Allocution, Sunday, October 25, 2020

 

 

Today, the thirtieth Sunday of ordinary liturgical time, the gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter 22, verses 34-40, is read in all the Catholic churches of the world.

Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew 22, 34-40

At that time, the Pharisees, hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together in a place and one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him to put him to justice.
proof:
“Teacher, what is the main commandment of the law?”
He told her:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.’
This commandment is the main and first. The second one is similar to him:
‘You love your neighbor as yourself’.
In these two commandments the entire Law and the Prophets are sustained.”

 

• We thank God for so many people who go to mass every Sunday of the year.
• We thank God for all the families who, together with everyone who lives in the house, bless the food at lunch and dinner and pray together before going to sleep.
• We thank God for all the grandmothers who teach catechism to their grandchildren.
• We thank God for the couple who read, comment, pray and live the gospel every day.
• We thank God for all those who, when going to work and classes, when they pass in front of a temple, enter and kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and present their smiles and their tears.
• We thank God for the La Milagrosa church, in Santo Suárez, which keeps its doors open from seven in the morning until seven at night.

These people love the Lord God with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their mind.

 

(SINGING)

 

• We thank God for spouses who celebrate 25, 50, 75 years of marriage. What love of neighbor!
• We thank God for pregnant mothers who carry the joy of their blessed fruit, talk to their blessed fruit, caress their blessed fruit and defend it like lionesses.
• We thank God for the tireless mothers of disabled children, who are treated like true princes and princesses.
• We thank God for the daughters who keep the sheets of their bedridden mothers and fathers white.
• We thank God for the doctors, nurses, health workers, who suffer with their patients and fight tirelessly for health.
• We thank God for the employees who treat us with love and overcome difficulties to serve us.
• We thank God for the Daughters of Charity in El Rincón, La Agencia de Oro and Bejucal. We thank God for the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly in Santovenia and in Santa Teresa Jornet. We thank God for the Servants of Saint Joseph in Miramar. We thank God for the Religious of Mary Immaculate in Domestic Service. We thank God for the Brothers of San Juan de Dios in San Rafael and San Juan de Dios. We thank God for the Sisters of Martha and Mary in the home of the elderly parents. And we also thank God for the young people and adults who help these nuns and these brothers in caring for those who are in these holy places.
• We thank God for people in conflict who seek peaceful solutions.
• We thank God for our deceased who bequeathed us a heritage of faith, honesty, family harmony, service and true love for others. What an example of love for Jesus Christ present in these people!

 

(SINGING)

 

A couple made up of the expert Felipe and the beautiful Chabela, lived in a country house. They were happy. They led a quiet life and loved each other very much. One day a terrible accident happened in the kitchen. While the woman was preparing the food, the frying pan caught fire. Flames covered the woman’s arms, hands and face. Hearing the screams, the husband came running. He did everything possible to put out the flames, which he succeeded, but not before being very badly injured himself.

Both were immediately taken to a hospital, where they were admitted to the intensive care unit.

When she regained consciousness and learned what had happened, Chabela was very shaken. Even though he asked for a mirror, the nurses did not want to give it to him. Fearing the worst, one day he managed to leave his room and enter another one that was empty. There, in the bathroom, she looked in the mirror, and she was horrified! She was totally disfigured! He told himself that he didn’t want to continue living. She would never again be the beautiful woman who had so impressed her husband, and she determined to go far away from him.

A few days later the husband was discharged. The first thing he did was visit his wife. Since the doctors had explained to him the state in which he was going to find her, he thought: “I have to take good care of her, because she will be very tormented; with how happy she looked with her beautiful face…”. So he entered her room, feeling around with a cane, and confessed to her:

“My beloved, how I have missed you! Thank God, I’m told you’re recovering quickly. As for me, I’m fine. It is true that the fire affected my eyes and I have gone blind, but the important thing is that we are both alive and we have each other. Don’t mind that I can’t see you, love, because I will always have the beauty of your face engraved in my heart. Are you okay, my love?”

– I’m fine sweetheart! -she said softly.

Sad for what had happened to her husband, she thought: “How sad that he is blind, even though he won’t be able to see how deformed I have become. As for me, I have to be strong… because he needs me.” That day forever banished the desire to leave.

When the wife was discharged, she and her husband returned home. They had to make a lot of efforts to adapt to the new situation, but they managed it, and helping each other, they lived many years together and were very happy.

When the woman died, her friends went to offer their condolences to her husband. Then they saw that he was walking without needing the cane that he had carried since that distant day of the accident; The friends thought: “What is this, a miracle?”

When the moment of farewell arrived, the husband approached the body of his beloved wife, kissed and caressed her face and said in a low voice: “How beautiful you are, my love! How much I love you! Never forget you!”.

One of the friends dared to ask what everyone was thinking: “What happened? Was there a miracle? How do you see again?”

Felipe responded: “I was never blind.”

 

Each wife ask her husband: Do you love me like Felipe loved Chabela?

 

(SINGING)

 

We pray to the Father of all who makes us brothers and close.

(Our father)

We pray to the Virgin, Mother who carries all her children and unites us in the great family of Cubans.

(Ave Maria)

On Wednesday, October 28, we read the Letter of Saint Jude and send to the Archbishopric the phrase that most catches our attention.

And the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain forever… Amen.

 

(SINGING)