CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE -  34th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  - C - 2022

The liturgical year began with the baptism of Jesus,  and ends with the celebration of Jesus Christ the King of the Universe.        

• The young carpenter from Nazareth went to the Jordan River with the other men from his town to be baptized by John, afterwards he begins a dangerous and unorthodox preaching according to the religious, civil and political authorities of his people.    
• This young man hears the voice of the Father who after his baptism tells him "You are my beloved Son."   
• This young man after his death and resurrection has been established Lord of the living and the dead. It has been revealed to us who he really is.    
• He is the Son of the eternal Father, the Second Person of the Trinity, the creating Word of God, though whom all things were made, the Lord the Christ. Christ means anointed.    
 The solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe is a liturgical celebration fairly recent. It was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in response to the totalitarian and atheist governments that denied the rights of God and of the Church Many martyrs from that time and after went to their death shouting the profession of faith “Long live Christ the King.” 
However, if the litugical celebration is recent, the meaning is not; we can say that it began with Chritianity since the sentence Christ reigns means the same as what the first communties said “Jesus is Lord,” central sentence of the apostolic preaching.  

·        For more information on the meaning of this Sunday we may go the Catechism of the Catholic Church number 671. 

 

FIRST READING : 2 Sm 5:1-2

ü  This passage narrates how David was established as king over Israel.  

ü  King David is highly exalted and praised in the Scriptures. He is presented as a friend of God, a holy man but also a sinner. A warrior against the neighboring peoples to defend his own kingdom, and at the same time the tender singer of the wonders of God. Although a sinner, he is also considered to be a just man.

ü  Of his appointment as king of Israel we find several texts in the Scripture:  1 Sm 16:1-13; 2Sm 5:1-3; 1Cr 11:1-3; Sal 78: 70-72.

ü   A mutual covenant is made between David and the people.  

ü  Before closing the covenant, the agreement, they remind David that in the time of Saul he, David, was the one that won the victories.   

ü  David, who was taken from the flock of his father by Samuel to be anointed king over Israel, hears the elders of his people telling him that he must be the shepherd of his people.   

ü  As a shepherd, he will be also a leader.  What a beautiful image of a chief who is a shepherd, as Jesus has been.   

ü  The leader or the chief according to the Scriptures is a shepherd, someone who takes care of his people, serves his people, does not overpower his people but he gives his life for his people

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  122:1-2.3-4.4-5

R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
I rejoiced because they said to me,
"We will go up to the house of the LORD."
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

 

ü  This psalm sings the fascination of the pilgrim as he or she approaches the holy city of Jerusalem. 

ü  The city has the external beauty of its construction, its buildings, which captivate the heart of those who visit it.

ü  And the city has an inner beauty given by the peace and justice which is administered at its doors.  

 

GOSPEL  Lk 23:35-43

      We read what happened between the criminals, who were crucified with Jesus, and Jesus.   

      The chief priests insult him, the soldiers make fun of him, of his life, his preaching

      They tempt him, if you are who you say you are, save yourself.   

      If we remember a little what we read at the beginning of Lent, Jesus was tempted by the evil spirit. When Luke finishes narrating the temptations of Jesus, he says that the devil left him for a future opportune time. 

      Now on this cross, to which he is nailed, now that he has lost his strength, that he is seen as a failure, now when he experiences the deepest abandonment from everyone even the Father, it is the moment for the devil to come back and tempt him again.

      And he does it by means of the people who surround him at this dark hour, the darkest hour of human history. 

      One of the crucified men, he has on each side, tempts him you can, why don't you do it? Why don't you save yourself and us?  

      This is the same temptation as the temptation of the bread in the desert, if you are the Son say to this stones ... why don't you use your power for your own good and ours?

      However, the other man who is suffering the same condemnation rebukes his companion and reminds him that they are punished because they did evil things but this man is innocent. 

      How true it is that even the worst criminals and sinners have the possibility to abandon the evil they do and come back to what is good, they have the possibility of conversion, they only must be willing to.   

      This man does not understand quite well, how this young man from Nazareth can be a king, but he believes it.    What did he see in that young man completely disfigured on the cross that allowed him to discover in him the Lord of the kingdom he preaches.  

      How true it is that God immediately welcomes us into his arms the moment we go back to him.    

      Today you will be with me in paradise.   

      Happy thief, who faithful to his "trade", stole paradise, the heart of our Redeemer

      I transcribe below something very beautiful that I have read in a commentary by Gianfranco Ravasi:  

 

            Luke in the event of the two criminals narrated only by him, makes the kingdom shine, the kingdom that is inaugurated by this crucified man in a Spring Day in Jerusalem.  The only words that Jesus could pronounce like a whisper have as its climax the symbolic word of Persian origin "paradise" which literally means "garden of delights" which is put in parallel with the word "kingdom" pronounced by the thief. The image is taken from the oriental world with its palaces surrounded by fascinating parks and rich fountains and   exuberant vegetation, this image in the lips of Jesus transport us to the first page of the Scripture, the Garden of Eden, from where man was expelled and where he goes back now with the guidance of Jesus Christ. Man has found again peace and the fullness of life, harmony, and happiness.      

SECOND READING:  Col 1:12-20

v  In this liturgy, being a solemnity, the three readings have the same theme, which is the kingship of Jesus Christ.        

v  The first paragraph is an invitation to give thanks to the Father for having granted us to participate in the inheritance of the saints.   

v  The Father has freed us from the power of darkness and has introduced us into the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption of our sins.  

v  These words complement and explain what Luke has narrated about the Crucified Christ.   

v  The second paragraph describes who is this Son in whose kingdom we are introduced

Ø  He is the visibility of the invisible God.  

Ø  He is the first born, the first in everything that exists

Ø  For Him, through him and in Him all has been created.   

Ø  Everything finds its cohesion in him.    

Ø  He is the head of the Church    

Ø  He is the first raised from the dead   

Ø  The fullness of being resides in Him.    

Ø  And by Him everything finds reconciliation, making peace in his blood, that means in his life given out of love.   

v  This is a beautiful description of the kingship of Christ, which Luke describes through the story of the thief, the companion of the dying Jesus.  Jesus until the end of his life is found among those that are discriminated against, the little and poor and sinners.     

v  All that we will read this coming Sunday is an invitation to find again in the depth of our heart the answer to the question Jesus asks us: Who do you say that I am? Who am I for you?   

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según las Escrituras, Año C.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo .   

 

33^RD  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME  - C - 2022

• Today's theme speaks of the end, this same theme will be taken again during Advent.  
• An end that invites us to what is new; in nature, in our life every end implies a new beginning, a new horizon, a new life. Very often we do not see it and thus we do not like it, we are scared.
• This newness will be presented to us next Sunday in the liturgical celebration of Jesus, King of the universe.   
• We may also consider the readings for today’s liturgy as a way to make us understand the emptiness of luxury, riches.  
• It is an exhortation to be always ready for the coming of the Lord, to wait for him with love and enthusiasm.   

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET MALACHI

v  This book is found at the end of the Old Testament.  

v  But what we consider a name is only a title which means "the messenger"; the author is unknown 

v  From some words and expressions in the text we can deduce that it was written in the V century before Christ, and before the reformation of Ezra and Nehemiah between  480 y 450 B.C.

v  The temple has been rebuilt and worship takes place in it again.  

v  The author denounces the worship the priests offer in the Temple, it is empty, without surrendering to the Lord, on a routine basis.    

v  He sees in the spiritual purification of worship the strength and the source of renewal.   

FIRST READING :  Mal 3:19-20a Ordinary Time 

ü  The day comes blazing like and oven, and on that day the proud and all evil doers will be stubble. 

ü  When the Lord is present, he destroys in us everything that is pride, vanity, lack of love.  We feel like a tree without the branches of our vanity, without the roots of our false security in ourselves

ü  The day of the Lord is neither a day of destruction of the human being, nor of fear, it is the day of the blessing by means of which our Father God cleanses us from all our impurities which do not allow us to reflect our Father's kind face. 

ü  It is like a tender mother which cleans and dresses up her little child who has get him or herself dirtied playing.   

ü  The day of the Lord is a day of blessing, which each one of us should wish present in his or her life to be able to eliminate from ourselves all that keeps us apart from Him and from one another. 

  RESPONSORIAL  PSALM 98: 5-6. 7-8. 9

THE LORD COMES TO RULE THE WORLD WITH  JUSTICE    

Sing praise to the Lord with the harp 

with the harp and melodious song

with trumpets and the sound of the horn

sing joyfully before the King the Lord 

Let the sea and what fills it resound

the world and those who dwell in it

let the rivers clap their hands

the mountains shout with them for joy 

Before the Lord for he comes

'for he comes to rule the earth

he will rule the world with justice

and the peoples with equity 

Ø   This psalm is an invitation to the whole created world to sing with joy the presence of God in its midst.

Ø  And it is also an invitation to sing because the Lord governs with justice, he brings justice among us.  

Ø  Those of us who thirst for justice, who long for the differences among us to be eliminated because we are all brothers and sisters, children of the one and only Father, we are invited to join the song of joy of creation.   

Ø  Also, those of us who long that creation: plants, animals and everything in the created world be respected and taken care of, since they are also the work of our Father. We are all invited to rejoice with the presence of the Lord.  

Ø  But this will only happen when we love him unconditionally, above everything and everyone, when we trust in him, knowing that his love is without end.  

GOSPEL  Lk 21:5-19

       Some are fascinated to see the beauty and the riches of the temple, and they say it aloud. 

      Jesus, as always, will surprise them, he says that a day will come when all that beauty will be destroyed.   

      The material aspect of the temple, its stones will be destroyed, and also its spiritual centrality in the worship of the people of the Old Covenant.    

      They might have thought that this was not possible, since the temple was the real presence of God among his people, it was the security in his protection over them.   

      And they want to know when this will happen  

      Jesus does not satisfy their curiosity, and does not give any concrete answer, it is enough for them to know that it will happen; when? it is not for them to know.   

      After that he tells them not to believe anyone who will come in his name, but instead to hold fast to faith in his words and in the Father's love, in the word he says to us in the sacred book of life and in the sacred book of the Bible.  

      What he has said to them is not imminent, but yes there will be natural phenomena which scare us: hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and many others, but this is not the sign of the end. 

      there will also be wars, hatred among peoples, but this is not the end. 

      even more, they will be persecuted by their own relatives, they will be handed over to tribunals, condemned to death, but this is not the end. 

      Jesus in these words eliminates the distance in different moments in time, because he speaks of the destruction of the temple which happened in the year 70, and also he speaks about things that have happened along the human race journey through history, and are still happening.  

      It is as if he was looking at a large canvas with threads of different colors which make up the work of art. When the work of art is finished, we do not know when each one of the threads was introduced in the canvas, neither what part of the work of art was made first.  

      We call this speech of Jesus scatological, which means it speaks of what will happen at the end.  

      The end will be beautiful since it will be the instauration in creation of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice and equity.   Then finally we will be one family, a family of different peoples who will love and respect each other, and all together we will experience the fatherly embrace of the Father of Jesus, our Father God

      But while we wait for this to happen, Jesus invites us to be perseverant in seeking the good, persevering in the way which leads us to him, and persevering in seeking and welcoming all our brothers and sisters to journey together.    

      Come soon,  Lord Jesus!!!  

SECOND READING  2 Tes 3:7-12

v  The author of this letter invites each member of his community, to provide for their family and themselves  from their work, to not be a burden for anyone, not acting like busy bodies.     

v  He reminds them how he lived among them, how he worked to take care of his needs, to give them an example, maybe he wants to say to teach them with his own way of life.   

v  And he adds that he could have asked them for help, since the laborer is entitled to receive its recompense, as we read in another letter of Paul

v  Those who are busy doing nothing, he urges them to eat their bread working quietly, but if they do not want to work, it is very simple they should not eat either.  

v  But he says something that we need all of us who are on the other side of the pendulum, who work too much, so much that we do not have time to really live our life.  

v  He says, "work quietly," I think this is an invitation for us, an invitation to seek a healthy equilibrium between working to earn our food and to enjoy and cultivate the values of human relationships, especially in the family.   

 CLARETIAN CORNER  

 To be contemplative in action means for the Claretian Missionary Sister to be always in search of something better, of someone; it means to be in a permanent attitude of pilgrim, of pilgrim of faith, ready to be surprised by every event, The example of Mary the Mother of Jesus whom John Paul II defined as the "pilgrim of faith" (Redemptoris Mater, 5), because She "kept all these things by meditating on them in her heart". Precisely because she was ready to be instructed, to be surprised, by words and events, she kept them in her heart. For this reason, she was a pilgrim of faith; she had to go on pilgrimage in the uncertainty of faith until she reached the discovery of the mystery contained in those words or those events. 

The Claretian Missionary Sister, like Mary, whom she takes as a luminous sign in her journey (Const. 9), knows that in her small and insignificant personal daily history, in the weary and even disfigured face of each brother, whom she sees, God himself comes to her with a personal call. Her own history and the faces of her brothers and sisters are a theological place where she can discover the God of Salvation History. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ALVAREZ GÓMEZ, Jesús. La visión inicial.

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.  

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según las Escrituras, Año C.

La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo . Luis Alonso Schökel.

 

32^nd  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME -  C - 2022

Ø  We are approaching the end of the liturgical year, and the Church invites us to reflect on the last events in our earthly life. 

Ø  Somehow the question for us today is: how is my faith in the resurrection of the dead?  

Ø  Do I really believe that I will be raised up as Jesus was? 

Ø  Nobody asks me if I understand the question, they ask me if I believe what I say every Sunday standing among the members of the congregation "I believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life eternal." Am I conscious of what I am saying, or do I just repeat words without any meaning for me?

Ø  Maybe we can move one-step further and ask ourselves, do I wait with anticipation, as if we await the beloved, the final encounter with our Creator and Redeemer? 

SECOND BOOK OF THE MACCABEES

v  The second book of the Maccabees is not the continuation of the first, some chapters in both books overlap 1Mc 3-7 and 2Mc 8-15 have many similarities.

v  These two books tell us how Israel fell under the influence of the Hellenistic culture, and how did the people deal with this situation. Some remained faithful to the traditions and beliefs of their fathers; others let themselves be assimilated into the new culture that surrounded them.

v  We are talking about a period of history that reached its highest point in Athens during the V century before Christ.    

v  Up to that time, Israel had experienced the influence of the kingdoms from the Middle East.   The influence of the Greek culture puts Israel and other peoples under the influence of the Western culture. 

v  These two books talk about the resistance of the faithful of Israel to be assimilated into the Greek culture. The author reflects on several points of interest for the faith of Israel and for our faith too. We also live surrounded by a culture different from the culture of our fathers, and we experience its influence, which questions some aspects of our faith. Let us see some of these points:   

·         The sufferings the people experiences are the consequence of its own behavior, the consequence of the choices each person has made. God does not inflict the suffering over his people.  Either we chose to be with God, or we chose to be far from God, ignoring his presence in our life.  

·         Martyrdom that is the possibility for the human being to be faithful to the rules and demands of his or her faith up to the point of giving up his or her own life.  

·         Martyrdom is the consequence of the fidelity and love of God, and the faith in the life after death.  

·         Thus faith in the resurrection of those who have died in the Lord.  

v  The books of the Maccabees are among the "Deuterocanonical books" that is the books, which the Catholic Church considers revealed and which are not accepted by the Jewish tradition and by the other Christian traditions. 

FIRST READING:  2 Mc 7:1-2, 9-14

ü  This part of the book of the Maccabees tells us the story of seven brothers and their mother who preferred to die instead of eating pork, because the law of God forbade it.   

ü  Maybe we think that it is a nonsense to die instead of eating pork, because there is nothing wrong about eating pork, God has made all things right and good.  

ü  However, the point is not to eat or not to eat pork, but to be faithful to our faith in God. In a word it is about clinging to God because we love him, and thus for his love we prefer to be faithful up to the point of giving up our own life, because we do not want to be separated from him. 

ü  As one of the psalms says "because your love is better than life"  

ü  For us, living in a very pragmatic culture, it is difficult to put faith first above our wellbeing even our life, and thus understand the value of martyrdom.  

ü  One of the young men that is tortured confesses his faith in the life after death, even more, he confesses his belief in the resurrection "you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying."   

ü  Another one of the young men says, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope that God will give life to me again."  

ü  This reading calls us to look into the depth of our being and ask ourselves how is our faith and love for God, do we love him to the point of being able to give up our life for him? It is certainly truth that martyrdom is a gift and a call from God, by us, we cannot endure it, but we can ask ourselves about how is the thermometer of our love.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  17:1.5-6.8.15

LORD WHEN YOUR GLORY APPEARS, MY JOY WILL BE FULL

Hear O Lord a just suit

attend to my outcry

hearken to my prayer from lips without deceit.

 

My steps have been steadfast in your paths

my feet have not faltered

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God.

incline your ear to me; hear my word.

 

Keep me as the apple of your eye

hide me in the shadow of your wings

But I in justice shall behold you face

on walking I shall be content in your presence.

   LORD WHEN YOUR GLORY APPEARS, MY JOY WILL  BE FULL

Ø  The author of this psalm tells his faith and love for God, repeating in some way the theme of the first reading.     

Ø  In his words, we sense a deep trust in the love God has for him. 

Ø  His words are like fire, which can help us to light up again the fire under the ashes of our daily worries and responsibilities. 

GOSPEL Lk 20:27-38

      Some Sadducees that is the group that did not believe in anything else than what can be touched and seen, nothing else was true for them thus they did not believe in the resurrection after death. 

      They make fun of Jesus who speaks of the reality of life after death, and they present to him a situation which they invented which shows their lack of faith in anything spiritual, we may even say that this story is really disgusting  

      Apart from the theme of life after death, which they do not believe in, their story shows their lack of respect for women, whom they see as an object of their fulfillment of the law, not as a person.  

      Jesus answers them saying that in the future life no one will be taken or given in marriage, because they will life forever.

      He reminds them that God is the God of life and makes them realize that this is a belief of Israel even from the time of Moses "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."  

      In some way, Jesus wishes that they return to the faith they say they profess, that the faith in the resurrection is not a novelty but something which has existed from the beginning.   

      This gospel, despite not being attractive, can give us the opportunity to see if we really believe that our God is the God of life, the God who calls us to live forever from the moment of our conception in our mother's womb, more than that, since the moment when God thought of us, and God is eternal. God thought of us from eternity and loved us because his name is Love.  

      This text can help us to reflect on the value of human life, conceived in the heart of God and destined to go back and become united forever with its God, Creator and Redeemer.

      Maybe this text can also help us, believers, to reflect on the tendency of our modern culture to eliminate or put appart any life which bothers us, and so think only about our wellbeing: abortion and euthanasia, and all the other ways of killing that we have: wars, death penalty, hunger in the world, unemployment, psychological, sexual and physical abuse, discriminations of all sorts, defamation… We put those brothers and sisters we call special in institutions, our elderly in homes….The Heavenly Father awaits each one of us, when we see Him face to face what will we answer to his question: ”where is your sister? Where is your brother? The same question he said to Cain.

SECOND READING  2 Tes 2:16-3,5

v  The author of this letter asks God to strengthen his readers in every good deed and word

v  He asks them to pray for him  

v  He adds that he is sure that the word preached among them will continue to be fruitful in them. 

v  He ends this section of the letter asking God to lead them to the love of God and grant them the same endurance of Christ.   

v  This may also be our prayer.   

CLARETIAN CORNER   

 Council Vatican II has defined Christian vocation as an apostolic vocation. This category proper of any Christian life was applied also in a specific way to Religious Life, which was defined as “apostolic” not only for what it does but also for what it is. This means that the mission or apostolate is a constitutive element of Religious Life.    

In the case of the Institute of the Claretian Missionary Sisters this is clear and out of any discussion since its origins. In its own title there was always an apostolic connotation. The fact that the mission has been identified as “an imitation of the Apostles” (Aim and Goal) clarifies everything. Because according to the gospel of Mark, Jesus “instituted Twelve to be with Him, and to be sent to preach and with power to expel demons.” (Mk 3,14) This expression of Mark defines the institutional identity of the first Apostles, in which imitation the  Claretian Missionary Sisters must be “new apostles.” 

The Claretian Missionary Sister has as well been invited “to be with Him” “to remain in Him”; that is to conform to Jesus’ lifestyle, because as Saint Bede the Venerable says, “whoever says that he/she remains in Christ must live as He lived.”  

Now in the case of the Claretian Missionary Sisters the problem is not in their apostolic specificity because it is well defined from the beginning: “in imitation of the Holy Apostles work until death in teaching every creature the Holy Law of the Lord” (Aim and Goal) but the problem is “in what style of mission for today’s world.

The mission style found a very clear and concrete formulation in the First Constitutions of the Institute

 

      Let all religious understand this point well, that with this stillness of mind which  with the grace of the Lord they can achieve, they will combine action with contemplation, the most necessary point of our Institute. (First Constitutions. Trat. III, ch.6, n, 9) 

BLIOGRAPHY  

ALVAREZ GOMEZ, Jesus cmf. The Initial Vision.

PAGOLA, José A.  Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C.  

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según las Escrituras, Año C.

La Biblia de Nuestro Pueblo . Luis Alonso Schökel.

The Catholic Study Bible -New American Bible.