Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A-2023

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Revision as of 02:43, 18 March 2023 by Ross (talk | contribs) (Created page with ":''Approach Jesus Christ with All Our Being '''Jesus is the Son through whom God has spoken to us humans in these last days. We Christians are to approach and hear him, and be what he says.''' [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+19&version=RSVCE God wanted the Israelites to prepare for his coming down to Mount Sinai to give them the law]. He told them, through Moses, to show respect. So, they should be clean. Also, they were not to approach the mou...")
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Approach Jesus Christ with All Our Being

Jesus is the Son through whom God has spoken to us humans in these last days. We Christians are to approach and hear him, and be what he says.

God wanted the Israelites to prepare for his coming down to Mount Sinai to give them the law. He told them, through Moses, to show respect. So, they should be clean. Also, they were not to approach the mountain or touch its foot.

Jesus —as Matthew has it— goes up the mountain and gives the new law. The crowds stay back, but the disciples approach him. There is no frightening thing that they witness. And they know who they are; they see that they are not worthy of him (see Freund).

It seems, then, that it counts more to them to hear what Jesus says than to be clean before him. One can maybe guess that they accept what to be with Jesus and, hence, the Eucharist, is: it “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak” (EG 47).

But, of course, it is not enough to approach Jesus and hear him. The true disciples also do what they hear their Teacher say. They let him infect them with his self-emptying love, so that they catch it. That is to say, they become like the one who is not out for himself but for others (see Rom 15, 3). With him, they get to embody the upside-down world that his Sermon on the Mount means.

Are we of this small remnant, of what is left of the group of true disciples? The Sermon on the Mount, for sure, is the norm to use to examine our conscience. And may God grant me, an elderly man, to find out, before it is too late, where true bliss lies (SV.EN XI:123).

Lord Jesus, grace and truth come through you; let us approach you. And teach us to work with you to build a world that is turned upside down.


29 January 2023

4th Sunday in O.T. (A)

Zeph 2, 3; 3, 12-13; 1 Cor 1, 26-31; Mt 5, 1-12a


VERSIÓN ESPAÑOLA

Acercar todo nuestro ser a Jesucristo

Jesús es el Hijo, por el cual Dios nos ha hablado a los hombres en esta etapa final. Los cristianos nos hemos de acercar a él. Tenemos que escucharle y ser lo que él dice.

Quiso Dios que se preparasen los israelitas para cuando bajara él al Sinaí a fin de promulgar la ley. Les mandó, por medio de Moisés, que mostrasen respeto. Por lo tanto, se habrían de purificar. Y no se les permitió subir al monte ni se podrían ellos acercar ni a su ladera.

Cuenta Mateo que Jesús sube al monte y promulga la nueva ley. Las turbas se quedan atrás, pero los discípulos no se dejan de acercar a él. No pasa nada que los pueda espantar. Y se conocen bien a sí mismos; admiten que no son dignos de él (véase Freund).

Parece, pues, que les vale más oír lo que dice Jesús que mantenerse ante él limpios de toda mancha. Quizá se puede decir que aceptan lo que quiere decir la presencia de Jesús en medio de ellos (la Eucaristía también, por lo tanto): ella «no es un premio para los perfectos sino un generoso remedio y un alimento para los débiles» (EG 47).

Pero, claro, no solo se han de acercar a Jesús los discípulos, y no les basta con escucharle. Los que de verdad son discípulos cumplen también lo que les dice su Maestro. Le dejan contagiarles su amor abnegado. Es decir, se hacen al igual que el que no busca lo suyo, sino lo de los demás (véase Rom 15, 3). En unión con él, dan a conocer en su persona el mundo que está boca abajo al que apunta el Sermón de la Montaña.

¿Somos del pequeño resto, de los pocos que quedan del grupo de los que de verdad son discípulos? No hay duda de que el Sermón de la Montaña nos sirve de base para un examen de conciencia. Y me lo conceda Dios a mí, un anciano, descubrir, antes de que sea demasiado tarde, dónde se halla la verdadera dicha (SV.ES XI:57).

Señor Jesús, concédenos la gracia de podernos acercar a ti. Y enséñanos a obrar contigo para construir un mundo que esté boca abajo.


29 Enero 2023

4º Domingo de T.O. (A)

Sof 2, 3; 3, 12-13; 1 Cor 1, 26-31; Mt 5, 1-12a