presents Zion, the holy city, as a woman who complains that “her Lord” has forgotten her, has abandoned her. 

v And the Lord answers  using an image so tender that she will not doubt anymore about the love of her God.   

v The tender love of a mother is what almost all of us have for sure in the first years of our life and throughout of our life.   

v In her arms the baby feels secure and at peace, these arms  reassure him/her that she/he is  not abandoned.   

v The author says that such is the love of God for all of us.   

v And he adds something else to give us full peace and security, and in this way conquer our love: Even if a mother could forget and abandon the baby she has conceived in her womb, I will never forget you, never abandon you.   

v We need to hear these words, but more than hear we need to believe them and abandon ourselves in the arms of our God like a baby in her mother’s arms.   

v God is described in different ways in the different books of Scripture, especially like a father, but also as a mother. From him we, human beings, have learned to be father and mother, we have received from him the capacity to have love and tenderness.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  62: 2-3. 6-7. 8-9

R. (6a) Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God is my soul at rest;
from him comes my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed at all.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
Only in God be at rest, my soul,
for from him comes my hope.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I shall not be disturbed.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.
With God is my safety and my glory,
he is the rock of my strength; my refuge is in God.
Trust in him at all times, O my people!
Pour out your hearts before him.
R. Rest in God alone, my soul.

      

     This psalm has the same tone as the first reading and the Gospel.  

     God is hope, salvation, refuge, saving rock. 

     There is an invitation to trust, to pour out our soul before God

     We all are in need of pour out our heart in someone; the sacred author says that we can do that with God since he is our refuge.  

GOSPEL , Mt 6:24-34

Ø  Today we will read one of the most beautiful pages of Scripture

Ø  In the first reading Isaiah invited us to trust, and he uses the tender image of a mother.   

Ø  Matthew takes us by hand and invites us to look the creation who surrounds us with all its beauty, and he helps us to realize what God is doing, and that maybe we have given for granted.   

Ø  In the past Sundays Matthew presented Jesus teaching and unfolding the deep  truth and demands  of the Law  

Ø  Today he says to us that we cannot serve two masters God and money. Maybe we could rephrase this saying that we cannot serve God in large case and, god in small case that is to say a false god an idol,   

Ø  After that an invitation not to be worried and to trust  

o   He invites us to look at our life with all its needs, he mentions only some basic ones and then he asks us, what is more important life or food o clothing…. 

o   The birds do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, but the Father feeds them.  

o   The flowers of the field, he does not say the flowers that we use to decorate our churches, banquets… no, but those flowers that we step on, those we do not pay attention to, and are not object of our profit.   

o   Jesus invites us to look at them and see their beauty, he makes us realize that these flowers do not weave but they dress up better than Solomon, because the Father clothes them.   

o   If God feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, will he not do much more for us?

o   And Jesus, as he asks us this question,  says also “men and women of little faith.   

o   Do not worry for tomorrow, when it comes it will bring its own worries but it will bring  also the presence of God in our life.   

Ø  This reading is not an invitation to do nothing, but to trust.   

Ø  Work is not only to cover our needs, work is a right of the human being called to be co-creator with his God.   

Ø  Through our work we are called to develop this gift that we have received, to be co-creators, to transform the creation that God has begun and that now he continues creating with our cooperation.  

Ø  Thus this reading is an invitation to work, to provide, to do whatever is needed, but knowing that there is  a Father who takes care of us with the tender love of a mother.   

Ø  There is another theme, that probably we will share some other day, is the sin of those who change  the human being from co-creator into an instrument of production, of profit, not respecting the dignity given to them by God.  The dignity to be the image of the creator and thus with the capacity to transform creation, and not to be used as an object.      

ü   And the first part of today’s Reading “to serve God and to serve the god money” awakens in me a question to which I do not have an answer. My worries are addressed not only to society, but to all of us the followers of Jesus . How can we called ourselves followers of Jesus without embracing all his values? He has explained the Law saying “but I say to you…’’ How can we have luxury in some of our temples, homes… when the true temples of our Father, the human beings, continue to die from hunger, I we know they are many, too many, how is that possible? Some of them are not far from us, they are close to us, in our same neighborhood.

SECOND READING 1 Co 4:1-5

     Paul asks us to behave as true followers of Christ, as stewards of God’s mysteries.

     The word we proclaim, that we share, which we try to interpret is not ours, it is the Lord’s.

     Thus in all I do and say I have to be faithful, this is what is expected from a steward.

     Paul is not worried about what people say about him, not even that his conscience be at peace, because who judges us is the Lord.

     And he continues inviting  us not to judge , because we do not know the true reality of any one, only the Lord knows it and, He will reveal it in due time.

     Let us live according to the Lord’s precept “love…” and let us stop passing judgement.

CLARETIAN CORNER  

 Oh my Lord and my God!  How great is your goodness!  How infinite your mercy!...Who Lord, if not your burning charity, would suffer so much contempt?...so many indignities?...so many profanities?  Oh my Redeemer, by whom are you so offended? Ah!!!!!  Your sons, my God, the Holy Church’s preferred children!  The Priests of the Lord have trampled the most sacred laws, putting our Holy Mother the Church under their feet!!!  Because of this, there is no faith!  There is no charity on earth!...Oh my Jesus!  Send a ray of your divine light and illuminate the earth.  My Lord, especially enlighten all of the Church’s Prelates; my Lord, break this veil of mundane vanity, and make them see with impartial eyes the duties of their position according to Your Most Holy Law. 

During the holy visit, the Bishop should distribute the bread of the Divine Word; do not avoid confessing, engrave in the hearts of all the Lord’s Holy Law; teach through words and deeds the fulfillment of the Divine Commandments. Venerable Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Plan for the Renewal of the Church 32-33.  

Foundation of a Good Governance

The governance of a good Prelate must be based on the following virtues: 1^st Humility, because with this virtue we please God, a he gives his grace, and the gift of good governance to the humble.   2^nd Meekness, with this virtue we please men, as did Moses and this is the way to win someone else’s. 3rd Patience, with this virtue we possess our own soul, and the soul of the faithful; sometimes overlooking, according to the proverb that says: “who does not know to dissimulate, does not know how to govern.” 4^th Listening to people in their difficulties and wishes, even when they are imprudent; if we can console them we give to them what they ask for, and if not possible, with good manners we try to explain to them, but never let them go with anger.

Means to obtain the gift of governance.  

To reach the gift of governance, the Prelate has to use the following means:  
1^st Prayer, as Solomon did…   This is the first and most efficacious means to get from God the grace of good governance. 2^nd The imitation of Jesus Christ, Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, as Peter calls him; the imitation of the Holy Apostles and of the Holy Prelates, taking one as a special patron or model in the episcopate, as Saint Francis of Sales, Saint Charles Boromeo, St. Thomas of Villanueva, the Blessed John of Ribera, St. Liguori and the Venerable Peter of Castro; and to read their written lives at length.   3^rd The advice from wise, prudent and benevolent men. 4th To learn and to be informed about the situations, and never  rush in making decisions; and to give corrections on due time and in an appropriate way. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Notes of a Plan to Restore the Beauty of the Church: “On the Good Governance.”