SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER  – 2021

v  We are approaching the Ascension of the Lord, which we will celebrate on Sunday next week.   

v  Two weeks ago Jesus told us that he is the good shepherd, that he knows his own and his own know him

v  Last Sunday Jesus said that he is the vine and we are the branches. With this image he wanted to tell us that the life which we have is his own life.  

v  Today we will hear him telling us in the Gospel that we are slaves no more, but sons and daughters.  

FIRST READING – ACTS  10:25-26. 34-35. 44-48

v  Before meditating on this reading, let is see who was Cornelius and how God acts in completely unpredictable ways.

v  The author of Acts says that Cornelius was

o   A religious man who feared God

o   A prayer person

o   Generous toward the Jews

v  His desire to know the true God moves him to seek Peter.

v  When we read this passage, we discover other aspects of this man

o   He serves as a bridge between two worlds

o   In one of the two worlds the covenant is only for those who obey the law of Moses

o   In the other the covenant is for all who receive the gifts of faith, every human being, because these gifts are offered by God to all, it is up to us to accept or reject it. 

v  Cornelius helps to remind that God acts in unpredictable ways.

                           ******************

Ø  Peter goes to Cornelius home and there,  God makes the wonders we will read in this text.    

o   On arriving to the house Cornelius greets and pays homage to him.    

o   Peter tells him to stop because he is also a human being and not a God. 

o   Then Peter speaks to all and says that he realizes that God does not show preferences, he treats all of us equally

o   What an encouraging word, God loves all of us equally, he has created us and loves whatever he has made.  When we read the creation account in Genesis we find over and over the same refrain … and God saw that everything was good, very good.    

o   Anyone who acts honestly pleases God.   

Ø  Peter is still speaking    

o   When the Holy Spirit comes down on all those present  

o   The Jews who had been converted and had come with Peter, were astonished to see that   

o   The gift of the Spirit which they had received, was also poured out on Cornelius household      

o   Because they could hear them speak in tongues  

§  I have many times asked myself what is so important about speaking in tongues  

§  Maybe it can be a way to describe the wonders of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  

§  But it could be also that God in performing this sign wanted to let the little community of Cornelius household, which was being born, on whose members the Holy Spirit was poured upon, are part of the larger community of faith born after the resurrection of Jesus. 

§  When the Spirit is poured out upon us in the sacraments we do not see anything especial, any external sign, but in the interior of each one of us something great is happening, something that makes us speak new languages, that is to say, makes us  act in new and surprising ways.  .

§  But this does not happen overnight, it needs time to change us and shape us into the image of the only Son of the Father.   

Ø  Peter ponders

o   Can we deny baptism to those on whom the Holy Spirit had been poured out?  

o   All the people in the household are baptized   

o   Peter does not baptize them, but he asks those who have come with him to do it.   

o   Sometimes I think that here we have the explanation to the difficulty that some of our Christian brothers have about the baptism of children. Probably in that household there were children too.   

Ø  Peter has just admitted the first gentiles into the community of Jesus’ followers.  

Ø  How much we must be grateful to Peter and to the first followers of Jesus that they were attentive to the signs that Jesus, who was not with them in a visible way, was giving to them, to lead them in the formation of the ecclesial community.     

 RESPONSORIAL  PSALM  Ps  98: 1,2-3,3-4

THE LORD HAS REVEALED TO THE NATIONS HIS SAVING POWER

Sing to the Lord a new song,

For he has done wondrous deeds

His right hand has won victory for him, his holy arm

THE LORD HAS REVEALED TO THE NATIONS HIS SAVING POWER

The Lord has made his salvation known

In the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice

He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness

Toward the house of Israel.

THE LORD HAS REVEALED TO THE NATIONS HIS SAVING POWER

All the ends of the earth have seen

The salvation by our God

Sing joyfully to the Lord all you lands

Break into song, sing praise.

THE LORD HAS REVEALED TO THE NATIONS HIS SAVING POWER 

v  This psalm has the form of a hymn, an invitation to sing the wonders God has made.   

v  Hymns spring from a deep human need: to say in words the admiration before the divine works: creation or the historical events, the city of God and even   God himself.   (commentary to the psalms taken from the official version of  the Conference of Bishops from Spain, my translation.)     

SECOND READING   1Jn 4:7-10

Tradition has that John repeated over and over again to his disciples that they had to love one another as the Lord has loved us.

      In today’s reading John invites us to love one another because whoever loves has been begotten by God.   

      In our mind this is very clear, if God is love whoever can love is because he or she has been begotten by God, and wants to be like him, wants to be faithful to his or her nature. The difficulty comes in practice when our limitations interfere with our behavior.   

      If all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus, all who have been reborn in the baptismal waters, made the commitment to live as the Lord has commanded us, took the resolution  to be faithful to our nature of children of God, what a different world we would have!

      John continues saying that the love of God has been revealed to us in that he has sent his Son   that the world could have life in him.    

      In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.  

      I think that even if we meditate repeatedly on this truth, we will never grasp it completely.  

      Pope Francis like the Apostle John invites us to a universal love that includes all our brothers and sisters, all the human beings, 

GOSPEL  Jn 15: 9-17

·         This reading is taken from the words of Jesus after the Last Supper.  

·         Jesus asks us to remain in his love, as he remains in his Father’s love.   

·         His joy will remain in us, and thus our joy will be complete.  

·         His commandment is this: that we love one another as he has loved us.   

·         Such is his love that he has given his life for us, and in turn we are invited to give our life for others.    

·         Each one of us can look at his or her own life and discover in it how many ways we have had the opportunity to give our life for others.   

·         The opportunities are always present, the invitations from the Lord are always present too, we only must listen to, stop, make silence inside of us and, then we will be able to listen to the invitation: love as I have loved you.   

·         This is my commandment, but what will help you to live it is, if you do not see it as a commandment, but that you look at me, how I have lived among you, how I treated you and then go and do the same.     

 

CLARETIAN CORNER

 

Prayer to the Mother of the Divine Love (St. Anthony M. Claret)    

Mary, my Mother, Mother of the divine love!   

I cannot ask anything more pleasant to you  

And easier to grant  

That the divine love. 

Grant it to me my Mother   

My Mother, I am hungry and thirsty of love.

Help me! Satiate me!                                                                                                                                                                      .

Marian Text  – (Venerable Maria Antonia París)

… I told the Captain of the ship (that almost capsized on our way to Cuba)   to have great confidence in God and in Mary Most Holy  and not be afraid…  not to doubt that God and the most Holy Mary could save us. (Aut 149)

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CLARET, Anthony Mary. Autobiography.

LITTLE ROCK CATHOLIC STUDY BIBLE – 2019

ORAR CON CRISTO ORANDO. Oraciones Claretianas (Claretian Prayers) – Roma 2004

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiography in Escritos con comentarios e introducciones (Writings with commentaries and introduction by)    Juan M. Lozano. 1980.

 

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER –   2021

«  Starting with the 5th Sunday of Easter the church, through her liturgy, prepares us for the approaching celebration of the Ascension of the Lord.

«  The Gospels are taken from the discourses of Jesus at the Last Supper from the Gospel of John.

«  Today the Gospel reminds us, that Jesus has told us, that with him we can do anything and, that without him we can do nothing.    

 

 FIRST READING  – Acts  9: 26-31

-          In the Acts Luke narrates some events of the first communities.   

-          He is not interested in giving us information about historical deeds, which were already known by the communities since these events had happened 40 years before.   

-          Luke invites his addressees to look at these events and, reinterpret them in the light of faith and discover in them the presence of the Holy Spirit, who impels the church to live as Jesus lived. 

-          Perhaps it would help all our communities, parishes, and groups within them, to look at our communal history and discover in them the living presence of the Spirit, who is leading us through the events, which sometimes may seem to us unrelated to our faith and with one another.   

-          And not only the communities as such, but each one of us could do the same with our life as followers of Jesus and members of an ecclesial community. 

«  In the past Sundays we have heard Peter speaking of Jesus to the Jews.  

«  Today Luke introduces Paul who has come back from Jerusalem.  

«  As much as he wanted to be part of the community of believers, they were afraid.

«  But there is a disciple who allows the Spirit of Jesus to lead him and, tries to make real in his life the precept of “love one another as I have loved you.” And he trusts in Paul whom he met in Damascus.

«  This disciple is Barnabas, of whom Scripture says that his name means “person who gives encouragement”. In a commentary in the New American Bible, we read that Barnabas gave encouragement to the communities and to Paul.

«  Paul continues to be the man full of passion for the cause of God. He used to persecute the new sect called the “way” because, in his heart, he believed that this group offended YHWH, the God of Israel, the only true God.   Now his passion is oriented to make known Jesus, to be his witness.  

«  He already begins to suffer the mistrust of his Christian brethren and of his Jewish brethren.  

«  The former does not trust in him, the others want to kill him.     

«  Today’s reading ends with some words which are the

o   To progress and grow in numbers  

«  What is the progress which Luke describes in a summary.  

o   The church is in peace and this helps her 

o   The church progresses in the fear of the Lord in the loving faithfulness to her Lord, as we have heard in the reading for this Sunday. The infant church, which is being born and developing, tries to live the commandment of the Lord “love one another as I have loved you.”   

o   Because of all this the Church enjoys the consolation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ Spirit whom he has sent to his Church. 

o   This consolation comes from the certainty to be, as a church, immersed in the loving presence of the Spirit, although as in a shadow immersed in the life of the Trinity within the continuous exchange of love among the three Divine Persons.    

 

Responsorial Psalm. Ps 22:26-27. 28. 30. 31-32

 R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
    The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
  “May your hearts live forever!”
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 All the ends of the earth
    shall remember and turn to the LORD;
all the families of the nations
    shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
To him alone shall bow down
    all who sleep in the earth;
before him shall bend
    all who go down into the dust. 
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
 And to him my soul shall live;
    my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
    that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
    the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people. 

Let us meditate on the first and last stanzas

First vv.26-27

·        I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD. That is my behavior will be the transparency of my faith.

·        The lowly shall eat their fill. We may rephrase, those who fear the Lord will be satisfied. With what? With the joy that springs out and, which is contagious when we see other men and women faithful to their vows.

·        Those who seek the LORD shall praise him: because they see his work in those who fulfill their vows.

·        The psalmist invites to “have a joyful heart.” Why?

·        Because the Lord is amid his people, of his assembly, in all who fulfill the vows made to the Lord. They are joyful for the presence of the Lord in their lives.

Last vv. 31-32 

·           “my descendants” those who will come after me, those who are mine. Who are those who are mine?

·        Let the coming generation be told of the LORD, that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born     the justice he has shown. What is the meaning of this justice?

·        Thus, does the Lord act, thus, the faith is transmitted from one generation to the next, from one person to another. Thus, it has arrived to us and we cannot be obstacle in this transmission, we must be part, so that the next generation may proclaim, may praise our God for the wonderful deeds he has made and thus, the community of the faithful will increase and enjoy peace and joy. 

SECOND READING: 1 Jn 3:18-24

Before meditating on the fragment of this letter, let us say a few words about the author and the content of this letter. 

v  This letter is a short commentary of some themes we find in the Gospel of John, but here in the form of a letter

v  The author is unknown, but tradition attributes this letter to John.

v  It is believed that the date of composition is around the year 100

v  What is the content?

o   It is a poem on the Word of life

o   John speaks or teaches about God saying that He is love and truth.

o   He exhorts to love one another

o   It has some other themes of which we will speak some other time. 

      John invites his community to truly love and, not only speak of love.  

      The love we have assures us that we are dedicated to the truth. Let us remember that the Scriptures speak of God saying that God is love, God is Truth.  

      When our conscience accuses us, our consolation is to know that God knows us; all that is ours is known to Him. 

      And on the other hand, if our conscience does not accuse us, we can be sure to obtain whatever we ask for.  

      What does that mean? Is it something magical?    

      No, the answer is given to us in the next verse; it is because we keep his commandments.   

      Then this means that what is given to us is given as a reward for our faithfulness to the commandments?  

      No. If we are faithful in keeping his commandments this means that we have allowed the Spirit of the Lord to enter our heart, it is the Holy Spirit that makes us like Jesus. We have the same feelings of Jesus; thus, we ask for only what Jesus would also ask for.

      But none of this is magical, in our relationship with God there is the freedom of God and our own freedom. There is also what God knows is good for us and what I want. The relationship with God needs to be based on trust and unconditional love.     

GOSPEL - JOHN 15: 1-8

Ø  The theme of the vineyard reminds us that in the Old Testament Israel is called the “vineyard of the Lord.”    

Ø  Jesus says that He is the vine; he is the fullness of what Israel was called to be “the vine, the vineyard.”    

Ø  John describes God as the vine grower who takes good care of the vine: he takes away what is dead, prunes what is alive so that it may have abundant life.  

Ø  Jesus invites his own to live in Him, as He lives in us.  

Ø  He says that if we are not united to Him, we will not give fruit.    

Ø   When we become disciples of Jesus and we give fruit, we glorify the Father. The image of the vine should fill us with so much trust in the Lord, whom we contemplated last week as the Good Shepherd.

Ø  José A. Pagola says: The church will not be able to fulfill her mission in the world today, if those who called themselves Christians do not become disciples of Jesus, encouraged by his spirit and his passion for a more human world.   

Ø  And Karl Rahner said that in the future the Christian will be such only by being a mystic. Mystic means someone who has entered the intimacy of the Shepherd and Teacher, who allows the sap of life run through his/her veins.

Ø  All the Gospels during the Easter Season remind and invite us to enter the intimacy of the Lord, and to find our joy in this same intimacy with Him.  

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

J.M.J 

To M. Antonia de S. Pedro

                                                                                                                                                   Madrid, January 18 1865

Dear Mother in J.C.,  I have received your letter in which you say it gave you so much joy; I hope that this present letter will also give joy to you, because I had written to the Archbishop of Tarragona, as you told me, for the foundation of a house, and on the 16th of this month he says to me: I have received your letter in which you r3ecommend me the foundation of a Convent of the Teaching Sisters in my Diocese, according to the wishes of the Penitentiary. Giving for granted that it will not be in the Capital, where there are already other convents, you may count with all my protection.”    

You see, how you have the business resolved; give thanks to God and prepare the Nuns for the least expected time. My kind regards to all and you may count on your most devoted servant.    

Anthony Mary Archbishop of Trajanopolis

 

P. D.-The students of the Seminary at the Escorial progress very much in Virtue and in Sciences. Before Christmas I preached to them the Exercises of St. Ignatius and I had many opportunities to praise God.  In the Sciences they advanced very much. Besides the courses on Philosophy, Theology etc. they study languages; the day of the Epiphany, and in the next Sunday they sang the Gospel in one of the halls in ten languages. (Letter 235 in Letters of the Orígenes). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RR. de MARIA INMACULADA MISIONERAS CLARETIANAS. Cartas de los Orígenes (Letters from the Origins). 2009

FLOR SERRANO, Gonzalo. Los Salmos en Comentario al Antiguo Testamento II. La Casa de la Biblia 1997.

LITTLE ROCK – STUDY BIBLE. New American Bible, Revised Edition. 2019.

PAGOLA, JOSE A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year B. Miami 2011

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras. Año B. Ediciones San Pablo. Bogotá 2005.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentarios en la Biblia de nuestro pueblo. Ediciones Mensajero. China 2010