Vivir Contigo (VIII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario. Ciclo C)

Como el niño que no sabe dormirse

sin cogerse a la mano de su madre,

así mi corazón viene a ponerse

sobre tus manos al caer la tarde.

Como el niño que sabe que alguien vela

su sueño de inocencia y esperanza,

así descansará mi alma segura,

sabiendo que eres Tú quien nos aguarda.

Tú endulzarás mi última amargura,

Tú aliviarás el último cansancio,

Tú cuidarás los sueños de la noche,

Tú borrarás las huellas de mi llanto.

Tú nos darás mañana nuevamente

la antorcha de la luz y la alegría,

y, por las horas que te traigo muertas,

Tú me darás una mañana viva. Amén.

Liturgia de las Horas, 

himno del Oficio de Vísperas •

...

Marcelino, pan y vino, española dirigida por 

Ladislao Vajda en 1954.

El tamaño de la mota, el tamaño del corazón (VIII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario. Ciclo C)

Las palabras del Señor éste domingo, el último antes de iniciar el tiempo de Cuaresma, nos ponen delante de un asunto cotidiano y que requiere atención: vemos fácilmente los defectos ajenos y por el contrario somos miopes para ver los propios. Aun más. Podríamos decir que a Jesús no le interesa tanto la ponderación de si lo que yo tengo en mi ojo es una viga o una mota, mayor o menor que la que hay existe en el ojo del hermano, Jesús afirma que en realidad lo que hay que hacer es sacar primero la viga del propio ojo, porque «entonces verás claro y podrás sacar la mota del ajeno». Inútiles son pues las comparaciones entre vigas y motas, lo que importa es entender cómo nos podemos ayudar los unos a los otros para que nuestros ojos y nuestro corazón sean más claros, más bondadosos y estén más en la verdad. De alguna manera llegamos a la bienaventuranza de los limpios de corazón, la que habla de los que saben ver la verdad y la autenticidad que existen en los demás y en uno mismo. Es por eso que el Señor habla de la bondad que se almacena en el corazón. Para Jesús el problema no está en la vista, ni en la boca que expresa lo que ven los ojos; sino en el corazón. En la primera de las lecturas de hoy se habla de lo importante que es en el hombre razonar y hablar; para Jesús lo esencial es el buen sentir, el buen amar. Este es el gran reto que nos plantea el evangelio de hoy, y la invitación es a imitar a un Dios que ama al hombre siempre, por encima y más allá de sus méritos y de sus estrepitosas caídas; a reparar nuestro corazón a veces tan marcado por los complejos, las envidias y ese profundo deseo de autoafirmación. Karl Rahner, en uno de sus mejores textos, dice algo así como: «Mira, Señor, ahí está el otro, con el que no me entiendo. Él te pertenece; tú le has creado. Si tú no le has querido así, al menos le has dejado ser como es. Mira, Dios mío, si tú le soportas, le quiero yo aguantar y soportar, como tú me soportas y aguantas»[1]. Hoy podríamos pedir al Señor que nos vaya cambiando el corazón, que nos lo vaya haciendo «bueno del todo», justo como el suyo[2]. Quizá entonces y solo entonces podríamos ver con amor la mota o la viga, la verdad del hermano • AE

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[1] Karl Rahner S.J. (1904 –1984) fue uno de los teólogos católicos más importantes del siglo XX. Su teología influyó al Segundo Concilio Vaticano. Su obra Fundamentos de la fe cristiana (Grundkurs des Glaubens), escrita hacia el final de su vida, es su trabajo más desarrollado y sistemático, la mayor parte del cual fue publicado en forma de ensayos teológicos. Rahner había trabajado junto a Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac y Marie-Dominique Chenu, teólogos asociados a una escuela de pensamiento emergente denominada Nouvelle Théologie.

[2] J. Gafo, Dios a la vista. Homilías ciclo C, Madrid, 1994, p. 227 ss.

Fr. Agustin´s Schedule March 2-3, 2019 (Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Saturday March 2, 2019.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Sacrament of Confession.

4.00 p.m. @ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Vigil Mass

6.00 p.m. @ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Sunday March 3, 2019.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

9.00 a.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles

 Catholic Church.

11.00 a.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles

 Catholic Church.

5.30 p.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles

 Catholic Church. 

As carefully as possible (Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle C)

They tell the story of a well-known archbishop who, dressed in all his episcopal and elegant vestments, boarded a ship to go to Europe. We are going to omit the name so as not to hurt any susceptibility.As he went aboard the large ocean liner, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After looking his quarters, he went back to the purser’s desk and asked if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables on the ship’s safe. He explained that ordinarily he never did this sort of thing but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who would occupy the other bed and judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility of caring for valuables and remarked, “It’s alright his excellency. I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has just been up here ad deposited all his valuables for the same reason.” Jesus calls hypocrites, those who notice a tiny sprinter in others but are blind to the plank in them. They are unaware of their shortcomings while they decry the faults of others. These people are often negative and hostile. They have the habit of focusing on the bas side of everything especially the bad side of people. They are pruned to criticize and find fault. May be because they are looking for a person without blemish. But, we are sorry, “He who would find a friend without fault will never find him.” The reason is simple: there is no one without fault and there is no ideal man, only real person. The appealing thing about faultfinding in others is that it takes the focus off our own deficiencies and helps us to feel ever so self-righteous. It’s good to criticize others than we being criticized; there is no obligation on our part. It hurts us. Instead of criticizing others, why not caring for them? If we care for them, we will listen not only to what they are saying but also to what they are trying to say with or without words. If we care for them we won’t impose our views, our plans, ideas, discipline, advice, correction, guidance and our judgment. If we care for them, we won’t jump at every opportunity to point out your blunders to make you feel foolish… If we care for them we will show them how talented, capable, industrious, genuine, original, creative, skilled, friendly, trustworthy, resourceful, good and lovable persons they are. Instead of criticizing others, why not we try to also know ourselves? How? There are three ways. First, we can know ourselves by what we do. We are identified by our work. But that is not always a good way to know ourselves. When we do nothing, does it mean that we are nothing already? Sick persons who are bed-ridden cannot do anything, are they nothing? So, we do not judge ourselves simply by what we do. Second, we can be known by what we say. But there are times that we are careful with our words because we don’t like to hurt or make enemies. We are very careful with our words because we don’t like to lose our friends. Third, we can be known by what we think. Because we do things according to what we think is right. We do not judge ourselves in terms of what we do, neither in terms of what we say, but in terms of what we think because no one censors, the way we think. We think according to our pleasure. Like for example: it is easy to be tolerant. It is easy to be good. It is easy to be good inside the church. It is very easy to smile inside the church because everybody seems to be good here. And so when we go to communion, we quietly full in line because we are prepared and very much disposed for it. But when we see someone who does not full in line or hear a baby crying or a child running to and pro inside the church, an urge to hit these undisciplined kiddos is very much in us. And so we can know ourselves in the way we think and in the way we react to a given stimulus or situation. That’s why in our gospel today, Jesus asks us to search as carefully as possible for our own faults as we do for the faults of others. Because when we are aware of our own weaknesses and strive to overcome them, knowing that we have also faults we are slow to judge and swift to give the benefit of the doubt. The Greek philosopher Socrates says that nature has given us two ears, two eyes and only one tongue so that we should hear more than we speak. But now it’s the opposite, we speak more and we hear less especially if a good man commits wrongs even once all his good works are gone and erased. So if we cannot say something good about another person, then it is better to remain with out big mouths so closed • AE

Un rato contigo, junto a Ti.

Rembrandt, La cena en Emaús (1648), 

óleo sobre tela, Museo del Louvre (Paris).

...

Porque es tarde, Dios mío,

porque anochece ya

y se nubla el camino,

porque temo perder

las huellas que he seguido,

no me dejes tan solo

y quédate conmigo.

Porque he sido rebelde

y he buscado el peligro,

y escudriñé curioso

las cumbres y el abismo,

perdóname, Señor,

y quédate conmigo.

Porque ardo en sed de ti

y en hambre de tu trigo,

ven, siéntate a mi mesa,

dígnate ser mi amigo.

¡Qué aprisa cae la tarde...!

¡quédate conmigo! Amén •

Liturgia de las Horas, 

Himno del oficio de Vísperas.

Barro y gracia, oro y estiércol (VII Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario. Ciclo C)

Nos regimos por la ley del eco: si mi prójimo es amable y servicial entonces recibe de mi parte el correspondiente eco de amabilidad y servicio, pero si perturba mi paz o amenaza mis intereses entonces exijo voz en grito mis derechos y deberes. ¿Es posible seguir  así después de oír el Sermón de la montaña? Jesucristo murió por todos: por el otro: por el odioso, el antipático, el molesto, el agnóstico e incluso por el pedófilo. Por todos. Hoy más que nunca estamos llamados a vivir ésa caballerosidad del amor -de la que tanto hablaba Pèguy- e incluso a ir más allá.  ¿Cómo puedo llegar a amar a un enemigo? "Padre, perdónalos porque no saben lo que hacen" [1]. Estas palabras sólo se pueden pronunciar cuando en todos los que rodean su cruz ve hijos pródigos y equivocados. Jesús atraviesa con su mirada la capa externa de estiércol y ve lo que hay en el fondo de casa uno. Sólo él ve las intenciones del corazón. Si conociéramos el verdadero fondo de todo tendríamos compasión hasta de las estrellas (Graham Greene). Cuando Juan XXIII visitó a los criminales en la cárcel, los saludó con estas palabras: "mis buenos hijos y queridos hermanos, hijos de Dios". Y el Santo Padre Francisco lo mismo. El amor al prójimo no reside en un acto de la voluntad, con el que intento reprimir todos mis sentimientos de odio, sino que se basa en una gracia: en que se me dan unos nuevos ojos para ver al prójimo. Todos los desgraciados, amargados y malos a nuestro alrededor esperan esta mirada nueva de discípulo de Jesús, exactamente como cada uno de nosotros la espera: todos tienen nostalgia de esos nuevos ojos que son una gracia y que hace de los publicanos y las prostitutas hijos e hijas de Dios. Esta filiación hay que creerla, del mismo modo que tiene que ser creído el Padre de tales hijos. Hoy con la eucaristía podríamos pedir al Señor unos ojos nuevos para ver a los demás como hijos pródigos, y la voluntad para tender puentes –que no levantar muros-  y que así el amor venza al odio, la venganza deje paso a la indulgencia y la discordia se convierta en amor mutuo[2] • AE

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[1] Cfr. Lc 23, 34.

[2] Misal Romano, Plegaria Eucarística II, sobre la reconciliación. 

Fr. Agustin´s Schedule February 23-24, 2019 (Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Saturday February 23, 2019.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Sacrament of Confession.

4.00 p.m. @ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church.

Vigil Mass

6.00 p.m. @ Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church

  

Sunday February 24, 2019.

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

9.00 a.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles

Catholic Church.

  

11.00 a.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles

Catholic Church.

5.30 p.m. @ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles 

Catholic Church.

That forgiveness that breaks our chains (Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycly C)

For sure this is one the most challenging, most difficult, most confounding passage in all of the gospels. And it is also the most fundamentally Christian, because it is the passage that calls on each of us to be the most like Christ.  More than that, it calls on us to be “perfect, like the Father is perfect.” That is a tall order. And look at what it entails. Turning the other cheek. Giving away your cloak. And the most radical and counter-cultural of all: Loving your enemies and praying for your persecutors. It sounds so nice and reassuring.  But do we know what that means?  Let us stop for a moment. Let us do this. Consider all the people who have hurt you. Those who have lied to you.  Stabbed you in the back. Remember the ones who spread rumors about you that were untrue.  Those who have gossiped about you, or judged you, or mocked you, or bullied you. Consider the friend that you trusted, who betrayed you.  The co-worker who broke a confidence.  The person whose name you’d rather forget who wounded you, or disrespected you, or took advantage of you or even abused you. Look back on all the people in your life who have left bruises and scars, with a word or a look or a touch. Now, imagine doing what Jesus commands. Love them. Love them and pray for them. Pray for their good.  Pray that grace will come into their lives.  Pray that their eyes may be opened, and their hearts may be healed.  Because the chances are, if someone has hurt you or persecuted you…it’s probably because someone once did the same to them. It is a vicious cycle.  As Shakespeare put it: “Sin will pluck on sin.”[1] And that fundamental truth of our humanity – that the cycle just keeps going — may be one reason why Jesus, in this gospel passage, says: “Stop.  Enough.  Break the cycle.  Let it go.” Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. It’s actually pleasurable to do the opposite—to hate your enemies and to wish the worst on your persecutors, to enjoy their setbacks and suffering. When you’re angry, I’ve found, it makes you happy.  It puts a spring in your step. But that kind of thinking is ultimately self-destructive. And Jesus himself knows that. He knows we can do better.  He knows we can aim higher. Be perfect, he says, just as your heavenly Father is perfect. In the final moments of his life, he showed us that perfection.  He taught us what he meant.  Surrounded by his enemies and his persecutors, he hung on the cross, stripped, bleeding, gasping, as they gambled for his clothes and waited for him to die. And in that moment, Jesus pleaded and prayed: “Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do.”[2] Here is Christian perfection and our model for living, captured at the moment of death.  Here is love beyond measure: a prayer for a broken and unknowing world. At one time or another, each of us has been suspended on our own cross, feeling helpless, or hopeless, facing cruelty or injustice.  Maybe some of us are there now, angry at what life has done to us. How do we pray for, and love, those responsible? How do we begin? A popular Protestant preacher during the Depression, Emmet Fox, once explained it in a way I think we all can understand.  And it starts with something so simple, but so hard: forgiveness.  It is a necessary first step. He says: by not forgiving we “are tied to the thing [we] hate. The person perhaps in the whole world whom you most dislike is the very one to whom you are attaching yourself by a hook that is stronger than steel. Is this what you wish?”[3] I think we all know the answer.  We need to detach ourselves from that hook.  Then, and only then, can we begin to heal, and to love, and to pray for those who have hurt us so deeply. Today, as we walk the sanctuary to receive the body of Christ, le tus pray to detach that hook. Pray for the grace to love the unlovable, to forgive the unforgivable, and to remember in prayer those you’d rather forget. I personally have a long way to go to achieve that.  I think most of us do. But only in beginning that journey toward love, only then can we dare to approach the perfection Christ spoke of – a perfection we can never fully attain, but to which we all have to strive, day by day, prayer by prayer. Work to be more than what you are, Christ said. Strive to be perfect, like the Father. Jesus showed us the way. How could any of us not try to follow? • AE

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[1] Richard III: Act 4 Scene 2.

[2] Cfr. Luke 23:34.

[3] Emmet Fox (1886 – 1951) was a New Thought spiritual leader of the early 20th century, famous for his large Divine Science church services held in New York City during the Great Depression.

Rejoice and be glad!

Blest are they, the poor in spirit;

theirs is the kingdom of God.

Blest are they, full of sorrow,

they shall be consoled.

Rejoice and be glad!

Blessed are you; holy are you!

Rejoice and be glad!

Yours is the Kingdom of God!

Blest are they, the lowly ones;

they shall inherit the earth.

Blest are they, who hunger and thirst;

they shall have their fill.

Blest are they who show mercy;

mercy shall be theirs.

Blest are they, the pure of heart;

they shall see God!

Blest are they who seek peace;

they are the children of God.

Blest are they who suffer in faith,

the glory of God is theirs.

Blest are you who suffer hate

all because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, yours is the kingdom,

shine for all to see.

Rejoice and be glad!

Blessed are you; holy are you!

Rejoice and be glad!

Yours is the Kingdom of God!

 ... 

David Haas (1966)

La (alegre) puerta que se abre siempre (VI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario. Ciclo C)

Este domingo escuchamos de nuevo palabras desconcertantes de Jesús. Las bienaventuranzas no son una invitación al optimismo ingenuo o a la felicidad fácil, sino una llamada a vivir el sufrimiento, el mal o la persecución en la paciencia y el gozo de  la esperanza. Esa paciencia no es fruto de un ejercicio ascético que nos enseña a vivir las pruebas sin derrumbarnos. Es una paciencia que descansa en la paciencia misma de Dios que nos  acompaña en el dolor o la impotencia de manera silenciosa y discreta, pero buscando  siempre nuestro bien. Dios no se impacienta ante los brotes del mal o de la injusticia, porque para él no hay  prisa ni miedo al fracaso final. Dios sabe esperar. Y es esa mirada paciente de Dios,  cargada de ternura infinita hacia todos los hombres, los que sufren y los que hacen sufrir, la  que pone consuelo y estímulo en el creyente enfrentado a la realidad del mal. Lo mismo que en la paciencia de Dios, también en la paciencia del creyente hay siempre  amor. Un amor al ser humano, que es más fuerte que cualquier presencia del mal o de las  tinieblas. En realidad, ningún mal por cruel y poderoso que sea, puede impedirnos seguir  abiertos al amor. Y el amor -no lo olvidemos- es la única promesa y garantía de felicidad  final. Esta paciencia cristiana no es una actitud pasiva o resignada. Es fuerza para no dejarnos  vencer por la desesperanza, y estímulo para cumplir nuestra misión con entereza y  fidelidad. Esa es la recomendación bíblica: "Necesitáis paciencia en el sufrimiento para cumplir la  voluntad de Dios y conseguir así lo prometido"[1]. Esa paciencia del creyente se alimenta de la confianza en Dios y del abandono confiado en sus manos. Dios, deseado y amado por encima de todo, es el que renueva las fuerzas del hombre aplastado y pone en su corazón una paz que el mundo entero no puede dar[2]. En su carta, Santiago les llama felices a aquellos que sufrieron con paciencia»[3] Esta felicidad no proviene del bienestar o del éxito, sino de la fe en el Crucificado que desde la resurrección nos dice así a todos los que hemos sido probados por el mal: "He abierto ante ti una puerta que nadie puede cerrar, porque, aunque tienes poco poder, has guardado mi Palabra[4] . AE

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[1] Hb 10, 36

[2] J. A. Pagola, Sin perder la dirección. Escuchando a S.Lucas. Ciclo C, San Sebastián, 1999, p. 69 ss.

[3] St 5, 11

[4] Ap  3, 8.