15th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C - 2019  

Ø  The readings on the two last Sundays were about calling and sending. 

Ø  Today the Lord will teach one of his best and more beautiful lessons “who is my neighbor?”   

FIRST READING   Deut 30:10-14

ü  Moses invites the people to turn back to the Lord, to listen and to obey his voice.   

ü  The commandments or the words of love pronounced by the Lord to his people are  

o   Neither too difficult that we cannot understand them  

o   Nor beyond our own reach that we cannot fulfill them.   

ü  The commandments, the words of love, the voice of God is within each one of us.   

ü  And, through them the Lord teaches us to become more and more human. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM - Salmo 69, 14 y 17. 30-31. 33-34. 36ab y 37

R.  Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
I pray to you, O LORD,
 for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness, answer me
 with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness:
 in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
I am afflicted and in pain;
 let your saving help, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God in song,
 and I will glorify him with thanksgiving.
Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
 you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
 and his own who are in bonds he spurns not."
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live.
For God will save Zion
 and rebuild the cities of Judah.
The descendants of his servants shall inherit it,
 and those who love his name shall inhabit it.
R. Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live

ü  The refrain is like a background music that invites us to turn back to the Lord, in order to live   

ü  The Lord is good, tender, generous, he hears all those who are afflicted in some way

ü  The whole psalm is an invitation to trust lovingly in the Lord our God.

SECOND READING  . Col  1:15-20

§  The biblical scholars do not agree on the origin and author of this letter  

§  Some looking at the vocabulary, the theology of the author and from the context of the letter thing that it was written by Paul towards the end of the 50’s.    

§  Others, for almost the same reason think that it had been written by a disciple of Paul, in this case the date might be around the year 80.  

§  The Christological hymn, that we will read is a work of art or a great beauty  

§  He is the visible image of the Father   

§  The first to be raised from the dead 

§  He is the head of the Church.    

§  By his blood shed on the cross he has reconciled us.   

§  This reconciliation, this peace reaches all the beings, the whole creation.  

GOSPEL – Lk 10:25-37

     A teacher of the law wants to know which one is the greatest or most important commandment 

     Luke explains that he makes the question to put Jesus to the test.  

     Jesus turns the question on him, what do you read in the Law?   

     The teacher recites the first commandment “you shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself” 

     Good answer, but the teachers wants to show that he is righteous but does not know 

     And, who is my neighbor?   

     Jesus tells him, tells us one of the most beautiful parables, to explain, “who is my neighbor?”   

     A man had been wounded and robbed and left half dead on the road.   

     Jesus uses a great deal of irony in this parable   

     By the same road, two other persons, men, were coming down. These two men were professionals of religion; probably they knew all the laws included the laws of hospitality.  

     The first sees and moves to the other side of the road, the second does the same. Why? How sad if it is to arrive on time to the temple to be able to glorify God, because the glory of God is the man alive.  

     Now, a third man comes, an outcast because he is a foreigner and thus he is considered to be dangerous, maybe even criminal, or thief.   However, this man does neither harm nor robe anyone. 

     He is a Samaritan, a semi-pagan for the Jews. This man sees and acts. He cleans and puts oil in the wounds of the man on the road,  he puts him on his donkey and takes him to the inn.   

     He stays with him that night to take care of him, and the following morning he gives money to the innkeeper asking him to take care of the wounded man.  

     Who is my neighbor of the man wounded on the road?  We know the answer   

     I think that this parable speaks clearly to us in our present political and social situation. It teaches us to trust and do not condemn the foreigner because he or she is a foreigner, someone different from us, of a different color, nationality, status, belief, political association, different customs, language….. 

     We are invited to have an open heart where any human being may be welcome,,may find shelter, love…     “Let us go and do likewise”. 

CLARETIAN CORNER

 In this year, 1854, our Lord gave me a continuous communication with his Divine Majesty that it seems that a creature would not be able to live in this miserable life with such intimate communication with God. I do not know if I would be able to explain how it was. It seems  that our Lord had my soul inside in the most sacred place of his heart, and there he was communicating his eternal dispositions, with so much grace and love, like a best friend treats his equal; and if these two friends have not seen each other for so long, they  have many things to tell each other; and they need time to talk alone. It seems that our Lord would look for hidden moments to talk to my soul; and enjoy with it in intimate communication. I do not know if I am saying nonsense, but there is nothing that can compare with how our Lord treated my soul with such love and familiarity during that time. What I saw especially in the divine secret was the state of the church, and the ways and means determined by the Blessed Trinity in order that the Divine commandments be followed faithfully. This is what took much of attention of our Lord; he would present it to me now in this way, then in another, but always was the same. This communication our Lord did it with much gentleness and speed that in spite that my soul was so much inside the Divine secret, that in my understanding I did not get out of it, I never understood why our Lord communicated those thing to me, until at the end of the year our Lord deigned to give me the following vision. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 48.  

Mi padre me ocupó en todas las clases de labores que hay en una fábrica completa de hilados y tejidos, y por una larga temporada me puso juntamente con otro joven a dar la última mano a las labores que hacían los demás. Cuando teníamos que corregir a alguno, a mí me daba mucha pena y, sin embargo, lo hacía, pero antes observaba si había en aquella labor alguna cosa que estuviese bien, y por allí empezaba haciendo el elogio de aquello, diciendo que aquello estaba muy bien sólo que tenía este y este defecto, que, corregidos aquellos defectillos, sería una labor perfecta.

My father set me to work on every job available in his well-equipped little thread and textile factory. For a long time I and another young man were in charge of putting the finishing touches on the work of everyone else in the shop. Whenever we had to correct anyone, it upset me a great deal; yet I did my duty. I always tried to find something good to say about the piece of finished work. I would praise its good points, saying that this or that about it was very good but that it had such and such a defect and if these little defects were corrected, it would really be a perfect job.

I didn't know why I did things this way, but in time I came to see that it was the result of a special grace of kindness that the Lord had granted me. This is why the workers always took correction from me and mended their ways. My friend, however, who was a better worker than I but lacked this gift of kindness, always got upset when he had to correct anybody. He would scold the workers harshly and they would get angry, and often they wouldn't know what it was they were supposed to correct. I learned from this that everyone, even the rudest people, should be treated kindly and affably and that much more may be gained by kindness than by harshness and irritability. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 33-34.

 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

 US Conference of Catholic Bishops, usccb.org

 SAGRADA BIBLIA, Versión oficial de la Conferencia episcopal española.

Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. La Casa de la Biblia.