FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2018

v  We begin Lent, a time of grace in which we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Jesus. 

v  Although we do every year almost the same, this is not so. We change over time, God is always new, thus Lent is always a new time of grace, a time of encounter with the Lord, who invites us to follow him more closely during this season and to participate in his saving cross.    

v  This Sunday’s readings remind us of the covenant made between God and Noah in the name of humankind. Peter reminds us about our baptism and the Gospel presents Jesus who goes to the desert, where he will be tempted. At the end of his “retreat” he will proclaim to us that the time is fulfilled, that the Kingdom of God is at hand.   

FIRST READING  – Gn 9:8-15

Ø  The blessing which we read in the first reading today, comes after the story of the flood.   

Ø  The biblical author of these texts uses a mythical account of the countries found in the Mesopotamian region, and it transforms it into a theological reflection on the consequences of the bad use of freedom on the part of the human being, this leads him to drown, to his or her own destruction and, also to the destruction of the whole creation. 

Ø  It is a waste of time to ask whether the flood happened, because the author has used a myth to explain a truth of faith.  The author is not interested in the truth about the flood, because he is interested in the message he wants to convey.     

Ø  The author uses a composition full of color, images which become engraved in our memory, but these images have to lead us to the message which the author wants to tell us. 

Ø  God makes a universal covenant with Noah, who represents the whole human race, and also the entire creation, is thus a universal covenant, which goes beyond the chosen people, it is for all the peoples of the earth, and for the rest of creation. The emphasis is on the universality of the covenant. 

Ø  As in the beginning,  God blesses now his creating work, and in a very especial way the human beings “… and God saw that it was good…” “and saw that it was good…” … and saw that it was good…” God gives a new opportunity to man, God does not go wearied to start anew.  

Ø  The author describes the sign of the covenant with a natural phenomenon, a sign of great beauty, “when I see the bow on the clouds I will remember this covenant…”   

Ø  God is portrayed like a human person. God needs to see to remember, this is how the human being remembers… 

Ø  When two nations or tribes were fighting, it was customary that the one who did not want to fight anymore would hang his bow at the entrance of his tent as a sign of peace.   

Ø  God, who has his tent in heaven, hangs his bow on the clouds, at the entrance of his abode,   as a sign of peace.      

Ø  People believed that God was he who sent the rain, God who punished the human beings either with drought or with floods; these are the weapons of God. 

Ø  The story of the flood says that God is tired of the evil of the human being, of his sin and uses one of  his weapons  “the flood” to destroy him. 

Ø  Now he makes peace and, the sign of that peace is that wonderful bow on the clouds. When I will send clouds over the earth, my arc will appear on the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you, and with every human being.   

Ø  We know that the colors of the rainbow are produced by the light passing through the water drops, but, even  knowing it, we are in awe when we see it, and from our heart we praise and give thanks to God our Creator and Father.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps 25: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Your ways O Lord, make known to me

Teach me your paths

Guide me in your truth and teach me

For you are God my savior.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Remember that your compassion, O Lord

And your love are from of old

In your kindness remember me

Because of your goodness, O Lord.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

Good and upright is the Lord

Thus he shows sinners the way

He guides the humble to justice

And he teaches the humble his ways.

Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant

«  The psalmist asks God to teach him his ways and to guide him. 

«  That he remember his compassion and his kindness    

«  God, who is good, teaches the way to the sinner, guides the humble to justice, to what is right.  

«  Let  us remember that the justice of God is to make us just like Him, it is not a retributive justice like ours, it is  God’s justice, who loves and gives without measure to all, just and sinners, and he calls all to his love.    He pays the same salary to the one who worked all day long and, to the one who worked only one hour.

SECOND READING  1Pe  3:18-22

      Christ’s suffering is a suffering for doing good to all.   

      Christ in his sufferings is our savior and example. 

      Peter reminds   the story of the flood.

      He compares the story of the flood with the baptismal bath, which is not for a small group alone, but for everyone who accepts Christ.    

      Baptism is not a bath that cleanses material dirt, but it is the commitment done with God to cultivate an

Irreproachable conscience through the resurrection of Christ Jesus.  With his death and resurrection he has open for us the way to the Father.   

      Christ Jesus is glorified by the Father “at his right hand”. This image reminds us of the courts of the kings where he or she who sits at the right hand of the king is the most important person of the kingdom after the king.   

GOSPEL OF MARK  1:12-15

ü  After the baptism of the Lord, the same spirit of God who came on him at his baptism, leads him to the desert.     

ü  The desert was for the people of Israel the place of temptation and also the place to make decisions.   

ü  In the desert the people will learn to trust in God  

ü  Jesus who has taken our human condition will be tempted  

ü  He is the perfect Israel, who in the peace and contemplative silence of the desert chooses the way of the Father. He is also the new Adam who lives in harmony with the wild animals, thus transforming the desert into an inner Paradise where the angels of God are present.   

ü  Mark does not tell us what the temptations were.   

ü  But Mark makes clear the triumph of Jesus over the devil, and his complete trust in the Father’s providence.  

ü  Jesus the new Adam has a peaceful relationship with creation, which reminds to us  the first Adam in the garden, in peace with the animals to whom he gave their names, this means that the animals were subjected to him.   

ü  Jesus in the desert makes also real the prophecy of Isaiah… the lamb with the wolf, the cow with the bear… Jesus makes real the dream of God over creation .

ü  The forty days makes us think of the 40 years of the people of Israel in the desert   Ex 34:28,.

ü  Satan the tempter,

o   In the book of Job Satan accuses Job,  (see the beginning of the book of Job)   

o   In the book of Revelation he is the one who opposes the  divine plan    Rev 12:7-9

ü  When John is put in prison Jesus returns to Galilee to begin his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom.   

ü  He proclaims:    

o   That the time is fulfilled, what time? The time of God’s promises  

o   The kingdom of God is at hand, so close that Jesus is this Kingdom.  He is close to everyone, but not all of us allow him to enter into our heart.    

o   What does he ask  from each one of us, and from society in order that the kingdom may be present.   

§  To believe in the Good News. Sometimes they are so good that it is difficult for us to believe them.   

§  To believe is to allow God to enter in our heart, to change us, to make us like his Son who died for all. This is the reason why we cannot exclude anyone.   

§  Only in this way the world will believe and will be able to change.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER

  

Time revealed the false vocation of some of these free women, one of them escaped by the roofs after 14 months to the great scandal of all the people  who until then considered us as angels. The other two died without any vocation to religious life. The ones, who professed, were good religious even though they gave me much work.

I cannot say of these young ladies what St. Teresa says about her first nuns: that it seemed God was choosing those fitted for that house. I can also say that God our Lord sent them to me expressly to purify my soul. I only found rest with the first three, for it seems God gave them to me for my consolation and help. They have been untiring in works and hardships, always contented and happy in the midst of the many trials and tribulations we experienced in the beginnings. I think the Lord will make the three of them saints.

            A few days after the apostate escaped, our Lord told me: “How could third order be a perfect copy of the Apostolic College had you not had a Judas?” then, I felt the pain that pierced the Most Holy Soul of our Divine Savior for the loss of the unfortunate Judas. That time  we remained twelve and the devil was roaming around sowing weeds everywhere seeking how to dissolve  this holy house, but, since this happened, all became much more fervent, what they were not before. Our Lord always acted in this His work in the same way: from all things that the Devil tried to get evil, God our Lord was obtaining greater good. Blessed may He be for so much goodness!   (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 200-201)

With God's help this situation was completely changed. I appointed Father Anthony Barjau, a priest whom heaven had endowed with a gift for educating young men and boys, as rector of the seminary. This good churchman by his winning ways put them back on course again, bringing them to practice their religion and apply themselves to their studies. Thus they finally began to show some progress, both in virtue and learning, and many of them have been ordained or soon will be.

Since the need for priests was pressing and the seminary could provide none for a long time, I hit upon the plan of writing to several Catalonian seminarians who were nearing the end of their studies and inviting them to come to Santiago to finish them. I ordained 36 of them with title to the benefice of a sacristy and the right to apply later for a parish of their own. (Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 556-557.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CERVANTES GABARRÓN, Juan, “Primera Carta de Pedro” en Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. La Casa de la Biblia. Estella, Navarra 1995.

GUILLÉN TORRALBA, Juan, “Génesis” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento I. La Casa de la Biblia, Estella Navarra, 1997.

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.

RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.

VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  “Autobiography” of St. Anthony Mary Claret. 

  

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2018  

«  Jesus continues his ministry of proclaiming the Kingdom, healing all sorts of sicknesses. 

«  Today Jesus makes clean a leper.  .  

BOOK OF THE LEVITICUS    

Ø  This third book of the Pentateuch, is called in Hebrew   Wayyiqrā’ = “and He called.”

Ø  The name Leviticus comes from the Latin translation of the Greek translation of the Bible that was made in times of the Old Testament   “Leuitikon.”

Ø  The name is well given since it is a book about liturgical laws for the priesthood of the Levites. 

Ø  Besides these laws there are other laws in regards to the holiness of life, in all its different aspects: physical, psychological and moral. 

THE AUTHOR  – THE BOOK 

o   As it is the case for all the books, it is difficult, impossible to know  who  the author is. The book was being formed over several centuries with the contribution of many hands. 

o   It belongs to the “priestly” tradition.  

o   The legislation points out to Moses.  

o   Although we find in this book some ancient laws, in its present shape the book belongs to the time of the return from the Babylonian exile.  

o   The book has the following parts:   

I           THE LAW OF SACRIFICE   

II          THE PRIESTLY ORDINATIONS 

III         THE LEGAL PURIFICATIONS 

IV         THE FEAST OF THE ATONEMENT   

V          THE CODE OF SANCTITY.   

FIRST READING  Lv 13:1-2; 44-46

      Leprosy was a skin disease, the skin looked infected and it was permanent, but it was not always the same disease we now call leprosy.  It included many other skin affections.

      The precautions and the rules for those who suffered this illness probably began as a hygiene regulation to protect the population.   

      As time went by, as it always is the case, even now we do many things without knowing its meaning because we do not know why they began. 

      If we add to these rules a religious meaning, then what was regulated for the good of the people becomes a heavy weight on the people.  Something that does not help as was the case with all the rules about leprosy.

      According to the religious belief of Israel, which we have already mentioned in another occasion, if you are good things will go well for you, if you are a sinner things will go bad for you. Thus if you are sick it is because you have sinned.    

      Than we understand the isolation of the sick person because he or she is a sinner, impure and has to be separated from the rest of the community, “outside the camp.”   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 32: 1-2, 5, 11  

R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.

The psalmist describes very well the joy of the leper when he is declared clean by the priest. He was cured physically but now he is also cured spiritually and socially, he is healed.   

GOSPEL  – MARK 1:40-45

ü  A leper, who as we have seen was subjected to   isolation and scorn, approaches Jesus.  

ü  He has heard that this new young Rabbi from Nazareth has cured and healed so many people, he never rejects anyone, he has compassion of all, He treats everyone with respect and dignity.   

ü  If you wish, you can make me clean.  Yes I do.

ü  Jesus as he pronounces these words “Yes, I do” touches the man.  

ü  As if He wanted to take that leprosy of that man and the scorn to which he has been subjected, on Him to destroy it in his person. It is like an anticipation of what He will do on the cross for all of us.   

ü  Yes I want to be one with you, yes I want you to go back to your loved ones, to your community, yes I want you to regain your self-esteem, yes I want you to discover the infinite love that God has for you, yes I want you to be happy. 

ü  Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation, He is God among us. And He, who has come to announce the good news of the Father’s love, says to us that the Father does not want us, sinners,  to be isolated, to suffer scorn, but he wants us to experience that God loves us, in such a way, that this experience makes us return to Him and in so doing find our happiness. 

   

SECOND READING  1 Cor 10:31-11:1

• Paul speaks to the members of the Community of Corinth, and invites them, that whatever they do (eat, drink, celebrate, work, pray, travel, rest….) do everything for the glory of God.   What does it mean to do everything for the glory of God?   
• The glory of God is the human being in its fullness,  that is,  a human being free with no other ties than the love of God manifested in the love for the other human beings. 
• How must that love to the other human beings be, in order to be true love for God,  
• To please everyone
• Not to seek our own interest    
• Do not be  the cause of scandal for anyone  
• And all of this to cooperate in the salvation of our brothers and sisters.   
• In a word, it is to take seriously our life as baptized persons and followers of Jesus.  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FALEY, ROLAND J., T.O.R. “Leviticus” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey  1988.

FLOR SERRANO, GONZALO. “Salmos” en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento II, Casa de la Biblia, 1997.

LOZANO, Juan Manuel, Escritos María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico”.   Barcelona 1985.  

VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  “Autobiografía” de San Antonio María Claret en  San Antonio María Claret Autobiografia y Escritos Complementarios, edición bicentenario    Buenos Aires-Argentina 2008.

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

The missionary must be always kind and be all to all but without losing his composure and religious circumspection. Beware that due to his carelessness the veneration and respect ought to be given to the priestly character that he is invested, be lost. Do not familiarize with anybody but be kind to everybody. During his travels he must speak little and meditate very much.  His lodging in the cities be in the hospital. Do not play jokes to his brothers or companions of travel much less to (strangers). Do not argue with anybody, (…) but yield to everybody. (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, The Apostolic Missionary, 2.1-2.5)

During my stay in Viladrau all the sick of the town, as well as those who were brought there from other places, were cured. As word of this spread, in whatever town I went to, people would bring me a large number of sick persons suffering from all kinds of illness. There were so many sick and so many different illnesses, and I was so busy hearing confessions, that I didn't have time for prescribing physical remedies. I told the people, instead, that I would commend them to God, and in the meantime I would make the sign of the Cross over them, saying, "Super aegros manus imponent et bene habebunt.  After I did this, they said that they were cured. (Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 180.)

FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2018 

      The first Reading taken from the Old Testament and the Gospel put in front of us the reality of   human suffering.  Job has a negative perspective without hope, the Gospel shows Jesus healing, thus giving back hope to those who suffer.    

      The second reading is the continuation of last Sunday’s reading. Paul offers the Gospel without cost.    

THE BOOK OF  JOB

Ø  It seems that in ancient times a man with this name existed, but this book is like a parable which speaks to us about the mystery of the human suffering, however the theme has a larger scope, it is about retribution and God’s justice.  

Ø  Process in the writing of this book: 

o   At the beginning it was a simple tale, written in prose, about a man called Job who suffered very much. (introduction and conclusion)   

o   Later   the main part of the work was added:  the friends’ dialogues, written in poetry. This part raises a revolutionary question for the faith of Israel about retribution.   (Job 3-31; 39-41)

o   Finally another author edits the work and scandalizes many with his thesis and, adds the monologue of   Elihú (Job 32-37). 

Ø   The Theological  Approach:  

o   The author of the second or central part of the book of Job dares to question the untouchable belief of Israel’s faith on retribution.  He who does good is blessed by God and prospers; he who is not faithful, the sinner, is punished by God.  

o   Job pretends to be without blame and good, but his sickness says that he has hidden sins that he does not want either to acknowledge or confess.  

o   The author through the dialogues presents in a great way another alternative, the thing is not so easy as they believe   

o   In other books of the Old Testament the authors present also this question, not always things go well for the just, and not always the things go bad for the sinner,  rather it seems that we experience the contrary.  Jer 31,29 y ss. Ez 18.

o   In fact, what the human being, represented here by Job, questions is the justice of God.   Not in itself but in the way it has been interpreted.   

Ø  What moved the community to write this book:   

o   It seems that behind this book we discover the questions raised within the people of Israel by their great sufferings during the Babylonian exile.   

o   On their return the prophets tried to nurture the faith of the people that had more and more doubts on their situation and their relationship with God.   

o   The books seems to reflect this crisis of faith, not only of the people in general, but also of the author. The book would be the result of years of struggle, questioning and prayer, until the moment when God allows himself to be known in a new way. 

o   The time of the composition of this book may be situated after the exile, maybe between the  VI and  V centuries before Christ.

o   To read this book is to enter into an exciting experience.   

FIRST READING  – Job 7:1-4.6-7

Ø  Today’s text is taken from the first session of dialogues between the friends and Job.   It is a fragment of the answer that Job gives to his friend  Eliphaz which goes from the beginning of chapter 6 to the end of chapter 7. 

Ø  Job, who is suffering physically, psychologically and spiritually describes his pain 

o   He sees  human life as a military service, or the life of a slave or laborer 

o   All these comparisons make us thing of a person who does not have the possibility to take decisions on his own life, but somebody else takes them for him or her, someone who is not a friend. 

o   He describe his nights and days full of darkness and pain.  

Ø  Job says how he sees his life  

o   As a shuttle on the weaver, thus are the days of Job, without any change, always the same.   

o   Job has lost hope; he has too many questions without answer, why has God done that to me, if I have always served him? Why does he abandons  me in the midst of silence and darkness without defending me? 

o   He sees his life like a  breath and he is convinced that his eyes will not see happiness anymore. God keeps silence and the human beings, his friends, want to interpret this silence.  

Ø  The tone of this reading is quite pessimistic and sad, but it reflects what happens to us when we are suffering, and in addition a suffering without meaning for us

SALMO RESPONSORIAL:  Salmo 146:1-2. 3-4. 5-6

R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
 Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
 Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
 

Ø  The psalmist sings God’s greatness and invites the assembly to do the same.  

Ø  God is great because he has rebuilt…  reunited the disperse…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             heals the hearts… reaches out … humiliates the arrogant…  

Ø  God is great because he is the Lord of the universe, the creator who can count the number of the stars and know the name of each one.  

Ø  The psalmist is amazed and cries out “his wisdom has no limits.”   

Ø  This is the answer to the darkness of Job and also to our own darkness,  questions,  fears. 

Ø  I have read some days ago an article and something caught my attention, it says something like this: sometimes God seems not to respond to our petitions, but in reality he might be saying to us “wait a little, I have a better idea for you.” Only as time goes by we realize that he has been listening all the time, and then we feel a great joy.  

GOSPEL  Mk 1:29-39

Ø  We continue reading the swiping force of  Jesus’ evangelization, like the hurricane-force wind of Pentecost, opening new ways and giving new light to those who listen to Him. 

Ø  There three different moments or scenes in this reading:   

Ø  First:

o   Jesus exists the Synagogue, where he has cured the possessed man and whre the assembly said: “a new doctrine, taught with authority.”    

o   Jesus in company of his first disciples goes to Peter’s home. They talk to him about the Peter’s mother in law who is sick. He can heal, maybe he will cure her also.   

o   Jesus approaches the sick woman, takes her from the hand and raises her up. Here Mark uses the same word that he will use to describe the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb: He has been raised.     

o   Mark seems to tell us that this woman was healed in her whole being, she was made new, liberated not only from her sickness but from any other suffering.   

o   Once she is cured he starts serving them. This is the mission of all the followers of Jesus: to serve.     

Ø  Second

o   They people bring to Jesus those afflicted from many illnesses. 

o   He cures all, he liberates tham from they illness and from anything that might have them bound 

Ø  Third

o   At dawn Jesus goes to a deserted place to speak with God. How good it is for us also to do the same, to enter in communication with God who has created us, redeemed and sent to serve.  How do you want to be served today Lord?   

o   The disciples, who begin their process of knowing and following Jesus think that it is better to take care of those who seek him than to continue praying.  

o   Jesus gives them the first lesson: let us go to the other villages where there are more people to whom I have to preach and announce the good news.   

o   And Jesus continues his way fulfilling the mission He has been sent to do. What is my mission? Do I live it with my eyes upon the Lord to know how He wants me to fulfilled it?

CLARETIAN CORNER  

This short notice but compendious, without withdrawing a single point from the rule that the Lord was commanding me to write, filled my heart and soul with a holy joy, so much so that for a long while I could not control my tears, seeing the great work that the Lord was to perform.  In these few words that His Divine Majesty told me, he made me understand so many and great things about this holy soul, that as if I was out of myself. I think I loss the bodily senses, while the powers of the soul were occupied in admiring what the grace of God can do in a soul. I saw or understood, I do not know how to explain it, our Lord left to the judgment of his soul the interests of the church and as if of him depended to put to practice the Evangelical Law, and it seem to me that his Divine Majesty was telling him, “ I have given you grace for that “ I understood that this was very special grace that God bestowed only to the holy Apostles, and I saw that our Lord Jesus Christ was requesting it from him in a     way that I do not know how to explain. Venerable María Antonia París Foundress of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters,  Autobiography 33

My father set me to work on every job available in his well-equipped little thread and textile factory. For a long time I and another young man were in charge of putting the finishing touches on the work of everyone else in the shop. Whenever we had to correct anyone, it upset me a great deal; yet I did my duty. I always tried to find something good to say about the piece of finished work. I would praise its good points, saying that this or that about it was very good but that it had such and such a defect and if these little defects were corrected, it would really be a perfect job.

I didn't know why I did things this way, but in time I came to see that it was the result of a special grace of kindness that the Lord had granted me. This is why the workers always took correction from me and mended their ways... Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of rthe Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 33-34.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, San Antonio María. Autobiography.

LOBATO FERNÁNDEZ, Juan Francisco, “Job”, en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento II, Casa de la Biblia Salamanca-España 1997.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography