We have returned to our old ways
Hemos vuelto a las andadas
¡Farewell y muchas gracias!
Everything in this life has a beginning, and an end. After a long time, this blog came to an end. Many thanks to all who have followed it throughout these years. Maybe one day and on another platform, we will write again. Peace! Fr. Agustin.
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Todo en esta vida tiene un comienzo, y un fin. Después de un largo tiempo, este blog llega a su fin. Gracias sinceras a aquellos que lo han seguido a lo largo de todos éstos años. Quizá algún día y en otra plataforma volvamos a escribir. Agustin, sacerdote.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)
Are you envious because I am generous? The owner says to those hired at sunrise who protested that they did not receive more. The exact translation of this is "Do you view my actions with an evil, jealous eye?" This occurs in the Gospel of Matthew where we also read, "If your eye causes you to sin, then pluck it out." Usually we transfer this phrase to a sexual connotation, but properly applied to the point of today's parable, the Lord is saying, "If you envy generosity to the less fortunate, than you cannot be a Christian." If we do not rejoice in the benefits given to others, then we cut ourselves off from the benefits we have received. As Christians our main concern must be to care for those who have less. That is mercy. “Are you envious because I am generous?” Envy and jealousy are horrible. The jealous person looks for ways to destroy another person’s life. The jealous person usually ends up destroying his own life. Or her own life. The jealous person does not appreciate his own gifts. He can only see the gifts that others have. He hates them for their gifts. And his hatred destroys him. Everybody is different. No two people are the same. We do not have the right to compare or contrast others to ourselves. This parable should also be applied to our view of our relationship to God. God loves the person who is faithful throughout the day. He loves cradle Catholics who practice their faith throughout their lives. He also loves those who come to him during the day and even in the evening. Many people respond to God’s mercy at the end of their lives. God loves them for taking a huge step away from their former lives and for falling into the arms of His Mercy. Literature presents Don Juan who refuse to reject his immoral lifestyle and would rather suffer hell than entrust himself to God[1]. It is a tremendous step of humility to turn from a sinful life and turn to the Lord. God loves those who take this step, even though they join St. Augustine in mourning, “Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient ever new. Late have I loved you.”[2] What matters is that they are with him now. God loves cradle Catholics, and he loves converts. He loves those who practice their faith throughout their lives, and he loves those who return to the faith. We rejoice in those who join the faith or return to the faith. We don't consider ourselves superior to them because we are not superior to them. At the end of the gospel reading we come upon the phrase, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” We cannot impose our ways on the Lord. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord[3].” That is from our first reading. We cannot tell God how to be God. We have to do our best to respond to the call to labor in God's vineyard as we have received it. That call demands that we are open to God's mercy in our lives and that we become vehicles for God's mercy in the lives of others. That is Christianity! To act otherwise is to begrudge God for his generosity, or to be scripturally literal, to look upon God's goodness with an evil, jealous eye. The parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard calls upon us to ask God to help us be vehicles of His Mercy • AE
[1] Don Juan, also known as Don Giovanni (Italian), is a legendary, fictional libertine. Famous versions of the story include a 17th-century play, El burlador de Sevilla y El convidado de piedra (The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest) by Tirso de Molina, and an 1787 opera, Don Giovanni, with music by Mozart and a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte. By linguistic extension from the name of the character, "Don Juan" has become a generic expression for a womanizer, and stemming from this, Don Juanism is a non-clinical psychiatric descriptor.
[2] Confessions, Book 10: XXVII, XXXIII XXXIV.
[3] Isaiah 55:8.
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Fr.
Agustin’s Schedule for September 19-20, 2020.
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saturday,
September 19, 2020.
4.00
p.m. Sacrament of Confession
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@
St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.
Sunday
September 20, 2020.
10.30
a.m. English Mass
@
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
(Outdoors
mass)
12.00
p.m. English Mass
@
Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
(Main
church)
4.
00 p.m. Sacrament of Confession
5.00
p.m. English Mass
@
Trinity University
(Margarite
B. Parker Chapel)
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XXV Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo A)
J. de Ribera, La Trinidad (1635), óleo sobre tela, Museo del Prado (Madrid)
Menos mal que Dios ni piensa como
nosotros ni usa nuestras medidas! Nosotros queremos un Dios que dé más a quien
más produce y menos a quien rinde menos, que lleve minuciosamente la
contabilidad de cuanto hacemos para pagarnos por ello de modo proporcionado,
equitativo... El Dios que nos presenta la parábola de este domingo es el Dios generoso, el Dios
que no condiciona sus dones a nuestros méritos, el Dios que no espera recibir
para dar, el Dios gratuito que nos ama por nosotros y no por lo que hacemos, el
Dios Padre que nos ha dado a su Hijo sólo porque nos ama y como muestra de su
amor. El Dios de la parábola es el Dios de los pobres, de los que nada tienen y
nada pueden darle, a quienes llama no para que le proporcionen beneficios, sino
porque no pueden proporcionárselo, a quienes ama quizá porque ellos no son
capaces, en su extrema pobreza, ni siquiera de amarle, no porque no quieran,
sino porque nadie les ha enseñado a conocerle y a amarle. El Dios de la
parábola, el Dios de Jesús, es el Dios de la recompensa gratuita, el Dios que
no está obligado a darnos nada y que, sin embargo, nos lo entrega todo, incluido
su propio Hijo. El Dios de la parábola es el Dios-Padre, el Dios-Amor que,
precisamente porque ama, no ve injusto dar a los rendimientos distintos
retribuciones iguales, porque no atiende al rendimiento, sino a las personas en
sí mismas, con sus necesidades y problemas, a sus hijos a quienes ama. Y
precisamente porque ama llama siempre, a todas horas. Buscar trabajadores al
final de una jornada, cuando es poco lo que pueden rendir, no se explica con
criterios de productividad. Pero es que el Dios de Jesús no la busca en
nosotros, nos busca a nosotros. Por eso espera constantemente, por eso nos
llama al comenzar la jornada, en medio de ella y cuando toca a su fin. Lo que
Él busca es nuestra disponibilidad, nuestra buena voluntad, para poder, por su
parte, mostrarnos la suya, el infinito amor que nos tiene.
¡Qué lejos está este Dios de lo que nosotros pensamos de Él! ¡Y qué lejos estamos nosotros de pensar y vivir como Él piensa y vive! Este ser de Dios, este comportamiento para con nosotros, debería ser nuestra meta en relación a Él y a nuestros hermanos: actuar por amor. Estar por encima del utilitarismo materialista que atiende, para dar, a lo que antes hemos recibido. Tener la gran libertad de dar lo nuestro, no a quien se lo merezca, sino a aquél que, por no saber, ni siquiera sabe mostrar amor y agradecimiento. Asi es el Dios que nos revela Jesús. Esta es la cima a la que siempre debemos caminar: "Ser perfectos como mi Padre celestial es perfecto". Y así, en la medida en que nos vayamos pareciendo al propietario de la viña, iremos construyendo en el mundo el Reino de los cielos del que hoy nos habla Jesús: "El Reino de los cielos se parece a un propietario..." • AE
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)
W. Drost, The unmerciful servant (1655), oil on canvas,
The Wallace collection (London)
...
Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive, as many as seven times? I say to you, not seven times but as many as seventy-seven times. Do not be concerned with the number 77. Jesus was using this number to say that the amount of times we should forgive is far greater than we could imagine. For the true follower of Christ, there can be no limits to how many times or how much he or she forgives. The Christian realizes the great mercy he or she has received from a God who sent His Son to become one of us to die for us so that we can have eternal life. The Christian understands that next to the forgiveness we have received from God there can be no limit to the forgiveness he or she extends to others.
Forgiveness. Forgiveness brings healing. Forgiveness brings the mercy of God. Holding on to anger only brings more suffering, particularly for the person who harbors hate. The first servant in the Gospel parable for this Sunday owed a huge debt. The translation we used for Mass just says "huge", but the Greek says he owed ten thousand talents. One talent represented fifteen years of daily wages. This man was in deep financial trouble. He would have to work for 15,000 years to pay this off. This impossible debt was totally dismissed by the king in the parable. That was shocking, and wonderful. The second servant owed the first a large, but payable debt, 100 denarii. That was the equivalent of 100 days wages. Difficult, but payable. Certainly, not in the same league as the first debt. “A mere fraction”our translation says. As you are aware, the first servant refused mercy to the second, and the result is he lost the mercy that had been offered to him by the Master. It is obvious that the parable is comparing what God has forgiven each of us with those who owe us so much less than we owe God. We strive for this ideal. It is also one of the hardest tasks of Christianity. Sometimes people will say, "I can’t forgive and forget. I can never forget what he or she did to me or to my family." Forgetting might not be possible. It also might not be the best thing to do. If a man punches you in the face, you should forgive him, but it would be wise to avoid him, or at least wear a hockey mask the next time you see him. Forgetting is not part of the gospel requirement. Forgiveness is. The focus of our forgiveness should not just be on the person we are forgiving, or even the particular action we are forgiving. The focus of our forgiveness should primarily be on getting back on track with our lives. When you really think about it, all forgiveness ends up with oneself. We need to survive and move on from our hurts, or we will always be bogged down by our anger. We need to forgive the people who have hurt us (and we all have a thousand battle stories!) we need to forgive the people who have hurt us so we can be people who don't hurt others. The unmerciful servant ruined a golden opportunity. He could have become a person of kindness and gentleness, reflecting a small portion of the forgiveness he had received. Instead, he held onto his past, his anger at the money still unpaid. His refusal to forgive destroyed him.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Those are some of the most healing words in scripture. They are also some of the most difficult words in scripture. We might not want to forgive others, but the pain we have received from others is minor in comparison to the gifts God has given us. Look at all that we have received from the Lord. We have received love, the great gift of living eternally in God's love. Today we pray for the grace to forgive and move on with life, just as we thank the Lord for the innumerable times He has forgiven us and has Himself moved on with sharing His Life with us • AE
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Fr. Agustin’s Schedule for Sunday September 13, 2020.
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
Saturday, September 12, 2020.
4.30 p.m. Sacrament of Confession
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
Sunday, September 13, 2020.
9.00 a.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
11.00 a.m. English Mas
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
5.30 p.m. English Mas
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
...
Vivimos todavía los creyentes de hoy una experiencia honda del perdón de Dios, o ya no necesitamos sentirnos perdonados por nadie? ¡Gran pregunta! Quizá atribuimos todos nuestros males a las deficiencias de una sociedad mal organizada, o a las actuaciones injustas que, claro, siempre vienen de los demás. Pero, ¿no es ésta una forma de vivir engañados, separados de nuestra propia verdad, sumergidos en una secreta tristeza? ¿No necesitamos en lo más hondo de nuestro ser confesar nuestro propio pecado, sentirnos comprendidos por Alguien, sabernos aceptados con nuestros errores y miserias, ser acogidos y restituidos de nuevo a nuestro ser más auténtico? ¡Nuestra fe nos regala constantemente esta oportunidad! Y la parábola de este domingo nos lo recuerda de nuevo. Quien no se ha sentido nunca comprendido por Dios, no sabe comprender a los demás. Quien no ha gustado su perdón entrañable, corre el riesgo de vivir sin entrañas, como el siervo de la parábola, endureciendo cada vez más sus exigencias y reivindicaciones y negando a todos la ternura y el perdón. Hemos creído que todo se podía lograr endureciendo las luchas, despertando la agresividad social y potenciando el resentimiento. Hemos expulsado de entre nosotros el perdón y la mutua comprensión como algo inútil, propio de personas débiles y resignadas. Peor aún: nos estamos acostumbrado a una espiral de represalias, revanchas y venganzas. Ya hemos logrado vivir estrangulándonos unos a otros y gritándonos todos mutuamente: “¡Págame lo que me debes!”. Sólo que no está nada claro que este camino haya de llevarnos a una convivencia más justa y a unas relaciones más cálidas y más humanas • AE
Sacrament of Confession (updated 9.7.2020)
Confession is the sacrament of the tenderness of God,
his way of embracing us (Pope Francis)
Dear parishioners and fellow friends who follow this blog: The celebration of the sacraments takes place regularly in our three communities. The Sacrament of Confession is usually celebrated on Saturdays one hour before the vigil mass, but not limited to this schedule. I am available to celebrate the Confession at any time that is opportune and prudent at any of our three parish communities: Our Lady of Grace, St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Our Lady of Sorrows. The best way to organize the day and time that is most convenient for both parties is through an e-mail. So, please feel free to send one to agusestrada@gmail.com and for sure we will set up the best time for both of us • AE
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Queridos parroquianos y amigos que siguen este blog: La celebración de los sacramentos se lleva a cabo de manera regular en nuestras tres comunidades. El Sacramento de la Confesión se celebra todos los sábados una hora antes de la misa de la tarde pero no está limitado a ese horario; estoy disponible para oír confesiones en cualquier momento que sea oportuno y prudente en cualquiera de las tres comunidades parroquiales de las que soy vicario: Our Lady of Grace, St. Peter Prince of the Apostles y Our Lady of Sorrows. La mejor manera para encontrar un día y una hora que resulte más conveniente para ambas partes es a través del correo electrónico. Si lo necesitas, por favor envíame un e-mail a: agusestrada@gmail.com, así podremos organizar un breve encuentro • AE
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Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another[1]. When Saint Paul wrote that line to those early Christians living in Rome, he obviously wasn’t familiar with the modern way of life, what with mortgages, car notes, credit card bills, tuition payments and all kind of expenses. Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another? If only it was that easy, I want to say! But what gives meaning to our lives, what gives meaning to the life of the human family, is not the power, prestige, status or wealth that we accumulate in our lives, but the quality of the relationships we have with other human beings. When each of us and all of us look at each person we encounter with the belief that human life is sacred – every human life!- and when we respect the God-given dignity of each human person, then they will truly have something to talk about when our time is up. “…for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Countless obstacles throw themselves up in the path of our striving to love. It may be our own woundedness, our own personal pain that holds us back and keeps us from opening our hearts to others. It may be our busyness and all the tasks of daily life that blind us to the opportunities and the invitations to love. It could be the biases we pick up from family members and other influential people in our lives that lead us to narrow mindedness and prejudice that lead us to writing some people off as less human, less important, or less worthy of our attention, our respect, our compassion, our love. There are people who don’t look like I do, don’t dress like I do, don’t talk like I do; there are people who have harmed others, there are people who have broken the law. And at times, I am inclined to discount them, to ignore them, to look down my nose at them. Even worse, when I have the power to do so, I sometimes want to get them out of my sight, get them out of my environment, get them as far away as possible from me, and exclude them from anything that qualifies them as human. Well, St. Paul is challenging us today to open our hearts and arms as wide as Christ on the cross. Big challenge! In another place, the apostle points out that Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of love – dying on the Cross – not for the worthy, not for the good, but for sinners, for you and me and all the rest of the world, every single human being. It was the innocent one that willingly opened his arms on the Cross in love for all of sinful, broken, needy humanity. It is he who invites to open our arms just as wide our sisters and brother in the human family. So, let us do some examination of conscience this Sunday morning, and let us ask the Spirit of God for his help and fire into our souls to accept this challenge, and to improve this specific aspect in our spiritual life • AE
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Fr. Agustin’s Schedule for September 5-6, 2020.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Saturday, September 5, 2020
4.00 p.m. Sacrament of Confession
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.
Sunday September 6, 2020.
10.30 a.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
(Outdoors mass)
12.00 p.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
(Main church)
4. 00 p.m. Sacrament of Confession
5.00 p.m. English Mass
@ Trinity University
(Margarite B. Parker Chapel)
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Hoy nadie soporta que le corijan o aconsejen sobre algo. Como consecuencia, quienes, por su responsabilidad, están llamados a corregir huyen rápidamente con un “cada quién es libre de hacer lo que quiera”. Efectivamente, huimos de la corrección fraterna, paradójicamente rechazamos esta corrección en una época en la que exigimos correcciones en todo: en el televisor, que no nos da una imagen suficientemente nítida, en la hechura del traje que nos acabamos de comprar, en la conexión a Internet. En todo. Se diría que en la medida en que hemos conseguido precisiones tecnológicas increíbles a base de corregir, en esa misma medida hemos llegado a una irresponsable dejación de las conductas humanas…justo por no corregir. El evangelio de hoy es muy claro: “Si tu hermano peca, repréndele a solas...”. Se trata de una corrección preocupada, insistente, progresiva: “a solas..., ante dos..., ante la comunidad”. Y es que la mala conducta no puede dejar nunca indiferente al cristiano. El pecado no sólo repercute en quien lo comete, sino en la comunidad a la que pertenece. Cuando un miembro de nuestro cuerpo está herido, todo nuestro cuerpo siente malestar y dolor. Hablamos mucho de solidaridad, usamos esta palabra cuando los derechos humanos de alguien han sido quebrantados, pero solidaridad es también y sobre todo velar para que “los árboles tiernos –y todos lo somos-crezcan y mueran de pie”[2]. El jardinero corrige las guías torcidas de sus arbustos. Y los padres, los educadores, los sacerdotes, los cristianos en general, somos jardineros de la viña del Señor. Lo que pasa es que, para corregir, hacen falta dos cosas al menos. Una, mucha humildad. El que corrige no es infalible, sino un servidor dispuesto, a su vez, a ser corregido. Corregir, por lo tanto, no es anatematizar, humillar, apabullar, sino valorar» al corregido. Y la otra: el punto de partida de la corrección es el amor sincero. No perdamos esto de vista. El padre que corrige porque “en esta casa mando yo”; el profesor que corrige “por razones de orden y disciplina”; el formador que corrige por “mantener un principio de autoridad”, poco ayudan. Siempre será mejor tener delante aquello tan entrañable que escribía Gabriela Mistral «Aligérame, Señor, la mano en el castigo, y suavízamela en la caricia. Y que reprenda con amor para saber que he corregido amando»[3] • AE
[1] Rom 13:8.
[2] Los árboles mueren de pie es una obra teatral del dramaturgo español Alejandro Casona publicada en 1949, que pertenece a la literatura contemporánea española.
[3] La oración de la maestra. El texto completo pueede leerse aqui: http://www.gabrielamistral.uchile.cl/prosa/oracionmaestra.html
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)
L. Spada, Martyrdom of St. Peter (1620), oil on canvas,
Hermitage Museum (St. Petesburg)
...
The Gospel passage comes immediately after last Sunday’s Gospel when Jesus called Peter, “Blessed”, for proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ. He told him that he was the rock upon which Jesus would build His Church. He told Peter that his decisions on earth, Peter’s decisions on earth, would have power in heaven. Now in the passage that follows all this, Jesus calls Peter Satan. How did Peter fall so quickly? He fell because he was reasoning things out the way people of the world would reason. He was not thinking the way God thinks. He lacked wisdom. The way of the world would be, “Save your life. Don’t let anyone kill you.” The way of the Lord would be, “Make the sacrificial love of God real. Sacrifice yourself for others.” It is easy for us to think the way the world thinks. Everything around us tells us to take not give, to be concerned about ourselves first and others second, or third or fourth. Fit God in somewhere, if you care. That is the thought process of the world. “Times have changed, Father. I’m only doing what is perfectly acceptable by our society.” And with these words, the elderly lady explained away her present living condition. And with the same words, the young man justified his “wild” lifestyle, and with the same words the abuser justified his actions. And on and on and on. Add in whatever immoral behavior you can think of, and someone will say, “I’m only doing what is perfectly acceptable by society.” But what society is that? In what society is immorality acceptable? It is acceptable by the society that finds nothing wrong with hedonism, putting one’s pleasure before every other good in life, including respect for others, respect for country, respect for life. What is the society that so many claim for themselves? It is the society that is at best amoral, but which is mostly immoral. It is the society that is at best pagan, but mostly atheistic. When a person hides his or her immoral behavior behind the “acceptable by our society,” argument, that person is invoking the society that St. Paul calls “this age,” or, according to some translations, “the pattern of the world.” This is the world that Jesus Christ came to save. It is the world of selfishness, a world of pride, a world where God is not wanted. It is a world of darkness. It is a world to which we Christians cannot belong. We were joined to a new world when we were baptized. Each of us is a key part of the new world, the Kingdom of God. There are hundred, perhaps thousands of people in each of our lives who look to us to illuminate their darkness with the Light of Christ. The problem is that we can easily be enticed by all that is around us. We can easily reject all that is within us. And so we often straddle major issues in life. Even though we recognize our dignity as sons and daughters of God, we often let ourselves get involved in actions that are far less than holy. We think that we are OK, because we are firmly planted on the Lord’s dock, but the forces the other foot has stepped into draws us away from the dock, and we end up in the drink. We do not embrace Christianity for high theological reasons or arguments. We embrace Jesus Christ for one reason only: we are wounded by His Love. That is from an Irish saint, St. Columban: “Show me my hearts desire, O Lord, for I am wounded by your love.” Men of God, women of God, we have been wounded by Love. When we made the conscious choice of Jesus Christ, we set out on a course of action that does not allow turning back. But we don’t care. We are wounded by His Love. And we love it. He is within us, burning out for us to proclaim his presence. Even if we wanted to ignore Him, we cannot. We are His. Better is one day in your house, O Lord, better is one day in your house, than a thousand elsewhere. That is from Psalm 84. Better is one day savoring your presence in my life, than a thousand in a luxurious house gained through questionable business practices, gained immorally. Better is one day in your house than a thousand in the arms of an immoral love. Better is one day in your house, than a thousand as the most popular person in school with a talent for quietly destroying others. Better is one day in your house than a thousand parties where drugs and drunks are plentiful. And yet, still, a little devious voice within us that protests, “Does this all need to be so demanding? I am doing my part. I can back off some.” To this voice, we shout angrily as Jesus shouted at Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. God’s work is all that matters.” We are wounded by Love. And we love it. You duped us Lord, and we let ourselves be duped. We love it. We love you. Nothing else, no one else, my Lord, than a thousand elsewhere • AE
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Fr. Agustin’s Schedule for August 30, 2020.
Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
9.00 a.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
11.00 a.m. English Mas
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church
4.30 p.m. Sacrament of Reconciliation
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@Trinity University
...
XXII Domingo Ordinario (Ciclo A)
La reacción de Pedro es, en cierto modo, explicable. De su amor a Cristo no se puede dudar. El domingo pasado escuchábamos su gran profesión de fe: "Tú eres el Mesías, el Hijo de Dios". Pero todavía no había entendido que el camino de Cristo es camino de renuncia y sacrificio, antes de ser de salvación y de gloria. A Pedro, como a nosotros, le gustaban los aspectos amables del seguimiento de Jesús, pero no el sacrificio. Le gustaba el monte Tabor, el de la transfiguración, pero no el Gólgota, el del dolor.... ¡Y algo asín nos pasa a nosotros!... La historia de Jeremías y de Jesús es la historia de tantos y tantos cristianos que, a lo largo de los siglos, han experimentado la dificultad de vivir su fe en medio de una sociedad indiferente o incluso hostil, y la historia de un cristiano de hoy, que quiere vivir su cristianismo con coherencia. Ser cristiano se ha ido convirtiendo cada vez más en una opción explícita por Cristo y por su estilo de vida, por su mentalidad y criterios de actuación. Pero supone que se acepta a la vez el riesgo y la dificultad, porque la escala de valores de Cristo no coincide con la de este mundo. No se trata de buscar el sufrimiento en sí mismo, sino de aceptar el seguimiento de Cristo con coherencia. Este es el punto. En la segunda lectura de este domingo el apóstol les aconseja a los cristianos de Roma que "no se ajusten a este mundo, sino que sepan discernir lo que es la voluntad de Dios, lo bueno, lo que agrada, lo perfecto”, ¡Ese es el mejor culto a Dios! El discernimiento cuesta, y conduce a decisiones que pueden resultar difíciles, porque lo cómodo es acomodarse a este mundo: sentarse a ver la vida pasar con un buen trago en la mano. Jeremías también pensó en abandonar el encargo profético para poder vivir tranquilo en su pueblo. Pero la Palabra de Dios le ardía dentro y escogió el camino difícil. Jesús pidió a su Padre que le ahorrara "el cáliz de su muerte", pero eligió el camino difícil: "No se haga mi voluntad, sino la tuya". Y Pedro, que al principio pensaba como los hombres y no como Dios y prefería las cosas fáciles, también le vendrá el tiempo en que, ya maduro en su fe y amor a Cristo dé el valiente testimonio del martirio. También a nosotros el mundo de hoy nos ofrece caminos mucho más fáciles y prometedores a corto plazo. Pero Cristo nos dice que si queremos seguirle tenemos que tomar cada uno su cruz. Lo que no podemos hacer es una selección de lo que nos gusta, evitando lo que nos parece más serio y exigente en el programa de vida de Jesús. La Eucaristía nos da la fuerza para poder seguir por ese camino, exigente pero coherente. Comulgar con Cristo, en la eucaristía, es comulgar también en lo que tenemos entre manos a lo largo de la semana. Con todas las consecuencias, aunque a veces eso suponga dificultad y renuncia. Pero, a la larga, es lo único que nos dará paz y alegría • AE
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle A)
As you know, the name Peter comes from the Greek word, Petra,
meaning rock. Jesus named Simon,
"Peter", the rock upon which the Church would be built. Authority in the Church was entrusted to
Peter: whatever you declare bound on earth would be bound in heaven, whatever
you declare loosed on earth would be loose in heaven. The Lord could have
found many ways of establishing His church. He could have entrusted it to the
angels. He could have worked out a
Church of some sort of direct inspiration where every move on earth was exactly
dictated from heaven. Instead, the Lord
put the Church in the hands of people of faith. Good people, like Peter, but
still people with all the limitations of being human. As all human beings,
sometimes the humanity of individuals got in the way of their divine charge. Peter
tried to keep Christ from going to Jerusalem and was called "Satan"
for he was doing the work of the devil.
After boasting that he would never deny the Lord, he did in fact deny
him three times. Peter was a good man, a
man of faith, but sometimes his vision became clouded. He was a man who could walk on water to the
Lord, but then started thinking about what he was doing and started to drown. That
was very much the story of his failings. He often started out well, but then
let his humanity effect his actions. Peter
was a holy man, but still, a man, and as a man he made human mistakes. On the
positive side, Peter was a man who grew in his faith. He was a determined fisher of men. He accepted the obligations and
responsibilities of leadership over the other apostles, many of whom were far
better educated than he was. Think about
Paul who was educated at the feet of the great teacher Gamaliel. Yet Paul laid
his teaching out before Peter to be sure he was proclaiming Christ
properly. Peter’s authority was given to
Him by the Lord and confirmed in the action of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and
through the remainder of Peter’s life.
Peter may have denied Jesus before Pentecost, but after Pentecost, he
embraced suffering if that was what the Gospel entails. Peter, this man of
Galilee, whose longest trip had been to Jerusalem, traveled all the way to
Rome. This man who fled the crucifixion of Jesus, accepted his own crucifixion
asking to be crucified head down because he didn’t deserve to die as the Lord
died. When we consider the human failings of all the Popes who followed Peter,
including those who would be canonized saints, we must recognize the hand of
the Holy Spirit in the very life of the Church. Christ gave His authority to
the rock, even though some of those who exercised this authority let their
humanity get in the way of their responsibility. Still, because we do have a concrete
authority, rock-solid, we know who we are when we say we are Catholic. We know the fundamental beliefs of our faith
and the basic dictates of our morals. We
are so firm in our faith, that even if those in authority should give us a poor
example of living the faith as some of the popes of the distant past did, we
still maintain our Christianity. The
Church still flourishes. Why? Because the Church is far more than
individuals. It is the Body of Christ
guided by the Holy Spirit. Human frailty is not more powerful than Divine
Grace. When I think of some of the ways
in which I, as an ordained leader have let my humanity get in the way of my
responsibility, and yet still witness the wonderful ways the Lord uses me for
others, I realize that God's power is far greater than my own limitations. After twenty years as a priest, I am still
shocked at the way the Lord uses me despite my continual human failings. Many
parents fear that they are acting like hypocrites when they do everything, they
cannot prevent their children from engaging in actions that those parents
themselves had done. But really, they are not hypocrites. They are concerned parents who want to
protect their children from repeating their mistakes. We are entrusted with the
responsibility of leading others to the Lord. We recognize that we do not do
this alone. We realize that we must
allow the hand of the Lord to work his wonders through us. Today's gospel
reading, You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church leads
us to make an act of faith in the Lord who uses human beings, you and me, to
proclaim his wonders, his mercy and his love • AE
...
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time.
All Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church Sunday Masses (8:30 am, 10:30 am and 12 Noon) will be at St. Anthony High School Chapel (right across the parking lot). This chapel that can accommodate more people that our Church. We will continue to follow the social distance guidelines, close pews allowing 6 feet apart, and sanitizing in between Masses.
...
Fr. Agustin´s Mass Schedule
8.30 a.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
10.30 a.m. English Mass
@ Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church
5.30 p.m. English Mass
@ St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church.
...
XXI Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario (Ciclo A)
Y ustedes, ¿quién dicen que soy yo? No es
fácil responder con sinceridad a esta pregunta. En realidad, ¿quién es
Jesús para nosotros? Su persona nos llega a través de veinte siglos de
imágenes, fórmulas, ideologizaciones, experiencias e interpretaciones culturales
que van desvelando y velando al mismo tiempo su enorme riqueza. Además, cada
uno vamos revistiendo a Jesús de lo que nosotros somos, proyectando en él
nuestros deseos, aspiraciones, intereses y limitaciones. También nuestros miedos. Casi sin darnos
cuenta lo empequeñecemos y desfiguramos incluso cuando tratamos de exaltarlo. Somos asín (sic). Lo que importa es que Jesús, el Señor, sigue vivo. Los cristianos no lo hemos podido
disecar con nuestra mediocridad. Y además tampoco permite que lo disfracemos, ni se deja etiquetar ni reducir a unos ritos, unas fórmulas, unas costumbres. Jesús
siempre desconcierta a quienes nos acercamos a Él, y al mismo tempo es siempre
es distinto de lo que esperábamos. Siempre abre nuevas brechas en nuestra vida,
rompe nuestros esquemas y nos empuja a una vida nueva. Cuanto más se le conoce,
más sabe uno que todavía está empezando a descubrirlo. Seguir a Jesús es
avanzar siempre, no sentarse a ver la vida pasar; crear, construir, crecer. Con
Jesús todo nuestro interior queda al descubierto. En Él hay una entrega a los hombres que
desenmascara todo nuestro egoísmo. Una pasión por la justicia que sacude todas
nuestras seguridades, privilegios y comodidad. Una ternura y una búsqueda de
reconciliación y perdón que deja al descubierto nuestra mezquindad. Una
libertad que rasga nuestras mil esclavitudes y servidumbres. Y sobre todo un amor
tan grande que nos atrae y nos invita a abrir nuestra existencia al Padre. A
Jesús lo iremos conociendo en la medida en que nos acerquemos a él. Sólo hay un
camino para ahondar en su misterio: seguirle. Seguir humildemente sus pasos,
abrirnos con él al Padre, actualizar sus gestos de amor y ternura, mirar la
vida con sus ojos, compartir su destino doloroso, esperar su resurrección. Y
sin duda, saber orar muchas veces -diariamente- desde el fondo de nuestro corazón con aquellas palabras del padre de aquel muchacho enfermo: "Creo,
Señor, ayuda mi incredulidad" • AE
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