In the Walk towards the knowledge and acceptance of Christ: Year A

4TH SUNDAY – A: (Wis 2:3; 3:12-13; 1Cor 1:26-31; Mt 5:1-12)
Theme: We are not alone; our beatitude will lead us.
Reflection:
First Reading:
- We have search for God and take into our hearts his ordinances
- Our Justice and our humility will make us stand upright in front of our Lord
- The presence of the people humble and poor is indeed the deed of the Lord for the rest of the world.
Psalm: Even the poor realize the power of the Spirit and proclaim to the world that “happy are the poor in Spirit”.
Second Reading:
- Our vocation is not of our own choice/our own strength. It is not because of our wisdom.
- God’s wisdom is too high that man will never be in the condition of understanding it.
- The ultimate wisdom of God is manifested in the Word made Flesh, for Jesus Christ has become for us the wisdom, justice, sanctification and redemption.
Gospel:
- Christ himself is the highest model of the beatitude
- He doesn’t just preach the blessedness or happiness but lives it.
- He has born poor (in the manger); he has cried (for the Jerusalem/for the sinners from the cross); he has made himself meek ( for he says “learn from me because I am meek and humble…. And take up my cross” and later on with the meekness without opening the mouth he takes up his cross to the Calvary); he had the hunger and thirst for the kingdom of God (my food is doing the will of my Father); he is merciful (when he saw the flock as a sheep without shepherd he is moved with compassion); He is pure (is the innocent lamb of God without stain); he is the peace-maker (calling and healing the people and making them the children of the kingdom of peace); he is persecuted (accepts the suffering with the joy). In this way, Jesus himself becomes the greatest role model for the beatitude.
- Christ appears here as the New Moses giving to the people a New Law.
- Wisdom of God (the blessedness/beatitude) is manifested in living courageously the trials and challenges of the world.

In our Walk we are blessed even if there are many hinders in the path and so we are not alone but we have the presence of Christ who has lived all these difficulties.


5TH SUNDAY – A: (Is 58: 7-10; 1Cor 2:1-5; Mt 5:13-16)
Theme: Our mission is to enter into the life of others
Reflection:
- We are in the walk with the assurance of the beatitude and happiness
- The beatitudes as the Hymn that opens all the discourse that Jesus makes on the mountain
- It is the summery of all that Jesus says and does
- Today’s gospel is an introduction to all the discourse.
First Reading:
- Light as a aurora (wakening of the day)
- This aurora:
o opens way to the another day;
o it enkindles the hope;
o it discloses another possibility; and finally
o it is a gift of God because many do not see the following day.
Psalm: the just man shines like a light; the radiance of his light peeps into the darkness of injustice.
Gospel:
- Salt generates the taste and in the world of Greeks the salt is the sign of wisdom.
- Salt results in giving out itself for the taste, for preservation and for the purification.
- Light spells out its splendor
- Light makes the one to see the thing clear, better and truly.
- Both salt and light have one nature in common: the sacrificing nature; they lose themselves to enter into others and make them tasty and shinning.

We, in the walk of faith, have the mission of not hiding ourselves (as the salt thrown in the street, or, as the light put under the bed), but we have the mission of entering into the life of others and creating in them the fruits of perfume of faith and splendor of living.