11th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A – 2023  

Jesus’ compassion

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Come, Spirit of God. Open my ears to hear your Word, enlighten my mind to understand it. Make my heart welcome it as we treasure the desires of our best friend.  Let me wake up from my lethargy  and turn my good intentions into determined commitments for the Kingdom.  

FIRST READING Ex 19: 2-6ª

Ø  The people are saved. God has manifested himself on their behalf.   

Ø  Now, the Lord speaks to Moses and gives him a message for the house, the people, of Israel. 

Ø  You have seen how you have been saved, how you were able to arrive safely before the Egyptians destroyed you; remember this and act in accordance to what I am telling, to become my special treasure.   

Ø   Remember! This is the word that God will say over and over to Israel… remember the covenant made with Yahweh and, never forget it, because this is what makes of you my kingdom of priests, what makes of you a consecrated nation.   

Ø  Do we remember? Or, on the contrary, we live in a time of our human history in which we do not remember, we do not want to remember. 

Ø  Let us ask the Lord the grace to be willing to remember his love without boundaries, toward all, despite our limitations.  

 

Salmo Responsorial -  Salmo 99, 2. 3. 5

R. (3c) We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
    serve the LORD with gladness;
    come before him with joyful song.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
Know that the LORD is God;
    he made us, his we are;
    his people, the flock he tends.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.
The LORD is good:
    his kindness endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.
R. We are his people: the sheep of his flock.

ü  The responsorial psalm continues the same theme as the first reading.

ü  The psalmist

o   Invites the lands to sing and serve with joy and gladness

o   Because the Lord is our God he has made us and we are his own

o   The Lord is good and faithful.

 

SECOND READING  – Rm 5:6-11

v The text of the letter to the Romans that we are going to read during the liturgy has two paragraphs

o   In the first aul makes a reflection on the unconditional love of God who, even being sinners, and away from him, his son Jesus Christ died for all of us.

v It is good for us to think from the heart this truth, he died when we were sinners, and he died not only for me or for the people of my church, but for all.

v This means that He has given, He gives salvation to all, we only have to accept it. 

v And this is our evangelizing mission, to love in such a way all the people to whom we are sent  that our love reminds them the love of our Brother Jess who died to save all of us.  

v In the second paragraph continues the same reflection giving more reasons to  love God who has loved us first. 

v During this week let us reflect in our prayer on the many graces, benefits and gifts God has made to us, the first of these gifts is life, he has loved us even before our parents conceived us.  

GOSPEL  Mt 9:36-10,8

      Jesus sees the crowd, not only in this occasion but always, He sees us as sheep without shepherd and feels compassion. Compassion is a feeling that comes from the deepest recesses of our being.   

      What does that mean? Without shepherd, without guide, without being a community, being only a crowd, few o many people together but, without being united.  

      The sheep without shepherd become dispersed, are lost.   

       Jesus says: the harvest, here he changes the image from the animal world to an agricultural image, the harvest is plenty, but the laborers are scarce. 

      The thought that the harvest is abundant should put our hearts on fire, on the desire to proclaim the marvelous good works of our God.  

      Jesus asks us to beg the Lord of the harvest to send laborers. Let us ask Him to send us, let be available.  

      He calls his twelve disciples, those who remained faithful in his company. He gives them some powers to announce the Kingdom, to wrap in compassion, the compassion of Jesus, every person they meet on the path of their life.  The evangelist gives their names, because the evangelizers, apostles, have a human fase, a human heart. Each one has his or her own story of faithfulness, or unfaithfulness, fears, desire to surrender to the Lord, of love for Jesus,  each one is different.

      He sends them giving some Powers and recommendations:  

       They have to go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In his first mission Jesus goes only to places where the people of Israel is, the people of the promises, of the covenant. Later Jesus’ mission will be the whole world, all peoples. (Cf. Florentino Ulibarri en Un tesoro escondido. Ciclo A)

      Jose Antonio Pagola, a Jesuit priest, that we all are sent to preach what Jesus preached nothing else.   

      And they have to do it giving health, life and liberation from what is demoniac. The four orders given by Jesus make us understand that this is how we are to preach about the kingdom: “Cure the sick,” “ raise the dead”  “cleanse lepers,” “drive out demons.”

Cure the sick means to liberate the persons from everything that robes them their life and makes them suffer.  To cure the soul and the body of those who feel destroyed by the harshness of daily life.  

      Raise the dead.   Awaken anew the love for life, the hope, the trust in God, the will to fight, and the desire of freedom in so many men and women in whom the life is slowly dying.     

      Cleanse lepers.   To help our brothers and sisters to live with greater truth, simplicity and honesty.   

      Drive out demons.  To liberate people from so many idols that enslave us, take possession and pervert our life together. 

       The last sentence of the evangelical text is worth meditating and making it a reality. Without cost we have received it. 

CLARETIAN CORNER

May the light of the Holy Spirit guide my pen to write with clarity what God our Lord has ordered me several times and now again orders me by means of Holy Obedience.  I beg, then, all the Saints in Heaven, and especially my Most Holy Mother, Mary Most Holy at whose feet I lie prostate, immersed in my own vileness and abyssed in the center of my littleness, without knowing where to begin.  I cannot remain silent, and to speak is temerity.  Supposing then my God, that you order me to do so, I will speak so that those who will read it will magnify your works, Lord, and seeing the inadequacy of the instrument may remember that to establish the Holy Church you chose twelve poor fishermen and now to revitalize it you deign yourself to give the fundamental plan to another poor creature more miserable without comparison.  Blessed be your Power and Kindness forever. (Venerable María Antonia París – Plan for the Renewal of the Church, 1.  MP.PR 1)

 

 Jesus Christ Himself said that He was given all power in heaven and on earth. Not even by this power should we understand that which is incumbent upon him by his eternal generation, but that which the Father gave him by the merit of his passion and his obedience and despondency. Of this power, which he meant by the name of the Kingdom, he then says to his Apostles: I dispose of the Kingdom for you in the same way as the Father has given it to me. He therefore adds: "That he transfers to them the same mission with which the Father had sent him to this world"; and so the Apostles, who understood their Master well, spoke of the Kingdom of God,...   They knew that Jesus Christ was the promised and desired One of all ages; He who brought, albeit covertly, the name of King of kings and Lord of lords that his Kingdom would not be like those of this world..   that it would be an eternal Kingdom, to which no end would be known. (St. Anthony Mary Claret. Plan to Restore the Beauty of the Church,1)