Monday, February 28, 2022

 

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT -  C - 2022

INTRODUCTION

 

*      In his Gospel Luke tells us that Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, the holy city.  

*      Have we begun our Lenten journey with the same enthusiasm, ready to give our life to our Master for the good of our brothers and sisters?      

*      Let us see what the Lord has to say to us in the readings for this Sunday 

*      Since Lent is one of the special seasons of the Church’s liturgy, the three readings have a common theme. 

*      I have read the commentary, made by Gianfranco Ravassi, and I like the way he looks at them. For him the three readings speak of the profession of faith, made in different ways.    

*      I have decided to use this point of view to make my own commentary. 

 

FIRST READING Dt 26: 4-10.

 

Ø  In  the Hebrew Bible the Book of Deuteronomy  is called “These are the words…” because the book begins with this phrase.     

Ø  In the Greek translation it has been given the name Deuteronomy = second law. 

Ø  The book is completely orientated to the words that Moses addresses to his people on the threshold of the promise land. 

Ø  These words of Moses are written in different literary genres: narrations, laws, counsels, and poetry having the LAW as a backdrop. 

Ø  Chapter 26 is about the first fruits offered to God.  

Ø  Moses tells his people that whenever they go before the Lord to offer the first fruits of their crops, they will say: My father was a wandering Aramean…  

Ø  These are the first words of Israel’s profession of faith.   

o   It is the confession of their own origin wandering Aramean…They went down to Egypt and established themselves there, they increased in numbers.    

o   Therefore, to be so numerous they were oppressed by the Egyptians who made them suffer   

o   They cried out to their God, and he listened to them, taking them from the land of slavery.  

o   He gave them freedom, led them with strong hand, and outstretch arm to the land where they were.  

Ø  With these words, the faithful Israelite confesses that God is great, that God listens to the cry of the suffering and of the poor, and that God led them to the Land.   

Ø  He confesses that God is a God who is near, who journeys with us, who guides us. 

Ø  Together with the profession of faith, he will offer the first fruits of his crop. He is no more a wandering Aramean, now he is an Israelite who inhabits the land; he is not a nomad anymore. He does not go wandering with his animals, but he has now settled in the Land, and thus offers the first fruits.  

Ø  What a beautiful profession of faith, short and at the same time so respectful, so full of love and trust in the Lord his God.    

Ø  What good and beautiful works has God done for you, for us, for the whole human race?   

 

SECOND READING   Rm 10:8-13

 

«  Paul invites the members of his community to believe in Jesus Christ, to profess with the mouth, and to believe with the heart that Jesus is the Lord. 

«  The Israelite was invited to profess his faith in the Almighty God, YHWH, who had freed them from slavery. 

«  Paul invites his community to profess their faith in Jesus, as Lord and God, who, giving up his life on the cross has liberated us from the greatest slavery, sin. 

«  To profess this faith, we do not need to be descendants of the wandering Aramean, but all of us without distinction of race, color, nationality, genre we are invited to make this profession of faith in Jesus dead and risen for the liberation of all. 

 

 GOSPEL  Lk 4:1-13

 

*      Luke introduces Jesus to us, the Jesus whom Paul invites us to believe in, the Jesus who is tempted before beginning his mission. Mission that will lead him to the cross and resurrection, and that will be our salvation. 

*      After his baptism, Jesus goes to the desert guided by the Spirit.    The desert, which is the place of   temptation, solitude, struggle, and encounter face to face with God and with himself.

*      Jesus, after his baptism in the Jordan River, hears the voice of the Father saying: You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.   

*      Now he is alone reflecting and meditating on the mission that the Father has for him, he is afraid like all of us when we think that the mission, God has for us, will be difficult, and therefore we will suffer rejection and scorn. 

*      Surely that the temptations that the evangelists narrate are a composition of the temptations he suffered during his lifetime. 

*      The temptations as Luke describes them will always begin with the words or the thought: If you are the son of God. As if the temptation was oriented toward the nature, of whom Jesus is.   

o   I do not believe that the temptation of the bread is only about bread, or food, but it is the temptation to use his power for his own benefit not for the service of others. Is it not one of our strongest temptations, to put ourselves before everybody else?   

o   Luke changes the order of the temptations and puts as the second temptation the one about the kingdoms of the world.  It is the temptation to do what we are called to do but in our own way, in an easy way. Why should Jesus have to suffer humiliation, scorn, rejection, and death to follow the will of the Father, if he can do it in another way more reasonable?   

o   For Luke the last temptation is the most dangerous, it happens in the Temple of Jerusalem. The greatest temptation happens in the city of Jerusalem.   This is the temptation to provoke God, to manipulate God so that he will do what we want, we will not do his will, but he will do our will.  It is the temptation of making an idol of the true God.   

o   Through all these temptations, Jesus uses the words from Scripture to defeat the evil spirit.

o    The answer of Jesus to the temptations is his profession of faith, trust, surrendering in the hands of God, his Abba, whom he loves unconditionally.   

CLARETIAN CORNER

 MOTHER FOUNDRESS 

One night while praying and in bitter tears, pleading to our Lord that by the merits of His Passion and death to have mercy on the necessities of His church which at that time were many, our Lord told me and pointing at Mgr. Claret as if I saw him between our Lord and me.” This, my daughter, is the apostolic person whom you have asked me for so many years and with so many tears”.

His Divine Majesty showed me the grace He poured on that holy soul for the preaching of the gospel, and our Lord told me that there was no other remedy for the peace of the church. I did not know that person. Only a few days before I heard that a   certain chaplain by the name of Monsen Claret began preaching with much zeal about the honor due to God and the salvation of souls. It seems to me that have been at least eleven or twelve years ago.[1] 

FATHER FOUNDER 

When I was still a small boy in elementary school, a distinguished visitor to the school asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I answered that I wanted to be a priest  Accordingly, when I had successfully completed my elementary school, I was enrolled in the Latin class taught by a very holy and learned priest, Dr. John Riera. From him I learned and memorized nouns, verbs, genders, and a bit more, but as the class was discontinued I could no longer study and had to give it up

Since my father manufactured thread and cloth, he set me to work in his factory . I obeyed without a word, a long face, or any sign of displeasure. I set to work as hard as I could and never spent an idle, half-hearted day. I did everything to the best of my ability so as not to displease my dear parents in the slightest, because I loved them very much and they loved me.[2] 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography.

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras – Ciclo C. San Pablo 2006. 

SCHÖKEL , Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPANOLA. Sagrada Biblia, Versión Oficial, 2012.


[1] PARIS, Ma. Antonia. Autobiogtaphy. 19. 

[2] CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiography, 30-31.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   – C – 2022

Ø  This Sunday’s readings help us to reflect on our words and to take care of them, since they are the reflection of our inner life. 

Ø  Jesus invites us not to judge.  

BOOK OF BEN SIRACH  

v  It is the only book of the Old Testament that has the signature of its author   (50,27)

v  It was written originally in Hebrew, by the master of wisdom Jesus Ben Sirach. 

v  Around the year 180 a.C. in Jerusalem.  

v  Ben Sirach studied what we now call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures: The Law, the Prophets and the other Writings of his ancestors.    

v  He wrote for the young people of the rich families of Jerusalem   

v  He wanted to transmit the religious heritage of Israel to the new generations.  

v  He knew how to instill in the young people the values of their traditions and above all, his unconditional faith in God.  

v  His grand-child translated the book into Greek, language that was more familiar to the new generations ( 132-117 B.C)

v  This book was excluded from the canon of the books accepted as revealed by the Jewish community, because they believed it had been written originally in Greek. 

v  Thus, also excluded from the canon of the books accepted by the communities of the Reformation, because they adopted the Hebrew Scriptures. 

FIRST READING   Sir 27: 5-8

ü  According to the author of this book, our defects become visible in our discussions.  

ü  To explain this, he makes an interesting comparison, the action of sifting.

ü  When we shift grain of any kind, we separate what is not useful from what is good.  

ü  Thus, the author says that our defects are made visible in our discussions, in the same way as the action of sifting makes visible what is garbage.   

ü  He makes another comparison, the potter’s oven that tests the quality of the vessel as our words reveal our mind, our thoughts, and our reasoning.    

ü  The fruit of a tree reveals the way it has been taken care of.  

ü  In the same way as our words reveal our mind. 

ü  Thus, a wise advice is not to praise anyone before he or she has spoken.  

ü  Because the test of man and woman is in our words, which reveal our inner being.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  - Psam  91 (92)

R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you. 

·         This is an individual thanksgiving psalm, whose structure is:

o   Introduction (2-4)

o   The body of the psalm where the works of the just alternate with those of the wicked.  (5-12)

o   Conclusion (13-16) the actions of God are a stumbling block for the foolish.

·         Following the theme that we began in the first reading, the psalm, by means of suggestive images, praises God for the just 

·         These will grow like palm trees, like cedars, in the house of the Lord 

·         In their old age they will still be fruitful 

·         With their lives, they will proclaim that in our God there is neither malice nor injustice.  

GOSPEL  Lk 6:39-45

In the Gospel we will read on Sunday there are 3 sayings or teachings of Jesus to his disciples, related to a life of wisdom, not only human but also divine.   

*      Something very easy to understand is that a blind person  cannot be a guide, because he or she does not see 

o   Jesus continues to say that the disciple is not superior to his master, but 

o   When the disciple will finish his or her training  he /she will be like the Master  

o   When will the training be finished?  When we will attain holiness, or in eternal life.  

*      The next example participates of the exaggerations that sometimes Jesus uses 

o   A straw can be in the eye but not a wooden beam  

o   Maybe Jesus wants to help us to reflect on that,

o   if we do not see, it means that we are like the blind of that saying who cannot guide because he does not see 

o   How easy it is for us to judge, to criticize the actions of the others, without realizing that we have the same defects, and maybe still more! 

*      Each tree gives the fruits according to its nature and its health  

o   Jesus says that we will know the tree by its fruits 

o   The same is true about us, because our mouth speaks of what we have in the heart  

o   This is the same thing that the wise man Ben Sirach wanted to tell us in the first reading   

*      Am I so blind that I do not see how my fruits really are?

SECOND READING   1 Cor 15: 54-58

v  Paul says that death will be destroyed by the victory, the victory of Christ  

v  And the apostle invites us to be fully devoted to the work of Christ   

v  The work of Christ is our salvation, the salvation of all 

v  With our works we collaborate with the work of Christ   

v  Paul adds that our labor, the labors for to announce the salvation, will not be in vain 

v  Do we work with enthusiasm; do we cooperate with fervor and joy in the work of the Lord, the salvation of our brothers and sisters?   

CLARETIAN CORNER

MOTHER FOUNDRESS

One night while praying and in bitter tears, pleading to our Lord that by the merits of His Passion and death to have mercy on the necessities of His church which at that time were many, our Lord told me and pointing at Mgr. Claret as if I saw him between our Lord and me.” This, my daughter, is the apostolic person whom you have asked me for so many years and with so many tears”.

His Divine Majesty showed me the grace He poured on that holy soul for the preaching of the gospel, and our Lord told me that there was no other remedy for the peace of the church. I did not know that person. Only a few days before I heard that a   certain chaplain by the name of Monsen Claret began preaching with much zeal about the honor due to God and the salvation of souls. It seems to me that have been at least eleven or twelve years ago.[1]

FATHER FOUNDER

When I was still a small boy in elementary school, a distinguished visitor to the school asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I answered that I wanted to be a priest  Accordingly, when I had successfully completed my elementary school, I was enrolled in the Latin class taught by a very holy and learned priest, Dr. John Riera. From him I learned and memorized nouns, verbs, genders, and a bit more, but as the class was discontinued I could no longer study and had to give it up .

Since my father manufactured thread and cloth, he set me to work in his factory . I obeyed without a word, a long face, or any sign of displeasure. I set to work as hard as I could and never spent an idle, half-hearted day. I did everything to the best of my ability so as not to displease my dear parents in the slightest, because I loved them very much and they loved me.[2]

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA. Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial.



[1] PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography,19.

[2] CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiography, 30-31 Regina Tutzo – Claretian Missionary Sisters – West Palm Beach FL