21 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – B – 2021 

 

      The readings for this Sunday’s liturgy are an invitation to choose between the true God and the false idols:

o   Joshua asks the Israelites whether they really want to follow the God who liberated them from Egypt, or whether they prefer to go back to the securities of the bondage in Egypt.  

o   Jesus asks his disciples whether they want to leave him too, because his words are tough.  

o   Who are we going to choose and follow?  

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA

«  This book narrates que conquest of the Promised Land by Israel. 

«  The conquest is described    

o   In a synthetic and simple way 

o   Probably it was neither so easy, nor so straightforward.   

o   The tribes must have conquered different parts of the land of Canaan during a long period of time and by fighting. 

o   Some would have come as workers, other as nomad shepherds…   

«  This book is essential to realize the fulfilment of the promises to the fathers, of giving them the land; otherwise the exodus from Egypt would have been in vain. 

«  The Scripture scholars look at this book in different ways:   

o   Some consider it so much close to the rest of the Pentateuch that they believe it should be part of it, and that would make a Hexateuch (6 books).  

o   Others consider it so much like the Deuteronomy but very different from the other four books, thus they speak of a Tetrateuch (4 books). 

«  The composition of this book: 

o   Most of the book seem to have been written by a Deuteronomist author.  

o   Later an author or several authors from the priestly tradition added the following:  

§  The distribution of the land   

§  The sanctuary cities  

§  The levitical cities  

«  THEOLOGY OF THE BOOK OF JOSHUA:   

o   The land is a gift from Yahweh to Israel, his chosen people, it is the land promised to the fathers.  

o   This gift comes with a condition: faithfulness. 

o   Whenever Israel forgets about this, it loses the land

o   This was the way that Israel could   explain  and understand the meaning of the exile to Babylon, because it had  not been faithful to God.  

o   If it dreams to go back, it will have to be faithful and not contaminating itself with the non-believers.  

 

FIRST READING : Joshua 24:1-2ª,15-17,18b

Ø  Joshua, Moses’ successor, who has led the people in its entrance in the promised   land, now, before his death he assembles the tribes in Shechem, the heart and the center of the promised and conquered land and he asks them the great question: who do you want to serve? 

Ø  In the Old Testament the verb, “to serve” does not have a servile meaning, but it means to adhere joyfully and freely to the project of God.  

Ø  Joshua reminds the people what God has done for them since the call to Abraham, and how he has fulfilled his promises, and he adds AS FOR ME AND MY FAMILY WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.   

Ø  The people answer, “we will serve the Lord. He is our God!   

Ø  This section of the book is presented in the form of a covenant, as the pacts made among the Hittites between the lords and their vassals: the remembrance of what the Lord had done for his vassals, the terms of the pact and the witnesses.     

This pact has two directions one vertical between the tribes and Yahweh, the other one horizontal, the pact with Yahweh establishes a union pact between the tribes, giving them a sense of being a people. 

Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

 

GOSPEL John, 55.60-69

ü  We have reached the end of chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. Jesus has fed   the crowd, He has called himself the bread that comes down from heaven, he has said that we have to eat his flesh and drink his blood to have life eternal. Those who heard him were not able to accept this vocabulary and have left. 

ü  Jesus addresses his disciples that have doubts also, with the great question: Do you want to leave too?  

ü  Peter, as in the confession at Caesarea Philippi, which Matthew presents in his gospel, says: to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and you are the Holy One of God.     

ü  This episode of Jesus’ life has a great importance in the Gospel of John. It has been called the Galilean crisis.  It establishes a before and an after. Afterwards Jesus leaves his native land and travels to the South, toward Jerusalem which will be the end of his earthly life.   

ü  Here the disciples are faced with a decisive choice in their lives, like Israel in Shechem. 

ü  The liturgy presents to us the same question, who do we want to follow?  Jesus who gives life, but whose following is difficult, and his proposals are most of the time incomprehensible? or do we prefer the comfort offered by our society, which is a way that leads to death?   

ü  The choice is ours; we will find at the end of our journey whatever we may have chosen during our life.  

ü  Hopefully our answer will be like Joshua’s “I and my family we will follow the Lord, or like Peter, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life; you are the holy one of God.  

 

SECOND READING Ephesians 5: 21-32

We continue with the letter to the Ephesians.   

«  The author of the letter has spoken up to this point about the union and harmony that must exist among the members of the Church.   

«  Now he turns his eyes toward the family, the domestic church, to remind them also about unity and harmony of its members  among them and with Christ. 

«  The author uses the expressions of his time, that he does not want to make it the Word of God, what is the Word of God is the meaning of what it is manifested in human words. Probably in our time we would use other words to convey the same meaning that “submission” conveys. 

The marriage union is called to be the image of the union between Christ and the Church.  The relationship between man and woman united in matrimony has to be the reflection and the image of the relationship existing between Christ and his Church: a union of mutual love and surrendering.   

 

             CLARETIAN CORNER 

These texts are related to the foundation of my Congregation RR. of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters.   During the month of August there are 3 dates very meaningful for us Claretians.   On August 15 1851 we remember what we call the charismatic foundation, date when the foundress María Antonia Paris and four companions made a vow not to separate from each other and go wherever the bishop would send them in mission.  On August 25 1855 the bishop of Santiago de Cuba Saint Anthony Mary Claret signed the decree of the foundation of the Congregation in Santiago de Cuba and on August 27 of the same year 1855 María Antonia París made her profession also in Santiago de Cuba,  being the first member of the new congregation. Thus, a new congregation was founded in the church. 

Thus making use of the apostolic faculties granted to Us in  the already mentioned Rescript   we accept the time they have spent in  strict closure as Novitiate, and we also approve and adopt from now on as more conformable and apt to this Institute, the habit and religious veil of the Order of St. Benedict which they put on when they began the Novitiate  by virtue of the authorization that We gave them, while we elevated to His Holiness our plead;   and indeed we admit them to the Religious Profession, which We will receive in the way established by the same Sacred Rescript, from our  beloved daughter  Ma. Antonia de San Pedro, on the twenty-seven day of the current month of August; and that of her Sisters and our beloved daughters, we will receive it on the third day of next September, and once the profession will be done, we will pronounce them as RELIGIOUS OF THE APOSTOLIC INSTITUTE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY MOST HOLY MOTHER OF GOD AND OUR LADY.     

Given in our Archbishop’s Palace of Santiago de Cuba, on the twenty-five of August and in the Lord’s year one thousand eight hundred fifty-five. Anthony M. Archbishop of Cuba

 

So, I made my long –awaited profession on August 27 of the same year in the hands of my prelate, to the joy of everybody, and more happiness in my soul-this one cannot be expressed- notwithstanding the difficult preparation with so many cares in the assurance of the foundation, the lower a point in the fervor of my spirit. With my thought fixed in the moment of pronouncing the holy vows, the moment seemed to me like centuries, and even, with so many serious circumstances met in my profession, none of them was sufficient to disturb the peace and calm of my soul.  Venerable María Antonia París, Autobiografía 225. 

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA, Document of the Foundation of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters. 

PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA, Autobiografía

RAVASSI, GIANFRANCO, Según las Escrituras Año B. San Pablo Bogotá Colombia 2005. 

SAGRADA BIBLIA. Official version of the Spanish Conference of Bishops. B.A.C.  Madrid 2011.

SCHOKEL, LUIS ALONSO, La Biblia de nuestro pueblo. Misioneros Claretianos, Ediciones Mensajero, China 2010. 

 

 

20 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY 

 

Today the Church, in her liturgy, presents Mary in her Assumption to Heaven, at the end of her pilgrimage on earth that she began free from original sin. Her whole life was a pilgrimage filled with love toward the God who favored her so much, making her the mother of his Son Jesus

FIRST READING  – Rev. 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ø  John, the autor of the book of Revelation dewcribes here a wonderful scene, the temple of God  opens, the temple of eternity, of all that is good and fills with love those who are in it. 

Ø  When it opens the Arc of the Covenant can be seen, and at the same time the woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head, appears.   

Ø  Mary has been called, many times, the arc of the covenant, because she carried in her womb the author of the covenant. 

Ø  The author John  tells us that the Woman that will appear is not a real woman, but a sign, that is, a symbol of something else. Of what?  

Ø  Now, in the book of Revelation, every time that a woman appears, it is about a city, or a people or a group of personified human beings.  For example, the great Prostitute dressed in purple (17, 1-4) symbolizes the city of Rome (17, 18). The bride coming down from heaven (21, 2) symbolizes the city of Jerusalem (21, 10). The prophetess Jezebel (2, 20) symbolizes a dangerous sect of the city of Thyatira. 

Ø  Thus, the woman clothed with the sun must be also a people. But, what people? The New Israel, the Church.   

Ø  The book of Revelation or Apocalypse was written in times of great suffering in the Little Nascent Christian Community, the new Israel. 

Ø  With this sign of the woman, they were comforted on seeing how God protected her, thus He would do the same with them, the nascent Church.  

Ø  This woman, although persecuted, has given birth to the Messiah with the protection of God. (Rev 12:5-6)

Ø  In the same way, the Christian Community, will give birth to the Messiah, in the world in which they live, proclaiming with their life and their words Jesus, Messiah and Lord.   

Ø  And John can say “Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed,”(Rev 12:10) 

Ø  The Church in her reflection, listening to the voice of the Spirit who teaches her, as Jesus said, has acknowledge in that woman not only the Church but also Mary, the woman of Genesius, whose son will strike at the head of the serpent, the evil one. María is the Young woman of Nazareth, the adolescent to whom the Angel Gabriel greeted as “favored one, full of grace.”(Lk 1:28)  

Ø  But while in the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, (cf. Eph5: 27) the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin.  And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues. (Lumen Gentium 65,  Documents of the Second Vatican Council)

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Sal 45:10.11.12.16

  The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear,
    forget your people and your father’s house.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
So shall the king desire your beauty;
    for he is your lord.
 The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
They are borne in with gladness and joy;
    they enter the palace of the king.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

 

Ø  This psalm describes in a festive environment the wedding or act to take the bride to the house of the bridegroom to live there with him.     

Ø  The Young woman is invited to forget her family home to dedícate her life to the King and she is told that in place of her parents she will have children.     

 

GOSPEL  Lk 1:39-56

 

      Mary goes in haste, as someone who is in a hurry. ¿Why are you in a hurry Mary?  To help Elizabeth who is with child in her old age.   

      Elizabeth’s child leaps in his mother’s womb on hearing Mary’s greeting.  Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirits greets Mary as the mother of my Lord.   

      And she says something very beautiful about Mary “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”(Lk 1:45) 

      What are those words? Full of grace… You will conceive and give birth to a son… who will be called son of God….    

      Yes, Mary is blessed, because she has believed without seeing, because she has believed in the light when all that she saw was darkness, difficulties, dangers, of being considered among the people of her town as the girl who became pregnant before her wedding and could be stoned for that.  

      Mary, who is filled of the joy that God has given to her, joy of those who say “yes” to God without seeing or touching,… she  sings a song of praise to God who has looked at her, the God who looks those who are little, oppressed, abandoned by society and does justice to them.  He does also justice to the powerful taking power from them thus, helping them to react and acknowledge what God says to us continually “love one another….”   

      Mary in her song praises her God, the God of Israel who remembers and is faithful to his promises, and these promises are fulfilled in her, although, probably, she did not realize it then.   

      Let us sing to our God who has done and does great things in each one of us. Let us think and remember what are these things that the Lord has made for us and in us, and then, compose our own song of praise, our Magnificat.    

 

SECOND READING  1Cor 15,20-27ª

 

v  Paul says to us, that Christ has been risen from the dead, as the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. 

v  Death entered the world by a man (Adam) and now the resurrection comes also by one man (Christ.).

v  Christ must reign until God will have put all his(Jesus) enemies under his feet, this is a sign of dominion over others, here is the dominion of his enemies.   

v  What are these enemies? All that hurst and destroys human beings and the rest of the creation of God, being death the last enemy. 

v  Christ has conquered death on the cross, but he must conquer it in each one of us and for this, he needs our cooperation. I believe that this cooperation is to make real in our life, in our relationships, in our society and in our world the words he said in the Last Supper  “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

v  Paul says that when everything will be fulfilled, when there will not be sin nor  death any longer; when we will love one another, then Christ will handed over the power to God, his Father  and our Father, as Jesus said the day of the resurrection “my God and your God; my Father and your Father.  

CLARETIAN CORNER 

          Day of the Assumption of Mary most holy. I gather the young ladies I had admitted as companion with a great devotion and fervor , offering ourselves to God by a vow of crossing the seas and go to any part of the world without diving the group, nor go away from the opinion of our superior in anything. Since I had at that time no other superior than my confessor, we offer the vow to our Lord after the Holy Communion with the intention to ratify it in the afternoon of the same day in the hands or presence  of the most Rev. Dr. Jose Caixal – my confessor and the confessor of the others as well. As we promised in the morning, we did it in the afternoon in the presence of Dr. Caixal and, after we made the vow and offered ourselves to suffer any kind of trial for love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the confessor gave us a talk so fervent  telling us such things that have been very profitable for us in so many tribulations which came to us, as it will be seen (even only as a shadow) in this summary I am writing under obedience.

(Aut.MF 121)

 

O Mary, my Mother and my hope, consolation of my soul and object of my love, consider all the graces for which I have asked you in the past, all of which you have granted me. Shall I find that this ever-flowing stream has only now gone dry? No, no, it has never yet been heard, nor shall it ever be, that anyone who turns devotedly to you has ever yet been turned away. My Lady, you can see that all these things I ask you are for the greater glory of God and you, and for the good of souls. Hence I hope to obtain them and I know I shall obtain them. That you may grant this all the sooner, I do not offer you my merits, for I have none to offer. Rather I shall say that, since you are the Daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of the Son of God, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, it is most becoming that you be filled with zeal for the honor of the Blessed Trinity, whose loving image man's soul is--an image, furthermore, that has been washed in the blood of God made man.(Aut. PF. 162).

 

SOURCES

CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA. Autobiography.

PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA. Autobiography.

DOCUMENTS OF THE COUNCIL VATICAN II in the web page of the Holy See in “Fundamental Texts.”    

NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops USA).   Daily readings.     

What I have explained about the woman in the Apocalypse has been taken from the web.    

 

19 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE B – 2021

Ø  We continue with the same theme of last week “the Bread of Life” to which John dedicates the 6^th chapter of his Gospel.  

Ø  In the last Sundays we have seen Jesus feeding the crowd and the people, that have been fed, complaining because they are experiencing hunger and, asking for a sign.   

Ø  Let us see this Sunday’s message.   

FIRST READING  1 Kings  19: 4-8

Ø  Elijah has walked through the desert for one day and he is exhausted and discouraged. 

Ø  We also sometimes in the deserts of our life, inner desert, loneliness desert, discouragement desert, we feel tired and we even believe that there is nothing else to do but to die.   

Ø  And like the prophet, we ask God to grant us the favor to die, so that we will not suffer anymore.

Ø  But He gives instead new strength to continue our journey in which we will surely have the opportunity to help other brothers and sisters, who are suffering and waiting for a friendly hand or a friendly shoulder to cry. 

Ø  God send an angel to Elijah, and he sends us to others to be like angels to help them.   

Ø  Moreover, the second time that Elijah eats the food that God gives him, he is able to journey during 40 days. Forty a symbolic number of plenitude. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM : Ps  Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9 

R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Ø  The rest of the Bible proclaims God’s works, the  law and his saving plan.  

Ø  In the Psalms the Word of God becomes, at the same time, the voice of humankind.    

GOSPEL  – John 6: 41-51

This Sunday’s Gospel has three paragraphs.  

First Paragraph

Ø  Last Sunday the Jews, those who had eaten from the loaves, complained because they were hungry.   

Ø  Today they complain because Jesus has told them “I am the Living Bread that has come down from Heaven.”   

Ø  What does he say? We know very well who his parents are, we also know the town where he comes from. Do they really know?   

Ø  It happens also to us, we judge from what we see and we classify people according to what we think we know about them?    

Ø  They know that this man is a carpenter and the son of a carpenter and of a woman from Nazareth. They do not know anything else, but they do not think they have to know anything else. How often we do that ourselves! In addition, in so doing we deprive ourselves of the benefit to really know the person. People are a treasure, they are the image of God our Father; if we were able to enter with respect in the sanctuary of each human being, how happy we would be and how much the work of God in every human being would inspire us, even in those persons we least appreciate.   

Second Paragraph

Ø  Jesus answer their question, “how can he say that he came down from heaven, if we know his family?  

Ø  In his answer, he asks them “not to mumble”. These words do not seem to answer their question.   

Ø  Now he explains to them that no one can come to him, unless he/she is led by the Father.

Ø  Jesus will raise this one from the dead on the last day, and will give him/her a new life which will never end. 

Ø  What does he mean by the last day? What last day is this?

Ø  We do not have the answer now; we need to trust Jesus and the Father.

Ø  This last day, regardless when, will be a day full of the light of the risen Lord, filled with the eternal light, full of joy and light. 

Ø  Jesus repeats to them the words of the prophet who says, that all who listen to him (Jesus) will be disciples of the Father. We need to listen in order to be attracted by the Father.   

Third Paragraph

Ø  And Jesus speaks again about himsef as life, as the bread of life. 

Ø  Who gave to Israel bread in the desert was the Father, and nevertheless they died, because it was bread for the body. 

Ø  But Jesus is the bread that feeds our spiritual being, the one who prepares us for life eternal, to never die. 

Ø  The bread that Jesus gives to us, the bread of life,  is himself given in a sacramental way as bread and wine= as food and as joy.   

Ø  Jesus gives us the bread so that, we can, in turn, give ourselves to others, as Eucharist. 

Ø  What a wonderful task! 

Ø  Let us make this truth come alive,  and let us proclaim it to all those we meet, most of the time this proclamation will not be through words but though our own life given with joy.   

CLARETIAN CORNER  

When I saw that everything was on the way to the foundation of the Company of Mary, I decided to write to him privately since the Archbishop was already here for the visit, making him understand in a few words that we would not belong to the Company of Mary and that I was informing him just for his discernment. The procurator did not pay attention to this notice, rather considering our foundation impossible unless it would not be a house of the Company of Mary, negotiated the petition we had planned, and not knowing my interior feelings. Because I was always very reserved in giving this kind of news, and God had already told me that he did not orient me to the procurator for this work: to proceed with much silence, that, in due time, He would defend His cause. (Venerable María Antonia París, Autobiography 178) 

Dear Sister:

I have just received your letter together with the letter from the Bishop of Urgel, and I answer you … that for the Government that has to give the authorization for the foundation as well as for us these Rules (of the Company of Mary) are an essential requirement and, not the rules of St. Benedict. Once the Government gives its authorization for the foundation, it will be the Prelate who will approve anything we want. With this answer I think that all of you will understand me. 

Pray for me to God and give my kind regards to the Sisters and the girls, sincerely 

Anthony Mary, Archbishop of Cuba. (Unpublished English Translation of the History of the RR. Of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, ch 5 pg.10)   

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PARIS, María Antonia, Autobiography 178.

RR. DE MARÍA INMACULADA MISIONERAS CLARETIANAS. English translation of the History) 

CANVIS, JEFF … Psalms the School of Prayer. 2009