23^rd  SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   -  A – 2023

ü  Ezekiel has been called to be the watchman for the house of Israel. 

ü  Jesus invites us to help and love one another within our community. ü  Paul invites us not to owe anything to anyone except love.   

FIRST READING   Ez 33:7-9

v  Who was Ezequiel?  

o   The book of Ezekiel is found within the group of books called “Major Prophets.” 

o   The author is a priest who lived in Jerusalem. 

o   And was deported to Babylon with the first group of exiles in 597 BC. 

v  The book   

o   The literary composition of this book makes us think that it has been written by only one person, which is not the case in many books of the Old Testament.  

o   The emphasis is not put on the oracles or the symbolic actions that this man has to do but, on the command to accomplish them, that is to say, in God. 

o   There is a continuous presence of the Lord in these oracles, and in the life of this man. God gives him the command to do gestures and say words, and at the same time God also tells him beforehand what the reaction of the people to the oracle will be.  

o   We find in the structure of this book the following elements: 

§  A vision at the beginning which gives the tone to the whole book. 

§  The fall of Jerusalem which is found at the center of the book.  

§  After that we have a series of chapters condemning and announcing the salvation for Israel.     

§  Between the announcements of condemnation and the oracles of salvation for Israel, we find oracles related to the nations.  

§  As the conclusion of the book there is the vision of the new organization of the country and of the temple.  

v  The Message

o    There are many disturbing problems, but there is a central point of interest:  

§  Give hope to a national and religious community that is suffering a crisis.   

§  Which is not only the consequence of the ambition of other powerful nations. 

§  But Israel has a great responsibility in all of this due to its behavior.

§  The destiny of the peoples is based on its own responsibility, which is translated into just or unjust behaviors in the different areas of life: religion and politics.   

LET US REFLECT ON TODAY’S READING

Ø  Son of man I have appointed you as the watchman for the house of Israel.   

Ø  When you hear me say something, you have to repeat it. 

Ø  If I say something addressed to the sinner to change his behavior and you do not repeat it to him, he will remain in his wickedness that is leading him to death, but you will be responsible of his death due to his sin. 

Ø  If I say something for the wicked to change and he does not pay attention to you, he will be responsible of the consequences of this refusal, but you will not be responsible, you will be saved.                                                                                                  

Ø  It seems that the prophet is trying to tell us that we are responsible of one another, that we need to care about the behavior of our brothers and sisters who journey with us in life, not to judge them, but to announce to them where salvation can be found. 

Ø  If we do not do it, we will be responsible that the evil continues to grow and that our brothers and sisters do not know the salvation which the Lord has brought to us.

Ø  The prophet in this book wants that the people realize and that we realize the responsibility of the consequences of our actions, especially of our response to the call of God.   

Ø  We are not called to lord over our brothers and sisters or to condemn them, but to love them. This love must be a fire inside of us which makes us realize how much we hurt ourselves, how much our brothers and sisters are  hurt by our sins, sins that do not allow us to discover the love which God has for each one of us.  

Ø  As St. Anthony M. Claret said, each person is the image of God, of our Father, and how can I allow this image to be trampled down, dirty and destroyed by our sins?   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM:  Ps  95: 1-2. 6-7. 8-9 

IF TODAY YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS

Come let us sing joyfully to the Lord!   

Let us acclaim the rock of our salvation!   

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving!  

Let us joyfully sing psalms to him.    

 . IF TODAY YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS

Come, let us bow down in worship.   

Let us kneel before the Lord who made us,  

For he is our God.   

And we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.    

 IF TODAY YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS

Oh, that today you would hear his voice,   

“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah   

As in the day of Massah in the desert   

Where your fathers tempted me.  

They tested me though they had seen my works.”

 IF TODAY YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, HARDEN NOT YOUR HEARTS 

ü  This psalm is an invitation to acclaim, to sing with enthusiasm to our God because he has saved us. 

ü  Let us go with joy, enter with acclamations, bend our knees, acclaim with music… because he is our God,  

ü  And we are his people, the people he guides.  

ü  The sheep of his flock, why sheep? Because in Israel the king is the shepherd, David the great king of Israel, the king who had the heart like the heart of God, had been a shepherd.   

ü  The shepherd makes us thing about a tender and continuous care for the sheep.

ü  This responsorial psalm ends with the stanza which invites us to remember what had happened in the past to those who abandoned the Lord, so that we may not repeat this situation now.   

GOSPEL:  Mt 18:15-20

v  In this gospel we find two themes related to life in community, the community of the followers of Jesus.  

v  The first theme: fraternal correction.    

o   All that we can do to help each other when we are destroying ourselves by our sins.  

o   To seek all the possible ways: between the two of us, with a few others, with the community…  

o   The Lord is not telling us to supervise the behavior of our brothers and sisters to be scandalized by it and so condemn them because we think that we are better than the rest.

o   We are called by the Lord to live the one commandment he has given us “the new commandment.”  

o   And which one is it? He said to us before his death “love one another as I have loved you” and we also know that someplace else he said, “I have not come to condemn but to save.”  

o   We cannot save anyone, but we can help others to find the way which leads to the intimacy with the One who can save, which is the Lord Jesus.  

v  The second theme: when two or three gather in the name of Jesus, Jesus himself is in their midst, in our gathering.  

o   We gather in the name of the Lord, this means that it is not any gathering, but one in his name.  

o   It is a gathering to pray, to ask the Lord for something.  

o   The Father will give it to you.   

o   Because where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them, and the Father always listens to me.  

o   Every Sunday we gather in his name, these are consoling words. How these words have the power to fill us with enthusiasm every Sunday when we come to celebrate the Eucharist.   There is so much to ask for, for the human race, for us, for our brothers and sisters who journey with us toward the Father. 

SECOND READING  Rm 13:8-10

v  Paul invites us to love one another. This coming Sunday the theme of the second reading coincides with the other two readings.   

v  Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another. 

v  Because all the commandments: you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet and any other commandment,  

v  Are summed up in these words, which as Jesus said to the teacher of the law are the commandment similar to the first “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

v  Love is the fulfillment of the law because it does not hurt our neighbor.  

v  In what a beautiful way Paul compares the new law to the old one given by God on Mount Sinai.  

v  The old law was summed up in love God above everything else and your neighbor as yourself. 

v  Jesus pronounces again this same law and invites us to love one another as he has loved us. 

v  In his love Jesus is moved by his unconditional love as Son toward the Father, and as brother toward each one of us; and he invites us to do the same.  

v  We only must remember, to love one another, because this also entails the love toward the Father, because without his love in us, we could not love as Jesus has loved. 

CLARETIAN CORNER  

 Upon arriving in Cuba he encounters an extremely complex and difficult situation of the family, so he makes a clear choice for the family. [... ] It was precisely the care to protect the family and the search for solutions to the marital problems, which cost him more suffering and persecutions, even shedding his blood. He devotes a large part of his first Pastoral Letter to the theme of the family and its value; to marriage, the children education etc.

It promoted family welfare by resolving possible anomalies, reforming customs and restoring morality. He defended the dignity and the rights of women and children against the abuses of unjust social customs. [... ]  As a Pastor, aware of his duty and the right to freedom he wrote to the Captain General ... No interest has brought me here from Spain... poor I was, poor I lived and poor I remain... the day I see that my hands are tied to do  good, or that nobody listens to my voice, as long as my pretensions are founded in justice and charity itself, which are the only stimuli to act I recognize, that day I will leave my post and nothing will be lost... because the missionary character is enough for me to be poor, to love God, to love my neighbors and to win their souls at the same time as mine.(Claret in Santiago de Cuba on March 28, 1851, from the book of Galeron p.31).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GALERÓN, María Soledad RMI. Llamada que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos hacen Hoy.  Santiago de Cuba 2023.

LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Texto de Luis Alonso Schökel.

LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del Vaticano.

Pagina Web del Vaticano, Papa Benedicto XVI ángelus 8/28/2011; Papa Francisco ángelus 8/31/2014.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012.

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo) 2007.

 

 

 

      

 

22 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME   - A – 2023

ü  The prophet Jeremiah confesses that he cannot stop proclaiming what God reveals to him, it is like a fire in his bones that impulses him to continue speaking.     

ü  Jesus says that whoever wants to follow him must deny him or herself.   

ü  Paul invites us to offer ourselves as a living and holy sacrifice pleasing to God.

ü   The following of Jesus, our response to his call entails both joys and sufferings at the same time, but his love and his call are so strong that we can do nothing else than  follow him and in this we find the source of our joy, in spite of the difficulties and oppositions.  

ü  Pope Francis has a reflection on this Gospel; he says that the Christian that does not follow Jesus is like the salt which has lost its taste…  

ü  And Pope Benedict XVI commented on this passage of the Gospel and said, “On accepting voluntarily his death, Jesus carries the cross of every human being and thus he becomes the source of salvation for the entire human race.”  

FIRST READING   Jer 20:7-9

v  This Reading is taken from the last section called “confessions of Jeremiah” which begins on chapter 10. 

v  Through these chapters we find what has been called “confessions” which are texts that reveal the unique intimacy of Jeremiah with God. All these texts are especially beautiful and show to us the portrait of a man in love with God.   

v  You have seduced me… these are strong words which reveal the inner struggle of a man completely in love with God and, at the same time, tired to suffer for the cause of the Word which becomes fire inside of him.   

v  You were stronger than me, so you overcame me, this is a very strong image which describes very well what happens when a man seduces a woman. Jeremiah says that this is what has happened to him in relation to God.    

v  The complain of Jeremiah is that since that seduction he must speak in the name of God who reveals to him the sufferings which his people will experience due to their unfaithfulness.   

v  Jeremiah says that he has taken the decision neither to speak anymore in the name of God nor to listen to Him anymore.  

v  But what happens?

v  The Word becomes fire inside of him and he must communicate it, pronounce it, utter it because he cannot resist the suffering caused by his keeping the Word for himself, he has to share it.      

v  What a wonderful image of the love of the Word, of the power of seduction that the Word has.   

v  Have we allowed ourselves to be seduced as Jeremiah was? Is the Word of God a fire which consumes our most inner being?  

v  If this is not so yet, let us ask God, let us ask Jesus that his Word may become fire that consume us so that we may be able to put in fire of his love the whole world.  

 RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  63: 2,  3-4,  5-6, 8-9. 

ü  Psalm of trust structured in three songs:

o   Song of thirst (2-4)

o   Song of hunger (5-9)

o   Song of  divine judgement (10-12)

ü  The thirst for God  will be quenched and the hunger for God  will be satisfied.

ü  Jesus from the cross, as Saint John tells us, says "I thirst" during his life in his preaching he had told us where we can quench our thirst for God.

ü  Our thirst and our hunger will be satisfied only by the love of our God.

ü  These words of Jesus "I thirst" are he words that changed the life of M. Teresa of Calcutta, that  gave her the strength she needed to give herself to the last of the last among the human beings.  

MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD

O God you are my God whom I seek

For you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts

Like the earth, parched lifeless and without water

MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD

So have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary

To see your power and your glory

For your kindness is a greater good than life

My lips shall glorify you.

MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD

Thus will I bless you while I live

Lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name

As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied

And with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.

MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD

You are my help,

And in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy

My soul clings fast to you

Your right hand upholds me.

MY SOUL IS THIRSTING FOR YOU, O LORD MY GOD 

GOSPEL Mt 16:21-27

v  After Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ, the Messiah” which we read last Sunday, Jesus begins to teach the apostles what does it mean that he is the Christ. 

v  To be the Christ, the faithfulness to his mission will entail sufferings for Jesus, persecution, humiliation, and death.      

v  But death will not be the end, because he will rise again on the third day.   

v  What does it mean that he will rise again? What does he want to tell us? We do not understand…   

v  Peter, the man who is the closest friend of Jesus, whom he loves with his entire being, Peter always impulsive speaks again, but now he does not repeat the words which the Father has told him, but his own words.   

v  God forbid, Lord! How can this be true? It is impossible, you are the Christ, do you not remember? And the Christ can neither suffer, nor be defeated.    

v  Peter, you think as a man, Jesus is inviting them, inviting all of us, to see the events of our life and  of history in general with the eyes of the Father who knows what is good for us.     

v  The answer of Jesus is harsh “go behind me Satan” what did Peter feel when he heard these words of Jesus calling him the tempter, the seducer.    

v  Did Peter with his words have the power to be a temptation for Jesus? This is a mystery which goes beyond our understanding.

v  Maybe Jesus was experiencing something like what Jeremiah experienced?  I will not speak any more about you, but I could not, your word is fire inside of me. Maybe the words of Peter were echo of the temptation in the desert: you can be a Messiah in an easier way and at the same time more effective, you will see how everyone follows you… transform the stones into bread… throw yourself down from the Temple… kneel before me

v  Why does Jesus say to Peter “get behind me” which has the same meaning as go after me? Because who goes first is the teacher, the disciple follows the teacher.     

v  And Jesus teaches them a lesson, the great revelation.  

o   Whoever wants to come after me, must go behind me.   

§  Must deny himself or herself

§  Take his or her cross, his or her own life

o   And come after me, why?

§  For whoever wishes to save  his or her life will lose it

§  But whoever loses his or her life for my sake will find it.

§  What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his or her life

§  O what can one give in exchange for his life?

v  This Gospel puts in front of us the fundamental question of our life, the following of Jesus we have been called to, even before we had been conceived, and which has become visible and public at our baptism. 

v  In our baptism we were submerged into the death and resurrection of Jesus to be other Christs, and thus continue in the world his mission to seek the brothers and sisters who has gone astray.   

v  The Gospel ends with these words of Jesus: the Son of Man will come at the end of time, he will not come in poverty and humility as in the first coming, but he will come in the glory of the Father, which is also his glory, and he will give to each one what is due.   

v  Come Lord Jesus! and you, who are the way, walk with us so that when you come at the end of times, you will say to us the so long expected words “come you blessed from my Father, because you loved me in each one of your brothers and sisters in need who you met on the journey of your life.”    

SECOND READING  Rom 12:1-2

      Paul exhorts us to offer ourselves, our bodies, our own being to God as an acceptable and holy offering. 

      In the day of our baptism we were anointed “priest, prophet and king.” Our priestly being enables us to offer sacrifices to God, and our sacrifice is our own life “your bodies”

      What a consolation and what an enthusiasm these words awaken in us, knowing that our life, simple, sometimes broken, hidden from the eyes of the great public, this my life can be an offering pleasing to God, if I offer it with simplicity and humility.     

      My life becomes then a worship of adoration to God. 

      Yes, my life as a husband or as a wife, as son or daughter, as an older person or as a young person… My life has the possibility to be an offering, a sacrifice of adoration to my God.    

      Paul continues and invites us not to conform our mind to the mind of the word of sin, the world that lives far from God and from the good of others.  

      Let us allow the Lord to transform us, by the renewal of our mind, our way to look at life, allow the Spirit of Jesus to enkindle in us the fire of the Spirit, so that we may know what is good and pleasing to God our Father, to Jesus our brother and to the Spirit, our teacher.   

 The foundation of the humanizing pastoral ministry is in the gospel, in the integral salvation that Jesus came to bring and, wants it to reach all those people that God himself, through the Church, has entrusted to him (Claret). There are no differences among the persons he serves, except the differences from culture, race, homeland, color, wealth, sex, all have the same dignity as children of God. His friendly and simple treatment with everyone is striking. He personally heard in confession people of all classes, race, social and economic level, and political position. His social action is born from his zeal for the salvation of the person and from his love for justice.

As president of the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country, he promotes the human development of his people. In their meetings they discussed the most urgent economic, educational, social and health plans forf the population. ...  

Claret traced new paths to solidarity and prepared the way to the Gospel, as he explained to Caixal besides giving them spiritual pasture, they are also given what is needed for the body through alms, savings banks and agricultural notebooks. (Galeron pp 29-30)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GALERÓN, María Soledad RMI. Llamada que la Memoria de Significativos Acontecimientos Históricos Congregacionales nos hacen Hoy.  Santiago de Cuba 2023.

Santa Biblia. Texto oficial de la Conferencia de Obispos de España. 2012

LA BIBLIA, traducción tomada de la página web del Vaticano.

Pagina Web del Vaticano, Papa Benedicto XVI ángelus 8/28/2011; Papa Francisco ángelus 8/31/2014.

PAGOLA, José A.   El camino abierto por Jesús. PPC 2012.

STOCK, Klemens. La Liturgia de la Palabra. Ciclo A (Mateo) 2007.