31 - SUNDAY IN ORDINARY
TIME – B – 2021
Ø Last
Sunday the readings invited us to reflect on the need of faith, as a loving
adherence to the will of God, and as the longing to see the face of God, as the
blind man said to Jesus.
Ø Today we are reminded of the need to keep, during our entire life, the commandments of the Lord our God.
BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY
Ø The book of Deuteronomy is placed at the end of the
Pentateuch and it is the summary of the first four books of the Pentateuch and
the prologue to the Historical Books.
Ø Some
scholars consider that this book should not be included in the Pentateuch and
should be part of the Historical books, since it shares with them the same
Deuteronomist theology.
Ø Other
scholars, on the contrary, believe that it should be part of the Pentateuch, as
the book of Joshua should be as well.
Ø The
Deuteronomy develops its own
spirituality and a theology which have had a decisive influence on the
faith of Israel, which could be summarized as follows:
Obedience to
the Lord brings prosperity; disobedience brings devastation and death.
FIRST
READING Dt 6,2-6
Ø When
Israel is about to enter into the land God promised to his ancestors, Moses
speaks to the people and tells them to keep the commandments all the days of
their live.
Ø Commandments,
which Moses enjoins on the people; if they keep them they will have a long
life. For the people of the Old Testament, “long life” was a sign of God’s
blessing and thus of a just life.
Ø The
fidelity to the law of the Lord goes together with “to receive and to keep the
land from which flows milk and honey” that is the land of abundance.
Ø Only
in this way could Israel make sense of the Babylonian exile. According to the
Deuteronomist theology, when Israel behaves well it prospers and things go
well; but when Israel is unfaithful, it suffers defeats, exiles and all sorts
of calamities.
Ø Many
centuries will have to pass until Israel questions the equation: prosperity=
just life, and realizes that it is not so easy to explain the sufferings and
difficulties in life. They belong to the mystery of life, the mystery of God,
and mystery of man.
Ø Moses
concludes with these words addressed to the people: “Listen Israel, love the
Lord your God with all your being. “ These
words are also for us Christians from the XXI century, Listen… truly love your
God more than anybody or anything else. Maybe we should say: be in love with
Jesus, your Lord and Savior.
RESPONSORIAL
PSALM. Ps 18
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my
stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love
you, Lord, my strength.
Ø The
author of the psalm says that God is our strength, protector, liberator,
refuge, shield, hope
Ø Is
this our experience of God?
Ø In
the third stanza, we bless the Lord for all he does for us.
GOSPEL Mc 12: 28-34
Ø
Following the theme of the first reading, the Gospel presents a
scribe who wants to know from Jesus, which one is the first commandment.
Ø
Jesus tells him what Is written in the Deuteronomy, and which
the scribe knows by heart after repeating it so many times in his life,
Ø
When he hears Jesus saying that the first is to love God above
all, he is very happy.
Ø
Jesus adds that there is a second commandment, which is as
important as the first; it is to love our neighbor.
Ø
There is no commandment above this two.
Ø
Jesus summarizes for the scribe all the commandments in these
two: the first three that are about God, and the other seven, which are about
our neighbor.
Ø
The scribe says to Jesus that to fulfill these two commandments
is more that any holocaust or sacrifice.
Ø
Jesus says to the scribe: “You are not far from the kingdom of
God.”
Ø
Let us often reflect on these words of Jesus about the law, let
us ask ourselves if it is true that the love of God and the love of neighbor
govern our life.
SECOND READING Heb
7:23-28
Ø Jesus since he remains forever can always
intercede for us.
Ø The author of the letter says “he is always able to save those who
approach God through him”
Ø Jesus does not need to offer constantly
sacrifices as other priests do; he only offered one sacrifice once and for all,
the sacrifice of his life.
Ø These words fill us with trust and invite us
to rest peacefully in God’s arms, like the baby sleeps calm in the arms of his
or her parent.
CLARETIAN
CORNER
LETTER OF ANTHONY MARY CLARET
AND MARÍA ANTONIA PARÍS
J.M.J
To Mother María Antonia
Rome, January 1st 1870
My dear Mother in
J. C.: I have received your letter of the 18th of the last month and year; I
read it and handed over to Bishop Caixal the letter that was for him; we have
received the Rules, I have read them and so did he. We are doing the
appropriate diligences to obtain the approval we desire so much.
You
will probably ask me, what is the cause for not obtaining the approval? I do not have time to write; however, I will
do it to get you out of grieve. The
Church puts all possible difficulties to prevent so many different religious orders.
She wants , yes, that there are Religious men and women but she does not want
new religious orders; in some occasions she has clearly forbidden it: Innocent
III and the Lateran Council banned it;
so it is that when St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers they did not
accept the Rules he presented, they told
him to present the Rules of one of the ancient Institutes, and he took the
Rules of St. Augustine, and on these he arranged his Constitutions with which
they are governed today; so did the Jeronimos, the Mercedaries …
The Church did so; and to me it seems good,
because I know the inclination of humankind to novelty. (this letter will continue next week)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FALEY, Roland J.
From Genesis to Apocalypse, Paulist Press 2005.
PAGOLA, José A. Following
in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditation on the Gospels of Year B. Convivium,
Bogotá 2011.
Ravassi, Gianfranco. Según las
Escrituras- Año B. San Pablo Bogotá
2005.
RR. of Mary Immaculate Claretian
Missionary Sisters, Letters of the Origins. Madrid 1009.
Schokel, Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.