Rev. Fr. Juan J. Sosa

SAINT JOSEPH - PATRON OF UNIVERSAL CHURCH

Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time : November 6, 2016

The world’s problems cannot be solved with hatred or violence. Abuse of power always leads to oppression. Nevertheless, those who have faith in God always maintain hope in the Lord and his di-vine justice. In the first reading today, we contem-plate the oppression of the Maccabees in the history of the Israelites. Their faith in God sustains them, even to the point of death, because they are filled with God’s love. In the second reading, Saint Paul reminds the Thessalonians to pray that they may be freed from those who persecute them, and never to forget that the Lord will give them the strength to overcome oppression.

Today we offer our personal suffering along-side the world’s pains on the altar with Jesus Christ, who transforms all in the Eucharistic sacrifice. Throughout the week, we can pray for all persecuted Christians. We also identify those moments where God’s strength has been made manifest in the lives of Christians that we know, or have heard of.

Rev. Juan J. Sosa
Pastor

‘We are not God’

November 13, 2016

67. We are not God. The earth was here before us and it has been given to us. This allows us to respond to the charge that Judeo-Christian thinking, on the basis of the Genesis account which grants man “dominion” over the earth (cf. Gen 1:28), has encouraged the unbridled exploitation of nature by painting him as domineering and destructive by nature. This is not a correct interpretation of the Bible as understood by the Church. Although it is true that we Christians have at times incorrectly interpreted the Scriptures, nowadays we must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures. The biblical texts are to be read in their context, with an appropriate hermeneutic, recognizing that they tell us to “till and keep” the garden of the world (cf. Gen 2:15).

“Tilling” refers to cultivating, ploughing or working, while “keeping” means caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. “The earth is the Lord’s” (Ps 24:1); to him belongs “the earth with all that is within it” (Dt 10:14).

Thus God rejects every claim to absolute ownership: “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with me” (Lev25:23).

Source : Laudato Si’