21 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A – 2020

Matthew’s Gospel may  be studied in different ways. Today we are going to reflect on this Gospel as divided in three stages according to the ministry of Jesus and to the answers of the people and the disciples.   

According to this

Ø  The first stage  goes from the first chapter to 4:12. It is the part of the first events and steps of Jesus in his life on earth.  This stage ends with his retreat and temptations on the desert. We could say that this is  the time in which Jesus prepares himself for the ministry to reveal to us the Father.     

Ø  The second stage  begins when John the Baptist is put in prison, when Jesus comes back from the desert he goes to Cafarnaum. During this stage he    

o   Prepares his disciples for the ministry they will do  

o   Teaches de people   about the Kingdom         

o   Argues with the Pharisees and Saducees on the true faith and about who God is.   

Ø  The third stage   begins with the episode we will see today, Jesus and the disciples in Caesarea of Philippi. During this stage Jesus    

o   Dedicates  himself to teach his disciples   

o   Prepares for his passion, death and resurrection  

o   Continues teaching his disciples after his resurrection 

 FIRST READING -  Is 22:19-23

ü  The prophet Isaiah tells us today an event that had happened during the time Assyria had sieged Jerusalem in 701 B.C.

ü  It is about a royal butler that has done something wrong and the king removes him from his office.   

ü  His authority and office is given to Eliakim

ü  He will have the keys of the kingdom and will tie and untie and the king will accept what this man decides.   

ü  This story has been chosen by the Church for this Sunday in which we read the Gospel of Matthew on the Peter’s mission.    

ü  In the Sunday’s liturgy the key theme is given by the Gospel and according to this Gospel those who prepared the lectionary chose the first reading.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  138

R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to your name,
because of your kindness and your truth:
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands..

v In this psalm the author gives thanks to God because he has heard him   

o   Because you heard our prayers  

o   Whenever we invoke you, your hear us  

o   We are the work of your hands.   

v When we realize that we have been heard, this stirs in us 

o   The desire to sing to adore  

v In the psalm we say that the love of God lasts forever, last Sunday we said with St. Paul that the gifts of the Lord are forever.   

GOSPEL – Mt 16:13-20

     Jesus with his disciples have arrived in Cesarea of Philippi. 

     He has a very interesting and challenging question for the disciples and for us the XXI century disciples. 

     Who do people say that I am? The answer is easy they always listen to people saying things about their Teacher, but now Jesus makes a harder question, and you who do you say that I am?  

     Jesus has made a very difficult question that it takes our life span to be able to answer it in a real  way. If we are perseverant we will find this pearl, this treasure that is to know Jesus because then our happiness will be complete  

     The Father comes to the aid of those young men who follow his Son and to one of them, Peter, He reveals the truth, Jesus is the Messiah that Israel has been waiting for so many centuries.   

     All the hopes of Israel crumble with this confession of faith, because it is impossible to believe looking at the reality:   

o   Jesus, is the Messiah? But he came from Nazareth from where nothing good can come  

o   He is a poor itinerant prophet, not accepted by the civil and religious authorities of our nation, he questions our traditions, he preaches a God full of tenderness, kindness, mercy who asks us to love above all, he even does not accept the interpretations we have made of the law which are so sacred.  He says that we have to love those dogs, foreigners who do not belong like us to the people of the election.     

o   Peter, the rock? But if he is full of fear, he panics when the authority confronts him or for the matter, any person who confronts him…  and to give to Peter the keys? He too impulsive, he makes decision without reflecting guided by his heart. It is true that Peter makes mistakes, but he is not mistaken in what is essential, that is his inconditional love for Jesus in spite of his weakness. The Lord will be forming him and helping him to discover how poor and vulnerable he is, but how much trust he has in Jesus.   

     Who is Jesus for me, for you, for us the Church, the community of the followers?   During this week we may meditate on this question, take it to the reality of our life, the life of the XXI century community, who do our contemporaries say that Jesus is? And, do our behavior influence this answer?     

SECOND READING  – Rom 11:33-36

·       Usually during the ordinary time, the second reading does not have the same theme as the first and Gospel have, but this week it coincides perfectly.  

·       Paul exclaims with admiration meditating in the unfathomable wisdom of God. 

·       And he asks, who has known the mind of God? Or, to whom has He asked for counsel?  

·       Let us think in today’s Gospel  

·       God does not ask us for counsel because He is the Creator; everything was made by Him and for Him, as we say about Jesus, His incarnate Word.   

·       If the wisdom of God chooses Peter because He has created him for this mission, even if Peter did not know it, as we do not know either what is our mission, until after praying, asking advice, and dialoguing with our Teacher, we discover it and following it we find the happinness we were looking for.    

CLARETIAN CORNER 

… My second Apostles ought to be a living copy of the first, both in name as in deeds.  With the torch of the Gospel in hand, they are to light the way for the most wise and ignorant men (she speaks of Claret)

… Most Reverend Father Claret because it is he who God Our Lord has chosen so that among the Saints of his Church a light will emerge that as a clear and shining star will illuminate and gladden the dark and tenebrous night of this ignorant century (that I think that those who are most blind call an illustrated century). 

… This is the Angel that St. John saw in heaven with the Gospel in hand to evangelize all men and tell all:  Fear the Lord, and give him the honor that is due.  This is that apostolic man who is to once again put into practice the Lord’s Holy Law..(she speaks of Claret)  Venerable María María Antonia París. “Plan for the Renewal of the Church ,” 59-61 in Paris y Claret Two Pens Guided by The Same Spirit,ch.3) 

 

The Prelate has to provide the corporal goods to his parishioners,   in the following way:  1^st  Visiting and helping the poor, the sick and the prisoners.   2nd  Helping, even when they are healthy, the poor, the orphans, the widows and the elderly,  using that occasion to instruct them in religion and in the reception of the sacraments.    3rd Helping the orphans and abandoned to get an art, an office or to choose a status, realizing that the Prelate is the father of the poor.  4th To welcome with joy the pilgrims, in a special way if they are clerics or religious, realizing that in their person he is welcoming Christ himself.  

Saint Anthony Mary Claret. “Notes of a Plan to Keep   the Beauty of the Church and Defend Her Against Errors” text taken from ch.3 section about the Laity.  Paris and Claret, Two Pens Guided by The Same Spirit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BARKER, John R. – BELLINGER, Karla J. Living the Word – Year A.

GUIJARRO OPORTO, Santiago. Introducción y comentario al Evangelio de Mateo.  Comentario al Nuevo Testamento, 1995.      

MUÑOZ, M.Hortensia y TUTZO, Regina, Misioneras Claretianas. Paris y Claret Two Pens Guided by The Same Spirit.    2010

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión Oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, Madrid 2012.   

 

 20  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – A – 2020   

v Last Sunday Jesus said to those men frightened by the storm on the lake “Do not be afraid, It is I” 

v Today we will hear Jesus telling to a pagan woman, who asks Jesus to heal her daughter “O, woman great is your faith!”   

v Faith in the goodness of God who has created us is in the heart of many men and women followers and non-followers of Jesus, believers from other religious groups.   

v This is wonderful! And I do not believe we can fully grasp it, it goes beyond our way to look at each other!    

FIRST READING Is 56:1. 6-7  

This text is taken from the third part of the book of Isaiah, called the Third Isaiah. These prophets had the mission to console and encourage the people on the return from the exile. The descendants of those who left and now come back and the descendants of those who remained in the country had lived very different experiences and now have great difficulty to become a unified people.  The prophet  encourages and sustains their hope.     

 In today’s reading we read the first verse of chapter 56 which is like an introduction, and afterwards we read verses 6-8. 

o   Observe what is right   

o   Because my justice will come 

o   And will be revealed   

Ø   The justice we all await and want, although some seek it by wrong roads, and many times we get discouraged but our Father God and Creator says to us, my justice will be seen.   

Ø  And it is already visible in many parts of our world where people from different beliefs do good and fight for others.    

Ø  I want to remember here the Claretian Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga who dedicated 52 years of his life to minister the indigenous people of the Amazonia, in Matto Grosso, Brazil and fought for the respect and recognition of the equal dignity of all peoples. He died at 92 years old a couple of days ago.   

Ø  After reading the first verse we go to verses 6 to 8 in which, the Lord speaks to the foreigners who follow the Lord, and promise them to taken them to his holy mountain, to his home, to Him and He will unite them with the people of the promises.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Sal.67(66)

R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!

Ø  It is a psalm of praise but at the same time of supplication “let all the nations praise you! Lord grant us that little by little all the peoples discover You and surrender to your love.  

GOSPEL Mt 15:21-28

     After teaching, healing and feeding the people that followed him, Jesus went to the mountain to dialogue with his Father, he walks on the waters of the lake, discusses with the Pharisees about traditions of hygiene that have become part of the religious laws  of Israel.   

     After that, Jesus goes to the land of Tyre and Sidon, probably to rest since nobody knew him there. 

     But, o what a surprise! Somebody shouts “Son of David…! They know me here too?   

     I am going to transcribe below a very interesting narration explaining this Gospel.  It is as if the girl that was healed, when she is an adult tells the story to a group of people of the first  communities that were eager to know stories about the Master, about Jesus

o   My mother was seated outside our home stroking a puppy.   

o   My difficulties started when I was 4 or 5 years old, when I began to feel the sickness, the demon. (for the people of that time sickness was a demon or was caused by a demon.)   

o   One day a group of foreigners, maybe we could say tourists from Israel came to our town   

o   Among them Jesus the Healer. She called out to him “Have pity on me, Lord Son of David!  

o   Here she explains all that her mother had to endure: Jesus at the beginning seemed not to pay attention to her, the Apostles, like in the episode of the loaves, ask Jesus to send her away, she is disturbing them. But Jesus did not. 

o   At that moment the heart of her mother swelled with hope. Maybe, could the mercy of the God of Israel extend even north of the border?

o   Hope and love made my mother persist, Help me, sir!

o   She said that she will never forget how gently Jesus said “It is not right to take the children’s bread and give it to the puppies.”

o   My mother felt the Holy Spirit swell up within her. “Even the little dogs eat the scraps under the table!

o   Jesus was astonished. His face shone as he looked in her eyes. Woman great is your faith. At that very moment I was healed!

o   Until the day she died, she told everyone about God’s mercy toward me. (cf. Living Word p. 186)

     I believe that this story does not need any explanation, let us reflect in silence and pray, dialogue with Jesus about this episode, giving him thanks for all the anonymous persons some Christian others from other religious traditions that live their faith and love of God in a very beautiful way without noise with much humility.  

SECOND READING   Rom 11:13-15, 29-32

ü  Last Sunday Paul told us that he suffered for his people 

ü  Today he reflects on the same theme but from another angle 

o   Il is called apostle of the gentiles, and he glories in this ministry   

o   With the hope to make his people jealous and to see if they accept the faith in Jesus.    

o   He asks if their rejection of Jesus is the reconciliation of the world  

o   What consequences will their acceptance bring? I will be life   

ü  In the second part of the reading he speaks of the gifts of God  

o   The gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.   

o   He suffered for his people and he reaches to the understanding through prayer and reflection that the gifts and the call of God are forever.   

o   What a relief for us that suffered so many times for members of our family, friends or even us, when we journey separated Fromm God. Let us keep praying because what God gives and when God calls it is forever.  

o   Thank you Paul for sharing your thoughts with us because they give us much peace.   

CLARETIAN CORNERVenerable María Antonia París, Foundress -  .  

Bishops therefore look at the Rules and order that they be observed with all its purity, getting rid of all the negligence that the mundane spirit has favored saying that poverty does not consist of not having goods or riches or any other thing, but in having the heart detached from it:  to those who speak in this manner, destroying the spirit of Religion, His Majesty says that if they pay attention to those words:  blessed are the poor in spirit because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven, to pay attention to the words he responds to the young man who asked him what to do to be perfect:  Sell what you have, give it to the poor and follow me.  Notice that he did not tell him detach your heart from riches and follow me, but: sell your riches or goods, give them to the poor and follow me.  “Renewal of the Church 49”in París and Claret Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit. 

San Antonio María Claret, fundador - The Prelate is the father of the poor, and when these are sick they are twice entitle to his compassion and pastoral zeal, for this reason he will call the Sisters of Charity to take care of them in hospitals and houses of charity.  And may the Prelate keep in mind that if the sick are not taken care of by the Sisters of Charity or any other similar sisters, like the Tertiary Carmelites, they will suffer much; thus he has to do whatever is in his possibility to bring Sisters to the Archdiocese.   “Notes of a Plan to Keep the Beauty of the Church and to Preserve it.”   in  París and Claret Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit.     

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BARKER, John R. – BELLINGER, Karla J. Living the Word – Year A.

MUÑOZ, M.Hortensia y TUTZO, Regina, Misioneras Claretianas. Paris and Claret Two Pens Moved by the Same Spirit. 2010   

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, Madrid 2012.   

19 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   - A – 2020 

ü  Today’s Gospel is a call to trust in Jesus who says to us “Take courage it is I.”   

ü  In the first Reading the prophet Elijah acknowledges the presence of God in the tiny whispering sound of the wind.   

ü  And Paul in his letter to the Romans tells them how much he suffers for his people, he wishes that all may know Jesus.    

THE BOOK OF KINGS

Ø  The two books of Kings are the continuation of the books of Samuel.  

Ø  In the Hebrew Bible they form an only book called   Melakim.

Ø  In the Greek translation (LXX) and in the Latin translation (The Vulgate) they are called third and fourth book of Kings, since Samuel are the first and the second of Kings.   

Ø  They are part of the Deuteronomist History which goes from the entrance into the promise land (Josuah) to the exile of Babylon (587 before Christ). This collection of books is called by the Jews: the former prophets.

Ø  Now in our Bibles they are called 1 and 2 Samuel , 1 and 2 Kings  

Ø  The reading this Sunday is taken form the part of the first book of Kings called the Cycle of Elijah (1K 14-2K 1.

  

FIRST READING   1K 19:9ª,11-13a

Ø  Elijah is on the Mountain of God,   Horeb.     

Ø  Since in the Bible we have the repetition of some passages in which Horeb is also called Sinai and vice versa, some have concluded that it is the same mountain. 

Ø  For those who think so Horeb would be the name used by the Midianites and Sinai by the Canaanites and the Amorites; the name Horeb seems to indicate the dryness of the land while Sinai would indicate its proximity to the desert of Sin. 

Ø  However there is evidence also to think that these two names indicate two different places.  

Ø  Elijah has called a long drought over the land, but he has prayed and the Lord has sent the rain.

Ø   Now he goes to the Horeb and there he waits for the Lord.

Ø  God speaks to him and says I will be passing by.

Ø  Different atmospheric phenomena happen, but Elijah does not perceive the presence of God through them, only when he experiences a tiny whispering sound.

Ø   In the Scriptures many times the theophany is represented by thunder, lightning and many other meteorological manifestations, but here God teaches Elijah something else about Him. God is in the peace, in the tenderness.

Ø  Elijah has worked very much to transmit to his people the Word of God, he has suffered much, he is older now and thus he is like the field that is prepared to receive the seed, the heart of Elijah, fiery man, man of fire whose word has stop the rain for a long time, now he is ready to discover another facet of the God he loves with all his being. God manifests himself in the softness of a breeze.

Ø   God does the same in our heart, this is why we need to stop and listen attentively this whisper of God in our heart.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps 85: 9. 10. 11-12. 13-14

Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.

I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD — for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation

Ø  The promise of peace for those who turn to the Lord, for whoever begins a process of conversion, the closeness to God brings to him/her peace and energy.   

Ø  It seems as if the psalmist wants  to tell us that love and justice are two similar realities and that truth and peace are also similar or equal.

GOSPEL  Mt 14:22-33

v Jesus asks his disciples to go to the other shore and there wait for Him. How did he plan to reach the other shore?

v He dismissed the people he had cured and had fed, and now alone, by himself, he goes to the mountain top to pray, to talk with the Father. He could not do it when he got there for the first time because he was moved by compassion on seeing so many sick and so many hungry persons.  

v While he is at prayer the disciples are in the midst of the lake tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against them. 

v Jesus goes toward them walking on the sea.

v When the disciples see Him walking on the water of the lake they  it is a ghost.

v Jesus speaks to them and says:  it is I, do not be troubled. 

v Peter, practical man inclined to what is concrete and palpable, asks Jesus to be able to walk on the sea as Jesus is doing, and the Lord says “come.”   

v Peter rushes to the sea led by his impetuous heart, and oh! what a wonderful thing, he walks on the sea, but suddenly he doubts and,  then he begins to sink.  

v  Jesus grasps him and rebukes him saying: man of little faith!

v When Jesus gets to the boat the wind calms down, and those men are amazed, they are troubled, and probably they   feel ashamed because they have doubted, thus they say to him “truly you are the Son of God!”

v I think this gospel can help us very much in this moment of our human history, men, women and children who live on this our planet earth. We experience suffering, death, limitation, poverty and our sin.

v Like those disciples who lived more than 2000 years ago, filled with fear we cry out to Jesus. Have mercy of us! We do not know what to do in the midst of this pandemic. Let us make silence in and around us to listen to the voice of Jesus who says to us: woman, man of little faith, I have conquered death! Like Peter let us grasp the hand of Jesus and listen to Him to discover ways to cooperate together in the fight against the evil that surrounds us inside and outside.

SECOND READING   Rom 9:1-5

      Paul confesses with simplicity to the community of Rome that he is suffering for his people, because his people do not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah  they have waited for such a long time.   

     He suffers so much that he wishes, if this could be possible, to be separated from the Lord for the sake of his people

     He thinks aloud on who his people is, and mentions all that makes of it the people of the election, the people of the promise, but  they have forgotten it.     

     We need to abandon ourselves into the arms of our God, of our Lord Jesus and   never boast of our own strength, our vanity and our pride. Faith is a gift, a precious gift which may wither like a flower, break as the crystal, get lost like we lose what the thieves steal.    

     The Lord is always with us, “it is I,” but we need to be with Him.

 CLARETIAN CORNER

 When the ship was so full with the water which was entering in (by the crack that I mentioned above), and it was impossible to resist (humanly speaking), without sinking, then the butler went to Santa Barbara (store room) to look for sugar. An interior force moved him, as he himself confessed, because he had no need of that sugar and at that time – it was 4:30 in the morning (no body used to go to that place). But God our Lord who took this navigation under his grace, wanted to announce the danger when there was no more human remedy for the prodigy to be more manifested. When the butler entered the store room he found himself in an immense pond of water since this had entered already in very great quantity that reach up to a man’s height.

I had made many  acts of abandonment and self- offering in the arms of the Divine providence in the midst of so many perils, being certain and most sure  that God is never short of means to help his children in their necessities even in that immense space of waters where we had no other refuge than the violent waves . This faith so alive, that God has put in my soul made me be calm in the midst of so many fights. And in this way God willed to show that the one who puts all his hope in his infinite power would never be confounded

Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 146, 152. 

We continued our voyage to Cuba in high spirits and excellent order. The ship's cabin space was divided into two parts: I and my companions were quartered in the space between the main mast and the poop; the nuns were quartered all to themselves in the space between the main mast and the bow, and separated from the rest of us by shuttered doors. My group got up every day on schedule, I washed, and made a half-hour's meditation together. The nuns did the same in their quarters. After meditation I celebrated Mass in our quarters, where an altar had been set up. I said Mass every day of our voyage. It was attended by all in my group as well as by the sisters, who heard it from their own quarters by pushing back the shuttered doors that formed the dividing line between them and us. The sisters and priests all received Communion, except for one of the priests who celebrated a second Mass, during which we made our thanksgiving. There was a system of rotation for the priest who said the second Mass, so that every day we had two Masses--one said by me, the other by the priest whose turn it was that day.

On reaching the Gulf of Damas, I began conducting a mission on deck.  Everyone on board attended it, passengers and crew, from captain to cabin boy, and everyone went to confession and received Communion at a general Communion service. We were on friendly terms with the crew, and on every voyage they would make to Cuba they used to come and visit us.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, 506,509. 

     

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Antonio María Claret, Autobiografía.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiografía

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo)  2007

ENCICLOPEDIA DE LA BIBLIA, cuarto volumen. Editorial Éxito 1963.

LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del Vaticano. 

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Versión oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española, Madrid 2012.