SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER – 2012

«  The Church celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus   during 7 days as if each day was Easter Sunday itself.

«  And each Sunday of the Easter Season is called FIRST SUNDAY OF EASTER, SECOND….. 

¡ALLELUIA, JESUS, THE LORD IS RISEN!!!! 

 FIRST READING  – Acts  4:32-35

«  In this fragment Luke gives a second description of the infant Church (see Acts 2:42-47)

«  He speaks of the sharing of goods in the community.  The community experiences a great poverty in its midst, as a community of the followers of Jesus they look for solutions to solve the suffering of the brothers and sisters in need.  They respond with courage, enthusiasm and faithfulness to the words of Jesus “love one another as I have loved you.”  

«  What Luke says of this community makes us think  

o   They were one heart and one soul  

o   No one claimed that any of his/her possessions were his or her own. 

o   There were no needy brothers and sisters among them. 

o   The Apostles gave witness of the resurrection with power. 

«  This word challenges us, questions us. 

o   It has been said for us the followers.   

o   I ask myself if we accept with peace the unequal distributions of the good of creation. Is it something we can tolerate as followers of Jesus, going each one to his or her own business and our own interests?   

o   Or the strength of the resurrection makes the stone of the tomb of our indifference explode  inside of us, and we are moved  to do something as we see so much injustice, destruction of creation and above all destruction of the human being. 

«  From the Reading we may draw a very obvious conclusion: the first community took very seriously the words of the Master “Love one another as I have loved you.”  

«  It is also true, that in the Church through the centuries there has always been brothers and sisters who have taken these words seriously, and have given up their lives to make them real. We need to give thanks for this.    

RESPONSORIAL PSALM -   Psalm 118:2-4,13-15,22-24

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD, FOR HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER   

Ø  The psalmist invites us to praise YHWH. As a background music we hear over and over “for his love endures forever.”

Ø  The psalmist remembers the wonders made by the compassionate love of YHWH for his people, throughout history.   

SECOND READING  1 Jn 5:1-6 

«  Let us see some aspects of this letter:   

o   The community to which the letter is addressed is a community from Asia Minor, a community of disciples of John. Its members are from the second and third generation of Christians.  

o   They are new Christians, who are far in time and place from the events related to Jesus, far from the members of the first generation even of the second. 

o   Their behavior is based on the witnesses who saw and touched the Word of Life, and they proclaimed it to the next generation, and these to the present generation, so the joy of the one who proclaims shall be  also the joy of those who hear the proclamation. 

o   These Christians have to endure the threats of the heresy about Jesus: the heresy taught that the historical Jesus was not important, and   minimized also the value of the shedding of his blood

o   The author uses different ways to help his brothers and sisters: 

§  He helps the community to be aware of the demands of the Christian Life  

§  Discernment between what it means to be a Christian and what it means not to be a Christian. 

§  He offers some criteria to make the discernment.  Those who follow the teachings of the Lord are in communion with the Father, and with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit

«  Let us reflect on the message from next Sunday’s Reading.   

o   The Reading is taken from the conclusion of the First Letter of John.

o   Who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is himself also son of God. 

o   He, who loves the Father, loves also the Son.   

o   The author goes a step forward, if we love God and fulfill God’s commandments, then we know that we also love the sons of God.     

o   John says   

§  That the commandments are not a burden  

§  That faith defeats the world (world considered as sin)  

§  Faith in whom?  In Jesus the Son of God who came through water and blood.     

§   Water  does it  have a reference to baptism? And the blood to the Eucharist?  Or it means the water and blood that flowed from the wounded side of Jesus on the Cross? Or maybe the author wants us to reflect on the reality of the Incarnation of the Word of God?  

GOSPEL OF JOHN 20:19-31

      On this second Sunday of Easter the liturgy puts before the eyes of our faith the manifestation of the Risen Lord to the eleven.   

      Jesus comes in their midst suddenly, and all can see him.   

o   He says his usual greeting   “Shalom=Peace” The Risen Christ is our peace, his presence fills us with an overwhelming joy and we experience a deep peace that nobody can take from us.  

o   Jesus tells them that they have to continue the work he began with the Incarnation; they are called to be his visible presence in the world.  

§  What is that work, that mission?: With the strength of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus they will receive   the mission to forgive, to bind and unbind with the same authority of Jesus, who will accept what they bind or unbind here on earth.  

o   One of them, Thomas, is not with the others. He left the community, why? Probably because he is disappointed and sad.  He has left the community when he needed it most, when he needed to share with his friends his sadness, his fear, his disappointment.        

      Jesus comes back 8 days later, he does not want to leave one his intimate friends without seeing him. 

o   Jesus who continues to love without limits is going to give to Thomas a wonderful gift which will be a gift for us also.   

o   Thomas, look at me, I am Jesus, the one you love, with whom you were ready to go to Jerusalem to die. 

o   Do not allow the temptation of sadness to overcome you; do not go away from the community of your friends, who suffer like you.   

o   Touch my hands, enter into my wounded side that will always be open for you. 

o   You know that now by the power of the resurrection we are brothers, non only friends, or disciple and teacher.  

o   “My Lord and my God.” I love you my Lord, forgive my unbelief, my lack of trust.

§  HAPPY THOSE WHO WILL BELIEVE WITHOUT SEEING.  Thank you Lord for your words, because we belong to the group of those who struggle day by day   

·         To believe without seeing.   

·         To seek you in the midst of darkness.  

·         To allow your love to find us, your love that always forgets and forgives our lack of trust.   

·         WE BELIEVE LORD, BUT HELP OUR UNBELIEF, INCREASE OUR FAITH.    

 CLARETIAN CORNER

But since he (my father) was a good Christian, he told me, "I don't want to thwart your vocation, God forbid. Think it over carefully, commend it to God, and consult with your spiritual director. If he says that this is God's will, then I respect and worship it, however it may pain me. Even so, I'd rather see you become a secular priest than a monk. Whatever happens, may God's will be done."St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 78

Ever since this vision I have loved very much evangelical poverty (I loved her already very much before) because our Lord told me that Holy Poverty should be the foundation of this new Apostles, and for lack of this holy virtue all religious order has collapsed. María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 11

EASTER SUNDAY – 2012

      This is the greatest celebration of the Church. The liturgy invites us to sing, to praise, to rejoice. ALLELUIA, JESUS, THE LORD IS RISEN! 

      During the Easter Season all the readings are taken from the New Testament.   .

FIRST READING  – Acts  10: 34a-37-43

«  This Reading is taken from Peter’s speech addressed to the household of Cornelius. 

«  Who is Cornelius? At the beginning of chapter 10 of the Acts we are told that Cornelius is a Centurion of the Roman Cohort called the Italica. He was stationed at Caesarea.  

«  Cesarea is a city mentioned several times in the book of Acts. It is a different city than the one called Caesarea of Philippi where Peter made his confession of faith in Jesus. This city where Cornelius lives is situated on the coast of Palestine, on the road   from Tyre to Egypt.   .  

«  This is a key event in the development of the community of the followers of Jesus, the “infant” church. This community will be faced with different situations which she will have to understand in the light of the faith in Jesus. They will help the believers to discover more and more the total newness of the preaching and life of Jesus the Teacher crucified and raised from the dead. The baptism of Cornelius’ household by Peter marks the entrance of the gentiles, the non Jewish people into the new community, into the Church.  

«   Luis Alonso Shoēkel makes a very interesting reflection on this passage: 

o   He calls it the conversion, not of Cornelius, but of Peter. 

o   Cornelius is open to the Good News, the Gospel, and he does not offer any resistance, on the contrary he wants to know it. 

o   Peter, on his part, is struggling and looking for answers to a problem: what has to be done with the gentiles who ask to be part of the community of Jesus? 

o   Luke who is the author of Acts presents to us the two characters Cornelius and Peter praying. 

o   Cornelius is a Roman soldier, a pagan, but he is a man of prayer, compassionate toward the poor, we can say that he was a good and honest man. 

o   Peter is also in prayer. We know the content of his prayer by the dream he has for three different times: what to do in this new situation they find themselves.  

o   Jesus intervenes moving the threats of history. At the same time 2 p.m. both characters have a dream: Cornelius receives the answer to his prayer. He is invited to look for Simon called Peter. To Peter the voice tells him to go to Cornelius’ house without hesitation. 

«  After this introduction to situate us, let us contemplate the Reading for this Easter Sunday.   

o   Peter begins recalling what had happened in Judea after the baptism of John  

o   All about Jesus of Nazareth who was filled with the Spirit, power. He went about doing good   

o   Peter and the other apostles are witnesses of what he is preaching to them. Nobody has told them, they themselves have seen Him. They have seen Jesus, they have heard him, they have experienced him. Jesus is neither an imagination nor a dream. 

o   Jesus was nailed to the cross, but God has raised him up from the dead, and after his resurrection Jesus has appeared to some   witnesses chosen by the Father.   

o   These witnesses have received the mission to preach and testify to who Jesus is. 

«  What a complete and beautiful synthesis of our Christian faith, has Peter done.

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps  118  THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE!

ü  The Lord has made and does every day, but this one is special, it is the day  of days. It is the day of the new creation, the “eighth day” the day of the triumph of Jesus over death, the day in which the doors of heaven are opened to us; we are given again the possibility to enter into God’s intimacy.  

SECOND READING   COLOSSIANS  3:1-4

Ø  Not all the authors agree on who is the author of this letter. There are reasons to believe it belongs to Paul, and also reasons to believe it belongs to one of Paul’s disciples. 

Ø  If Paul is the author the letter had to be written from Ephesus around the late 50th. If Paul is not the author then the date might be around the 80^th.  

Ø  But let us put aside this discussion and let us center ourselves today in the message presented to us in today’s liturgy. 

o   It is an invitation to live according to one who has been raised with Jesus, to who has been submerged into the death and resurrection of Jesus through his or her baptism.  

o   Our life is a new life guided by the values of Christ, not the values we had before knowing Christ. 

o   This invitation to a new life is a logical consequence to have died with Christ, and to have been submerged into his life. 

o   Christ lives in the Father and has taken us with him, we are his body, thus where he is, we are also  if we remain in Him. 

o   Christ through his incarnation is also in this world and remains in this world with us, even being glorified and living in the Father. Jesus has come to make all things new.  

o   Thus those who are in Him are called to have their feet firm on this earth, on this world, on this society to transform it with our commitment and our testimony. 

PASCHAL SEQUENCE –

The sequence is an ancient and beautiful prayer that sings the glorious event of the Resurrection of the Lord.  We recite it on Easter Sunday and it may be recited during the whole first week of Easter

May you praise the Paschal Victim, immolated for Christians. The Lamb redeemed the sheep: Christ, the innocent one, has reconciled sinners to the Father.   A wonderful duel to behold, as death and life struggle: The Prince of life dead, now reigns alive. Tell us, Mary Magdalene, what did you see on the way? I saw the sepulcher of the living Christ, and I saw the glory of the Resurrected one:

The Angelic witnesses, the winding cloth, and His garments. The risen Christ is my hope: He will go before His own into Galilee. We know Christ to have risen truly from the dead: And thou, victorious King, have mercy on us. Amen. Alleluia.

GOSPEL MARK:  16,1-7

      The first day of the week, these words  remind to us the first day of creation. Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of the new creation.    

      Three women, Mark mentioned two of them at the end of the Passion narrative. They were at a distance from the cross and looked where they put Him  (15:47)

      They go to the sepulcher to anoint his body, since on Friday they had to observe the Sabbath repose that  began on Friday’s evening.  On the first day of the week they go to the sepulcher to give to Jesus’ body the honor due to him.   

      They are worried because the stone is heavy and they do not know who will help them.  But the stone is removed and an angel gives them a message for the disciples.  

      They have to go to Galilee.   Shoēkel says: they have to abandoned their Jewish ideals and go to Galilee to begin from there the universal mission.  

      In Galilee is where Jesus began his mission, in Galilee is where Jesus met them for the first time and called them to his following. 

      Galilee is the place of the first encounter, full of memories of their live with the Teacher. They have to go back to that first experience, to that first call, to that first love, before they begin the great mission that will be entrusted to them. To proclaim to the whole Roman Empire, to the whole world that JESUS IS LORD, that JESUS HAS DIED FOR OUR SALVATION and that ALL OF  US ARE HIS BROTHERS AND HIS SISTERS and that we are also brothers and sisters among us.

ALELUYA LET US ALSO SING WITH JOY THAT JESUS IS LORD. 

CLARETIAN CORNER

 

Blessed be the Lord Jesus Christ for he is pleased to send consolation in times when it is most needed!   The love to your most holy will subdues me to any sacrifice.  O, who may cry out to the whole world, how faithful you are to your friends!    Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters

Jesus I love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my strength.      I wish I love you more and that all love you also.  I would like to love you for me and for all your creatures.    Lord, in the same way as the water is mixed with the wine in the Eucharist, in the same way I want to unite myself to you and to offer myself with you to the Most Holy Trinity.    Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters.

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

 CLARET, Antonio María. Oraciones que se encuentran en sus escritos.

 PARIS, María Antonia. Oraciones que se encuentran en sus escritos.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentarios en la BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Ediciones Mensajero. China 2010.

PASSION SUNDAY – PALM SUNDAY 2012

      On Palm Sunday we will begin Holy Week, the most solemn week in our Church. In the liturgies of this week we will remember the greatest  events of our salvation.   

      Jesus as he prepares to depart from us, leaves with us his sacramental presence in his Body (bread) and his Blood (wine).  

      Jesus gives to us his priests who will   make him present among us.   

      Jesus leaves with us also his new commandment, the commandment of love: LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.    

      Jesus gives his life for all of us as well as for each one of us, he offers his salvation to us, he gives us again the opportunity to enter into the intimacy with our Father, God and Creator.   

FIRST READING – Isaiah 50: 4-7   

«  The first Reading is taken from the Second book of Isaiah called the Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah, or Book of the Consolation.  

«  In this book we find 4 poems called the Poems of the Servant of Yhwh.  This servant is a mysterious character that has been identified with the people of Israel, with a prophet, with Jeremiah. It is a individual character, but also a collective character.   

«  On Palm Sunday we read the third poem, in which the author describes the  servant as a prophet, someone called to be at the service of the word.   

o   The servant speaks and says that he has been given the tongue of a disciple.  

o   Each morning, as a disciple he listens to know what he has to say  

o   And thus he will be able to say a word of comfort to the one who is discouraged   

o   He continues to speak and says that he has not offered resistance when his ear was opened. Why should he offer resistance, is that something dangerous?  

o   The next verse gives us a clue to understand what the servant wants to tell us  

o   It seems that to listen to the word and afterwards to repeat this word  brings upon him humiliation, mistreatments, offenses; but he says that he does not offer resistance.  

o   Because the one who helps him is the Lord. The Lord Yhwh has called him, and has given him a face hard as stone to be able to face all the humiliations, that come to him, because of the word heard and repeated.

o   Looking at the other two readings of this Sunday we realize that this Servant is Jesus.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  22:8-9. 17-18. 19-20. 23-24

The response will be MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONED ME? 

ü  The response is taken from the first verse of this psalm. 

ü  Jesus will say these words on the cross  

ü  Jesus makes his these words pronounced by the psalmist, and by all those who have felt themselves abandoned by God. 

ü  We must be grateful to our Lord to be solidary with us, with each and every man and woman who has experienced that God is far from him or her, that it does not seem that he listen to us.

ü  Jesus has reached the deepest level of suffering.

SECOND READING -  Phil  2:6-11

This Reading has two parts: the humiliation and the exaltation of Jesus Christ.   

HUMILIATION

What is that attitude of Christ we are invited to make ours? 

Ø  Being God he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped at. 

Ø  We know that he became like us in the incarnation. 

Ø  He humiliated himself and became a slave   

Ø  Those who saw him, knew that he was a man   

Ø  In obedience he accepted to die on the cross.  

Ø  God, the Son of God, the Word, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity has become one of us to teach us how to be human, to obey.   

o   To obey is the fundamental attitude of the human being, man and woman created by God. The creature is called to be by the Creator  

o   The creature listens and answers to the call “to be.” This is what obedience means, to do what another person says.  

Ø  From the cross Jesus teaches us the greatest  lesson which we need to learn: to surrender our being, to abandon us in the hands of the Father, in the hands of others, without offering resistance, as we have read in the poem of the servant.   

EXALTATION

Ø  Because being God he wanted to live like us, and to surrender himself into our hands 

Ø  God the Father has given him a name over any other name  

Ø  He has the same name as God, at his name all creation bends its knees and proclaims that 

Ø  JESUS CHRIST IS LORD for the Glory of God the Father. 

Ø  Jesus, as the servant from the first Reading, has been faithful, knowing that the Father is his help. He trusted in the Father to the end, he surrenders himself to the one who loves him unconditionally.   

Ø  After his resurrection the first communities said of Jesus the same words that Israel said of Yhwh. They  say JESUS IS LORD, which means JESUS IS GOD.  

GOSPEL  – READING OF THE PASSION ACCORDING TO SAINT MARK 14:32-15,47

We will read the Passion as Mark narrates it 

§  We read the Passion according to Mark in the same year in which we read the gospel of Mark on the Sundays in Ordinary time.  

§  From the beginning of his Gospel Mark prepares us to understand the deep meaning of the Passion of Jesus and how it is connected to his ministry.  

§  During his ministry Jesus will have confrontations with the leaders of his people.  He will experience a growing opposition until they will plan to eliminate him.   

§  Mark describes the passion of Jesus in its greatest cruelty, making us enter into the darkness experienced  by Jesus: his fear, his abandonment, his loneliness, his physical and moral sufferings

§  Mark is the evangelist who has presented in the strongest way the humanity of Jesus. 

§  Let us enter into the Passion taking out  our sandals, as God asked Moses, because we  will stand on   holy ground, the intimacy of our dear Redeemer.   

§  The four evangelists narrate with a luxury of details  the passion of our Lord. The passion according to Mark has   4 parts: 

-          GETHEMANE: PRAYER AND ARREST  (14,26-52)

-          THE JEWISH TRAIL/ PETER’S DENAIL   (14,53-72)

-          THE ROMAN TRAIL   (15,1-20)

-          CRUCIFIXION, DEATH AND BURIAL (15,21-47) 

§  GETHSEMANE: PRAYER AND ARREST

o    Jesus is alone, and he will be alone until the end of his journey, all will abandon him. 

o    Jesus looks for the sympathy of his friends, like all of us when we suffer.  

o   He leaves the larger group of his apostles at the entrance of the garden, and goes further with his three friends Peter, James and John. These three had been witnesses of the resurrection of Jairo’s  daugther,  and of the transfiguration.  

o   He humbly says that he is sad even to death. 

o   He prays to the Father his Abba, everything is possible for you… if it is possible…. But may your will be done.  He repeats this prayer three times.  

o   Each time he goes to his disciples, and finds them sleeping because of the sadness. Jesus seems to dislike that Peter has not been able to be awaken with him. Peter will not do anything, like the others. The only thing he will do is not precisely something that Jesus had taught him, to cut off the ear of one of the servants of the high priest.  

o   When Jesus finishes his prayer he is serene again, at peace, ready to face what may come. 

o   When Judas comes and kisses him, Jesus does not say anything. At that moment  all abandon him.  

o   Scriptures have to be fulfilled, it means the will of the Father, which he had already let the prophets foresee, is now being fulfilled. 

§  JEWHISH TRIAL/PETER’S DENIAL

o   Mark presents a great contrast between Jesus actions, and the actions of his disciple, the one who will be the head of his church. The one who once confessed that Jesus is the Messiah. 

o   Jesus is interrogated by the Sanhedrin, the political and religious authority of Israel. The Romans had given them some functions of authority that they could perform.  Peter is interrogated by the   servant girl and others outside in the courtyard around the fire.  

§  The main accusation against Jesus is that he had said something wrong about the Temple: that if destroyed, he will rebuild it in three days.   

§  The Temple is the most sacred reality in Israel, it is the symbol of the presence of Yahweh in the midst  of his people

§  Since the accusers did not agree among them, the high priest asked Jesus solemnly if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One. The high priest has the authority received from God thus Jesus obeys him even if the high priest abuses from his authority. Jesus also cannot deny his identity, which the Father repeated to him twice “You are my son, my beloved.”   

§  Jesus who had not speak when they accused him, will speak now, he cannot remain silent. 

§  Jesus like the Servant of the First reading cannot keep for himself what he has heard from the Father, his  deepest identity, and responds I AM. He also adds that they will see the son of man coming in the clouds. The Son of Man  has authority to judge.    

§  He will be condemned because he has said the truth. He will also be mocked. 

o   Let us go back to Peter, and see what he is doing while Jesus is saying the truth for our salvation.   

§  For three times he is questioned about his identity, his being a disciple of that man from Galilee. His three answers are every time farther away from the truth.  

·        I do not understand what you are saying.   

·        The second time he denies again to be a disciple. 

·        The third time he curses and swears that he has never known that man. 

§  The cock crowed for the second time, Peter remembers the words of Jesus and weeps.  

§  Thank you Lord for having chosen Peter, such a weak man, to represent you among us, to be the leader of your church. 

§  Thank you because we are very weak also, but looking at Peter we may learn to weep. 

§  ROMAN TRAIL

o   In the morning the Sanhedrin handed over Jesus to Pilate, the Roman Governor.

o   The accusation here is not that he made himself son of God, but that he made himself King. Pilate could not accept that because this was against the Roman Emperor.  

o   Pilate speaks to Jesus, he asks Jesus, but Jesus does not answer him, and Pilate is amazed. Jesus speaks when necessary but not now, because Pilate is not interested in hearing the truth.  

o   Pilate realizes that they handed him over to him out of envy, but Pilate is a coward and does not dare to give a just sentence, he tries to please and to keep his position of Governor. So he will try to find  another way. To liberate Jesus and hand over to them Barabbas a thief and a murderer.   

o   Pilate is amazed to see that they prefer Barabbas to Jesus. They preferred their own selfishness instead of choosing life.  Humankind today is not so different from that crowd which wanted the death of Jesus. We also prefer our selfishness of all sorts over to the truth and to life. We prefer:  

§  All our addictions which kill us little by little  

§  Our selfishness that kills us and kills others: abortions, euthanasia, pornography, all sorts of new slaveries, abuses of women and children, unfaithfulness in marriage….  

§  We scorn, make fun of people that suffer different kinds of limitations. Those we  deep   call  not “normal” as we say we are.   

§  We may continue the list on an on, each one of us can do it looking at the prejudices we nurture in our heart.  

o   Jesus is condemned to death, the most shameful death that the Roman Empire inflicted on the criminals and slaves, on those they considered less than human beings.   

§  CRUCIFIXION, DEATH AND BURIAL  

o   Mark is the only one that presents to us Simon of Cyrene. The soldiers make him carry the cross of Jesus. Jesus is so weak that they think he will not make it to the Golgotha,  where they want to crucify him.  

o   We do not know anything about that man .

§  But we may imagine as it is presented to us in the movie The Passion, that this man did not remain indifferent in this close contact with Jesus, that innocent man condemned to die.   

§  To be near Jesus had to change him, as we have changed since the day we encounter our Lord in the journey of our life.    

o   Pilate put the inscription on the cross JESUS KING OF THE JEWS, probably to shame the people of Israel, look what King  you have. Without  knowing it,  he said the truth. He is the KING OF THE JEWS, AND HE IS THE KING OF EVERYONE, AND OF THE UNIVERSE. 

o   The people around the cross insult Jesus, but Jesus with a loud voice says MY GOD, MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU ABANDONNED ME? This is the first sentence of Psalm 22 which Jesus makes his in this hour of darkness; Jesus feels the abandonment from all and from the Father.    He does not call him as usual Abba, now in his great suffering he does not feel him as Abba, but not even as a friendly God.

o   Thank you Lord because this is the experience of so many innocent people who suffer injustice and are abandoned by their friends and loved ones. 

o   Jesus dies giving a loud cry.   Let us read Joel 2:10-22; 4, 16 to understand what Mark describes.

o   Creation feels very deeply the death of its Creator, the Temple is not necessary anymore, Jesus is the true Temple of God,

o   The way in which Jesus dies helps the Roman Centurion discover the identity of Jesus. “Truly this man was the son of God. “

o   The women who are present look at what is happening, but they cannot get close to the cross.   

o   Joseph of Arimathea, a rich and distinguished man asks Pilate the body of Jesus. Pilate gives it to him. 

o   He took him down from the cross and buried him in a tomb. 

o   Two women look attentively to see where they put him. 

o   And the body of Jesus is in the tomb waiting for the resurrection.

Blessed be your power and kindness!   Blessed be the Lord!  O!  love of God toward your creatures!  O!  Word that does whatever it says!  O!  Lord may your will be done.  How true it is that no one can make resistance to the will of God!   Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the   Claretian Missionary Sisters

Blessed may you be, O Lord, for your love and mercy toward me.  Grant me to love and serve you, and help me to make all creatures  to love and serve  you.    Fire that always burns and never becomes extinguished. Love of God grant that I may love you. I love you Jesus with all my heart. Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the   Claretian Missionary Sisters

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BROWN, Raymond E. A Crucified Christ in Holy Week (Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives). Collegeville, Minnesota, 1986.

CLARET, Antonio María. Prayers found in his writings   

GOMEZ, Margarita rmi.  Notes on the Deutero-Isaiah.   .

PARIS, María Antonia. Prayers found in her writings. 

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Commentaries on the BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO (BIBLE OF OUR PEOPLE). Ediciones Mensajero. China 2010.