14th Sunday in Ordinary Time  – cycle C - 2019 

FIRST READING  Is 66: 10-14

Ø  The images used by prophet Isaiah in this reading are taken from the relationship between a mother and her child; between the earth and the water.   

Ø  The prophet invites those who love Jerusalem to rejoice, because she experiences a great joy after a long suffering, probably due to wars with other political powers.    

Ø  This joy is described like the joy of the baby that is breastfed by his/her mother.  

Ø  Another way to describe this joy is in the following phrase “peace like a river.”  This peace image is very pretty, it is a peace, which fills everything like a river, that waters the plants and trees wherever it flows, and awakens the life that was sleeping.      

Ø  The result of all these experiences will be, that the servants will know the power of their Lord, which is a power that creates and recreates but never destroys. 

Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20 

Ø  R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
 sing praise to the glory of his name;
 proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
 sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
 his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
 through the river they passed on foot;
 therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
 what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
 my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy. 

Ø  The works described in the first reading, the works that give joy to the city and her inhabitants, to us are described in this psalm:  

o   “He transformed the Red Sea in dry land, and did the same with the Jordan River, for the people to cross without danger.  

o   These are the great works of liberation, accomplished by God for his people in danger, and  in need of help.

o   The psalm ends with this praise “Blessed be God who refused me not my prayer or his kindness!”

o   Blessed, that makes us think, that before there was a persistent prayer, “who refuse me not my prayer…”   

o   Let us look at our life, let us acknowledge in it the beautiful works that God has done, and thus be able to repeat sincerely “the works of the Lord are awesome!   

SECOND READING   Gal 6: 14-18 

v Paul want to glory in nothing else than in the cross of Christ. 

v He does not want to glory in anything, not even in what was revealed to him when he encountered the Lord on the way to Damascus, “eye has not seen, ear has not heard…” He is only interested in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

v On this cross the world is crucified for Paul, that is, it has no value, it is something not worthy to be looked at.      

v We perceive between lines the continuous discussion of Paul with the Jews about the value of circumcision. It is worthless, what is worth is to have discovered Christ and his cross,  to be a new creature a new creation.    

v I copy hereunder a fragment of  Bishop Helder Camara’s creed:   

I want to believe in the rights of every human being, in the open hand, in the power of the non-violent. 

I do not believe either in race, or in wealth, or in privileges, or in the established order.  

I want to believe that the whole world is my home  

I want to believe that the law is one for all, and that I am not free as long as there is a single man who is still slave.   

I do not believe that war and hunger are unavoidable and that peace is inaccessible […]  

I do not believe that man’s dream will be only a dream and that death will be the end […]  

I dare to believe in God’s dream: A new heaven and a new earth where peace will dwell. 

v I think that we do not need to add anything else to this description of the “new heaven and the new earth.” 

v Do we dare to work to make God’s dream a reality: the new heaven and the new earth?    

GOSPEL   LK 10:1-9

     Jesus chooses other disciples to send them. Before, he had sent the 12, those who lived with him. 

     He sends now these other disciples,  two by two, he does not send them alone, probably so that they might be able to share the mission with somebody else.   

     Jesus asks them to pray because the harvest is abundant, many are the persons in need to hear the good news that Jesus has brought to us. 

     Do we pray for this intention? And, if the Lord chooses my son, my daughter, my grandson or my granddaughter, do I encourage them? Or, on the contrary,  I do not  because I want to have grandchildren… ? 

     The Lord tells them the difficulties they will encounter “like sheep among wolfs.”  

     These words make us thing of persecution, scorn, disdain… when these things happen in my life, because we are all sent in a way or another.  How do I behave? Do I look for vengeance, or do I act like Jesus, who cured the servant to whom Peter had cut the ear? 

     He says to them, not to carry any money or any other thing. This makes us understand the absolute trust that the disciple needs to put in the divine providence of his/her Master, who takes care of us. 

     Afterwards, He adds some other recommendations, that seem to tell us that we should neither look for comfort nor to our own interests, but that we need to accept what is given to us, and also to accept all peoples without distinction  

     Only then we will be able to announce that the “Kingdom of God is near” because we will be the trustworthy heralds of the Kingdom.   

CLARETIAN CORNER

One day I was very much afflicted. During prayer I did nothing but cry, because my confessor put me under obedience to write clearly all the notes that his Divine Majesty has given me for the reform of the church, and in this affliction I was told by our Lord, “ what do you fear my daughter? You can write without any fear because this does not prove any merit of yours. This does not prove that you are very good because you have these visions and these communications that I gave you, but you have to judge the virtue by the acts of total abnegation of yourself and perfect obedience.  Venerable María Antonia París, foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 40.  

When I was still a small boy in elementary school, a distinguished visitor to the school asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I answered that I wanted to be a priest.  Accordingly, when I had successfully completed my elementary school, I was enrolled in the Latin class taught by a very holy and learned priest, Dr. John Riera. From him I learned and memorized nouns, verbs, genders, and a bit more, but as the class was discontinued I could no longer study and had to give it up .

Since my father manufactured thread and cloth, he set me to work in his factory . I obeyed without a word, a long face, or any sign of displeasure. I set to work as hard as I could and never spent an idle, half-hearted day. I did everything to the best of my ability so as not to displease my dear parents in the slightest, because I loved them very much and they loved me.Saint Anthony Mary Claret, founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 30-31

 BIBLIOGRAFÍA

CLARET, San Antonio María. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

 US Conference of Catholic Bishops, usccb.org

Credo de Helder Camara, officecatechese.qc.ca