FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT -  A – 2020   

• The fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday, the Sunday we are invited to rejoice because Easter is closer than when we began our Lenten journey.  Laetare is the first Word of the antiphon at the beginning of the Mass.   
• This Sunday the catechumens, who are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation, have the second scrutiny, the second opportunity to examine themselves and see how their journey toward Easter goes, and have the opportunity to allow the Lord to correct whatever is needed of change.  
• Last Sunday the theme of the liturgy was the water, this coming Sunday the theme is the light.    

THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL

Ø  These two books are found between the book of Judges and the books of Kings.

Ø  According to the Jewish tradition they are part of the Ancient Prophets: Joshua, Judges,

1       and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings   

Ø  According to the Christian tradition they part of the historical books: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Maccabees.  

Ø  The repetitions and  the diversity of literary styles found in these books make us think that they were composed by many different authors over a long period of time.  

Ø  Each book has a particular central theme. 

Ø  Besides the literary forms of these books, we need to look at the theology they transmit.  

Ø  The main point is the monarchy.   

Ø  Connected with this theme we find other themes: history, human initiatives, vocation, religious confrontations and some other themes.  

FIRST READING:   1 Sm 16: 1b,6-7,10-13a

ü  The author of the book of Samuel narrates how David was anointed King of Israel

ü  In reality, he was anointed king but did not become the king of Israel until later.  In the second book of Samuel chapter 4 we find another story about David becoming the king of Israel.  

ü  Samuel is sent by God to Jesse’s home in Bethlehem of Judah. 

ü  Samuel is drawn by the external appearance of the sons of Jesse, but the Lord keeps telling him “not this one” until David comes, then the Lord commands Samuel to anoint him.  

ü  As he is anointed, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon  him.   

ü  We are anointed at our baptism and confirmation, as kings to be kings like Jesus, who came to serve and not to be served.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 23: 1-3a-3b-4,5,6

v Psalm 23 is one of the most beautiful psalms. The last stanza is especially beautiful; we sing that the goodness and mercy of the Lord will accompany us all the days of our life.  

v The author is sure, leaning in this goodness of the Lord, that he will live in the house of the Lord forever. Do I believe that?    

v In the first reading, we have read that David was elected King of Israel. We have remembered how we have been anointed kings in our baptism, kings and queens to serve our brothers and sisters.

v To learn how to be servants we need the presence and accompaniment of God in our life.  

  SECOND READING: Eph 5:8-14

     The author of the letter to the Ephesians reminds us  how we have come from darkness to light in Christ through our baptism.  

     Now that we are light, we are invited to live in the light of Christ, because his light makes us do good works, works of light.    

     We are invited to leave aside whatever has been and is darkness in our life, to be light.  

     Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew says that a light is not to be covered it is to be visible. If someone lights a candle in his home, in some way it invites others to do the same, very soon the place that was dark before becomes a light to be seen by all.

     The reading ends with an invitation “awake, o sleeper, and rise from the dark and Christ will give you light.”   

     Yes, let us arise, let us begin with decision and enthusiasm our journey of conversion to Christ, let us allow Him to help us to go day by day from darkness to light.

GOSPEL  Jn 9:1-41

  John presents again to us a theological reflection over a real event, a blind man to whom Jesus gives back his sight.   

The story can be divided in 6 different scenes.    

First scene

ü  As Jesus is on his way with his disciples, he finds a blind beggar.  

ü  The disciples, as good Israelites, know what those who interpret the Scriptures have taught them: if you behave, God will bless you, if not he will not bless you. Thus if something goes wrong in your life it means that your behavior is bad. Let us recall the book of Job. Job has a very hard time trying to convince his friends that he has not done any wrong to be visited by so many sufferings. This story told by John is like a reduced version of the book of Job.  The disciples ask Jesus: who has sinned him or his parents?    

ü  The question seems out of place, because who can sin before being born? since this man was born blind.  

ü  Jesus tells them that nobody had seen that the glory of God would be made known through that man. God can transform darkness into light, give back the spiritual and physical sight to someone.

ü  Jesus makes clay with his saliva and sends the man to the pool of Shiloh, which means sent, to wash his eyes.   

ü  Jesus wants to give back the sight to this man, but the man will have to cooperate. The same thing is true in our life, the Lord wants to convert us to Him, but he asks us to cooperate with welcoming him in our life and doing what he asks from us.  

ü  The man comes back with his sight restored.

Second scene

ü  The neighbors of the man were divided among themselves over the identity of this man who was blind and now could see. 

ü  He kept repeating “it is I”    

ü  How can you see? He told them the man called Jesus anointed my eyes with clay, I washed my eyes and I see

ü  Where is that man? I do not know.  

Third Scene

ü  They brought the man that had been blind to the Pharisees. John says that when Jesus cured the man it was a Sabbath.  The Pharisees had interpreted the law about the Sabbath in a very strict way; to make clay was already a work that could not be done.   

ü  There is a dialogue very interesting and a bit ironic between the Pharisees, man who knew the Law  and that poor ignorant beggar. We can imagine how they considered that man, who in spite of his poverty and former blindness had a lot of wisdom and common sense; the wisdom given by God to every human being. 

ü  This man cannot belong to God because he works on the Sabbath… they were divided among themselves about this.

ü  What do you say ? They ask the man that had been blind, “he is a prophet.”    

ü  They sent the man away and called his parents.  

Fourth Scene

ü  To be sure that this was really the blind man, they asked his parents  

ü  Is he your son? Yes  

ü  How come he sees now? We do not know, ask him he is of age.  

ü  His parents did not want to have problems with the religious authorities.  

ü  We do not know if they stay to hear the second part of the conversation of their son with the authorities.    

Fifth Scene   

ü  They call the man again to continue their interrogatory.  

ü  Give glory to God, we know that, that man is a sinner.   

ü  If he is a sinner or not, I do not know, what I know is that he has given me back my sight.  

ü  How did he open your eyes?   

ü  Why do you ask me again? Do you want to become his disciples?  

ü  You will be his disciple, we are disciples of Moses. And God spoke to Moses, but we do not know where that man comes from.    

ü  This is what is amazing, that you do not know where he comes from, but what is true is that he has opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. (that man knew well that only God can do miracles)  

ü  Faced with the wisdom of this poor and simple man, without any status in society, the leaders feel threaten and they expel him from the Synagogue.  

Sixth Scene

This is the climax of the story, the revelation of Jesus to that man. Jesus revealed himself as Messiah to the Samaritan woman, today he reveals himself as Son of Man to the blind man.  

ü  Jesus comes to meet the man. God always takes the initiative to encounter us.

ü  Do you believe in the Son of man?  Who is he?  He who speaks to you. I believe.   

ü  Jesus manifesting in a loud voice what was in his heart, says the reason for him to have come to this world. It is to make the blind see and those who believe they see help them to realize they are blind and thus ask him for help.

ü  The Pharisees said, do you think that we are blind also? No, because if you were blind you would not be responsible, but you know and you do not want to see and thus change your life.     

ü  Let us put ourselves in place of this man and let us read the Gospel putting our name instead of the name of the blind man. Let us ask us if our faith is like the faith of the blind man or like that of the Pharisees. In whom do we believe?    Whom do we follow?

Saint Anthony Mary Claret - Later on Claret  understands the call to evangelize which gushes from his inner being,   like the experience of Jeremiah:    “…There seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones and although I wanted to quench it, I could not do it” (20,9); it was the grace of Christ himself which overflowed from his heart, by the Spirit.

We may draw a first conclusion: the apostolic vocation of Claret within the Church has come from his contemplation of Christ the evangelizer through the passage of Is 61,1.

Venerable María Antonia París - As a conclusion we may say that the Initial Experience had a decisive influence in her future life, especially because God imprinted in her soul the evangelical ideal that the Church was called to live, and within it the Religious Life.  This is the origin of her deep ecclesial spirituality.

With this experience María Antonia is open to the whole Church, not to some need of the people of God, but to the renewal of the Church as such to help her to regain the face of Christ through her continuous conversion.  She will have a strong love of the evangelical poverty.  The lack of this virtue has been the cause of the evils that the Church is suffering.  (Both fragments about Claret and Paris are my translation from the book Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit whose original is in Spanish)

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT-CYCLE A – 2020

Ø  The third, fourth and fifth Sundays of Lent will teach us about one of the signs of baptism.

Ø  These readings are found only in the liturgical year A, all of them are baptismal readings.

Ø   During these 3 Sundays, the catechumens will celebrate the scrutinies, which are penitential rites to help the catechumens in their journey towards the Sacraments of initiation.  

FIRST READING – Ex 17:3-7

Ø  In chapter 15 there is another scene about water, in that scene they cannot drink because the water is bitter.

Ø  In chapter 17 the people are  exhausted and thirsty, they want water.

Ø  They do not attack Moses, but God.  They think that God is not able to take care of them in the wilderness.

Ø  Their concept of God is very primitive; God is he who solves all the difficulties. As the people of Israel walk the journey of faith, they will learn little by little who God is. Their prophets will tell them that  God wants to have a loving personal relationship with the People and with each one of the members of the people of Israel. Still more, God wants to have this relationship with each human being.

Ø  Moses asks God, and God, as always, answers like a loving and caring parent.

Ø  Take the elders, so they will be witnesses of what I will do, and struck the rock with the rod with which you struck the river.

Ø  And water flows in abundance.

Ø  The last sentence of this Sunday’s reading tells us the real meaning of the quarrel, they doubt about God

Ø  Does their behavior resemble ours?

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Ps 95

If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart

Come let us sing joyfully to the Lord

Let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation

Let us greet him with thanksgiving;

Let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart

Come; let us bow down in worship

Let us kneel before the Lord who made us

For he is our God

And we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart

Oh, that today you would hear his voice

Harden not your hearts as at Meribah

As in Massah in the desert,

Where your fathers tempted me

They tested me though they had seen my works.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart 

 SECOND READING – Rom 5:1-2. 5-8

« In the preceding chapters Paul has explained how do we reach salvation

« In the chapters , which will follow after this reading, Paul will concentrate in explaining what salvation is.

« In this fragment of his letter, Paul switches from the word faith to the word life.

« The word life has a physical meaning in Rom 7,1-3

« Apart from those two verses, life has a variety of meanings  which we know through   the words used by Paul:

o   Peace, in the sense of the Hebrew word shalom, which is the fullness of all that is good and the absence of anything bad. The true shalom will be reached only in Heaven.

o   Grace, gift. We called grace the gift   to participate into God’s life during our earthly journey.

o    Hope, which enables us to continue with joy our journey even among the hardships of life.

o   Love which God has poured out into our hearts

o   The Holy Spirit whom the Father has given to us.

o   The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us when we were still sinners. 

GOSPEL:  John 4:5-42

Jesus is going from Jerusalem to Galilee; he had to pass through Samaria.

At the town of Sychar he stops and sits at the well Jacob had given to his sons.

He is tired, hungry and thirsty. His disciples had gone  to the town to buy food.

Dialogue with the Samaritan woman:

     The woman comes to the well at noon, this is not the normal time to go to the well, but maybe her life was not accepted by the other women, thus she used to come at noon when nobody was there.

     Jesus says “give me a drink”

The woman answers, “You are a man and a Jew, I am a Samaritan woman. (A man was not supposed to speak in public with a woman and much less with a Samaritan woman. Jews have nothing to do with Samaritans)

Jesus says: if you knew whom it is that is asking for a drink, you would ask him instead.  

     The woman recognizes something different in this man: Sir, you do not have a bucket…. Jesus is willing to drink from the woman’s bucket. This is truly, what the Son of God has done; share our bucket-our life becoming human one like us.

Jesus tells her that anyone drinking the water from the well will continue to be thirsty; he can give her living water, which shall become a spring within her, leaping up to eternal life.

The woman wants this water, but she is still at the material level, if this man gives her that kind of water she will not have to come back to well every day.

Jesus wants to take the woman a step further, “go tell you husband and come back here”

     The woman is drawn to the light although she is still reluctant, this man knows her life. How much she has been looking to satiate her thirst of love, always in the wrong place.

Jesus tells her you are right you have had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not yours.

The woman says “Sir you are a prophet”

She engages in a conversation over the place of worship, maybe she is embarrassed by what Jesus has told her, she still fights against the light, which is given to her.

The true worshiper will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, because God is Spirit.

The woman now talks about the Messiah

Jesus makes to her the greatest revelation “I who speak to you, am he”

The scene is changed now.

• The disciples come back; they do not ask even being surprised to see him talking to a woman.
• The woman leaves her bucket, she does not need it any more, she has finally found peace and reconciliation within herself, she already has the fountain of water promised by Jesus, her joy is complete. She wants to share it with the people of her town “come to see a man who has told me the things I ever did, could he be the Messiah?”
• Meanwhile the disciples want Jesus to eat, Jesus, as he did with the woman talking to her about the living water,  he speaks to the disciples about another bread, the bread of the will of the Father. (In the first temptation he answered “not only of bread…. But the will of God.)
• He explains to them that they have been sent to reap what others had worked. In the Church, each one has its own mission given by the Lord, and all together we do the will of the Father.
• The people from the town come and on listening to Jesus, they believe in him.

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

The more we went into that immense sea of waters the more my spirit plunged into the immense sea of God , when I looked at myself  within the heart of my God  and Lord more clearly than in a mirror. God was so pleased in this way of considering his infinite greatness that often times He made me feel the tenderness of his most holy arms with which His holy Majesty pressed my soul within his sacred heart…. The immensity of the sea reminded me of the immensity of God and those skies so wide brought to my mind the immense spaces of the glory of the saints. Venerable María Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 159.

Fire that always burns, love that is always on fire and is never lukewarm, enkindle in me the fire of your love, so that I may love you. I love you, Jesus, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength. I would like to love you more and that all love you. I would like to love you for me and for all your creatures. Most Holy Virgin Mary, grant me the grace that all be saved and no one  be condemned.  St. Anthony M. Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Prayer.   

SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

v On the First Sunday of Lent, we contemplate Jesus tempted, and at the same time how he affirms the dominion of God over all, we shall submit only to Him. 

v Next Sunday we will have a glance to the glory of Jesus, the son the beloved, to  whom we have to listen. 

v THE BOOK OF GENESIS

« In the Liturgy of the First Sunday of Lent, the first Reading was taken from the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the Book of Genesis. 

« The first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis are not historical, in the way the events are narrated. 

« However they are also historical in the sense that they try to explain the process of creation, the reality of sin and temptation.

« Using a symbolic language full of images they transmit to us a theological reflection on these realities.  

« In the liturgy of the Second Sunday of Lent, the first reading is taken from chapter 12 of Genesis. 

o   From chapter 12 on there is a change in perspective in the book of Genesis 

o   The first 11 chapters show us the work of God, who gives without measure and seeks men and women repeatedly.

o   At the same time these chapters also tell us how men and women respond to the generosity of God by sinning and following the temptation of Paradise “you will be like gods”. Men and women turn away from God, their creator, to follow their own ways of sin and corruption. 

o   In chapter 12 God intervenes again, doing something new. Like in creation when God called man to existence now he calls another man. This man will accept the call and will obey the God of the Mountain, as he calls Him, “El Shaddai” אל שדי. The God of the patriarchs, which is the same God of Moses  YHWH, the only God.  The translation of El Shaddai is God Almighty. 

o   With Abram a new stage begins in human history,  in the  relationship of the human being with its creator.

FIRST READING Gn  12, 1-4

o   The Lord tells Abram to leave the land of his kinsfolk and from his father’s house and go to a land that the Lord will show him.  

§  He is asked to leave without knowing the destination, with the sole trust in the word of the God who spoke to him from the mountain  

o   God makes 7 promises to Abram  

§  I will make of you a great nation 

§  I will bless you 

§  I will make your name great  

§  So that you will be a blessing 

§  I will bless those who bless you  

§  I will curse those who curse you  

§  All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you. 

o   Abram leaves as God has asked him 

§  His reaction to the word of God is completely different from that of the first fathers: Adam and Eve, the people of Noah’s time and  the people of the tower of Babel. These did not obey the word of God, Abram goes forth as God has told him, he does not know where, but he trusts the word of the Lord God Almighty

§  Thus he will be a blessing and not a curse as our first fathers were. 

§  A new adventure begins for the human race.

SECOND LETTER TO TIMOTHY

Ø  The letters to Timothy are considered “deutero-paulines”. The name deutero is given to a group of letters which scholars think have not been written by Paul but by some of his disciples.  

Ø  The Letter to Timothy seems to have been written after the death of Paul. 

Ø  This letter belongs  also to the group of letters called Pastoral letters, which are letters addressed to Bishops: Titus and Timothy who had been collaborators of Paul in his ministry. 

« God has called us to a life of holiness. Holiness is to live our life according to the will of God. 

« We have seen   the answer of Abram to the call of God. 

« We have been called to a life of holiness in Christ Jesus. 

« The Father has called us to this holiness of life before the creation of the world. 

« Christ has brought  us salvation and immortality by despoiling death of its power.

GOSPEL  Mt. 17,1-9

« Jesus takes Peter, James and John and goes with them to pray on Mount Tabor.   .

« This mount is found in Galilee  

« Matthew says, “He was transfigured in their presence.”  

« His face was radiant as the sun, and his clothes were white. All these symbols are symbols of the divinity, of the presence of God.  

« Jesus is not only filled with the presence of God, but Jesus is God himself. On the mountain, he allows his disciples to have a glimpse to who he really is. These same three apostles will witness his extreme weakness on another mountain the Golgotha. 

« Two characters Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets) speak with him.  We are not told what they speak about,  another of the Gospels  says that they speak of his passion and death.    

« Peter and the others as well, are amazed and beside themselves, they feel so good. How good it is to be here! Like us when we have had an experience of God, no matter how small, how simple; when we feel looked with love and tenderness by Him, as St. Paul II says, we can but follow him.  

« Peter wants to remain there, but this will not be possible, he will have to come down, keep living his life following his Master, carrying his own cross like all of us do. He will have the memory of this experience which will help him to continue his journey.         

« The text says that a cloud covered them. In the Old Testament, the presence of God is symbolized or described as a cloud that covers everything.  Thus, the presence of God surrounded them and they were afraid.  

« An author says that the presence of God captivates us but at the same time, we are afraid like it happened to them. 

« God calmed them saying “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.” In the French Bible instead of saying “I am well pleased” it says “in whom I find my joy.”  

« Peace comes back to them when Jesus speaks and says “Do not be afraid…” Jesus words calm their hearts and fill them with peace.

« Jesus says to us the same words “do not be afraid…” in spite of your sins, of the difficulty you find in forgiving others, your bad inclinations, your bad temperament, your lack of tenderness…. (each one may complete this list.) Do not be afraid I am with you. Is not my name I AM (YHWH)?