Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 123 Reading 1 IS 66:18-21 Thus says the LORD: I know their works and their thoughts, and I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them; from them I will send fugitives to the nations: to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory; and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations. They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries, to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the LORD in clean vessels. Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD. Responsorial Psalm PS 117:1, 2 R.(Mk 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. or: R. Alleluia. Praise the LORD all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. or: R. Alleluia. For steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever. R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. or: R. Alleluia. Reading 2 HEB 12:5-7, 11-13 Brothers and sisters, You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children: "My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges." Endure your trials as "discipline"; God treats you as sons. For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.
So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed. Alleluia JN 14:6 R. Alleluia, alleluia. I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord; no one comes to the Father, except through me. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel LK 13:22-30 Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us.' He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from. And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.' Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!' And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."
From: And then, only one man - P. G. Testa Missionary of the ConsolataHave faith in Jesus or have the faith of Jesus? They certainly do not cancel each other out, but the first has always been preached, the second has sometimes been forgotten. What did Jesus believe? What were his attitudes? His options? His projects? How did He express His faith, His fidelity to the Father? Perhaps today, the faith of Jesus fascinates even those who do not believe, opens horizons and does not raise fences. The mission today, perhaps, is above all to announce Jesus through His practice. It is upset by the strength of the Gospel the criteria of judgment, the determining purposes, the points of interest, the lines of thought, the inspiring sources and the models of life of humanity, which are in contrast with the Word of God and with the design of salvation, as Evangelii Nuntiandi, 19. It is not so much the imitation as the following of Jesus. We are not called to do what He did, but to act as He did. How to accept, then, the preference for the powerful? How to justify the choice of wealth and power, of ceremony and grandeur?Jesus never went to Herod to ask for some subsidy for his apostolic school. Neither has he asked Pilate for any team to give him security on certain difficult missions, perhaps among the Samaritans.
He cometido el peor de los pecadosque un hombre puede cometer:No he sido feliz. Jorge Luis BorgesI ( I have committed the worst sin that a man can commit: I was not happy).
It is a phrase, but identifies, perhaps, the profound anguish of so many. Sometimes, in sermons I remembered that the plant, as Aristotle teaches, seeks light, the animal seeks food, the person seeks happiness. The project of God, which is never an architectural plan to be realized, but a path that is constituted together, is precisely this: He wants us to be happy. In that wonderful and true myth, in its content, it tells of God's afternoon walks with the man "in the breeze of the day" (Genesis 3,8).He likes being with us, He is communicative by nature, He wants us to be happy, just as a father or a mother want happiness for their children.
. FAUSTI - In Luke the chapter. 11 revealed us our sonship of God, already safe in heaven with the Father. But we are here, on earth, in density of space and in the flow of time. The sonship (ch 12)is living at first in relation to things: they are a gift of the Father to His sons and of the brothers to each other. Now the chap. 13 teaches us to live it over time: as the gift is the meaning of all that occupies the space, in the same manner the conversion is the meaning of each fraction of time. The present time , the only time that still exists and already has not disappeared, it is for us an opportunity to convert us. This does not mean " to become better ", but to turn round ourselves from our misery to His mercy, from the evil that we do to the good that He wants us. From the self-justification to acceptance of His grace, as a new source of life. So we live in constant joy and in thanksgiving. we are entering in the Sabbath. This is already at work in the world and is celebrated in the Eucharist, the feast of joy of the saved . The problem is how to get into the room where they eat the bread of the Kingdom.This chapter treats of the struggle to go into it. It recalls for various terms the knock at the door in the night to get the bread and the insistent demand to receive the Spirit. ((11,5-13) The door is Jesus: through Him all the men are saved, because on His journey to Jerusalem goes to meet to every fugitive. Everyone can enter, even the despondent , the unclean and the incurable. One ticket is needed : the necessity. He stays out just who "feels good ." The false security and the supposed justice are the only impediment. For to enter there we have to recognize our sins in front of the God's forgiveness: no one is saved by its own merit, but all we are saved. This time is the year of grace that we are allowed to convert us from our (in) justice to His grace.The door is declared narrow because the ego and its presumptions will not pass. They must die out. Here the second part of the journey of Jesus begins , all centered on His Mercy. We are invited to identify us with the various people whom He meets and saves. The door, narrow as the eye of a needle to those who presume of its goods, will be open for those who recognize their own blindness.
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us.' He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from.' And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.' Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!' And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
RispondiEliminaLectionary: 123
Reading 1 IS 66:18-21
Thus says the LORD:
I know their works and their thoughts,
and I come to gather nations of every language;
they shall come and see my glory.
I will set a sign among them;
from them I will send fugitives to the nations:
to Tarshish, Put and Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan,
to the distant coastlands
that have never heard of my fame, or seen my glory;
and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations.
They shall bring all your brothers and sisters from all the nations
as an offering to the LORD,
on horses and in chariots, in carts, upon mules and dromedaries,
to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the LORD,
just as the Israelites bring their offering
to the house of the LORD in clean vessels.
Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm PS 117:1, 2
R.(Mk 16:15) Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD all you nations;
glorify him, all you peoples!
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For steadfast is his kindness toward us,
and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 HEB 12:5-7, 11-13
Brothers and sisters,
You have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as children:
"My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord
or lose heart when reproved by him;
for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines;
he scourges every son he acknowledges."
Endure your trials as "discipline";
God treats you as sons.
For what "son" is there whom his father does not discipline?
At the time,
all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain,
yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness
to those who are trained by it.
So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.
Make straight paths for your feet,
that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.
Alleluia JN 14:6
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I am the way, the truth and the life, says the Lord;
no one comes to the Father, except through me.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 13:22-30
Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
"Lord, will only a few people be saved?"
He answered them,
"Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
'Lord, open the door for us.'
He will say to you in reply,
'I do not know where you are from.
And you will say,
'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'
Then he will say to you,
'I do not know where you are from.
Depart from me, all you evildoers!'
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth
when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west
and from the north and the south
and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first,
and some are first who will be last."
From: And then, only one man - P. G. Testa Missionary of the ConsolataHave faith in Jesus or have the faith of Jesus? They certainly do not cancel each other out, but the first has always been preached, the second has sometimes been forgotten. What did Jesus believe? What were his attitudes? His options? His projects? How did He express His faith, His fidelity to the Father? Perhaps today, the faith of Jesus fascinates even those who do not believe, opens horizons and does not raise fences. The mission today, perhaps, is above all to announce Jesus through His practice. It is upset by the strength of the Gospel the criteria of judgment, the determining purposes, the points of interest, the lines of thought, the inspiring sources and the models of life of humanity, which are in contrast with the Word of God and with the design of salvation, as Evangelii Nuntiandi, 19.
RispondiEliminaIt is not so much the imitation as the following of Jesus.
We are not called to do what He did, but to act as He did.
How to accept, then, the preference for the powerful?
How to justify the choice of wealth and power, of ceremony and grandeur?Jesus never went to Herod to ask for some subsidy for his apostolic school.
Neither has he asked Pilate for any team to give him security on certain difficult missions, perhaps among the Samaritans.
He cometido el peor de los pecadosque un hombre puede cometer:No he sido feliz. Jorge Luis BorgesI
( I have committed the worst sin that a man can commit:
I was not happy).
It is a phrase, but identifies, perhaps, the profound anguish of so many. Sometimes, in sermons I remembered that the plant, as Aristotle teaches, seeks light, the animal seeks food, the person seeks happiness.
The project of God, which is never an architectural plan to be realized, but a path that is constituted together, is precisely this: He wants us to be happy.
In that wonderful and true myth, in its content, it tells of God's afternoon walks with the man "in the breeze of the day" (Genesis 3,8).He likes being with us, He is communicative by nature, He wants us to be happy, just as a father or a mother want happiness for their children.
. FAUSTI - In Luke the chapter. 11 revealed us our sonship of God, already safe in heaven with the Father. But we are here, on earth, in density of space and in the flow of time.
RispondiEliminaThe sonship (ch 12)is living at first in relation to things: they are a gift of the Father to His sons and of the brothers to each other.
Now the chap. 13 teaches us to live it over time: as the gift is the meaning of all that occupies the space, in the same manner
the conversion is the meaning of each fraction of time.
The present time , the only time that still exists and already has not disappeared, it is for us an opportunity to convert us.
This does not mean " to become better ", but
to turn round ourselves from our misery to His mercy, from the evil that we do to the good that He wants us.
From the self-justification to acceptance of His grace, as a new source of life.
So we live in constant joy and in thanksgiving. we are entering in the Sabbath.
This is already at work in the world and is celebrated in the Eucharist, the feast of joy of the saved .
The problem is how to get into the room where they eat the bread of the Kingdom.This chapter treats of the struggle to go into it.
It recalls for various terms the knock at the door in the night to get the bread and the insistent demand to receive the Spirit. ((11,5-13)
The door is Jesus: through Him all the men are saved, because on His journey to Jerusalem goes to meet to every fugitive. Everyone can enter, even the despondent , the unclean and the incurable. One ticket is needed : the necessity.
He stays out just who "feels good ."
The false security and the supposed justice are the only impediment.
For to enter there we have to recognize our sins in front of the God's forgiveness: no one is saved by its own merit, but all we are saved.
This time is the year of grace that we are allowed to convert us from our (in) justice to His grace.The door is declared narrow because the ego and its presumptions will not pass. They must die out.
Here the second part of the journey of Jesus begins , all centered on His Mercy.
We are invited to identify us with the various people whom He meets and saves.
The door, narrow as the eye of a needle to those who presume of its goods, will be open for those who recognize their own blindness.
Jesus passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them,
Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, 'Lord, open the door for us.' He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from.'
And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'
Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!'
And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out.
And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.
For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last."