Reflexión para la Solemnidad de la Santísima Trinidad. Las lecturas son: Deuteronomio 4:32-34, 39-40, Salmo 33, Romanos 8:14-17 y Mateo 28:16-20
«Yo estoy con ustedes todos los días hasta el fin del mundo» (Mateo 28:20).
Ese tiene que ser uno de mis pasajes favoritos de la Biblia. Dios está con nosotros siempre, hasta el fin del mundo. Esa es una gran noticia. Si no recuerdas nada de lo que vas a leer hoy, al menos recuerda eso.
Como ya saben, mi nombre es Pedro. Cuando era chiquito siempre me sentía orgulloso de que mi patrono fuera el primer papa, San Pedro. Pero mi segundo nombre es Emmanuel, que quiere decir, «Dios con nosotros». Ese sí que es un nombre especial. Me sentía aún más orgulloso de mi segundo nombre. Me encanta la idea de que Dios está con nosotros.
Nuestro Dios no es un Dios lejano, sentado en un trono por allá arriba, en algún lugar del cielo. Nuestro Dios es un Dios que está con nosotros. Esa es la gran noticia; la buena nueva.
Hoy celebramos una gran fiesta: la Solemnidad de la Santísima Trinidad. La palabra «Trinidad» quiere decir «tres» y se refiere a la realidad de que nuestro Dios es un solo Dios en tres Personas.
No son tres dioses; es un solo Dios: «Escucha, Israel: el Señor es nuestro Dios, el Señor es uno» (Deuteronomio 6:4-5). Al mismo tiempo, es tres Personas. No son tres aspectos de Dios ni tres cualidades de Dios —creador, redentor y santificador—. No. Son tres Personas. Cada una, completamente distinta de la otra, pero todas igualmente, un solo Dios.
Un solo Dios, tres Personas.
Reflexión para Viernes Santo. Las lecturas son Isaías 52:13-53:12; Salmo 31; Hebreos 4:14-16, 5:7-9 y Juan 18:1-19:42.
Esto no me pasa a menudo, pero en las últimas semanas, por alguna razón, he estado contando los días hasta el viernes. ME imagino que mucha gente hace eso. No pueden esperar a que llegue el fin de semana. Y cuando llega, decimos: “¡gracias a Dios es viernes!” En inglés, “Thank God it’s Friday!” Incluso en inglés hay imágenes que podemos enviarnos por chat o poner en las redes sociales: “TGIF”; gracias a Dios es viernes. En español siempre recibo chats que dicen “feliz viernes”.
Pero entonces llegamos a esta semana, y a este día — gracias a Dios es viernes — este día que en inglés le dicen “Good Friday”, “viernes bueno”. En Español es “Viernes Santo”, pero debería ser “viernes negro” o “viernes triste”. Supongo que el nombre oficial es “Viernes de la Pasión del Señor”. Viernes Santo.
En mi mente lo entiendo. Este viernes es “bueno” porque nos dirige al domingo. Sin la muerte, no hay resurrección. Honramos este viernes como “bueno” porque nos conduce a una victoria.
Read more…A reflection for the 4th Sunday in Lent, Year A. The readings are 1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:8-14 and John 9:1-41.
It’s hard to listen to today’s Gospel and not think of the song, Amazing Grace…
…how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now I’m found;
was blind but now I see.
But there’s so much to today’s Gospel – it is so rich! We could focus on the fact that this is Jesus’ sixth Sign (that’s what John calls Jesus’ miracles) in the Gospel of John – next week we’ll hear about the seventh: the raising of Lazarus. We could talk about how this Sign also comes with one of the seven “I Am” statements from Jesus: “I am the light of the world”. Next week we’ll hear him say, “I am the resurrection and the life.” We could speak about the baptismal character of the story: the man washes in the waters of the Pool of Siloam and is healed – that’s like baptism. Or we could speak about the Sacramental aspect: Jesus makes mud and puts it on the man’s eyes. That’s physical matter being used: a physical sign of an invisible Grace… There’s so much.
But I really just want to focus on one aspect; that one line: “one thing I know, that I was blind and now I see.”
That’s what happens when we encounter Jesus. It changes us.
A reflection for the 1st Sunday, Lent, Year A. The readings are Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Psalm 51; Romans 5:12-19 and Matthew 4:1-11.
I’m sure everyone reading this wants to be happy, right? And guess what? God also wants you to be happy. He wants you to be happy with Him. But we are fallen human beings and we’re weak. And there’s this thing called sin. So it’s hard.
Last week we heard that we should not murder, commit adultery or perjury (Matthew 5:17-37) and that most of us do not. And so we don’t think of ourselves as sinners. But that Jesus calls us to a higher standard. Yes, the 10 commandments are sin, but if we are really serious about our Christian journey on our way to be happy with God, we have to have a deeper understanding of sin.
The words in Hebrew and in Greek that are used in the Bible for “sin” is the same word that is used in the context of archery to mean “missing the mark”. In Archery we shoot an arrow and we try to hit the bull’s eye. If we miss the bull’s eye, we’ve missed the mark. I think this this is a good image of what sin is. It is missing the mark. The problem is that we don’t even know we’re trying to hit a mark? We don’t know what the bull’s eye is. So, what is the mark we’re trying to hit? It’s happiness with God. It’s being with God. It’s saying “yes” to God. When we fail to say “yes” to God, we’re missing the mark. So, sin is anything that we do that says “no” to God. But it’s not always very clear. I don’t mean when we’re praying or we’re at Mass. That’s clearly (or should be) saying “yes” to God. But it’s at other times. When we’re doing other things. Every choice that we make (especially the big ones), we are either saying “yes” or “no” to God. In everything we do and say, we are either saying “yes” or “no” to God. And we’re not talking about murder and adultery. We’re talking about the less obvious things. The things when we are not thinking about God. And so, I think that it’s important to think about what leads us to sin. Those are temptations.
Every time we pray the Lord’s prayer, we ask God to “lead us not into temptation”. That is asking God to help us not fall into sin. That’s a good prayer to pray. Temptation is anything that can lead us to sin, to miss the mark. Temptation is anything that leads us or attracts us to say “no” to God. Anything that we do outside of God, is sin. Anything that leads us or attracts us or pushes us to do things without God, is temptation. Any thing we do to be happy without God is sin. Any desire we have to be happy that excludes God, is temptation.
So, here’s the question again: Do you want to be happy? Does your plan for happiness include God?
Read more…
deacon pedro 