FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - YEAR B

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – B
(Is 63:16b-17, 19b, 64:2-7; Ps 79:2-3,15-16,18-19; 1Cor 1:3-9; Mk 13:33-37)

Theme: Let us promise the Lord that we do not go away from his house

Reflection:

- Time of Advent: we are from today entering into the season of Advent, the first season of the Liturgical Year B. It is a period of reflection and preparation:
- First of all, it is a time for retrospection: we reflect over the first coming of Jesus which was already taken place in the ‘time’ and in ‘history’ and in the ‘story’ of mankind; we reflect also the coming of the Lord in his glory, his second coming, we will certainly take place at the ‘end’ of time, history and story of humanity;
- Secondly, it is a time for preparation: we prepare ourselves to be worthy of celebrating the great feast of His Coming into the world, thus the Christmas, and we make ourselves ready to receive him into our story, our time and our life; we already keep ourselves at the disposition of the Lord as a good and faithful servant ‘doing’ our daily work, be it material for our worldly life or/and be it spiritual for our heavenly life, so that when the Lord comes we have the possibility of meeting him;
- We keep on reflecting and preparing because we do not know when He will come and how far we will be when he calls us; therefore, this has to be ‘a daily and continuous process’ so that we are on the right and sure path of ‘meeting the bridegroom’.
- Season of Advent into two methods of preparation: the Church makes us to see the two types of preparation so that we are ever ready not to miss the time of grace and period of love:
o First part of an Advent, that is, till 16th December, reflect the eschatological coming of the Lord, that is, His advent in glory; even the readings of the liturgy lead us in this method of mediation; therefore, it reminds us of what will happen when He comes: everything will be put in its proper place; and what will take place once He comes: everyone will receive their reward in the face of the just judgment;
o Then follow the intense days of an Advent, from 17th December, which help us to see and make ourselves part of the mystery of Incarnation of Jesus Christ; we reflect over the mystery that was revealed and the love that was manifested by God by allowing himself to be in the human form; and the love that transforms us into renewed creatures and dignified children of God – the fruit of Jesus’ birth.
- “we will be always in the house of the Lord” should be our promise that we have to make to the Lord in this period of Advent; we can rightly be there not because we have merited it by our force but it has been ‘planned and prepared’ by God himself in Christ and in Spirit; the house we are in is His House because He Has Pitched His Tent Amidst Us.


First Reading:

- The silence of the Lord is a particular attitude in which he calls to himself the people of Israel:
o This is the penitential supplication of the third Isaiah which remembers the succession of God’s interventions in the story of the salvation which are broken by the sin of the Israel; This is a passage derived from the prayer, more pathetic and intense which is the part of the liturgical testimony of the first Hebrews who have re-entered in Palestine after the edict of Cyrus (538 B.C); It is a narration which recalls a movement of ‘interaction’ between God and his people in which God himself takes the first step and man responds to it with the conversion and with the walk towards him with the renewed faith and confidence in Him because He is their Father (v.63:17). Their decision to follow him is expressed in their promise to with him: “we will not go away anymore from your path” (63:17); “we shall practice the justice and we remember your ways” (64:4); “we have sinned against you.. and we have become impure” (64:4-5) but we have you with and for us as our Father so we will come back to you because it is you who have ‘made us and given us a form’ (64:7) and we will become a new creature.
- It is not a simple prayer but it contains the promise on the part of the chosen people to remain always with their Lord:
o ‘You are our Father’: the whole passage is covered with this phrase ‘you are our Father’ and we can observe the first verse with which the passage starts: “You, Lord, are our Father” (63:16) and it concludes with the same notion: “Lord, you are our father” (64:7). The first one is that of ‘father-redeemer’ and last one is of ‘father-creator’.
o The experience of the people of Israel about their God is first of God who saves them: being God of their ancestors he saves every time when they gone away from his ways and thus entering into the bitter experience of the slavery; they knew well, as they meditate, the attitude of their God: ‘you are a God who have done everything – the choosing, the property and the victory – for all those who have trusted in you’ (64:3), and ‘you go to meet those who practice justice with joy and who remember your ways’ (64;4). Therefore, they knew that their God is not a God of words alone but a God who works for them and for their salvation;
o They have gone away from him time and again either God has called them back from their wrong ways through the word of the prophets or He remained silent without giving them any answer to their prayers. And here is the good example for this: “you are angry because we have sinned against you from long time and we have become rebels” (64:4b); they acknowledge their failure and they invoke his name in spite of their unworthiness just because they have still confidence in him; that is the reason why they say – “BUT” (64:7);
o Their trust is in the attitude of a father, thus: ‘whatever happens and how ever we have gone away because of our weakness you are still our father’; but ‘you are a father and father forgives and embraces his children very easily and with immense love though children often do not listen to him’; after all ‘we are the work of your hands and without your creation we are nothing and we are nowhere, just remember us out of your loving action’; the list can go on; all these show that Father stands against and over the faults of his children; and the people of Israel were having this kind of trust in their God.
- Our task in this season of advent:
o Inspired by the first reading we shall also write ‘OUR STORY’ in which we had the moment of God’s presence with us and the moments in which we have lost his sight because of sins of ‘pride’ and ‘egoism’;
o We shall promise to use these few days of advent, a gracious time, to reflect on our life and to see whether we are still ‘connected to God’ or ‘we have gone out of reach of the signal of God’s presence’.

Second Reading:

- We are enriched by the gifts of God:
o St. Paul reminds us of our strength. We are not any more ordinary people but people filled by the blessing of God. This is the way he starts his letter and he makes us to keep in mind that ‘there is a grace which is given to us and for which we have to continuously give thanks to God’.
o This grace is multiplied and we are now ‘rich’ and ‘full’ of God’s wonderful and most valuable gifts and they are, in the same words of Paul, the gifts of the Word and the gifts of the Knowledge.
o The gift of the word is Jesus himself who is the Word of the Father and the gift of the knowledge is Spirit himself who is the wisdom of the Father; in this way we are ‘filled’ with Jesus and with the Spirit;
o On one side, thanking the Lord for the work of his hands, that is, the pouring of the Word and the Spirit, on the other side let us remind ourselves that being enriched and entrusted with these gift we are to manifest them in our words (the attitude of Jesus) and in our actions (the power of the Spirit).
- We are, thus, to be firm in our Christian life to the final day of our life:
o The word and spirit that are in us are always at work of renewal; they continuously inspire us and lead us to the life of communion with the Lord;
o Our goal is to be united with the Son of God at the end of the time and we have to work for it from now until we reach it;
o In this period of ‘waiting’ (advent) we are to strike and live the balance between ‘the gifts given to us’ and ‘making them fruitful’ in our life so that we are eligible and worthy to participate in the manifestation of the Lord.

Gospel:

- Be Watchful: the biblical interpretation of the passage
o This is the last discourse of Jesus before confronting his passion and therefore, it has a great significance on the level of ‘his passing’ from this world to His Father’s side. In this moment of passion and suffering he asks his disciples to be watchful, that is, observing all that happens and happening and will happen in the days to come as the consequence of ‘his departure’ (like a man in the parable who departs).
o The whole of 13th chapter of Mark is full of these admonitions: to be awake, to be watchful, to be at guard, to be alert and it goes on: even the whole chapter starts with this word ‘guard well’ (13:5) and ends with the similar word ‘keep watching’ (13:37); this shows how this word becomes a key word for reading and understanding the whole of ‘passion narratives’ of Jesus in the following chapters; in this way, this 13th chapter and particularly ‘this last episode’ of the chapter becomes ‘an introduction’ to mystery of passion that Jesus affronts in few days;
o At this outset of the reading let us analyze its significance in the exegetical level:
 Keep awake (v.33): Jesus continues the his discourse which he has started in the beginning of this chapter (13:5) and this continues still ahead (13:34, 35, 37); again, this will be again referred with little more force in his passion in Gethsemane (14:34, 37, 38) and it become the final appeal of Jesus to his disciples: that they should not lose themselves in the false hopes and vain curiosities about the end of times. They should not also sleep (13:36 and also in the scene of Gethsemane 14:37, 40). Therefore, they have the task of living their human life in awaiting ‘unknown coming’ of God.
 Like a man who goes on a journey (v.34): this form is first found in Mark since it is his the first gospel and it has become platform for other evangelists Mathew and Luke and they have used this form in many occasions (Math 25:14; Luke 19:12; Luka 12:35-40; Math 24:45-51; Luke 12:42-46); Mark has synthesized all the similar parables on the vigilance in this simple and small parable. Doorkeeper: all the servants has received the power and command of work; but one person stands distinct, that is, doorkeeper; he is given the exclusive mission of keeping awake (in Luke all the servants have to awake – 12:36-38). It is difficult to know who this personage is, who is given in-charge of keeping awake in the name of the whole community – could it be a priest! Bishop! and, in the larger sense Pope!
 You do not know (v.35): it is not only about time and day of the coming of the Lord but more than that ‘it is the universal ignorance of the design of God (13:32); the four hours of the night indicates the context of Mark and the cultural context of Roman exercise.
 Suddenly (v.36): the confrontation of the theme of the coming of the Lord with that of the thief (Math 24:42-43; 1The 5:2; 2Pt 3:10f). in fact, God does not want to come suddenly and without telling; He, time and again, lets his people know about the future life of the one who believes in him; therefore, the meaning of ‘sudden coming’ applies not to God but to us who ‘fail to attend’ either because we have no time or because we are busy in our own world.
 To all – keep awake (v.37): Jesus enlarges his admonition not only to his disciples or to a small group of listeners but to all and therefore, it becomes an universal appeal of Jesus: to keep awake: this is again the last word of the whole context – that of the chapter in general and of the parable in particular – Jesus asks them to be vigilant in their rapport to the events that are going to take place immediately from his passion to their own Christina witness through the various sufferings and persecutions.
- Keep attending well: the meaning of the passage for us today
o The moment: Jesus talks about a particular moment which will certainly come and this moment for the context of gospel is the moment of his departure from the world through the passion and death; and in the larger sense, this moment is the moment of his return to reap the fruits of the seeds that he has sown before leaving the world; it could be also a moment of interaction and meeting between him and his disciple and this could be for today: Jesus and you. Every time we come to listen to him and renew our life by continuous gestures of faith and love IS the moment in which we indeed meet Jesus: ‘this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it’ and ‘we meet him while he is near and we reach him while he is still with us’ and are we experiencing and enjoying the moment: the presence of Jesus with us and our presentation before him!
o He has given his house to the servants: Jesus while departing from the world has entrusted ‘his life and mission’ – his house – ‘to his disciples’ – to his followers, his servants - by giving them ‘the power’ and giving each one his ‘duty’ and to the watch keeper he has given the command of ‘being awake’: the whole phrase and process show ‘the trust’ on the part of God in his people and ‘the acceptance’ of work on the part of his people; on one side, God’s trust in man and on the other, man’s acceptance of God and his work. In the sphere of the church this has a great meaning: Jesus giving his disciples his power to safeguard, protect and live and proclaim ‘his mission of love’ to all till he returns and the power to exercise its authority or ownership over the goods that Jesus himself has entrusted to them and specially, the task of vigilance to the Pope, the watch keeper of the house of Jesus.
o Four hours of the night: Mark indicates that during the night there are four particular moments: the evening, the midnight, the cockcrow and the dawn; these are the hours in which the ‘guards’ change their shifts of watching; the rabbinic tradition connects there four hours to the ‘work of the Lord’ and to his precious interventions in the history: the creation of the world, the calling of Abraham, the liberation of Israel, and the coming of the Messiah. And we can just reflect each of these great events and see how God has trusted man and man in return trying to keep up his faithfulness to His designs.

Conclusion:

- Advent is a time to Recollect: we can always reflect and get to our mind all that God has done in our lives and in the particular way, as the readings inspire us, we are given the task of safeguarding the gift he has given to us: his gifts are – the life and mission of Christ and the good and charitable operations of the Spirit and apart from this Christian vocation, we are also entrusted with so many personal talents and capabilities; advent could be the time for us to recollect all that we have and we are and ask ourselves ‘how can we safeguard the gifts of God that are in our hands, the world and every other person we meet?’ and we need not worry and break our head to know how. The answer is simple and given of Jesus himself: by ‘keeping attention and keeping awake’:
- Advent is, therefore, a time to ‘attending and to be awake’:
o attending means ‘to look well’ and ‘to observe deeply’; first, we have to attend to ourselves to first by looking what we are called to be and how we are now; what we are asked to do and what we are doing now; second, we have to attend to the needs of others by observing and keeping eye on their words, actions, attitudes and their necessities; third, we have to attend to God’s mission by keeping in mind the life of faith, hope and charity;
o keeping awake means ‘to look beyond’ and ‘to see over’; this means we have to already analyze the fruit of an action, the result of a deed well ahead of starting it; what would happen if I do this way; what could be the result of this attitude; what could be the reaction for the words I am going to use; all these questions help us to see ‘beyond’ and ‘over’ our simple thinking and our normal estimation and calculation; in this way and with the hope of reaping good results we have to keep guard and awake.
- Four alternative solutions for the four moments of the night: we have to keep awake so that we do not panic when the actual time of meeting Jesus, our Master, comes and the evangelist indicates the four hours of the night we are possible moments of weakness and fall into sin and therefore we have to be attentive and keep watching well our behavior and attitude and for this we can learn the four attitudes: at the evening – to keep resistance of not committing anything wrong; at midnight – to enter into oneself, to look deeply into oneself, to enter into the ‘interior’ life of oneself; at cockcrow – to keep prayer because it is the time when even Jesus went to pray personally to the Father, and finally, at dawn – to keep hope because each new day opens for us a bundle of new possibilities;
- Therefore, we are called to fructify the gifts we are given in this time of advent and so that we could be always in his house which is entrusted to us and therefore, let us promise to the Lord at the beginning of the season of Advent that we will not go away any more from his house.

THIRTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A: CHRIST THE KING

THIRTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A: CHRIST THE KING FEAST
(Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17; Ps 22:1-6; 1Cor 15:20-26, 28; Math 25:31-46)

Theme: Let us place ourselves under the kingship of Jesus Christ and thus become part of God’s kingdom

Reflection:

- Today, we celebrate the feast of Christ the King, in fact, it is a Solemnity. Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe, thus believes and proclaims the Church, and everything on the earth, under the earth and in the skies is placed under His rule and reign. Therefore, we are called today to this Eucharistic celebration, not merely to believe Jesus to be a king but to live the attitudes and requirements of His Reign.
- The Church offers this feast at the end of the Liturgical Year, that is, on its celebration of the Last Sunday of the Ordinary Time and it is for two reasons:
o First: The whole of the liturgical year is a ‘walk in the footsteps of Jesus’. We listen to him, we wonder at his great deeds, we rejoice in his presence with us – in the word and in the sacrament – and finally, we reflect the whole life of Jesus on earth from his nativity to his death and resurrection. Thus the Church offers us the complete and perfect picture of Jesus – his life and ministry – and finally acknowledging God’s design of love for the humanity in His Eternal Son Jesus.
o Second: At the completion of our one year reflection on the life of Jesus, the church proposes that, we have to make Him our Lord and King. By celebrating this feast, we are called to ‘discover’ our true faith in Him, above all, to ‘accept’ Him to be our Head and Master and thus Our King and thus ‘placing whole of our life’ under His reign.
- We are reflecting the last pages of the Gospel of Mathew and after the two important and significant parables – that of the ten virgins and of the talents – we move to enter into the final stages of Jesus before His journey towards the cross and glory – passion, death and resurrection. Therefore, after meditating that we should be always ‘awake’ to meet the Bridegroom and be always at work to ‘fructify’ the kingdom and finally we have to be ready to the final judgment which would be our last appearance before Jesus Christ, the King and the Judge, before we receive our just wages for our life on earth.
- Thus, today we have to reflect on the kingship of Christ and the actual development of the notion of His kingship so that we place under his rule totally and wholeheartedly.

First Reading:

- The Lord is a Shepherd and King:
o Ezekiel, the prophet of the promise of the new spirit and new life (Chap 36), demonstrates and pictures God as being the shepherd and thus a king - a classical image of the times - because in those days, the rulers were also called to be the shepherds of the nations;
o Today’s reading is very much comprehensible because of its two combinations:
 One is that of negative and frightening: the human, political and religious pastors who are very often self-interested and egoists, who are mercenaries and guardians of their own rights and properties than being the defenders of their flocks and we see this image in the first part of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel (vv.1-10) that speaks of the false shepherds of Israel.
 Second is that of positive and illuminating: the image of the good pastor that is also affirmed by Jesus Himself in the 10th chapter of John: Good Pastor who leads his flock to the green lands and if needed gives his life for them; and again the figure of ‘great pastor of the sheep and guardian of the souls’ (Heb 13:20; 1Pt 2:25); in a word, a pastor who is passionate and loving in his relations to the flock. This is seen in the second part of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel (vv.31) that speaks of the True Shepherd of Israel and we find the beauty of the promises of the Shepherd to this people.
- Shepherd of an action, not of a mere words:
o Event the Psalm sings the Lord as being a shepherd and we have everything we need in his presence and under his guidance – “the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want” (Ps 23:1).
o In the first reading too we can observe with great care the ‘deeds’ and ‘actions’ of the Shepherd:
 To seek out the sheep (v.11): the first task of the shepherd is to ‘search’ for the sheep and to find it; Jesus says that ‘I have come to seek and save the lost’ (Lk 19).
 To rescue the sheep (v.12): the shepherd safeguards his sheep from any undesirable situation; Jesus says that ‘I will gather my sheep’ (Jn 10).
 To gather the sheep under into one sheepfold (v.13): the shepherd calls together and unites all the dispersed sheep; Jesus tells “When I am lifted up I will gather all people to myself” (Jn 3).
 To feed them (v.14): providing the good pastures is the responsibility of the shepherd; Jesus says that “I am living bread from heaven…….. if anyone eats my body and drinks my blood will have eternal life” (Jn 6).
 To make them repose (v.15): the good shepherd gives them the necessary rest and makes them be at peace and tranquility keeping aside all the worries; and Jesus tells, “come to me all that are labored and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11).
 Saves what was lost, injured, weak (v.16): the good shepherd is always with the sheep and he finds, heals and strengthens them with his presence and power; and Jesus says “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10).
o The true shepherd do not spend the time in long discussions and discourses but shows mercy and does good by his immediate actions; Jesus too, after filling the hearts of the people with his good news of the kingdom, feeds them with the good and abundant pastures (the finest wine in the wedding of Cana and overabundant food at the miracle of feeding the five thousand). They are the great examples for the actions of the shepherd who cares not only the spiritual aspect of his sheep but also other aspects.


Second Reading:

- In Christ everyone receives their proper reward: the life or the condemnation
o St. Paul demonstrates the two challenges of the humanity in the history of the world:
 One is of the descendents of the First Adam, the sinner, through whom the ‘death and solitude’ have entered into the world and thus be lost in the darkness and be shattered into different places;
 Second is of the followers of the New Adam, Jesus Christ, the savior, through whom, ‘the life and the glory’ are available for those who believe him and live according to his ways and be united to him as one Body;
o Both of these are ‘brought back’ which travel towards their perfect unity with God:
 Starting point and the first one is always Christ who has died and risen to the new life and having entered into the eternal life he become the ‘first born’ of all and thus enters into the Glory of God;
 Then all those who have ‘with the true faith and genuine works’ accepted and witnessed him in their life – the true Christians (who are of Christ: v.23) - into their Eternal Bliss;
 Finally and at the last, all the rest, that is, ‘principalities, authorities, powers, enemies and the death, (v.24) – whole of creation and all the beings - who remain in their struggle and journey towards their great and definitive day of judgment, day of the final end;
 All have to receive their proper post – their deserved place – at the end of their existence in the world; it is Jesus Christ himself who will put them in their proper places: ‘each in his own order’ (v.23).
 Once everything is put in its proper place, all these will be brought under one rule, that is, the ‘subjection’ to him (v.27-28).
- Kingship of Christ is to make “God to be all in all”:
o Christ is a King because he is victorious over all the powers of the world and he has put everything under him;
o Christ is a king because He has put himself, as a Son sent to fulfill his mission, under the subjection of God;
o The kingship of Christ, thus, is not to rule everything by himself but to place everything in the one Kingdom of God for which God alone is the King and Lord.
o The kingship of Christ, thus, is not the exercise of power but of ‘reuniting’ everything in God so that whole creation will have its original being: “God being all in all” (v. 28).

Gospel:

- Context of Judgment on the basis of looking God in the face of the needy:
o The whole wonderful scenario of the Gospel narrative is distributed on the two levels which are both parallel and antithetical:
o One is the negative and dark side of the scene – the left side of the Judge – who are to be given the just wages of their dark or neglect life: the goats.
o Other is the positive and luminous side of the scene – the right side of the Judge – who are to be given the part of the promise for their vigilant and operative life: the sheep.
o In both of them God wanted to give a sense to the story of the creation and man and to their relationship between themselves and between them and their creator – the sense on which the judgment is based: the sense of love.
o To make this sense come true, God has planned and sent his Son into the world so that He could establish the Kingdom of joy, peace and justice, the three that are integrated into one word, love and accordingly Jesus has established it: the Reign of Love.
o The intention of God is that following His kingdom and His Son the whole humanity will participate in it with the same mission of sowing the seeds of love with their just attitude and right conduct and authentic action and thus they are to fulfill the salvific project of God: children of God, in other words – ‘God be all in all’ of Paul in the second reading.
o Finally, in this process it moves towards its perfect and definitive design of God of receiving the crown of glory and participating in the Eternal life (v.46).
- God does not demand from us a great life but simple gestures of help: the extension of the heart towards all without reserve:
o This gospel passage is, in spite of its usage of many images, not a parable but is a solemn description the judgment of the end of times; we can see this difference between the two passages of 25th chapter first one with the verse 1 and the second with the verse 14 and the beginning of today’s passage v.31;
o The teaching is not new; it is same old and traditional attitude of the chosen people of Israel. From the beginning of antic laws (Ex 22:20-23:9) till the book of Job (chapters 29-31) the teaching is same: the just man is at the service of the poor and weak who feeds the hungry and accommodates the stranger.
o Though all that Jesus says of the needy seems to be old teaching it is given new understanding and new conclusion – in fact He has come not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them (Mt 5:17) giving them their perfect meaning: the central part of the passage is v. 40: “if you have done to one of these little children of mine you have done it to me.” This is then new teaching; before this nobody imagined that ‘serving the needy is serving the Lord’.
o In Jesus both ‘God and man’ become one: He asks the just ones: “come, you blessed by my Father” and thus reminding them the alliance that God made with them and finally saying “you have done it to me”: in this way he combines both the love of God and love of Neighbor; He becomes the central point through whom one can reach God and neighbor since being God he made himself our neighbor.
o The Son of man v.31: under the image of pastor (25:32) he is also being presented as the king (25:34, 40) and he becomes the Son of man (therefore, God-man, God and man) who judges the nations; He is not a judge only for few people or few groups but he presents himself as the judge of all the people (v.32) and so, a universal judge; the king is presented also as a son (v.34) because his power is not of his own but of the Father who gives him everything (John 13:1-3);
o The judgment seems to be very severe: to the one he says: “Come, blessed by my Father” and to the other, “Go away far away from, you who are cursed”. To the one he says, “You receive in hereditary the kingdom that was prepared for you from the beginning of the world” and to the other, “go into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his followers.”
o The little ones, we can think very easily, are those who are poor, the misfortunate, the neglected ones and therefore, the list goes on; thus, the sense of the extending the hand to reach them and to help them is the charitable attitude that every Christian should practice with the truth always in mind that Jesus has made himself a poor – hungry – stranger – wounded.
- Where are we now in this great scenario: the meaning of the passage for us today:
o Jesus is who is God made himself man, thus, he who was rich made himself poor; in this way he remains in each one us and he abides in every one and in everything:
o In this way, helping the other is helping Jesus himself who is in the other: it is human charity that is, charity towards humans – love of neighbors;
o Can we stop here and say that we have done everything? Can we not go further towards the cosmos/nature or the creation in its totality? Thus, helping the nature by saving it from its human-caused calamities is also helping Jesus because he resides also in the nature/cosmos which is groaning to its perfection: it is nature charity that is, charity towards nature – love of the nature.
o Finally, each one is endowed with the dignity and freedom because of his status of being created in the same image and likeness of God and this affirm us that we are the ‘temple of God’ who carry the imprint and presence of God and thus, we are called today to help ourselves too with true image and authentic personality: it is the personal charity that is, charity towards oneself – love of the self;
o One more final analysis: we are on the both sides: the ones who have to help because we are rich in the grace of God as Christians and on the side of the poor because we are also always in the need of something and someone; do we realize this aspect? Once we realize that we are also needy and we need someone to lift us up, we can easily and vigorously help other needy.

Conclusion:

- Radical Question and Quest into research: Did Jesus ever proclaim himself a king?
o If we gaze into the gospels it is clear that Jesus has never proclaimed himself a king and he never wanted to claim to be a king.
o Almost all the gospels speak of the kingship of Jesus only in the presence of Pilot and before his judgment: the conversation is very simple and casual without any intensive approach: Pilot asks Jesus: ‘Are you a king?’ and Jesus does not confirm but only affirms: ‘you tell it’ (Math 27:11), the same appears in Mark 15:2, and Luke 23:3; the discourse is not continued on the kingship, not even the scribes and the Jewish authority; they just bypass it as though it is not the exact thing what they wanted to talk. In John’s gospel the discourse goes little further (Jn 18:28-38) and here the above question arises only at the end of the discourse after which Jesus immediately switch on to reveal the purpose of his coming into the world – to testify the truth and so, Jesus is not interested in being ‘raised to the glory of the king’.
o On one side, Jesus never wanted or not so much interested in proclaiming himself a king because he has come to be with the poor and therefore, to identify himself as – humble and obedient servant – sent by God to proclaim and fulfill the kingdom of God; on the other side, the revelation of his kingship has never been stopped. From the moment of his annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:30ff), with the promise that the one who is to be born will be a king, to the moment of his death on the cross with the inscription on the cross – Jesus king of Jews. It is revealed by first Angel Gabriel, by the Magi, even by simple people when they wanted to make him king after the miracle of multiplication of bread, and on the cross;
o From the humility that Jesus had in his confrontations with the Father and from God who has revealed His regality/kingship to the people through different ways and modes – God always speaks in the various means – we can know that it is finally the ‘simple and perfect event’ of ultimate obedience to the will of God that made him ‘the king over all’ (Phil 2:6-11) and even in the second reading we have seen that God has put everything under His subjection so that everything will be brought back it its original place: being in God – that is, God be all in all.
o But the church acknowledges and proclaims Jesus the King because of His ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of mankind as a Good Shepherd – the shepherd who gives his life for his flock; it proclaims him to be the ‘king of the universe’: thus, He becomes Shepherd-King (the fulfillment of the first reading – as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Concept of king-pastor, he becomes a shepherd who takes care of the abandoned).
o Universe – both creation and the humanity – is affected very badly and is in the clutches of sin and death and is, therefore, in need of a savior who will have an ultimate victory over these two powers - sin and death - and places the universe in its right post. Jesus is a king because he wins and he is a king of universe because he wins over the powers that hold in their power the whole creation and thus becomes the ‘King of the Universe’ (the fulfillment of the second reading Jesus - who wins the sin through his innocent sacrifice and the death through his resurrection to new life – gives back the kingdom of peace and justice to God).
o His victory is not with the army of the world as he professes in the court of the Pilot but belongs to the other world and therefore, to the world of the Father and His Angels; therefore, his fight and his war is not with the horse and sword, which is the normal understanding of a king, but with the Spirit and Love, the new and radical and a spiritual understanding of kingship. This is the criteria through which he will also, one day, call everything into judgment: with the manifestation of love in the proper life; this way, thus, he becomes the ‘King-Judge’ (the fulfillment of the Gospel passage of the scenario of the final appearance).
- The Path made Simple and Accessible:
o We need not struggle too much in order to enter the kingdom of God and to listen to the words of Jesus: ‘come, you blessed by my Father into the heavenly kingdom’: because we know very well the way and how to reach it: the way is to follow Jesus and to reach is to listen to his voice: “my sheep listen my voice”.
o The great deeds are not demanded from us; God asks from us our daily little things:
 A slice of bread to the hungry
 A glass of water to the thirst
 A piece of cloth to the naked
 A kind word to the disappointed/stranger
 A small visit to the sick
 And finally, in a word, a merciful glance to the needy.
o These ‘daily gestures’ are the fulfillment of the totality of the beatitudes that Jesus proposed already at the beginning of his mission of ‘realization of the kingdom of God.’
o We are called to do this and once we do these little things to the little ones around us, we are sure of standing at the right side of the judgment seat – through which we receive crown of glory and eternal happiness.
o Therefore, Let us place ourselves under the kingship of Jesus Christ and thus become part of God’s kingdom so that we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us.

THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

THIRTY THIRD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A
( Prov 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31; 1Thess 5:1-6; Math 25:14-30)

Theme: Let us present ourselves to the Lord as Good and Faithful in the smallness of our life

Reflection:

- “Let us present ourselves to the Lord awake and ready to be with Him” was our theme for the reflections of the Last Sunday in which we have meditated - upon the ‘searching for the Wisdom of the Lord’ (first reading), the inspiration of the Psalm to ‘search for Him at the dawn because it is more valuable than anything’ (Responsorial Psalm), the reality of the truth that Jesus is dead and risen which dispels our ignorance and gives us the hope (second reading) and finally, it is ‘prudence and wisdom that keeps us awake and ready in any day or in any hour of life’ (Gospel) – and thus we have the Christian mission of meeting him and we have the possibility only when we are awake from our night of ignorance and only when we are ready with the armor of the day of hope and wisdom.
- “Let us present ourselves to the Lord as Good and Faithful servants” is our theme for today and we are going to meditate how God has entrusted to each one of us a particular and a special task and how far we are in the grade of fulfilling it with fidelity and with responsibility. Before we go deep into the refection of today’s reading we have to make note of the similar themes that we have in the last weeks of the Liturgical year.
- The word ‘present ourselves’ appears quite often these days, specially, it was there in the last Sunday and today and it will be also in the next Sunday, Sunday of the Christ the King before whom we have to present ourselves as ‘good soldiers’ who have accomplished his will and ready to participate in his Kingdom. The Church asks us to prepare ourselves well to ‘stand in front our Lord’ with the ‘mind full of His thoughts’, with the ‘hands full of His actions’ and with the ‘heart full of His life’ and then only we are found well-prepared by our Lord. Therefore, ‘presenting ourselves to the Lord’ is our frequent theme of these Sundays and why:
o This is the time for our personal presentation: we have to give account for all that we had to do and we have finally completed; nobody is responsible for our life; we live the life and we give an balance sheet of how and how far we have reached; this is the time of judgment and reward for the actions we have accomplished.
o This is the time for reaping the fruits: Just before the ending of the liturgical year we are called to ‘sum up’ all that we are entrusted and we have put into practice and to reap the fruit according to our actions which would be: standing on the right-side of the Lord for the premium of blissful life or remaining on the left-side of the Lord for the premium of condemnation and in other words, in the words of the Gospel of today, - sharing in the joy of the master or being thrown outside into the darkness of cry and biting the teeth.
o This is the time for a wise life: we have to lead an accountable and responsible living; because the life is a gift of God and we have to return it to him with the same dignity and commitment; each thought we make and each action we do produce its consequences and it can be a good fruit or it can be bad fruit depending on the ‘wisdom and prudence’ that is utilized in working for it. Once again we are called to live a ‘wise’ life: as we have seen in the first reading of last Sunday, wisdom of God is always available and it makes itself reachable to those who search for it and with the commitment and fatigue of acquiring it because it is more valuable than one’s own life as seen in the Psalm of the last week and finally it makes us: a) to know the will and design of God for us and therefore, makes us to think always of the reality of God and his kingdom and without stopping with the knowledge of Him it, then gives us the force, b) to act upon it immediately and with genuine in-put of personal capabilities and demanded requirements like that of ‘faith, hope and charity’. Only the one who is wise can understand the meaning of life and its destiny and travel towards perfecting it with the love of God and of neighbor.
o Let us enter therefore into the reflections of today’s readings with these points behind our mind and heart so that we are able to understand them better and make them to bear fruit in our life and only in this way we can be ‘good and faithful’ servants and indeed we already are as far as we are called to be so by our Lord and we insofar are mindful of this reality.

First Reading:

- The woman is the personification of the ‘wisdom’ of God:
o In the Wisdom Literature of the Bible, the wisdom or the knowledge of God is always seen in the image of a woman and it is always compared to the nature of a woman: therefore, the reality of wisdom (or the woman) is seen by its fruits, the fruits of hands and of her actions: (v.31):
 It is more valuable than the pearls (v. 10);
 Its recipient is full of confidence and he never has loss in life (v.11);
 It gives joy and a joy that knows no ending (v.12);
 It prepares its garments, the armor of safety from any type of weather (v.13);
 Its hands are always extended to the aid of the poor (v.20);
 It is the fear of the Lord therefore it has to be praised (v.30);
o As the woman is tender in her words, compassionate in her actions, and loving in her charity to others so also the wisdom has the same nature: it makes the recipient kind in his words and committed in his deeds and finally out-reaching in his charitable acts towards the needy;
o As the perfect woman in the reading who knows well her proper life (the life as donated by God in a special way) and who discerns well her proper vocation ( her duty and responsibility in the family, for the husband and for her children) and who completes well her mission of being for others ( her generous and charitable acts for the good of the others), so also the wisdom makes us understand and be perfect by manifesting a life of faith and love.
- The creation is the manifestation of the wisdom of God:
o We are part of creation and we are called also to be ‘above’ the creation in a sense that we are collaborators of the creator and we have the responsibility of ‘producing fruits and multiplying the creation’ (Gen 1:28 – “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the earth”).
o As we have the mission and vocation of ‘being fruitful and producing fruits’ we have also the way to accomplish it and the way is none other than ‘the manifestation of God’s wisdom’:
 We ourselves should become the personification of the wisdom in the sense that we really produce the fruits of wisdom as said above: on the one hand, living a worthy and dignified Christian life and on the other, giving testimony to the same life with the acts of love;
 We make our social sphere – be it the family, be it the community, be it the society, and be it even the political – fruitful; we have the responsibility of making it grow and produce the peace and harmony in the common life; only in this way, we manifest the wisdom of God in our creation of the society/humanity; the same point we will discuss in detail in the Gospel reflections.

The second Reading:

- Paul’s admonition to his people about being always attentive and active:
o V.1: regarding the time and moments: it proposes that we have to observe well the time in which we are in and the various moments that affect our Christian life and vocation; the same thing is said also by Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees that they see the weather and clouds and know what is going to happen and more than that we have to observe the social situations, political conditions, false attractions that surround us and be attentive in order not to fall into them; therefore we have to keep open our eyes and our hearts to see them and to examine their authenticity;
o V. 2: the day of the Lord: we do not know its time and its moment; what we know certainly is that it will come and we will certainly meet it and the important aspect is in what condition we are going to interact with it. More than that, the day of the Lord is today itself for thus sings the Psalmist: ‘this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it’. Thus waiting for the day of the Lord which comes in the hour we do not know is one thing; and living everyday as the ‘day of the Lord’ giving it its importance and its glory with our committed life and thus be prepared for it every moment of our life is another thing; For the time of the Apostle Paul, the first one was apt because they were negligent and lazy thinking that the Lord will not come so soon and that they could enjoy and pass the life in the indifference; but for our times, that is, for us today, the second one is important because we are called to ‘make every day fruitful with the works of the Lord’ and thus give him the glory;
o Vv.4-6: we are the children of the day and of the light: we are no more the children of the night or darkness because the powers of evil and deeds of darkness were vanished from our life with the coming of the Holy Spirit in the Sacraments, specially of Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation; from that day, the day of our rebirth in Christ and in Church we are made the children of the Light (Jesus is the light of the world) and the children of the Day (the Day of all days is the Resurrection of Jesus and therefore we are people of new life). For this we are called to ‘do away with the life of egoism and pride’ and ‘enter into the life of love of God and of neighbors’. This is what is called ‘living’ the day of the Lord.

Gospel:

- Biblical Context of the Parable of the Talents:
o This parable is proper to Mathew and it is, like its precedent parable of the ten virgins, has a rich and strong sense: fructifying the proper talents and multiplying the proper and personal capacities. Though we may find this universal wisdom anywhere, here in the Gospel it is treated in a different way;
o Even here we have two stages of the origin of the parable:
 When Jesus, before initiating his passion, has narrated this story to his disciples, he has done it to announce them of his departure from this world and he gives them all that he has, all the talents he has entrusted to them, they are: his mission, his life and continuation of his work of the kingdom of God; with this he keeps in clear evidence the great responsibility of the disciples: they are the continuators of the opera (work) of Jesus, and each one with his proper capacity.
 In the Gospel of Mathew this parable is presented in the context of certain situation in which his community was in the troubles and the problems of negligence of common responsibility and laziness in giving testimony to the Gospel of Christ, just like a third servant of the Gospel who has buried and hidden his talent and thus remained indifferent to his task. Therefore, presenting to this particular contextual community, Mathew indicates how the master treats the servant who is ‘wicked and lazy’ with the serious condemnation and by this Mathew encourages his community to be attentive and to actively participate in the Christian vocation and specially making double the fruits of the work entrusted to them.
o The attitude of the third servant: this servant has safely hidden his talent; and so when we think in the humanly way this seems to be a prudent act; but the grave mistake is ‘NOT KNOWING’ (failure to discern the use of the talent and work with it) what to do with the gifts entrusted; he has not treated well the ‘goods of the kingdom of God’. The Good News cannot be buried; the Gospel cannot be hidden; the Word cannot be blocked; because it is a ‘power of salvation’ and therefore it has to be diffused, otherwise it becomes barren without bearing any fruit. The disciples and the Church has to continue multiplying and fructifying the ‘goods’ of the God’s kingdom with the untiring work and risk. This is the central message proclaimed by this parable.
o Understanding few important words:
 Talents (v. 15): the original meaning of the talent is not a personal capacity as we think but in the biblical sense it is ‘a measure of weight’: 34 kilos of either gold or silver or any kind of precious metal. Therefore, it is a ‘sum of valuable good’ that weighs 34 kilos: in a word, it is a ‘considerable sum’. Later on, the parable is read and reflected in the significance of ‘personal capacities’ with which one is entrusted. Therefore, there is a need to make bear fruit the proper goods and thus develop them for the common well being.
 Traded with them (v.16): the master has not said anything about what to do with the gifts given; he has just given them and went away; there is no command of doing something; there is neither some indication that they should not do anything; he has left to the one who has received to do whatever he wants; only when its value is considered the first two servants went and traded with them and have doubled them with their prudent and wise commitment even at the cost of risking of losing everything;
From the good sense of the parable we can understand that the third servant has done well by preserving it safely and not to take risk and lose it so that he would be empty-handed when the moment of accounts come; but thing is: this is not the actual problem; the image used totally different: not the economic valuation but ‘quality of the work/risk that has to be put in developing it’.
 Little and More (v.21): the recompense cannot be measured according to the talents entrusted which are already considerably valuable; the teaching is near to that of Math 13:23 – “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” – and the teaching is: the kingdom of god is infinitely above the talents entrusted in view of their perfect realization.
 I know (v.24): main problem of the third servant lies here; he has already misconceptions of the master; if he would have returned the talent as it is, master’s punishment would have been far more little and his attitude towards him would have been completely different; but the servant expresses all his ‘false understanding’ of the master; the only talent being taken away from him and being thrown into the darkness is the consequence ‘not of not working with the talent’ alone and only, but more than that, his indifferent behavior;
In the community of Mathew this kind of behavior was taking dominance and especially in the moment of persecutions and during the long awaiting for the Lord some were acting like the third servant; they have gone to the extent of doubting the message of Jesus and hiding and blocking it, instead of extending it far and more.

- Spiritual interpretation: ‘Embracing the work of the kingdom of God’
o Though at the beginning this parable gives us an impression that it is legated to the economic and capitalistic sphere, the accent is made on the ‘working’/trading, and the multiplying/fructifying of the mission entrusted.
o This theme is specified ‘not on the accounts calculated by the master’, rather, it is based on the judgment he pronounces to the two parties: to the party of the good and faithful servants: ‘take part in the joy of your master’ and to the party of wicked and lazy servant: ‘throw him out into the darkness’.
o The important point here is not the simple task of developing the proper talents or one’s own talents: because each one of us is endowed with the special gifts and potentialities and we take pride in growing with our personal capabilities; that’s fine. BUT the more accentuated or convincing discourse is not just this and it goes beyond this: ‘the master entrusts HIS properties, his goods and his mission’; we have to keep in mind of the ‘talents of the kingdom of God’ that are entrusted to us: the Christian Faith with all the liturgy and sacraments and the Christian Way with all its thorns of sufferings, stones of temptations and finally with the Force and Power of the Holy Spirit to win over them.
o ‘Wisdom is Our Aid – Prudence is our armor’: since the master has just entrusted to us his properties and his belonging – the work of the kingdom and the grace of salvation – without giving any instructions or indications of what to do and how to go about the given task, it is the duty and responsibility of the receiver to discern and decide what has to be done. At this juncture of confusion and helplessness our recourse is ‘the wisdom’ and ‘prudence’ ( the summary of the first reading – woman at work and vocation is the personification of wisdom of God) and we have to run towards our Helper, our Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Master himself sends us to understand the truth of the salvific work, because only with and in Him we understand what to do with the talents of Jesus given to us and because ‘both wisdom and prudence’ are his gifts to the mankind.
o The first two servants have immediately understood the task and kept themselves at work of trading and multiplying because they have trusted, with the grace of the Spirit, their master to be generous and kind and as the one who entrusts to them the work to make it fructify; instead, the third one, because of his wicked understanding of the master and his personal laziness for work, neglected the aid of the Spirit and went on to do his own way and he could not find any other way than hiding it and burying it; and the result is only ‘for the manifestation of their attitude towards the master and his goods’: the joy of the master for the faithful servants and the condemnation of life for the unfaithful servants;
o ‘Treasure Has to Be Shared’: the sin of Adam (or the first parents) is not just eating the fruit of the banned tree but it is more than that: it is ‘hiding’ from the presence of the Lord which indicates also ‘burying’ the love and friendship of the Lord for and with them. God’s Goods (the Kingdom), God’s Word (Jesus Christ) and God’s Power (the Holy Spirit) cannot be buried and hidden; they are entrusted to the Christian community to live them, to work with them, to multiply them and to share them with the others by trading with them; Jesus himself tells about the kingdom as the ‘hidden treasure’ but to be found and be owned by the genuine and authentic searcher of the it (Math 13:44).
The same questions will be asked by the master: ‘Adam where are you and why are you hiding?’ and ‘Wicked and Lazy servant why did you hide my treasure?’. We have to also face the same questions if we act like Adam: ‘hiding ourselves from His presence’ or if we act like the third servant: ‘hiding all that we are entrusted, such as, the faith and the sacraments and the liturgy, in the ground making them/considering them as useless’. Are we ready to give an account for such type of behavior or for the similar attitude we manifest many times in our life?
o Answer is ours! No one takes our responsibility. No one talks for us. No one stands by us in the moment of the judgment. We have to give an answer. We have to put forward our accounts. We have to show the balance sheet to the master.
Whether we work for it and multiply it and receive the share of joy of heavens or we neglect it and be indifferent and thus receive the eternal darkness. Everything is in Us and We are the Responsible for our actions; Let us be attentive and always at work!

Conclusion:

- Each one of has a special task for the kingdom of God:
o For the Lord each one of us is very important and to each one he has entrusted a particular work to multiply and magnify the kingdom of love and peace; each one has a special place in the mind and heart of God: because
o Each one is a unique person because there was never before and is now or will be after us a person who is similar to us;
o Our importance and our value is so much that we have to be always mindful of our presence and purpose in the world: a book is not complete if even one full-stop or coma is missing in it; seashore is not complete if even one grain of sand is missing in it; so also, the world is not full and complete if you are missing in it; because it needs you and it accepts your presence as a precious one and therefore, we need to understand the design of God for us and live for it;
o He has created each one of us in his image and likeness, he has carved our form even before falling to the womb of our mother and he has written our name on His palms and so important we are for him; did we ever ask why God has done so much for me? The answer is simple: He Love You; that’s why he has formed you, called you, chosen you and finally saved you to be with him forever. Therefore, we have to work hard and with committed enthusiasm for his purpose and for his kingdom;
- Boat is not made to be on the Shore:
o The boat on the shore looks beautiful and it is safe if it is always on the shore but the purpose of the boat is not to be on the shore but to travel in the waters: so also nice that we, often, keep ourselves on the safer side without taking any risk in our Christian life: keeping ourselves away from the living of our faith; it is safer that we just go to the church and pray and remains as a good Christians;
o But, the purpose of our Christian life is different and higher than just being good Christians and we have to go further to trade with the ‘goods of the Lord’ that we have received from him – the mission and vocation of testimony – and face the challenges with risk and courage and above all ‘with the wisdom and prudence’ of the Holy Spirit.
o We have to be the boats on the waters, not the boats on the shore: we have travel always forward in our Christian life sharing (trading) the gifts entrusted to us (the precious treasure of the kingdom values) with all and thus multiplying them and fructifying them (leading all to the knowledge and love of God);
o Because the time is coming for us to present ourselves to the Lord: as good and faithful servants so that we have the share in the joy of our Master. For this on one side, we have to be awake and ready and on the other side, we have to be always at work of the our faith – in a word – let us prepare ourselves to be in front of the Lord as ‘good and faithful servant’ in the smallness of our life.

THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A

THIRTY SECOND SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A
(Wisdom 6:12-16; Psalm 62; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Math 25:1—13)

Theme: We shall present ourselves awake and ready to be With Him

Reflection:

- With the readings of today, the Church, asks us to keep ourselves ‘awake’ and ‘ready’ always in order to meet the Bridegroom who comes in the day and in the time that we do not know and because the meeting of the Lord and being with Him is the destiny of our Christian life and faith;
- Jesus’ intention to tell this that unlike Scribes and Pharisees who were acting/living for the vainglory we should live and act for the glory of the Lord; this was the summary of the last week’s readings: ‘we are called to be coherent and integral in our life and testimony’. Those, Scribes and Pharisees, who were given the law and who were supposed to be living it and transmitting it through their testimony have not done it; it was their task and responsibility as the people called and chosen by God; but they have not done it; instead, they were doing it for their own name and fame and specially to be seen by the people; they were masking their life with hypocrisy and this was that made Jesus angry with them and thus he has denounced them from the kingdom of God;
- Unlike them, we are called to live with the coherence and with integrity between what we say and what we do and thus between our words and our actions; we have remind ourselves often and always that it is our Christian vocation and mission to live for the Lord and not for our selfish motive and auto-glory;
- In the continuation of this Jesus asks us to be awake and to be ready in every moment of our life:
o First of all, for the reason that we are in the final pages of the Gospel in which Jesus asks us make a real choice to accept and embrace his will; we are also in the final days of the conclusion of the Liturgical Year A and therefore, by offering these pages of the Gospel the Church demands us that we should ‘prepare ourselves with the light of faith and oil of love to meet Jesus whenever he comes;
o Secondly, for the reason that we should not be floated away with the negligence of the law of Jesus, the love and we should not live for the public applause but for the crown of joy which will be given to us for the life we live with the balance and commitment;
o Thirdly and finally, for the simple reason that we are in the grade of knowing the day and the hour in which Jesus will come; the day of his coming is unknown and the hour of his return is uncertain; therefore, the Church calls us today with the inspiration and the force of the readings to ‘know’ and ‘choose’ the path of Him with the wisdom which is always at our disposal;

First Reading

- Wisdom is always accessible:
o First of all, we should know the difference between wisdom and knowledge; very often both look alike but in reality and in concreteness they are different and they signify quite a different reality:
 Knowledge: to know a thing which is not known to us earlier; it is wonderful moment and movement to get the knowledge of the new elements or aspects; it is the work of the mind which studies deeper into the reality of a thing and finally know its nature and its being;
 Wisdom: wisdom on the other hand is not just knowing; it presupposes the knowledge and at the same time goes beyond it; its process does not stop with knowing the nature and the being of a new thing; since it goes beyond the knowledge it is not the work of the mind alone; it is the work of the heart/the spirit which decides to follow thoroughly and ultimately what is found;
 From the above definitions it is clear that: the knowledge is the work of the mind and the wisdom is the work of the heart; the mind thinks but the heart does; the mind starts but the heart completes; the mind knows and the heart follows;
o This wisdom is always at our disposition: it is we who have to see it and take it to ourselves; the first reading makes it clear to us:
 The wisdom is available and it makes itself at the reach: but only to the one who knows it as radiant and flawless and more than that who is in the journey of research: vv. 12-13:
• To the one who loves it;
• To the one who searches for it;
• And to the one who desire it;
 It has to be the important and prior reality that we should search for: vv. 14-15:
• We should wake up early in the morning only with the thought and will of searching for the wisdom; we may have hundred and one things to do in the day but the first thing, as the Christian faith demands, to do is to search for it: wisdom in none other than the Will of God;
• It is there always at the door of our life: we need only to open the door and see it sitting at the door-step making itself closer to us; the one who opens the door of faith finds it and asks it to enter in; in other words: ‘to open the door and making it to enter in’ means that the wisdom always provides us a possibility of life and the possibility of faith; we only need to invite it inside and thus we are invited to make use of the given opportunity and the possibility so that we are enlightened to be with it and it is with us: wisdom is none other than the presence of Jesus who said: ‘I abide in him and he abides in Me’ (John 6:56);
 The wisdom makes us to see the presence and the action of God in every instant of our life; it makes us see his will in every place we are in and in every interior activity that we intend to do; it makes us to distinguish between the life of superficiality and indifference and the life of great values and authentic living: therefore, wisdom is none other than the power of the Holy Spirit who makes us know the reality and one who ‘leads us to the Truth’ (John 16:13);
 Therefore, wisdom is the ‘presence and the work’ of the Trinity: the will of the Father, the acceptance of the Son and the power of the Spirit. Once we search for it and find it and finally, invite it into our life then, we become children of God the Trinity;

The Responsorial Psalm: my soul is thirsty of the Lord

- Christian Soul thirsts for the Lord:
o the Psalmist is very eager and enthusiastic to experience the presence of the Lord in him and thus to have the joy and life; that’s the reason why he composes and sings this song of his soul; his soul is waiting for the Lord; his soul is thirsting for the Lord; his soul is full of hunger for the Lord;
o therefore, what he does early in the morning is quite interesting to note; what is his first thing of the day is very inspiring for all those who want to be in the Lord and for the Lord; he sings: “O God, you are my God, at the dawn I search for you”: we may note two things here: one is that of ‘accepting God as his God’ and second is that of ‘searching for him from the dawn’. Finally, this ‘acceptance and the constant search’ becomes the ‘food’ and ‘drink’ of the day for the Psalmist;
o and, every Christian soul, every one of us, has to take the example of this Psalmist and search for the Lord every day and that should be our ‘food and drink’ and that should be ‘our will and action’ and that should be ‘our life’ itself; even Jesus confirms that ‘doing the will of His Father is his food and drink’.
- God is greater and valuable than our life itself:
o Our life, be human or spiritual, values more than anything else in the world; it is more than food and drink; it is more than the daily struggles; it is more than the desires of the world; it is more than anything – be it power, possessions and prestige; such a significance and value has our life;
o The Psalmist says that even our life is not valuable than the grace of God for he says, ‘your grace values more than life’; that’s what even the Lord assures St. Paul: ‘my grace is enough for you’. With this grace we can do anything in life and we can conquer life from the bondages of sin and worldly attractions; therefore, once we seek the grace we have everything in life; psalmist knows it well and therefore he seeks for the grace (wisdom) of God;
o We are asked today to do the same; to listen and to follow Psalmist and thus become the ‘searchers of the Wisdom’, and of the Lord our God;

Second Reading

- We are not the people of ignorance but of hope:
o The Gospel stands between ‘the wisdom’ and ‘the hope’ and it is Gospel that shows us the path towards choosing the wisdom and to be firm in the hope; the second reading teaches the same;
o St. Paul exclaims this in today’s passage from the first letter to the Thessalonians: ‘we do not want to leave you in ignorance’ (v.13);
o The wisdom is to see the reality and accept it and the Hope is to consistently wait for its realization in our life;
o ‘we believe indeed that Jesus is died and risen again’: this expression of faith is a wisdom which makes us to see and accept the reality that the death is only a door-step to the life just because we believe that Jesus, our Master, himself has passed from the earthly reality of death to the eternal reality of life; therefore, this is the work of the wisdom;
o ‘we believe also that those who have died, God will gather them through and with Jesus’: this expression of faith is a hope which makes us to live the reality of our life so that one day we will be able to participate in the life that God restores for us; therefore, this is the work of the hope;
o There is no place for ignorance because we know the reality in wisdom and live it in hope;

Gospel

- Biblical interpretation: ‘Here comes the Bridegroom and go out and meet him’
o With the wonderful nuptial parable of the ten virgins wise and imprudent comes out immediately a pair of antithesis of symbols: the awake and the sleep:
 The sleep alludes to the spiritual torpor, to the coldness and to the inactivity;
 The status of being waken is an index of readiness, tension, operating love and intelligence;
 Even Paul exhorts that we have to be the children of light: “we do not sleep like others, but we shall be awake and vigilant” (1Thess 5:6);
 When the voice of the bridegroom is heard, we need to be anxious and attentive;
o The antithesis of ‘awake’ and ‘sleep’ have as their effects in the symbolism of ‘darkness’ and ‘light’:
 The night or darkness is a moment of the trial and of obscurity of the hope that at the dawn God appears again as light;
 The light of the lantern which extinguishes the night or darkness is a sign of life, of joy, of interact with the bridegroom;
o The door which closed is again a symbolism of the word of the bridegroom ‘I do not know you’:
 Behind the closed door the nuptial banquet is celebrated: that is the sharing of joy, of intimacy and of communion; this is the sign of messianic salvation that is offered to the faithful, to the poor and to the just ones (Math 25:21,23; Math 8:11-12); being kept out from this life of joy is the symbolism of the closed door;
 Behind the closed door, the face of the bridegroom is changed into the face of the judge who will open the door not to invite the outsiders but only to judge them because their ignorance and rejection of wisdom and moreover because of their lack of proper preparation to meet him.
- Exegetical interpretation: keep your light always enkindled with the oil of love
o From the beginning of the chapter 24, Mathew develops a teaching on the end of the times. In this line he re-reads the parable of Jesus and utilizes it in the sense of ‘await for the return of Christ’; the Greek text starts with ‘in that time’ which connects the parable that is precedent (24:45-51). Also the phrase of verse 13 is in the direct echo of 24:42;
o Therefore, we can consider the text in two levels: as happening many times in the parables (chapter 13) and that is of Jesus which teaches ‘to be ready to the appeal of God’ and that is of Mathew which teaches ‘to be vigilant’ in the awaiting of the return of the Lord which is still distant: let us consider little more:
 The parable in the time of Jesus: Jesus wanted to pose a question to his listeners on a fact of everyday life: that is the celebration of matrimony in a village. All the invited girls have to wait, until the night passes that they finish of speaking of the family of the husband; when it is signaled they participate to be in their proper post; for this reason they have to prepare well everything; what can we think of those imprudent virgins who were not there – ready – to meet the bridegroom? What happens then? The whole village would laugh at them: when one is invited he has to arrive at the stabilized hour; from the context Jesus wanted to tell his audience: apply the same principle to your life and situation; you are also called for a great event; see that you don’t miss it; therefore, there is here an urgent invitation for the conversion as in the many gospel parables;
 The parable in the time of Mathew: when Mathew receives this parable from the oral tradition, he gives it a meaning by placing it with the relation to Jesus and to the Church: Christ is the Bridegroom of the New Alliance. We wait for his return but his return is late; Mathew writes his gospel in the time of the second generation Christians and thus he has to create a space for the people to think that the return of Jesus will not come tomorrow; in the problem of the question: when will he come again? What is the time of his return? Mathew answers them to wait and not to sleep and there is still to be done as it was taught by the parable of the faithful servant (24:45-51) and as will be developed by the parable of the talents (25:14-30), the two parables between which is placed this parable;
 V.3: the lantern: is the classical image to indicate the vigilance, the perseverance and the fidelity and we can find this also in Luke 12:35;
 V.5: All the virgins: the reference is made to all the virgins be it wise or imprudent; and all of them were sleeping and therefore this indicates that the teaching on the vigilance is not here;
 V.9: the wise virgins: many say that they are little selfish because they were not ready to share their oil with them; but here we need not pose the false problems saying that they are charitable in their dealing with the imprudent ones because the moral teaching of the parable is not here still; each has to be vigilant in the waiting for the Lord; no one is to be in the place of the other; each has his play and each has his role; no one should interfere with the other because each one is called to prepare and to participate in the banquet of the Bridegroom; the wise virgins have attentively directed their life toward the return of Christ and thus they are ready to greet him.
 V.11: the rebuke made to the imprudent virgins is not that they are vigilant; but more than that they failed to have with them the proper and necessary dispositions to be ready at the right time; the opposition between those who entered and those remained outside is to be compared to 24:41 – “one will be taken away and the other is left behind”;
 V.12: I do not know you: the same sense of 7:23; go away from me: the citation of Ps 6:9; doing the evil (operators of iniquity), here and in 13:41, are equivalent to ‘not doing the will of the Father’ (7:21). We can see also Luke 13:25-27.
 V.13: keep awake: is retaken from 24:42; Mathew, writing to community of his time, makes its proper use to the conclusion of his discourse on the coming of the Son of Man. He insists on the perseverance “because you do not know either the day or the hour”.
- Spiritual meaning: be ready to enter before the door is closed
o The door at the entrance of which was sitting the wisdom (first reading) is the possibility of knowing and accepting the plan of God that each Christian soul has to search for it every morning (second reading);
o Once the door is closed, that is, once the possibility of life, the opportunity of grace or the hour of meeting is closed, (or lost or missed), there is nothing of us to do than crying out ‘outside’;
o Once the door is closed we are left outside in the darkness and in the night and thus in the possibility of destruction;
o We should be ready, therefore, to enter in when the door is opened; indeed, we have to keep ourselves, as the Gospel passage demands, awake and vigilant so that whatever moment the coming of the bridegroom be, we have all the chances of going in along with him and to be with him sharing the joy of the wedding;
o There is no use of crying from out ‘Lord, open to us the door’ or ‘Lord, give us another chance’ or ‘Lord, bear with us this time out of your mercy’; no cries will reach into the wedding hall because there is a ‘sound of joy and shouts of happiness’ inside and our cries remain unheard and unnoticed;
o Therefore, finally, the only possible way for us is ‘to keep awake, to be vigilant, to be perseverant’ (the Gospel) and ‘to search for the wisdom that guides us to see the hand and the will of God in every action of our life’ (the first reading) and finally, ‘to dispel our ignorance and to live in hope’ of meeting the Lord one day (the second reading).

Conclusion

- We have to present ourselves to Jesus:
o With all the required dispositions such as: to keep ourselves at the door of faith (wisdom), with the lamp of hope (vigilance) and with the oil of love (awake);
o Like a wise virgins who have prepared themselves well and who, though asleep, when the sound of the Lord has reached them, have been awake; ‘blessed is the servant who is found awake when the master returns’ and he will be given a share in his possessions.
- We have to prepare ourselves well to meet Him:
o It is not enough to come to the church - because even the imprudent virgins have come - to meet the Lord, but it is more important to come prepared and with good disposition – like that of the wise virgins who have finally – met the Lord; therefore, coming to the house of the Lord is not all but coming with prepared heart to listen to him and to receive him so that we are in him and he is in us and that is the actual and true meaning of ‘meeting him’.
o Because we are not aware of the day or the hour in which he comes but ‘blessed are we if we are found prepared’.
o Because we have to keep ourselves ‘awake’ from the desires of darkness, which world would offer us in good quantity, so that we do not fall into their sleep and so we have the possibility of ‘keeping our faith’ (with vigilance) in the ‘good actions’ (with love) of everyday life.
o Therefore, we have to be present ‘with preparedness and perfection’ to meet the Lord who comes.

THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR - A

THIRTY FIRST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – A:
(Mal 1:14-2:1-2,8-10; 1Thess 2:7-9,13; Math 23:1-12)

Theme: We are called to live with coherence and integrity our life and our testimony

Reflection:

- Last Sunday we have reflected upon the commitment and dedicated life we should have by loving God and loving neighbor, the two principle commandments which are built one on the other and one exposes and completes the other: God’s love to be built upon the love of the neighbor because if we are not able to love our neighbor whom we can see, we cannot love God whom we cannot see (1 Jn 4:20); and on the way, neighbor’s love to be for the exposition and completion of God’s love because God made himself ‘an ordinary man taking human flesh’ to be our neighbor and to give a meaning for the love of the neighbor;
- Today we are called, as we have already themed, to have a coherent and integral life: that is, we need to demonstrate the balance between what we say and what we do, between our words and our actions, between our prayers and our practice, between our life of faith and our life of testimony; without this coherence and integrity we are not full and we are perfect; we only show the one side of the coin of our life leaving the other side in the dark or hidden; we only testify one part of life keeping aside the other part in the in cold box; in one word and as the gospels put it, we become liars and hypocrites;
- Jesus calls us to be attentive to an attitude of this kin (the first verses of today’s gospel); to be attentive means ‘to see and to observe and to act accordingly’; Jesus calls his disciples just to see and observe and not to act as the scribes and Pharisees and the reason for this is ‘the hypocrisy’ they demonstrate in their life with their ‘authoritative word’ and with their failure to ‘practice what they preach’ – the exact words of Jesus help us to understand this – “for they do not practice what they teach” (v.3). Hence Jesus calls us to be, unlike them, a people who can transform their words into actions, their prayers into works, and their celebrations into the occasions of love.

First Reading:

- Prophet Malachi and Prophecy to the Priests:
o Prophet Malachi is one of the twelve small prophets and is not known or not so familiar like others; Malachi means most probably ‘an announce of the Lord’; though each and every prophet is called to be the mouth of the Lord and the predicator of the word of God, Malachi by his name becomes himself ‘an announce of the Lord’.
o Though he is less notable than other prophets, his voice is firm and without hesitations: he directs his message with lot of vehemence to those who have occupied the post of guidance and responsibility and they are the priests and the Levites of his time; because he denounces them and warns them in the name of the Lord who has made him a prophet because these people who have to be ‘the guide to the people’ and the ‘responsible in their task’, have become hypocrites and thus have reduced the true adoration to a mere and exterior ritualism and have made their community responsibility into the play for fulfilling their private interests;
o We can see the gravity of their failure in the two ‘grave sins’:
 Forgetting the truth of being the priests of God they have walked away from the His presence and neglected the authenticity of their call: “you have turned aside from the way” (v.8);
 Less worse they have blocked the people from their offering of cult to God and they have led the people also astray with their wrong teachings: “you have caused many to stumble by your instruction” (v.8);
 The totality of their sins consisted in their failure to give ‘glory to the name of the Lord’: they are called to be the true priests of the Lord by their faithful offering of the sacrifices to God and by their authentic teaching of God’s word to the people; instead they have not as demanded from them for their being priests and that’s what made God to pronounce the judgment and a word of condemnation if they are do not do the required: “If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings” (v.2).
- Time of curse also for the priests:
o ‘And Now’ (2:2): there is time also for the condemnation of priests; though there the chosen ones and consecrated ones, just because of their being anointed, they would not escape the judgment of the Lord unless they keep themselves faithful to their call and ministry until the end;
o There is time for everyone to be judged and given the retribution according to their attitude and response to the call and to their proper vocation; no one can escape God’s eye and God’s voice; everyone falls into his word and action at the appointed time;
o “And Now” is the appointed time for the priests who were leading the people in the wrong path with their false teachings and who were utilizing the ‘simple and common people’ like poor and widows for their own selfish motives; now is the time for them to face the judgment which they have bought with their own ‘wrong words’ and ‘false actions’;
o Until now God has extended his word and his law to the common people through the mouth of the prophets and through the cult of the priests, now it is time for the priests to be tested for their attitude to the same word and the same law and that’s why God speaks through Malachi exclusively to the priests: “And now, O priests, this command is for you” (v. 2:1);
- Everyone has an ‘appointed time’ for his answer
o This only shows as already indicated that each member of the ‘community of God’, be it its priests or be it its simple member, has to answer, one day, in front of God for his words and actions;
o If there is no coherence and integrity between ‘what he says and what he does’, then he has to be responsible and to be ready to face the consequence that God would give as a recompense.


Second Reading:

- Paul and his mission: to be tender and motherly in the work
o Paul brings about an image which is very dear to the Bible (example: Ps 130/131) and very dear to Jesus himself (John 16:21) and that is of the mother (v.7); though we see the word ‘nurse’ in the English translation of RSV (like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children, v.7), the translation that is little more closer to the original Greek translation uses the word ‘mother’ (as a mother nourishes and has the care of her proper creatures); more than a nurse it is mother who shows tenderness to her children; and Paul says that the Apostle or the minister of the Lord has to be ‘so’ in his mission of transmitting the word;
o He expresses his desire of offering the total self for the people who have become dear to him; it is, in other words, giving his life for his people as in the parable of Good Shepherd of Jesus; his beautiful words help us understand better: “So deeply we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us” (v.8);
o Sharing the Gospel and Sharing the very self have become closely linked and connected; the Gospel of Christ has become the ‘person himself’; Paul still goes further saying that the Apostle has to be a mother who not only communicates to her children all her valuable gifts she possesses, that is, the Gospel, but also and above all her life itself.
- Communication of the Gospel and Communication of the Person
o Once again it is clear that Gospel message of Christ has to become the very person; once the minister accepts the call of Jesus and comes forward to fulfill his vocation of preaching, he has to make the message his own and thus proclaim not just a word but a life itself;
o For Paul, who has already said that ‘it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2:20), it is the life that is preached and it is the person, which is both the word and action, that is communicated;
o The preaching of the Gospel becomes authentic and perfect only when the word is proclaimed not by the tongue/mouth but by the heart/life. Jesus himself is a model for this: He is no longer a Word but a Word became Man (in incarnation) and a Word became an Act of salvation (in paschal mystery). Thus he has become the Gospel proclamation and proclaimed.
o The Gospel transformed into the Living Person; the word is not preached but witnessed; the word not heard but seen; this means, thus, being coherent and integral in the life and in the witness.

Gospel:

- The general context of the passage: Jesus admonishes the Scribes and Pharisees:
o The chapter 23 of Mathew comes immediately after the chapter (22) full of meaning: that starts with the parable of the Wedding Banquet (vv.1-14) in which we reflect that the Lord has prepared a banquet for all and he has sent invitation to all to participate but the invitees, not accepting the call and going away with their own business and with their personal motives; and the invitation is sent again, this time, not to those who were called before, but to all that are on the roads and once they are brought to the wedding hall they have to have a ‘wedding garment’ (faith) to enter and participate in the banquet; if the faith is not manifested then there is no place for banqueting; then we have question of the paying taxes (vv. 15-22) in which Jesus reminds us that we have the commitment to offer to God his proper glory and we have also the responsibility for the growth of the earthly society because as Christians we are to witness the kingdom of God on earth by working for it and that is the summary of it: “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s”; and finally the chapter concludes with the ‘Great commandment’ (vv. 34-40) of love of God and the love of the neighbor in the one and the same love;
o The chapter is also immediately followed by the Eschatological discourse of Jesus with the chapter 24 in which Jesus speaks of the destruction of the temple that would take place soon, the signs that would appear at the end of the age and the watchfulness that the man has to have to attend them and to be alert to accept them;
o Between these two chapters falls the present chapter of 23: it a chapter dedicated by Mathew to speak of the Scribes and Pharisees and to admonish them for their un-exemplary life they live;
o Like in the first reading also Mathew presents a controversial attitude of Jesus towards the religious authorities of his time who without being true to their call and vocation have gone away from the path of God and making the common people also burdened with imposition of the unnecessary laws which they have made for their own selfish purposes;
o Jesus after revealing the mystery of the kingdom of God to the people in the kind words and loving action and thus in the form of parables and in the form of miracles, NOW, just before his passion and death, he raises his tone and his volume in a manner little more harsh than normal and admonished them against the Pharisees and scribes just because they have not done justice to their call.
- The exegetical explanation: Jesus drawing the attention of his followers towards the attitude of the Scribes and Pharisees:
o Vv. 1-3: Moses and the authority of Jesus time: the Scribes and the Pharisees are the blessed ones because they are sitting on the chair of Moses, the law giver; they are the fortunate people because they are given the authority of transmitting the law of God to the people; it is blessed call and it is a holy vocation they are endowed with: they are the authentic interpreters of the law; and so it is always inside of Judaism; It is because of this reason that Jesus asks his disciples and followers to listen to them carefully and observe them thoroughly just because they are authentic teachers of the law and at the same time Jesus warns them to be away from their actions – because they do not practice what they preach and they have become ‘hypocrites’, the word Jesus uses very often in the following verses.
o Vv. 4-10: they have become more superficial and they have become more apparent in their behavior and in their attitude and in the particular way, in their propagation of the law: they have started seeking their self-glory and they started acting for their vain-glory and Jesus gives them the reasons why and how they have turned out to be:
 They started imposing the new interpretations of the authentic law on the people – as a heavy yoke on their shoulders to carry – so that in their failure to follow them they demand some goods from them for their own stomachs: this could be also called, in our language, playing with the hunger of the poor. In this way they have neglected to transmit the true law given by Moses;
 On the other hand, Jesus, the giver of the New Law of Love, provides them the yoke that is light and easy to carry (Math 11:28ff); that is of humility and meekness; this is the central problem which existed always between the Judaism and Christianity and between the Law and the Gospel;
 Another reason why they are acting this way is to be admired and to be exalted by others; Jesus criticizes a defect that is almost inevitable in those who desire to be the model and example for the community; the defect here is seeking for the self-glory than committing oneself for the community;
 Another reason for their such behavior is that they wanted to be ‘Rabbi-Father-Master’ (7-10): they are in this way throwing away God from his throne and they want to occupy it themselves; they are in this way acting contrary to the will of God who is the Only Rabbi, the Only Father and the Only Master;
o Vv. 11-12: Christian has to be contrary to the world’s thoughts: Jesus does not stop his discourse of warning his disciples and his followers to be watchful on the attitude of their leaders who act falsely, but he also exhorts them not to chose their paths: “But you are not to be” (v.8). In elevating them still more in their choice of following Him, Jesus tells to take him as their example: “The great among you will be your servant. All who exalt themselves will be humbled and all who humble themselves will be exalted” (vv. 11-12); before telling them to be a servant and to be humble, He made himself a servant and humble (Phil 2:6-10); this is the difference between Jesus, the True Master and the Scribes, the false teacher because Jesus says and does and does what he says and the false teachers only say what they intend but do not practice what they say;
- The meaning of the passage for us today as we hear it: Be for Jesus and Be through Jesus;
o We are elevated in our life to imbibe the attitude of Jesus, who is meek and humble, who is servant and obedient and who is last of all and least of all; we are to learn the same kind of mentality;
o In order to learn this: the first thing we have to do is to be attentive to the false teaching and inauthentic actions of our times: specially to the attractive but unreasonable instructions of some religions on one hand and in internal sense, to the non coherent attitude of leaders – be it priests and any other minister – who say something and act differently;
o Though today’s Gospel is little harsh we need not take it in the letter sense but with the spirit with which Jesus has warned the people not to fall into the same kind of attitude and thus become hypocrites who lose the kingdom God and finally perish in their own pits;

Conclusion:

- More than the law, Gospel is important; More than Moses, Jesus important; more than the words, actions are important; more than the prayers, practicing is important; more than preaching, testimony is important: as Pope Paul VI says ‘we need witnesses, not the teachers’.
- It does not mean that we have throw away into dustbin or we have to neglect the law, the words, the prayers, the preaching and finally Moses and the prophets; they are the foundation and they serve as the basis for the authentic living; if the first ones are not there, the second ones have no completion; therefore we need to take into consideration both of them and giving little more importance to the living part of it.
- Are we really True Christians or are we hypocrites? This question should be authentically answered today as we listen to the word and receive the nourishment of the Eucharist; this is the question which we should keep on asking in every instance of witnessing our faith and our life; only then the exhortation of Jesus for us today, as it was for his disciples and followers, has meaning and its destiny in us and for us;
- Finally, we have to keep in mind always that we speak not by words but by actions, we preach not by lips but by heart and we testify not by talk but by love because we are called to live with coherence and integrity our Christian life.