22 SUNDAY
IN ORDINARY TIME - A – 2023
ü
The prophet
Jeremiah confesses that he cannot stop proclaiming what God reveals to him, it
is like a fire in his bones that impulses him to continue speaking.
ü
Jesus says that
whoever wants to follow him must deny him or herself.
ü
Paul invites us
to offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God.
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The following of Jesus, our response to his
call entails both joys and sufferings at the same time, but his love and his
call are so strong that we can do nothing else than follow him and in this we find the source of
our joy, in spite of the difficulties and oppositions.
ü
Pope Francis has
a reflection on this Gospel; he says that the Christian that does not follow
Jesus is like the salt which has lost its taste…
ü
And Pope Benedict
XVI commented on this passage of the Gospel and said, “On accepting voluntarily
his death, Jesus carries the cross of every human being and thus he becomes the
source of salvation for the entire human race.”
FIRST READING Jer 20:7-9
v This Reading is taken from the last
section called “confessions of Jeremiah” which begins on chapter 10.
v Through these chapters we find what has
been called “confessions” which are texts that reveal the unique intimacy of Jeremiah
with God. All these texts are especially beautiful and show to us the portrait
of a man in love with God.
v You have seduced me… these are strong
words which reveal the inner struggle of a man completely in love with God and,
at the same time, tired to suffer for the cause of the Word which becomes fire
inside of him.
v You were stronger than me, so you overcame
me, this is a very strong image which describes very well what happens when a
man seduces a woman. Jeremiah says that this is what has happened to him in
relation to God.
v The complain of Jeremiah is that since
that seduction he must speak in the name of God who reveals to him the
sufferings which his people will experience due to their unfaithfulness.
v Jeremiah says that he has taken the decision
neither to speak anymore in the name of God nor to listen to Him anymore.
v But what happens?
v The Word becomes fire inside of him and he
must communicate it, pronounce it, utter it because he cannot resist the
suffering caused by his keeping the Word for himself, he has to share it.
v What a wonderful image of the love of the
Word, of the power of seduction that the Word has.
v Have we allowed ourselves to be seduced as
Jeremiah was? Is the Word of God a fire which consumes our most inner being?
v If this is not so yet, let us ask God, let us ask Jesus that his Word may become fire that consume us so that we may be able to put in fire of his love the whole world.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM Ps 63: 2,
3-4,
5-6, 8-9.
ü Psalm of trust structured in
three songs:
o Song of thirst (2-4)
o Song of hunger (5-9)
o Song of divine judgement (10-12)
ü The thirst for God will be quenched and the hunger for God will be satisfied.
ü Jesus from the cross, as
Saint John tells us, says "I thirst" during his life in his preaching
he had told us where we can quench our thirst for God.
ü Our thirst and our hunger
will be satisfied only by the love of our God.
ü These words of Jesus "I thirst" are he words that changed the life of M. Teresa of Calcutta, that gave her the strength she needed to give herself to the last of the last among the human beings.
MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY
GOD
O God you are my God whom I seek
For you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
Like the earth, parched lifeless and without water
MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY
GOD
So have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
To see your power and your glory
For your kindness is a greater good than life
My lips shall glorify you.
MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY
GOD
Thus will I bless you while I live
Lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be
satisfied
And with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY
GOD
You are my help,
And in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy
My soul clings fast to you
Your right hand upholds me.
MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD
GOSPEL Mt 16:21-27
v
After Peter’s
confession, “You are the Christ, the Messiah” which we read last Sunday, Jesus
begins to teach the apostles what does it mean that he is the Christ.
v
To be the Christ,
the faithfulness to his mission will entail sufferings for Jesus, persecution, humiliation,
and death.
v
But death will
not be the end, because he will rise again on the third day.
v What does it mean that he will rise again? What does
he want to tell us? We do not understand…
v
Peter, the man
who is the closest friend of Jesus, whom he loves with his entire being, Peter
always impulsive speaks again, but now he does not repeat the words which the
Father has told him, but his own words.
v God forbid, Lord! How can this be true? It is impossible, you are the
Christ, do you not remember? And the Christ can neither suffer, nor be
defeated.
v
Peter, you think
as a man, Jesus is inviting them, inviting all of us, to see the events of our
life and of history in general with the
eyes of the Father who knows what is good for us.
v
The answer of
Jesus is harsh “go behind me Satan” what did Peter feel when he heard these
words of Jesus calling him the tempter, the seducer.
v Did Peter with his words have the power to be a
temptation for Jesus? This is a mystery which goes beyond our understanding.
v
Maybe Jesus was
experiencing something like what Jeremiah experienced? I will not speak any more about you, but I
could not, your word is fire inside of me. Maybe the words of Peter were echo
of the temptation in the desert: you can be a Messiah in an easier way and at
the same time more effective, you will see how everyone follows you… transform the
stones into bread… throw yourself down from the Temple… kneel before me
v
Why does Jesus
say to Peter “get behind me” which has the same meaning as go after me? Because
who goes first is the teacher, the disciple follows the teacher.
v
And Jesus teaches
them a lesson, the great revelation.
o
Whoever wants to come
after me, must go behind me.
§ Must deny himself or
herself
§
Take his or her
cross, his or her own life
o
And come after
me, why?
§
For whoever
wishes to save his or her life will lose
it
§
But whoever loses
his or her life for my sake will find it.
§
What profit would
there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his or her life
§
O what can one
give in exchange for his life?
v
This Gospel puts
in front of us the fundamental question of our life, the following of Jesus we
have been called to, even before we had been conceived, and which has become
visible and public at our baptism.
v
In our baptism we
were submerged into the death and resurrection of Jesus to be other Christs,
and thus continue in the world his mission to seek the brothers and sisters who
has gone astray.
v
The Gospel ends
with these words of Jesus: the Son of Man will come at the end of time, he will
not come in poverty and humility as in the first coming, but he will come in
the glory of the Father, which is also his glory, and he will give to each one
what is due.
v Come Lord Jesus! and you, who are the way, walk with us so that when you come at the end of times, you will say to us the so long expected words “come you blessed from my Father, because you loved me in each one of your brothers and sisters in need who you met on the journey of your life.”
SECOND READING Rom 12:1-2
Paul exhorts us
to offer ourselves, our bodies, our own being to God as an acceptable and holy
offering.
In the day of our
baptism we were anointed “priest, prophet and king.” Our priestly being enables
us to offer sacrifices to God, and our sacrifice is our own life “your bodies”
What a
consolation and what an enthusiasm these words awaken in us, knowing that our
life, simple, sometimes broken, hidden from the eyes of the great public, this
my life can be an offering pleasing to God, if I offer it with simplicity and
humility.
My life becomes
then a worship of adoration to God.
Yes, my life as a
husband or as a wife, as son or daughter, as an older person or as a young
person… My life has the possibility to be an offering, a sacrifice of adoration
to my God.
Paul continues
and invites us not to conform our mind to the mind of the word of sin, the
world that lives far from God and from the good of others.
Let us allow the
Lord to transform us, by the renewal of our mind, our way to look at life,
allow the Spirit of Jesus to enkindle in us the fire of the Spirit, so that we
may know what is good and pleasing to God our Father, to Jesus our brother and
to the Spirit, our teacher.
As president of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country,
he promotes the human development of his people. In their meetings they
discussed the most urgent economic, educational, social and health plans forf
the population. ...
Claret traced new paths to solidarity and prepared the way to the Gospel, as he explained to Caixal besides giving them spiritual pasture, they are also given what is needed for the body through alms, savings banks and agricultural notebooks. (Galeron pp 29-30)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GALERÓN, María Soledad RMI. Llamada que la Memoria de Significativos
Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos hacen Hoy. Santiago de Cuba 2023.
Santa Biblia. Texto oficial de la Conferencia de Obispos de España. 2012
LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del Vaticano.
Pagina Web del Vaticano, Papa Benedicto XVI ángelus 8/28/2011; Papa Francisco
ángelus 8/31/2014.
PAGOLA, José A. El camino abierto
por Jesús. PPC 2012.
STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo) 2007.
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