CORPUS CHRISTI   - CICLO C – 2022

      Already back in ordinary time. Last Sunday we have celebrated the Solemnity of The Most Holy Trinity.

      The liturgy presents this adorable mystery through different signs and images.

      The readings go from the most distant antiquity to the life of the first Christian communities, passing through the gospel of the loaves and fishes.  

FIRST READING   Gn 14:18-20

Ø  Before today’s text, the author narrates the fight of Abram with the kings that had attacked and kidnapped Lot with all his possessions. 

Ø  Abram recovered all and when he returned, the King of Salem, Melchizedek, came to meet him. 

Ø  This King blesses him and offers a sacrifice to God.     

Ø  Salem was the city of this King, and this name means peace, thus Salem is the city of peace. Later,  this city will become Jerusalem.       

Ø  The name of Melchizedek means “King of justice”.   

Ø  This King will become for the Christian community an image of Jesus. (Hebrew 7:1-3):

v  We do not know the origin of this King .   

v  He offers bread and wine as a sacrifice to God, Most Holy.    

v  He blesses Abram

v  He continues to be a priest forever.   

RESPONSORIAL Ps 110

R (4b)  You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
            till I make your enemies your footstool."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The scepter of your power the LORD will stretch forth from Zion:
            "Rule in the midst of your enemies."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
"Yours is princely power in the day of your birth, in holy splendor;
            before the daystar, like the dew, I have begotten you."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek.
The LORD has sworn, and he will not repent:
            "You are a priest forever, according to the order of  Melchizedek."
R You are a priest for ever, in the line of Melchizedek. 

§  This psalm sings the kingship and the priesthood of this “Lord” whom we meet in the first verse.     

§  In these words, “today I beget you…” the Church acknowledges the voice of the Father who says to his Son “Today I have begotten you.”   

§  It is the “today” of eternity, always. It is the Word that the Father continues to repeat to his incarnate Son, Jesus.    

SECOND READING  1 Cor 11:23-26

      Paul transmit to his community what he has received.   

      This text is the center of today’s celebration, where Paul tells us that the night of his passion the Lord gave himself to us in the bread and in the wine.   

      Bread and wine, food that sustains and drink that gives joy to the human heart.   

      The Lord:

ü  Takes the bread

ü  He Pronounces the thanksgiving over the bread   

ü  He breaks it

ü  This is my body, given for you. Do this in memory of me.   

ü  He does the same with the cup: This is the cup of the New Covenant in my blood.  

ü  Do this in memory of me  

ü  Because anytime you eat the bread and drink from the cup, you will proclaim the death of the Lord until he returns.     

      The New Covenant takes us to the first Covenant on Sinai, when God made a covenant of love with his people.    

      This New Covenant is sealed with the blood of Christ, the first covenant was sealed with the blood of animals.  It was the shadow of the true covenant that Christ would make.   

      Jeremiah (Jer 31,31-34) had announced this new covenant, which would not be written on stone tablets, but on flesh stones, on the heart of every man and woman who welcomes and accepts Christ as his or her Lord. 

      And the Lord says that every time we break the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim his redeeming death until the end of times. 

      There are not several sacrifice, there is only one sacrifice of Christ which that is made present on each altar where we celebrate the Eucharist remembering his love and his surrender for love, inviting us to do the same, strengthened by the Bread and  the Wine of the Eucharist.  We have done this; we continue to do it until his return.   

      What is the meaning of “… in memory of me?”  Continually the Lord transforms us in himself when we eat his body and drink his blood. United to him, made one with him, we learn to die  to our own self to live for him and for the others.   

    This Bread and this Wine invite us to live the values of Jesus, they invite us to give our life out of love for the brothers and sisters of Jesus, for all. 

Sequence

The shorter form of the sequence begins here.

Lo! the angel’s food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
            see the children’s bread from heaven,
            which on dogs may not be spent.

Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
            Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
            manna to the fathers sent.

Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
            You refresh us, you defend us,
            Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.

You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
            Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
            Where the heavenly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia 

GOSPEL Lk 9:11b-17

v  Luke describes this scene of the multiplication like the meal of the last Supper.   

v  Jesus is teaching the crowds, he speaks to them about the Kingdom, he heals the sick, making present the kingdom of which he speaks.    

v  As the day was drawing to a close, the crowds keep listening in owe, this man Jesus of Nazareth has captivated them, he speaks with tenderness of a kingdom where God will be God, where we will love each other.   

v  The disciples ask him to dismiss the people so they could go and find food to eat.  

v  Jesús says to them something surprising “Given them some food yourselves.” 

v  He will say these words to us through history, give food to those who need it, as he will say in the parable of the Samaritan man “go and do likewise.”   

v  But, how can we give food to so many people with only five loaves and two fishes? How can we feed the hungry human race? 

v  Where do we have so much money to buy food for all.   

v  Jesus enters in action and invites his twelve friends to collaborate  

v  They will see how the bread does not end, and how through their hands there is enough for all.   

v  Not only this, but there were leftovers, and there is more bread tan when they began.   

v  Maybe our problem is that we give the food ourselves and, not as collaborators of Jesus.  

v  What a beautiful sign of the overabundance of the kingdom, of the messianic times, as the prophet Isaiah had announced!  Sign of the Kingdom which brings to our minds the overabundance of the wine at the weeding at Cana. Signs of these Kingdom where nobody lacks anything, where all are submerged in the joy of the feast which never ends.    

v  The community of the disciples, the Church, has seen in this sign of the loaves the anticipation of the Eucharist, the bread given to us, the bread for the journey, the bread which is Jesus dead, given on the cross and risen to ratify the new covenant in his blood.  

v  The bread which transforms us in Jesus so that we can do the same Works, forgetting ourselves and giving ourselves through a  generous and unconditional love for every brother or sister who needs us.

CLARETIAN CORNER 

United to her Lord as his bride, she lived more and more focused on Him. Her religious experience acquires, if possible, an even more Christocentric direction. She puts all her efforts in “pleasing Jesus.”  

As a result of her profession, she composed a "portrait of Jesus and Teresita" that supposes both a contemplative attitude and a great ascetic effort to resemble her Lord. The spousal union was called to be fulfilled in a complete assimilation to Jesus and identification with Him. This spousal donation of the profession brought for the Servant of God a brief period of peace.

  "By the mercy of God, since I have professed, peace reigns in my heart and a great joy invades everything in me as I remember the consecration, I have made of myself to God our Lord. That had not stopped the feelings of dryness, distractions, annoyance, and sadness, but in all these moments, Jesus and Mary have supported me in such a way that I have even been able to smile, even when tears poked into my eyes. Blessed be God!"

 (Positio p. 90-91). 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONGREGATIO DE CAUSIS SANCTORUM, MARIAE TERESIAE, POSITIO SUPER VIRTUTIBUS. Roma 1994

PAGOLA, José, Following in the Footsteps of Jesus. Meditations on the Gospels for Year C. 2012.   

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras, Año C, 2006

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo. 2010.  

             THE MOST HOLY TRINITY  - CICLO C – 2022

      On the first Sunday after Pentecost the Liturgy of the Church invites us to celebrate the greatness of our God, to adore him, to contemplate him, to allow ourselves to be fascinated with his beauty and goodness

      Through the readings we will   enter into the mystery of our  one and triune God. Like Moses, we will remove the sandals from our feet because we are on sacred ground.   

      Let us enter into his presence with our imagination and our feelings and overall, with our love.

      More than to try to understand the mystery that goes beyond our mind, let us allow God to seduce our heart, let us allow our imagination and our feelings move freely..     

THE BOOK OF PROVERBS  

v  When we open this book, we are surprised by his miscellaneous nature.  It contains long poems as   well as very short ones, two lines in parallel.   

v  Another thing that makes us wonder, is the apparent lack of theological reflection, it is a very pragmatic book, and we ask, why  has it  been included in the Bible, which is the word of God?  

v  Together with the books of Job, Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth),  Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus)   Wisdom  the book of Proverbs is classified as wisdom literature.    

v  I have read in a commentary that the Book of Proverbs is the most secular of these five books.   

v  Its author is not Solomon, as we could think on reading the first verse “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel” 1.1.   In the same way as the books about the Law (Pentateuch) are attributed to Moses, the Psalms to David, the book of Proverbs is attributed to Solomon, because he was such a wise man. However, he is not the author of the book, maybe he is the author of some proverbs, but not the whole book. 

v  For an Israelite there existed only the cosmos and the web of social relationships, both realities derive from the creation made by God.   The mission of the wise person was to seek the harmony hidden within these two realities and transmit this knowledge by means of sentences and instructions, to help the human beings to live a good life, a truly human life.      

FIRST READING   Proverbs 8:22-31 

Ø  Wisdom speaks and says that she existed from the beginning.  

Ø  Wisdom describes for us the works of God. Let our imagination go to the places where Wisdom takes us: 

·         oceans, springs of water, rivers.

·         mountains and hills  

·         earth and fields   

Ø  She says that she was present when God made the sky 

Ø  when he put the sky as a dome  over the ocean.   

Ø  when he set boundaries to the sea     

Ø  If we pay attention to what Wisdom is saying, God is building a home. The home he has prepared for us to live in.  

Ø  And Wisdoms tells us that she was there beside him as his craftsman, and that she played before him, and was delighted to be with the human beings.

Ø  What a wonderful word, the Wisdom of God, God himself found and still finds his delight among the human beings, in each one of us. 

Ø  The Church sees in this Wisdom the Son of God, through whom all things were made. He became one of us.  In the Eastern Churches they see in this Wisdom an image of the Holy Creator Spirit.   

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  8

R.  O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!
All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.
R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth! 

ü  The psalmist is in awe to see how God takes care of his creatures.

ü  In a very special way of the human being, to whom he has given power over them.

ü  The psalmist  asks, what is man?

ü  We repeat the same question, who are we that the Son of the Father became one like us, and put his tent among us?  Who are we that God comes to dwell in us?  

SECOND READING  Rom 5:1-5

      Paul speaks of the redemptive work of God for his creation.  

      We have been justified by faith, and this gives us peace with God by Jesus Christ. 

      Christ is he who has given us the grace in which we live, and at the same time we rejoice in hope of the   glory of God. 

      He says that we do not only rejoice in hope, but also in our afflictions.  

      Knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character hope.  

      He says that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.  

      The Holy Spirit is he who completes the work that God has begun in us.  

GOSPEL  Jn 16,12-15

v  Jesus says to his disciples that, he has many more things to tell them, but they cannot bear them at that moment.  

v  The Holy Spirit will help them to understand and to live what Jesus has taught them during his earthly life. The Spirit will guide them to the whole truth. He will remind them, all the words of Jesus.

v  He will not speak on his own; he will speak what he hears in the intimacy of the Trinitarian life. 

v  He will glorify Jesus, because he will take what is Jesus' and declare  it to them.   

v  Why does Jesus say that the Spirit will not speak on his own? 

v  Jesus had said to his disciples that the Spirit was the promise of the Father, the Father was giving the Spirit to them.  However, it seems as if the Spirit was given by Jesus.

v  The answer is found in the next verse: everything that the Father has belongs to Jesus.

v  The mission of the Spirit among us has been, to make possible the creating and redemptive plan of the Father in the Church and in the world. 

v  This is our God, the Christian God, God who is a Trinity of persons, a community of persons united by the love generated between the three divine persons. He is the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier.   

 I want to share with you a homily on the Most Holy Trinity given by Bishop Baron from Winona-Rochester, USA in 2017.

o   He invites us  to go with our imagination and look at the different beings of creation, from the tiniest ones to the larger ones, plants, animals and inanimate beings. He takes us  in this tour into matter itself and asks us to look at the atoms, protons, neutrons, etc… to go inside our own body composed by so many cells each one with its task. Afterwards he takes us to the celestial bodies, the galaxies the millions and millions of stars and planets. Finally he invites us to contemplate with awe this creation and to discover in it a constant communication and the capacity of each created being to reproduce itself.

o   From this contemplation Bishop Baron leads us to the contemplation of our God: the Father reproduces his own image exactly equal to himself, it is the Son, equal to the Father but another autonomous being , when both look at each other with love.  They are in awe ah! and this sigh or breath is the Holy Spirit who is another person the third person of the Trinity.

o   The Holy Spirit is the love that is communicated among the three divine Persons inside the Trinity.

o   God the Father has the capacity to reproduce his own image equal to himself and at the same time different as we say in the Profession of faith  God from God, light from Light begotten not made of one being with the Father… we say also I  believe in the Holy Spirit who proceed from the Father and the Son…

o   God has a continuous communication of love, admiration, and dedication among the three Persons of the Trinity, our only God.

o   The three divine Persons want to share their being and their happiness and the result is the wonderful creation that we have which has come to existence through the overflow of their love and, has  imprinted in some way their image in it,  making creation able to reproduce and to communicate.

CLARETIAN CORNER                    

 

 TERESITA ALBARRACIN

There was the tradition that when a young woman began her novitiate her name would be changed. Mari Carmen, this was her baptismal name, manifested the wish to be called like the young French Carmelite Little Theresa of Lisieux. Her wish was granted by her superiors and she was called Teresita. On April 10 1944 she made her first profession, beginning her life as a Claretian Missionary Sister, in the newly acquired house of Sarria ( one of the neighborhoods of Barcelona -Spain). From the rooftop she probably had contemplated   many times the city of Barcelona and, on very clear days, she could even have seen the Mediterranean sea which had cradled her since her birth.

A short time after her profession, she was assigned to the kindergarten class. She had always been very apostolic and manifested her desires to be sent as a missionary to save souls (Information give by her first Master of Novices in the Information Process);  but the superiors, for the moment, gave her that assignment.

She wrote “I love my vows and ask and want to fulfill them until death, because being poor I detach myself from the earthly things, being chaste and pure I resemble Jesus and Mary and, being obedient, I touch God Himself.”(Positio pp.88-90)

   

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

BARRON,Robert, Bishop. Homily on the Most Holy Trinity, 2017 in YouTube.

CONFERENCIA EPISCOPAL ESPAÑOLA, Sagrada Biblia, versión oficial, 2012

CONGREGATIO DE CAUSIS SANCTORUM, Mariae Teresiae, Positio super virtutibus 1994.

RAVASI, Gianfranco, Según Las Escrituras, Año C, 2006

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. Comentario a La Biblia de nuestro Pueblo. 2010.

 

 

ASCENSION OF THE LORD  - CYCLE C – 2022

      The Church celebrates the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord on the Thursday after the sixth Sunday of Easter.  

      Some countries or regions, due to pastoral needs, have the authorization to celebrate this solemnity on the seventh Sunday. Our country is one of those countries. 

      Pope Francis in his homily of the Ascension, in his visit to the people of Myanmar in Asia, invited them and us as well to keep and nurture three realities: faith, unity and truth. During this week we may meditate on this invitation from the Pope. 

FIRST READING - Acts of the Apostles  1:1-11

Ø  The liturgy takes us back to the beginning of the book of the Acts. 

Ø  We already mentioned that Luke wrote two books of the New Testament: The Gospel and the Acts.  

Ø  The Acts, begin repeating the end of the Gospel, and both books begin with an introduction. 

Ø  Luke uses a great number of images and symbols to explain the meaning of the return of the Lord to the Father.

Ø  In our reflection we are not going to delve into the details about the Lord going up, if the cloud covered him, if some angels spoke to the apostles. 

Ø  I do not think that Luke’s purpose was that, but he wanted to give us a message using very beautiful symbols. If we remain at the symbol, we will never understand the message. The narrations using images and symbols say a lot with few words.   

Ø  Let us enter the meaning of the images to let ourselves be captivated by the message:  

v  He starts saying that the Lord came to them alive, after his death on the cross, and for 40 days he gave diverse proofs so that they could understand and believe that he is alive. At the same time, he explains to them the meaning of the Kingdom of God. 

v  40 days is already one of the symbols: 40 days of the flood, 40 years in the desert, 40 days Jesus in the desert… 40 is a symbolic number in the Bible meaning a “long time.”    

v  He said not to leave Jerusalem before he sends to them the Father’s promise, the Holy Spirit, of whom he had spoken to them several times and especially after the Last Supper.

v  They and all of us will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Baptize means to be submerged into, we will be submerged, surrounded by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father, and of Jesus, the Son.  

v  With the Holy Spirit, those men scared, will be able to be witnesses until the end of the world.  

v  He was raised, when we think or speak about God, we lift our eyes, because there is something in the human heart that understands God as superior and this is what we consider to be higher, above us.  

v  Jesus returns to the Father and at the same time he remains with us, thus he has told us. 

v  His stay is not visible, from this moment on his presence will be sacramental, through signs, things and through his followers, and even through any human being or situation.  

v  The cloud is a symbol of God’s presence, it has two functions: to hide and to discover the divine presence. In exodus

ü  The cloud was dark during the day, and bright during the night. 

ü  When the cloud was above the meeting tent, they knew that God was there.  

ü  The cloud is the symbol of the glory of Yahweh. 

v  Jesus returns to the Father, Jesus is indeed the glory of God the Father, Jesus is the Son of the Father made flesh.  

v  They keep looking up to the sky, we do the same sometimes when we experience difficulties, or we suffer, we keep looking up to the heights, we do not want to leave the presence of the Lord.  

v  The angels remind them that they must work, they have to go out and proclaim the kingdom, they have to encounter the Lord in the men and women who journey with us, we have to encounter him in this our world, which is his also. According to the Gospel of Matthew we know that “I will be with you until the end of the world, the end of human history

v  Jesus will come back, we do not know when, but meanwhile it is the time of the Spirit, the time of the Church, that has to continue the work that Jesus, the Son of God has begun.  

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Sal 47: 2-3,6-7,8-9

R.(6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy:

a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R.(6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy:

a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
  R.(6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy:

a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R.(6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy:

a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

 

This psalm does not need much explanation, it is clear that it is a psalm of joy and praise to God, King of all the earth.  

SECOND READING – Ef 1:17-23

      The liturgy of this Sunday gives two options for the second reading, we will use the second option for this commentary.   

      Paul wishes for the community of Ephesus that God the Father give to them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. He wants that the community of Ephesus, as well as our community, may taste what God is  awakening in our heart through the events of our life, and that we discover in them his Word, his revelation and that, through all these situations, we may learn to know Him, not intellectually but from the deepest recesses of our being.   

      Paul wants also, that the eyes of the heart of the community of Ephesus might be enlightened so they may know the hope which goes with His call. 

      That they may discover also his power which surpasses all other power. 

      Power that raised Jesus and made him seat at the right hand of the Father.    

      Jesus is the beloved Son of the Father… The Apostles had heard these words at the baptism and at the transfiguration of the Lord.

GOSPEL: Luke 24:46-53

In the first reading we read the beginning of the book of Acts, now we read the end of Luke’s Gospel.  

§  Luke is the author of both books. He says that afterwards…. In the afternoon of the resurrection, the ascension took place. However, in the Acts it says that it was 40 days after his death. It seems that the evangelist is not interested in the historical accuracy in relation to the time, he is interested in the truth that God wants to communicate to us, that is the theology of history.

§  Today’s reading begins in v.46, Jesus is teaching as a good Teacher  

      It was written that the Messiah had to suffer and be raised, and this is what has happened to him, he is the Messiah sent by the Father.

      In his name, the forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations. 

      He continues saying that they are his witnesses, and that he will send them the promise of the Father, thus they have to stay in the city of Jerusalem.  

      In these two verses, Luke gives a synthesis of the mission of Jesus and of the Church history.  

      Luke describes here also, with very beautiful images, the mystery of the ascension. See that I say mystery that means a truth of faith that goes beyond our capacity to understand, and which is explained to us by means of comparisons, symbols and images. 

      Jesus blesses them, to bless is to say good upon someone. 

      They kneel, that means they acknowledge him as God.  

      They return filled with joy, and they keep blessing God.  The presence of Jesus in our life, the presence of the Father and of the Holy Spirit are the source of a deep and overflowing joy which becomes contagious.