30^th  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  – CYCLE C – 2019

v We continue our meditation on prayer as we have done the last two Sundays. 

v Today we will reflect on the need to ask for forgiveness, to recognize that we are sinners.  

v Asking for forgiveness is a condition to begin our celebration of the Eucharist and also our personal prayer. 

THE BOOK OF SIRACH

v This book is called also Ecclesiasticus, and it has been   used over the centuries in the liturgical celebrations of the Church. 

v It is the only book of the Old Testament of which we know the author, place,  date of its composition and of its translation from Hebrew into Greek, because all this information is found in the book itself.

v It was written around 132 before Christ. By that time Israel was dominated by the Hellenistic Culture which had caused   in the young generations the loss of Israel’s  tradition and   faith.

v Hellenistic culture is the same as Greek culture. 

v The author wants to help his Jewish brothers and sisters, old and young,  to recover the meaning of their faith 

v This book belongs to the Wisdom Books; it is accepted as revealed by the Catholic Church, but not so either by the People of Israel or the Protestant Churches. For this reason it is called a deutero-canonical book, this means a book belonging to the second lists of the books in the Bible. The books belonging to the first list are called canonical books and are accepted by the three groups.

FIRST READING Sir 35,12-14. 16-18

Ø  The Lord, our God does not have preferences, he treats all of us equally. 

Ø  If he has any preferences is toward the little, the despised, the discriminated against.  

Ø  And thus God is not deaf 

o   To the cry of the orphan  

o   Or when the widow pours out her complains before Him.   

Ø  And the author adds something else  

o   God hears those who serve Him   

o   Their prayers reach to heaven     

Ø  The author says “The Lord will not delay”  

Ø  And, what happens when we experience that God does not answer right away?  

Ø  He is the only one who can give us the answer to this question in our life.   

Ø  Let us talk intimately with Him while we pray silently and lovingly.   

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23

R. (7a) The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.

·       After listening to the first reading the whole assembly will repeat singing “The Lord hears the cry of the poor”

·       Certainly the Lord is not far, He is so near that he hears the cry of the poor, of the afflicted, of anyone who suffers from  any  of the many poverties in  our world.  

·       On reading this psalm it comes to my mind the words of the Lord to Moses in the Book of Exodus: I have seen … I have heard…. their suffering…. I come to liberate them.   

·       God is always the same, if He has acted like this with that people of slaves, He will do the same today. This is the hope we have, no matter what our situation of oppression, suffering, humiliation is  He will come and liberate us at the opportune moment, without delay.  

GOSPEL LUKE  18: 9-14 

     Last Sunday we read the first verses of chapter 18 that were about persevering in  prayer

     Today, again, Luke speaks to us about prayer by means of a parable. 

     Like all the parables of Jesus, today's parable is short and to the point. It gives to us a message that upsets our way to look at reality, to look at the persons around us. 

     Two men went to the temple to pray, let us see what happens in their  prayer. 

     Jesus, like a true artist, with two brushstrokes paints for us a picture worth more than a thousand words or theological explanations. 

     One of these men, was a Pharisee, that is, he belonged to the holiest group, the group of those who were faithful to the Law, a model of behavior for all who saw them.

     He tells God, how good he himself is, how he is very different from all the other men who are thieves, liars, evildoers, like that other man who is at the back of the temple praying to God.  

     He gives to God a list of his good works, maybe God does not know them, or has forgotten about them. 

     The other side of the picture shows to us the other man, the tax collector, the worst group that could exist in Israel, because that man had become rich with the money he stole from his own people, he was at the service of the oppressor of his people, the Roman Empire. 

     This man does not have anything to offer, but his extreme poverty, his sins which he acknowledges before God. He asks for forgiveness, for purification, for acceptance even not having anything to offer. 

     With a great surprise for us and for the people that were listening to Jesus, he says to us that of these two men the one who went home justified was the tax collector. Why? 

     Probably because he really talked to God, he presented himself before God as he was, he was truthful, he accepted that he had nothing to offer except his sins. And we know that God has a very especial inclination toward the poor and needy. His love cannot resist the cry of the poor.

     On the contrary, the Pharisee did not speak to God, he spoke to himself, he made of himself and idol, thus he did not pray and thus he did not get anything from God, because he did not ask for anything, because he was not poor but rich and sinless. 

     This parable, so beautiful and simple, has to question us, how is our prayer, to whom do we talk to God or to an idol, the idol of our own person.  

     Let us ask ourselves, how do I see myself before God and before myself? 

     Our happiness is found in the truth, in the acceptance of who we are, blessed may we be if we acknowledge that we are poor and needy, our Father will bend over us and lift us up to himself like a father does with his child who has fallen.

SECOND READING  2 Tm 4:6-8.16-18

§  This fragment of the letter to Timothy has two parts. In the first part Paul looks back at his life, and feels as he had reached or is about to reach his goal.   

§  In the second part he speaks with sadness about how all abandoned him at his trial 

o   He asks the Lord to forgive those who abandoned him, like Jesus on the cross “Father forgive them… or Stephen when he was stoned to death “Lord do not count this sin…”   

o   Then, as if he were talking to himself, he realizes that the Lord has been with him all the time and, that He has given him the strength to proclaim Him to the gentiles.   

o   The Lord protects him and will take him to his kingdom.   

§ 

He finishes this part of his letter saying “To Him glory for all ages. Amen.” 

CLARETIAN CORNER 

I was not contented at all with this response, rather I complained to my confessor for not having forced him to answer if I would profess or not because only with that, would I be tranquil since I was not eager to go or to remain, even though not to make my profession was tearing my soul because I had been ardently desiring it not only from my ten years of novitiate but since I had the use of reason. But, as soon as this saint would have said that to leave the convent could be for the glory of God (which was to divide my soul) I would have conformed myself to God’s will for, since God our Lord made me understand the holiness of that soul and the gifts of grace entrusted to him by his divine majesty, my confidence in him was so great that I seemed to hear God’s voice through his. But our Lord was not pleased to give this consolation: he preferred me to drink the chalice up to the last drop. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 57.

      Of all the things I have studied or worked at during my life, I have understood none better than manufacturing. Apropos of this, in the firm I worked for, there were catalogs of patterns shown at the yearly displays in Paris and London, and they were kept up-to-date to be in step with the latest fashions. God gave me such a ready wit in this that all I have to do was analyze any pattern and in short order a copy would emerge from the loom exact to the last detail, or even with improvements if my employer so desired. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 58.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography.

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según las Escrituras, Año C.

The Catholic Study Bible -New American Bible.

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