SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY
TIME
Last
Sunday’s theme was “the vocation or the call” of the Lord and the response of
the one who is called.
Today the
main theme is “happiness”.
Where do we
find it? And like always we are faced with the paradox in the answer given by
the Jesus.
Let us hear
what the readings have to say today.
FIRST
READING – Jer 17:5-8
Ø We have already met Jeremiah in different
occasions. Today he speaks to us about who is blessed and who is cursed.
Ø Who
puts its trust in another human being is not blessed and who puts its trust
only in God is blessed indeed .
Ø The description given by the prophet of those
who are cursed is very graphic.
Ø Who does not put his trust in the God and puts
it in another human being, will be like thistle .
o
We all have seen
thistles, they are hard, covered by thorns, unattractive.
o
The prophet says
that the thistle lives on dry soil that never sees the rain.
o
Thus, it will
live always in the aridity of the desert.
Ø This is what happens to the one who abandons
the Lord and turns to the creature lives
always in the unhappiness and in need of something more which he does never reach.
Ø Now the prophet in the second paragraph says
that who trusts in the Lord is like the tree planted by water
o
It sinks his
roots into water, thus, he is always refreshed and renewed
o
Neither the heat
nor the drought will harm him because he has abundance of water.
Ø We could say that who trusts in the Lord has
inside the fountain of living water of which Jesus talked to the Samaritan
woman.
Ø And what is this internal water source, it is
Jesus who we have chosen, opened the door of our heart, in whom we have trusted
although we have never seen him, He is our full happiness.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Sal 1
R (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the
counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor
sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and
meditates on his law day and night.
R Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted
near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and
whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they
are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but
the way of the wicked vanishes.
R Blessed are they who hope in
the Lord.
v This palm praises the man who is happy, and it
tells the cause of that happiness
v The psalm has three stanzas after each one we
repeat: Blessed are
they who hope in the Lord
v Let us see why
is that man happy
o
Because he does
not follow the example of the wicked or of the insolent
o
Because he loves
the law of God
v The second stanza is an explanation or a
description of his blessings
o
He is like a tree
planted near running water. This is what the prophet was telling us in the
first reading
o
He always gives fruit,
and it never withers.
o
The man who
follows the law of the Lord will always enjoy the newness of God, the youth
that the love of God gives. Despite its old age, it will continue to bear
fruit, as another psalm says.
v The third stanza describes the fate of the man
who puts his trust in the human being, in himself or in his possessions.
o
The wicked man is
like chaff which the wind drives away.
o
The ways he
follows lead to doom.
o
Let us repeat in
our heart the response adapting it to our own life: Happy am I (John, James,
Mary, Erika, Silvia Marie, Patricia, Emmanuel…) when I trust in my Lord and
Redeemer Jesus.
GOSPEL– Lc 6:17.20-26
Today the reading
is the Beatitudes according to Luc.
Both Matthew and
Luc have the Beatitudes as part of their Sermon on the Mountain in Matthew and
on the plain in Luc.
One of my teachers
of Scripture used to say that each evangelist wants to give a specific message
in calling the sermon either on the mountain or on the plain. To climb the
mountain requires an effort, this is the message of Matthew to live according
to the beatitudes requires an effort too. The plain does not require any
effort, but on the plain all are at the same level the teacher and the
disciples, and besides it is more comfortable and we can pay more attention to
what the teacher is telling us.
Whatever this distinction is, it can help us realize that we are facing
the same sermon in part but with messages that complement each other. José Antonio Pagola says that this gospel
cannot be heard in the same way by all.
o
For the poor it
is good news that invites them to
hope.
o
For the rich it
is a warning that invites them to conversion.[1]
And for us, for
our Christian communities who want to follow Jesus, is it a hope or a
warning? Let us take this question to
our prayer, our conversation with the Lord and He will help each one of us to
find the message he wants to give to us this Sunday.
Jesus is talking
about the Kingdom of God. God wants to reign in a different world than the one
we are building. A Kingdom where all, brothers and sisters, we
may know the joy and the dignity.
The words of
Jesus give hope to the poor, the destitute, the marginalized…
And at the same time,
they call tirelessly to conversion the rich who does not share, who lives
closed in himself , in his selfishness, in his possessions which are void of
meaning.
Scripture says
that the Lord wants that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth which
is God.
In this way we
have to love every human being, the one who follows the good way and those who
harm themselves and others with their sinful actions.
The ways of the
Lord are diverse, and every person who does good to others walks through them,
either if they know God or do not know Him. Nobody can do good if God is not
with him or her.
Who does not do
good and who does evil to other human beings, walks far from the ways of the
Lord, even if he says that he believes in God .
God’s measure is
“whether we have or not loved our fellowmen."
SECONG
READING - 1 Cor 15: 12.
16-20
§ Today Paul reflects on our resurrection.
§ Every Sunday when we do our profession of
faith, we repeat “… and the resurrection of the dead…”
§ Do we really believe what we say? The
question is not if we understand, if we grasp the meaning of our resurrection,
because it is an experience which goes beyond our understanding, we have never
experienced it.
§ Only faith can help us, a firm faith in Christ
who is the truth, faith in his love that he has proved repeatedly.
§ Yes, Lord we want to believe in our
resurrection, even if we do not know the meaning or the hour.
§ With Paul we believe “… because Christ has been
raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. “
CLARETIAN
CORNER
MOTHER FOUNDRESS – Ma. Antonia speaks about a vision, maybe
we could call it an experience of God or an encounter with God. They say that
when the memory of the experience remains with us during our life and changes
it for the better, it has certainly been an encounter of the person with
God.
This vision was impressed me in my hearts and all the words that Christ
our Lord told me so very present, that even now that I am writing, and have
already passed 14 years, it seems to me that I see and hear our Lord Jesus
Christ in the same very way.
Ever since this vision I
have loved very much evangelical poverty ( I loved her already very much
before) because our Lord told me that Holy Poverty should be the foundation of
this new Apostles, and for lack of this holy virtue all religious order has
collapsed.[2]
FATHER
FOUNDER
Later on, when I was living alone in the city of Barcelona and witnessed so
much evil, I would imagine those good people speaking to me: That is evil, you
should avoid it. You had better rely on God, your parents, and teacher than on
these unhappy people who don't know what they're doing or saying.
My parents and teacher not only instructed me in the truths I had to
believe but also in the virtues I needed to practice. With regard to my
neighbor, they told me never to take or covet what belongs to others and that,
if I ever found something, I should return it to its owner. It just so happened
that one day after school, as I was walking along the street toward home, I saw
a quarter lying on the ground. I picked it up and wondered to whom I
should return it. Since I couldn't see anyone on the street, I decided that it
must have fallen from the window of the nearest house. So I went up to the
house, asked for the head of the house, and gave him the quarter.[3]
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