Wisdom 12, 13. 16-19; Romans 8, 26-27; Mt. 13, 24-43
The presence of evil in the world does not need proof, it is obvious to everyone; and equally, the presence of good, although, for some reason, evil strikes one's imagination much more powerfully: people are more inclined to think of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot than of Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King. The world is indeed, as JESUS says, a field in which the wheat and the darnel grow up together.
Where does evil come from? JESUS provides us with the answer: all that God has done is good, He has sowed only the wheat; as Genesis says, each created thing on each of the six days of creation was good, and the "man" was "very good". All that God does is good. Evil does not come from God, but from His "enemy", the devil. The devil was present soon after creation, working against God, and he continues still. There is no doubt that JESUS had a clear view of the devil and taught that he was indeed a personal entity who worked against God bringing corruption and all kind of evil. Exorcism was the most striking feature of JESUS' activity.
Evil comes from the "enemy", the devil, and from a human will inclined to evil and choosing freely to do evil. It is not good, therefore, to blame God for the existence of evil: He is beyond reproach, but we are to blame in conjunction with the "enemy". Yet, there are Christians who become "angry" with God when misfortune or illness or death knock at their door. God has nothing to do with any of such negative, evil things, their origin is to be found elsewhere, in the "enemy". The other problem, where does the "enemy" come from, is to be tackled along the same lines of the perfect free will of angels created good by God, with some of them rebelling against Him.
Notice the patience of God: the "good" persons, often become impatient, long for the supremacy of good over evil quickly. Like James and John, they ask JESUS to "bring down fire from heaven and destroy" the evil-doers. God wish to give everyone a chance, and He waits and waits, with patience. It is appropriate to quote Erasmus' answer to Martin Luther who was urging him to leave the corrupt Catholic Church: "The Church is corrupt and I am glad to wait for Her to become holier, as She waits for me, a corrupt man, to change and become a better person".
It is through the power of the Spirit in our hearts that change is possible: we ought to follow the inspiration, we ought to repeat with Paul, "His grace in me has not been in vain", but I have let it change my mind and my heart towards God, the origin of good and holiness. Let us today thank God for His patience towards us, committing ourselves to be one with the Spirit of God in us who "comes to help us in our weakness".
Isaiah 1, 10-17; Mt. 10, 34-11,1
"Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it", thus says the Lord in today's difficult and challenging gospel. The verse is found six times in the gospels, evidence of the special importance early Christians attached to it. It was extremely tempting during the fierce Roman persecution for Christians to "preserve their life" by burning incense to the roman gods and returning to the safety of paganism. Much more difficult it was to "lose their life for JESUS' sake" by accepting martyrdom.
Yet, martyrdom was what the Lord requested, following Him to death on the Cross, knowing that passion and death would be followed by the glorious resurrection and life eternal. By denying JESUS, one would indeed preserve the earthly life, but would lose the eternal one - one would be subject to the "second death".
The command of the Lord to take up our cross and to follow Him is in line with the message of the great prophets of Israel who denounced the exterior animal sacrifices unaccompanied by the interior sacrifice of giving up one's will to do the Will of God by obeying His commandments: "What are your endless sacrifices to me? I am sick of holocausts... Cease to do evil, learn to do good, search for justice".
We may have the good fortune to live in more peaceful times, and martyrdom may well be something we may not be asked to go through. But the tendency to "preserve our life" by sparing ourselves, by taking pity on ourselves, by making sure people do not ask from us by saying to everyone how poor we are, how tired, how busy we are could be very tempting, thus risking to "lose our life" in heaven. We ought to have in us a "martyr's heart", always ready to engage in hard work, to give ourselves to others with a generous heart, to fight strongly self-indulgence and self-pity for the sake of the Kingdom. JESUS did not have a pillow to lay His head, and immersed Himself totally in His ministry: are we ready to follow His example?
Isaiah 55, 10-11;Romans 8, 18-23; Mt. 13, 1-23
Christianity is not a religion of the book. There is much more beside Scriptures and preaching: the world would not have embraced it without the power of Christian worship, the grace of the Sacraments, the power of Tradition and of the Magisterium. Yet, the Church venerates immensely the Word of God in Scripture: "The Church venerates Scripture as much as She venerates the Body of Christ", and she is always urging us to remember the words of St. Jerome, "Ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ".
God has spoken and speaks to us in many ways: His divine word comes from heaven and "does not return to me empty", says the Lord, "without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do". The power is in the word of God, and this reality became manifest when the Son of God, the eternal Word of the Father, became flesh and settled among us. The Word in God is no pure effusion of air, it is His divine Son, it is always real, hence it is power and action and truth at the same time.
It is conforting to know that the word of God has a power of its own, not bound to the preacher; it alone operates in the depths of people's hearts. Yet, our yes to it is all important, since freedom is the gift of God for each of us: we need to receive the word, to nurture it, to allow it to germinate, and to bear much fruit. Alas, we may allow the devil to take away the word from our hearts: we know it from experience, the presence of evil is real, it surrounds us, it operates towards our destruction. We must resist it, protecting ourselves from it through the grace of God.
The other enemy that hinders the fruitful explosion of the Word in us is our constant mediocrity, is our inability to shake off that indolence for the spiritual that kills slowly the divine grace in us. And thirdly, the last enemy of the Word is the corruption of our nature that prompts us to compromise with our passions, our evil desires, our tendency to be evil.
Let us today become good soil, with the grace of God. The divine Sower is always at work, but He requires our full cooperation, the enthusiasm of welcoming the Word with the hard work of keeping at bay the devil, the passions and evil desires of our hearts. It is a daily endeavour, a constant turning to the Word for light and nourishment.
29 June, St. Peter and St. Paul
The Holy Father inaugurated officially last night the "Year of St. Paul" with an ecumenical celebration at the basilica of St. Paul outside the walls, in the presence of the patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I and many other leaders of orthodox and protestant churches. In the homily, Benedict XVI explained the reason behind the idea of the Year of St. Paul: Paul has been constituted by God as "the Teacher of the Gentile Nations", not only of the people of his own time, but of all nations throughout the centuries, including our own. Paul is today the Teacher of our Nations, therefore we ought to read him, listen to him, know what he says. We should take full advantage of this opportunity the Church is giving us to know the mind and heart of St. Paul.
Peter and Paul were people of very different backgrounds: Paul was a Jew from Tarsus, a Roman citizen, who had studied at the feet of the great Jewish Rabbi Gamaliel. He was passionate about his religion, we would call him today a Jewish fundamentalist, burning with zeal for the religion of his ancestors. He saw the threat posed to Judaism by the preaching of the Good News of JESUS, and he tried to stop this sect from spreading, participating in the murder of many innocent Christians - at least by his vocal support - and passing into action by delivering Christians to the Jewish courts. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" said the Lord to him, reminding him of his cruel treatment of Christians.
Peter, on the other hand, was a simple, uneducated fisherman, impetuous but a bit slow in understanding what was happening before his own eyes. He says to JESUS, "Away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man", and we all know how he betrayed JESUS out of fear for his life. Yet, the Lord who chooses what is weak to confound the strong, chose him to become the rock on which to build His Church: "You are Peter and on this rock I shall build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall be considered looed in heaven".
Two very different people, yet united by a common purpose, a common love. The source of all of Peter's and Paul's actions and deeds is their burning zeal for the Good News, and their impetuous love for JESUS Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind. Theirs was not a faith based on ideas, but on the living experience of the power of God in JESUS. Three times Peter is asked by JESUS, "Do you love me?" and three times Peter answers, "Yes Lord you know that I love you"; Paul met JESUS on the way to Damascus, he was captured by Him, and became his doulos, servant, loving Him with all the passion of his heart.
Let us then today renew our faith in JESUS: a faith not based on ideas or on family tradition or habit but a living faith, with a passion for God and for His Church, ready to shed our own blood for JESUS, as both Peter and Paul did in the distant 67 AD.
There is an incident in John's life that highlights the mission and the greatness of the man who defined himself simply "a voice" speaking from the wilderness.
John's disciples had noted with apprehension and perhaps anger that the "man" to whom John had paid some time back an outstanding tribute, that man and his disciples were now baptising with such success that the "whole world" was going after him. What was John going to do about it? To their astonishment, John's face lit up as he said, "Now my joy is complete, for He must increase and I must decrease".
It is Christ that matters, not His messengers; it is Christ who must be preached, not our ideas; it is the mind of Christ that must rule over the hearts of people, not our mind. This is what Paul meant when he said repeatedly that we must acquire "the mind of Christ": we must think like Him, love like Him, act like Him. JESUS must increase in our mind, we must decrease: but we often hold on fiercely to what we think, to what we want, to the ways we have traced for ourselves. We are not prepared, often, to put on Christ, to have the mind of Christ.
To have the mind of Christ is more than to imitate Christ: it is to be Christ, having been sealed in Baptism by the Spirit with the "image of the Son", who truly resides in our being. We are the image of God because JESUS in us is the perfect likeness of the Father. There is no surprise then that the refrain of the Psalm today is, "I thank you Lord for the wonder of my being".
Let us thank the Lord, keeping before us the rough, humble, powerful figure of John the Baptist, rejoicing only when the Name of JESUS is praised and blessed, not our own name: He must increase, we must decrease.
This Sunday resounds with the comforting words of JESUS: "Do not be afraid", repeated three times over the short reading of the Gospel. Fear is in the heart of everyone: Jeremiah expressed it well when he said, "Terror from every side": fear from people who are there to harm us as much as they can with their nastiness, ungratefulness, mocking remarks. Look in the depths of your heart, and there you will discover fear seated as on a throne: fear from people, from diseases, from failures, from death, from hell - the second death. People are fearful, countries are fearful, the world is encircled by fear.
"Do not be afraid", the Lord repeats to us today, as He did when he spoke to Paul in Corinth, encouraging him to place his trust in Him: "Do not be afraid, but speak, for I am with you". This is the source of Christian calm and serenity, the Lord is with us, or, the Gospel of today teaches us, the Divine Providence of God surrounds our life in this dangerous world.
Epicurus, the Greek philosopher, believed in the existence of the gods, but he was not bothered with them, because, he taught, they are not concerned with us; they made this universe as in a child's game, and now they are pursuing other interests. He taught we should not rely on them, but grasp whatever pleasure we can from this life, for there is no tomorrow.
How different is this teaching from the one the Son of God had revealed to us: God loves us so much that He did not spare His only Son but gave Him up for us all; God is so close to us that He knows the numer of the hair on our head, God cares for the world so much that He calls the stars by their name, that He feeds the birds of the air and makes beautiful the lilies of the fields. The love of God surrounds the whole universe, and works in the depths of our heart. Let us abandon ourselves completely to Divine Providence, putting our trust in Him: the Lord is with me, whom shall I fear? You Lord are my lamp, with you I will scale any wall!
Do not be afraid: open wide the doors of your heart to Christ. When you are worried, concerned, afraid, cling to the Lord in prayer and He will rescue you. A famous writer comforted himself in the dark periods of his life with these words: "God exists, Christ is risen, hence everything is well".
A few days ago we celebrated the feast of St. Anthony, who died at the age of 36, consumed by his work for the Kingdom of God, like JESUS. Anthony was not a man happy with half measures, with mediocrity: JESUS would probably have nicknamed him "boanerges", son of thunder, for his zeal for the Lord. He had chosen the religious life at a young age,but the turning moment was when the broken bodies of six franciscan friars were brought back to Lisbon, received with immense popular commotion. The heart of the young Anthony was moved, and he decided to become a franciscan, to be able to go to Morocco, preach there to the Muslims, and find martyrdom.
The Lord had other plans for him, and although he did go to Africa, he had to be sent back soon after because of illness. But his generous spirit found other ways to burn itself out for the love of God and neighbour.
The readings today present the urgency of working for God's kingdom, and we are also invited to respond with the same passion and enthusiasm that Anthony had. "The harvest is rich, but the labourers are few": we ought not to think that JESUS is referring to priests, for the whole people of God is a people of priests, prophets, and kings. The labourers that are few are the true Christians who are willing to spread the word of God in their families, in their places of work, in their church community, even in their countries and abroad. We are the bearers of a great message of hope and we ought to pass it on around us.
Scriptures today also speak of the desert: the people of the Exodus, David, Elijah, John the Baptist, JESUS, all had experience of the desert. The desert was for them the place of their meeting God. Human beings today, as always, are crossing their own desert towards the promised land. The desert is the place where we can learn 5 truths about ourselves:
1- Life is hard, it is a place of purification, of carrying the cross;
2- You are going to die: the desert presents this truth starkly at every turn, hence we are always aware of the mortality and impermanence of our condition. Things that appear so important suddenly become meaningless;
3- You are not that important: the vast and intractable desert help us discover humility as the source of truth and happiness in our life.
4- You are not in control: the desert is unpredictable and cannot be easily manipulated. We experience our own powerlessness and the sense of dependency from God. It makes sense to abandon ourselves completely in Divine Providence.
5- Your life is not about you: the solitude and silence of the desert help s to discover the presence of God and of the other as essential to our own existence. It was in the desert that Moses, Elijah, and the Fathers discovered God; it was in the desert that Israel became a people.
Let us today commit ourselves to the service of God and of our neighbour with great generosity, as we together, the people of God in our generation, cross the desert of life with the clear purpose of reaching the promised land.
Anthony burnt himself out for God, at the age of 36. He was bright, eloquent, generous, he could have been very successful in the world; but he gave his life to God with great enthusiasm, toiling for his brethren at the imitation of JESUS and dying for their sake. A great way of spending our short life here on earth. "Lord, we have left everything and followed you: what's in it for us?"; "Truly I say to you, you will have a hundred-fold more in this life and then the eternal life in heaven".
Anthony, a portughese, had initially joined the Augustinians; but when the bodies of six franciscan friars were brought back from Morocco, having suffered martyrdom there, he burned with the desire to emulate them, and joined the Franciscans so that he too could go to Morocco, preach to the Muslims, and give up his life for JESUS in martyrdom. One can admire the clarity of his commitment to JESUS and the generosity of his heart. God had other plans: he had just arrived in Africa when he became so ill that his companions sent him back to Portugal. The boat that carried him encountered such a strong storm that it landed not in Portugal but thousands o fmiles away, in Sicily.
From Sicily, Anthony travelled to Assisi, where he encountered St. Francis and the two embraced, one already acknowledged by everyone as a great saint, the other totally unknown. He then lived quietly, immersed in prayer and studies in a hermitage attached to a Franciscan house, until God presented this young, holy man to the world by a providential accident. The Franciscans of Forli' had been preparing for a solemn ordination of some of their young religious, and everything was ready for the ceremony, or nearly, since the official preacher for the occasion had failed to turn up! The Superior, in a panic, told Anthony to preach at the Mass and would not listen to any of Anthony's objections. The sermon was outstanding, acclaimed by everyone, and the Superiors realised the immense gifts of this young priest from Portugal.
Anthony became an itinerant preacher, powerful in words and deed, truly burning with love for God and for his neighbour. His eloquence was so great that even the fish were said to enjoy it. He did not spare himself, but gave himself up for JESUS, the Church, his brethren.
He died at the age of 36, and given his immense reputation in the Christian world, was acclaimed a saint one year later! He was proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1946.
"Deo servire, regnare est": let us spend our life for God, what else can be better?
"I set before you today a blessing and a curse: a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord our God, a curse if you disobey the commandments of the Lord your God": you must choose, a curse or a blessing, death or life, disaster or happiness.
This is the stark, simple choice we all are called to make without escape, since even a non-choice is a choice. How many of us try to find the easiest way of building our house, in the abundant sand of the valley; it is far more difficult to build higher up, on the rock. It is easy to follw the futile endeavours of the majority, the fashionable ideas and beliefs, the least demanding way of living our life. Sin is attractive, especially the sin that takes control of our passions, greed, pride, sexual immorality.
Building on rock is to place all our trust in God, our rock, obeying His commands, doing His Will in all things, clinging to Him in love. God is our Creator, our Saviour, our Sanctifier: embracing Him means to embrace holiness and utter bliss, security and solidity. Difficulties - storms, winds, rain - are sure to come to all: often an illness, or a death, or a tragedy, or unemployment, or difficult children, or many other testing events. It is possible to see the despair of people who have built on sand when trouble arrives; and the serenity and calm and trust in God of people who have built on the Rock, our Lord and God.
We already have a house built on the rock, the Church: "You are Peter, and on this rock I shall build my Church". The Church is our sure place, inside it not outside. It is not much help when storms come if they find us outside the Church pointing at all her failures; we need to be in, in humility and working with others to contribute our little towards the great Kingdom of God.
Today is the first of the month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of JESUS: let us contemplate the infinite love of the Lamb of God who offered Himself on the Cross for our sake. The Cross is the true Rock, empurpled by the Blood of the Son, the most powerful symbol of the love of God for each of us.
Morality is justice, is to "acknowledge" with our will in freedom the order of being, is to acknowledge "being" for what it is, is - therefore - to live in the truth, for truth is being in its order. Holiness is to pursue justice, and justice, ultimately, is pure love of God and of neighbour. If we do give God all that belongs to God, then our heart must be given to Him, all our love, and the more we love Him the more just we become. Christ became our justice since He gave God His own self on the cross representing fallen humanity; yet, the act of supreme justice was also the act of supreme love of God and of neighbour.
Jesus reveals to us the easiest way of getting to heaven, of becoming the "greatest": John and James had the idea that being first meant occupying exalted positions in the Kingdom, having a superior place above all others. JESUS says, instead that greatness is justice, is to recognise the infinite value of all others and of putting oneself to the service of others: greatness is to be the servant of all, is to wash the feet of others, is to give the life for others, in the imitation of the Son of Man.
Let us today strive to live in the truth, acknowledging God, neighbour, and all things in the universe in their order and paying to them the homage, respect, and love they deserve.
The disciples had been discussing who was the "greatest" among them, possibly thinking of the honours in the imminent establishment of the Kingdom; they were booking their positions around the soon to be declared Messiah. JESUS patiently instructs them, by taking a little child and inviting the disciples to adopt the attitude of the child, one of complete dependance and trust. The way to holiness, to greatness, is to become small, to see - like the child - everyone taller and greater, and therefore to put oneself at the service of everyone.
By acknowledging profoundly our own nothingness - our being little children before the Almighty God - we are enabled to consider others as greater than ourselves, and hence we place ourselves at their service, like JESUS who came not to be served but to serve and to give His life for all. He was the suffering "servant", the foot-washer, the One who chose the stable of Bethlehem, the unknown village of Nazareth, the cross of Calvary.
It takes little, therefore, to become holy: become the servant of all, respect the infinity dignity of all, care for all, pray for all, do not rest until your brother has been persuaded to cling to God with all his heart, mind, and soul. Let us pray today the Source of Holiness, the Holy Spirit, to open our eyes over our true nothingness and to grant us holiness, that spirit of humility that prompt us to serve God and our neighbour joyfully and without reservation.
This is the most beautiful feast of the Christian calendar, a feast uniquely "Christian", celebrating the unity of God in the three Persons who make up the Trinity. Today we rejoce over the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: we contemplate them in their essentail nature - as far as our very limited intelligence can see - and in their work for the world, seeing in the Father the powerful Creator of all that there is, in the Son, our Wisdom and our Redeemer, in the Holy Spirit the source of our sanctification and of love.
Metaphors and similes abound when we speak of the mystery of God, but we may be forgiven if we attempt to explain very basic ideas by using the following comparison. Let us think of our street, and of the house in the street where Smith lives. We pass the house often, we may look at it from the outside, and what we know is simply that Smith lives there. Imagine that one fine day, master Smith comes out of the house and says to us to follow him into the house, to introduce us to the rest of the family. And so we meet the father, the son, and the mother, the whole family. The Smith house has now become a far richer house, since we now know that there is a family of three there, and that they love each other, etc. It was through the good services of master Smith that we have now a more perfect knowledge of the Smith household.
The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed to us the great mystery of God, the fact that the One God is in fact in three Persons. He has spoken to us of the greatness of the Father, of the great love the Father has for each of us, of the eternal plan the Father has for us and of the need to pray the Father constantly and to do His Will in all things. He spoke to us of the Holy Spirit, who is our Advocate and Guide, who will remain with us until the end of times. The Son revealed Himself to us through His life, His words, His deeds.
Already in Genesis, we have the beautiful story of the three Visitors meeting Abraham at Mamre, under the oak tree, in the heat of the day: though They are three, they speak as one, and they are addressed to as one. At the end of the meal, they bring joy to the household by the promise of the birth of Isaac within the year. The famous painting by Rublev, has an empty place at table, better the apparently empty place is in effect the place of the one who looks at the painting, who contemplates the great things the Persons of the Blessed Trinity have done for us.
It is clear that the revelation of the Blessed Trinity has enriched immensely our understanding of God, becoming a source of profound joy and love for Him in the three Persons. But this closeness to the mystery of God is not merely based on an intellectual understanding, but it has become a real perception through the waters of Baptism. In Baptism, in fact, we "perceive" God in His trinitarian reality, confusedly but "really": we perceive the infinite power of the Father, the supreme Wisdom of the Son, our Truth, and the infinite love of the Holy Spirit. It is this perception that gives unshakeable faith and love to all those who accept JESUS and His Sacraments.
Let us pray often to the Blessed Trinity. It is good to teach children - and ourselves first - to begin each day and to end each day with the sign of the Cross; it is like putting on an armour of protection for the day and for the night, a walking with the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in the day and in the night. The recitation of the Creed is also so beneficial in order to increase our faith and our love for the Trinity.
St. James was right: we have difficulty in paying "respect" to the poor, in treating them as equal, loving them "as we love ourselves". It is easy enough to love the poor of the world, the impersonal mass of needy, starving people of the world; our problem begins with the poor we encounter, the poor who come to our churches, to our doors, to our functions. We find it distressing, humiliating; we are drawn into thinking that such beings are poor because they want to be poor by not doing enough for themselves, by neglecting the possibilities for work and for a decent and upright standard of life.
Early Christians took a realistic view of the problem. They had been assured by JESUS that "the poor will be always with us", hence they began by caring and loving not the "poor of the world", but the poor among their midst, the widows and the orphans, the sick and the afflicted in their communities. The gifts brought to the altar were meant for the poor, especially, and deacons and deaconesses were immediately responsible for bringing relief to the poor of the community. Early churches in richer areas of the Empire kept a keen eye on their brothers and sisters in the poorest regions, sending money and gifts to alleviate their poverty.
Do we have the same interest for the local poor? Do we keep an eye on the troubled spots of the world, with a view of helping, as Christian communities? A parish community, actively involved in raising funds and looking after the poor, would bring upon itself the blessing of God in terms of personal graces, of vocations, of closer bonds of love among the parishioners. Chirst was rich and became poor to save us: the church is rich in grace, and it should be poor in material wealth. It is the way to becoming influential, efficient, persuasive in the great business of saving souls. Religious, in particular, because of their vow of poverty should consider themselves as the poorest of the poor - for they renounce to everything and cannot call "mine" any material thing whatsoever - and live joyfully the way of life of Christ who was truly poor, having not even a pillow to rest His head on!
St. James was right: we have difficulty in paying "respect" to the poor, in treating them as equal, loving them "as we love ourselves". It is easy enough to love the poor of the world, the impersonal mass of needy, starving people of the world; our problem begins with the poor we encounter, the poor who come to our churches, to our doors, to our functions. We find it distressing, humiliating; we are drawn into thinking that such beings are poor because they want to be poor by not doing enough for themselves, by neglecting the possibilities for work and for a decent and upright standard of life.
Early Christians took a realistic view of the problem. They had been assured by JESUS that "the poor will be always with us", hence they began by caring and loving not the "poor of the world", but the poor among their midst, the widows and the orphans, the sick and the afflicted in their communities. The gifts brought to the altar were meant for the poor, especially, and deacons and deaconesses were immediately responsible for bringing relief to the poor of the community. Early churches in richer areas of the Empire kept a keen eye on their brothers and sisters in the poorest regions, sending money and gifts to alleviate their poverty.
Do we have the same interest for the local poor? Do we keep an eye on the troubled spots of the world, with a view of helping, as Christian communities? A parish community, actively involved in raising funds and looking after the poor, would bring upon itself the blessing of God in terms of personal graces, of vocations, of closer bonds of love among the parishioners. Chirst was rich and became poor to save us: the church is rich in grace, and it should be poor in material wealth. It is the way to becoming influential, efficient, persuasive in the great business of saving souls. Religious, in particular, because of their vow of poverty should consider themselves as the poorest of the poor - for they renounce to everything and cannot call "mine" any material thing whatsoever - and live joyfully the way of life of Christ who was truly poor, having not even a pillow to rest His head on!
On the feast of St. Matthias, one of brothers here at the Rosmini Centre is today renewing his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. It is a great occasion for him, since he is consecrating himself entirely to God, imitating the form of life of the Son of God, who chose for Himself, while here on earth, to be chaste, poor, and obedient.
In effect, such words go far beyond their restricted meaning: Christ was chaste in the greater sense that He gave Himself to everyone, that He sought the interests of everyone, loving everyone and sacrificing Himself for everyone. Chastity in Christ is His perfect gift of Himself to the human race of all times, to the point of death on the Cross.
Christ was poor because of His absolute dependence from the Father, trusting in Divine Providence, abandoning Himself entirely into the loving hands of His Father in Heaven. In His spirit, He remained free from all things, He was indifferent to events, people, situations the Father put before Him, always willing to accept them for the greater glory of His Father.
Christ was obedient to the Will of His Father: "My food is to do the Will of my Father... In all things I do what pleases the Father... I have come not to do my will but the Will of my Father..." He sought the Will of the Father and carried it out perfectly. His "consummatum est" at the end of His life manifested His fulfilment of the Divine Will right to the end.
The three words, chastity-poverty-obedience, express the whole form of life of the Son of God. He chose it for Himself as the most perfect; we, who desire to imitate Christ in all things, imitate it as the most perfect form of life for ourselves, following the long tradition that stretches back to His disciples and that will last until the end of the world.
We thank God, today, for our brother who is professing to follow Christ by embracing His form of life, and we pray that he may remain faithful to his commitment, as a prophetic reminder to the people of God of the reality of the Heavenly things which we shall all share in God's everlasting Kingdom.
We are preparing for Pentecost, being with Mary and the Apostles in the Upper Room in prayer and expectation for the coming of the "Gift from on High", the Holy Spirit.
In the readings of the day we discover the utter "docility" of Paul to the voice of the Spirit. The Spirit spoke to Paul on many occasions as He speaks to us, not in a confused and ambiguous manner, but clearly in the depths of our heart. It was Amos who compared the voice of God speaking to us to the roars of the lion, forceful and loud.
Paul was docile, obedient to the indications of the Spirit, even when the Spirit had led him to Jerusalem where tribulations, arrest, persecutions had awaited him. He knew, other Christians knew and tried to stop him from going there, but he obeyed the Spirit.
We too must learn to listen to the voice of the Spirit, and to obey it with a generous heart. The Spirit speaks to us in the depths of our heart, during periods of prayer, reflection, meditation, silence. Non in commotione Dominus: the Lord is not to be found in noise and distraction, but in silentio et in spe. We are bound to be lost when we do our will, when we follow purely the indications of the flesh, when we act out of pride and of self-sufficiency.
Obedience to the Spirit gives us the guarantee of being one with the Will of the Father, and with the Will of the One who said, "Thy Will be done" or "I always do that which pleases the Father". JESUS prayed for unity of all believers: it will become reality only when all Christians, obedient to the voice of the Spirit, will do what the Father wants. Our union will be a union of "wills" doing precisely what the Blessed Trinity wants from us.
There is lovely American painting of an embrace between the Father in Heaven and of His Beloved Son on His return from this world. One can imagine the missing words, "Mission accomplished!", humanity has been saved, redeemed by the Blood of the Son, and the Church has been established, with the further mission of spreading the immense benefits procured to all by JESUS.
Ascension celebrates the glorification of the Son now seated at the right hand of the Father; it celebrates also the ascension of an immense crowd of saved souls, now in the joy of heaven, as St. John says in the Apocalypse. The great hope is, that we too shall join the Blessed Trinity at the moment of our death - our own ascension.
We are gazing today at the heavens - quae sursum sunt quaerite, quae sursum sunt sapite, seek the things of heaven, taste the things of heaven - that is the summit we are aiming at, that is the end and purpose of our life. We need to keep an eye on the end, so as not to get lost on the way.
But, we need to keep our feet firmly on the ground: "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?": the mission left to us from JESUS is clear, "You shall be My witnesses... to the ends of the earth"; and again, "Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptise them... I am with you always, yes to the end of time".
Each of us has a mission, to bring people to Christ. We must do it with urgency, cheerfulness, commitment, beginning from ourselves, our families, our friends, and, as far as we can, bringing Christ to our country, and to the whole world. It is a question of being "witnesses", with our life and our words - always animated by the Spirit of JESUS, in sincerity and faith. We have got work to do: it is not good to "spare" ourselves, to deviate in order to enjoy the things of this world as though this is our final abode.
Christ has promised to go to heaven "to prepare a mansion" for each of us; He promised also that He will come to us, at the hour of our death, to take us to heaven with Him. What an astonishing promise! Let us today think of our true "homeland", while, at the same time, committing ourselves to harder work, in hope and charity, for the spreading of the Kingdom of God here on earth.
After the great disappointment in Athens, Paul goes to Corinth "with great fear and trembling". As far as we know he never set foot again in that ancient cultural capital of the world, where the beautiful words preached by him originating from pure, natural reasoning according to truth had been laughed at by the arrogance of human rebellion against truth.
He is now in Corinth, a splendid city - totius Greciae lumen - notorious for its immoral life. A married couple joins him in the work of preaching the Good News, Aquila and Priscilla, who offer him hospitality and a job in the same trade, allowing Paul to "earn his bread with the work of his hands". It is quite impressive to think that the greatest Apostle of all times "earned his bread" with hard work, day or night, so as not to become a burden on others and to avoid hindering the progress of the Gospel by the possibility of people misinterpreting his motives. His giving the message of salvation was truly "free of charge": he had received it freely, he gives it freely. What an example to the bureaucratic manner some priests administer the Sacraments, as though these are their possession and the source of their income!
Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker: another example of a man who worked hard all his life to earn his bread and to look after his holy Family; JESUS learned from him, and He Himself worked hard while in Nazareth and exhausted Himself during the three years of His public life, giving freely and tirelessly.
Time is precious and it is a most pressing duty that we do not waste it in any way. We should not feel pity for ourselves too readily: most of the workers of the world have most demanding jobs, taking up the whole of their day, with a few weeks only for some rest. Formation is all about learning to work hard, tirelessly, performing our duties to perfection, and bringing about the Kingdom by words and example. God "worked" six days, and rested on the seventh: we ought to imitate the creative outpouring of God's love in His wonderful works.
Lydia was the first convert in "european" soil. From the account in Acts, she appears as a sophisticated business woman in "the purple-dye trade", a devout woman who joins other Jewish people in prayer by the river outside the gates of Philippi. It was there that God opened her eyes and her heart into accepting the Good News of JESUS preached by Paul. And she insists that Paul takes up residence in her house, which became the first "church" in Europe.
The tradition of women becoming bearers of Christ in their local community has a solid pedigree in Scriptures, from Mary Magdalen who was the first witness of the Resurrection and who was sent to bring the Good News to the Apostles, to Lydia who opens up her house for the sake of the Gospel. Many parishes today can bear witness to the support and involvement of women in the spreading of the Good News through the many activities for the benefit of others; and there is little doubt about the power of the prayer that goes up to God incessantly from convents everywhere.
As the Easter season draws to a close, JESUS reminds us of the constant real presence among us of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and by the Son to guide us, to enlighten us, to comfort us. The Spirit is present in the Church, not only through the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium, but through the countless acts of faith and love originating from the hearts of believers. It is the Spirit who moves people into worshipping God and offering their life for the salvation of others. He is the Paraclete, the consoler, the advocate who pleads for us to the Father, defending us from the fierce attacks of the "prince of this world". He is the Spirit of truth, melting away our insincerity, hypocrisy, double life, making our life as clear as spring waters. Let us assent to the work of the Spirit in us, let us welcome Him in the depths of our heart: "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love".
"If you love Me you will keep my commandments", says the Lord in today's gospel. He made it easy for us by reducing the commandments to only two: "Love God with all your heart, mind, and strength; Love your neighbour as you love yourself". If we keep these two commandments, the blessed Trinity will make a home in our heart.
Holiness is loving God: but, how do we know we love God? There are regular church-goers who get very enthusiastic when they say how much they love God, and yet the same persons have only slight problems with lying, with adultery, with divorce, with abortion. Loving God means doing the Will of God in all things, hence the two elements, loving God and doing His Will, are practically the same. We can add that loving God must mean talking to God at all times, that is, having a full life of prayer, participating from the heart in the encounter with the Blessed Trinity at Mass, and marking the moments of our daily routine with conversation with God.
Love of neighbour is perhaps even more difficult. It is true that we may find it easy to love the neighbour of the world, especially those who are far from us; but we ought to begin from loving our closest neighbour - ourselves - and then the people who are closest to us, from family members to the people we are in daily contact with, in church, in communities, in our social environment.
There is a love of oneself which is only selfishness, egoism, which makes it impossible for us to relate truthfully to God and to the others. We become the centre of the universe, hence we live a constant lie that leads ultimately to despair. True and pure love of oneself implies the recognition that we are in the image of God, hence infinitely worthy of respect; moreover, with Baptism we have become truly the son/daughter of the Father, and JESUS is our Brother, and the Holy Spirit is the "lover" within our heart. "I thank you Lord for the wonder of my being", and it is from this starting point that we begin reaching out to our brothers and sisters, respecting them, loving them. But yet again, our love must be practical: we respect and love our neighbour when we do not slander them, gossip about them, when we do not lie to them, when we become truly concerned about their state, their condition.
The Apostles rejoiced when they heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God: Samaria meant Samaritans which meant hatred! Yet, the Jewish Apostles rejoiced: true love of neighbour destroyed all barriers to discover only brothers/sisters and a people acceptable to God.
A final point from today's readings: Peter urges us to be prepared to give a reason for our belief. This means that we must be engaged with non-Catholics "with courtesy and respect" but with full knowledge of our faith. Intellectual charity is not a luxury for a few, but it is part of our being Christian and of our loving our neighbour. Hence, the urgency and the grave responsibility of studying Scriptures, the Fathers, the Magisterium of the Church.
"The prince of this world is on his way": human sinfulness, the sin of the wolrd, is not a static reality but is on the move all the time, trying to conquer and to spread. The devil is most active, and there are times when his power seems overwhelming, like at the time of the Passion and Death of the Lord. We ought to be vigilant, especially today when we may be led to the conclusion that the devil does not exist or that "good" is spreading fast at the expense of evil. The idea of a cosmic battle between the opposing forces of good and evil seems to make sense only in the imaginary world of films.
Yet, JESUS is fully aware of the power of evil, as He is aware of His own glorious victory. He knows that it is His Father's Will that He should redeem humanity by means of the supreme act of love, the giving of His own life. Victory is assured, but it is through His precious Blood, Redemption is achieved, but through the Cross.
In Acts, we find Paul towards the end of his first missionary journey. He had "grown" into his mission from the days when Barnabas had called on him to help with the great numbers of believers at Antioch. He is now confident and assured, full of zeal and charged with the power of the Holy Spirit. The "prince of this world" does not ignore him and creates problems for him everywhere, but especially in Lystra, where he is stoned to near death. The Lord gives him strength to survive the terrible ordeal, and he is back in his missionary work, knowing full well that the devil will do his best to hinder progress and to turn people against the Gospel.
"We all have to experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God": this is the reality for everyone, for JESUS as for Paul, as for each of us. Christian life is a serious matter, full of difficulties and crosses. We should not be surprised, especially when such negative features come our way. The saints had hard lives: St. john of the Cross was beaten, tortured, put in prison by the religious members of his own Order; St. Padre Pio had to endure attacks from many religious quarters, and so on. We ought to persuade ourselves that the way to the resurrection is through the cross, hence we should not be surprised, we should not complain, we should not feel despondent when tribulations come our way. Let us embrace the cross gladly, knowing that the Father in heaven will provide us with strength, and with profound inner joy.
There can be little doubt that Paul performed a great miracle at Lystra: at his command - in a loud voice - a man crippled from birth was made to stand and walk, to the utter amazement of the pagan crowd who rushed to make a sacrifice believing Paul and Barnabas to be gods - Hermes and Zeus. Paul's sermon to them is a beautiful example of how to reach out to pagans.
Miracles, therefore, do happen, on two conditions: Paul "saw that the man had the faith to be cured" feeling the presence of the supernatural, and he himself had no doubt that God would bring healing to the crippled at his words of command. Again, we find that true, strong faith is required and miracles do happen by the grace of God and the benefit of our brethren. But, how did Paul know that God would bring about a miracle? The answer must be in his closeness to God, as explained by JESUS in the gospel.
JESUS said, "If anyone loves Me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him, and make our home with him": at the table of the Blessed Trinity - as hinted by Rublev's icon - we become the family of God, and we acquire the power of God. "If anyone believes in Me, he will perform the same works as I do Myself, he will perform even greater works..." God put certainty in Paul's heart, and he spoke with authority and performed the great miracle. How weak is, instead, our faith, how lukewarm our familiarity with God. It is true that faith is given at baptism, but we must then work on it, listening to the voice of the Spirit, obeying his promptings, growing in a life of prayer and communion with God. Virtues are, in a sense, infused in us at Baptism, but then we need to work tirelessly to make them real and operative in our daily life.
"Lord increase our little faith": let us desire it, ask for it, knowing that faith is not an unknown mysterious entity but a real participation in prayer and in love with the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity who are always at work in the depth of our soul.
It would be disastrous to embark on a journey without knowing how to get to the desired end; one would walk aimlessly, following paths which seem easy and appealing initially but which do not lead anywhere or, even worse, which lead to dangerous ravines without a way out. If we wish to climb a mountain we need to know well all the paths that lead us to the summit. The same is with our life: whether we want it or not, we all are embarked on a journey, from birth to death: the question is, "Where are we going? What is the meaning of this journey? What is the desired end?"
There is a story in the life of St. Philip Neri, the great Apostle of Rome. One day, after Mass, a bright young man came up to him saying, "Fr. Philip, I have just fulfilled the dream of my life: I have finally become a doctor!" Fr. Philip congratulated him, then said, "And now, what are your plans?" to which the young doctor replied, "Well, I'll open up a surgery and I will make a name for myself". "And then?", asked Philip; and the young man replied, "I will become rich, buy a big property, and get a wife and have children"; "And then?", continued Philip. "I'll get old like everyone else, enjoy family and money, take a tour of the world"; "And then?" asked Philip again. "And then... and then I imagine I will die!" replied the young doctor, who thought Philip questioning would finally come to an end; but Philip continued, "And then?" And it was at this point that the young man understood the whole series of repetitive questions: to do things well, he needed to have first the overall purpose of the whole journey, which does not end with death but it goes into eternal life with God. This is the meaning of the motto of a famous school in London, "Respice finem": Keep constantly in mind the end.
The Lord today tells us both what the end of our journey in life is and the sure way or path to reach it. There is no other way, so it is of fundamental importance that we learn it and we embark on it, without getting lost in other paths. Where are we going? JESUS says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in Me. There are many rooms in my Father's house... I am now going to prepare a place for you... and then I shall return to take you with Me, so that where I am you may be too". So Heaven is our final destination, Heaven is the summit of the mountain we are climbing even now, Heaven is our home: and Heaven is being with JESUS, with God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, in an eternal life of joy and happiness - no tears, no worries, no ugliness.
How do we get there? Thomas asked of JESUS the same question: "How can we know the way?" JESUS replied, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one can come to the Father except through Me". JESUS is the Way, the only Way, which means that the path we need to take in life is the path JESUS: His example, His teaching, His life and death, His resurrection. We need to know JESUS, by reading the Gospels; we need to love JESUS by living the Sacraments, where we meet Him in His real Self, especially in the eucharist. Open wide the door of your heart to Christ, this is the lasting message of John Paul II, especially to young people. Let us heed his words and make Christ the "keystone" of our life.
Scriptures, for the Apostles as for the Jews, meant only what we call the Old Testament. The early Christians read the Scriptures in their gatherings, that is, read the Old Testament. It was only with time, as some of the Apostles began writings letters to the churches or sayings about JESUS which were read during their liturgical acts of worship, that the body of writings which we call the New Testament began to be formed. The New Testament was born in early Christian communities by their reading it as Scriptures during worship. The letters of Paul, the canonical gospels, etc. were read during the Eucharistic Services, thus acquiring the status of Scriptures; the apocryphal writings never achieved such status since they were never read in public worship - the Christians of the time knowing full well their dubious origin.
This is why the preaching of the Apostles centred so heavily, at the beginning, on the Old Testament: it is true that early Christians could not contain their joy at seeing fulfilled in JESUS all the prophecies scattered throughout the writings of the Old Testament - JESUS Himself had given such a lesson to the two disciples of Emmaus. The fact was, however, that at the beginning they only had the Old Testament as Scriptures. The martyr Justin wrote much later, in 130AD approximately, that at their Sunday eucharistic gatherings early Christians read "as long as time permits" from the Old Testament and from the "memoirs of the Apostles" (the New Testament).
The sermon of Paul in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia is centred on the idea that all of God's promises had been fulfilled in JESUS, a descendant of the House of David. Paul uses "salvation history" of the chosen people to highlight God's loving care for fallen humanity. It is moving to see how close God is to us as the years move on: this intervention does not apply only to Old Testament times, but to our own times, and our own life: God is personally involved in our history, "speaking" to us in "various ways and many times", bidding us to repentance, to grasp the favourable time, to prepare for important religious/spiritual moments in our life. God is truly at work in our life; the sooner we become aware of this fact the better we will be able to respond in awe and obedience.
"And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd". The very early Church was "Jewish", and it did not dawn on them that pagans too may one day become Church - hence they kept all the prohibitions and rules against pagans like all other Jews.
The Good Shepherd used the first Pope - the visible Shepherd of the Church on earth after Christ's ascension - to break down the barriers against pagans and to welcome them into the fold. The story of the conversion of the pagan Cornelius and of his entire pagan household at the hands of Peter, in obedience to the command of the Holy Spirit, became the starting point of that peace between Jews and Gentiles that made of two one people, the people of God.
There is no doubt that it will be the Good Shepherd again - through the visible shepherd, the Pope - who will bring about the unity of the flock, divided at the moment into many denominations and sects. The words of JESUS put on the Pope a huge responsibility to work towards communion, at the command of the Spirit: we too must be prepared to listen to the Spirit and to work towards the unity JESUS prayed for.
The readings today give us an opportunity to assess our attitude towards Christian unity, to see whether we are truly open or whether we let our prejudices and suspicions against Christians of other denominations take hold of our minds and hearts. They are sheep of the same flock, entitled to receive the full benefits of being led by the Good Shepherd. This is not to say that we need compromise the teaching of the Magisterium, but it calls for a radical change in our hearts so that we recognise in each of them our Christian brothers and sisters.
Acts 2, 14. 36-41; 1 Peter 2, 25-30; John 10, 1-10
Today is Sunday of the Good Shepherd, the appropriate time to ask God to send labourers to His vineyard, to send good shepherds of His flock, hence it has been also marked as "Vocation Sunday", a special day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood.
In the Old Testament, the Almighty God was called the Good Shepherd: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want, fresh and green are the pastures where He gives me repose..." In the New Testament, JESUS applies the title to Himself; "I Am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I give my life for the sheep". Christ gave His life for the sheep, against the assaults of fierce wolves, in obedience to the Will of the Father, to save the sheep that had gone astray, ourselves, lost sheep in this confusing and dangerous world.
When the Lord went to Heaven, He did not leave His Church without a visible shepherd, but appointed Peter, as we can see from today's readings. In Acts, it is Peter who stands up to preach for the first time the Good News of salvation, converting three thousand people in a day: "Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, 'What must we do, brothers?' 'You must repent", Peter answered". And later, Peter urges them all, "Save yourselves from this perverse generation". Clear words, clear guidance, no compromise, no dilution: repent, save yourself from this perverse generation.
The Pope is the good shepherd, representing in a visible form the only one shepherd of the flock, JESUS. His teachings, therefore, are authoritative; we must make an effort to know what the Pope is saying to us all the time, guiding us on our journey: "Feed my sheep", JESUS said to Peter three times. Bishops and priests are also true shepherds, bishops in their own right in communion with the Pope, priests in communion with their bishops. St. Augustine, echoeing Ezekiel, has fierce words against shepherds who fatten themselves at the expense of the sheep, who neglect the sheep to look after their own interests. Today, some of the shepherds have fallen short of their great ministry, giving grave scandal to the sheep. We ought to pray for them, knowing that Christ, the one true Shepherd, is the Holy One and that He is the One who leads His Church through the storms of this world.
Acts 9, 31-42; John 6, 60-69
Peter's beautiful confession of faith is shared by many followers of JESUS, and perhaps by ourselves as well: "LORD, to whom shall we go? Only You have words of eternal life, and we believe and we know that You are the Holy One of God". This profession is at the very core of Christianity for it contains the firmest persuasion, based on supernatural experience, that Christ is God and that all His words give eternal life to the one who accepts them in humble faith.
It is not surprising to read today in Acts, how this confession led Peter to perform two beautiful miracles. As the leader of the Church "Peter visited one place after the other" confirming the brethren in their faith. He strengthened the power of his words by miracles. The first is the healing of a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years: "Aeneas, JESUS Christ cures you, get up and fold up your sleeping mat": the same words used often by JESUS, a firm faith in the absolute power of the name JESUS. The second miracle is again a repetition of miracles operated by JESUS: a woman disciple called Tabitha committed to Christ and to helping the poor widows of the town, her death, the coming of Peter, his authoritative words over the dead body: "Tabitha, stand up!" And Tabitha "opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up".
It was St. Augustine who said that the power of the preaching and of the liturgical actions in the early Church was supported by an abundance of miracles that helped spread Christianity peacefully in a world that opposed it often in a violent fashion. Miracles, however, have always been with us, often associated with holy people, like St. Padre Pio, and John Paul II - according to his trusted secretary. Miracles do happen in some charismatic gatherings because of the intensity of the faith on the part of some. We tend usually to pray for a miracle but with no real conviction. We tend to use words such as,"If it is your Will... If it is God's Will..." often out of lack of real trust and total confidence in God. When nothing happens we cheer ourselves up with the words, "Clearly, it was not God's Will".
Peter, following the example of JESUS, gave "commands" indicating a most absolute faith in the power of God. His heart and life was entirely committed to Him, in tune with His divine Will, and able to feel inwardly the certainty of the manifestation of God's power through his words and actions. We need perhaps to strengthen our reliance in God, asking Him, "Lord increase my little faith": the greater our faith, the closer we are to God; and our being closer to God may well bring about miracles for the sake of the Kingdom.
Acts 9, 1-20; John 6, 52-59
Paul often speaks of Baptism as the sacrament that transforms our darkness into light: "You were darkness once, now you are light in the Lord". He urges us to live in the light, to do all things in the light, to be children of the light. It is no wonder that St. Justin, writing at about 130 AD about the beliefs and practices of early Christians, refers to Baptism as the Sacrament of Illumination.
Paul wrote about baptism as light as a direct result of his conversion: on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians he saw the great light and spoke to JESUS. He became blind, "Even with his eyes wide open he could see nothing at all", the meeting with the Light had convicted him of his total darkness, and he had to be led into Damascus "by the hand". Yet, he was a most faithful Jew, obedient to the Law; even then he was totally blind!
Paul remained in total darkness for three days, until Ananias came and baptised him. The "scales that fell off his eyes" indicate the corruption of our human nature. It is Christ, the Light of the world, who gives supernatural grace and full understanding. Christ is our Wisdom, and Christians become the city built on a hill, visible to all for its light.
The greatest understanding is that there is a glorious life after death, and if we cling to JESUS, the Bread of Life, we shall live forever in the joy and bliss of Heaven. Let us approach the Eucharist with great faith, knowing that it is indeed the Bread of Angels", the food that has come down from Heaven to strengthen us and to help us walk with determination through life "in the light of Christ".
Acts 8, 1-8; John 6, 35-40
"I have come from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me": from the moment of His conception to the moment of His ascension JESUS dedicated Himself to the generous fulfilment of the Will of the Father. We ought to do likewise, since the only way we can show our love for God is to do His Will in all things: "I always do what is pleasing to my Father".
We know what is the Will of God for us in most cases: obedience to the two great commandments and to the other commandments in Scriptures: "Love God with all your heart, mind, strength; love thy neighbour as you love yourself; honour your parents; do not commit adultery, etc. We also know the Will of God with regards to the Church, the immaculate Bride of the Son of God, loved by JESUS to the point of giving up His life for Her: we too are expected to love Her with all our strength, to the point of being willing to shed our blood for her sake. Loving the Church means clinging to the teaching of the Magisterium, unreservedly, in all matters theological, moral, liturgical - without choosing and picking what suits us!
The Will of God is also made clear to us by providential events in our life which we need to read with a "spirit of inteligence" knowing that our God is a God of order, harmony, divine reason, a God who has planned and created all things for a purpose which is being fulfilled in accordance with His infinite Wisdom and Love. We ought to commit ourselves with the most generous spirit to whatever we are called to do by reason of our state, condition, duties in life, at rest with God and always in the attitude of the young Samuel, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening".
Acts 7, 51 - 8, 1; John 6, 30-35
Words are powerful, but are not sufficient usually to make a lasting impact in the life of people; we need actions, facts as well as words. It was Paul VI who said that people today need witnesses more than preachers. The New Testament always combine the power of the words of JESUS to His mighty deeds, referring not only to His miracles but also to the power of His life. It was not sufficient for God to tell us that there is life after death, He went through suffering and death and resurrection to provide a full evidence. Blessed Rosmini teaches that the power behind the rapid spread of Christianity in a hostile pagan world was not merely the preaching of the Apostles; the Sacraments - the liturgical actions of the community - gave it the power required to transform the whole world.
JESUS, in today's reading, reveals Himself as the "bread of life": "I Am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry; he who believes in Me will never thirst". It is the first of the I AM sayings, through which we are given a revelation of the identity of JESUS. He is indeed the One who overcomes all our longings, desires; who satisfies our quest for meaning and happiness; who gives rest to our restless mind and heart.
The truth that JESUS is the only food for our soul is not left at the level of words: the Eucharist is the action that gives power and solidity and real experience. JESUS in the Eucharist is truly the Bread of life: we can experience it any time we join the community of believers in the most sacred action of the Mass. Participation at Mass is immensely rewarding, since it is around the altar that we experience the real power of God in our life, quenching our thirst and satisfying our hunger.
Exodus 32, 7-14; John 5, 31-47
How could the Jewish people be persuaded that the hand-made "golden calf" had brought freedom to them, having witnessed miracles and wonders that no other people had ever seen? The human heart is fickle and forgetful, and longing for immediate pleasures. More than persuasion or belief it was the case of the people "rising to play and dance" like their neighbouring tribes. It was a going astray which would not have lasted, but which brought great shame for the wilful rebellion against God.
This is the reality of every sin: we know well in our heart that God is God and that His laws are the right path, yet we choose temporarily the immediate pleasures of life declaring them our "gods", i.e., submitting to them. It may happen that we become hardened in our rebellion, and so God disappears from our sight. In the case of the Jewish people, there was the immense contrast of the people dancing and playing sinfully at the foot of the mountain at the same time as the Almighty God was most near to them, in the act of giving them the rules of life. We also must expect temptation during periods of closeness to God: "My son - says the Bible - as you approach to serve God remain in fear and trembling and prepare yourself for temptation".
The closeness of JESUS to the Jewish people was met with a rebellious attitude on the part of many of them, who refused the light, the life, the salvation coming from him in flowing streams: "You have never heard the Father's voice, His word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one He has sent... You study the Scriptures yet you refuse to come to me for life... You have no love of God in you, you refuse to accept Me... Moses will be your accuser". Living in the presence of God physically is not a guarantee of salvation for us.
The greatness of Moses was in his profound understanding of the compassion of God and of the weakness of his people: this was the root of his success as an intercessor: "The Lord relented"; let us also put our full trust in the love of God, interceding for our sins and for the sins of others.
Isaiah 49, 8-15; John 5, 17-30
It is easy to embarrass Jehovah' Witnesses using today's Gospel. Chapter 5 is indeed a most clear declaration of the divinity of JESUS, equal to the Father. Here are some lines:
- "The Son does what He sees the Father doing... Whatever the Father does the Son does too" ;
- "The Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He does himself... As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone He chooses"; "The Father has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father".
The power the Son has is the same identical power the Father has; it is not surprising to read that the Jews thought He was blaspheming making Himself "equal to God". They were right in their interpretation, wrong in their behaviour towards the Son of God, who was teaching them with authority and mighty works.
JESUS was not another "great man" - like Muhammed or Buddha or Gandhi. We would not bend our knees before him, nor would we belong to a religion that has man as the originator. The amazing fact of Christianity is that the Son of God came into this earth, was born a Jew, walked with us for 33 years, and gave His life for the salvation of the world. He was God and all His works and teachings were divine; Christianity was founded by God-made-man in JESUS, it is a divine religion. This is why we humbly bend our knees before Christ, and we listen in awe to His words; this is why we pronounce with our lips, "JESUS", and we believe at the same time that He is God.
No man could ever have fulfilled the desires of our heart: only JESUS can. Let us commit ourselves to Him with all our heart, mind, and strength, loving Him, listening to Him, following Him. He is God.
Ezekiel 47, 1-9.12; John 5, 1-16
The Old Testament is fully revealed in the New Testament: the passage from Ezekiel today is fully understood in the person of JESUS. The abundant waters flowing from the right hand of the Temple and increasing rapidly giving life and abundance of fruits and of living things can be fully grasped when we consider the pierced side of the Crucified Lord - the right side of the Temple of His Body - from where "blood and water" came out.
The gospel deals again with the healing powers of water, sanctified by the presence of JESUS. The waters of the pool at the Sheep Gate had always had limited healing powers bestowed by the grace of God, but with JESUS abundance of life is poured out, healing the long suffering crippled man, even without a profession of faith on his part; contact with JESUS with an open mind brings healing.
The waters of Baptism have healing power, "in spirit and in truth": it is through Baptism that we pass from death to life, from darkness to light - all originating from the water that came out from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross. And with water, blood also - the sustaining sacrament of the Eucharist, nourishment for the soul for all eternity.
Washed clean by the water, sanctified by the water, having become alive through the water, we ought now to show signs of abundant life - in the fruits we produce, in the inner joy of the soul, in our assured conviction to be part of the Kingdom of love and grace. We should banish all negative feelings of loneliness, despair, boredom, restlessness.
Baptism was a living sacrament for early Chrstians: they lived before God because of the Sacrament, rejecting darkness, works of death, desires of the flesh. It was a once and for life Sacrament; Confession was permitted only once in a lifetime and was called the "second plank" of salvation. We need to recover the full meaning of our baptismal life.
Isaiah 65, 17-21; John 4, 43-54
God is worth of our belief. For hundreds of years, the Jewish people had only promises from God, about a future state of blessedness in the Kingdom the Messiah would come to establish. The passage from Isaiah is one example: "Now I create new heavens and a new earth... I now create Jerusalem "Joy" and her people "Gladness". No more sound of weeping or the sound of cries..."
But we are restless, always wanting to be convinced by the hard evidence of the present, as though God's words do not possess the stability and solidity of everlasting power. We have had moments in our life which brought to our being the definite conviction of God's presence, of His love for us, of His intervention in our favour. Many people are quite ready to acknowledge this. Yet, "you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders" as JESUS says to the distraught father, a court official, who asks of Him to bring his son back to full health.
The court official believed JESUS' promise, "Go home, your son will live": he believed Him because he had come to know that JESUS was God, hence trust-worthy, faithful. He did not need to see the miracle there before his own eyes, he did not doubt God's promise even if it did not fall within his own immediate experience. And God's promise came to pass, and all God's promises will come to pass. The Kingdom will reach full maturity, there will be new heavens and a new earth, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, we shall see God face to face conversing with Him in the joys of heaven. Let us lift up our heads and look with confidence to the future: we know that it has been arrayed with wonderful promises by the Almighty God, and He is faithful.
1Sam. 16, 6-7.10-13; Eph. 5, 8-14; John 9, 1-41
We have lost the sense of the extreme value of Baptism in our life. This royal Sacrament is mentioned often enough in the Liturgy and in documents but it is often seen as something done in the distant past, important then for entry into the Church, but of little attention after until perhaps we are again reminded of it during preparation for Confirmation. Yet, it is Baptism the core of the readings during Lent: the narratives of Nicodemus, of the Samaritan Woman, and today of the Man born blind. The Liturgy of the Easter Vigil is centred on Baptism.
Why is Baptism so important? "You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord": how? Through Baptism. And again, "Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you": how? Through Baptism. It is through Baptism that we pass from death to life, from darkness to light; it is through Baptism that we are cleansed from the stain of the original sin; it is through Baptism that we become sons/daughters of God, temples of the Blessed Trinity; it is through Baptism that we become living branches of the Vine, bricks of God's building, living cells of the Body of Christ.
In Baptism we ascend "from glory to glory": from being in the image of God to becoming in His likeness; from relating to God as a blind person relates to colours and objects - negatively - to "perceiving" Him in a real, positive way through the Humanity of JESUS. We are enabled to perceive God as Supreme Creator, as infinite Wisdom, as eternal Love, not ideally but really. Faith is kindled in us at Baptism, by the real action of God on our intellective soul who creates in us new supernatural faculties - a new feeling, a new intellect, a new will. We are "born anew", we pass from death to life.
The blind man of the Gospel has to wash himself in the waters of Siloam; we have to wash ourselves in the waters of Baptism and then we can see. Baptism was called the "Sacrament of Illumination", we truly are given the means for understanding life and death, suffering and pain, the past, the present, and the future. Without Baptism we would be in total darkness and confusion: what is the meaning of everything? what is the future? where do we come from and where are we going? Life in Christ through Baptism has the "luminous" answers: we can see!
Hosea 14, 2-10; Mark 12, 28-34
Judaism is the religion of the "commandments", all 637 of them, ranging from the lofty ones like the Ten commandments to the minute ones like not dragging chairs across a room or not lighting fires on a Sabbath. There is a hierarchy, since most of them are like fences put around to protect each of the Ten Commandments; but we know how much the religious Jew values them all. The Law is like a father and Bar Mitzva and Bat Mitzva means precisely "son/daughter of the Commandments", fostering on young people the belief that obedience to the Commandments is a beautiful relation of love and security.
But which of the 637 Commandments is the greatest? There had been many learned answers in the past, some in full agreement with JESUS' reply to the scribe. Love God and love neighbour: this is the summary of all 637 commandments. As to the first, the pious Jew will carry it around with him, even sewn in jackets or put on the dorrposts of the house (mezuzah); the "shema" expressing it most clearly contains the words every dying Jew would like to be able to recite. The festival of Simchat Torah is the occasion of the great rejoicing of the people over the gift by God of the Commandments, carried around the synagogue with songs and festive noises.
The second commandment is not so clear, since for many Jews it meant only love your neighbour Jew, not foreigners nor Samaritans! JESUS completed its meaning by expaining it like in the parable of the Good Samaritan, or when He said, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you", a universal and self-sacrificing love for our brothers and sisters, irrespective of race, religions, colour of skin, intelligence, etc.
It was Hosea who preached love above all things, and who left a most intimate account of the love of God for the unfaithful Israel. Hosea knew that the mechanical observance of the commandments does little to please God, who wants instead our tender love and full trust in Him. "I am like a cypress ever green", says the Lord: it is from Him that all fruitfulness shall come.
Jer. 7, 23-28; Lk. 11, 14-23
What would have happened if the Jewish people had fully accepted JESUS as Messiah and Son of God? Would the acceptance have brought about the Kingdom in its fulness, with Jerusalem, perhaps, at the centre of the world and the Roman Empire subject to Christ? It is impossible to know, but what is certain is the fact that if we obey God and live according to His Will then all things will be right: "Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper".
Would Paul, Peter, Francis, Teresa, Rosmini had exchanged ever their love for God and for their neighbour for an easier life without God? It is unthinkable, since they had deep in their hearts the fulfilment of all their desires, true happiness in the midst of apparent misfortune, suffering, and even death. God always gives the 100% in this life to His faithful followers, and they know it! Our "few fishes, and few loaves" offered to God become the source of immense fruitfulness and joy; we gain always in following JESUS.
The study of the Scriptures, the attachment to Tradition and to the Magisterium, worship and the Sacraments, should bring us to Christ, into His Kingdom: we should enter and persevere without regrets, with enthusiasm and joy. We are guaranteed "prosperity", blessedness, eternal life. We arrive at our own perfect fulfilment by following the paths - the commandments - traced out by God for us. This is not esoteric teaching, wishful thinking: it is God's promise - constantly repeated in the Old Testament and, especially, revealed at a far deeper level, by the Son of God when He walked our earth. Truly, the "kingdom of God has overtaken" us, is in our midst.
Dan. 3, 25.34-43; Mt. 18, 21-35
It is a loss to both Protestant and Jewish readers of the Old Testament Bible that they do not have the present passage which is a moving prayer asking for forgiveness for the sins of the people, nor do they have the famous prayer of the three young men from the middle of the fiery furnace. It is Azarias who takes up the prayer recited probably during public worship at the time of the Exile: it is a prayer that acknowledges the loving care of God and the persistent unfaithfulness of the people, a prayer to God to deal "gently" with His people as He is "gentle and very merciful". The highest moment of the prayer is the expression, "May it be Your Will that we follow You whole-heartedly, since those who put their trust in You will not be disappointed": holiness comes from God, we need only respond to His constant grace.
The passage in Matthew also deals with the early Christian people and the need to learn to forgive each other as God has forgiven us. Already in the Our Father JESUS had taught forgiveness on the example of the generous forgiveness the Father gives us: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". Now He teaches us to forgive "seventy-seven" times, always, and backs this teaching with a parable, the one about the servant who owed his Master "ten thousand talents", an enormous sum, impossible to repay.
The servant is forgiven, yet the same servant is not willing to deal likewise with one of his fellow servants who had a small debt: "He seized him by the throat and began to throttle him". We may well recognise ourselves in the unforgiving servant, small-minded, selfish, always ready to judge and to condemn others - forgetting the huge debt God has forgiven us in JESUS.
Let us today examine our conscience and learn to be generous in our forgiveness, to deal gently and with compassion with others: "Forgive your brother from your heart".
2Kings 5, 1-15; Lk 4, 24-30
JESUS reminds the people of Nazareth of the universal love and compassion of God, the Creator of all. Naaman was a foreigner, yet he found grace before God who healed him through the prophet Elisha. It was true that the people of Israel were the peple of the promise, the "chosen" people; but we cannot bind God's hands in any way, since He is the God of all His creatures. Pentecost was the day when the whole human race became effectively the "chosen" race; on that day Israel became one of the many entrusted with God's promises and His salvation.
It is not easy to break through the barriers of individualism, of family, of nationhood, of culture, of religion: we relish our little "comfort zone", we feel secure and look at the outside with apprehension and fear. How many people say, "I only care for my family" or "I detest all other religions or races or cultures". Christ came to teach us that God is the loving Father of all, and we all are brothers and sisters. On the day of Pentecost, people of all nationalities understood God's message of salvation and were baptised; and that message spread rapidly, breaking down all barriers: from Jerusalem to Samaria, to the end of the world.
The climax of the healing of Naaman in the humble waters of the Jordan was his confession of faith, "I now know that there is no other God but the God of Israel". He even takes the soil of Israel to Syria so as to worship the new found God. JESUS' revelation to human kind is equally that the God of Israel is indeed the only and true God of all, and He has come to reveal Him to us, to tell us what is our God like. The answer is, "God is love": the love manifested in the Incarnation of the Son, the love of the Son who walked our earth for 33 years, the love of His Passion and Death on the cross. Moreover, the infinitely rich love of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, the truly astonishing and heart-warming mystery of our faith.
Ex. 17, 3-7; Rom. 5, 1-2. 5-8; John 4, 5-42
The Samaritan woman is the type of the soul "thirsting" for God without knowing it. The level of her thoughts is horizontal, her eyes fixed on the things of this world, hence she has great difficulty in grasping the higher spiritual meaning of JESUS' words. She comes to draw water to quench her thirst, as she had done throughout her life, seeking after pleasure, one husband after the other, only temporary, fleeting moments of satisfaction. Her thirst is still there, within her - and she will not be able to estinguish it until she gets the "living water" which is Christ Himself. The reading from Exodus shows the Jewish people "tormented by thirst"; they do get water from the rock, but it is still not the "living water", Christ. Augustine'a cry, "Lord you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You" is the cry of the Samaritan woman, and of every man and woman.
The sinful woman is embraced by Christ, without a word of condemnation. He reveals Himself to her progressively, always animated by love - and she feels it, she feels welcome, accepted as she is, and is therefore open to receive His divine words. She is led to recognise Him as a prophet, speaking on God's behalf, and then as the Messiah, the Son of God. Her prayer, "Give me me some of that [living] water, so that I may never get thirsty", expresses her initial faith in Him. The fact that she forgot her "water jar" at the well and went straight away to announce Christ proves that she had began to pass from the merely horizontal interests to the supernatural ones.
The Lord begins at the level we are at, and then leads us to His level gently: JESUS' words to the woman become progressively more essential and supernatural. He knew that the human heart is ultimately always seeking for Truth and Love, and He leads her there, explaining the meaning of true worship: "Those who worship must worship in Spirit and Truth", by revealing His identity, "I am He".
Christ alone can quench our thirst for happiness, and true worship is the place of the encounter. If in preaching we "preach" Christ, in worship we "experience" the power of Christ: true worship in the Spirit is the golden means of contacting the same Humanity of Christ seen by the Samaritan woman 2000 years ago - the source of life and the spring of living waters in our heart; for grace is nothing else but the gentle action of the Humanity of Christ on our soul.
Gen. 37, 3-4, 12-13, 17-28; Mt. 21, 33-43.45-46
The first reading presents the trials of Joseph at the hands of his own brothers: sent by the father, Joseph goes to visit them, only to be stripped, beaten, put into a well to die. The Son of God also was sent by the Father, to His passion and death at the hands of the very people who should have welcomed Him.
In Joseph's case, he became the saviour of his family; JESUS, instead, became the Saviour of every man and woman. But it was through betrayal, suffering, giving up their life that they achieved salvation. Joseph, then, became the type of Christ, of the Innocent who redeemed mankind by His Blood.
It was Job who lamented most eloquently the suffering of the innocent: why does God permit it? Is He not meant to side with His faithful people, to protect them from all dangers, to reward them even in this life? But God, in His wisdom, knows that the freely taken decisions of others often cause pain and suffering to His innocent ones He will not interfere with human freedom, with human responsibilities: He could certainly have taken out of existence the wicked brothers in Joseph's case or the whole religious class in the case of His Son. He could have stopped Judas from betraying JESUS, or forced Pilate to let JESUS go free. He did not, to respect that gift which makes us more like God - our freedom.
The greatness of God's wisdom is revealed by the fact that He always manages to draw the greatest possible good from our evil actions; the devil has never the last word, even when he seems to have won: what greater victory for the devil than the sight of the Son of God crucified by the same people He had come to save? Yet, that crucifixion became the greatest victory for God, who saved mankind precisely by the Blood of His Son.
Rejections even on the part of people dear to us may well come our way causing great distress; we need to put our trust in God, since He will take care of us in the most unexpected way. Let us trust Him, remaining faithful, like Joseph and, moreover, like our Saviour: "My food is to do the Will of my Father in heaven - I always do what pleases Him most".
Isa. 1, 10. 16-20; Mt. 23, 1-12
"To us, Lord, the look of shame belongs": the people of God had been unfaithful to the covenant, had often rejected it with their sinful actions, ignoring the warnings of the prophets. "Integrity, Lord, is yours": God had been faithful, protecting His people and blessing them, defending them from their enemies. The Lord is faithful and we are unfaithful, this is the reality of our own life. We know that God acts justly with us, filling us with His grace, with His compassion, His love: often we choose sinfully to pursue the things of this world contrary to the Will of God.
Lent is a period when we become aware of our sinfulness and hence we wear "the look of shame"; it is a blessed time, the beginning of our conversion - since there cannot be return to God before the realisation that we are indeed far from Him. It was Blessed Rosmini who spoke of his "enormous vices and great sins", even though we know he did not stain his baptismal innocence: but the closer to the Light, the more clearly all our little sins are spotted and considered "enormous".
Let us then keep the "new covenant" we entered into with God at our own baptism: God will treat us as sons/daughters, loving and protecting us and rewarding us with eternal life; we, for our part, must obey His commandments, remain faithful to His teaching, be a holy member of the Church.
The words of the Gospel, "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate... do not judge, do not condemn and you will not be judged, condemned" fits in well with the reading from Daniel. We have sinned, yet the Lord will welcome us back and re-instate us to full sonship if only we repent, we say to Him that we are truly sorry. God's compassion is this turning back from sin and embracing God with a heart full of sorrow for having offended Him, knowing that God will always take us back, in this life. And even more: the Lord is actively prompting us all the time, with the power of His Spirit, to stay faithful to Him.
How can we judge and condemn our brothers and sisters? We must see them always as better than we are, and we cannot know all the intricate sources for their behaviour, and even sins: we cannot see as God sees each of us, with all our conditioning and history since childhood. Our judgment of others cannot be in accordance with the truth since the facts escape our limited knowledge; hence let us always be compassionate, generous, welcoming. It is the way God deals with us; we must try to imitate His compassion and love.
Dan. 9, 4-10; Lk. 6, 36-38
"To us, Lord, the look of shame belongs": the people of God had been unfaithful to the covenant, had often rejected it with their sinful actions, ignoring the warnings of the prophets. "Integrity, Lord, is yours": God had been faithful, protecting His people and blessing them, defending them from their enemies. The Lord is faithful and we are unfaithful, this is the reality of our own life. We know that God acts justly with us, filling us with His grace, with His compassion, His love: often we choose sinfully to pursue the things of this world contrary to the Will of God.
Lent is a period when we become aware of our sinfulness and hence we wear "the look of shame"; it is a blessed time, the beginning of our conversion - since there cannot be return to God before the realisation that we are indeed far from Him. It was Blessed Rosmini who spoke of his "enormous vices and great sins", even though we know he did not stain his baptismal innocence: but the closer to the Light, the more clearly all our little sins are spotted and considered "enormous".
Let us then keep the "new covenant" we entered into with God at our own baptism: God will treat us as sons/daughters, loving and protecting us and rewarding us with eternal life; we, for our part, must obey His commandments, remain faithful to His teaching, be a holy member of the Church.
The words of the Gospel, "Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate... do not judge, do not condemn and you will not be judged, condemned" fits in well with the reading from Daniel. We have sinned, yet the Lord will welcome us back and re-instate us to full sonship if only we repent, we say to Him that we are truly sorry. God's compassion is this turning back from sin and embracing God with a heart full of sorrow for having offended Him, knowing that God will always take us back, in this life. And even more: the Lord is actively prompting us all the time, with the power of His Spirit, to stay faithful to Him.
How can we judge and condemn our brothers and sisters? We must see them always as better than we are, and we cannot know all the intricate sources for their behaviour, and even sins: we cannot see as God sees each of us, with all our conditioning and history since childhood. Our judgment of others cannot be in accordance with the truth since the facts escape our limited knowledge; hence let us always be compassionate, generous, welcoming. It is the way God deals with us; we must try to imitate His compassion and love.
Gen. 12, 1-4; 2Tim. 1, 8-10; Mt. 17, 1-9
Everyone would be able perhaps to call to mind a beautiful time that ended too soon, or moments so rich of pleasant emotions yet so brief. It is hard to leave such experiences behind to immerse ourselves again into the routine life, with all its anxiety, troubles, suffering. The personal experience of life is indeed one that is characterised more by the negative than the positive. There are moments of pleasure, even of joy, but these are few and brief. Life is generally for everyone a cross to bear.
Today's gospel gives us a glimpse of heaven: JESUS is up on a high mountain with His favourite three disciples, Peter, James, and John and is transfigured in their presence. His face "shone like the sun and His clothes became as white as the light", and He is in the company of Moses and Elijah, and then the Father speaks to Him in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Heaven is indeed the presence of the Blessed Trinity.
Tha glimpse of heaven will remain forever in the mind of His disciples, and Peter will recall it in one of his letters much later. It was he who expressed the feelings of everyone when he said, "Lord, it is wonderful for us to be here" and he wished he could stay there for eternity. Heaven, we learn from the Scriptures, is a condition of infinite joy and blessedness, a place that has no tears, no hatred, no suffering, nor death. It is pure, undiluted joy - not only for the spiritual soul but also for the physical body through the senses. It will be "wonderful" to be there for eternity.
The present life is, therefore, temporary, a test, a preparation for the true life to come. Eternal life is where we all are directed to, but will it be heaven or hell? It depends on the way we follow the Lord in this life. If we obey Him, if we keep the commandments, especially the two greatest ones, then heaven will be ours. The present life is the life at the foot of the mountain, full of troubles and fears, a true cross to bear; we must face up to it with determination and courage, carrying the cross and ready to follow JESUS all the way to Calvary.
We also may be given moments of "heaven" in this life: pure spiritual joy, union with God in deepest love; but we know that these gracious moments will be short and that are divine encouragements so as to be able to carry the cross till the end. Our true "homeland" is heaven, and it is there that we should raise our minds and hearts often so as to give meaning to our present difficulties. He who climbs a mountain must keep his eyes and mind on the summit to conquer, without being side-tracked by irrelevant views; the hardships he encounters are meaningful since it is through them that he will arrive at the desired end.
It is St. Paul who invites us to "look for the heavenly things, to taste the things of heaven", to think often of heaven, so that we may become able to resist the temporary pleasures and distractions of the present world that lead us to hell. It is encouraging to know that whenever we recite the Hail Mary, we beg Mary to be present near us "now and at the hour of our death": will Mary fail to be there and to lead our soul to heaven having begged her to do so all our life?
Ez. 18, 21-28; Mt. 5, 20-26
During the early centuries, the priest at Mass, after the homily, would invite all public sinners to leave the church. Mass, it was felt, was too holy an event, and therefore they could only join in standing in penance outside the doors of the church. With time, it often happened that nearly everyone left the church, acknowledging their own unworthiness before the sacred Presence; hence the idea of the iconostasis or a separation "wall" (often only a curtain) between the sanctuary and the people.
The gospel today invites us to make peace with our neighbour before making the offer to God, stressing the importance of being "reconciled" with everyone before taking part to the most Holy Mysteries. The tradition of exchanging the sign of peace just before the Offertory is still present in some Rites. In the Roman tradition, the sign of peace, instead, has always preceded the immediate reception of the Eucharist, and for a clear purpose. It signifies the unity of those taking part to the Eucharist, it is the "holy kiss" to be exchanged between brothers and sisters in the Lord. It is not a sign of repentance, of asking pardon from each other. It is a joyful manifestation of our unity in the Lord.
The passage from Ezekiel stresses personal responsibility for our sins; we are not condemned for the sins of our fathers but for our own sins, a great leap forward in Jewish ethical thinking. But once we are truly sorry for the sins we commit, then there is full life in us: "He shall certainly live; he shall not die". The grace of the Sacrament of Penance restores us to life again, and we can sit at the banquet with our brothers and sisters - like the prodigal son, fully dressed and with sandals and a ring, with our dignity of children of God restored, in full harmony with all the members of the Body of Christ.
Gen. 2, 7-9. 3, 1-7; Rom. 5, 12.17-19; Mt. 4, 1-11
Temptation and sin are the topics from today's readings. Two different things: one can be tempted without necessarily falling into sin. Temptation is the inspection of the mind on the alternatives to doing the right thing, with some inner or outer force prodding us to choose the wrong alternative. The will, however, reigns supreme since it has to make the decision using the freedom it has.
Sin is the result of the final decision made by the will choosing the wrong thing knowingly and freely. It is always an act of deception, for we cannot sin if we do not know fully what the right thing to do is; when we sin we know and we want to do it nonetheless, calling good what we know is evil. Sin is always going against the Will of God manifested in our soul and in the Scriptures and doctrines of the Church.
There is a very lighthearted approach to temptation today: we all admit to temptation, and we even boast about falling in it. The idea of sin is no longer associated with an evil conscience and corruption of the human person. One boasts openly about adultery, sex outside marriage, homesexual acts, divorce, abortion, etc. The "golden lies" of our time, according to the myth of Plato, are becoming the golden truths: there is nothing wrong with so many of the actions labelled once as "sins"; abortion, divorce, homosexuality, euthanasia are associated with progress and rights of a civilised society.
Sin is immensely damaging as we can see from the appalling and lasting consequences of the "original sin". Sin was the cause of losing everything and gaining only troubles and pain. This is the case with each mortal sin we commit since we lose the friendship with God which is the source of everything good in our life. Moreover, reparation for sin caused the passion and death of the Son of God: truly God does not abandon us in the utter desperate situation we find ourselves after sin, but redeems us, gives us life again, washes us clean in the Blood of His Son.
As we begin Lent, we may wish to think about the dark reality of sin in our life: "Father I have sinned against heaven and against you"! and resolve to get up and go to the Father in confession, for it is in the great sacrament of confession that we embrace the Father once again and are clothed with the finest clothes and are re-established in our dignity of children of God.
Deut. 30, 15-20; Lk. 9, 22-25
On this second day of Lent, JESUS points to the cross: "The Son of Man is destined to suffer grieviously..." He did not look for the cross, His interaction with life, people, events brought it to Him. This is why He is telling us today that it is in the nature of things that if we "cling" to God with all our heart, the cross will come, but with the cross also the resurrection and the glorification. The opposite is not a life without a cross, but a life with heavy crosses that bring despair and loneliness, a life which is death, a "curse".
To lose one's life for the sake of JESUS is to follow Him on the cross, is to engage in the hard, patient work of the purification of our conscience, of the acquisition of virtues, of the union and love of God. It is to devote oneself to holiness, to the "great business" of saving one's soul: "What gain is it for a man to have won the whole world and to have lost or ruined his very self?"
"If anyone wants to be a follower of mine...": we are His followers, there is no other way for us but the way of the cross. It may seem gloomy, unattractive, and why should anyone wish to follow a cross? The alternative is that life itself is always and for everyone a cross, full of problems, anxiety, broken relations, selfish desires, a "curse" or a "disaster", as Deuteronomy says. It leads to a death full of despair. We can witness this daily in the life of all those who have chosen to be away from God, even though they may have money, fame, power. Life is difficult for everyone, as the old Job was fond of saying; life without God is despair and utter loneliness.
Let us choose life, blessing, the resurrection, and our own glorfication - through the unavoidable cross. Let us"renounce" ourselves, that is, let us rid ourselves of all sinful desires and attitudes and actions, to be closer to JESUS on the cross, like Mary was. She suffered immensely at the foot of the Cross, yet she was rewarded with the infinite joy of Her Son's resurrection, sitting now with Him in the glory of Heaven for eternity.
Joel 2, 12-18; Mt. 6, 1-6.16-18
The dramatic command at the start of Joel's call to repentance, "Now, now come back to Me with all your heart" will resound throughout the long period of Lent. Now, not tomorrow; at this moment, not later: let's turn to God with all our heart, mind, and strength.
JESUS proclaims the necessity of living in the truth - this is the essence of conversion; being Christian means necessarily being committed to God and to each other, truly in perfect correspondence between external behaviour and internal conviction. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving must be done from the heart - not for convenience, "to be seen by men", to wrap ourselves in splendid clothes being empty and full of corruption inside, like white-washed tombs.
The Father sees all that is done in secret: we cannot lie to God, He sees into the most profound depth of our soul. This, for some, is a fearful thought; but not for true Christians, who enjoy the thought of having the eyes of God always on them. For they know that the Father is full of compassion and love, always prompting us, through the Spirit, to follow His ways, to live according to the teachings of His Son, the only Way to fulfil our human potential.
Prayer in secret, almsgiving in secret, fasting in secret: the insistence is indicative of the tendency we have to act in discordance with ourselves, pretending to be what we are not, living, therefore, hypocritically. JESUS is teaching us to acquire progressively the habit of living the truth fully, of living in the truth - like John the Baptist, like Mary, like all the great Saints. They acted in tune with their deepest convictions, which were based on God's words and teachings.
This is, perhaps, the distinguishing mark of the true Christian in today's world, full of false glamour, outlandish claims, efforts to appear, transient fashions. Today we withdraw with Christ into the desert of Lent to learn from Him the essential in our life: our absolute poverty filled by the infinite love of God. The "remember man that you are dust and into dust you shall return" or "Repent and believe the Good News" have the same meaning: our utter poverty - we have received everything - is constantly filled by the grace and love of God.
Zeph. 2, 3; 3, 12-13; 1Cor. 1, 26-31; Mt. 5, 1-12
It was Nietchze who said that Christianity has wasted two thousand years of human history, giving predominance to that which is weak, sick, poor, despised, joyless. His dream age was the time before Christ, when men competed against each other, driven by a powerful will, strength, ambition, insofferent of all weak and sick people. The Roman Empire, in its glorious days of conquest and proud affirmation of all natural human powers was the way humanity would have found a splendid maturity. Nietchze did not know, bu we do of the dreadful consequences for mankind of the pursuit of his ideas in practice: extermination camps, world war, hatred, and destruction.
JESUS, today, is teaching the opposite way. As He sits on the hill overlooking the lake of Galilee, He speaks to people of all generations, teaching them the "secret" of being happy, truly happy in this world and for eternity. He gives us today the "elixir" of life: do you want to be happy? do you want to be "blessed"? This is the way, the only way, since I AM the Way: be poor in the depth of your heart, be gentle, be close to those who suffer, pursue justice, be merciful, be pure, pursue peace, bear patiently difficulties and persecutions for the sake of God.
Gandhi understood JESUS' secret and carried the Beatitudes with him, reading them to the crowds as he was travelling up and down India. Mother Teresa understood the Beatitudes, and so have all the saints. We need to think seriously about this most important issue in our own life and in the life of the people we love: happiness is indeed the most valued possession, we do all things to achieve happiness. The Lord is telling us that the way of the Beatitudes is the only way to happiness: He should know, since He made us!
Happiness, then, is to be poor in spirit: detached from all earthly things, knowing that only God matters, loving all things for the sake of God and of our brothers, not being slaves of money, of material goods. True poverty in spirit is to acknowledge and love God with all our heart, mind, and strength.
Happiness is to be gentle, compassionate, merciful, peaceful, acknowledging the infinite dignity of all and putting ourselves at the service of others, willing to wash the feet of others, to be last to promote others. It is to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.
The Lord teaches that the practice of the two commandments of love will not be easy, that we will encounter all kinds of difficulties: "people will abuse you, persecute you, speak all kinds of calumny against you". But we know that the way to happiness is one and therefore we must "rejoice and be glad, for our reward will be great in heaven".
2 Sam. 11, 1-10. 13-17; Mk 4, 26-34
The Kingdom of God is the reality that had a small beginning and it will last for ever, and no one will ever be able to stop it from growing to its fulness and perfect beauty. Many earthly powers have tried and will try to destroy it, but to no avail; after temporary setbacks, the Kingdom shows again its power and might and fecundity. Many within the Kingdom itself have tried and will try to damage it by their sinful life; yet, the power of the Kingdom prevails always over the evil or weakness of human nature.
The first reading today shows the dreadful sin of David, adultery, deceit, murder. The grace of God, however, prevailed, and it was David who composed that moving psalm which begins with the words, "Take pity on me o Lord in your great mercy". Like the sinful David, many Christians have damaged the Kingdom by their sinful life, even Popes, Bishops, and Priests. Yet, the power of God has prevailed over the consequences of their sinful actions and God has drawn good out of evil, defeating the devil even as he thinks he has won a victory!
The two parables in the gospel are two precious gems confronting us with the great mystery of the Kingdom. The sower goes out to scatter the seed, then he goes home, and the seed works by itself, growing progressively, without the help of the sower who can only go out and verify its gentle growth, till the harvest. The Word of God is scattered by us, but then it grows in the hearts of people by its own strength, in a gentle but sure way. Christ has sown the kingdom on earth: it is growing by itself, through the centuries, till harvest time at the end.
The mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, grows into a big shrub: like the kingdom, which, from small beginnings will reach the perfect state that will last for ever. It is God again who does the working, who gives power: and it is God again who gives us the guarantee of a perfect end for the Church, safely driven to the desired harbour of heaven by Christ Himself.
Wisdom 7, 7-10.15-16; Mt. 23, 8-12
Thomas was born in Aquinas, near Naples, the son of a noble family. He was educated by the Benedictines of Monte Cassino and made such swift progress that his teachers could not keep up with him, and he surpassed all other pupils in learning as well as in the practice of virtue. His parents, who had made great plans for him, were shattered when he told them he wanted to become a Dominican, and began a long period of harassment so as to make him change his mind, even by sending to him a woman, a prostitute, to lure him away from his vocation.
All in vain, because Thomas had eyes only for Christ and the Church, and he persevered in his vocation with great strength and fervour. He studied at Cologne under St. Albert the Great. He was nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was always a brilliant student. He taught at the university of Paris, where he became a trusted friend of King St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. He refused all ecclesiastical offices, but relished his priesthood, full of zeal for the souls whom he nourished with fervent sermons.
His teaching and his books became famous all over Europe, especially his Summa Theologica, which became the text on which endless number of priests would base their preparatory studies to the priesthood. He died on his way to the Council of Lyon, ordered there by Pope Gregory X.
Faith and reason, for Thomas, complemented each other: his sharp and lucid powers of reasoning have been admired even by modern atheist philosophers. Yet, reason can only do so much, it is faith that opens up to the mind the infinite real world of God. "All this is so much straw" is said of his books after being graced with a vision of heavenly things. Let us today ask Thomas to help us combine profound humility and love for JESUS, especially in the Eucharist, and a desire to know more and more the great mysteries of our Faith.
Isa. 8, 23-9,3; 1 Cor. 1, 10-13.17
JESUS called Peter and Andrew, John and James to make them fishers of people, to gather the confused, divided, scattered, desperate children of Eve into the one Church of God, to make them God's people. The united work of the fishermen, every Christian, is to bring in a miraculous catch, to bring into salvation and the Kingdom the whole human race. It is a most challenging task, and a most precious: the Light has come into this world offering meaning and joy and peace; we need to place this Light high so that everyone may see.
How do we do it? At the time of the early Christians pagans would say, "Look how much they love each other", and that example of caring for each other, of loving each other attracted them to the Light. The early Church in Jerusalem, we are told in the book of Acts, was of one mind and of one heart, united in prayer, in listening to the words of the Apostles, in helping everyone - see the healing of the lame man by Peter and John, see the institution of the deacons in order to administer to the sick, the poor, the widows.
We are also fishers, united in our Church to gather in a strong catch. It is the combined effort of everyone that brings results, it is the church community that becomes a light indicating the Light of the world. Our church community should be alive in the Spirit, dedicated to "prayer, listening to the Word, helping each other". The Eucharist is at the centre, since it is the Eucharist that makes the Church.
Division, disharmony, criticism tears the Church apart: we must be warned not to "divide the indivisible garment of Christ", His precious Church. We do that when we become restless, critical, disobedient, and when we fail to participate fully, whole-heartedly to the Eucharist. St. Paul had to call to task with strong words the church of Corinth on account of their deep divisions. How can a Christian bring division with words and actions into the body of the Church that has been redeemed by the Blood of JESUS and brought into unity by the power of the Spirit? We work against God every time we sow discord into the Church.
Christ knew that profound divisions would come, and He prayed for unity: "May they be one, even as We are one". In this week of prayer for Christian unity, we may consider the profound scandal to the world on account of our divisions, and pray earnestly that by the mercy of God and the goodwill of all Christians we may be one as Christ has always intended us to be.
2 Tim. 1, 1-8; Lk. 10, 1-9
Yesterday it was the feast of St. Paul, today is the turn of his two most trusted disciples, Timothy and Titus. They were very different people, the first a rather shy, hesitant young man, the second a settled and mature person. Timothy had seen Paul, very likely, as a young boy when his own grand-mother Lois and his mother Eunice - both of Jewish origin - had been converted by Paul during his first missionary journey in Lystra. Paul chose him as a disciple and treated him as a son.
Timothy had been commissioned by Paul himself and the elders by the laying on of hands: in his letter to him, Paul invites him to "fan into a flame" the gift that God gave him on that occasion - not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control. No one is to disregard his youthful appearance, but he must be honoured and respected as a man of God, full of the Holy Spirit. We can be sure Timothy followed closely Paul in his zeal, his way of life, his utter dedication to the churches; he was with Paul duirng his various periods in prison and he himself, a few years after Paul, suffered martyrdom, beaten to death by a mob of pagans. A gentle man, then, and a great apostle.
Titus, appointed by Paul bishop of Crete, had been converted and baptised in Antioch. He was a man with a certain gravitas, able to communicate forcefully, calmly, and persuasively. Paul used him to bring harmony in the divided church of Corinth. He was faithful to Paul who calls him "son", and followed Paul in most of his travels, full of the zeal that animated Paul.
Both disciples had the honour of receiving letters from Paul, and both are beautiful examples of thee saying, "Only great men can form great men": being at the school of Paul on a daily basis, they became great Christians and great Apostles, even though so different in character. Let us pray that we too may become filled with love and passion for the Kingdom, not sparing ourselves but giving all our energies for our brothers and sisters.
Acts 9, 1-22; Mk 16, 15-18
Out of pure concern for the Jewish faith, perhaps mixed with ambition, Paul persecuted the followers of the Way. He had witnessed the martyrdom of Stephen, and had been driven by hatred. Yet, he must have been a very confused and troubled man, since JESUS Himself says to him, "It hurts you to kick against the goads". Which goads? Were they not the constant reproaches of his conscience for persecuting the innocent, the impression made on him by the killing of Stephen? He had suppressed them in the depth of his mind, not willing to think about them for fear of the consequences.
The Lord gives him another chance, this time by making him realise his total blindness and forcing him to go back into his heart and to take stock of his situation. The fierce man is being led "by the hand" into the city; and one of the innocent followers of the Way comes to minister to him who had finally surrendered himself into the hands of the Nazarene.
The conversion of Paul follows a pattern the Lord still uses today: a life of actions contrary to conscience, a stubborn refusal to face up to our sinful conduct is accompanied by the constant prodding of the Spirit through various circumstances, often painful ones. Paul was arrested on his way to murder and persecution, was forced to think, to face up to his actions once and for all, was left to make up his mind - all the time assisted by God's loving invitation. Many converted Christians would recognise themselves in the process.
The grace of God in me has not been in vain: this is the response, and we often see this in the life of converted people who become far more committed and faithful than the others. This is what we ought to learn from Paul: we need to convert - repent for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand - but the conversion must be embraced with total dedication and commitment. We find Christ, we commit ourselves to Him completely. "I will show him how much he will have to suffer for My Name": Paul's generous heart was ready, and gave his life to Christ and to the Church. Let us imitate his generosity and total gift to God and to all.
Eph. 3, 8-12; John 15, 9-17
"You catch more flies with a drop of honey than with a barrel of vinegar", said Francis, the Doctor who preached love and compassion above all things. He was born in Savoy in 1567 and distinguished himself for his love of books and learning. He became a doctor of law by 24 and the most eligible bachelor, being a confident gentleman with all the skills and assets of a young wealthy member of the nobility.
But Francis made his mind up to pursue the call to holiness in the priesthood, giving himself totally to God at the service of the people of God. He asked to do missionary work in a region dominated by staunch Calvinists, putting his life at risk. In effect, he worked hard and found immense difficulties, being persecuted and beaten by angry crowds. He persevered with great patience and love, converting many and being a light to all. In 1602 he became bishop of Geneva, the calvinists stronghold, and he began the work of re-organising the diocese, with the help of St. Jane Frances of Chantal who founded the Order of Visitation, under the spiritual direction of Francis.
He wrote the Devout Life and A Treatise on the love of God, earning for himself a great reputation as a spiritual director and a master of spirituality. It was Francis who preached that holiness is for everyone, that the command of the Lord, "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect" is addressed to every person. The call to holiness is universal, and must be answered by a life dedicated to loving God and loving our neighbour.
At his death-bed, at the age of 56, he was asked to repeat the words of St. Martin: "Lord, if I am still necessary to your people, I do not refuse the labour". But he replied, "I, necessary? No, no, I am but a useless servant". And he repeated the word "useless" three times.
1Sam. 17, 32-33.37.40-51; Mk 3, 1-6
The battle between David and Goliath is repeated all through history. "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord". Our Lord, as it is clear from the reading, fought an enequal battle against His many enemies, Herodians, Scribes, Priests, Pharisees: His apparent defeat in death was overcome by the great victory of the Resurrection.
Blessed Antonio Rosmini must have felt often like a small David before the mighty Goliath, a widespread, concerted effort to have him condemned by the Church. He went on "in the name of the Lord", and eventually - again after an apparent defeat - he won the great victory expressed by his beatification.
This shows God's faithfulness and power. "They have and trust in their horses - said the ancient Israelites - but we in the name of the Lord of hosts": it is the Lord who wins our battle, we need only to let Him do it: "Stand back and watch the power of the Lord", said Moses to the people before God's action in time of great danger.
Our battles may have a twofold direction, battles against an external opposition and internal battles against our own sinfulness. That people will oppose us is to be expected, often even people who should be our allies and brothers/sisters. Envy, jealousy cause opposition and create suffering and discouragement; how often we cannot understand why people who should be supporting us are instead against us, either openly or in secret through deception. The answer is peace and trust in the Lord: let the Lord protect you and let Him help you carry forward the work taken up for and in his name.
There are battles which are internal, against our evil tendencies. We often hear people saying that their confessions are always the same, an endless battle against the same sins and constant defeat! Some sins become our Goliath, arrogantly taking over our life. David did not run away, did not provide himself with human weapons, did not trust his human ability and strength: he did his bit with simplicity uniting his little effort to the great power of God. It is the same for us: the Lord can win all our battles, on condition that we place our insignificant but real efforts into the hands of the Almighty who will win for us. That little white stone became the means of the great victory achieved by the Lord; our little effort made in the name of the Lord will achieve success.
1Sam. 16, 1-13; Mk 2, 23-28
It is a daily experience for many people: "Why do they think so badly of me, and why do they heap praises on that empty but self-assured person?" The Lord says to Samuel, "God does not see as man sees; man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart". People are easily fooled, but the Lord knows "what is in man".
There may be times when we come under severe criticism, opposition, gossip and we suffer because we know that people are not judging us fairly, have not understood what we try to achieve, and we may feel discouraged and saddened. We ought then to think positively: the Lord knows, and that is enough. JESUS Himself was taken for a glutton and a friend of sinners, and His mission - words and deeds - was completely misunderstood. How often did He have to justify Himself? "Look, why are your disciples doing something on the sabbath day which is forbidden?"
The Lord was patient and tried to direct His opponents into thinking at a deeper level: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath". It is quite right that we try our best to justify rationally our words and actions but once we have done all that we can to explain we ought to be at peace and leave everything into God's hands. He knows, and He will judge us according to truth.
Some people live their life the way other people expect them to live it; they are so afraid of upsetting the opinion of others towards themselves that they try all they can to act accordingly, losing their freedom and the possibility to flourish in their own right. They become slaves of public opinion, or of employers, or of friends. They have a mask constantly on, appearing what they are not.
The lesson for us today is twofold: let us stop being worried unduly about what other people think of us, and, on the other hand, let us be very careful about the way we see other people. Judgment for us is not really possible, only the Lord knows what is in our brothers and sisters, He knows their histories and conditioning from birth. "Do not judge, do not condemn - and you will not be judged and condemned by the Father in heaven".
1Sam. 15, 16-23; Mk 2, 18-22
As a child the prophet Samuel heard the voice of the Lord speak to him in the middle of the night. The reading today refers of another night when the Lord spoke to him. He said to Saul: "Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night". Another important communication, in the middle of the night. The Lord speaks to us all the time, but we need to be in tune with Him to hear His word. Constant prayer from the heart is the means.
By means of Baptism we have become the temple of the Blessed Trinity; God, therefore, is not above the heavens but close to us, in our own heart. There we discover the Father, our Creator, who has made the heavens and the earth out of love and for love, who has made us "unique", with a special mission and purpose in the whole plan of creation. There we find the Son, who became one of us, who appeared as a slave ministering to us all to the point of death on the cross. There we feel the presence of the Holy Spirit, enlightening with the warm light of truth and love our life, and prompting us to respond to the grace of God.
Saul was rejected because he did not listen to the voice of the Lord and did not obey: his life became utter misery, his heart full of constant fear, anxiety, jelousy. Isolated from his God, man is in deepest despair and loneliness. Let us maintain communication with our Lord, in faithful prayer, in meditation, in acknowledging Him in our brothers and sisters, and let His Will become our daily food.
Isa. 49, 3.5-6; 1Cor. 1, 1-3; John 1, 29-34
The readings of today give JESUS three titles: He is the Servant, the Lord, the Lamb. We can understand fully the first and the last only by accepting wholeheartedly the second, JESUS is the LORD of all. This is the great mystery hidden by God for centuries and revealed finally in JESUS: God has become man in JESUS, has taken up our human flesh, has dwelt among us. This is the astonishing reality. The philosopher Epicurus was sure that the "gods" could not possibly find any interest in creatures like ourselves, they made us for fun and forgot us, moving on to other things! JESUS, instead, is the apparition in this world of the goodness and love of God for His creatures.
The great mystery is explained by reference to the essence of God: God is love, hence God is three Persons bound up for eternity by love. Out of the abundance of this divine love, like springs of water from an overflowing fountain, came creation, willed and loved by God. When creation went astray because of the sin of the world, God did not abandon us but sent His Son into this world to save, redeem, raise us up to a higher life.
The LORD became a Servant: He took our human nature, humbling Himself to the point of becoming like a slave, working tirelessly for the "masters" - fallen human beings, from the extreme poverty in Bethlehem, to the hidden years in Nazareth, to the endless walking of the dusty roads of Palestine, bringing to all the "new teaching" with authority, commanding evils and nature so as to bring healing, freedom, wholeness.
The LORD became truly a Servant of His creatures! But, He became also the Lamb who was slain to pay for the sin of the world, to redeem us from evil, to give us a new, immortal life. It was John the Baptist who attributed to JESUS the title, "Lamb"; and the Lamb figures prominently in Revelation: "They will wash their robes white in the Blood of the Lamb"; "The Lamb will be their Shepherd", just to mention some of the arresting expressions used by John to help us understand better the great mystery.
The Holy Spirit is the eternal love of the Father for the Son and of the Son for the Father: His descending on JESUS like a dove is a beautiful expression stressing the primacy of love in all that the Blessed Trinity does for us. We should truly fall prostrate to the ground in the most profound adoration of the mystery: Adore, Be Silent, Rejoice!
Isa. 42, 1-4.6-7; Acts, 34-38; Mt. 3, 13-17
JESUS did not need to be baptised by John who administered a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins". JESUS entered the waters of the Jordan to sanctify once and for all the living waters of the Baptism of the Kingdom, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Blessed Trinity is present at His Baptism: the Father who rejoices in His beloved Son, the Son in prayer for the human race, the Holy Spirit as the bringer of grace and supernatural gifts.
The day of our Baptism was the day of the Blessed Trinity taking possession of our soul; the Father declared each of us His beloved child, the Son entered to create in us new supernatural faculties, the Holy Spirit sealed us with the image of the Son, creating in our soul a perennial stream of living waters. We were "born again", created anew, made the "new man", sharing in the death and resurrection of the Son. The day of our Baptism we, who were dead, blind, immersed in sin and under the threat of the wrath of God, became alive, perceiving a completely new supernatural world, free from original sin, and dearest to God. If before our Baptism we were like a person born blind who cannot form for himself an adaquate idea of the colours and of the beauty of the world, after Baptism we have become "enlightened", able to perceive God and the supernatural. By Baptsim we are given a completely new world for discovery and possession, the world of grace where God is really present, physically - so to speak - in touch with our souls.
Baptism, therefore, is not an event of the past, like finding a treasure is not a moment in the past: the treasure is with us day after day, and it needs to be used, enjoyed, experienced more and more. We acquire at Baptism Christ the Son of God in us, and with Him "Christ's mind": we live our Baptism when we pray like Christ, we love like Christ, we suffer like Christ, we approach all things like Christ did. To live according to Christ's mind means to live supernaturally: intense prayer and love of God, intense love for our neighbour, compassion, humility, truthfulness, charity.
Let us renew today our baptismal vows: we renounce satan and sin, and we believe from the heart in the work of the Blessed Trinity for the whole of humanity, a masterpiece of the superabundant love of God for his creation. And we commit ourselves to do all things according to the mind of Christ.
1 John 5, 5-13; Lk 5, 12-16
JESUS came into this world to save sinners. What does it mean? He came to put man/woman right with God, so that Paradise - a life of bliss and happiness - could be ours. He can only offer salvation, with some special help always available: He will not "force" our will, we need to listen to Him and freely choose to accept Him in our life.
"A man appeared covered with leprosy and said, 'Sir, if you want you can cure me'; 'Of course I want to! Be cured!" We are the lepers because of our sins; we are disfigured in the sight of God: hatred, lust, greed, pride, selfishness, etc. It is the case that leprosy is ugly because of what the body lacks: fingers, toes, ears, nose are no longer where they should be - hence the disfiguration of the body. Equally, evil is the lack of what should be there: we are made for truth, for love, for compassion, for self-control: we are spiritually and moraly ugly when we lack these things which belong to us. Being evil, therefore, is to have much less than ordinary people; it is utter poverty of the spirit, in a truly negative sense.
We have three witnesses to help our weakness: the Spirit, in our heart, prompting us all the time to embrace Christ and the good life; the water of Baptism, a spring of pure grace deep within us for all our life; and the blood, the Body and Blood of JESUS, our food and nourishment, the means of our redemption. The process is easy, since the Lord is always willing: "Of course I want to! Be cured!"; it is our wayward mind and heart that need persuading that true happiness and true human perfection is to be found in God alone.
1 John 4, 19-5.4; Lk 4, 14-22
JESUS experienced rejection at least twice in his life, at Nazareth first, according to the gospel of today, right at the start of His public ministry and then in Jerusalem on Good Friday, soon after the great reception of Palm Sunday, with the cries of "Not him, but Barabbas" and "Crucify, crucify Him". It is most probable that he felt a more profound wound at Nazareth, the village that welcomed Him as a child. Nazareth was a small village - 500/600 people in all - and they had witnessed the humility, honesty, integrity, goodness of JESUS for thirty years; they had seen Him regularly in the synagogue, perhaps they had heard Him speak often commenting on the Word of God, it is also likely that He had helped them with their problems, sorrows, difficulties.
The first half of the reading of His return to Nazareth still seems to suggest a great admiration of the people of Nazareth for Him: "And He won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips". What changed suddenly and radically their mind towards Him so as to try to kill Him? Very likely a few critical voices, a few learned perhaps but utterly jealous people, who began raising objections, sowing poison in the hearts of the people. It will be the same in Jerusalem: the people, by themselves and spontaneously acclaim JESUS the Son of David, the Messiah; the critical voices of the scribes, pharisees, priests will sow poisonous accusations, distortions, hateful comments, and they swing the pendulum of the mood of the crowds against JESUS.
It is often the case that we experience profound wounds at the hands of our own closest friends, relatives, communities, work-places; it is often the case that our reputation, our good name is spoiled by one or two or a few people who begin voicing criticism, negative judgments, bad words against us, altering the mood of the others towards us. How often does it happen that we begin with enthusiasm and approval from others only to see people changing against us by what they hear from other jealous, critical people?
Today's gospel should teach us to accept rejection as JESUS did, offering it to God for our own salvation; but it should also warn us not to be among the people who destroy the reputation, the good name of others by sly critical remarks, sardonic comments, judgments full of jealousy and hatred. The Lord will certainly protect His innocent people, but He will also most certainly punish the unjust perpetrators, who often cover their evil words under the pretext of "innocent fun", or of "safeguarding the truth".
1 John 4, 7-10; Mk 6, 34-44
"Love comes from God": a momentous statement, which starts from the depths of the inner life of the Blessed Trinity, a life which is pure, divine love among the Persons in God and which is then poured outwardly into the creation of the universe with human beings in it. Everything which is is Love or the result of love; even our human love has its foundation in God - there is no other source.
This means that a heart that loves has God in it; a love, however, which must not be confused with animal passion, or love which is disorderly in its purpose. To love a dog more than a human being is love which has gone astray, a disorderly love which destroys it: the less is loved more than the greater, it is therefore a contempt of love. Since the encyclical, "Deus charitas est", we have become used to the ancient distinction of the different uses of the word love: eros, philia, agape.
Eros is the love which insists on the pleasure resulting from being loved, which can be orderly or disorderly. Pleasure is a necessary consequence of loving and being loved, and it is an essential part of it. Even God wants to be loved in return of his love for us. Human love also longs for love in return of love, and returned love is the cause of great pleasure and bliss.
Philia is the love which we know better as friendship: it is the love of JESUS who calls us His "friends", the kind of firendship which Scripture says is a "treasure". It is the meeting of persons, the I embracing the Thou in utter respect and reverence.
Agape, is self-sacrificing love, the love which implies a total gift of oneself to the other. It is the love which is spoken most of in the Scripture: Christ loved us and gave His life for us. Christian love for every man and woman implies a total gift of oneself, as history testifies: John Paul II, Mother Teresa, St. Therese of Lisieux, Blessed Antonio Rosmini. Saints lived in a supreme way the love which is agape, consecrating themselves for the good of their neighbour.
"Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love"!
1 John 3, 22 -4,6; Mt. 12-17.23-25
One of the first heresies to appear in the early Church was "docetism", the belief that the Son of God had the appearance of a human being without really being one; thus docetists held that JESUS Christ had not "come in the flesh", as John puts it. John, himself perhaps suspected of docetism on account of the divine quality of his JESUS, rebukes the heresy in the strongest terms. He says that in the discernment of the spirits, those are to be approved as coming from God who "acknowledge that JESUS Christ has come in the flesh", whereas the others who deny this are the "antichrist".
St. Athanasius argued that salvation had been achieved by JESUS precisely because He was truly God and truly man: only God could repay the debt of justice, the offending of the infinite God by finite creatures, and only God could take on fully the human nature so as to burden Himself really with the sin of the world and pay for it. No mere human being would ever be able to put justice right.
The Incarnation, however, did not simply pay back the infinite debt of justice, it also procured for the human race the infinite gifts of the supernatural world. The human Christ sanctified human flesh in all things, it raised it to an infinite value. By going into the waters of Jordan, JESUS sanctified the waters for baptism; by blessing the bread and the wine, JESUS gave Himself up as spiritual food to humanilty; by being present at Cana, JESUS raised to a sacrament the union of man and woman.
Moreover, because of the Incarnation, Christ abides permanently into the soul of the baptised person, who becomes truly "the image of God", since the true Son is in him; the Son in us, thus, prays for us, loves for us, wins our battles for us. "It is not I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me", said Paul. With Christ there is the Father, and there is the Holy Spirit. We become truly temples of the Blessed Trinity. We can say with Pope Leo, "O Christian acknowledge your dignity!"
Isa. 60, 1-6; Eph. 3, 2-3. 5-6; Mt. 2, 1-12
"Lord, You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in You": it was a restless young man, Augustine, who eventually wrote these words, after a very troubled youth, given to sexual excesses, to rejection of pagan gods, and to the search of the living God. The "star", in his quest, was his mother, then bishop Ambrose: and they led him to JESUS.
King Herod looms large in today's gospel reading: he was given the attribute of "great" on account of his many great building works, the refurbishing of the Temple, the building of the harbour and city of Cesaria, in honour of his Roman masters who knew him so well. It was said among the Romans that it was better to be a pig in Herod's household than one of his sons, since he killed a wife and three of his sons; the last one just five days before his own death, for fear of being replaced. He was paranoic about power, as his splendid and mighty fortresses testify even today: it is not surprising to read that he was most anxious when he heard the words of the Wise Men seeking the "new born king of the Jews", and that Jerusalem was perturbed with him!
The slaughter of the Innocents took the life of about 20-30 children; how many more lives does the modern slaughter of the Innocents through abortion take? Yet we are horrified at Herod, but we insist on keeping the law on abortion as a sign of progress and civilisation.
Herod, therefore, represents "one way" in our life: the way of cunning, deception, cruelty, envy, jealousy; the way that wishes to "eliminate" God from our daily life.
The Wise Men, helped by the star, and even by evil itself, reached JESUS, and immense joy came to their hearts. They knew they had found everything. They gave Him three gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh, acknowledging Him as King, God, Saviour. This is also the pattern of people like Augustine who seek for God in JESUS: they become impressed by the might of the words of JESUS, they ackowledge Him as an extra-ordinary being: "no one has ever spoken like this man", "who can forgive sins but God?" "who is this man to whom even the sea and wind obey?"; then they have their eyes opened to seeing in JESUS the Son of God - the only possible explanation for His words and his deeds, for his life and his death, and moreover, for his Resurrection. And finally, they acknowledge Him as their Saviour, the Shepherd who gave His life for the lost sheep.
Like the Wise Men, we need to take a "different way" in our life, the way of JESUS, of His values, teaching, commandments. True conversion demands a radical change of heart, making JESUS our King, God, Saviour. And today we could also perhaps thank God for the "star" in our life: the people who have encouraged us on our way to the divine child JESUS.
A final point: at Bethlehem, JESUS appeared as the son of David, the expected Messiah for the Jewish nation; today JESUS is manifested as the universal King, as the Saviour of the whole world, as the God who created and cares for everyone. All nations shall fall prostrate before Him: He is the only God.
Isa. 9, 1-7; Titus 2, 11-14; Lk. 2, 1-14
"The people that walked in darkness has seen a great light": the year 2007 has been defined by The Times as a very bad year for God. Richard Dawkins's book "The God Delusion" has sold more than 1 million copies and remained at the top of the best-selling books for over four months; Christopher Hitchens's book "God is not Great" has equally sold very well; and even from the film industry the success of "The Golden Compass" has been saluted as a strong and persuasive attack against belief in God. We are told that religion is the root of all evil, that causes mental illness, distorted thinking, aggressive and malevont behaviour. This is what Dawkins has to say about believers: "They are malevolent... vicious, sadomasochistic and repellent... dodgy, perniciously delusional... sanctimoniously hypocritical.. cockeyed".
Darkness and shadow of death are the companion of the people of our own age; the great Plato had already described the condition of humanity left to itself: chained in a dark underground cave, taking for real what is only shadows, with a dim and blinkered view of themselves, of others, of the world. He mentions a "person from above", from the real world descending and trying to persuade people that the real, beautiful world is above, that they ought to free themselves of their fallacious opinions and ascend to the clear view of truth. Alas for him: with prophetic insight Plato foresees that such a person from above would certainly be ridiculed, beaten, and killed!
Yet, the love of God has been made manifest by the coming of His Son into this world, to teach us the way of peace and the way of blissful eternal life. Paul called this the great "mystery" hidden for centuries and revealed now in JESUS: God's gracious plan for the salvation of humanity, the outpouring of His divine Light dispelling the darkness of our opinions, giving life to a people living in the shadow of death. The recent encyclical of the Pope Spe Salvi is a hymn to the gift of faith and hope given to us by Christ; faith and hope based not on wishful thinking but on hard truth and historical facts.
JESUS is truly the light of the world and in Him humanity can re-discover meaning to everything that happens in the world, to suffering, death, to relationships, to our personal journeys through life. Like the light of the sun dresses in splendour and clarity everything it touches, so is the Word of God, the true light that came into this world. Let us rejoice today at its splendour and warmth, so well expressed by the beautiful events surrounding the little manger at Bethlehem.
2Sam. 7, 1-5.8-12.14.16; Lk. 1, 67-79
David's dream of building a house for the Lord was fulfilled by his son, Solomon. Yet, the Lord, through the prophet Nathan, assures him that one of his descendants will rule for ever and that He will be the Temple which will stand secure for ever. The Body of Christ is the House of the Lord for ever, the Church with Him as the Head. We could also say that Mary's womb became the Temple of the Son of God among us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We too are temples of God, by means of our Baptism. The seal we received, the character, is nothing else but the seal of the Son of God imprinted by the Holy Spirit on our soul: because of it, we become the "image" of God, that is, the Son of God in us is the perfect image of the Father and our intellect and will are joined up to Him, raising our dignity to the infinite dignity of the Son of God. It is the Son of God in us who loves the Father, it is the Son of God in us who does the praying: human beings by themselves cannot do anything at all in the supernatural, but with Christ they can do all things.
The splendid canticle of Zechariah expresses the joy of the holy people of the Old Testament at seeing the fulfilment of the prophecies, assuring them of God's protection, and ever-lasting love. In it we also find these words, "To serve Him in holiness and virtue in his presence, all our days": this is possible because Christ is present in us, and He is our holiness and our virtue. What must we do then? Nothing more than cling to Christ, with our intellect and our will, have the "mind of Christ", act always "in Him, with Him, and for Him".
Isa. 7, 10-14; Rom. 1, 1-7; Mt. 1, 18-24
"JESUS is true God and true Man": it is the confession we make when we recite the Creed, the essence of what we as Christians believe. JESUS "according to the human nature He took, was a descendant of David", rooted in our history by a long series of genealogical figures, born a child in abject poverty, his life ended in the agony of the cross. He shared all our human experiences, except sin; He was hungry, thirsty, He needed friendship, He conversed with people around, He attended synagogues and the Temple to worship God, He felt the joy of the presence of God in His life, and the desolation of His absence in the most terrible moments of His life. It was as a Man that He always did the Will of the Father, that He spent nights and hours in prayer; it was as a Man that He was roused to anger by the harshness, and hypocrisy of religious leaders. It is not surprising that we relate far more readily with the JESUS of Nazareth, the true Man. In the early Church, it was the "school of Antioch" that insisted on the humanity of our Saviour.
The Gospel today shows beautifully the humanity of JESUS: the problems between Mary and Joseph, with the wedding about to be called off on very serious grounds, and Joseph's decision to stick to Mary and the Child conceived in a mysterious way. We can imagine Joseph's initial dismay, his doubts, his torment; and we can also imagine Mary's humiliation, her inability to explain the fact, her fear to be rejected, abandoned.
But JESUS is also "true God", or as Paul says in the reading, "JESUS Christ our Lord was proclaimed Son of God in all His power through His resurrection from the dead". In JESUS we have the human nature and the divine nature: as God, JESUS was equal to the Father, bound up with Him at all times by the Holy Spirit proceeding from "the Father and the Son". It was the Son of God who came down from heaven, from the "bosom of the Father", to reveal to us the greatness of God and the infinite love for us. He came down to teach us how to get to heaven, how to enter the eternal life that has been prepared for us. "No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son has made him known"; He who "took flesh and dwelt among us". It was JESUS, Son of God, who commanded the wind and the storm, the sickness, the evil spirits, death itself - and they all obeyed. It was JESUS as God that defeated death and rose from the dead, being now one with the Father, the ruler of all that is. In the early Church, it was the "school of Alexandria" that insisted - against Arius - on the divinity of JESUS.
It was necessary for the Son of God to become truly Man in order to save the whole of man from his sin; who else could have repaid the debt owed to the justice of God? It was necessary for the Son of God to become man so that man may truly become, through Him and in Him, the true "image" of God, so that man may be enabled to love God, to pray to God, to do God's Will - for in all supernatural things, it is the Son of God in us who does them in us. Let us contemplate today the great mystery of JESUS, our human companion and our loving God.
1Sam. 1, 22-28; Lk. 1, 46-56
It is not unusual for children to feel attracted to God, an attraction which is often the basis of their future vocation to the religious life. In Judaism, on the 40th day after the birth, the child is "presented" to God as a sweet offering, as we see in the story of the baby Samuel in today's reading. The good soil for a vocation is always the family, and parents should feel the responsibility of nurturing this early attraction for God in their children: Deo servire regnare est, the greatest privilege for a human being.
According to tradition, Mary also was offered to God as a child, and later, with Joseph, they will "present" the baby JESUS to the Father. In this offering is fulfilled the meaning of a human life: a life consecrated, given to the service of the supreme Creator, of the loving Father. Eternity is life with God, it makes sense to begin in earnest: "Lord you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you".
The source of Mary's joy in the Magnificat is her profound union with God: from there she can see human events unfolding and their relative value in relation to the greatness of the love of God; it is the kind of joy experienced by monks and nuns who have truly consecrated their life to God, they can afford to look down on the many things which, instead, people who have no God pursue relentlessly in their search for pleasure and happiness. "All our joy in God is founded", we sing; and it was the great priest Esdra who repeated to the people of Judah, "The joy of the Lord is our strength". There is no other source of true happiness for ourselves but the living God.
Judges 13, 2-7. 24-25; Lk. 1, 5-25
Nazarite and Nazarene are two words which are close but meaning different things, the first indicates a person consecrated to God from childhood, who "takes no wine or strong drink, eats nothing unclean, and no razor is allowed to touch his head"; the second is a person from Nazareth. JESUS was known as the Nazarene, being from a village from which "nothing good could possibly come", as Nathaniel said. The word Nazarene was part of the inscription on the Cross: "JESUS the Nazarene King of the Jews". But JESUS was also the "consecrated" one, dedicated to the Father in utter obedience and service, a "spiritual" nazarite. Hence, Samson is a type of JESUS.
The gospel presents the annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Zachariah, and the miraculous conception of John the Baptist. It is clear that the whole event is secondary, in essence and in details, to the fundamental fact of the Incarnation of the Son of God in Mary. But it has great importance, for the longing of Zechariah and Elizabeth for a child is an image of the longing of the human race for the divine Child; and the love of God for the faithful couple is an anticipation of the outpouring of the love of the Blessed Trinity for the human family, in JESUS. John himself is qualified as a "nazarite", "he will be your joy and delight and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord... even from the womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit... He will go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah". If this is the messenger what will the Messiah be like?
Zechariah's family,with its longing and preparing for the Son of God, with its total dependance on and love for God who keeps His promises, is a model for our families as we prepare for Christmas: let us as a family make way to the Lord who is to come, He who is the One all nations are waiting for, the Adonai burning with love for fallen humanity.
Jer. 23, 5-8; Mt. 1,18-24
Jeremiah's is the prophecy of today: "The days are coming... I will raise a virtuous Branch for David... His name will be, "The Lord-our-integrity". It is true that Jeremiah's life and death were the most outstanding witness of the life and death of Christ: love for his people, fearless teaching about fidelity to God, rejection, and death; but it is clear that he saw in the distant future the restoration of humanity, a humanity with a "heart made of flesh", with the Word of God written on it, faithful to God as a people, with the Lord-our-integrity as the loving Leader.
The gospel presents Joseph, the third guide during the season of Advent. He is the "just" man. It is this justice or integrity that is his characteristic. Justice means to give to everyone and everything its due: to God, Creator and Father, worship, honor, and obedience; to all human beings who possess an infinite dignity on account of their intuition of being which is "the light that enlightens every man who comes into this world" the respect and love due to them; to all created things, the respect according to their order of being. Justice is orderly, universal love: and this is also our integrity. Joseph is the "just" man, faithful and obedient to God, aware of the infinite dignity of Mary and hence protective towards her. The thought of "leaving her" was caused by his righteousness before the Law, hence by obedience to the Law; but, at the words of the Angel, he clings to Mary and to the Child becoming the second most important person in the human life of JESUS.
Let us follow Joseph in his "justice", acknowledging the supreme Being, and all other beings in their order and loving them with all our heart. Justice is the foundation of the two commandments of love.
Gen. 49, 2.8-10; Mt. 1,1-17
We started last night the Christmas Novena, and today's readings accelerate the pace of our preparation for the coming of God into this world. Leaving for a while Isaiah, the Church presents other prophecies about the coming Messiah: today is from Genesis 49: "The sceptre shall not pass from Judah... until He come to whom it belongs, to whom the peoples shall render obedience". It will be from the tribe of Judah, from Bethlehem a town in Judah, that the Messiah will come. It is beautiful to think that for God human history is one long line watched over lovingly by Him: the ancient peoples of the Old Testament are bound up with Christ, longing for Him to come. Humanity is truly one family before God, and He operates for His creation out of the abundance of his love.
It is the same message we read in Matthew, right at the start of his "book", the gospel. Matthew's genealogy differs from Luke's in a variety of ways, but we pick out a couple of differences: Matthew's line is from Abraham to Jesus; Luke's line is from Jesus to God, perhaps as a result of one stressing the universal nature of the Incarnation, JESUS being sent by the Father to save mankind, and the other stressing his belonging to the people of the Covenant, to be extended now to the whole human race. Matthew also mentions five women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Many reasons have been suggested, but perhaps we could see this as "women who made a difference" in the line of events leading up to Christ.
The main message, however, is that humanity is God's beautiful creation and that it is God who looks after it, from the beginning to the end, walking with us, loving us, teaching us, suffering with us. If God, then, is with us, who can be against us?
Isaiah 35, 1-6.10; Jam. 5, 7-10; Mt. 11, 2-11
By means of Baptism we become in Christ priests, prophets, and kings. The prophets of the Old Testament were not people writing prophecies from the comfort of their desks; they were profoundly involved in their prophecies, carrying the message in their own lives, suffering or rejoycing with it. The royal man Isaiah was asked by God to walk naked in the streets of Jerusalem to "prophesy" that the people would be dragged naked into exile, unless they converted; Ezekiel was told, "Son of man, this evening the "apple of your eyes", your beloved wife, will be taken away from you, as a sign to the people that their most treasured possession, the Temple, will be taken away from them". The wife died in the evening, and the Temple was destroyed a few months later. The same applies to Hosea, ordered by God to marry the prostitute Gomer, and to buy her back when she later betrayed him, to show the people of Israel the love of God for them, notwithstanding their prostitution with foreign gods.
John the Baptist was "more than a prophet", and he gave his message by living it. In the same way that he was rejected, put in prison, killed so will JESUS be. He prepared the way not by writing books, but withdrawing in the harsh Judean desert, starving, punishing his body, proclaiming Christ when He appeared. His message of conversion was first of all "lived" by him in his own flesh; and it brought him to his death, since he died affirming the values of the Kingdom of God.
Did John have doubts about JESUS? It is not unreasonable to believe that John also shared the common view that the Messiah would be a glorious king, overwhelming his enemies by His divine powers, something which JESUS had failed to do. "Are you the Messiah, or are we to wait for someone else?". It is more probable than John had understood that "my ways are not your ways", and that he himself had no doubts about JESUS but sent his disciples for their own sake, to hear directly from JESUS the affirmation of His Messiahship. JESUS does it by referring to the fulfilment of the great prophecies, happening before their own eyes: "The lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life; and the good news is proclaimed to the poor".
We too are prophets by means of our Baptism, we too need to point to JESUS, to direct people to Him, but much more with our life than with our words. The prophet is the one whose message is striking, by the force of his actions. Our being Christian needs to be "exaggerated" in the eyes of the people around, so that they may be led to take notice of it, to stop, and to think. Mother Teresa was a prophet, John Paul II was another, and many other great people of today: but notice how their actions speak louder than their words!
Eccl. 48, 1-4.9-11; Mt. 17, 10-13
Four are the main guides on our journey to Christmas through Advent: Isaiah, John the Baptist, Joseph, and the Virgin Mary. Isaiah represents the longing of the people of the Old Testament, a longing which is expressed in beautiful poetry, and in far-seeing prophecies. One can imagine the joy of the early Christians as they read Isaiah in the light of their direct experience of Christ.
The second person is John the Baptist, the Elijah who was to come, rejected as JESUS will be rejected. He is declared the greatest by JESUS, as the last representative of the people of the Old Testament and the immediate messanger of the Messiah. He still belongs to the old, but, like Simeon, his heart is full of joy at the seeing of the Messiah, at His divine voice. His message is strong like his appearance, since true "conversion" or "metanoia" or turning back is now required: think the new way of thinking, think "Kingdom of God present among us" in JESUS. The new supernatural reality has broken into this world, for love of the world, to raise the world up to the happiness of God's presence.
Yet, even John had, perhaps, his doubts: where was the splendour and might of the coming Messiah? Where was the definite victory over sin and death? Where was the Kingdom "come in glory"? Was JESUS truly the Messiah, He who had been born in a stable, who had lived the hidden life for 30 years in an obscure village, who had powerful enemies who appeared to have the upper hand? Perhaps not for his own sake, for he knew well, but for the sake of his own disciples he sent messangers to JESUS to ask, "Are you the Messiah, or should we wait for another one?" JESUS' reply should have been the most convincing answer - even if the big problem of His humility and apparent defeat at the hand of religious leaders still remained: all the promises made by God through the prophets are being fulfilled in Me.
The way of God is different from our way, and it results always the best and most spectacular! The gospel is full of paradoxes, from God in a stable to God on a cross! Truly the weakness of God is infinitely more powerful than the inflated wisdom of man.
Isaiah 48, 17-19; Mt. 11, 16-19
Who says that religious life is heaven? It could be, and at times it is, but since there is no other way to heaven but through the cross, religious people often find that even within the sacred walls of monasteries and convents there is much pain and suffering, the purifying fire that tests their endurance and meekness in the Lord. St. John of the Cross experienced severe beatings, tortures, and imprisonment from his own religious brothers!
It was St. Teresa of Avila who discovered the humble priest, who soon became her confessor and helper in the wide movement she had started of reforming the Carmelites. Every religious Order is aware of the dangers of decadence and corruption of the charism of their Founder, and it takes great courage and determination on the part of few initially to set things moving again in the right direction. St. John found great opposition, to the point that he was put into a tiny cell with very little light from a crack at the top of the wall, that allowed him to read standing on a stool. He had been flogged both privately and publicly before his brethren, so fiercely that he retained the scars for the rest of his life.
He endured everything for the sake of the Cross of JESUS: it was during the dark periods of persecution and imprisonment - for nine months - that he wrote his mystical, poetical books that earned him the title of Doctor of the Church after his death. He openly declared that there is no other way to heaven but through the cross, and crosses come easily from people around us and the circumstances of life.
St. John suffered from lengthy periods of spiritual aridity, of difficulty in concentrating on God, of temptations; we hear the same things in relation to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. We should not be surprised therefore when we have the same feelings: it is God who allows this to happen to teach us humility and dependance from Him. We truly "cannot do anything" by ourselves in the spiritual life; but with Christ we can do all things. We learn this by experiencing the desolation and lack of enthusiasm for the spiritual during certain periods of our life; but we must never give up on anything we ought to do, like praying constantly and fulfilling all our duties faithfully. Beautiful breaks of pure blue sky open now and then that allow us to savour at a deeper level the goodness of God.
Isaiah 41, 13-20; Mt. 11, 11-15
"Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento... Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia": few, who had been on the gondolas of Venice would have escaped the melodious song of the gondoliers. St. Lucy is in fact their patron saint, for the simple reason that Venice has her martyred body kept in the Church of Santa Lucia. But she was a wealthy Roman girl from Sicily, who had promised her virginity to Christ. Her parents, however, thought otherwise and promised her to a powerful young man of the city who, seeing that the girl of his dreams was not interested in him, but in JESUS, accused her of being a Christian. She was condemned to be burned, but when the fire had no impact on her, she was killed by the sword, not before her killers had her eyes taken out.
She is presented often with he eyes on a dish, together with the palm of martyrdom. Her death made a great impression on the Christians, and veneration for her began in earnest: we find her name in the roman Canon of the Mass. Moreover, her feast day on 13 December fell on the winter solstice in the pre-Gregorian calendar, hence, "Today is the feast of Lucy-Light, when we have the shortest day and the longest night". Her feast was seen as the herald of the true Light of the World, JESUS.
Let us today thank God who alone gives the courage to be His witnesses, to share His light in our world: St. Lucy was a light to the people, we also become light by the power of our actions and words.
Isaiah 35, 1-10; Lk. 5, 17-26
In his second Encyclical letter, Benedict XVI mentions the inscription on two sarcophagi going back to the times of the early Christians, one a pagan, with the words, "How quickly we return to nothing having come from nothing"; the other of a Christian child, with the image of Christ the philosopher, with the gospel in one hand and the philosopher's staff on the other. The whole Encyclical is contained in these two images!
The pagan expectation at death, then as it is today, is nothingness: we came from nothing we shall return to nothing. This is what R. Dawkins assures us today, what Sartre, Marx, and the more sophisticated pagan philosophers of the first century taught their adepts. A world without hope, or, of a very limited hope, ending in despair. Science can explain particular things on the basis of observation, but it cannot give meaning or hope.
Christ, on the other hand, fills us with hope: His resurrection is a guarantee of our own resurrection, our faith is the faith of a people who know "the unknown", the life eternal with God, in His loving embrace. JESUS is the true philosopher since He is the one who teaches us the meaning of life, the way to live our life, the meaning of death. He passed in this world with his staff, on the dusty roads of Palestine, teaching the "way, the truth, and the life".
The readings today re-affirm this: the visions of Isaiah are full of hope, a performative hope to use the expression of the Pope, that is, a hope that changes us inwardly, that builds up our inner self in the light of God. The gospel's story presents Christ healing not simply the body but especially the soul: "My friend, your sins are forgiven you". JESUS is our hope because He changes us, He transforms us into Himself, by means of His word and of His Body; He operates in us becoming the source and the arrival of all our spiritual longings and desires.
Gen. 3, 9-15.22; Eph. 1, 3-6.11-12; Lk. 1, 26-38
"Tota pulchra es Maria, et macula originalis non est in te" (Mary, you are thoroughly beautiful, and the original sin is not to be found in you): thus sings the Church today. She was preserved by virtue of her becoming the Mother of JESUS, hence by virtue of her Son, from whom all good things come. She occupies a unique place in God's creation, kept free from original sin by grace, chosen to become Mother of JESUS, sharing with Him every moment of His life on earth, uniting her sorrows to His pain for the redemption of mankind, given to us as Mother at the foot of the Cross, staying with His brethren for a time after His Ascension, and finally being taken up body and soul to Heaven, beside Her Son, to pour down graces to us, poor children of Eve.
She recognised with immense gratitude the outpouring of divine gifts over her, and the Magnificat is her song of thanksgiving to the gracious God. In her we can see in a visible way what man/woman would have been without the stain of original sin, what we will be in heaven: humble before the Almighty, loving God, obedient to His Will, full of love for her brethen - Joseph, Elizabeth, the disciples, the Church, mankind; with body and soul in heaven. She is, therefore, our best model for going to heaven: she lived the "ordinary" life, intensely, in constant union with God and with concern and love for her brethen. We must not dream of humanly great things; God is to be found more readily in the ordinary, the small, the daily.
In the gospel of St. John, Mary appears on two occasions: at the wedding of Cana and at the foot of the Cross. At Cana, she says, "Do whatever my Son tells you to do" - and miracles then happened; at the foot of the Cross, she is told by her Son, "Woman behold your son" - and in John we see ourselves. Let us, then, go to JESUS through Mary - ad JESUS per Mariam; and let us acknowledge her as our Mother, with great love, imitating her virtues, in spirit of obedience to God and to the Church. There is no mightier help in our fight against the devil than the one about whom is said that "she will crush its head": Mary, by the power of her Son, will defeat the devil, in our life as in the life of the Church.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed by Pius IX in 1854, just few months before the death of Blessed Rosmini. He had been consulted by the Pope and had sent a beautiful booklet expressing his views, based on the teachings of the Fathers of the Church, and on theological reasoning. His love for Mary was legendary, and he had obtained from the Pope permission to celebrate Mass in honour of the Immaculate Conception even before the proclamation of the dogma. He referred to Mary as "our Mother and our Captain".
Isa. 29, 17-24; Mt. 9, 27-31
"Ambrose for Bishop!", the body of the faithful chanted for hours soon after the unbaptized but declared Christian Ambrose had tried to calm down the church's factions in Milan over who should be their next bishop. The faithful knew him, knew his faith and desire to enter fully into the Church, knew his extra-ordinary gifts as a high ranking official of the Roman Empire, and they liked they way he addressed large gatherings like their own, as the accomplished orator he had been trained to be.
His father had been the prefect of Gaul, and he made rapid progress in the imperial court. At the time he had been put in charge of a large area of northern Italy, taking his residence in Milan. With the Emperor's permission and not without trying first to escape from the appointment, he was baptised, ordained, and made bishop of Milan in a very short time. Even today he is considered the most outstanding bishop Milan has had over nearly 2000 years of its history. He was a decisive man, forceful in implementing decisions, fearless in his many debates with Emperors, and their wives, especially over the heresy of Arianism.
He put his flock always first, like the good shepherd of the Gospel, defending it from fierce wolves and putting his life on many occasions at risk. He lived for Christ, and his people; his sermons are outstanding for clarity, depth, and profound examination of the Scriptures. Chosen as shepherd by his people, he lived for his people, nourishing them, and guiding them, without diluting the demands of the gospel ever. Even the great Emperor Theodosius humbled himself before him, after he had allowed the massacre of over 7000 people rioting in the amphytheatre in Thessalonika: Ambrose refused to allow him to attend Mass, and sternly rebuked him, until the Emperor, in spirit of true repentance, humbled himself before God and the whole world. The Emperor said of Ambrose: "He is the only true bishop in the Empire". Let us ask Ambrose to help us keep faithful to the teaching of the Church, without human respect or fear, and without diluting the message of the Gopel.
Isa. 26, 1-6; Mt. 7, 21.24-27
It is still early days in Advent, yet the readings today encourage us to think of the Church, the mother of all Christians - like Mary is the Mother of Christ, the Head of the Church. The Church was willed by God, as Isaiah says, "We have a strong city; to guard us the Lord has set wall and rampart about us. Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in, she, the faithful one whose mind is steadfast, who keeps the peace". The Church is the people of God with Christ as the Head: justice is the main characteristic, the justice of Christ on the Cross - paying for our sins through a display of infinite love - and our own justice, which is freedom from sin and giving God and neighbour what is due to them. To God, our Creator and Redeemer, our total love; to our neighbor, who carry God in them, the respect and love for their infinite dignity.
Justice is, therefore, the perfect keeping of the two commandments of love; this is the reason for being the foundation of the Church, the solid rock which cannot be shaken by the storms. We become "rock" in the Church when we do what the Father asks: "It is not those who say to me, "Lord, Lord", who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven". Our justice must imitate the perfect justice of Christ who, although was God yet humbled Himself on the Cross, to do the Will of His Father. Justice for us means a constant effort to purify our conscience from every sin, a daily practice of Christian virtues, and intimate union with God. This is the way to holiness, and to a blessed Christmas - the dwelling of JESUS in the stable of our heart.
Isa. 25, 6-10; Mt. 15,, 29-37
Let us put side by side the words of the prophet Isaiah and the actions of JESUS in the readings of today and we shall see how true, faithful, and "historical" are the prophecies about the Messiah. It is not a case of "wishful" thinking, but of clear prophecies realised in JESUS. This perfect combination was the cause of immense joy to the very early Christians, as it is evident from the speeches in Acts of Peter, Stephen, Paul, and all the others: they knew their Bible well and were amazed at the perfect fulfilment of prophecies about the Messiah in JESUS.
Isaiah today says, "On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will prepare a banquet of rich food..."; and Matthew in the gospel says, "They all ate as much as they wanted..."; Isaiah says, "On this mountain the Lord will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples... will wipe away the tears from every cheek, will take away His people's shame"; and Matthew says, "JESUS went up into the hills, and large crowds came to Him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb... and He cured them, and they praised the God of Israel".
JESUS is indeed the One peoples have been longing for, in Old Testament times, and in our own time. He is the One who gives life, light, nourishment, meaning, eternal union with the Trinity. In Him all good things are fulfilled; He is the One who brings blessings everywhere. JESUS went around doing good to all, bringing God's love to all. This is also our challenge: we must become people who bring blessings to all we meet, especially to those who are in distress, in loneliness, in despair. This is the profound meaning of the Eucharist we celebrate: we bless the bread and wine as the symbol of the blessing of everything in the universe; in the Eucharist everything is given a blessing, and we become one with all that is, God, perfect Being and the universe, participated being, for to bless is to love.
Isa. 11, 1-10; Lk. 10,, 21-24
What Isaiah says in the first reading, JESUS fulfils it in the gospel reading - it is the pattern of many of the readings during the period of Advent. Isaiah sees in the distant future the splendour brought into this world by the descendant of Jesse: all heavenly things come with Him, the gifts of the Spirit, integrity, faithfulness, peace, and love. His words will bring the "fear of the Lord", condemning darkness by its radiance, the unrepentant sinner by the display of His love.
JESUS confirms the words, and the longing of Isaiah: "Happy the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it". We are the blessed ones, for we have seen the salvation brought into this world by the Son of God; a salvation which has come through the extra-ordinary manifestation of the infinite love of God for us, visible in the stable at Bethlehem, in the dusty roads of Palestine, on the Cross at Calvary.
Awareness of being surrounded by the love of God should become in us a spring of perennial joy, like the joy of JESUS that prompted Him immediately to raise thanks to His Father: "Filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, JESUS said, 'I bless you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children". No human effort, no work of reason could ever open up for us the world of grace, the inner life of the Blessed Trinity: it is the "seal" at Baptism, the work of the Spirit on our intellectual soul imprinting the true image of the Son in us, and hence a totally free gift from God, that enables us to perceive the Persons of the Blessed Trinity at work for our salvation. Our response should be a spontaneous and ever flowing joyful thanksgiving.
Isa. 2, 1-5; Mt. 8, 5-11
Isaiah expresses so well the longing of the ancient people for the coming of God and of His Kingdom into this world; it will be a time of peace, happiness, union with God and among ourselves, a time of light and faithfulness to the law of God: "They will hammer their swords into ploughshares, their spears into sickles, nation will not lift sword against nation, there will be no more training for war..."
It may be more difficult to place the passage of the gospel into this joyful waiting for the arrival of the King of Kings into this world, for it narrates the miracle of the servant of the Roman Centurion at Capernaum. Yet, as we read the story we find these words, "I will come myself and cure him". JESUS is referring to the servant who "is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain", very much like the people of the earth oppressed by vices, sinfulness, horrors, darkness, despair, as a result of original sin. One could imagine the Son saying to the Father, "I will go myself and cure them".
The Son of God came into this world to save sinners, to restore us to health, to give us life, to set us free from darkness and despair; and the work He started 2000 years ago is continuing today by means of His real presence in the Eucharist, foreshadowed in the words of the Centurion, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word and I shall be healed". We have been given eternal life through faith in JESUS; and this faith is nourished daily by the Body and Blood of the Son of God, until the end of times. Let us begin our joyful expectation of the coming of JESUS at Christmas with gratitude and love for His continuing presence among us in the Eucharist, the true "medicine of immortality".
Isa. 2, 1-5; Rom. 13, 11-14; Mt. 24, 37-44
Many people experience two distinct moments when they go to Lourdes: they see shops and commerce, exchange of money and goods - some hate it, some love it, some accept grudgingly its necessity. But then, once before the grotto and in the presence of our Lady, one can feel Her motherly care and it is possible to experience inner joy, peace, a contact with the supernatural beyond description. It is something similar with the season of Advent.
The next four weeks will see the hustle and bussle of the commercial side, gifts, wrapping paper, cards, turkeys, parties, Christmas trees: for some, this will be Christmas, and they will love it or hate it. For other people instead, this is a kind of necessary evil, but underlying the whole thing there is a special joyful expectation, a truly felt gratitude to God for his Gift, JESUS, God among us. Advent becomes then a powerful spiritual experience dominated by the feeling of joy and gratitude.
The traditional ways of preparing for Christmas are prayer, almsgiving, and penance. We need to intensify our life of prayer, after the example of Mary; with Her, we need to feel the longing of all past ages for the coming of the Messiah, for the irruption into this world of the power, wisdom, love of the Blessed Trinity, of God's Kingdom. We need to join and listen to John the Baptist, with his strong appeal to us to conversion and penance. We have gone astray in so many ways: we are selfish, boastful, unkind, untruthful, too busy to pray: we need to change our mind, to convert, and take up the mind of Christ. What would Christ do, say?
Advent is also a period for thinking in a special way of the poor, after the example of the Son of God who chose to be born in utter poverty. The poverty we may encounter is not always a material poverty, but often a poverty of affection, of company, of hearing good words of encouragement. How many elderly people would enjoy a regular visit, a friendly chat, an injection of hope and love. Let us prepare for the coming of our King during this season of Advent.
Dan. 7, 15-27; Lk. 21, 34-36
"Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery an drunkenness and the cares of life...", says the Lord. The "coarsening" of conscience can happen to societies and to individuals, as the history of past generations -from the time of Noah- teaches us.
The Lord spoke the words to his disciples, it is therefore a threat to us as well. We know it from personal experience: the less we pray the less we want to pray, the more we give in to little temptations the faster we precipitate into bigger ones. If our conscience is still healthy then we feel immediately the guilt, and the necessity of "conversion", starting perhaps with a good confession.
But, it often happens that we undervalue the little sins we commit and this may lead us to undervalue the bigger ones, until we reach the point of "insensitivity" towards sin, we no longer advert to it. When once we would have been perturbed for taking a pen away from the office, now we no longer feel the guilt of stealing whatever we can with impunity, inventing excuses for ourselves! When once we would have valued modesty and control greatly, now we watch things and approve of things which are seriously immoral. The Lord mentions "debauchery", "drunkenness", and "the cares of life" as examples of sinful situations generated by the "coarsening" of our spirit.
The remedy is to "stay awake" and to "pray at all times": to keep our conscience pure and truthful so that we may immediately discern any minor deviation from what is good and pleasing to God, and then to pray at all times. Prayer is the mighty armour that will protect us from all evil, and prayer is available to all, in all circumstances of life. It does require discipline and will power to start with, a regular time and traditional prayers repeated often: but then, the more we pray the more we will want to pray, to the point that we shall find ourselves praying day and night, "praying at all times", as the Lord says.
Rom. 10, 9-18; Mt. 4, 18-22
Andrew is called the Protocletus (the first to be called) by the Greek Orthodox, who have him as the patron saint of the oriental Church with the See at Constantinople. Today, in fact, the Pope will send his best wishes and prayers to the Patriarch of Constantinople on occasion of the feast of the brother of St. Peter. The eastern church's devotion to St. Andrew originated from the fact that he preached in the northen regions of Greece and found martyrdom, on an X shaped cross, at Patras, in the year 70AD.
Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist together with John: having heard the Baptist say of JESUS, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world", they had followed JESUS, and at His question, "What do you seek?" they answered with another question, "Rabbi, where are you staying?"; JESUS then invites them to come and see. John notes in his gospel the time: it was about 4pm - and they stayed with Him for the rest of the day.
The following day, Andrew tells his brother Peter, "We have found the Messiah", and brought him to JESUS. Later, it is Andrew again who will introduce some Greeks to JESUS. We can certainly learn from him to bring people to JESUS, affirming our faith and letting JESUS do the rest. It is so necessary today to bring people to JESUS: it is only in Him that they will find peace, serenity, meaning, light, and life. We have to become "life-savers" by pointing to JESUS: this was the witness of the Baptist, of Andrew, of John, of Philip: a beautiful chain of witnesses helping others to find Christ.
Dan. 6, 12-28; Lk. 21, 20-28
There are three protagonists in today's reading from Daniel: the court officials who are bent on condemning Daniel and having him put to death, the king who is fond of Daniel but who cannot contradict the foolish law he himself had written, and Daniel himself, full of faith and trust in his God. The result is that Daniel is sent into the lions pit to be devoured by them.
We too may have malicious people bent on upsetting us in every way, perhaps at work or among relations, or in the parish: it is a fact of life, and we must expect it and stand erect for what we know it is true and good. There is no great advantage in taking revenge, in trying to waste our energies against them: "revenge is mine", says the Lord, it is far better to let the Lord deal with them in His own way. Naturally, we too may play this part against others, in which case, alas for us! "Do not judge... do not condemn and you shall not be judged, condemned": judgement and condemnation of others is not our business, we simply have not got the knowledge the Lord has.
The king in the story plays a pitiful part: having condemned an innocent man he cannot sleep, he prays to his gods, he hopes the God of Daniel will save him from the lions, and finally rejoyces greatly when the miracle does happen. We may easily discover ourselves in the indeciseveness, compromise, fears, fatalism of the man. It is a mark of mediocrity, when we fail to take a clear stand for God and neighbour, and compromise our conscience in many ways, always hoping for the better instead of acting to put things right.
There is Daniel, the innocent victim that witnesses before kings and nations the greatness of God, putting his own life at risk. Daniel is for God, and is the bearer of the goodness of God. He anticipated JESUS' recommendation to His true disciples: "Stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand". Fight the good fight, the Lord will look after you, in His own mysterious and powerful way.
Dan. 5, 1-6.13-14.16-17.23-28; Lk. 21, 12-19
In Crime and Punishment by F. Dostojewski, the murderer of two elderly women is brought to justice not by the cleverness of the police but by the young man's voice of conscience creating nightmares and constant fear. King Belshazzar is also haunted by his inner fears, and the hand writing on the wall caused him immense distress: "The king turned pale with alarm; his thigh-joints went slack and his knees began to knock".
The mysterious words written on the wall insist on "being measured" by God and found wanting: the result was the loss of all that the king had. We also are "measured" by God, through our own conscience and found wanting: it is our daily experience. We are given so much, and yet we constantly fail to live up to what God wants of us. We allow our restlessness, fears, occupations to distract from the "great business of the soul", from pursuing the perfection JESUS has made possible for us.
JESUS's demands are very high, and today He tells us that we need to "endure" till the end, being ready to suffer much and to shed our blood for sake of the Kingdom. This is why we need determination, faithfulness, doing to perfection the things we must do by reason of our state and condition, pursuing an intense life of prayer and union with Him. Being "mediocre" does not please Him, who said, "If only you were hot or cold! But since you are mediocre, I shall spit you out from my mouth". This is why He told us the parable of the king who goes to war, or of the builder who wants to build a house: are we up to the demands of the Kingdom? Are we passionate about our own sanctification? Are we committed to the Church, and to our brethren?
Blessed Rosmini tells us that we have two easy tools at our disposal: to desire more and more to be dear to God, and to pray constantly that the Lord may give us the grace to be holy, since holiness comes from Him. Desire and Prayer, the easy way out from "mediocrity".
Dan. 2, 31-45; Lk. 21, 5-11
The end of the world for each of us is much sooner than we think, it will be at the end of our life. The Lord is asking us to be prepared, with the lamp of a living faith in our hands, and our groins girded with desire and hope for the Kingdom. "I have kept the faith", was the only boast of the great Apostle Paul, at the end of his life: it should be ours as well, but with a faith which is burning, alive, glowing with love of God and neighbour.
There is a cosmic view in today's readings, with Daniel explaining the famous vision of the great statue made of different materials and shattering to pieces at the touch of the little stone coming from God, and with JESUS foretelling the destruction of Jeusalem, and the end of the world. Both readings tell about great sufferings, death, and destruction, and one may be inclined to think that these negative disasters in the history of humanity come from the almighty God, in His effort to win the battle against evil.
But it is human pride abusing the greatest gift we have of free will that is creating the disasters: man was responsible for the concentration camps, man is responsible for a possible ecological disaster, man is responsible for cruelty, torture, wars, divisions. God respects human freedom and human choices, allows them, with terrible consequences at times. What God does, instead, is to acknowledge the evil we do and to draw from it the greatest possible good, so that to every evil there is a superabundance of good. We are responsible for the evil, God is responsible for the good He draws from it, often with human participation and merit.
Christ's death on the Cross was indeed the greatest evil brought about by human pride and abuse of free will: but God drew from it the infinite gift of salvation for all human beings of all times. "My thoughts are of peace, not of destruction, of joy not of sadness", says the Lord: from the infinitely loving God there is only infinite goodness and blessing for the human race.
Dan. 1, 1-6.8-20; Lk. 21, 1-4
Daniel. Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah: of one mind and one heart, determined to keep God's laws and commandments, helping each other in true friendship. Christian friendship, especially amongst young people, must not be undervalued: the unity of purpose, and the encouragement which each receives from the example of the others help one advance on the way to perfection.
Christianity, by its nature, is open to profound friendship: "love God and love neighbour" bids us to search, to concentrate on the other, emptying ourselves of egotistical concerns. Looking at the life of JESUS we see that the stress during the first 30 years was God, the contemplative life which is profound union with and love of God; the remaining 3 years, instead, were spent entirely on ministering to His brothers and sisters - He did not have time even to eat or sleep, as the gospel says. It is true that both commandments go always together, but there are periods during which one or the other will prevail, the contemplative or the apostolic life.
It was M. Buber who said that the "I" does not exist in isolation: it is always found as the first of a relation, either "I - Thou" or "I - It"; we either relate to people as persons of infinite value, or we relate to them as objects to be used for our own advantage. The example of Daniel and his friends teaches us today to seek true friendship, to experience the encouragement, the warmth that will help us on the way of perfection. This is the meaning of the religious life: each Christian has the duty to become holy - "be thou perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect" - but some Christians choose to become holy "together", to help each other, to encourage each other. Even the ancient fathers of the desert knew this, for they populated the desert being near to one another even as they kept solitude in the presence of God.
S. Kierkegaard has a story that presents a young mighty king, in the splendour of his armour and surrounded by the power of his army, passing through a village acclaimed by the people. Even in the noise and excitement of the occasion, the king has a chance of seeing a beautiful young girl, and it is love at first sight - at least on his part. The king knows that he could easily grab the girl for himself, who would dare resist him? Or he could assume that the girl would feel extremely honoured to be chosen by him, which girl woudn't? But the wise, young king chooses another, more difficult way: once in his castle, he disguises himself as a peasant and returns to the village, trying to get the love of the girl freely, on her own initiative.
The Almighty King of the Universe could easily "convert" the whole world to Himself by a display of power and might; He could have done so from the cross, "If He is the king of the Jews let him come down from the cross and we shall believe him!", or He could have appeared to all the people after His resurrection. Yet, God has chosen to keep Himself at a distance from us, to allow us to fall in love with Him freely.
We got the splendour of his creation, the stars and the seas, the mountains and rivers, the whole of nature: should we not ascend from all created things to the beauty and greatness of their Maker? And if God is the Creator of all that is, then He deserves our greatest love, reverence, worship, obedience. Yet, how many people fail to acknowledge God in nature, and get lost in worshipping the many idols that destroy human life?
God, in JESUS, came to us "in disguise", like one of us: born of Mary in a stable at Bethlehem, working among us for thirty years, proclaiming the word of God for three, and dying on the cross having experienced rejection and betrayal. Yet, from His Cross His kingship in human hearts had a beginning and continues even today. We know He is our King, and we embrace the values of His Kingship: love, sacrifice, trust in God, prayer, humility, service. "Today you shall be in Paradise with Me", the King said to the sinner, to each of us. Let us acknowledge Him in our hearts, let us do His Will in every thing, let us walk with Him in humility and joy.
We see the profound constrast today between belief in life after death and non-belief. King Antiochus is at the end of his life, and as he lies on his bed in deep depression he thinks back at the moments of glory and friendship and at those of plunder and murder. In particular, he is shaken by the memories of his fierce persecution of the Jews and of his devastation and profanation of the Temple in Jerusalem.
But Antiochus has no hope in life after death, death is seen as the end of all things, hence his profound fear and depression; very much like the fear and depression of many people today who condemn themselves to "believe" that life has no meaning, that both the origin and the end have no explanation. This is the darkness in which many spend their life and their death today.
The gospel, instead, provides us with the glorious light of the resurrection, of eternal life with God, who is the God of the living. The universe, and human life in it immediately acquire meaning and importance: suffering and death, life and love, prayer and giving oneself to others, acquire an eternal significance. The resurrection, says Paul, is not simply wishful thinking: it is based on a historical "fact", the historical resurrection of JESUS, witnessed by many and by himself. He is the first to admit that without the true bodily resurrection of JESUS, Christianity would not be worthy of human assent. But Christ has resurrected, the first born of all creation..."
The preaching of the Apostles was still ringing in his ears! This is the way St. Irenaeus speaks of Clement, third successor of St. Peter after Linus and Anacletus, and perhaps co-worker of St. Paul. What is certain is his deep knowledge of Scripture, even in the Hebrew language, indicating his probable Jewish origin. We know that he was pope for 9 years, during the emperors Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan.
But he is outstanding in Church tradition for his letter to the church in Corinth, where the true shepherds had been replaced by turbulent youngsters. Clement does not intervene until the end of the persecution of Domitian; when peace was restored, he wrote the letter, speaking to the church in Corinth with great authority and responsibility. He mentions the divine origin of authority within the Church, and speaks of the clear norms issued by the Apostles; he condemns the expulsion of the duly elected Shepherds and invites the faithful to unity and love.
The letter is clear about the authority of bishops over the faithful, and proclaims the supreme authority of the Roman Church over all other churches. It has been called the “Epiphany of the primacy of the Pope”, the clearest manifestation of the doctrine that the Pope is the successor of St. Peter, with full authority and responsibility over the whole Church. We know that the letter was read in Corinth and in all other churches in the east during the Eucharist even 70 years later, together with the Scriptures.
Clement died in 101, and a church was dedicated to him. San Clemente in Rome is indeed worth a visit, since from the beautiful basilica at the top one can descend to discover all previous churches built one on top of the other, right down to the times of ancient Rome. A fascinating journey to the times of Clement, Peter, and Paul.
Hosea 2, 16-17. 21-22; Mt. 25, 1-13
The Basilica of St. Cecilia in Rome was built on the house left by her to Pope Urban at the time of her martyrdom, during the persecution in the 4th century. She was a patrician, consacrated to Christ and dedicated to prayer and penance. She wore a coarse garment beneath the fine clothes required by her social position, and fasted regularly. Her parents had arranged for her a marriage to the noble Valerian; on the night of the wedding, she begged her husband to respect her virginity since she was protected by the Angel of God. At his request to know more, she persuaded him to become a Christian; his brother Tiburtius also soon followed. Both men suffered martyrdom before Cecilia herself, giving witness to the one God and to Christ.
Her house became a house of worship, and on one occasion more than 400 people were baptised there by pope Urban, all converts through her persistent spreading of the Good News and of her example. Finally, she was arrested and, after a momentous trial during which she astonished everyone by her powerful faith and clear words, she was condemned to be suffocated in her own bathroom by the fumes and the heat. She remained untouched for two days, and a soldier was then sent to decapitate her. After three blows he left her dying: there was a procession of Christians coming to see her for the last time and three days later she died, leaving all her possessions to the Church.
We see the power of the gospel operating through this holy virgin; she worked tirelessly to bring people to Christ putting aside her natural timidity. She is known as the patron saint of music and musicians, for a number of reasons, the main one being that it was said that during feasts for her wedding, as the musicians played, she sang to Christ in her heart.
Zech. 2, 14-17; Mt. 12, 46-50
There is great rejoicing in the Oriental Churches today. This feast, in fact, originated from the East in the 5th century and was adopted by the West in the 16th century. Tradition has it that Anne and Jehoachim dedicated their daughter to the service of God in the Temple of Jerusalem, where she passed her youth praising and serving God. It was appropriate that the Theotokos, the Mother and true Temple of God, should be raised in the Temple of Solomon, thus bringing about the end of the old and fostering the new.
The greatness of Mary is her faith, that prompted her to say yes to the invitation of the Angel; it was because of her faith that she did the will of God every moment of her life: "Who is my mother? Anyone who does the will of my Father". Faith was burning in Mary's heart from conception by the power of the Spirit: a lively faith, a prayerful faith, a joyous faith. At Baptism, we also are sealed by the Holy Spirit: and the seal of the Son of God in our hearts is the source of our faith. We too "conceive Christ by the Holy Spirit", we too become Temples of God.
The supernatural realities brought about by Baptism, must be fostered, nurtured carefully: Mary is our model, with her humility, gratitude, joy, constant prayer. Let us present ourselves to God today, ready to serve Him in our brothers and sisters - temples of the Holy Spirit - in a life of thanksgiving and prayer.
16 November
Wisdom 13, 1-9; Lk. 17, 26-37
It is the accepted dogma today in the philosophical world to say that it is impossible to unaided human reason to prove the existence of God. God can only be accepted blindly, by an act of faith. All traditional arguments for the existence of God - it is said - fall foul of stringent criticism, especially since Kant.
The famous passage from Wisdom today tells otherwise: "Naturally stupid are all men who have not known God... they are not to be excused". How is it possible not to ascend to the Creator by looking at the beauty, power, greatness of created things? How is it possible to exchange the Maker with what He has made? Wisdom acknowledges the fact that things can indeed impress us so much that we may fall to the temptation of glorifying them, making them gods; but - it says - the beauty and power of nature should not deceive us, since it is indeed possible to the human intellect to discover the Master starting from His creation.
"They are not to be excused": the same words written later by Paul in his letter to the Romans, thus providing a clear teaching in Old and New Testament about the ability of human reason of proving God.
The passage in the Gospel describes what happens to human beings when they fail to discover God: they go astray, making gods according to their own passions, destroying themselves and the beautiful world in which we live. Again, Paul picks up on this teaching in the first chapter of Romans, arguing that we fall under the ugly dominion of sin whenever we abandon belief in the one true God.
Fr. Rosmini teaches that reason and faith are the two wings that take us to God, working together in perfect harmony; where one ends the other naturally follows, to complete and satisfy reason fully. Reason brings us to the threshold of grace, to the immense horizon of the supernatural world: "Lord, you have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You".
15 November, St. Albert the Great
Eccl. 15, 1-6; Mt. 13, 47-52
"Every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom things both new and old": we know that the scribes were very learned people on all matters related to the Scriptures, so the conversion of one scribe to the kingdom would have been very useful for early Christians, and many scribes did convert enriching the early church. Some scholars even think that the author of the Gospel of St. Matthew had been a scribe before his conversion, and hence the verse quoted above is a reference to himself.
There are many "scribes", learned people, who become Christian and are very useful indeed to the Church. One can think of the learned Augustine who became a Christian, or of Ambrose, and right up to today. The knowledge they had before is not rejected, but enlightened by the Word of God, making full sense to them and the others.
St. Albert was one such "scribe", a very learned man, before joining the Dominicans. For the rest of his life, he brought out from his storeroom things both new and old, his immense knowledge of philosophy, theology, and of scientific matters. He had the frame of mind of a scientist, observing facts carefully, deducting all possible conclusions; in effect he spent time in studying natural phenomena of all types reaching sound conclusions.
His greatest glory is the fact that he was the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Catholic philosopher and theologian. He was famous for his lectures, both at the University of Paris, and of Cologne, and he became the advisor to many bishops, Popes, and learned men of his time. He was the true scribe JESUS was talking about!
Albert was convinced that there cannot be any conflict between science and religion: true science brings one to God, the divine Maker of all things. The universe, for him, was the great open book through which we can see the mighty and wise hand of God. Let us today take a fresh look at the natural beauty of the world around us, acknowledging the Supreme Maker, and worshipping Him in all His created things.
14 November
Wisdom 6, 1-11; Lk. 17, 11-19
Ten lepers were healed, one was healed and saved: Christ has died for the whole human race, but how many will be saved? Leprosy is a crippling sin, disfiguring the body and cutting off relations with people. It is a disease that eats up the person, with no possibility for cure - even today. Leprosy can be used as a metephor for sin: sin disfigures the soul, and cuts one off the Body of Christ, corrupting human nature at the same time.
The glorious message of the Gospel is that we have been "healed by His wounds", that God "wants all people to be saved" and has given the means to all. The offer is always there for everyone, but "when the Son of Man will come again do you think He will find much faith on earth?" We are indeed fortunate, but we must embrace our salvation with a living faith: the candle lit at Baptism as the sign of our faith must be kept burning brightly till the end of our life. "I have kept the faith": it was the only boast of the great Paul just before his martyrdom, not the fact that he had converted thousands, founding churches all over the Roman Empire.
We cannot exaggerate with helping our faith increase its brightness: prayer is the royal way since it puts our soul in direct contact with the source of all graces, Christ Himself who dwells in our heart by the power of the Spirit. It is a fact that the more we pray the more we want to pray, the less we pray the less we want to pray: but it requires sacrifice and hardship at the beginning especially in keeping it constant; after a while, however, it will become spontaneous and necessary like the air we breathe.
13 November
Wisdom 2, 23-3, 9; Lk. 17, 7-10
The Temple of Jerusalem was the place for sacrifices, of various types. The sacrifice of communion was offered to God but with a sharing of priest and offerer of the sacrifice itself; the sacrifice called "holocaust", instead, was consumed entirely by fire in honour of God. Total sacrifice for God. One can see how poignant is the word "holocaust" with reference to the burning to death of millions of Jews because of their faith and traditions.
Death, our death, is described as a "holocaust" by Wisdom, a complete offering of ourselves to God, with nothing remaining, everything offered up, consumed, by death. The "consummatum est" of JESUS on the cross indicated the completion of His total sacrifice to God for the salvation of the world.
One can think of the "holocaust" of St. Ignatius of Antioch, whose body was ground like fine wheat and consumed by the two roaring lions. But it is good for ourselves to think of our death as a holocaust to God, for our good and the good of the Church. The suffering we experience are tests to prove us like gold in a furnace: they are brief, light in comparison to what is awaiting for us: "They shall judge nations, rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king for ever... grace and mercy await those He has chosen".
12 November
Wisdom 1, 1-7; Lk. 17, 1-6
The liturgy today begins a series of meditations on the book of Wisdom, possibly the last book of the Old Testament to be written, in preparation for the coming of the true Wisdom of God, JESUS. Initially it was aimed at the learned youth of Israel, possibly living in Egypt, drawn to follow what was tought to be the superior philosophy of the Ellenistic world. The author of Wisdom wishes to show them that Jewish religion possesses the true wisdom, and is in fact far superior, coming from God. A challenge, therefore, to the youth - of today as well as of yesterday.
The prophetic nature of the book is readily seen in the fact that Wisdom has nearly "become flesh", is personified, with God all the time, creating all things with Him, delighting with the children of men. Hardly 50 years later, the true Wisdom of God, His only begotten Son, appeared among us and was made man.
Wisdom comes from God and leads back to God: there cannot be any other wisdom, and the wisdom of this world which is divorced from its source and its end cannot be wisdom but foolishness, pure folly. At the level of nature, the beginning of wisdom is the acknowledgment of the will to the truth known by the mind, the saying Yes to every truth, every knowledge intuited by our intelligence. Pure knowledge by itself is not human wisdom; many learned people have proved themselves very bad persons. Knowledge must be acknowledged, loved for what it is, and then it changes our life for the better, it enlarges us, it makes us children of the light and of truth.
At the supernatural level reached through Baptism Wisdom is JESUS communicated and perceved by the soul through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit the giver of Wisdom, it is the Spirit who warms our heart to follow the true Wisdom of God, JESUS. Wisdom is, therefore, the adherence of our soul to the Wisdom of God, the becoming one with Him in investigating and loving the profound things of God. In this way, our limited and finite knowledge is raised to an infinite degree by the Son of God who knows and loves in us.
11 November, 32th Sunday
Mac. 7, 1-2. 9-14; Thess. 2, 16-3.5; Lk. 20, 27-38
Antiochus, the Greek ruler of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine had decreed to impose on everyone the Greek religion, hence he started a fierce persecution against Jewish religious customs and traditions. Anyone who opposed him was put to death. A significant moment was the martyrdom of a mother and her seven children, who refused to obey the command to eat pork. There are many teachings for us in the story, but the one we ought to stress today is the Jewish belief in the resurrection, confirming the view that already in the Old Testament the people of God had been led progressively to see God's blessings on the just person not in this world but in the world to come.
In the Gospel, JESUS teaches openly and clearly that there is life after death, that there will be a resurrection of the body, and that life in the after life will be the life of the "Angels of God". JESUS is faced by a grup of "scholars" who do not believe in life after death, the learned people, often, that we also find today. "You cannot be serious, there is nothing after death. Death is the end of us, we disintegrate back into nature and the cycle continues. The universe does not give a damn about human beings, we are simply insignificant particles in the vast world destined to change and decay". Sartre declares human existence utterly meaningless, and with him Nietzche and many others.
JESUS provides a most convincing argument about life after death for the kind of people he had before Him, people who accepted God and the books of Moses - the Pentateuch. For, in the Pentateuch we often find that God is addressed as the "God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob": why bother associate God with three patriarchs who had died nearly 800 years before Moses? If there is no life after death, then the three would had vanished into dust long, long time ago, why still bother with them? Yet, the Sadducees accepted the words of Moses as Scriptures, as words of God, hence, says JESUS, there you have a full proof of the existence of life after death. He then goes on to say that death is a reality from our perspective, but not from God's, since "for Him all men are in fact alive". God sees us always "alive", death does not hides us from Him, we will be really present before His throne.
We see then that JESUS openly and clearly taught about heaven; but He did even more for those people we find today who do not accept Scriptures at all, the Dawkins of our world. Belief in the resurrection is for Christians not mere wishful thinking, not just the "word of Scripture": it is based on a historical fact, the fact of the resurrection of JESUS. It was Paul who said that if Christ did not resurrect from the dead really then our faith would be in vain, and Christianity would be a pack of lies: but, he says, Christ did rise from the dead and we got the most clear evidence. Hence, our own resurrection is not only possible, but is guaranteed by His.
November, and we think and pray for the dead: for us they are not mere memory, they are real and living a life we cannot even imagine. The God who made the present life and universe so beautiful for us, He knows how to make our eternity the most blessed and happy experience!
10 November
Rom. 16, 3-9.16.22-27; Lk. 16, 9-15
The last chapter of the letter to the Romans is a moving expression of the bonds of love among early Christians. Paul has a kind word for nearly everyone of the 25 or so names he mentions, from Phoebe, a servant of the Church, a deaconness, of great help to the saints, to "our brother Quartus", a member of the church of Corinth from where Paul sent the letter.
Nearly everyone mentioned is a "lay" person, involved at great personal cost in the spreading of the Gospel, like Paul himself; there are married couple, Aquila and Priscilla, Andronicus and Julia, many women, free men and slaves, poor and very wealthy ones. The churches of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, and elsewhere come out as fibrant and built by the work of many. There is no trace of "clerical" predominance, the Christians felt responsible for the Church and worked for the Church. This is not to say that there was no structure, indeed we know well from Paul's own letters and from Acts, that there was from the start a very clear line of authority within the church, according to the "charism" each was given, confirmed by the Spirit and the Church.
There is a re-discovery today of the immense responsibility lay people have in making the Church; it is not a new thing, it was there from the beginning. But it is providential, at a time when vocations to the priesthood are scarce, or perhaps, this is planned by God so as to make everyone realise that all Christians are responsible for the Church. The problem is that whereas early Christians were well prepared for the mission and had a great understanding and love for the Church, our Christians today lag far behind, and they may cause more damage than good by presenting distorted views of christian doctrines, of morality, of liturgy, of catechesis.
It was a fact that Paul wrote his letters thinking that his Christians understood what he was writing, and we can guess that his preaching and catechesis were not different from what we read in his letters. Think of the heights of his talks to his people, and of how well prepared theologically they would have been!
There is therefore a double lesson for us today: lay people must feel with urgency their full responsibility for the Kingdom of God, but also their absolute duty to be well prepared for the task, otherwise they would create serious damage and distortions.
9 November
Rom. 15, 14-21; Lk. 16, 1-8
A sense of urgency is typical of most of JESUS' teaching: the kingdom of God is close at hand, repent and believe the Good News! We tend to take roots firmly and to go on thinking that we shall have all the time in the world to come closer to God, to change our ways, to follow Christ wholeheartedly. Later... Tomorrow...
Paul is an outstanding figure of a man who took JESUS' words on the urgency of the time very seriously. He withdrew into the desert for three years, listening to God and converting himself totally to Him, and then he went about preaching the Good News everywhere, as he tells us in today's reading, avoiding to go in places where Christ's name had already been proclaimed - not to waste time, so to speak, since the Good News had to travel quickly all over the world.
And urgency and quick action is what the Lord praises in today's gospel about the dishonest steward. The man knew that a great crisis was in the horizon, and he acted promptly. We know that death is at our door, a far more serious crisis since we shall meet ourselves as we are before the splendid light of God that searches even the most intimate of our thoughts. And what are we doing? Do we feel we need to act quickly? Or is it a case of "later", slowly, with little conviction? "O that TODAY you would listen to His voice - harden not your heart".
8 November
Rom. 14, 7-12; Lk. 15, 1-10
We often think of the anger of God, but rarely of the "joy of God". The gospel today tells us of the joy of the Father in finding the lost sheep: "And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders.... call together the neighbours and say, 'Rejoice with me"..." A similar stress on the joy of God is in the next parable of the lost coin, and even more so in the parable of the lost son.
God rejoices over a repentant sinner: He has made us for Himself, and He cannot rest until we find rest in Him! God is love, and there is much joy in loving, together with great pain at the refusal of love. The book of Hosea is a profound meditation on the love/pain of God: of a God who is deeply caught up with His creatures, pouring his love on them with great abundance and rejoicing or suffering at the acceptance or refusal of His love, in which is our peace and joy.
It is our free will that can put a stop to God's joy over us: we can choose to reject his love, and God will always respect our decision, even though He will not give up on us until the end of our life. This is why it is so important to discipline our will, to make it obey the truth that shines in our mind. Saying yes to God at all times is to find deep joy in our life and to give God and "His Angels" much rejoicing over us.
"God rejoice in His works" - "Come enter into the joy of your Master": to share in His joy, one must love as He has loved.
7 November
Rom. 13, 8-10; Lk. 14, 25-33
The life of JESUS could be interpreted by some as the life of a religious fanatic: always in prayer, day and night, always talking about God, always mixing religion in every aspects of daily life. God was the main concern of JESUS, His joy and rest. Moreover, even during the "hidden years" of life at Nazareth we can be sure He worked and toiled with God constantly in His mind and affection. A life for God.
What today many would dismiss as religious fanaticism was, in fact, the perfect way of being a man: God became one of us to teach the meaning and the way of the perfect human life: "The glory of God is man fully alive". The life of JESUS is therefore the model of the perfect human life, centred in all things on God. This is why JESUS said to all, and not only to monks and nuns, "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect".
It is not easy, however, to be consumed in the perfection of love for God and our neighbour daily, moment by moment; it is not easy to "take up the cross and follow JESUS" as a matter of routine. The comparison in today's gospel of the would be Christian with the builder of a tower, or the king who goes to war, is meant to express the seriousness of our vocation: it is demanding, it is overwhelming, it is the routine for the rest of our life. We also ought to become "religiously fanatic" like JESUS, knowing that this is indeed the only way we can fulfil ourselves as human beings.
6 November
Rom. 12, 5-16; Lk. 14, 15-24
"Happy the man who will be at the feast in the kingdom of God": by means of our Baptism we enter "eternal life" and we are made partakers of the banquet already. We have so much given to us: the Eucharist, the gifts of the Spirit, Mary as our Mother, the other great Sacraments, the constant communion with Angels and Saints, the Scriptures, the teaching of the Church.
But, do we take advantage of the abundance at the table of the Lord? Or do we find excuses to pursue instead our own cravings, like money, power, pleasure? How many people immerse themselves into their job to the point of neglecting all else; how many parents put all their efforts in providing their children with all material comforts, having little concern about their spiritual well being?
The generous Father gives all good things to us: the talents we have are to be used fully, as Paul recommends in his letter to the Romans: all is given for the advantage of the Church, the Body of Christ, and we must be ready to cooperate fully with God's grace in our life, with a generous response, with gratitude, in constant prayer. We are given much so that we can give much.
5 November
Rom. 11, 19-36; Lk. 14, 12-14
"Opera enim illorum suquuntur illos" - their works shall follow them - is what Revelation says about the after life. What we do in this life will follow us in the after life, and will be the deciding factor about whether we shall rejoice for ever or whether we shall suffer forever. The Hindu idea of re-incarnation is interpreted by some of their theologians as meaning the same: what we do in this life prepares us for the life to come. How important then are our actions today, not only in themselves but also in their consequences. The perspective of our actions is eternity.
In the gospel today JESUS teaches us the same: "Repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again": He is inviting us not to do things for selfish motives: do not invite friends and relatives to your meal, since you know they are going to repay back; invite instead the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, who will not be able to pay you back - in this life! The Lord sees and never forgets your good deeds.
We should not even be "good" for the sake of happiness; we should do our duty because it is our duty, no matter what the consequences may be. Happiness, says Fr. Rosmini, is what God had in mind when He created us: He will see to it that "good" people will be happy for ever. But on our part, let us act out of duty, out of love for our brothers and sisters. Let us concentrate on the needs of others.
4 November, 31st Sunday
Wisdom 11, 22-12, 2; 1 Thess. 1, 11 - 2,2; Lk. 19, 1-10
Is the devil 100% evil? Many expect the answer to be yes, yet St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Blessed Rosmini would answer No. It cannot be, since existence is a gift from God: "You love all that exists". So even the devil in so far as he exists is good; it is true that it is a very poor form of existence since he lacks all the good things that a good Angel is meant to have, and this by his own free choice. Wisdom tells us that there is goodness in everything, since everything has been made by the loving God.
Even the evil Zacchaeus had some good in him; the Lord knew and knocked at the door of his heart. Holman Hunt's painting, "The light of the world" has JESUS with a lamp standing and knocking at a door with no handle from the outside; it is the soul that must open from the inside to welcome JESUS in. Zacchaeus listened to the Lord's calling and opened wide the door to Christ: "He hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully". The Lord knocks at our door when we hear the Scriptures, when we participate in the Eucharist, when we meet poor, troubled people around us: are we listening? Are we prepared to "come down and welcome JESUS joyfully"?
Welcoming JESUS is the first step; we need to "change", to convert ourselves, like Zacchaeus: "Lord, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount". The legal requirements were up to 1/5 of one's property could be given to the poor, and the reimbursement for stealing was set at twice the amount. Zacchaeus goes far beyond, truly "Salvation has come to this house". What about our own conversion? Are we generous with the Lord? Or are we prodding along in the usual half-hearted way?
3 November
The Lord has been teaching us, over the past few Sundays, the importance of prayer: we must pray at all times, we must not utter useless words, our prayer must be persistent, it must have that "little"faith that can move mountains, it must be humble like the prayer of the tax collector. The example of a perfect prayer is the Our Father.
The theme of "humility", from last Sunday, is carried on in today's reading. On this occasion is the humility which is a "living in truth", acknowledging ourselves for what we truly are before God, and before our neighbour, without false pretences or dissimulations. The Lord promises heaven to the one who lives according to truth: "The man who humbles himself will be exalted".
Humility is not to despise our gifts, talents, qualities, good works; it is to acknowledge them with a grateful heart, knowing that everything comes from God and must be used for the benefit of our brothers and sisters. It is to acknowledge the infinite greatness of God and our own limited nature, it is the fact that "without Me you cannot do anything good". Humility makes us concentrate on working on ourselves, purifying our soul moment after moment, acknowledging our sinfulness and begging the Lord to remedy it, rather than being always ready to judge and condemn others, feeling superior to them.
Humility was the great virtue of Mary - see the words of the Magnificat and the example of her life - and of St. John the Baptist - "He must increase, I must decrease".
17 October, St. Ignatius of Antioch
Phil. 3, 17 - 4.1; Jn 12, 24-26
The great Ignatius most probably knew most of the disciples of JESUS, and possibly Mary as well. He became bishop of Antioch, the church that boasts Barnabas, Paul, and Peter as is founders. Arrested when already an old man in the year 107, he was taken to Rome to be presented in the Colosseum during the games as entertainment for the crowd. During his long and troubled journey from Antioch to Rome he was visited by representatives of the great local churches, and he wrote seven letters to the churches, stressing three points in particular: the importance of the bishop in the local church - where is the bishop there is the church; the fact of the Incarnation of the Word, true man and true God - against those who claimed that JESUS was God only appearing as man without really being a man (docetism); and begging tem not to do anything to stop his martyrdom in Rome. He longed to give his life for Christ, to become "wheat" acceptable to God. Deep in his soul he could hear like a spring of living waters saying, "Come to the Father". His courage was an outstanding example to many other martyrs. Suffering is an essential part of Christian life: let us accept it and welcome it as the means to be purified for heaven.
16 October, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
Eph. 3, 14-19; Mt. 11, 25-30
Margaret is the saint of the Sacred Heart, and it is from the revelations given to her that the devotion to the Sacred Heart has arisen. She was a contemplative nun of the order of the Visitation, at Paray-le-Monial. She had a troubled childhood, and knew suffering and ill-treatment very early. At 24 she entered the convent, and spent the remainder of her life there. The revelations given to her asked her to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of JESUS as the symbol of his love culminating in the great revelation on the feast of Corpus Christi in 1675 when JESUS told her showing her His Sacred Heart: " Behold the heart which has so loved menand women that it has spared nothing, even exhausting and consuming itself in testimony of its love".
The revelations brought her nothing but suffering and humiliations and made her the object of ridicule and hostility. She was assured of their authenticity by her confessor, and soon the message began to spread. The Church formally established the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1856.
The Lord speaks to us in many ways through our history, and it could be that the insistence on His loving Heart was precisely what was needed during the century of Illuminism, which had glorified human reason. He was asking to dwell instead on love, not to rely excessively on the power of unaided reason - it purely puffs one up - and to respond to love with love. It may be essential even today, with our reliance on science and mechanical laws.
St. Thomas Aquinas has a beautiful comment on Ephesians 3:
“Under the impulse of charity, Christ chose the death of the Cross in which we find the four dimensions we have mentioned. For the breadth, look at the crossbeam to which His hands were nailed; our works too must stretch out even to our enemies. For the length, look at the upright from which hangs his body; charity must persevere and save mankind. For the height, look at the wood higher up where his head rests; our hopes must rise to eternal, divine matters. For the depth, look at that section of the wood buried in the earth and invisibly upholding the cross; the depth of divine love incomprehensible to us because the reason for predestination exceeds our understanding upholds us”.
14 October, XXVIII Sunday
2Kings 5, 14-17; 2Tim. 2, 8-13; Lk. 17, 11-19
Leprosy was a terrible disease, slowly eating up the body of the person, and causing social and religious banishment. The lepers had to make known their presence so as not to contaminate the others, they had to keep well away from the rest of the community, condemned to a life of isolation and extreme poverty and suffering. God took pity of the leper Naaman the Syrian and cured him by means of the clear waters of the Jordan at the command of the prophet Elisha. JESUS also cured ten of them, and one, a Samaritan, came back to thank him. In both cases, the grateful persons were not Jews; but they acknowledged and thanked God, accepted the "good news", and were saved.
There is still leprosy in the world today, restricted to the poorest areas of the world; but medicine has made it a disease that can be contained, even if not cured. Famous for his care of lepers, becoming eventually a leper himself, was Fr. Damien of Molokai, who chose to live with them, abandoned by everyone else in a remote island.
But there is a much more serious leprosy today, of a spiritual kind. It was Nietzche who highlighted it most powerfully with his parable of the old man with a lamp on his hand, stopping at each table where people were sipping their drink in the square of a pretty touristic village in the Alps: "Does God interests you? Do you think of him? Has He done anything for you?". The people chased him away, and he gained the highest place in the little square and proclaimed, "Listen, I have got important news for you, God is dead!"
God is offering salvation to everyone; He has died on the cross to redeem all people; He has gone to heaven to "prepare a mansion" for each person. Our mansion in heaven is ready. But do we bother about God, and all His gifts? Is God still a presence in our heart? Is He still relevant in our life? Or is He dead, in our consciousness, in our thoughts, in our affections?
This is the spiritual leprosy of today, consuming us from within, making us outcasts from the real meaning of creation. God is always making the offer, but we must answer, we must acknowledge His splendid work of creation, redemption, salvation and come back to Him with a thankful heart. There is hope until we are on this earth; it is here that we play our everlasting future.
The gospel of today is read usually during feasts of our Lady: she is called "blessed" by a woman in the crowd, the icon of everyone who is introduced to the great mystery of the Incarnation and the specific part of Mary the "theotokos". JESUS acknowledges the blessedness of Mary but adds a special praise for those who "hear" the Word and "obey" it. Who more than Mary "heard" the Word, and who, more than Mary, "obeyed" it?
Like Mary, we are invited today to listen to the Word - that roars like a lion, according to Joel. The Word is always clear to people who are in tune with God, and with themselves. Like the soil and the seed are made for each other so is the word of God and the soul. Through baptism, we perceive the power, wisdom, love of God in our soul and grace can flourish spontaneously, if we let it happen. Mary's "Let it be done to me according to your word" is also demanded of each of us so that the Word may become flesh in our actions and life.
Jonah 3, 1-10; Lk. 10, 38-42
The heart of Jonah is not there, but he preaches repentance and is extremely successful, an early example of grace that operates even against people's intentions or shortcomings, an ex opere operatum! It is the Lord who moves the hearts, we are simply useless servants, we can only say, "We have only done our duty". We are not important, God is. That is why the "fretting about many things" comes from a troubled spirit, that thinks that he/she must do things otherwise nothing will happen. The Lord asks of us to have our priorities right: obedience to His Will, listening to His voice, worship and adoration must come first; we move only when the Lord asks us to do it, working with great generosity of heart and commitment, but always knowing that it is the Lord who does things, who makes things happen. So, no anxiety, no worries. It was John XXIII who used to go to bed saying to the Lord, "Lord it is your Church", You look after her, I am going to sleep!
8 October
Jonah 1, 1-2, 1.11; Lk. 10, 25-37
It is a strange combination of readings today: in the first we see Jonah who escapes to the furthest land not to preach and convert the hated Gentiles, in the second instead we have a hated Samaritan bringing help and relief to a beaten, nearly dead, passer-by most likely a Jew. Where do we stand?
Jonah was a prayerful man, a prophet, in fact; but he had his own lively views on things, and was not prepared to give in even to the Lord. The Ninivites were cruel, unclean people, why was the Lord so concerned about their salvation? Let them perish as they deserve because of their sinfulness. The Lord is patient and "educates" his prophet by means of the great storm in his life; he is initially "soundly asleep" while the sea had become rough, as though other people's problems were not his own, but then he acknowledges his guilt - just about - and a slow conversion sets in, until circumstances throw him in the midst of trouble, from where he emerges a new man.
The Samaritan instead sees his brother in the beaten man, and hurries to help going out of his way. A Jewish story tells of an elderly rabbi putting a question to his disciples, "When does night end and day begin?"; and the disciples produce various answers, "When one can distinguish a sparrow from a robin" or "When one can see clearly a pear tree from an apple tree", and so on. At the end, the old rabbi says, "I tell you when night comes to an end and the light of day begins: when, looking into a man's eye one can see clearly a brother".
There should not be any discrimination, condemnation in our hearts: we are all brothers in Christ, we must recognise in all JESUS, like Mother Teresa who looked after Christ in all the poor and dejected she met.
27 September, St. Vincent de Paul
1 Cor. 1, 26-31; Mt. 9, 35-37
St. Vincent is a witness of the compassion of the Lord for the outcast, the poor, the prisoners, the sick. The splendour of the rich palaces in France did not have a hold on him, who, while being chaplain to the nobles, preferred to seek the poor in the most squalid places both in the galleys and in prisons, administering to them and trying to alleviate their suffering in ever way.
His zeal for the marginalised caused other priests and holy women to be near the poorest of the poor, and Vincent found the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, with the help of St. Louise Marillac. In 1833, Frederic Ozanam founded the St. Vincent de Paul Society to work among the poor, inspired by the example of Vincent himself.
The poor are "icons" of what the follower of JESUS should be like: deep awareness of his own nothingness, total trust and reliance on God, openness to hardship and to the cross.
"Every Christian is called to follow Christ; every Christian, therefore, must sacrifice himself, at least in intention: 'He who wishes to follow must take up his cross'. So St. James could say, 'Only suffering perfects the work of divine love and worship'. The perfection of the morality taught by the gospel requires that every Christian be a priest in some way, and a priest who is at the same time a victim" (Rosmini)
26 September
Ezra 9, 5-9; Lk 9, 1-6
The Lord highlights the special mission of every Christian in our world: to proclaim the Kingdom with urgency and to bring healing. He has given us the example, preaching the Good News of salvation to everyone, with sermons and parables, by the lake, in the desert, on the mountain, in the synagogue: "The kingdom of God is close at hand, repent and believe the Good News". He stressed the urgency of the hour, the love of the Father who seeks the lost sheep, the immense value of the kingdom, more precious than a treasure, more beautiful than a pearl of great value. He did not spare Himself, but gave Himself up for our sake.
The Lord proclaimed the Kingdom, but He also brought healing as a manifestation of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is perfection in every way, there is no place in it for illness, suffering, evil. Hence JESUS' work of healing, as an anticipation of what will be. He brought healing, physical, mental, moral: he cured lepers, the blind, the crippled; He gave life to the dead; He cast out demons, healing the mind, and He brought God's love to sinners, wounded by their sins. He brought blessings to everyone.
We also need to be strong positive messangers of God's love and healing, bringing His blessings around us, creating goodness and unity wherever we are. This mission rules out a negative, judgemental, critical approach to people; it rules out hatred, scandal, mediocrity. Let us take JESUS as our example, in what we say and in what we do.
"A spirit of intelligence will lead the Christian always to think first of his own amendment, far more than of the amendment of his neighbour" (Rosmini)
25 September
Ezra 6, 7-8.12.14-20; Lk 8, 19-21
The figures of Cyrus and Darius, kings of Persia, are astonishing: they had built for themselves a mighty empire by violent conquests, yet they consider with great attention and care the troubles of a small little nation in exile, the Jewish people in Babylon, and their constant longing for a return to the ruins of Jerusalem and its Temple. Cyrus sets them free to go back, asking them to rebuild the city and the Temple and helping them in every way; Darius does the same. Jerusalem was rebuilt in record time and with it, the Temple.
The Lord truly guides all historical events, there is nothing left to chance or blind fate. The Father keeps the universe in existence and it guides it towards achieving the "greatest possible good". This is why we ought to trust always in divine Providence, since it is a most loving God who directs all things for the good of each. "Even if He slays me, I will yet trust in Him", said the patient Job, showing his rock-like faith in the goodness and love of God. It is the same trust that guided Abraham, to the point of being ready to kill his son.
To abandon ourselves to divine Providence brings great peace of heart; and it makes us most dear to God since it implies a perfect confidence in Him, and in Him alone, a tender love reserved for God alone, and a most lively faith which believes as certain that all things in the world rest in the hand of our Heavenly Father, and that nothing is done by them unless as disposed by Him.
"By the action called grace, God reallyunites himself to us and remains united to us. Through grace something divine, not present previously, is now joined and as it were con-corporated with the essence of the soul. "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him". This continuous, divine, immanent action of grace in the soul gives it a stable energy, imparting capacities which the soul previously lacked. Now it possesses a new power in virtue of which it can do what was impossible without grace" (Rosmini)
23 September, 25th Sunday of the Year
Amos 8, 4-7; 1 Tim. 2, 1-8; Lk 16, 1-13
Jewish people celebrated a few days ago the Rosh Ashanah, their New Year Festival. They wished each other, "May the Lord inscribe you for a good year", that is, "May the Lord write good things for you in the heavenly book for the coming year", and they made the effort to ask forgiveness from all the people they had offended during the year. There is much we can learn from customs that were practised by our Lord during his time on earth.
Following the festival of Rosh Ashanah is the Festival of Sukkot, or of Tabernacles, a harvest festival. We also are celebrating today the harvest festival. It is inspiring for us to know how our brothers and sisters in the Jewish faith celebrate the festival of Sukkot, very much the same as the ones celebrated by JESUS in his infancy, and adulthood, both at home and with His disciples.
During the week before the festival, Jewish families are busy preparing the sukka, or taberacle, in their gardens or on top of their flat roofs, or in the synagogues: they gather branches, fruits, and build up a hut with them, which is meant to be their dwelling place during the seven days of the festival. They also try to leave some space between branches so that at night as they go to sleep they are able to see the sky and the stars. The meaning is clear: the feast of tabernacles is a thanksgiving festival for the protection given by God during the forty years in the desert with Moses. They had no houses but temporary huts, the stars were their company at night; and God provided them with manna and water. The sukka represents their trust that God will continue to provide.
It is a festival celebrating the Providence of the Father in heaven who gives good things to his children; and we thank Him today for looking after us, both in the material sense, and, more importantly, in the salvation which He has granted us through JESUS.
We ought to abandon ourselves completely into the loving hands of divine Providence: God is God, and has the whole world in His hands, tracing the great laws and chains of events, and the details of the life of each of us. We need place our trust in Him, doing his Will in all things, trying to please Him more and more so as to be more dear to him. There is great peace and joy in doing so, because we know for sure that the Father loves us to the point of sacrificing his only Son for our sake!
At Mass we present the bread and wine and we bless them: they symbolise every thing in the universe, hence at Mass we offer all things to God, we bless them in God's name. It is this blessing that should prompt us to appreciate and love all people and all things, a positive union with the whole world; after all all things do belong to our God.
"By the action called grace, God reallyunites himself to us and remains united to us. Through grace something divine, not present previously, is now joined and as it were con-corporated with the essence of the soul. "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him". This continuous, divine, immanent action of grace in the soul gives it a stable energy, imparting capacities which the soul previously lacked. Now it possesses a new power in virtue of which it can do what was impossible without grace" (Rosmini)
22 September
1Tim. 6, 13-16; Lk. 8, 4-15
The saints are examples of people who listened to the word of God and brought forth a "hundredfold", being the rich soil, that is "people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance".
We all are called to holiness, by virtue of Baptism. There is an immense difference between a baptised and a non baptised person. The baptised person acquires a "new life", is "born again", has spiritual faculties which are not present in a non baptised person. In Baptism, God creates in us a new fundamental feeling capable of perceiving positively the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. We call this the "character" or "seal" we receive with the Sacrament, which is the imprint of the Humanity of JESUS in our soul by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus it is JESUS in us who is the true likeness of God, it is JESUS in us who loves the Father: by grace we are empowered to unite our little, finite self to the actions of the Son, thus sharing in the infinite and perfect love of the Son for the Father through the Holy Spirit.
Without JESUS we can do nothing, our soil is barren; but with JESUS we can do anything, "Omnia possum in Eo qui me confortat", or as JESUS said, "With Me in you you can do works even greater than the ones I do". The hundrefold will be possible only through perfect co-operation with grace, through perfect union with JESUS. It is when we are "in Christ" that we produce a harvest.
"By the action called grace, God reallyunites himself to us and remains united to us. Through grace something divine, not present previously, is now joined and as it were con-corporated with the essence of the soul. "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him". This continuous, divine, immanent action of grace in the soul gives it a stable energy, imparting capacities which the soul previously lacked. Now it possesses a new power in virtue of which it can do what was impossible without grace" (Rosmini)
22 September, St. Matthew
Like his friend Zacchaeus, Matthew was a "chief" tax collector, feared and despised by ordinary Jews, but wealthy and endowed with a good education. He appears in the gospels as Matthew, son of Alphaeus, and as Levi, and his vocation is presented as sudden, immediate: "As JESUS was walking on he saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and he said to him, "Follow me". And he got up and followed him".
It is very likely that Matthew had been following from a distance this extraordinary man from Nazareth, taken up perhaps by His teaching about the infinite compassion of God. When the moment of the "call" came, he was ready and decisive, he left everything and followed JESUS. Many great saints, after him, have done the same, leaving everything and following JESUS. One can think of St. Anthony of the desert, and even of St. Augustine, who,when the moment of his calling came abandoned everything and followed JESUS.
The Lord calls each of us at different times: Matthew was in the middle of a successful career when he heard the call. We too may consider it for a while, may be attracted, remain wavering: but when the Lord calls He calls with the voice of the lion, as Amos says: "When the lion roars everyone is afraid; when the Lord calls who can but follow Him?". Vocation is clear, is from God: we must listen, and give everything up with a generous heart and follow JESUS. Who knows how many have failed to pursue their vocation either because they continued to waver all their life or for lack of a generous response.
Vocation to the perfect life is for everyone, since to all JESUS said, "Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect"; by vocation we need to understand both the particular call in life, and the daily call to follow JESUS in all our occupations and toughts. All Christians, therefore, need to commit themselves to "following" JESUS with a prompt and generous heart.
Matthew is the disciple who had a clear call and answered it promptly; and he committed himself fully to JESUS. His gospel is a clear witness of his love for JESUS and the Church. Tradition also says that he preached in Ethiopia, in Persia, and that he suffered a martyr's death.
"Members of the Institute should be in complete harmony with the public acts of holy Church who has issued several books containing her prayers and devotions. They contain an infinite treasure of solid piety and tender devotion. I could imagine no more useful work than that of a society of persons,dedicated to God, which has as its aim the perfect fulfilment and competent participation at these holy, beneficial practices of the Church" (Rosmini)
20 September
1 Tim. 4, 12-16; Luke 7, 36-50
"Simon, I have something to say to you": the Lord speaks to us in the depth of our conscience, warning us about the evil of judging our brothers and sisters. "Do not judge, do not condemn", since it is simply impossible for limited human beings to know the personal history of each individual, the hidden motivations and causes for their actions. It is easy to label people, and to condemn them, but we do not have the "facts" for making such judgement, only God can judge, He who sees into the depths of each, He who knows the reason for each of our thoughts and actions.
Moreover, judgment and condemnation kills off love, as the experience of many couples reveals. Love flourish in a climate of trust, confidence, support, forgiveness, openness. Very often, when people walk into a room, they feel the eyes of everyone judging and perhaps condemning, and they immediately build up barriers, put on masks as a defence; in contrast, there is a beatiful feeling of being able to be oneself, without effort, when entering into our own house, among our loved ones. There is no judgment, no condemnation there, only love.
JESUS' love, openness, welcoming of the "sinner" makes her flourish as a human being, reaching the perfection of love. "Her many sins are forgiven since she has shown so great love": precisely because she was not judged nor condemned by Him, she was able to be herself, to reach out to true beauty, to love the Son of God. At the end of our life we shall be judged on love: love for the Blessed Trinity, love for our neighbour. This is what will save us.
"JESUS abandons his flesh to death but this same flesh destined for death will be the 'bread of eternal life', will have a life that can never fail, and this will give life to humanity even when the latter loses its natural life, the life of the world. 'I will give my flesh over to death', says JESUS, 'but at the same time I will give to humanity another life, because my flesh will always remain a living bread, a bread which gives life'. This means that there is an action, an effect of the Eucharist, beyond this natural life of ours so that our souls, even separated from the body, live with this life which the flesh of JESUS gives as the bread of life in a totally hidden and mysterious way" (Rosmini)
19 September
1 Tim. 3, 14-16; Luke 7, 31-35
Our Creator God never repeats Himself, He draws from the infinite outpouring of his love each person, each thing in a unique way, which means that there are no two things in the universe perfectly the same. Each person is thus unique, necessary to the perfect glory of God. This should give us confidence and self-esteem; we do count in God's eyes in a unique way: "I thank you Lord for the wonder of my being".
John the Baptist had his unique personality and lifestyle, "not eating bread, not drinking wine", stern and severe with himself, given to sacrifice and hard penance. He fulfilled his unique vocation in a unique way. JESUS came to do His Father's Will, "eating and drinking and mixing with sinners", a very different lifestyle, very ordinary from the outside, sociable and compassionate, yet highly pleasing to His Father in heaven.
We are asked to create our lifestyle according to the gifts we have been given, in a unique way. What matters is that we follow truly "Wisdom", as JESUS says: "Yet Wisdom has been proved right by all her children". Wisdom is to acknowledge the order of being that our intelligence presents to us, and to embrace it lovingly. Love of God above all things, therefore, and love of our neighbour; then love of all else "according to order". Like our Father in heaven, we ought to enjoy the infinite variety of people and things in the universe, without pretending that everyone and everything should be according to our limited view.
"If they are anxious to make rapid progress towards the perfection which is their goal, it is through intense and fervent piety that they will achieve this. And the special mark of this piety will be their great hunger for the 'bread of Angels' and for the 'wine that creates a pure heart'" (Rosmini)
18 September
1 Tim. 3, 1-13; Luke 7, 11-17
"Do not weep", said JESUS to the widow of Nain, His heart filled with compassion. He had joined the funeral procession, walking with the mother and the people grieving with her. The Lord walks with us in our difficult times, He is beside us, saying to us, "Do not be afraid, I am with you". From the Cross, the only words He spoke to His Mother were, "Behold your son", giving Her the whole of humanity to Her love and care.
"Do not weep", the Lord says to us. The resurrection of JESUS is the source of our joy overcoming our depression, our sadness, our melancholy. The few pages of the account of the Resurrection are filled with light, manifesting the joyous feeling among the first Christian communities; He is the Lord of life and joy who brought blessings to all He met, we too must bring blessings to every person we meet, "doing good" to all.
"In human speech there is something material, the voice, and something spiritual, the intelligence. These work together and the latter directs and causes the series of sounds. So speech is produced by two causes working together. In the same way the Sacrament results from both the external activity of man and the internal activity of the Holy Spirit who accompanies that external activity" (Rosmini)
17 September
1 Tim. 2, 1-8; Luke 7, 1-10
The words of the Roman centurion have echoed through the centuries, still being repeated by the faithful when they receive the Lord into their "roof". What better prayer, since who is worthy to receive the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords? And yet, how much superficiality is there today in receiving the Body of Christ, it has become a routine operation, with the mind elsewhere, a minor action among the other many actions of the day. The centurion felt strongly the truth of what he was affirming; we ought to enliven our faith, to be totally immersed in the moment, beholding the blessed Saviour in our souls, with the mind full of awe and reverence.
The centurion begged the Lord on behalf of a member of his family; we too must remember that the Body we receive is the Body which is also in the "pews", our brothers and sisters in the church. It was St. Augustine who said, "Be the Body that you receive", meaning that we the faithful must be the Body of Christ, one with the Body of Christ on the altar. It is perhaps a help if when we touch the flesh of our brethren at the sign of peace we remember that we soon will receive the "flesh" which is the Body of Christ. We touch the "flesh" before and after with the greatest reverence and rispect, with the same love.
"In human speech there is something material, the voice, and something spiritual, the intelligence. These work together and the latter directs and causes the series of sounds. So speech is produced by two causes working together. In the same way the Sacrament results from both the external activity of man and the internal activity of the Holy Spirit who accompanies that external activity" (Rosmini)
16 September: 24th Sunday of the Year
Ex. 32, 7-11.13-14; 1 Tim. 1, 12-17; Lk. 15, 1-32
It is not easy to talk about sin today. People usually think about the great tragedies in the world, stories of torture, of wars, of oppressions; they also think about the daily reports in the news or in the newspapers. No one doubts the presence of evil in our world. Things are more difficult when we talk about "personal" sins, because we think that we are decent people, with nothing serious to be sorry about. This is why "confession", a "personal" encounter with forgiveness, is in crisis: do I need forgiveness? For what?
St. Paul proclaims today, "JESUS Christ came into the world to save sinners, and I am the first of them"! This should be our belief, we are sinners, we need JESUS. We all go astray, build "golden calves" and worship them as the source of our happiness; status, power, sex, money, fitness, fashion, etc.
It is sad to see how many young and adult people lose their faith in God, live a life as though God does not exist. We immerse ourselves in the daily routine, pursuing one thing or the other, with no thought for God. It may continue for a while, until a "great famine" forces us to think: an illness, difficult relations, problems at work, profound disquiet may be the means whereby we "come to our senses". We realise that our life is bleak without God, that there is no happiness away from Him, that the Father's house has everything we need, and in abundance.
The twist in today's parables is the fact that it is God that goes out in search of us. He leaves the 99 for the sake of the 1 who has gone astray; I count before God, He searches for me, and when He finds me He is overjoyed; and look at the zest of the woman who has lost the coin, she is the one who searches everywhere; and the Father is there looking out for the son and when He sees him He runs out to embrace him with joy.
Till the last moment of our life, God searches for us, offering happiness and joy in His house; we need to pause and examine our conscience, and convict ourselves of "sin", of pursuing worthless things ignoring God. It is then that we may experience the joy of being found again, of being embraced by the love of the Father.
“I have a complete faith after God in our beloved Mother and Leader – Mary; and I entrust to her also this whole business, and remain entirely tranquil in myself. The whole Institute is her child; let us leave our Mother to act. Meanwhile I can tell you that she every day grants me new favours and new consolations” (Ep. Asc. II, p.474).
Prov. 8, 22-31; He. 5, 7-9; Jn 19, 25-27,
Fr. Rosmini expected his religious to have no decorations in their cells, but a simple Crucifix and a picture of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Institute was born, he said, between JESUS on the Cross and His sorrowful Mother. He also stressed that Mary was given to us as Mother while at the foot of the Cross; She gave birth to us in Christ in the immense suffering of the Cross, not at any other more joyful occasion. We can, therefore, experience Mary as Mother especially in the moments of suffering and anxiety: Christ on the Cross, Mary at the foor of the Cross, and our own suffering, in this unity of love is the solution to our troubles, the confort to our pain.
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