FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT  - CYCLE C - 2019

INTRODUCTION 

 In his Gospel Luke tells us that Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, the holy city.  

 Have we begun our Lenten journey with the same enthusiasm, ready to give our life to our Master for the good of our brothers and sisters?      

Let us see what does the Lord have to say to us in the readings for this Sunday 

Since Lent is one of the special seasons of the Church’s liturgy, the three readings have a common theme. 

 I have read the commentary, made by Gianfranco Ravassi,  and I like the way he looks at them. For him the three readings speak of the profession of faith, made in different ways.    

 I have decided to use this point of view to make my own commentary. 

FIRST READING  Dt 26: 4-10. 

Ø  In  the Hebrew Bible the Book of Deuteronomy  is called “These are the words…” because the book begins with this phrase.     

Ø  In the Greek translation it has been given the name Deuteronomy = second law. 

Ø  The book is completely orientated to the words that Moses addresses to his people on the threshold of the promise land. 

Ø  These words of Moses are written in different literary genres: narrations, laws, counsels and poetry having the LAW as a backdrop. 

Ø  Chapter 26 is about the first fruits offered to God.  

Ø  Moses tells his people that whenever they go before the Lord to offer the first fruits of their crops, they will say : My father was a wandering Aramean…  

Ø  These are the first words of Israel’s profession of faith.   

o   It is the confession of their own origin wandering Aramean…They  went down to Egypt and established themselves there, they increased in numbers.    

o   As a consequence to be so numerous they were oppressed by the Egyptians who made them suffer   

o   They cried out to their God and he listened to them, taking them from the land of slavery.  

o   He gave them freedom, led them with strong hand, and outstretch arm to the land where they are now.  

Ø  With these words, the faithful Israelite confesses that God is great, that God listens to the cry of the suffering and of the poor, and that God led them to the Land.   

Ø  He confesses that God is a God who is near, who journeys with us, who guides  us. 

Ø  Together with the profession of faith, he will offer the first fruits of his crop. He is no more a wandering Aramean, now he is an Israelite who inhabits the land; he is not a nomad anymore. He does not go wandering with his animals, but he has now settled in the Land, and thus offers the first fruits.  

Ø  What a beautiful profession of faith, short and at the same time so respectful, so full of love and trust in the Lord his God.    

SECOND READING   Rm 10:8-13

« Paul invites the members of his community to believe in Jesus Christ, to profess with the mouth, and to believe with the heart that Jesus is the Lord. 

« The Israelite was invited to profess his faith in the Almighty God, YHWH, who had freed them from slavery. 

« Paul invites his community to profess their faith in Jesus, as Lord and God, who, giving up his life on the cross has liberated us from the greatest slavery, sin. 

« To profess this faith we do not need to be descendants of the wandering Aramean, but all of us without distinction of race, color, nationality, genre we are invited to make this profession of faith in Jesus dead and risen for the liberation of all.  

GOSPEL  Lk 4:1-13

     Luke introduces Jesus to us, the Jesus whom Paul invites us to believe in, the Jesus who is tempted before beginning his mission. Mission that will lead him to the cross and resurrection, and that will be our salvation. 

     After his baptism, Jesus goes away and allows himself to be guided by the Spirit   into the desert. The desert, which will be the place of the temptation, solitude, struggle and encounter face to face with God and with himself.

     Jesus, after his baptism in the Jordan River, hears the voice of the Father saying: You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.   

     Now he is alone reflecting and meditating on the mission that the Father has for him, he is afraid like all of us when we think that the mission, God has for us, will be difficult, and as a consequence we will suffer rejection and scorn. 

     Surely that the temptations that the evangelists narrate are a composition of the temptations he suffered during his lifetime. 

     The temptations as Luke describes them will always begin with the words or the thought: If you are the son of God. As if the temptation was oriented toward the nature, of whom Jesus is.   

o   I do not believe that the temptation of the bread is only about bread, or food, but it is the temptation to use his power for his own benefit not for the service of others. Is it not one of our strongest temptations, to put ourselves before everybody else?   

o   Luke changes the order of the temptations, and puts as the second temptation the one about the kingdoms of the world.  It is the temptation to do what we are called to do but in our own way, in an easy way. Why should Jesus have to suffer humiliation, scorn, rejection and death to follow the will of the Father, if he can do it in another way more reasonable?   

o   For Luke the last temptation is the most dangerous, it happens in the Temple of Jerusalem. The greatest temptation happens in the city of Jerusalem.   This is the temptation to provoke God, to manipulate God so that he will do what we want, we will not do his will, but he will do our will.  It is the temptation of making an idol of the true God.   

o   Through all these temptations,  Jesus uses the words from Scripture to defeat the evil spirit.

o    The answer of Jesus to the temptations is his profession of faith, trust, surrendering in the hands of God, his Abba,  whom he loves unconditionally.   

CLARETIAN CORNER

 I was very attentive, overwhelmed to what was happening, and it seemed to me that I was reading the Holy Law of God, but without seeing any books nor letters; I  was seeing it written, and I was understanding it so very well, that it seemed to me it was imprinting in my soul but in a particular way the book of the Holy Gospels, which till then I had never read, neither  the Sacred Scripture (O.T). After, by God’s grace, I have read something and I have seen it written word by word, as our Lord taught it to me from the holy tree of the cross. It seems to me that the words I understood were coming out from his holy mouth Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 5.

This troubled me deeply, for I am by nature very compassionate. The idea of an eternity of torment made such a deep impression on me, either because of the tenderness it evoked in me or because of the many times I thought about it, that it is surely the thing that to this day I remember best. The power of this idea has made me work in the past, still makes me work, and will make me work as long as I live, in converting sinners, in preaching, in hearing confessions, in writing books, in distributing holy cards and pamphlets, and in having familiar conversations.  St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Aubiography 9. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Anthony  Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography

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

EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   – CYCLE C – 2019

Ø  The readings for this Sunday help us to reflect on our words and to take care of them, since they are the reflection of our inner life.  

Ø  Jesus invites us not to judge.  

BOOK OF BEN SIRACH  

v It is the only book of the Old Testament that has the signature of its author   (50,27)

v It was written originally in Hebrew, by the master of wisdom Jesus Ben Sirach. 

v Around the year 180 a.C. in Jerusalem.   

v Ben Sirach studied what we now call the Old Testament or the Hebrew Scriptures: The Law, the Prophets and the other Writings of his ancestors.    

v He wrote for the young people of the rich families of Jerusalem   

v He wanted to transmit the religious heritage of Israel to the new generations.   

v He knew how to instill in the young people the values of their traditions and above all, his unconditional faith in God.   

v His grand-child translated the book into Greek, language that was more familiar to the new generations  ( 132-117 a.C)

v This book was excluded from the canon of the books accepted as revealed by the Jewish community, because they believed it had been written originally in Greek.  

v Thus also excluded from the canon of the books accepted by the communities of the Reformation, because they adopted the Hebrew Scriptures.   

FIRST READING   Sir 27: 5-8

ü  According to the author, our defects are visible in our discussions.  

ü  The proof of who we are is manifested in our arguments.   

ü  Our words reveal our mind, which is manifested in our discussions. 

ü  Thus the wise advice is not to praise anyone before listening   him/her to speak, that is to say, to manifest their inner being and reveal how it has been formed through the life experiences.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  - Psam  91 (92)

R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

·       This is an individual thanksgiving psalm, whose structure is:

o   Introduction (2-4)

o   The body of the psalm where the works of the just alternate with those of the wicked.  (5-12)

o   Conclusion (13-16) the actions of God are a stumbling block for the foolish.

·       Following the theme that we began in the first reading, the psalm, by means of suggestive images, praises God because for the just  

·       These will grow like palm trees, like cedars, in the house of the Lord  

·       In their old age they will still be fruitful 

·       With their lives, they will proclaim that in our God there is neither malice nor injustice.   

GOSPEL  Lk 6:39-45

In the Gospel we will read on Sunday there are 3 sayings or teachings of Jesus to his disciples, related to a life of wisdom, not only human but also divine.   

     Something very easy to understand is that a blind cannot be a guide, because he or she does not see 

o   Jesus continues to say that the disciple is not superior to his master, but 

o   When the disciple will finish his or her training  he /she will be like the Master  

o   When will the training be finished?  When we will attain holiness, or in eternal life.  

     The next example participates of the exaggerations that sometimes Jesus uses 

o   A straw can be in the eye but not a wooden beam  

o   Maybe Jesus wants to help us to reflect that, if we do not see, it means that we are like the blind of that saying who cannot guide because he does not see  

o   How easy it is for us to judge, to criticize the actions of the others, without realizing that we have the same defects, and maybe still more!  

     Each tree gives the fruits according to its nature and its health  

o   Jesus says that we will know the tree by its fruits 

o   The same is true about us, because our mouth speaks of what we have in the heart  

o   This is the same thing that the wise man Ben Sirach wanted to tell us in the first reading   

     Am I so blind that I do not see how my fruits really are?  

SECOND READING   1 Cor 15: 54-58

v Paul says that death will be destroyed by the victory, the victory of Christ   

v And the apostle invites us to be fully devoted to the work of Christ   

v The work of Christ is our salvation, the salvation of all 

v With our works we collaborate in the work of Christ    

v Paul adds that our labor, the labors for to announce the salvation, will not be in vain  

v Do we work with enthusiasm; do we cooperate with fervor and joy in the work of the Lord, the salvation of our brothers and sisters?    

CLARETIAN CORNER

 I was shocked at this because I had always believed that all persons who profess perfection served God faithfully and for this I wanted to be a religious. Here, once more our Lord put, as of what I can understand, before the eyes of my soul, because with my bodily eyes I did not see anything, His most Holy Law and Evangelical Counsel.Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters . Autobiography 4

The first ideas I can remember date back to when I was five years old. When I went to bed, instead of sleeping—I never have been much of a sleeper--I used to think about eternity. I would think "forever, forever, forever." I would try to imagine enormous distances and pile still more distances on these and realize that they would never come to an end. Then I would shudder and ask myself if those who were so unhappy as to go to an eternity of pain would ever see an end to their suffering. Would they have to go on suffering? Yes, forever and forever they will have to bear their pain ! Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 8.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia. Autobiography

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA. Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial.     

SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – CYCLE C – 2019 

INTRODUCTION.

v Last Sunday we meditated on the vocation of the first disciples who the Lord called to make them fishers of men and women.   

v Today the Lord teaches us where to find the true happiness.  

FIRST READING : Jer 17:5-8

ü  We find this theme in the prophet Jeremiah. He says: 

o   Cursed he who puts his/her trust in human beings. I do not think the prophet invites us to mistrust everyone.   

o   I think that what he is saying is that all of us need to put our trust in the God, who manifests himself through the other human beings that live together with us on our planet. 

o   Using images taken from nature, Jeremiah describes for us the person that departs from God. 

§  a barren bush in the desert

§  that enjoys no change of season,

§  but stands in a lava waste,

§  a salt and empty earth.   

On the contrary the person who trusts in God:   

§  Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,

§  He is like a tree planted beside the waters

§  that stretches out its roots to the stream:

§  it fears not the heat when it comes;

§  in the year of drought it shows no distress,

§  but still bears fruit.   

ü  We may apply what Jeremiah says about the tree to our own life.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 39 

R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.

v This psalm has the same theme as the first reading.

v It explains a little bit more, what it means to be “blessed.”  

GOSPEL  LK 6:17.20-26

Ø  In this same Gospel in Matthew, Jesus goes up to the mountain to speak with them of the beatitudes. To go up requires an effort, entails a difficulty.  

Ø  Luke says that He went down the mountain with the “12”. If they go down it means that they had gone up before. 

Ø  Luke tells us that they stood on a stretch of level ground. Could that mean that the beatitudes are for everyone, not only for very special persons? For the wise and those who are not wise, for the simple, the sinners, the good people, those nobody knows and those the newspapers speak about, those who are happy and those who are not…      

Ø  Who are the happy, the blessed?  

o   The Poor, what poor?  

§  Those that do not have food, clothing, house…? According to what we read in the Scriptures, in the Old and in the New Testament, we are called to work to eliminate these situations that produce poverty. Than Jesus is not speaking about this.  Probably he  is speaking about the “anawin” the poor, those who trust their lives in the hands of God. 

o   Those who are now hungry, hungry of what?  If we look at the beatitudes in Matthew we see that they are hungry and thirsty for justice.    Happy and blessed those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, goodness, mercy, respect for the dignity of every human being. Happy because if that fight seems wasted on this earth, God will satisfy their hunger and thirst for all eternity. Than they will see that, their efforts neither were in vain, nor wasted.   

o   Those who weep,  why do they weep?   Probably they weep for all the things that do not go well in this world, for what is sin, for what goes against the human dignity. Luke says that they will laugh. They will be happy  because they will see that what they always wanted and for what they suffered has become a reality, they did not suffer in vain, because God the Father never left them alone even when they felt lonely and abandoned, God was always there.  

o   And the fourth beatitude is very interesting; we do not speak too much about it, and much less we think about it:  

§  Happy when they insult you, exclude you and denounce you because of the Son of man-Jesus.  

§  Why do they insult us? Because we seek the good of our brothers and sisters, and Jesus has said to us that when we do good to one of our brothers or sisters we do it to him. v

§  Luke says not only “happy are they” he adds “jump for joy on that day.” What day? The day we are insulted, persecuted…  

§  Because your recopense will be great in heaven. I think that the recompense begins during our life time on earth. We are happy when we allow the Lord to make us able to answer with love...  

Ø  Luke speaks to us also of what is the contrary of the blessings.  

SECOND READING  1Cor 15:12.6-20

Ø  Paul continues to speak to his community of Corinth, and the Church does the same to the community of believers.   

Ø  How is it possible that we doubt o we do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, and we even dare to say it to our brothers and sisters?  

o   If Jesus is not risen, nobody will be.  

o   And if we only believe in Jesus during our life time on earth, because we do not believe that there is anything else after death, 

o   Than as Paul says if for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.

Ø  But Jesus is truly risen as first fruits of those who sleep, that is the dead.  

Ø 

If he is risen, we will also, because he is our head and we are his body.            

 CLARETIAN CORNER

 In this petition which, later I understood, was very much to the liking of His Divine Majesty, because it was done with much simplicity and good will, our Lord has deigned to teach me with much pleasure how He would like to be served by this ungrateful creature, it was in this how He set before my eyes the observance of His most Holy Law and evangelical counsels, and told me to observe them with much perfection; he told me with intense sorrow that He had no body in Hid house to observe  them, for the great extend that all the religious orders had gone lax in the observance of His most Holy Law and because of this He permitted with grief, their destruction. Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 3.     

I was christened Anthony Adjutor John. My mother's brother, Anthony Clara, was my godfather, and he wanted me to be named after him. My father's sister, Mary Claret, was my godmother. She was married to Adjutor Canudas, so they gave me her husband's Christian name. My third name, John, was my father's name. Later, out of devotion to Mary Most Holy, I added the sweet name of Mary, my mother, my patroness, my mistress, my directress and my all, after Jesus. Thus my name is Anthony Mary Adjutor John Claret y Clara. St. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder if the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Saint Anthony Mary, Autobiography.

PARIS, Venerable María Antonia,  Autobiography.