THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER  –   2021

«  We continue celebrating with joy the resurrection of Jesus. 

«  In the first reading Peter addresses the people and tells them that they rejected life and chose death.

«  John in his letter says that we know that we are in Jesus when we fulfill the commandments.

«  And in the Gospel Jesus comes amid his own to strengthen their weak faith.

 

 FIRST READING – Acts 3: 13-15.17-19   

«  Peter and John go up to the Temple on a regular day for the official evening worship and they see a paralytic that asks them for alms. They gave him what they have that is the power of the risen Jesus that heals the man.  

o    In today’s reading Peter reminds his audience how the God of Abraham… has glorified his servant Jesus.  

o    Whom they denied asking freedom for a criminal. 

o   He says clearly how they killed the Prince of life, but God has raised Him up.

o   Yes, God has raised Him from death, and he adds “we are witnesses to this”

§  Are we witnesses of the resurrection, of the new life, with our life also new and transformed after we have encountered the Risen Lord?

§  Do we really believe in the resurrection of Jesus and in our Resurrection?  

o    Peter continues saying that he knows that they acted in such a way by ignorance.   

o   He invites them to convert and to repent to have their sins forgiven.    

RESPONSORIAL  PSALM: Ps  4:2.4.7-8.9 

R.  Lord, let your face shine on us.
 When I call, answer me, O my just God,
    you who relieve me when I am in distress;
    have pity on me, and hear my prayer!
R.  Lord, let your face shine on us.
 Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one;
    the LORD will hear me when I call upon him.
R.  Lord, let your face shine on us.
 O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
    You put gladness into my heart.
R.  Lord, let your face shine on us.
 
 As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,
    for you alone, O LORD,
    bring security to my dwelling.
R.  Lord, let your face shine on us.. 

Ø  The tone of this psalm is of complete trust in God because, “I have had the experience that he answers me when I call.”   

Ø  The theme of the psalm coincides with the Easter celebration, God, the Father has liberated Jesus from death, he has raised him up to new life.  

Ø  Some of the verses of this psalm have an extraordinary beauty, through them the person who prays manifests his trust in God: “You have put joy into my heart.”   

 

 

SECOND READING  1 Jn 2:1-5 

«  Let us contemplate some aspects of this letter:  

o   The letter is addressed to a community of Asia Minor, of disciples of John. His members belong to the second and third Christian generation.   

o   They are new Christians, their behavior is based on the witnesses who saw, heard and touched the Word of life.

o   They are faced with a heresy about Jesus:  devaluation of the historical Jesus and of the redemption in his blood.   

o   The author helps his brothers and sisters in the following way:  

§  He reminds the community the demands of Christian life. 

§  Discernment between what is to be a Christian and being a fraud. 

§  He offers some criteria to make this discernment.  

«  Let us meditate on the message that this coming Sunday offers to us:  

§   John writes to help the addressees of the letter to keep away from sin.   

§  But if we sin, we have an intercessor Jesus Christ, the Just One.

§  John says that we will be sure that we know the Lord if we keep his commandments. This knowledge is not only intellectual but through our life in love.

§  We live a life in love when we are faithful to his commandments, when we are faithful to the new covenant in his blood, when we are faithful to the only commandment Jesus has given us.  

GOSPEL OF LUKE  24:35-48

 I want to share with you a commentary I have read in a French booklet. Here below I put the translation    

            When Jesus comes amid his eleven Apostles, they are afraid because they think it is a ghost. They did not expect to see him alive; they do not dare to believe it is he; indeed, who can come back from death? The Risen Lord must overcome their incredulity and open their heart to his new way of presence. He shows them his crucified hands and feet, he eats in front of them and he explains the Scriptures to them. It is truly Jesus of Nazareth, the one they knew and loved; but he is different, so transformed that they cannot recognize him.

            After his resurrection Jesus lives a new life, new in his whole humanity. God, the Father, makes him live again with his own life that goes beyond our experiences and expectations. Easter is an event without precedent. It is the unexpected apparition of the new world where death has no strength and life reaches a fullness that no one can imagine. Thus, only faith, this second sight, will allow his disciples to recognize and encounter the Risen Lord.

            Thanks to his testimony, we believe that Jesus is always our contemporary, who journeys with us through our ways so many times torturous and dark. What the living God has made in the Crucified Lord, he does as well for each one of us. (Normand Provencher). 

CLARETIAN CORNER 

Triune and One God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I beg you to enlighten me with  you infinite wisdom, so I can know You and know me, and may know also all you want me to do, to serve you and to love you with all the perfection that is possible in this life with your divine favor; teach me my God, all that is good for the whole family you entrusted to me, and for each one of my beloved sisters; please enlighten them all so that they may know all you want from each one of them, so that we may be docile and not opposed to your divine inspirations and most holy will.   (Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, fragment of the Morning Prayer)    

"What is lacking then, my Mother? Would you perhaps avail yourself of some instrument with which to remedy so great an evil? Here is one who however vile and contemptible he knows himself to be, is yet assured that he will serve the better for this end, since your power will shine forth all the brighter, and all will see that it is you who are at work, not I. Come now, loving Mother, let us lose no time. Here I am: dispose of me as you will, for you know that I am wholly yours. I trust that you will do this out of your great kindness, pity, and mercy, and I ask you this through the love you bear for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen."(Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 156.)  

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, S. Antonio María , Autobiografía.

PARIS, Ven. María Antonia, Orar con Cristo orando (Oraciones Claretianas).  Roma 2004

PROVENCHER, Normad,   « Vainqueur de la mort et de l’incrédulité ». Prions en Église, edition mensuelle vol. 33 Nº 4.

 

 

 

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT  – 2021

It is the last Sunday of Lent; on the following Sunday we will begin the Holy Week.  Let us review our Lenten journey:

      We began with the contemplation of Jesus tempted in the desert after his baptism in the Jordan river, when he heard the voice of the Father saying “You are my beloved Son…”  

      In awe, like the disciples who were witnesses of the transfiguration of the Lord, we learned that the beloved son who had been tempted in the desert is God incarnate who allows us to see his glory, and the Father repeats again the same words pronounced at Jesus’ baptism “This is my beloved… listen to him.”  

      After that we began a series of three Sundays in which the liturgy helped us to contemplate three different themes:  

o   Jesus cleanses the Temple of his Father and says to us that he is the true temple, the true law.  

o   Jesus must be lifted up on the cross so that whoever looks at him will be saved, like those who looked at the bronze serpent in the desert were cured from the bite of the snakes.  

o   Jesus grain of wheat that falls and dies to give us life, invites us to do the same, if we want to have eternal live and give it to others.   

Let us see what message the readings bring to us today.  

FIRST READING – Jer 31:31-34

Ø  Jeremiah is the prophet that was present when the fall of Jerusalem, when the city felt under the power of the Babylonian empire, in 586 B.C  

Ø  Today’s reading belongs to the part of the book called “the book of consolation” chapters 30 and 31,  considered to be one of the highest points in the spirituality of the Old Testament.    

Ø  Jeremiah dares to propose the substitution of the Covenant on Mount Sinai by a “New Covenant.” 

Ø  The emphasis is on the word “new”, on the newness which this covenant will bring.     

Ø  Jesus fulfills this new covenant announced by Jeremiah, and Jesus himself on consecrating the wine says that this is the new and eternal covenant…  

Ø  What is this new covenant?    

o   First of all, it is new, it is not the old one with some changes, no, it is new, completely new.   

o   God says that he will make a new covenant with House of Israel. The church is called the new Israel, which is formed by all who accept the Lord, who turn their eyes to him to be saved 

o   This covenant will not be like the covenant made when God took their “fathers” and led them by his hand from slavery to freedom.  

o   It will not be a law written on cold and hard stones, like the first covenant on Mount Sinai.   

o   It is a covenant in which God repeats “You will be my people” and “I will be your God.”   

o   Under these words we discover the compassionate love of God toward all those men and women who will be his people. 

o   In the New Covenant the law will be written in hearts of human flesh, in the heart of each man and woman who will look at the Lord to be saved.  

o   God will be more than ever “his God” and they will be “his people.”   

o   Something new will happen, each person (young and old) will know the law  since God will put it in their hearts.   

o   This law will be in the human heart like the rivers of water which Jesus promised the Samaritan woman.   

o   The church has seen in these passages about the living water and the law in the heart, the pouring out and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, on his church, on each one of its members. 

o   All these wonderful things will happen because he will have forgiven their guilt and their sin. Jesus will fulfill this, offering his life on the cross for the glory of the Father and our salvation, both things go together. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

In the Responsorial Psalm, we will ask God CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART, on which you may write the new law, the new covenant.    

Have mercy on me God in your goodness

In the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

And of my sin cleanse me.

CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART

A clean heart create for me O God

And a steadfast spirit renew within me

Cast me not out from your presence

And your Holy Spirit take not from me

CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART

Give me back the joy of your salvation

And a willing spirit sustain in me

I will teach transgressors your ways

And sinners shall return to you.

CREATE IN ME A PURE HEART

 

SECOND READING  – Hebrews  5:7-9

«  The author of this letter reflects in this chapter on  Jesus’ priesthood. 

«  Every priest is formed in prayer which enkindles in his heart the love of God and helps him to be more and more close to the God whom he loves.  

«  In this process man learns obedience, to become all that God has dreamed for each one of us when he created us.   

«  Jesus, the Word of God, the Incarnate Son of the Father, who partakes in our limited human nature, in prayer, in the events of his life, learns to obey. The Letter says, “he learned obedience from what he suffered.”    

«  And when he will be made perfect, consecrated in obedience, in suffering and in the giving up of his life.  He will become the source of salvation for all those who obey, who look at him to be saved.   

«  The author sees in all that process of Christ the priest, a new priesthood which gives salvation to all who cling to him, and he takes them to God.   

«  For a new covenant a new priesthood is needed.    

 

GOSPEL   John 12:20-33

ü  Today John presents a group of Greeks. As we have already said in the Gospel of John each person represents a different group of human beings.   

ü  The group today is a group of Greeks, gentiles who do not belong to the people of Israel.   

ü  They approach Philip and say WE WANT TO SEE JESUS.    

ü  When they told Jesus, he teaches the following lesson, which might seem not to respond to what those men were looking for, but Jesus is explaining this situation, some gentiles want to see him, let us remember that whoever looked at the bronze serpent in the desert was cured, whoever looks at Jesus crucified on the cross  with faith will be saved.    

ü  The hour has come, what hour? The hour of Jesus which John mentions several times in his Gospel.   

o   It is not a chronological hour, but a “kayros” a time of salvation.   

o   It is the hour of the glorification of the Son. What glorification? The glorification of his death and resurrection, his Passover.   

ü  He must die like the grain of wheat in order to give life.  

o   All of us, if we want to give life we have to die like the grain of wheat, like Jesus

o   Jesus invites us, if we want to serve him, to follow him because where “I am” my servant will also be

o   Whoever serves him will be honored by the Father. After all the Father said on the Mountain of the Transfiguration “listen to him.”

ü  Jesus opens his heart to us he tells us “I am troubled.”   

o   Jesus is ready to do the will of the Father, which is his food, but as a man that he is, he experiences fear of suffering, abandonment, scorn, death.   

o   How much we must be grateful to Jesus for opening his heart and letting us know his feelings.    

o   But John continues saying that Jesus acknowledges that he has come for this “hour”  

o   Will he ask the Father to deliver him up from this hour?   

o   No, because he has come for this “hour.” It is the hour to make real in his flesh the “New Covenant” for the salvation of all.   

o   Jesus asks the Father to glorify his name as Father  

o   The Father responds to Jesus, he speaks to him as he did in his baptism and on the transfiguration, “I have already glorified you and will glorify you again”  

o   The glory of Jesus lies in his filial, loving, and difficult obedience to the compassionate and loving will of the Father.   

o   Those present do not understand the meaning of the voice, but Jesus explains that this voice did not come for him, but for them, to help them to see Jesus not with the eyes of flesh but of faith.   

ü  And Jesus makes the solemn declaration   

o   Now the judgment of this world has come   

o   Now the prince of this world, the spirit of evil has been driven away, it has no more power.   

o   And once “I will be lifted up from the earth” I will attract all to me. The cross of Christ has always been the point of attraction of Christians and non-Christians.   

o   Jesus realizes completely the “new covenant” engraved in the human heart, his death seals this covenant made in love and compassion; and thus, he attracts all. Only a compassionate and respectful love can make us return to the heart of our Father.     

ü  John ends this fragment saying that “lifted up from the earth” means Jesus death on the cross.   

CYCLE A

GOSPEL OF JOHN  11: 1-45.

«  John narrates the resurrection of Lazarus, interpreted as the resurrection of Israel into the New Israel. 

«  The Jews (according to John these are the Jews who do not accept Jesus, most of the time it refers to the religious authorities) agree to kill Jesus because he has given the life back to a dead man.   

«  For John this is the cause of his condemnation, for the Synoptic Gospels he is condemned because he has made himself like God.   

«  When Jesus hears that his friend is sick, he does nothing, he let him die. Israel is also sick, but it cannot be cured it has to be resurrected.  

«  The sentence “the one you love is sick” is a reference also to Israel, the beloved and chosen people of God is sick to death. The death of Lazarus will be the occasion for the manifestation of the glory of God, and as well the resurrection of the people of Israel will make visible the glory and the power of God. 

«  Martha at the beginning represents the group of Jews who have a pharisaic orientation; but later she does a leap into the new faith in Christ. 

«  The conversation of Jesus with Martha is a theological declaration on life, resurrection, and the identity of Jesus. 

«  Lord if you had been here my brother would have not died, but I believe that God will give to you whatever your ask. – Have I not told you that your brother will rise? – Yes on the last day – I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE … and whoever BELIEVES IN ME WILL NOT DIE FOREVER. – Do you believe Martha? YES, LORD I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD, WHO HAVE COME TO THE WORLD.  

«  Martha goes to call Mary who was still outside the village waiting for the Lord. There is here, a connotation to the Song of Songs when the girl is waiting for her beloved. The relationship of Mary with Jesus is different from the one between Jesus and Martha. Mary related to him from her heart.  

«  Mary says to Jesus the same words as Martha had said, but probably she meant something different, because Jesus does not request from her a profession of faith as he did with Martha.  

«  He has been dead for 4 days. After four days the person was considered dead.  

«  Israel is also dead in its faith, but Jesus has the power to give life again, because he is the Life.  

«  And Jesus raises Lazarus from the tomb, he also gives new life to the faithful Israel that opens its heart and puts its faith in  him. 

«  The man comes out with hands and feet tied, are these the ties of the old Law? Jesus orders them to free him, I think that Jesus has been doing that all his life long and continues to do it for all of us.   

«  A good work may have different results according to who receives it or sees it: 

o   For some it helps them to believe, to put their faith in him.   

o   For others it separates them from him, and they agree to put him to death. What an irony! To kill the one who gives life, who is life himself. How much darkness can the human heart harbor?   

«  ¿Do I believe in the resurrection?  Do I believe that Jesus is risen? Do I believe that he can raise me up, give life to me? Let us say with Martha LORD I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE MESSIAH. 

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

• CASTRO SÁNCHEZ, Secundino. Evangelio de Juan – Compendio exegético-existencial. Madrid 2002.
• LOZANO, Juan Manuel. Escritos(Writings) María Antonia París, Estudio crítico, “El Misionero Apostólico- The Apostolic Missionary.”   Barcelona 1985.
• RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.
• RUBIO MORÁN, Luis. “Escrito a los Hebreos” en Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. Estella (Navarra) 1995.  

§  VIÑAS, José María cmf y BERMEJO, Jesús, cmf.  Autobiography of Saint Anthony Mary Claret. 

 

CLARETIAN CORNER 

 

For us the Claretian Missionary Sisters the first reading has a very especial and dear meaning. We believe that the new covenant was made real in the heart of our Foundress on her Initial Experience when the Lord engraved his law in her heart.  

   

            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 host holy mouth. (María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 5)

 

 I tell myself: A Son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a man on fire with love, who spreads its flames wherever he goes. He desires mightily and strives by all means possible to set the whole world on fire with God's love. Nothing daunts him; he delights in privations, welcomes work, embraces sacrifices, smiles at slander, and rejoices in suffering. His only concern is how he can best follow Jesus Christ and imitate Him in working, suffering, and striving constantly and single-mindedly for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.(Anthony Mary Claret, Fpounder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography  494)

 

 

 

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT  - 2021

• The readings today invite us to look into our heart and see how is our Lenten journey going. 
• Our conversion is a matter of our entire life, but the church offers us some especial times, in which it may help us, as a community, to walk toward the Lord, to renew our enthusiasm and our mutual love.  

FIRST READING: Chr 36:14-16. 19-23.

Ø  The people of Israel represented by their leaders have accumulated sin over sin, infidelity over infidelity.  

Ø  The prophets that God has sent to  them have invited the people to conversion, to change their ways, to be faithful, but all have been in vain. 

Ø  A powerful king of a great nation: Babylon has defeated them and taken them as prisoners to exile. The text says that it is God who has done this, this is the way the people of the bible understood life, for them good and bad came from God.  

Ø  If we reflect on this, we will realize that what was happening to the people is the consequence of their actions, of their behavior: they lived as if God did not exist, as if the Law had not been given to them for their happiness and freedom.  

Ø  And in the same way that a powerful king took them to exile, another powerful king gave them the permission to go back to their country, to rebuild it and the temple as well.  

Ø  What are our infidelities to the love of our God and savior? 

Ø  What are the difficult moments in our life, and what caused them?  

Ø  What are the happy moments which we have experienced, and what caused them?  

Ø  Have we been able to acknowledge in our life the loving and provident presence of our Father?  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:   Ps  138:1-2,3,4-5,6

This is the psalm of those exiled in Babylon who remember their beloved country.  

«  Far away from their country the Israelites remember their country and weep.  

«  Their oppressors make fun of them and ask them to sing their sacred songs to entertain them. 

«  But how can they sing a canticle of God in a foreign land, a land of gentiles?  

«  If I forget you my God, may I become mute and paralyzed.

R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you    

GOSPEL:  JOHN 3: 14-21

      The reading is taken from the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. 

      Nicodemus is a Pharisee who is member of the Sanhedrin, the religious government of the people of Israel. 

      In the Gospel of John each character represents a given human group. 

      Nicodemus represents the Jewish religion closed to the newness of the Messiah. 

      John the Baptist on the contrary represents the Jewish religion opened to that newness which Jesus brings to the world. 

      Nicodemus is a historical person, but the conversation with all its details is a composition of the evangelist. 

      Let us go back to Nicodemus  

o   In the passage before today’s reading Nicodemus is surprised and does not understand how one can be born again. Does he really need to be born again to be able to accept   Jesus as the Messiah?  

o   Jesus tells him that as the bronze serpent was lifted up in the desert, and all those who looked at it were healed; thus the Son of man will be lifted up, and who believes in him (= look at the serpent in the desert) will have eternal life.  

o   John continues to narrate the conversation  

§  God loves so much the world, created by him, that he has sent his Son.  

§  The Son has come not to condemn but to save the world. 

§  The separation between saved and condemned is faith (in the desert it was to look at the bronze serpent)  

§  There is a constant trial in this world: the light has come to the world, but men and women have preferred darkness. 

§  Because, who does evil looks for darkness and, who does good comes to the light. 

o   The main dimension in the gospel of John has a vertical orientation.  

§  The cross of Jesus on Mount Calvary has this vertical orientation toward the sky, toward heaven. 

§  This cross makes the division between the two sides of the mountain. 

§  On one side are all those who accept and acknowledge him Christ Jesus as the Messiah and thus follow him and come to the light.  

§  On the other side are all those who avoid the light and seek darkness, close themselves to the Messiah, do not accept the salvation which Christ Jesus offers to all.   

SECOND READING:   Eph 2:4-10

ü  God is rich in mercy and he is compassionate.     

ü  God gave us life in Christ when we were dead due to our sins

ü  He raised us up, in Christ.

ü  All of this for pure love, pure gift, through faith all those wonders that God does can be ours. 

ü  It is neither our doing, nor a recompense for what we might have done, IT IS GOD’S GIFT, thus no one can boast.  

ü  We are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus, to lead us to a life of good deeds. A life which he has prepared for us.   

CLARETIAN CORNER 

J. M. J.

  Antonia París de S. Pedro

Aranjuez, April 22 1863

My dear Mother in J.C., We have arrived at this place with the Majesties and the Highnesses. Now I am dedicated to the composition of the booklet for the Girls of the Schools.  

I ask the Lord to do it well, and I ask also the Directors of the School of Girls to let me know what do the girls do, so that I may chose the best to put them in the above mentioned booklet. Thus, I hope you will have the kindness to tell me what do the girls do in your school or what do you think they should do in the school for Girls.  

How many hours of rest do the girls need   

At what time they have to wake up and go to sleep. 

What is the first thing they do?  

At what time do they go to the Chapel? What prayers?  

Do they have mental prayer? Do they go to Mass?   

At what time do they begin their works?  

How do they combine Reading, or study, writing, counting, Catechism? …  

At what time do they have breakfast, dinner, afternoon snack, supper?  

What do they pray at night? At what time do they go to bed?   

How are the dormitories? Together in a large room or little  cells?    

What about Sunday?  … each month?  … each year?  

Frequency in the reception of the Sacraments…    

Please give me some feedback on each one of these points, and send it tome at this Sitio of Aranjuez. You may have already received the letter from   Mr. Pedro Naudó letting you know that I have deposited one thousand “duros” for you to continue the building of the Convent.  

My kind regards to all.         Antonio María Archbishop of Trajanópolis.

P. D.- Please pray for me to God. (carta 226.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY  

 

CASTRO SÁNCHEZ, Secundino. Evangelio de Juan, compendio exegético-existencial, 2da. Edición. Comillas, Madrid 2001.

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO, comentarios de Luis Alonso Schökel. Misioneros Claretianos, 2010.

RAVASI, GIANFRANCO. Según las Escrituras.  Doble Comentario de las lecturas del domingo. Año B.  San Pablo, Bogotá,Colombia 2005.

RR. de María Inmaculada Misioneras Claretianas. Cartas de los Orígenes (Letters of the Origins) Madrid 2009.