FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2016 

INTRODUCTION

1. Luke has presented several different ways to look at Jesus in order to discover who he is. 
2. Today Jesus calls his first disciples, collaborators in the mission he has come to accomplish among us.    
3. The call will help Peter to acknowledge his indignity, his sin, and at the same time to learn that our sins do not make the Lord depart from us, on the contrary he comes closer to us to save us, to give his life so that we may have life. The Lord  does not want our sin, but he loves us.  
4. Thus today the Church liturgy invites us to reflect on our own vocation, looking at the vocation of the first followers.   

 

   FIRST READING  Is 6:1-2a, 3-8

• Isaiah tells us about the vision he had of the Majesty of God.  
• He tells us that the vision happened in the year of the death of King Uzziah around the year 740 or 739 BC.   
• In the second book of Kings and in the 2 book of Chronicles this King is also called Azariah   (2 Kings 14:21; 2 Chronicles 26)
  • Isaiah sees God seating on a high throne. Isaiah was an official at the court of the King, it seems very normal that when God wants to reveal himself to him he uses images which Isaiah will understand. God is seen as a Monarch, a King. 
  • The description of the celestial liturgy performed by the Seraphims makes us think of the liturgies or worship in the Temple of Jerusalem, the smoke of the incense.
  • Over the throne Isaiah sees some winged celestial creatures  he calls them seraphim, which reminds of the word “serap” which means “to burn.” 
  • They cry out to each other “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts! His glory fills the earth!   
  • The voices are so loud that the place is shaken. 
  • This is an awesome vision in which God is seen as a King of an extraordinary majesty, surrounded by those creatures which are on fire. 
  • In the presence of God the human being experiences his or her indignity, his or her sin and becomes conscious of his or her sinfulness. 
  • Thus Isaiah acknowledges that his lips are impure, and also those of his people. 
  • Fear invades Isaiah, since it was a common belief, that whoever sees God dies. 
  • But God does not abandon his sinful people, on the contrary through the incarnation, God comes to live among us.
  • To purify the lips of Isaiah God sends a Seraphim with a burning coal to touch his lips.   
  • And God who always calls us to entrust a mission to us, seems to speak to himself saying: whom shall I sent? Who will go in our name?   
  • Isaiah who is burning in divine love responds with enthusiasm “Here I am, send me!” 
• This is how Isaiah tells us his vocation, his call to be a prophet.   
• His mission will be difficult, since he will speak but they will not listen to him, they will not understand because they are afraid that if they understand they will have to change their lives, they will have to allow God to convert them. 
• This vision of the Majesty of God will help Isaiah all his life long to see the injustices committed against the poor, the least of society as an idolatry, a worship of an alien god, the god of selfishness, of money, of power. Injustice will become an offense against God, before being an offense against another human being.   

 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   – Ps 138

 

IN THE SIGHT OF THE ANGELS I WILL SING YOUR PRAISES, LORD   

 

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with all my heart  

For you have heard the words of my mouth

In the presence of the angels I will sing your praise  

I will worship at your holy temple

And give thanks to your name

 

Because of your kindness and your truth   

For you have made great above all things

Your name and your promise

When I called, you answered me

You built up strength within me

 

All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you O Lord

When they hear the words of your mouth

And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord

“Great is the glory of the Lord.”

 

Your right hand saves me.

The Lord will complete what he has done for me

Your kindness, O Lord, endures forever

Forsake not the work of your hands.

 

It is a psalm of thanksgiving recited by  the people and by the kings as well, all are called  to praise God.   

 

GOSPEL  LK 5:1-11

• Jesus is preaching, people are around him pressing him because they want to listen to the fascinating words of the young teacher, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth.  
• And he gets into one of the boats, the boat of Peter to be able to speak from the boat. Peter and his companions are mending their nets. 
• From the boat he speaks and speaks, and all are pleased listening to him.  
• When he finishes teaching the people he asks Peter to throw their nets to catch fish. 
• The fishermen know that you do not fish at noon when there is so much light, and especially if they could not catch any fish during the right time at night.  
• Peter who has been a fisherman for many years knows that, but on the word of Jesus he throws the nets, and they catch a large number of fish. 
• And Peter, like Isaiah acknowledges his sinfulness, his unworthiness in the presence of the God three times holy. He starts discovering that Jesus is more than what her sees in him.   
• Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man. 
• Isaiah was purified by a burning coal that a seraphim took from the incense. Peter will hear the words of Jesus telling him, “Fear not! you will be fisher of men.”    
• As a consequence of the vision Isaiah is sent to prophesize to his people. From the encounter of Peter with Jesus, Peter becomes fisher of men. Both Isaiah and Peter are called to proclaim among their brothers and sisters the wonderful works of our amazing God, to discover his presence among us.  
• Isaiah says “Here I am” Peter and his companions leave their nets and everything else and follow Jesus. 
  In this encounter of Jesus with the fishermen from Galilee there is not fire, no seraphim, no smoke, nothing extraordinary, everything happens very quietly, peacefully. This is because God has decided to become incarnate and to live among us. That is the difference between the Old and the New Testaments.   
   
  SECOND READING  1Cor 15:1-11

1. Paul reminds his community of Corinth the gospel he has preached to them. A gospel which Paul in turn received from the community of the believers, thus Paul is handing over the tradition of the young church. 
2. What he has handed over to them is   
   • That Christ died for our sins   
   • That he was buried  and     
   • That he was raised on the third day. All of this happened in accordance with  the Scriptures.   
   • That he appeared to Cephas (Peter), to the twelve and to more than five hundred brothers and sisters.    

1. Finally the risen and glorified Lord appeared to Paul,    
2. He considers himself the least of the apostles, because he persecuted the church. 
3. But he says that he has worked harder than any of them 
4. Although he rectifies and says that it is the grace of God that has done the work in him. 
5. Paul says that faith has to follow the preaching, the listening to the word of God. 
    
    
   BIBLIOGRAFÍA

            CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.

            SWEENEY, Marvin A. The Prophetic Literature

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras – Ciclo C. San Pablo 2006. 

SCHÖKEL , Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

SAGRADA BIBLIA, Versión Oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española

 

 

 

 

      A tactic I used to keep silence while I lived in the teaching convent in Tarragona. This house was for me a studio, or better, a most perfect school where God our Lord taught me the core of religious virtue and the means to acquire it, namely: total self-denial by a continuous contradiction of religious but apposing spirits.       Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 237

I had three reasons for not eating. First, because I was able not to--I had no appetite, especially when I had to do a lot of preaching or had to hear large numbers of confessions. Second, on certain occasions when I did have some appetite, I wouldn't eat, especially when I was about to start on a trip, so as not to be heavy on my feet. Finally, I abstained from eating in order to edify people because I noticed that they were always watching me. Thus I ate very little even though I was hungry. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 404

  

 

 

 

THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2016 

INTRODUCCIÓN

In this third Sunday in Ordinary time we move a step forward in the knowledge of Jesus. .   

o   After his baptism in the Jordan River the Father said that Jesus is his beloved son. 

o   At the wedding in Canna the overwhelming abundance of water changed into wine by the word of Jesus and the cooperation of Mary and the servants, reminds us what Isaiah had prophesized about the messianic times.   

o   Today Jesus will tell us that in him the Great Jubilee of God is fulfilled.  

THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH

«  The books of Ezra and of Nehemiah were a single literary work which became two books sometime in history. 

«  It is also possible that both books were part of a larger work which included the books of Chronicles.   

«   The end of Chronicles is repeated in the beginning of the book of Ezra.   

«  Ezra-Nehemiah recount the return from the Babylonian exile.  This return entailed the restauration of Jerusalem and the reconstruction of the Temple.   

«  The books of Ezra and  Nehemiah present the events  not in a chronological order but a theological one, according to the authors’ point of  view.

o   Return from exile  (Ez 1-6)

o   Memories of Ezra  (Ez 7-10)

o   Memories of Nehemiah   (Neh 1-7)

o   Renewal of the Covenant  (Neh 8-10)

o   The book of the Nehemiah’s memories

«  These two books were included in the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures before Chronicles; because the content of Chronicles is already present in the books of Samuel and Kings.    

«  The people of Israel had always been  a people different from all the other peoples that surrounded it.  Its traditions, its laws, its faith in the only true God  who had spoken to Abraham and had made a covenant with Moses, but now with Ezra and Nehemiah Judaism is born;  It rests on four pillars: 

o   The Hebrew race as a sign of identity which is transmitted only from parents to children. 

o   The law as a rule of life and as the manifestation of God’s fidelity. 

o   The land as the place which God himself handed over to the chosen people.  

o   The temple of Jerusalem as the place where God the creator dwells.   

FIRST READING  Neh 8,2-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Ø  Ezra reads the book of the Law to all who are able to understand. This book is probably the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew text.    

Ø  Some scholars think that this book is the book of Deutoronomy, others an abbreviated version of the Pentateuch as we have it now, others think that it could be the Pentateuch as we have it now.   

Ø  The reading of the book happens the day before the feast of the tabernacle which is celebrated at the end of the summer tasks. 

Ø  There is a kind of solemnity in this liturgical act of reading the book of the Law:   

o   Ezra stands up

o   He opens the book so that all can see it   

o   Ezra blesses God and all the people says Amen, yes we praise you our God.    

o   After having read the Law, the religious and civil leaders invite the people to rejoice, to celebrate eating and drinking and not being sad.  

o   Because their strength is in the joy of the Lord  

o   Every Sunday we are also invited to the feast that Jesus himself has prepared for us in his bread and in his wine, in his community, the community of faith to which we belong.  

o   This feast is prepared for us by the Lord by means of our leaders in faith, the priests of the Lord. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Ps  19

R.   Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
find favor before you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.

      This psalm is a hymn to the Creator and to the Law 

      The responsorial psalm is taken from the part dedicated to the law.  

      It sings the beauty of the Law and says something very beautiful “it is joy for the heart,  rest for the soul and gives light to the eyes.  

GOSPEL LK 1:1-4; 4,14-21

ü  We begin with Jesus his missionary ministry of proclaiming the good news

ü  The liturgy invites us, before we listen to Jesus inaugural speech in the Synagogue of Nazareth, to read again the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.   

o   Luke says to us that what he is about to say to us comes from the tradition of the Christian community, the community of the followers of the Teacher.  

ü  Let us go now to chapter 4 and listen to Jesus  

ü  Luke explains to us that Jesus goes to the Synagogue as usual. Jesus who has come back to his home town  on Saturday he goes to the synagogue like any  good Israelite.   

ü  It seems that it was customary to invite to read those who were visiting, Jesus is not a foreigner he is a son of the town, but he has been away for a long time, and everyone is saying great things that he has done in other places.       

ü  They give to him the book of the prophet Isaiah in the section called Trito-Isaiah.   

ü  Jesus reads with solemnity: The Spirit    

o   Is upon me…

o   He has sent me to heal, to console… 

ü  And the text of Luke continues at this point mentioning a quotation from the book of Leviticus:   

o   To proclaim the year of grace…  

ü  When he finishes to read Jesus sits down and gives his “homily” and he begins  with these words:

o   Today in your presence this Scripture has been fulfilled.  

ü  Let us reflect on what Jesus is saying in the Synagogue of Nazareth  

o   The first part of the reading is taken  from the prophet Isaiah 

§  Announcing the mission of the Messiah, of the one who is to come, of the one who will have the fullness of the Spirit upon him  

§  His mission will to restore what is incomplete, to do good according to the needs of others   

§  To bring good tidings to the poor, who really need to hear a good word 

§  To proclaim liberty to those who do not have it, how many situations in which liberty, freedom is lacking! He has come to give  back to us the freedom that God wants for each one of us. 

§  To give back sight to those who are blind, how many blindness we have! 

§  To liberate the oppressed, what does oppress us today? What does oppress our brothers and sisters today? 

§  And this is to proclaim the year of grace, that is to say THE JUBILEE described in Leviticus 25, 8 and ff. 

§  The Jubilee Year, the year of grace because it is the year of the great pardon.  

ü  This is the way in which Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke, begins his ministry.   This proclamation in Luke corresponds to the Beatitudes that Matthew has at the beginning of the great sermon of the Mountain. In this passage Jesus tells us how his followers have to behave. And truly the beatitudes are the portrait of Jesus, as the proclamation in the Synagogue of Nazareth is the description of Jesus ministry of compassion 

ü  John Paul II in the document “Toward the Third Milenium says that Jesus in Nazareth describes his ministry in terms of the Jubilee Year.  

ü  Jubilee Year, we are celebrating, living a year of grace. We have been invited to live, to experience and to transmit the mercy of our God and at the same time to  clothe ourselves  of mercy. 

ü  Or as a song that was composed in the Jubilee Year says “Jesus is our Jubilee”.

ü  Jesus is the incarnation, the fulfillment of the Jubilee Year.   

SECOND READING   1Cor 12:12-14, 27

      We continue the Reading of the letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

      Today Paul explains to his community what does it mean to be a church.  

      Last week he said to us that we all receive the same Spirit, who gives his gifts plentifully, according to the serviced we have called to do.   

      Today he advances a step forward in the teaching about the meaning of being a church, he uses the comparison with the human body.  

      Paul did not know what we know now of the human body, but he gives a very practical description.    

      From this conversation about the human body Paul passes to talk about Christ.  

o   We all need to feel part of his body.   

CLARETIAN CORNER 

Let the one who reads these notes not wonder to see them so disordered, because I never thought that I had to write such things. So, I started with such confusion and shame that I had not been able to do it in order. That’s why many things, which out to be at the beginning, are in the middle and others, which are to be in the middle are at the end. They will also miss the dates, because of my own carelessness but not for lack of truthfulness, since by the grace of God, I have always abhorred lies.  Let it be for the glory of God and of the most Blessed Mother.  María Antonia París, Foundress of the Clartian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 232

Their Majesties are surrounded by self-serving men who are always hunting and grasping after titles, honors, greater salaries, and sums of money; but I, as I have said, have gained nothing; rather, I have lost much. Her Majesty wanted me by all means to accept the office of Guardian of Montserrat—the church, hospital, etc.-but I declined. Both she and the Commissioner General asked me many times to take the post, and when I learned that the buildings had already been advertised for sale in the Official Bulletin, I finally accepted, just to save them. And what did I gain by it all? I had to pay 5,000 duros out of my own pocket for repairs on the church and the hospital.

I can say much the same of the royal monastery of the Escorial, which neither is nor has ever been a source of profit to me; rather, it has brought me nothing but troubles and pains, and it has been the occasion of persecutions, slanders, and bills.  Three times I tried to resign from its presidency, but failed. Well, God be praised for it all: if the Lord wants me to carry this cross, all I can do is submit to his will. My God, I want nothing of this world, nothing but your grace, your holy love and heavenly glory. St Anthony Mary Claret, Autobiography 635-636

BIBLIOGRAPHY

            CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía

MUÑOZ, HORTENSIA y TUTZÓ, REGINA. París y Claret: dos plumas movidas por el mismo Espiritu. Llamados a renovar la iglesia. Misioneras Claretianas 2010.     

SCHÖKEL , Luis Alonso, La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo.

SAGRADA BIBLIA, Versión Oficial de la Conferencia Episcopal Española