15 – SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B – 2021   

Ø  Last Sunday Jesus was not accepted in his hometown.

Ø  Today in the first reading prophet Amos is rejected, not by his people, but by the religious authority of the temple where he has been sent to prophesize, in the Northern Kingdom, Israel.  

Ø  In the Gospel Jesus calls and sends the twelve to preach the good news of the Kingdom.  

THE PROPHET AMOS

Ø  King Solomon’s kingdom, after his death, was divided among his sons in two kingdoms: Israel in the North formed by ten of  the tribes, the other one in the South formed by the tribe of Judah called Southern Kingdom or Judah.

Ø  The prophet was from Tekoa, village 12 miles from Jerusalem and visible from Bethlehem.

Ø  According to what Amos says at the beginning of his book he was a shepherd and a farmer. 

Ø  He is known as the prophet of justice, his accusations are strong, and his words are on fire, strong and in many cases harsh and ironic as well.  

Ø  He strongly denounces the gap increasingly wider between those who own most of the riches (the house of Israel or the royal family and the aristocracy) and those who are  in need, the poor, the excluded… (the people of Israel).  

Ø  He denounces the manipulation and the fraud in the public administration as well as in the temple administration and the religious hypocrisy.   

Ø  Let us see what today’s reading says  to us 

FIRST READING  :  Amos 7:12-15

v  Bethel was the royal sanctuary of Israel, that is in the Northern Kingdom. Amos was a citizen from the Southern Kingdom, Judah.   

v  The priest from Bethel expels Amos from his temple and tells him to leave and own his living prophesizing someplace else.  In that time there were prophets that serve the King and usually told him what he wanted to hear. They were not real prophets; they were not the voice of God.   

v  Bethel means “house of God” and it is located West of Jericho and at the North of Jerusalem.  

v  Amos responds to the priest that he had never been a prophet, but the Lord took him from his flock and told him;  “Go, prophesize to my people Israel.”

v  Have we felt sometime like this prophet called and sent?   The day of our baptism we were anointed priest, prophet and King.   

v  We need to keep the connection with the Lord opened, maybe he is calling us and we do not hear him because there is much noise around us.   

v  How are we going to be prophets?  In my opinion, living our life with simplicity, doing all the good we can, the Lord will help us to see ways to make him known  and share our life of friendship with Him.   

v  Responsorial Psalm- Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14

R. (8)    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.

 

ü  The psalm we will sing or recite next Sunday, is a petition to see God’s mercy, to experience it.   

ü  There are in this psalm some verses that invite us to reflect in silent prayer, allowing them to change our heart helping us to open it to God.   

o   Mercy and truth meet, maybe mercy and truth are the same reality?  

o   Justice and peace kiss, we could say heaven and earth kiss.  Heaven bends to kiss the earth, the Son, the Word of God embraces, kisses our flesh in such a way that John can say, “the Word was made flesh.”    

GOSPEL -  Mk 6:7-13

      Jesus calls the twelve, like in the first reading God called Amos. 

      And Jesus sends them, like God sent Amos.   

      He sends them two by two and gives them power over evil.  

      He tells them how they must go in that mission  

      They must leave without provisions, without temporal securities, only having their trust in the one who sent them.   

      When they will arrive where people are, a home, stay there and share your peace with them. 

      If they do not welcome you, or they do not listen to you, leave from that place without accepting or taking anything.  

      Jesus sends them to the mission in poverty, trusting only in the power of the one Who sent them. Without feeling superior over the other persons to whom they are sent, they do not have to carry anything extra, only what they need, they go two by two to help each other and to give the testimony of collaborative fraternity.  

      I have read in a commentary “… the priority for these missionaries is the proclamation of the Kingdom not the search for comfort.”  

      They left, they preached the good news, anointed the sick and they were cured, and they expelled demons.   

      The church, we who form it, continue this same mission but we describe it with different names, and we use other methods: 

o   The church preaches the gospel in the mass, in popular missions, in classes with persons of all ages and conditions and through the life of those who formed it.  

o   The church anoints the sick with the sacred oil, but she also anoints the spirit of those who suffer, listening with love and compassion.   

o   The church expels demons, in the sacrament of forgiveness and when we forgive one another as the Father forgives each one of us.   

SECOND READING – Ef 1:3-10

Blessed be God, Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, why?   

o   He has blessed us   

o   He has chosen us in Christ before the world began    

o   And he has done this in order that we be holy as He is holy, that we become his children   

o   He has favored us in his beloved Son, Jesus  

o   Because we have received redemption in the blood of Jesus    

o   With redemption we have received the forgiveness of all our sins    

o   He has revealed to us the plan he had set  forth in Christ for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ. 

v Luis Alonso Schökel says “This blessing is to be listened to in the liturgical prayer of the assembly  […]   This is God’s Project, that was hidden and now it has been revealed through the death and resurrection of Christ. This hymn is the introduction of  the letter and gives to the whole letter a tone of prayer, adoration and celebration which summarizes all its chapters.”  

CLARETIAN CORNER 

J.M.J

                                                                                                                                                      

To Mother Maria Antonia

 

Madrid, January 9 1867

 

My dear Mother in Our Lord Jesus Christ:  I have received the letter you mentioned in your letter of  [January] 3. In response to it I must tell you that today I have received the file of the documents sent by the Archbishop of Tarragona. And I have personally visited the Minister to put into his hands this file, and I have asked him its prompt dispatch; now what is needed is to pray a lot so that the devil will not hinder it.     

 

From the 27th of last month and the 7th of the present month, I have been at the Escorial, far from this Babylon of Madrid; in this Court people oppress me a lot.  There is nothing but to offer it to Baby Jesus. O, how much I want to leave the Palace! I wish!!!! Like the Magi that left Jerusalem to adore Jesus in Bethlehem, and from there continue through the way of the missions. For this has the Lord created me and not to be a courtier; for me the Royal Palace is my exile, my torment.   

 

Pray for me to God and also tell the Nuns to do the same, so that the Lord may grant me to know what I have to do. My kind regards to all, and count on your servant and chaplain.  

 

Antonio María Archbishop of Trajanopolis

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RR.Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters. Cartas de los Origenes (Letters from the Origins.) Madrid

 2009

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO – Commentaries by Luis Alonso Schökel.

LA SAGRADA BIBLIA – Traduction official de la Conferencia española de Obispos. 2010

 

 
 

 

XIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B – 2021

Ø  The last two Sundays we have listened to the narration of some miracles o signs performed by Jesus.

Ø  Today Jesus will tell us that a prophet is not without honor except in his native place

BOOK OF EZEKIEL

I copy here a paragraph from one of the commentators of the Boof of the Prophet Ezequiel. “The last chapters of the book […] are the great final choir of the hope of Israel.  A magnificent Temple, a worship organized in its minor details, a concern for the justice of the prince in his relationship with the people, and a just distribution of the land, all of this are part of that utopic kingdom which never existed or will ever exist. The Kingdom that Jesus will come to proclaim and establish. The justification and the message of this utopic vision is that men and nations need hope, and even if these conditions are never fulfilled completely, but they allow us to continue the journey until we find the currents of the life-giving waters that cover everything.” The waters that Ezekiel saw flowing from the temple.

FIRST READING  Ez 2:2-5

v  Ezekiel says that the Lord asked him to stand up, that means to pay attention to what the Lord was going to tell him

v  The message from the Lord was to let him know that He was giving him a mission, and this mission was to go to the children of Israel, his people, and bring them the word of God.

v  God describes this people as a people of rebels, obstinate, that the parents as well as the children had betrayed the Lord.

v  Ezekiel has to bring the word of God to this people

v  God let Ezekiel know that this task will be difficult, maybe without immediate results

v  But either if they listen or if they reject him, the people will know that

o   There is a prophet in their midst

o   A prophet sent by the God they had rejected

o   A prophet that brings them the salvation of God.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Ps 122

R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
To you I lift up my eyes
    who are enthroned in heaven —
As the eyes of servants
    are on the hands of their masters.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
As the eyes of a maid
    are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
    till he have pity on us.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
Have pity on us, O LORD, have pity on us,
    for we are more than sated with contempt;
our souls are more than sated
    with the mockery of the arrogant,
    with the contempt of the proud.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.

ü  We see combined in this psalm the cry for the mercy of God and at the same time images of the trust of the servants in the hands of their masters.

ü  The reason for this cry asking for help is because those who sing or recite the psalm are sated with the mockery of the arrogant and the contempt of the proud.

GOSPEL – Mk 6:1-6

      Jesus goes to his village with his disciples

      On the Sabbath, as it was costumery, He goes to the Synagogue and they probably invite him to read. After the reading he reflects on the word He has proclaimed

      People listen to him with attention, but they wonder in their heart, where does He get this wisdom?

      How must that preaching had been that people listened to it with pleasure and they even had questions!

      His fellow countrymen find difficult to accept that one of them, not only one of them, but an insignificant man such as the carpenter of their village could have so much wisdom.

      And, as many of us do, they did not welcome the message, and they discussed in their heart with envy the words that Jesus was saying to them. In our case the words of someone we consider less educated and less intelligent than we are.  

      Jesus who reads the hearts, repeats for them the saying about the welcoming of a prophet in his own land.

      What Mark writes at the end this gospel, makes us think and worry: So, he was not able to perform any mighty deed there […]  He was amazed at their lack of faith.

      Maybe the verse of the alleluia before the Gospel can give some light:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

      Would it be that his countrymen did not consider themselves poor? Would that be the cause that they could not welcome his word that was addressed to the poor?

      And what is the real meaning of poor in the Scriptures?

SECOND READING – 2Co 12:7-10

·         Paul tells us something confidentially. In order that he did not become proud due to the sublimity, beauty and grandeur of what the Lord had revealed to him from the moment He encounter him on the way to Damascus,  Paul feels a thorn, or a strong temptation, that does not leave him in peace.

·         He has asked the Lord for three times to be liberated from this thorn that humiliates him so much

·         The answer of the Lord is simple and clear, Paul I am enough for you, my grace is enough, it will give you strength to continue the fight against the thorn of evil.

·         Is that situation of Paul in front of temptation like our situation before temptation adversity, before all which is a thorn in our flesh?

·         Paul responds to this situation with the beautiful words we find  at the end of the reading:

Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints,
for the sake of Christ;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.

      Paul prefers to be poor in the true meaning of the word. Poor, because he does not have anything his own, since everything has been given to him. He does not want to be self-sufficient which is the opposite to the biblical poverty.

CLARETIAN CORNER

To Mother Antonia Paris de S. Pedro

Zarauz, September 5  1866

            My dear sister in J.C.: I have received your last letters and I see what Rv. Bofarrull says, that what is important is that the agent in Madrid finishes to prepare the File [about the foundation of Reus] and send it to the Minister’s Office, which is waiting anxiously to receive it in order to dispatch it immediately.

I see in your letter that you worry about my health; thanks to God I am good. I have been away from this town for 14 days, I went to the city of St. Sebastian, capital of this Province at 3 miles from here.  I have directed Spiritual Exercises to the Clergy and Missions to the people of the city with a very good attendance and fruit, thanks to God. I have preached also to the men and women of the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, I have preached to the Nuns of St. Theresa. God wanted to use me, poor instrument, to establish the Congregation of St. Aloysius Gonzaga for the conservation of the young men and the Congregation of the Daughters of Mary for the conservation of the girls; I have put a devoted priest, warmed up by the spiritual exercises as head of each one of the congregations; many boys and girls have already joined the Congregations, and there are many more that want to join, I preached and gave the Sacred Communion to both groups. (Fragment of the letter 251 of the book in Spanish Letters from The Origins, p.361. I have done the translation)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RR. de María Inmaculada Misioneras Claretianas. Cartas de los Orígenes (Letters of the Origins).Madrid 2009.

SAGRADA BIBLIA, official version of the Conference of Spanish Bishops. Madrid 2012

 

PENTEC0ST – B -  2021

      With the Solemnity of Pentecost, we have reached the end of the Easter season.   

      We will see how Pentecost has had different names and meanings over the centuries.  

      During the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father to the Church.

      The Spirit will be with the Church always, but not only with the Church but with every human being. The Spirit was poured out upon all flesh.

      The Spirit is the source of the renewed youth of the Church, He brings the eternal newness of God to our humanity that so many times feels comfortable with its ageing not willing to take chances in life. 

PENTECOST

v  Every Israelite had to present himself before YHWH, three times a year:  the second of these feasts became Pentecost.  

In Ex 23:16 it is called the Feast of the Grain Harvest.

v  In the book of Number 28:26  it  is called the Feast of the First Fruits.

v  In the book of Deuteronomy 16:10  it is called the Feast of weeks  because this feast was celebrated seven weeks after the feast of the Unleavened Bread (Passover.)

v  It was also called the Feast of the 50th day (Pentecost)  because it was celebrated 50 days after the first grain offering   Lev 23,9-14

v  This feast became a historical feast in which the people remembered the Covenant on Mount Sinai, and the New Covenant promised by God through the prophets Jeremiah 31,31-34 and Ezekiel 36 :22-28, and fulfilled by Jesus in his Paschal Mystery.

v  On the day of   Pentecost, the Father sent upon the Church the Spirit Jesus had promised.   

FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-11     

Ø  The strong driving wind that filled the house, takes us to the beginning of creation when the Spirit of God as a mighty wind covered the abyss. 

Ø  The noise, the fire, all these strong forces of nature remind us of the theophany on Mount Sinai, when God talked to Moses and made a Covenant with his people, giving them the Law. 

Ø  The tongues of fire: fire, enthusiasm, to proclaim the marvels accomplished by Christ Jesus.  

Ø  The "miracle" of the tongues that made possible for all to understand what the Apostles were announcing to them. This takes us to Babel, where people of one tongue could not understand each other due to greed, pride, sin. Pentecost is the opposite of Babel; the Holy Spirit makes those who are different, opposite, enemies become brothers and sisters, to love one another.    

Ø  I will copy below two quotations from the Jewish tradition about the event on Mount Sinai: 

·         God did not have mouth or tongue, but by means of a wonderful act he decided that a thunder should be heard in the air and a blast should be articulated into words putting the air in motion.  This became fire that had the shape of flames... a voice resounded amid the fire and descended from heaven and this voice spoke the dialect of each one of those who heard it.   (Jewish Philosopher called Filon explained in this fashion the divine theophany on Sinai.) 

·         When the voice of God was pronounced on Sinai it divided itself into seventy voices so that all the nations could understand. The Hebrew people believed that there were 70 nationalities in the world.     

(My translation of both quotations which have been taken from the book   Gianfranco Ravasi  Según las Escrituras- Ciclo C").

Ø  All were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.    

Ø  Through the 2000 years of history since the First Pentecost, the Church has made present the wonderful event of Pentecost among all the nations, sometimes silently, some other times loudly, through the life and mission of men and women from all nations: of parents, missionaries, catechists, priests, sons, and daughters, .... the complete list would be too long.    The enemies become friends, the foreigner and stranger are welcomed into the local community.   

Sequence — Veni, Sancte Spiritus

Come, Holy Spirit, come!

And from your celestial home

Shed a ray of light divine! 

Come, Father of the poor!

Come, source of all our store!

Come, within our bosoms shine. 

You, of comforters the best;

You, the soul's most welcome guest;

Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;

Grateful coolness in the heat;

Solace in the midst of woe. 

O most blessed Light divine,

Shine within these hearts of yours,

And our inmost being fill! 

Where you are not, we have naught,

Nothing good in deed or thought,

Nothing free from taint of ill. 

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;

On our dryness pour your dew;

Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;

Melt the frozen, warm the chill;

Guide the steps that go astray. 

On the faithful, who adore

And confess you, evermore

In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue's sure reward;

Give them your salvation, Lord;

Give them joys that never end. Amen.

Alleluia.

SECOND READING  1 Cor 12:3b-7,12-13

      Paul says that no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit.  But it is not enough to pronounce words or sounds, but this sentence must come from our faith, our trust, and our love for Jesus.                                                                                                  

      Paul helps his community realize that there are different gifts, that everyone has his or her own gifts, which God gives to us to accomplish a mission in the community.   

      And to help his community to understand better, he makes the wonderful comparison of the human body, which has many members, but it is one body.

      Through baptism we are united to Christ  

      And we were all given to drink of one Spirit.  

      In the first reading Luke uses the symbol of fire, wind and tongues. In the second reading water is the symbol used to describe who the Spirit is. 

GOSPEL Jn 20:19-23  

v  In the first reading we have seen how Luke explains the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Church using images taken from the Old Testament, from the traditions of Israel and even of the peoples surrounding it.  

v  In the Gospel the Church invites us to reflect on the mystery of the coming of the Holy Spirit in the way  John explains it.   

v  According to the Gospel of John, the Lord came and stood in their midst, on the evening of the same day of his Resurrection. 

v  And in this meeting with them he gave the Holy Spirit  

·         But before giving them his Spirit  

·         Jesus gives them Peace  thus they will be able to offer it to others. 

·         Jesus sends them.   As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  We know that through baptism we have been submerged in Christ to participate of his life and cooperate in his mission "the salvation of all men and women."    

·         Jesus gives to them the power to forgive sins.  He will cooperate with them; he will accept and support the decisions they will make.  Maybe we must explain this a little bid more. We need to be attentive to his inner voice who speaks to us so that our decisions coincide with his decisions “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

We have seen the two accounts of the coming of the Holy Spirit, one from the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his spirit the same day of his resurrection. In fact, in the Gospel of John Jesus gives his Spirit, on the cross.  

On Pentecost the Church is born,

·         it has been conceived and nurtured in the heart of God the Father from all eternity.

·         Jesus began to form it with his disciples

·         and now it is made visible to the world by the Spirit of God on the day of Pentecost.    

  CLARETIAN CORNER

J.M.J.

To Mother Antonia de S. Pedro

Gracia[1], 18 December 1865

 

My dear Mother in J.C., I have received your two letters, one of the 8^th and the other of the 17th of the current month.  After reading them I have to tell you that the trip to Rome was very good, as well as the sojourn in that holy City.    The Most Holy Father received me with love and kindness.  He gave the necessary provisions in regards to the principal object of my trip, and until they are fulfilled I have to remain here; but I think that soon I will be able to go to Madrid, where great tribulations await me and thus, entrust me much to God  because I really need it  to bear with patience so many persecutions.   

             As for the  foundation in Reus I give you this advice, the Archbishop of Tarragona should make the petition as diocesan, or the one in charge in Reus, in whose name the petition shall be made and afterwards there must be an agent here in Madrid that should be the same that the Archbishop has, or another, for an agent is of absolute necessity to go back and forth and deal with the Ministries, and  that by the way  is time consuming. I know it by experience, how much it required from the School Sisters in the town of Calella. 

            When the agent is in charge, he should have the kindness to see me in Madrid and I will help him in what I can in regards of obtaining the approval.  

As for the Rules, I have already explained to Currius how it will have to be done in order to advance the process of the approval.   

I just have received a letter from Madrid telling me to return there

Happy feasts, greet all the sisters in my name.

 

Antonio María Arzobispo. de Trajanópolis (Letters of the Origins, Letter 248) 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

HAAG, H; VAN DER BORN, A; DE AUSEJO, S. Diccionario de la Biblia (Bible Dictionnary), Editorial Herder 1981.

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras (According to the Scriptures), Year C, 2006. Cartas de los orígenes (Letters of the Beginnings) Misioneras Claretianas, 2009.

  

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[1] One of the neighborhoods of the city of Barcelona.