FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – C - 2022

ü  Jesus is still in the Synagogue of Nazareth, his native town.   

ü  The admiration will turn into rage

ü  Probably they think that nothing good can come from the mouth of a simple carpenter  

THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

Ø  Jeremiah had a profound intimacy with the Lord, to whom he talks like a friend, he complains, he curses himself, he opens completely his hurting heart to the Lord and God whom he loves with his whole heart.   

Ø  We could say many things about this book that bears his name, but here I will give only some explanations on the book’s composition, which may surprise us.

Ø  The prophetic books of the Old Testament are written in poetry, on the contrary most of the book of Jeremiah is written in prose. The autor combines also diverse literary styles

Ø  Another observation that we can make of this book is the disorder of the material that makes up the book, it does not follow a clear chronological line.

Ø  Although it is true that between the beginning - vocation of the prophet - and the end - disappearance of Jeremiah from history, on the way to Egypt, there is a biographical continuation.

Ø  All this suggests that the text has undergone different corrections, arrangements, changes, enlargements, and mutilations. The drafters endeavored to systematize the text as much as possible.  Whatever happened this book is very beautiful, all of us can understand and feel with the prophet in his love and his complaints to the God for whom he gave his life and changed his plans as he himself tells us. [1]

FIRST READING – Jer 1, 4-5. 17-19.

v  Jeremiah has received a call from the Lord, as we read in the previous verses, in this call God reveals him how he was present in his life when he was formed in his mother’s womb. 

v  This revelation fills Jeremiah of enthusiasm; a profound intimate relationship of friendship between God and the prophet begins. 

v  Now God reveals to Jeremiah what his mission will be and why has he, God, chosen him. First, to be the prophet of the nations, what does that entail? 

o   To announce, to say to those he will be sent what the Lord will tell him. God had already touched his mouth and put in it his own words.  

o   And God adds, the reason why he does not have to be afraid, because it is God who makes it a fortified city, iron column, bronze door, all realities that seem insurmountable, indestructible.

o   This will be Jeremiah, the shy man who will always be afraid but who out of love for his God and his people will transmit the truth that God will communicate to him. His life will be spent for his God and for his people, his two loves.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM                                                                       Ps 70, 1-2. 3-4a. 5-6ab. 15ab y 17

R. I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
            let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;
            incline your ear to me, and save me.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Be my rock of refuge,
            a stronghold to give me safety,
            for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
For you are my hope, O Lord;
            my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
            from my mother’s womb you are my strength.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
            day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
            and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
R. I will sing of your salvation.

§  As we read this psalm, we seem to hear Jeremiah's voice in prayer to his God.

o   He asks for help, protection; his mission es dangerous, his life is in danger  

o   God had told him when he sent him, that he would make of him a fortified city, iron column, bronze door. The author of the psalm asks God to be for him this fortified city….  

o   As if he wanted to remind God what God himself told him, that he knew him and protected him as he was creating him in his mother’s womb.   

o   His whole life was a praise, a prayer to his God and obedience to the mission, that his God, loved more than anything else even his life, had given him when he called him. 

GOSPEL OF LUKE

v Luke’s Gospel is without doubt the most attractive. It is the first one we have to read to discover with joy Jesus, the Savior sent by God “to seek and save what had been lost.”  

v We do not know for sure the name of the author. It is traditionally attributed to a Christian physician, Paul's companion, named Luke.

v It has been written outside Palestine, probably in Rome, between the 80s and 90s.

v The author addresses readers of Greek culture, this gospel does not seem intended for a clearly identifiable community.

v  The book is dedicated to a Christian named Theophilus, to spread it among Christians converted from paganism [2] 

GOSPEL -  LUKE 4:21-30.

                  Jesus after reading the passage from Isaiah "the Spirit of God is upon me; he has sent me..." says to the assembly of his people, "Today this prophecy is fulfilled in your presence."

      The reaction is interesting, everyone is amazed, perhaps we would say surprised by the words so wise, so beautiful that came out of the mouth of that young carpenter of their town. All of them know him, some even before he was born, they know the story of his mother who conceived him before marrying Joseph. Anyway, they knew he couldn't know everything he knew."

      Jesus, as if reading their thoughts, reminds them of the saying "doctor heal yourself" do here the miracles you have done elsewhere.

      In response, he reminds them of the story of the pagan widow to whom Elijah was sent to favor her in her sufferings; also, the healing of the Syrian general Naaman whom Elisha cured of leprosy. Neither of these two prophets was sent to the people of Israel except to pagan places.

      Here their anger reached the height, how come he told them that they were worse than the pagans? Didn't God send him to his people like he didn't send the prophets to the people of Israel...?

      So much was their anger that they wanted to kill him. Luke ends the gospel with this phrase, "But he, passing through their midst, walked away from there.

v "Let us meditate on this reading together with the first; the liturgists have put them together because they find in them the same theme, that is, they explain one another.

v  Am I shocked when someone I consider "less educated than I" proves me with his/her actions that I am wrong? 

SECOND READING                                                                                                                  1 Cor 12: 31–13, 13

      We continue with the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians. Today we have the last part of chapter 12 and the first of chapter 13.    

·        Last Sunday Paul speaking of the Church compared it to the human body that has many different members, but all form only one body.  

·        Today Paul will speak about love, the motor that moves this body.   

·        Paul tells us that, even if I had the gift of prophecy, the knowledge of all tongues, the willingness to give everything I have to the poor and the courage to let myself be burned if I have no love all this is worthless, only love makes our life valuable.

·        Paul gives us a list of all that love does and can do. He begins saying that love is understanding, helpful and unenvious...  

·        Love remains forever, everything else as sublime, desirable or necessary it might be, will pass away, but love will endure.    

·        Let us remember that God is love, so, our love that participates in his, because he has given it to us, will also endure forever.

·        In the last paragraph Paul tells us as our knowledge, our love is imperfect like that of a child because it needs to grow and develop. There are three virtues, faith, hope and love, and only love will  last into eternity.  

·        Faith is not needed when we see, hope is not needed when we possess what we desired, on the contrary love is needed to be like God.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

 MOTHER FOUNDRESS

          7.  “ My Lord and my God, if you do not tell me in what religious order you want me to enter so as to comply with your      command, I do not know how this will be don.” Because by all means I wanted to be a religious. “My God, perhaps do you want something new?” (I did not know what I was asking)  I asked this question by Divine inspiration because it please hid Divine Majesty to be asked with simplicity, and if this seemed an  indiscreet question, because in God there is nothing impossible, our Lord did not take it wrong, because it was not asked our of curiosity, much less of mistrust in the infinite power of God,  (Our Lord has give this readiness, that as soon as I know the will of God, there is nothing difficult to me, blessed be God for his goodness. Thus, our Lord told me with much pleasure: “Yes, my daughter, I want a new order, but not new in doctrine but new in practice.” And here (at this moment) our Lord gave me the traits of the whole order and told me that I should be called: “APOSTLES of JESUS CHRIST IN IMITATION of THE BLESSED VIRGYN MARY” 

            8. He put again before me all the religious orders and made me see the deplorable state of the universal church and told me with heartfelt words that the evils of this holy church had no other remedy that the observance of his most holy law. 

FATHER FOUNDER  

      22. I was barely six when my parents sent me to school. My first schoolmaster was a very active and religious man, Mr. Anthony Pascual. He never punished or upbraided me, but I was careful not to give him any cause for doing so. I was always punctual, always attended classes, and always prepared my lessons carefully.

      23.   I learned the catechism so well that whenever I was asked to I could recite it from beginning to end without a mistake. Three of the other boys learned it as well as I had, and the teacher presented us to the pastor, Dr. Joseph Amigo. This good man had the four of us recite the whole catechism on two consecutive Sunday nights. We did it without a single mistake before all the people in the church. As a reward he gave each of us a holy card, which we have treasured ever since.

      24.   When I had mastered the catechism, I was given Pinton's Compendium of Sacred History  to read, and between my reading and the teacher's explanations, the work was so deeply fixed in my memory that I could repeat it and discuss it with ease and without getting confused or flustered. 

 

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[1] CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPANOLA – Sagrada Biblia – BAC., p. 1279-1280.

[2] PAGOLA, José Antonio, sj. EL CAMINO ABIERTO POR JESÚS-  3 Lucas. 2012. p. 9.

[3] MOTHER FOUNDRESS,  MARIA ANTONIA PARIS. Autobiography 7-8

[4]  Pascual received his bachelor's degree from the University of Cervera and was Anthony's teacher throughout his elementary schooling. (Cf. par. 45.)

[5]  Toward the end of his life the Saint was still recommending this work to the Spanish bishops assembled in Rome for Vatican I as a suitable text for minor seminarians. (Cf. Writings, p. 504.)

[6] FATHER FOUNDER. SAINT ANTHONY MARY CLARET – Autobiography 23-25.