XXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B – 2021   

Last Sunday’s readings   

Ø  said that it is not enough to listen to or to read the Law, we have to practice it. 

Ø  And it described also what is the true Law that God has given us:    

o   To love and to serve those in need    

o   To love one another as Jesus has commanded us    

o   To even love our enemies.   

This Sunday the liturgy offers readings that speak to us about  

Ø  Opening ears and mouth (EPHETAH = OPEN). To be free, to live and to proclaim the Law, the Good News of Jesus Christ.  

Ø  Allow God, Jesus, to liberate us from everything that prevents us to be free.  

FIRST READING: Is 35:4-7

      The section of the book of Isaiah from chapter 34:1 to 35:10 has the same style that the part of the book called Second Isaiah (Deutero-Isaiah), thus it seems that these chapters have been written by the same author, poet and cantor of Israel’s return to the promised land. 

      Tell those who fear, do not fear your God; he comes to liberate and save you. 

      This liberation is described in a poetic, beautiful and graphic language.    

o   The eyes of the blind will be opened, as if they had been closed, and that was the reason they could not see. 

o   The ears of the deaf will be opened too, thus the sound will be able to go through and thus  

o   The tongue of the mute will sing    

o   The lame will jump around as does the most agile animal the deer.   

o   What will the tongue, that was mute until then, sing? It will sing the wonders that God has made, makes and will make in the desert.    

o   Not only in the natural desert, but also in the desert of the human heart, that lives closed to the beauty of our God.   

o   On God’s path, everything will recover its original beauty, and even more.  

      This reading is in the liturgy for us, men, and women, from the XXI century.  

o   Regardless of our deafness, muteness, paralysis, regardless of what we are lacking, our God will transform it into freedom, into joy, if we allow him.    

o   Our job will be to allow him to make us able to walk on his ways.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM : Ps  146

This psalm is a hymn of praise to God creator and protector of the poor.     

 Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
 The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations.

R. Praise the Lord, my soul!

      The God of Jacob keeps his fidelity forever.

       He does justice to the oppressed, give food to the hungry, frees the captive and protects the foreigner.   

      He gives sight to the blind; he lifts up those who are bowed down.    

      He protects the widow and the orphan.   

      However, he removes from him the wicked who goes through crooked ways.  

      Here we found the same theme as in the first reading; our God is not only Creator and Liberator, but King as well.  

GOSPEL Mark 7:7.31-37

ü  Jesus leaves the region of Tyre goes through  Sidon toward Galilee, and from there to the Decapolis

The Decapolis = Ten cities: [deka=ten and polis=city] was formed by a group of cities in the Eastern border between the Roman Empire, Judea and Syria. They did not constitute a unity among themselves, but they were considered together for their language, culture, geographical and political situation.  All of them are situated now in what are Jordan, Syria, and Israel.   

ü  Jesus is ministering in these pagan cities.     

ü  He adapts himself to the traditions and beliefs of the inhabitants of the region. They need the miracle worker to touch the place that hurts or to touch the sick person, and that he be alone with the one that need to be healed.  

ü  Jesus answering to this need of the people of the region, takes the man apart from the crowd, puts his fingers in the ears of the man, and touches his tongue with his saliva. There was a common belief that the saliva had medicinal properties.  

ü  Afterwards he pronounces the Word “EPHPHATHA” BE OPENED.”

ü  And immediately the man could hear and speak.    

ü  Jesus gives them the order not to say anything about that. We are again confronted with Mark’s “messianic secret.” 

ü  This secret is now necessary because this miracle cannot be understood, in due form, until after the resurrection of Jesus. 

ü  The Church has introduced at the end of the celebration of the sacrament of baptism an optional rite, in which the celebrant says “EPHPHAHA” BE OPENED!

ü  Why? To listen to the Word and to proclaim it.  

SECOND READING . James  2:1-5

«  Brethren do not show any preferences or distinctions or discrimination, if you have accepted the faith in Christ Jesus. 

«  Because if, someone comes to your assembly well dressed and wearing rings, while another comes with dirty and old clothes. If you believe in Christ, you cannot treat them differently. 

«  You cannot give to the rich a place of honor and forget about the poor. 

«  Is it not this, what you have done, says James? You have allowed yourselves to judge between those two persons.  

«  Listen and reflect my dear brethren, does not God choose the poor of this world to make them rich in faith and heirs of his Kingdom, Kingdom promised to those who love him?   

«  This reflection of James challenges us Catholic Christians from the XXI century, on our behavior and on our heart.  

«  We, like those members of the community of Jerusalem, make differences, but we do not bend over those that God has bend himself over, but we bend ourselves toward our selfishness and our sins.   

«  Let us not forget that:   

o   We have all been created by the same God   

o   All redeemed, by the same Christ Jesus.    

o   All brethren, by creation and by redemption.  

o   All called to the Church by the same baptism and sealed by the same Spirit.   

o   All sent to the same mission: to proclaim the Good News of Salvation.   

o   Each one of us according to his/her way of life must accomplish the mission of the followers of Jesus, of the Church. The responsibilities in the Church are services and not honors, for which they had to treat us differently, better than the rest.   

  J.M.J

 

 M. Antonia París de S. Pedro

 

Madrid, March 20 1868

 

My dear Mother in J.C., I have received your letter from the 10th of the present month, and after reading it I say that I feel as the sister nurse does; but what can we do? God has arranged it so, for our greatest good, let his most holy will be done. 

I am very glad that, with what Rev. Dionisio says, the construction works can continue. Everything will come at its proper time. Experience has taught me that in God’s works, we need much patience, interior peace, humility, resignation and conformity with God’s will.    

We are in Lent, time to think more and more in the Lord’s Passion, for this reason I have composed this holy card, so that the girls of the schools and the other Christian persons could remember Jesus every hour.  

I have delivered the letter to the Archbishop of Cuba and we have spoken about the Constitutions. Have trust in the Lord. My kind regards to all.                                                                 

 Antonio María Archbishop of Trajanópolis

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus.  Convivium Press 2011.

RAVASSI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras. Año B. Bogotá Colombia 2005

RR. DE MARÍA INMACULADA MISIONERAS CLARETIANAS, Cartas de los Orígenes  (Letters from the Origins), 2009.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.

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