XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - CYCLE B – OCTOBER 21st , 2012

 

 

«  This coming Sunday is Mission Sunday traditionally called “DOMUND”.  

«  The readings speak again of service, but a service given by offering  our own life, like the mysterious servant of Isaiah and Jesus in the Gospel of Mark.   

FIRST READING: Is 53:10-11

Ø  The servant is faithful to God; verse 10 says that the Servant has been crushed in sufferings, but not for his own sins but for the sins of others.      

Ø  Through his suffering, through the offering of his life the Servant shall see his descendants in a long life. For Israel and also for the other countries surrounding Israel, to have many descendants was a sign of blessing from God, a sign that the person was pleasing to God. 

Ø  As a consequence of his affliction and of his offering of his life, the Servant will see the light. The light is always the symbol of the presence of God, of love and of truth. 

Ø  Through his sufferings he will justify many, and will take away their sins. His sufferings are redemptive, for this he will be able to justify many.   

Ø  Beautiful image of the mission of the Servant, whom the Church, through its theological reflection over the centuries, has recognized the person of Jesus,  his mission, his giving up his life, his unconditional surrendering  on the cross for the salvation of many, of all.  

Ø  The Church invites us every Sunday, through the liturgical readings, to follow the way of Jesus. Today the Church invites us to offer our life to the Lord, so He may unite our sacrifice to his sacrifice for the good of men and women, our brothers and sisters.   

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  – Ps 33 LORD MAY YOUR MERCY BE ON US, AS WE PLACE OUR TRUST IN YOU 

ü   The plan of God is eternal, but for us human beings it is unfolded in history, it takes time for us to discover it, and to accomplish it. But the Lord accompanies us and protects us through our journey in history.  

ü  The Lord, as the psalm says, loves justice and right, and his kindness fills the earth. What a consolation from these words! 

ü  The psalmist continues to say words of peace and consolation: the eyes of the Lord are upon those who hope in his kindness.  

ü  The last verse that we will say this coming Sunday is: our soul waits for the Lord, who is our help and our shield. With this protection, whom do we fear?   

GOSPEL MK 10:35-45

«  Last Sunday we read the story of the man who wanted to know how to get eternal life. But he was so much attached to his possessions that he was unable to leave them behind and follow the Lord Jesus.  He lost the opportunity to follow the good Teacher.

«  The disciples have heard what will be the recompense of those who leave everything behind and follow the Lord, the Teacher. 

«  But now two brothers,  called also the Sons of thunder, come to request a place of honor a distinction for them. (In the Gospel of Matthew the request is made by their mother) 

«  In the future kingdom, in eternity they want to sit at the places of honor, they have not understood  either the lesson that Jesus has taught to the man who wants to get to  eternal life, or the lesson that Jesus taught them some days before on service. The first will be the last, the leader will be the servant.  

«  This is the eternal weakness of us humans, we want to be different, the first, the one distinguished from the rest, but we look for this in the wrong place, we should look for it in God who will make us happy. 

«  And Jesus assures them that they will drink the cup he is going to drink, and will be baptized with his same baptism, which is the death on the cross. It can be any death suffered to  give witness to God. 

«  This means that he assures them that they will be very close to him, so close that they will share his own cross, but the seats of honor is the Father who decides. For my part I think that there are no seats of honor in the future kingdom, no one will be more important than some body else, because the only important is God, the only who is unique is God.  All of us are servants, sometimes useless servants, some other times  good servants.  

«  In the Synod on the New Evangelization which is being celebrated at the Vatican, a Bishop from the Philippines had a very interesting and challenging intervention. I am going to transcribe some of it here because I think it can help us to reflect on our Christian life as a community and as individuals.             

Why is there a strong wave of secularization, a storm of antipathy or plain cold indifference towards the church in some parts of the world necessitating a new wave of evangelization programs?”

The new evangelization calls for new humility. The Gospel cannot thrive in pride. When pride seeps into the heart of the Church, the Gospel proclamation is harmed. The task of new evangelization must begin with a deep sense of awe and reverence for humanity and her culture. Evangelization has been hurt and continues to be impeded by the arrogance of its messengers. The hierarchy must shun arrogance, hypocrisy and bigotry. We must punish the errant among us instead of covering up our own mistakes. We are humans among our human flock. All our beauty and holiness we owe to God. This humility will make us more credible new evangelizers. Our mission is to propose humbly not to impose proudly.

Secondly, the new evangelization must be done by new saints and we must be those saints. The great poverty of the world now is the poverty of saints. Whether we come from the first world or third world countries, everybody is looking for models to inspire and emulate. Our youth need models to inspire them. They need living heroes to ignite their hearts and excite them to know Jesus and love Him more. Our experience in the Third World tells me that the Gospel can be preached to empty stomachs but only if the stomach of the preacher is as empty as his parishioners.

Lastly, the new evangelization must be a call for new charity. We will be credible bringers of Gospel joy if the proclamation is accompanied by its twin messenger of charity. The charity of Jesus is the gift of Himself. The charity of the new evangelization must be the gift of Jesus.
The new evangelization needs a new humility; a renewal in holiness and a new face of charity for it to be credible and fruitful.

«  These are strong words pronounced by one of the bishops, one of the leaders, one the teachers of our Church. But they are words for all of us, how wonderful that we acknowledge as a Church that we need to be humble, little, one among others, only then and only then we will be able to be the yeast that transform the world from inside.   

«  May our good Teacher, who is humble of heart, teach us the beautiful virtue of humility. 

SECOND READING : He 4:14-16

ü  We have a high priest who has entered the sanctuary of heaven 

ü  This high priest is Jesus, the Son of God  

ü  This high priest, Jesus, i sable to understand our human condition because he has shared it with us. He knows our weaknesses because he has experienced them, except sin. 

ü  He cannot sin because he is God, he is life, and sin is death.  

ü   The author of the letter invites us to approach the throne of grace and mercy to find help in due time.  

o   The throne beautiful symbol of the authority of our high priest. It is a symbol because in the kingdom of heaven there are no thrones, this is a figure of speech.   

o   It is a throne of grace, mercy, kindness, all these words the Old Testament uses to describe God, who is compassionate and merciful.  

CLARETIAN CORNER

 

 

The   mistress of novices should found the novices from the beginning in the three virtues of faith, hope and charity, from  which are  born all the other virtues and evangelical perfection and without them, all the others are like a body without a soul.”

            “Faith enables them to walk without stumbling in the darkness and night of ignorance; hope teaches them to live always in the arms of divine providence […] and charity encourages them   to undertake the most arduous and perfect works, and enkindles within them living wishes  to work for the sanctification of their neighbours, without neglecting their own. Words of Maria Antonia París, Foundress, quoted  in the  Constitutions of the Claretian Missionary Sisters,  82.

The Church Fathers illustrate this matter by a comparison with the hen. Consider, they tell us, the great love, care, and zeal a hen has for her chicks. The hen is by nature a timid, cowardly, and fearful animal, but when she is brooding she has a lion's heart; her head is always aloft, her eyes are always on the alert, always looking about for the least sight of danger to her chicks. No matter how great the foe, she rushes to their defense. She lives in a perpetual state of care that she shows by her constant clucking. So great is her love for her brood that she always goes about looking sick and discolored. Lord, what a curious lesson of zeal you teach me in this example of the hen! Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography, 380.

 

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía  en Escritos.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO. Misioneros Claretianos. China 2008.

The Catholic Study Bible, second edition.

Information on the Synod on the “New Evangelization” taken from  “Whispers in the Loggia.”