Reflections on Sunday's Gospel

2012-03-07T04:20:00.002-08:00

Third Sunday of Lent (March 11^th 2012)

John 2:13-25

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Jesus purifies the temple by turning over the merchants' tables. In what way does preparation for Easter demand the overturning of tables in our lives?

2. The real temple that Jesus wishes to purify is the heart of the human person. In what way are we temples of God that are in need of purification?

3. The Gospel speaks of Jesus' zeal for the purification of the temple of God. Do we believe that he has similar zeal to purify us and bring us to the fullness of life?

4. Is new life possible without leaving behind the old ways? Can there be genuine Easter without the overturning of tables and the destruction of the old man?

"There is no Passover without the Angel of Death. There is no Passover without the Red Sea that saves the new man and destroys the old. There is no Easter without chasing away the money-changer, the consumer-mentality, the greed and possessiveness that are present in our hearts."

Jesus performs an act of purification

It is important to reflect on the reason why this Gospel passage is read on the third Sunday of Lent. The passage relates how Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers in the temple. The other three Gospels place this scene near the end of Jesus' ministry, when the confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities in Jerusalem was reaching its climax. In John's Gospel, by contrast, the scene appears early in Jesus' public life, immediately after the miracle at Cana. At Cana, Jesus takes the water of the purification jars of the Jews and turns it into wine. He makes his glory known, and his disciples begin to believe in him. Then Jesus heads directly to Jerusalem where the Passover is about to be celebrated. The Jewish Passover had various rituals that were performed in preparation for the feast. One of these involved cleaning the house and removing all traces of the old yeast for bread-making. This was to make way for the new yeast and the new bread of the Passover. We also have traditions of spring cleaning coming up to Easter. Jesus too performs an act of preparation for the Passover, and it is the classic mode of behaviour of a prophet. It is not that Jesus in this scene has lost control of himself and has gone crazy. No, he is performing a prophetic act. Many such acts are to be found in the Old Testament when the prophet comes in the name of God to denounce a situation.

Preparation for Easter demands that we overturn the money changer's tables in our lives

Jesus performs this act of purification when he discovers people at the temple selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and changing money. All of these elements were actually necessary for the system of sacrifice and ritual that was in place at the temple in those days. Offerings had to be made using a particular coin which the money-changers provided. Jesus puts an end to all of this activity, saying, "Take all of this away, and stop turning my Father's house into a market". The disciples remember the words of Scripture "Zeal for your house will consume me". Zeal is a particular type of attentive regard for the things that belong to God. Such zeal demands that the things that are holy be purified of that which is not holy. Preparation for Easter demands a similar purification, and that is why we are reading this Gospel on Sunday. Lent is the season for overturning the money-changer's tables that are part of all of our lives. It is the time for throwing away the things that occupy the place of something else.

Jesus' attempts to purify the temple will result in the destruction of the temple that is his body

As we read on, we come to the climax of the text. The Jews were indignant because Jesus would have prevented anyone from doing business at the temple that day. They confront him about his destructive actions and Jesus replies in an enigmatic way: "Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up". The Jews are incredulous and remark that it has taken forty six years to build the temple. The Evangelist then tells us that Jesus has deepened the meaning of the discourse and is speaking of a different kind of temple, his own body. In this case it will be they who destroy the temple and it will be him who rebuilds it. What does the Evangelist wish to tell us in this story? Jesus is performing an act of purification. He is removing the things that have no place in the house of the Father. This destructive action on the part of Jesus is not acceptable to those who do not want the purification to take place. The battle of purification thus becomes a two-way battle in which the cleansing action of Jesus is resisted by the religious authorities. The combat will eventually result in the destruction of Jesus body, and the rebuilding of that sanctuary in three days.

The real temple that Jesus wishes to purify is the heart of man

The Gospel reading for Sunday ends with a sentence that might not seem very significant, but in fact it is of central importance. "During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he gave, but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what a man had in him."

Taking this final passage into consideration, the Gospel reading as a whole can be read in three stages. Firstly we hear of the zealous action of Jesus in purifying the temple. Secondly, Jesus' own body is understood as a temple, which means, by extension, that the body of any person can be considered to be a temple. Thirdly, we are told that Jesus knows exactly what is in the heart of man.

The real temple that is to be purified is the heart of man. We must live the experience of Lent by engaging ourselves in this conflict, which is not a trivial business. There is no Passover without the Angel of Death; there is no Passover without the Red Sea that saves the new man and destroys the old man; there is no Easter without chasing away the money-changer, the consumer-mentality, the greed and possessiveness that are present in our hearts. This Gospel from John is particularly directed against the tendency to make our lives places of profit and self-advantage. We must enter the fray against these tendencies! Easter is a time in which we are drawn to new life, and this process requires the loss and the purification of that which obstructs life.

Jesus has a burning zeal to purify our hearts of the things that obstruct life

We should not be surprised that Jesus is zealous and passionate in this scene from the Gospel. Jesus is the one who brings life, and life is incompatible with death. He brings truth, and truth is incompatible with deception. Jesus is absolutely uncompromising in the face of anything that keeps us from him. When we read this text, we must seek the strength and courage to overturn the money-changer's tables. We must rid our hearts of those things that are incompatible with Easter. Jesus performs this gesture of purification so that our bodies might become the temples destroyed and rebuilt, bodies that have passed through the stage of self-denial and sacrifice. There cannot be new life unless the old life is left behind. The human being, who loves material things, destroys the temple of God. But in God this temple can be rebuilt and resurrected. Let us allow ourselves to be changed by the discipline of Lent that strives to bring us to new life, and wishes to distance us from death and deception.

2012-02-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

Second Sunday of Lent (March 4^th 2012)

Mark 9:2-10

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 What motivates us to give things up during Lent? Do we do it for superficial reasons?

2. In what way can an appreciation for the beauty of Christ help us to deny ourselves?

3. Am I inclined to think that the Christian life is one of fulfilling certain rules or obligations? Could it be that Christianity, instead, is founded on beauty and joy?

4. In the Gospel, the disciples see the beauty of Christ, then they are told to listen to Him. Why is listening to the word of God so important?

5. In what way can the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection?

The Transfiguration has an important role in motivating us during Lent

The Gospel of the second Sunday of Lent is always the story of the Transfiguration. Jesus makes known to his disciples the glory that will be his after the Resurrection. They see him in conversation with Moses and Elijah, who represent the Old Testament. This event has an important role in our journey towards Easter. Lent is a time of austerity and purification. If we take it seriously and make it a time of fasting, prayer and almsgiving, then Lent becomes a battle against one's own deficiencies. We can only enter this battle if we have a clear and worthwhile goal. Jesus' foreshadowing to his disciples of his passion, death and resurrection demonstrates that we all have need of motivation in our journey towards Easter. It is a waste of time forcing ourselves to do a series of penitential acts, if we do not have sincere motivation of some kind. In everyday life, people continually renounce things in order to achieve a goal. For a moment of pleasure, in order to advance their careers, and for a multitude of superficial reasons, people are willing to make great sacrifices.

The correct motivation for Lenten penance is to increase our appreciation for the beauty of Christ

For us, it is very important that we have the correct motivation for following Jesus. And this motivation is put into words by Peter. Let us recount the story. Jesus takes the three disciples apart and gives them an intimate experience of that which lies ahead in the future. His face changes and his clothes become whiter than anything on earth. It is clearly an experience of the supernatural, of something that defies the human capacity for understanding. Moses was the giver of the Law and Elijah was the greatest of the prophets. Upon beholding this wonderful scene, Peter speaks those words that are at the heart of Christian motivation; "Rabbi, it is wonderful (or beautiful) for us to be here!" The reason why we are willing to struggle with our own flesh, with the world and with evil, is because we have discovered the beauty of Christ. Christianity is founded on the encounter with the most beautiful of the sons of men. The reason why people are willing to make sacrifices and confront all the difficulties of the mission God has given them is because they has been illuminated to the depths of their being by Christ. It is simply wonderful to be with Christ and that is all the motivation that one needs.

It is essential that we (and the younger generation in particular) be grounded on the revelation of the beauty of the face of Christ, the beauty of the one who became unsightly out of love of us. His beauty is not the beauty of a beautician's parlour, nor of the cover of a glossy magazine, but a different type of beauty altogether. It is the beauty of one who knows how to love and who is the wisdom of God.

Christianity is not founded on obligation but on beauty and joy

When Peter speaks, he is using the language of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (or Tents), which may have been celebrated at that time of year. He says: "Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah". The Feast of Tabernacles was a very joyful festival in which tents were erected and the people recalled the time spent by Israel in the desert. They listed to the Word of God and celebrated the saving action of God. This joy is concentrated in the contemplation of Peter on the scene of the Transfiguration, leading him to say, "It is wonderful to be here!" This significance of this statement cannot be over-estimated. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor is it a philosophical or ideological doctrine. Christianity is founded on beauty and its goal is the joy of humanity. We are called to be in a beautiful place and to be with someone whose company is beautiful. This beauty must be proclaimed and defended robustly.

Seeing is not enough. We must also listen. The Christian life must move from the contemplation of beauty to the acceptance of God's word in our hearts

After the period of contemplation, Peter sees a cloud and hears the voice of God: "This is my Son, the beloved. Listen to him". In other words, Jesus is the one who is loved above all, and if we wish to share in his beauty then we must listen to him. It is interesting that the Gospel account switches from that which is seen to that which is heard. First the disciples see the beauty of God, then they listen to the voice of God. That which we see with our eyes is aesthetic, whilst the word of God is something that has to be welcomed into our hearts. That which is purely visual remains external to us. It can motivate us and make us wish to possess it, but the word is something that has the ability to enter into us. The word "obedience" derives from the Latin "to listen", and it means to listen truly, or to carry out what has been said. The beauty of Christ is something that must be listened to in this sense. It is not simply something aesthetic but involves the reception of a word that enters into my heart and transforms itself into practice. In fact Jesus says: "Everything that you have seen here will come to pass".

May the beauty of the Transfiguration motivate us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection

They come down from the mountain and he tells them not to recount what has happened until he is risen from the dead. In the Lenten season, it is essential that we continue to relate this event to the journey towards Easter. The disciples ask themselves what "rising from the dead" could mean. That which we experience in a given moment is always small compared to what God is actually doing in that moment, and to what he will accomplish in the future. The beauty that Peter has contemplated is a taste of something even greater: the experience of the resurrection. As we journey in Lent, let us contemplate the beauty of the Transfiguration. May it motivate us to accept God's word and walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty that God is preparing for us: namely, the resurrection, the fully-illuminated life that awaits us in heaven.

In summary:

1. The Transfiguration reveals the beauty of Christ. It is the beauty of Christ that is the goal of the Christian life. Our journey in life is a journey towards a place that is beautiful and where we can be in the company of the One that is beautiful.

2. In Lent we make sacrifices, not in order to lose weight, or simply to give up bad habits that damage our health, but in order to confront our own poverty and to appreciate the beauty of Christ.

3. The beauty of Christ is not the beauty of a glossy magazine cover, but the beauty of one who was disfigured out of love for us.

4. Christianity is not founded on obligation, nor on a philosophical or ideological doctrine. It is directed towards attaining the joy of being in the presence of the beauty of God.

5. God the Father speaks from the clouds and asks the disciples to listen to Jesus. In order to attain the joy of the beauty of Christ, we must listen to the word of the Lord and allow it to enter our hearts and transform our lives.

6. The beauty of the Transfiguration motivates us to walk in obedience towards the even greater beauty of the Resurrection.

2012-02-22T07:26:00.000-08:00

First Sunday of Lent (February 26^th 2012)

Mark 1:12-15

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Why did Jesus have to spend forty days in the desert? What value does a desert experience have for confronting the evil or unresolved issues in our lives?

2. In what way can self-denial help us to confront the demons within us?

3. Who or what are the angels that surround me on a daily basis, ready and waiting to assist me in the process of transformation that is symbolised by the desert?

4. Is it possible for a person to love or serve others if he has not gone through the desert experience of removing the obstacles to love that litter our souls?

5. Once Jesus passes through the desert, he proclaims that the Kingdom of God is here. Can an experience in the desert assist me in making the Good News the focal point of my existence?

Jesus' time in the desert recalls Israel's forty years in the wilderness

The Gospel of Mark is probably the oldest of the Gospels. In this passage, Mark gives a description in stark simple terms of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. This account is elaborated by Matthew and Luke into the story of the three temptations of Christ. According to Mark, the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert. It is the Spirit that is responsible for the fact that Jesus undertook this venture. Just before this passage, we had learnt of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. In this way, John had fulfilled his own mission and baptized Jesus, and now the public mission of Jesus was beginning. In order to begin that mission, Jesus had to pass through the desert. The importance of the image of the desert in the Old Testament is one that cannot be underestimated. It refers to the liberation of the people of Israel and their forty years in the desert after emerging from the waters of the Red Sea. Jesus, in fact, would spend forty days in the desert. In the case of Israel, it was the Lord who led the people to the desert. The question that presents itself is why did they have to spend these forty years in the wilderness? It is possible to walk from Egypt to the Holy land in a relatively short time. What sort of poor navigation system did the Israelites have that it took them so long to get to the Promised Land?

The desert is a symbol of a period of transformation that is essential for redemption

The path undertaken by the Israelites to the Promised Land was a journey of transformation, and not just the business of getting from A to B. They simply were not ready for the Promised Land. The Hebrew rabbis used to say that it took one night to liberate Israel from Egypt, but it took forty years to liberate Egypt from the hearts of the Israelites. Often it is easier to free a person from a grave situation than it is to teach them to walk in the way of the truth.

Jesus went into the desert because the redemption of humanity requires this stage of transformation. Between evil and good - between non-salvation and salvation - there is a process of radical change. The desert in the Old Testament is really a code word for change, or rite of passage. It is not a location where one might live. It is a place that must to be passed through to get somewhere else.

Sometimes it is better to avoid evil, but at other times we must confront it head on

Jesus passed forty days in the desert being tempted by Satan. This is a surprising revelation. Why did Jesus have to be tempted by the devil? Wouldn't it have been better if he had avoided going into the desert to be subjected to temptation of this sort? It is true that it is usually a good idea to avoid situations where we are presented with opportunities for evil, but it is also true that some things need to be confronted head on. We need to be able to handle temptation. Being able to avoid situations of temptation is fine, but we cannot go through life like fugitives, running from certain situations, with evil like a predator just one step behind us. Jesus wished to be able to give a definitive response to temptation, to the daily reality of being subjected to deception and delusion.

In the desert our demons come to the fore, but so do the angels that are waiting to help us

The Gospel tells us that Jesus was with the wild animals in the desert, while the angels served him. Sooner or later we will all be led by the Spirit to enter the desert and confront our demons. The Lord Jesus has gone before us and shown us the way. Once we are in the desert, we will find that it is a far from empty place. The wild animals - the demons that plague us - will soon appear and make their presence felt. To enter the desert is to enter the fray and confront those things within us that are unresolved. And, by the same token, when we enter the desert it is essential that we be attentive and discover the angels that are waiting to serve us. We have a multitude of such angels around us, things that support us and can become reference points for our existence - people and things whose job it is to help us choose the path of life and overcome our demons.

The Kingdom is entered after passing through the desert. We learn to love after we have confronted the obstacles to love inside us

Our existence is not as dull as might sometimes appear. The Lord has not given us life so that we might accomplish little or nothing. Life, instead, is a great challenge! This short passage from the Gospel comes to a climax with the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. We have been given life so that we might enter the Kingdom of God. Before entering the Kingdom there is a battle that must be fought and a desert that must be passed through. Woe betide those who raise their children without preparing them for the difficulties of life! Woe betide those who think life is all about physical wellbeing and being in a state of material happiness! This is an all too-prevalent fallacy. People will only learn how to love when they learn how to overcome the obstacles to love in their hearts. In order to be able to serve others, we must battle the demons inside us that stop us from serving others. We must learn to be in the desert, to deny ourselves, to be the leaders of our own existence rather than just followers. We must not underestimate the importance of this stage of passing through the desert before arriving at the Kingdom of God.

The door of the Kingdom is on the other side of the desert

Jesus announces that "the time has come". This indicates that a time of fullness is here, an era that is filled with grace. This time of fullness appears once we have passed through the time of emptiness in the desert. Once we have gone through that wilderness, confronted the demons and learned how to discern the angels that truly help us, the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven comes into sight. In other words, the desert teaches us that there is one thing only that must be clung to, and that is the Good News of the Gospel, which is the love of God for us. We must cling to this one thing in order to be converted and transformed. Removed from the chaos of our existence, the desert teaches us where the true light is. No matter how we may have been tempted or tried, the one thing that we need to do is believe in the Good News. We have all received the Good News in one way or another, and we are still receiving it. We must be converted, rid ourselves of the negative thoughts that come from the evil one, and believe in that point of reference, that sure light, the Good News that gives meaning to our entire existence.

2012-02-15T06:58:00.000-08:00

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 19^th 2012)

Mark 2:1-12

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that faith is an individual relationship between God and me? Or is it something that needs to be cultivated in me by others?

2. In what way can I become a "stretcher-bearer" for others, leading them to the Lord?

3. When I approach the Lord, am I more preoccupied with the healing of my physical ailments, or with the healing of my spiritual ills?

4. What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

Faith is not an individual thing. We need others to bring us to the Lord

The Gospel story presents us with the image of a sick man being carried by others to the Lord. Being led to the Lord by others is a necessary element in the life of faith. Relationship with God is not a purely individual thing between him and me. Instead, it is necessary that we be carried to the Lord by people who have more faith than we do. In the Gospel passage, when the people strip the roof in order to lower the paralytic inside, Jesus takes into consideration their faith, not the faith of the paralytic himself. We are not saved because of the level of personal relationship that we have with the Lord. On the contrary, we have need of the faith of ours to bring our salvation to fulfilment. We receive that faith from others in the first place. Often, our faith life is at a standstill and we need someone else to bring us forward. We need to be carried on someone else's shoulders for part of the journey. The dream of autonomy in the faith is an illusion that takes on nowhere. We all need stretcher-bearers to bring us closer to the Lord, and we all need to become stretcher-bearers for others one day. We must develop a faith that will be capable of illuminating the unhappy lives of others who do not have the courage to go on by themselves.

Sometimes the path that leads to healing can be tortuous

The paralytic was carried by four stretcher-bearers and entered the house in unusual circumstances. It was impossible to enter by the door, so the roof had to be dismantled before he could be lowered down. Often it is the case that it is difficult to enter by the door. Sometimes the normal channels are not accessible and it is not straightforward to come to the stage of being healed. We have need of someone who knows an alternative way and who is willing to carry us. The paralytic was lowered from a height and risked being dropped. This story highlights the level of support that the stretcher-bearers would have had to give to the sick man. It is essential to trust the one who carries us to the Lord. It is often necessary to expend great effort to bring someone to the faith. Often we can be closed to Christ and it may be necessary for others to discover an unusual way to bring us to him.

A healthy spirit and a sick body is better than a healthy body and a sick spirit

When the man is placed in the centre of the room, Jesus looks at him and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Jesus sees the faith of the ones who brought the sick man in. Seeing that faith, he goes to the heart of the problem, which is not the physical healing of the man. The heart of the matter is his interior healing. To physically heal a man who is sick within would be to deceive him terribly. To have a healthy body and a diseased spirit is much more dangerous than having a sick body and a healthy spirit. Saint Clare of Assisi lived for many years as a paralytic, unable to rise from bed, and during that time she did incredible good for the whole world. Blessed John Paul II possibly did more evangelisation in his last years, with a sick body but a spirit full of light, than he did when he was fully mobile and able to go wherever he wanted.

What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

No-one would wish to trivialise the significance of physical suffering. Jesus can heal physical suffering, but his priority is to heal the interior. It is illness of the spirit that is the origin of much suffering in the world. In the Gospel passage, Jesus proclaims that the man is forgiven, because the healing of the heart is achieved by forgiveness. What makes a man healthy is the forgiveness of his sins. No-one can offer this kind of treatment but God alone. Psychotherapeutic techniques can rearrange the elements of a person's mental life, but they cannot dissolve sin. Sin and evil can only be cured by God. God knows how to create and he knows how to regenerate. Only he knows how to give new life.

Only God can treat the illnesses of the soul

This, in fact, is the reason why the scribes are scandalized. "Who can forgive sin but God alone?" they ask. "This man is blaspheming!" In reality these scribes are stating something that is perfectly true. They are outraged by the fact that Jesus assumes a role that is reserved for God only. Their outrage would be justified if, in that moment, they were not in the presence of the Son of God himself. In the rabbinic tradition, not even the Messiah himself was considered to have the power to forgive sins. The Messiah, according to that tradition, was expected to be a man, elected by God, with the role of saving his people. Here, the scribes found themselves in the presence of something much greater, the precious Son of God.

Jesus' healing of the paralytic reveals the wonderful news that sin is not the last word

Jesus is capable of healing the paralytic and is capable of forgiving sins. This is the unexpected good news that is revealed to the scribes and to all present. To show that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic, "Get up and walk". This act of Jesus bears witness to the wonderful news that sin is not the last word. It is not true that our mistakes remain encrusted deep in our essence and cannot be eliminated. A marriage that is in crisis because of errors made in the past can be made healthy. If it is true that a man can be healed of physical paralysis, then it is true that a man can be healed of his sin. This fact has become the constant miracle of the Christian life, the miracle of conversion. Throughout Christian history we have had the constant miracle of persons being carried to the Lord, who stand up and become capable of carrying others.

We must allow the faith of the church to carry us and guide us. We must allow the faith of these "stretcher-bearers" to lead us to these experiences of healing and pardon. There is an entire school of saints, a multitude of wonderful Christians, a long history of the faith that demonstrates that God can dissolve sin in the heart of humanity. No matter how grave the sin we may have committed, no matter how ugly or shameful our deeds, God's power is infinitely greater.

2012-02-08T13:48:00.000-08:00

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 12^th 2012)

Mark 1:40-45

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that drawing close to Christ will have unpleasant consequences for my lifestyle? Or do I believe that it will bring healing and liberation?

2. Am I inclined to think that I have to be holy before God will do great things for me? Or do I believe that God will touch me when I am still unclean?

3. Does God's will for me involve unpleasant duties that I have to carry out? Or is it something primarily directed towards bringing me to the fullness of life?

4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things while I am still in a state of infirmity before God? Or is healing by God a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life?

5. Is the Lord's action in our lives directed towards attaining the adulation of the multitudes, or genuine encounter with individuals?

A Gospel story that is full of significant gestures

The Gospel stories recount concrete events in the life of Jesus, but they are placed before us so that we can connect them to aspects of our own existence. In this story recounting the healing of a leper, there are a number of gestures that are highly significant for us, but they might go unnoticed in a superficial reading of the text. A leper approaches Jesus and pleads before him on his knees. This act of placing himself before the Lord on his knees is the act of one who supplicates or prays. The suffering of the leper has transformed itself into prayer. Who is this leper, and what leads him to make this beautiful entreaty, "If you want to, you can heal me"? The condition of leprosy is one of the most terrible diseases imaginable. One's very flesh is in a state of decomposition while one is still alive. The Law of Moses required that lepers live separately from normal human habitation. When non-lepers drew near, the leper was required to cry out "Unclean! Unclean!" The leper, thus, was obliged to denounce himself, and the condemnation for his condition was one of isolation.

The leper recognizes that we need to approach Jesus and be close to Him

In the case that we consider today in the Gospel, the solitude of the leper becomes the springboard that drives him to approach Jesus. The law demands that he remain isolated and refrain from contact with others, but, in the case of Jesus, the leper ignores the rules and draws near. This Gospel has interesting parallels with the Gospel that we read two weeks ago in which the unclean spirit in the synagogue cried out to Jesus, "Stay away from us! You have come to destroy us!" In today's Gospel, we have man who is "unclean", and it is he who approaches Jesus looking for healing. These two readings inspire us to reflect on just who Jesus is. Is he the one we should keep away from, as the evil spirit believed, or is he the one that we should approach for help?

The leper recognizes that Jesus wants what is good for us

The leper comes close to Jesus and says, "If you want to, you can heal me". The evil spirit believed that Jesus would destroy him, but the leper believes that Jesus can free him, do good for him, give new life to him, defeat the death that is already making itself evident in his diseased flesh. This prayer arises from an awareness of solitude and abandonment. Genuine prayer always arises from the awareness of one's own vulnerability, one's own limits, one's own emptiness, from the desire to escape from one's own condition of isolation. This leper knows how to pray, and his prayer touches the heart of Jesus who has compassion for him. Here is revealed the motive and the source of our liberation: the compassion of the Lord. Jesus is able to understand the darkness of our isolation and his only desire is for our good.

The gestures of Jesus are a liturgy in themselves

In response to this anguish, Jesus makes a series of gestures that constitute a kind of liturgy in themselves. He stretches out his hand, touches the diseased man and says, "I want to. Be healed". The Christian liturgy is composed of gestures and words, and here we have a gesture and a word. It is not enough to say, "I want to. Be healed". And it is not enough simply to touch the leper. A simple word in itself, or a simple caress in itself, is not sufficient. What is needed instead is a relationship in all of its fullness.

In this act of touching the leper, Jesus breaks the regulations. It was not permitted by law to approach a leper, and it was certainly not permitted to touch him. Jesus touches the leper before he is healed. He touches him while he is still sick, while he is still putrid. He touches him and says "I want to! Be healed!"

God's will for us is not something negative

There is a play on words here. The leper says "If you want to, you can heal me". Jesus replies, "I want to. Be healed". This play on words reveals what it is that God wants to do. It uncovers the will of God for us. This poor leper has understood that the Lord wishes for his good, and Jesus confirms that with his reply. We are often inclined to think that the will of God is something that makes unpleasant demands on us. When we say "Your will be done", we feel that we are handing our lives over to God so that he can do things with us that we do not want. This is simply not true! The will of God coincides perfectly with his compassion. The will of God is that we be healed. The will of God is that process by which we are touched by God, made clean, and led to a state of life that is finally free.

Healing is a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life

It is important to note that healing is a fundamental step in the spiritual life. Sometimes we think that we can do great things, achieve great spiritual results, without passing through the stage of healing. That process of being touched in heart and soul, of being tended to in the depths of our being is a necessary stage in life. We cannot pass from a condition of abandonment directly to the condition of being blessed by God. Jesus stretches out his hand and says to us, "I want to! Be healed!" In this brief interaction there is concentrated the entire process of approaching God, prayerful supplication, and being responded to by Jesus who wishes to heal us.

The term "purify" that appears in this passage derives from an expression that signifies "not to be of different natures; to be of a single nature". Pure water means that there is nothing else present but water. Before becoming an ethical term, "purify" was a chemical term, and it meant "to be of one reality only". This leper was a man who had death present in his flesh. To be purified signified to be made completely alive. This process of attaining the fullness of life is what Jesus wants. We must become ever more aware that God has only one wish for us, and that is our salvation. The grace that the Lord offers for us is for our salvation, and no other motive.

Jesus does not seek the adulation of the masses, but encounter with the individual

The leprosy disappears from the leper and Jesus gives him a stern warning. In fact he sends him away quite severely! Why does Jesus behave this way? We might expect someone to banish a leper from his sight while the leper still has the disease, but Jesus banishes him when he is healed! It is important that we know how to depart from Christ, in the sense that we must know how to enter into a life of obedience; to pass from the stage of healing to the stage of living the healthy life; to pass from the stage of being looked after by Christ to the stage of being able to fulfil our mission. The leper is instructed to show himself to the priest in order to give witness to what has been accomplished in him. Once the leper goes to the priest and is examined by him, the priest is in a position to allow the leper to re-enter the life of the normal healthy person. But the man disobeys! This demonstrates that it is possible to be healed, and still fail to live the life that should follow naturally from the act of being healed. It is possible to continue along the wrong way, despite having received immense graces from the Lord. The desire of fame, of seeking attention for the graces received, can become more important than the graces themselves. In this respect, the Gospel text gives us great insight into the person of our Lord. Previously, it was the leper who was obliged to remain in isolated and deserted places. Now it is Jesus who retreats into the desert because the leper did not maintain the reserve that has been asked of him. Jesus has no love of fame. He knows the mentality of the masses, who search - not for authentic things - but for things that are of popular appeal. He withdraws from this multitude because he wishes to encounter each individual personally. The holy people of God is composed of individuals who have had this personal encounter of grace with the Lord

2012-02-01T05:58:00.000-08:00

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 5^th 2012)

Mark 1:29-39
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel
1 Do I consider encounter with God to be something that occurs primarily in church, or is it something that occurs at every moment in life?
2. When I ask the Lord for healing, do I expect instant results regardless of my personal behaviour? Or am I prepared to take Jesus’ hand and follow him?
3. Do I believe that wellness consists in the ability to serve others?
4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things by myself? Or is the fulfilment of our mission dependent on fidelity to God's plan?

The arena of God’s action is not just holy places but also our own homes

This passage recounts a series of events from a day in the life of Jesus, and, through it, we learn a great deal about his mission. Jesus leaves the synagogue (having just healed the man with the impure spirit) and goes to the house of Simon. This movement is highly significant. The action of God's Messiah shifts from the synagogue – a place associated with the word of God – to a normal human dwelling. The movement of God's action from the synagogue to the home is a historic movement that corresponds to the advent of Christianity. Jesus wishes to enter the house of Simon, and into all of our homes, because there are things that he wants to accomplish there. The arena in which God enters our lives is no longer exclusively the sacred places, but the very places where we live. Holy places can assist us to pray in a concentrated way, but, with the advent of Christ, it is no longer the location that decides whether God is present or not. The Lord comes into our most personal of places seeking genuine encounter with us.

To be healed by the Lord, we must allow him to take our lives in hand
Jesus enters the house of Simon and what does he find? Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. And what does he find generally in our homes? Sickness, difficulty, people who cannot move, people who are trapped inside the unresolved problems of their existence, people who are nailed down by the things they are fixated with.
Approaching the sick woman, Jesus takes her by the hand. Sometimes we are not healed because we don’t allow Jesus to take us by the hand. We need to allow ourselves to be taken by the hand and do the things that Jesus wants us to do. Healing cannot happen until we become obedient to the Lord and allow him to lead us by the hand. While we persist with our own projects, as long as we refuse to permit Jesus to guide our actions, then we remain infirm with sicknesses that never go away.

The goal of God’s saving action is to enable us to serve others
In the Gospel, the fever leaves the woman and she begins to serve them. The point is that the goal of God’s saving action is to enable people to serve. The person who is well is the one who knows how to serve, the one who is able to take care of others. This world can be divided into two types of people: those who need care and those who know how to care for others; those who are black holes of needs without end, who demand constant affection and attention, and those who have finally been healed and are able to care for others; those who devour life and those who give life. In the Gospel, the woman first had need of care, but then she becomes someone able to give care. What a beautiful image! All of us are well when we are able to serve! All of us are fit and alive when we are able to take care of others!

Wellness consists in the capacity to serve others
The human being is called to paternity and maternity. The woman in the Gospel was a mother, a person who had once been an expert in taking care of others, but who was no longer capable of serving. In our time, members of the older generation are often in this situation. They fail to create a caring role for themselves. Many elderly people pass their time doing things that are vain and of little value. The children ask “Where is Grandma?” and they find that she is busy doing a course of salsa, or is on the phone six hours a day! The image that elderly people desperately need to rediscover and nurture is that of the adult who knows how to serve, who has attained wisdom, and who is available to others. This is the kind of senior citizen that this world needs more and more as the average age of our population grows. One of the problems of the older generation is that elderly people often feel useless. They think that no-one needs them. This demonstrates that acts of service towards others makes us feel whole. We must learn how to serve others. The fullness of life is maternity, paternity, being available to devote oneself to the needs of others.

The goodness that we are capable of achieving depends on our fidelity to God’s plan

Once Jesus heals the sick woman, the occupants of the entire town come searching for him. The house is assailed by requests from the infirm, and from those possessed by demons. Jesus heals the sick and drives out the demons, ordering them to be silent. The success of Jesus in curing people means that everyone now wants him. So what does he do? He rises early in the morning while it is still dark and goes to a lonely place to pray. When the disciples eventually find him they say “Everyone is looking for you!” Why does Jesus go away in private to pray like this? In the Gospels, Jesus is always shown praying at the moments that are fundamental to his mission, and when he is tempted. We see this while he is in the desert, when he is at Gethsemane, and when the crowd comes to carry him off and make him king. At the times when his life could take a wrong direction, at moments when he must remain faithful to God’s plan, Jesus unites himself with the Father in prayer. In the words of the disciples “Everyone is looking for you!” the temptation is evident. “You’ve made it! You’re a huge success! You’re no longer an obscure carpenter from Galilee!”
Jesus replies “Let us leave here. I haven’t come for this, but to preach also in other places”. As soon as Jesus attains great success he removes himself from the success, demonstrating that he has come not to do his own will but that of the Father, and so fulfil his great mission. We too must be on guard against the temptations that come with success. We must be wary of remaining only with the things in our lives that work well, instead of confronting the challenging things that life places before us, so that the good that we are all capable of doing might be uncovered.

2012-01-25T15:19:00.000-08:00

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 29^th 2012)

Mark 1:21-28

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I sometimes feel discomfort when I listen to the word of God?

2. Could such discomfort be the result of the word of God confronting contradictions or compromises within me?

3. Do I believe that conversion entails the ruination of my life as I am living it now, or true liberation?

4. Does a surgeon make a cut with the primary intention of inflicting a wound, or in order to restore health? Why are we inclined to believe that conversion involves pain primarily, instead of liberation?

5. Jesus does not negotiate with the evil spirit but orders him to leave. What does this tell us about how we should confront the vices and contradictions in our lives?

The teachings of Jesus confront us with the contradictions that dwell within us

The Gospel passage from St Mark describes the opening miracle performed by Jesus on the day that he embarks upon his mission. Jesus enters the synagogue and heals a man possessed by an impure spirit. This story of healing and liberation is significant for us, because all of us have need of healing and liberation. Jesus is a liberator and a redeemer. He is the one who pays the ransom for the slave and frees him. He is the one who comes to rid humanity of its ills, its idols and its deception.

Jesus enters the Synagogue at Capernaum and begins to teach. It is the teaching of Jesus that smokes out this demon in the first place. And this is true for all of us. In order that our problems might be uncovered and brought to light, we need to be confronted and challenged by the word of God. When Jesus teaches at Capernaum, the possessed man begins to feel unwell and starts shouting. When we are confronted by the word of God, it is important that we be attentive to any discomfort that might arise in our hearts. Discomfort of this sort is the Lord striking at the contradictions within us. These contradictions should be listened to and acted upon. Why does the Gospel often annoy us? Such annoyance is sometimes a covert effort by us to erect barriers to the word of God. When we hear the word of the Lord, we try to hide aspects of ourselves. We don't want our real selves to be smoked out, or to be challenged at the depths of our being. And so we begin to react to what we hear. We often start to complain about the person who is proclaiming the word of God. Biblical scholars sometime claim that certain texts are historically doubtful, or have problems in translation. We develop incredible methods for disputing the good news and for escaping from the contradictions that the word of God reveals inside us!

Deception involves taking the truth and manipulating it to arrive at false conclusions

In the Gospel the impure spirit is smoked out because the word of God has struck at the evil that lies within. The spirit starts to say, "What do you want from us, Jesus of Nazareth? Do you want to destroy us? We know that you are the holy one of God!" These words express self-deception of a classic sort! True deception rarely involves the communication of statements that are false, full stop. Real deception involves putting together various true statements in a way that leads to a false conclusion. Evil has always utilised the word of God, or statements that are true, or matters of fact, and puts them together in a way that leads us to draw conclusions that are wrong.

It is clear that Jesus of Nazareth is incompatible with the forces of evil. There can be no doubt that the light of Christ is incompatible with the kingdom of darkness. It is clear that evil cannot survive where goodness is cultivated, and vice-versa. But the impure spirit interprets all of this in a way that misleads. "What do you want from us? Do you want to destroy us?" The deception here is that the holy one of God has come in order to destroy. The image of God presented is of one who comes to annihilate. Many people are reluctant to undergo conversion because they fear this very manifestation of God. But this is the voice of evil speaking. It whispers that the work of God involves our ruin and our destruction.

The work of God is directed primarily to our liberation, not to our destruction

In reality, the chastising aspect of the work of God is secondary in nature. Where conversion is concerned it is true that renunciation is required, and it is correct to say that certain things will have to be abandoned. But the problem with this statement from the impure spirit is that it focuses completely on the alleged destruction that is involved in the work of God. And this focus leads us to forget the fundamental good that is the driving impulse behind the work of God. I am being liberated by the action of Jesus; I am constructing a marvellous new edifice: therefore the old one will have to be dismantled. There is always something that will have to be dismantled in order to follow the Lord Jesus! But this dismantling is done only in order to build something greater. The impure spirit diverts attention from this fact and speaks only of the destruction. The central truth that Jesus has come to liberate is obscured completely.

To overcome a vice is a process that involves a certain amount of pain and suffering. But to overcome a vice is to restore one's dignity and to live a new life. To prevail over a vice is without doubt to have endured a kind of "destruction"! But look at the quality of one's life afterwards! To escape from deception or sin, or to be freed from a state of being possessed by evil, is to have recuperated one's own liberty. The evil spirit cried aloud, "You have come to destroy us!" But this is secondary! Jesus has come in the first place to free us! A surgeon that removes a tumour must inflict a wound of some sort. But the primary intention is to restore health, not to inflict the wound.

How does Jesus win the battle over the evil spirit?

How does Jesus win this symbolic battle that is so important for all of us? He says, "Be silent and come out!" Jesus doesn't attempt to respond to the statements uttered by the impure spirit. He doesn't enter into a discussion with him, but simply orders him to be quiet and leave. One does not negotiate with unclean spirits; one does not negotiate with vices; one does not try to compromise with wrong. In battles of this sort, there is a frontier between right and wrong that must be surmounted. Either we surmount that frontier and enter into life, or we do not. This is a point of fundamental importance. With many temptations that confront us, the only right response is "Be quiet and leave!" We should enter into no negotiations with the impure spirits that seek to tell us what God wants to do with us. Often, we remain entrapped in strange interpretations of our own experience that lead us nowhere. The tree is known by its fruits. If something does not lead to good then let is be silent forever and leave our lives! Christ is a liberator and makes no compromises with evil. Let us allow ourselves to be liberated, and let that which must be destroyed be destroyed, so that which needs to be freed may be truly freed.

2012-01-18T05:08:00.000-08:00

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 22^nd 2012)

Mark 1:14-20

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Which kingdom do I give my allegiance to?

2. Who do I follow in my daily life? Jesus? Or someone else?

3. Do I believe that God can take my ordinary characteristics and use them to extraordinary effect?

4. In what sense can I, with my own natural characteristics and traits, become a "fisher of men"?

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Which kingdom do I give my allegiance to?

This Sunday we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark and we hear of the call of the first disciples. The passage comes directly after the news that John the Baptist has been arrested, upon which the mission of Jesus immediately begins. Everything happens in its own time. When John the Baptist fell into the hands of the evil Herod, people may have thought that the time of grace had come to an end. But God always draws good from evil, light from darkness. God created the world from nothing, so who knows what he might do with our humble lives? From human failure God can make a new beginning. John's mission ends, and Jesus immediately appears, proclaiming the Kingdom of God!

The good news that Jesus proclaims is that the time is "complete" and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. In other words, we are in touching distance of something marvellous, something whose moment has finally arrived. If the Kingdom of God is not here, then what is here? The kingdom of men, the kingdom of nothingness, the kingdom of evil, a kingdom of anarchy that lacks a true point of reference. If the Kingdom of God is not actual in our lives, then we are living an empty existence that is heading nowhere.

Embracing the Kingdom of God means making God the focal point of my life

If the Kingdom of Heaven is not here, then who is in charge here? This is a question that we should often ask ourselves? Who or what is dictating the course of our lives? To who, or to what, have I bound myself in order to survive? We are all vulnerable and insecure, and we need supports to lean on, lights to illuminate our darkness. Who do I lean on? What are the "lights" that I use to illuminate my way?

The Kingdom of Heaven is near, and, if I choose, I can make God the focal point of my life. I can make him my strength, and my organising principle. The Kingdom of Heaven is near and I can change mentality completely. I can stop being a victim, move away from the sad, unhappy, and hopeless concerns that dominate my life. What a load of unnecessary preoccupations fill our heads! What silly obsessions we cultivate in our minds! How many trivial things fill up the space in our souls that should be reserved only for God! How many senseless things occupy the place in our hearts that can only be warmed by the certainty of the love of God for us!

Jesus appears and tells us: "Change mentality and be converted! Leave behind that which is inconsistent and senseless! Reject that which is false and confused so that you will be able to believe in the Good News!" My soul was created to believe in the good. The human soul was made to believe in the Light. When one opens his heart to God, everything becomes a source of light and salvation.

Embracing the Kingdom means to follow Jesus and no-one else

All of this sounds good and warms the heart, but everything we have said so far remains only chatter unless something concrete arises from it. The Gospel goes on to relate how Jesus presents people with the opportunity to put these sentiments into action. He sees Simon and Andrew throwing their nets into the sea. It is a very ordinary act and there is nothing wrong with it. But there is something better that they could be doing. "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!" It is important to understand well the significance of this phrase. To follow Jesus means to no longer follow anyone else. He alone deserves our attention. He alone has given his blood for us. He alone is willing to do anything for us. He alone knows how to look after us and love us. To follow Jesus means not to go ahead of him, in the sense of thinking that he should do what we want. To follow Jesus means to stop following others and asking "life" from them.

God uses the ordinary characteristics that we have, and transforms them to extraordinary effect

"I will make you fishers of men". This saying is curious in the sense that fishers of men must still perform the act of fishing, but the "prey" has been transformed. So God uses, in part, the talents that we already have. We remain ourselves with our own characteristics, but God uses us for a completely different and nobler end. How wonderful it is to "capture" (in the most beautiful of senses) another human being for God! To draw another human being from the sea of death, from the sea of nothingness! What a marvellous thing to be called to do, to bring good into the lives of others through our actions! Whatever our profession is at the moment, whatever our gifts or characteristics are, they can be transformed so that we can become fishers of men. I remain myself with my own ordinary characteristics, but my actions are transformed so that they have extraordinary effects on the lives of others.

It is our responsibility to follow Jesus, and it is Jesus' responsibility to transform us.

What a wonderful call! But we must be careful how we understand that call. In the Gospel, Jesus says, "I will make you fishers of men". This is not an act of ours, but an act of God. It is not sufficient for me to say resolutely, "From now on everything I do will be directed towards leading others to God!" If I try to do it on my own steam, then I will get so far and no further. We have to remember that it is the work of God that is at issue here. It is necessary in the first place to follow the Lord, obey him, and put ourselves in a condition to carry out his work. Jesus is telling us in this Gospel that it is our job to follow him, and it is his job to transform us.

How many people waste their lives and do not know how to be fishers of men! How many people do not know how to express or defend the Gospel, or use the creativity that is in their hearts. Just consider the amount of beautiful things that there are to be done in this life! And it is our characteristics that can become beautiful in the hands of the Lord. We remain fishermen, but our work is taken and becomes for others an instrument of salvation.

2012-01-11T15:26:00.000-08:00

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 15^th 2012)

John 1:35-42

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Who are the mediators that indicate Jesus to me?

2. What am I seeking for most in life?

3. Where are the places in my life that I encounter God?

4. In what ways can I cultivate my relationship with God?

5. Have I begun to discern the mission that God has for me?

We have need of mediators in order to come to know Jesus

At the beginning of the new adventure of ordinary time, we are presented with this beautiful passage that has so many important elements for our life of faith. The story is about the encounter between Jesus and his first disciples. John the Baptist fixes his gaze on Jesus and points him out to his own followers. This is the first important point that emerges from the passage: We have need of someone who shows us Jesus. It is not possible for a person to arrive at faith in Jesus purely on their own efforts. Faith is not a natural trait of the human person, but a supernatural gift from God. We receive it with the aid of others who lead us to the faith. When someone claims to have discovered Jesus purely by means of their own efforts, then the fear arises that they are not speaking about the real Jesus at all. In this passage from the Gospel, Jesus is pointed out by John the Baptist, a prophet who bears the legacy of the entire Old Testament. We need mediators in order to come to know Jesus truly. And, in fact, this text speaks of other mediations of just this sort; his first disciples bring still other disciples to Jesus.

We must take the initiative and follow the indications that we have been given

John's first description of Jesus is "Behold, the Lamb of God!" Here he is referring to the lamb sacrificed at the Passover, and that represents the action of God in liberating his people. The lamb is a meek animal, easy to apprehend and to kill. And it is a fitting animal to represent Jesus, who never imposes himself on any believer, but simply offers himself. Jesus invites us to follow him, and the way of Jesus is demanding, but we have the free choice to follow him or not. He never tries to constrain us. There is no constriction in God, for constriction is alien to the nature of genuine love.

John says "Behold the Lamb of God!" and his disciples begin to follow Jesus. It is important to follow the indications that we are given! There are many people who listen attentively to the scriptures, listen to great preachers and to leaders in the faith; but when it comes to following the indications that they are given, they fall short. What is important is to take one step after another, and put into practice what we have received.

We must ask ourselves the questions that lead to adult faith

Seeing that they were following him, Jesus asked "What are you looking for?" This is a question that we should all reflect on, and that should inspire us to consider our faith in an adult way. What am I really looking for? We can be in church but have a heart that is distracted by other interests, by other things that I am seeking out, by other priorities. What am I seeking truly? What is it that I cannot live without, that I have genuine need for? Our eyes see the things that they are interested in; our ears hear the things that they wish to hear; our senses in general perceive the things that they are actively seeking to perceive. We do not have a global perspective on the world around us; what we see is selective and is dependent on what we wish to obtain from the world. What am I looking for? If I encounter something that I am not looking for, then I disregard it and continue on, even if that thing represents my salvation! My heart needs to be in tune with that thing if I am to see it for what it is. Jesus puts the disciples' hearts in tune by challenging them to relate to him: "Why are you doing? Why are you following me?"

Where are the places in our lives that we encounter God?

They reply, "Master, where do you live?" They wish to know where his resting place is, but Jesus, in reality, is someone who is always moving. In all of the Gospels, Jesus is one who passes by and doesn't stay still. But yet the disciples ask, "Where do you live? Where do you hang out? Where do you stop?" And this is an important question for all of us to ask: Where does God live? Where are the places in my life thatI can encounter God? Each one of us has grace-filled moments and places where we can meet Jesus. Every one of us a personal story that has revealed to us numerous blessed places in our hearts and outside of ourselves where we can experience God. And these places are places where we can genuinely cultivate our growth in faith and our relationship with God. It is important that we know how to identify these places where God resides, but we must ask Him where they are! This is what the disciples did, and it is a fact that we must bear in mind.

We must cultivate the desire we have for God and actively seek him in the places where we have learned to find him

We must show initiative! God invites us and facilitates our relationship with him, but the moment comes when we, like the disciples, must make the move from John the Baptist to Jesus. We must cultivate the relationship with God; we must promote the desire to have an intimate relationship with him, to seek out the place where he lives, and to want to be with him there. This kind of relationship does not present itself to us automatically; we have to reach out and make it ours. If our faith is to be an adult one, then we must seek God out and follow him. We cannot expect him to do everything for us. Many people remain stationary in the spiritual life because they are waiting for God to do something. But if I have a desire in my heart, a hunger that has been placed there by God, then it is up to me to follow it! In the Song of Songs, it is recounted how the bride and groom seek each other out. The bride has to struggle to find the groom. It is the same with our relationship with God. He moves way from us to see if we have a genuine interest in following him or not. The Lord respects our hearts. He does not constrain us to follow him, but gives us the glorious opportunity to seek him out freely.

To be on intimate terms with the Lord is to be given a new name and to receive a mission

The disciples follow Jesus and experience an encounter with him. From this encounter, there arises a powerful desire to announce to others what they have experienced. The encounter was so beautiful that they have an irresistible urge to lead other people to the Lord. In this way Simon is taken to Jesus, and the event that occurs is of special significance to us. Jesus changes Simon's name and his identity. To be on intimate terms with the Lord is to have a new name, to be a different person. Every genuine experience of God transforms us. If an experience of God does not change us, then it is clear that we did not receive what God intended to give.

Let us summarize this Gospel!

First, we must listen to the indications given to us by the prophets;

Secondly, we must obey the indications of the prophets;

Then, we must begin to follow Jesus;

We must ask ourselves some serious questions that promote a growth in faith;

We must start to obey the insights that arise from these questions:

Then we must BE WITH JESUS!

Why? So that our identities can begin to be changed!

To what end? To become a new person that has a mission to accomplish.

Simon was a man who had a mission to accomplish. According to his new name his mission would be to bring the work of the church to fruition. All of us have a mission to accomplish, and these are the steps by which we can discern what it is.

2012-01-04T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Baptism of Our Lord (January 8^th 2012)

Mark 1: 7-11.

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this Gospel

1. What does the baptism of Jesus reveal to us about our own baptism?

2. Do we have difficulty in discerning the loving gaze of God towards each of us?

3. Can it really be true that God’s contentment consists in my existence?

4. In what way is God’s love for us the key to our existence?

Baptism means to be immersed in the Spirit who gives new life

The short reading with which we celebrate the feast of the baptism of Jesus is from the oldest of the Gospels, that of St Mark. In a stark and powerful passage, John the Baptist says, “Someone is following me who is more powerful than I am.” John was the one who showed people the way of the Lord. Who or what can be more powerful than that? John continues, “I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”. To baptize signifies more than simply to wash or make clean. The Greek term “baptize” means to be immersed completely. The Holy Spirit is the same spirit that hovered over the waters at the creation of the world. To be immersed in the Holy Spirit means nothing less than to have a new life, to be filled with the life that comes from above.

When Jesus is baptized by John, the heavens are opened. The scene is described in a way that tells us that the heavens are no longer separated from earth by an insuperable barrier. They are “torn open” and there is direct communication between heaven and earth. A dove descends from heaven towards Jesus. This evokes the story of Noah’s ark when, after the flood, a dove with an olive branch descends on the ark as a sign that the time of death and purification has been completed. The dove alights on Jesus and a voice comes from the heavens that have been ripped open: “You are my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased”.

Jesus’ baptism reveals the nature of our own baptism

If we had wondered earlier why John had described Jesus as the “one who is stronger”, now we know why. He is the Son of God; he is the one who has the presence of the Holy Spirit; and he is the beloved of the Father. God loves this son, and the son’s strength comes from the fact that he is loved. The root of his very essence is his loving union with God, generated from the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. What is expressed in this passage from the Gospel about the baptism of Jesus, is essential for understanding our baptism, because the baptism of Jesus is the paradigm by which we must understand our own. Our baptism has a foundation; our Christian existence has a particular source; and this source is the same love of God expressed by the Father at the baptism of Jesus. Our life is rooted in the fact of being loved; of being important for someone. Life has no meaning without love. Life demands love. To be alive is to embark on an adventure in which we learn how to love. But in order to learn how to love, we need a source and a master. God teaches us how to love through Jesus. The love that we see in the life of Jesus and that consoles us in our weakness is founded in the acceptance of the love of the Father.

The love of God for each of us is a remedy for our natural inclination to consider ourselves unlovable

This is the foundation of a beautiful life, and it is a remedy for a contrary tendency in life: the inclination to think that we are not lovable; the difficulty we have in believing that we are acceptable; the interior resistance we have in the depths of our soul that puts us always on the defensive, and makes us erect walls around our existence so that it becomes a prison. This belief that we are unworthy; this tendency to hide ourselves, like Adam after the moment of original sin; derives from the failure to discern the loving gaze of the Father upon us. “In you I am well pleased”. We must seek out this place within us where God directs his loving gaze. In every man and woman there is a good light; there is a root of faithfulness; there is a predisposition to believe in God and to believe in his love; to believe in the beauty of life. We are the place in which God’s contentment and approval resides. We must learn to cultivate all of those things in our lives that represent God’s contentment with us and approval of us.

The fact that we are God’s beloved must become the key by which we live our lives

We must remain constantly aware of the significance of our baptism. It is the moment when the heavens were torn open and the fact was proclaimed aloud that we are God’s children and that his love towards us is constant and enduring. The Lord has an abundance of love for each of us, an abundance of patience, forgiveness and magnanimity. God is the one who basically wants to find contentment with us. We spend a lot of time discussing what we think, what we believe, what we consider to be important. But it would be much more liberating if we spent some time contemplating what we are for God. Just what are we for God? This Gospel tells us: “You are my child, the beloved!” That this saying would descend into each of our souls and become the key by which to live our lives! The baptism of Jesus reveals who we are: each one of us is immensely precious. We are something essential that God cannot bear to be without. None of us can feel despair in his heart without denying a part of himself. Even in the worst of circumstances, a part of our being continues to hope and search for the light. That part is the part God has placed within us and in which he is well-pleased. We must focus completely on that part of our existence and leave everything else behind us in the waters of baptism.

This Gospel tells us that the one who is stronger has arrived. Why is he stronger? Because he loves and is loved. Whoever loves understands life better and understands himself better. Whoever allows himself to be loved by God is in possession of the key to life, knows how to tear the heavens open, and how to survive always the waters of the flood.

2011-12-31T23:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday January 1st 2012

There will be no translation this Sunday. Normal service will resume next week! Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year to everyone!

2011-12-21T03:58:00.001-08:00

The Nativity of Our Lord, Christmas Day 2011

John 1:1-18

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Do we continue to think of God as a distant spirit, despite his incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas?

2. What exactly is the glory of God? How do we behold it?

3. Is the glory of God manifested to us in a triumphalist way, or in the mind-blowing humility that God shows towards us?

4. If the God who made the cosmos makes himself nothing in order to be with you and me, then what does that make us?

5. How can an appreciation of how much God was willing to empty himself for me help me to understand who I truly am?

6. If God was willing to become a human being, then how important is it for you and me to be human beings?

St John's Gospel begins with abstract-sounding concepts, but comes to a climax with the incarnation of God!

At the Mass for Christmas Day, we read the lyrical Prologue from St John's Gospel. These verses act as a key for the entire Gospel and proclaim the momentous event of the sending of the Word from the Father. We are told that everything was made through the Word, and everything receives its substance from Him. We are told that He is life, and that this life is the light of all people.

Here we have various concepts beautifully interwoven: life, the created world, light shining in darkness. Light gives life, and life is received through a light that is sent to us from God. These concepts might seem very abstract, and one might feel that there is a difficult code here that has to be broken. But then the poetic hymn comes to a climax at verse fourteen, which is the very verse that we celebrate at Christmas: "The Word was made flesh and he lives among us". After the abstract-sounding initial description of the Word, we suddenly hear that he became flesh! And he came to live among us!

But let us recall where the Prologue departed from. At the beginning of the passage, we had heard the Word described as the light that illuminates every person. This light was sent from God and is life-giving. In order to be life-giving, it must be accepted. And then we are told that this Word took on human flesh. Thus He is not some sort of legendary myth, but is a concrete person. He took on flesh, thus he is not simply a spirit, but is flesh and blood like we are. He came to live among us, thus he is not distant from us.

What exactly is the glory of God? How do we behold it?

The passage from St John's Gospel continues: "And we saw his glory". So we encounter a person - concrete flesh and blood - and we contemplate his glory. This term "glory" needs to be explained. It does not refer to some sort of ostentatious or triumphalist exhibition. In Hebrew the word for glory is kabod, and refers to the weight or value of something. The glory of God is his authentic value. To contemplate the glory of God is to recognize his true worth. Sometimes we see the genuine glory of a person - not in moments of success or triumph - but in difficult moments when he is challenged to respond to adversity. John says in his Prologue that we have seen the glory of the Lord. What is he referring to here? Later in the Gospel, we discover that this glory was manifested on the cross and in the resurrection. But the point that is important for us now at Christmas is that God has made himself visible and tangible. The first letter of St John speaks of that which our eyes have seen, our ears have heard and our hands have touched. In other words, we have sensible contact with God. Christmas announces that God is at arm's reach, that he is here among us, that it is not true that he is distant from us. The experience that has been transmitted to us by the Christians of the first century who had direct contact with the Lord is that God is not a concept to be understood, but is a baby that was born in humble circumstances, and who has grown up among us. Where does God manifest himself? In a life like ours! The fact that he has manifested himself in this way makes it possible for each of us to behold the glory of God. The fact that Jesus became flesh shows that it is not true that our existence is one that must be rescued from the flesh, but rather that our flesh itself has been redeemed. Our flesh has become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It is no longer the case that we must wait until we go to paradise to behold the glory of God. We have the experience of concretely experiencing God here on earth. He has made himself visible. Christianity is more than a series of values. There are values involved in being a Christian, but they are derivative of an encounter with a concrete person. The shepherds found this person in the most banal of circumstances - a child with its mother - and we too can find him in these most normal of circumstances.

The glory of God is revealed in his emptying of himself to make real contact with each of us

If I understand the flesh of Christ, then I understand my own. If I see the glory of God, then I begin to understand my own value and relevance. If I begin to appreciate how much God was willing to empty himself in order to be close to me, then I begin to understand who I truly am. Through the act of beholding him, I behold my own dignity. Here we are not speaking solely of an experience of the generosity of God. If the God who made the cosmos, who formed the galaxies, makes himself nothing in order to be with you and me, then what does that make us? This is what Christmas proclaims.

How many wrong ideas we have about God! If we wish to know him better, then look at him this Christmas. Look at how humble he is, how available he is, completely given, entirely gift. Let us rejoice in this gift; let us rejoice that the Lord became flesh. If the Lord became flesh, then how important it is to have a body! How relevant it is to have flesh and to be alive. As John Paul II said, if God was not displeased to become a human being, then how truly important it must be to be a human being!

2011-12-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 18^th 2011)

Luke 1:26-38

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Who are the angels that have led us in the way of the faith?

2. The angel describes Mary as the one who has been highly favoured. In what sense are our lives too filled with grace?

3. When we are confronted by distressing circumstances, do we continue to hold firm to our faith and try to see how these difficult circumstances fit into God's plan?

4. Is what way are my daily actions driven by fear?

5. Does faith consist in the ability to face tribulation on my own, or is it better described as the ability to lean on the One who is stronger?

6. What marvellous work does the Lord wish to accomplish in me?

Faith has its origin in heaven and is prompted in us by angels, both supernatural and natural

This wonderful text describes how our redemption is set in motion by Mary's acceptance of the word of God. In Luke's Gospel, Mary is presented as the model of faith, the one who possessed faith in its fullness. No other creature in history had faith as she had it. Reflection on this passage is like attending a "school of faith" where the most blessed among women teaches us how it is done.

The passage begins with the appearance of an angel. When we contemplate the faith of Mary and its fecundity, we must keep in mind that faith has its origin in heaven and is borne by angels or messengers. The angel Gabriel was sent by God. If we happen to be Christians, then it is because we have received the faith from other Christians, angels who have taught us in the ways of the faith. Maybe our angels were our own parents, who made a commitment at their wedding to raise their children in the faith, and who took the vows on our behalf when we were baptized. We are surrounded by angels, those that are natural and those that are supernatural.

The angel Gabriel appears to Mary as she stands at a crossroads in her life. She is a virgin, betrothed to a man of the House of David. She is not just any girl, anywhere in the world. The whole of the Old Testament stands in the background of this encounter with the angel. The angel says "Rejoice o highly favoured! The Lord is with you!"

Mary was full of grace, but our lives also are filled with grace and we too have reason for rejoicing

The joyful aspect of this greeting cannot be over-emphasized. The angel is saying, "What happy news! The Lord is on your side! Be cheerful, wonderful things are happening in your life!" The angel tells Mary to rejoice because she is full of grace, but it is also true for all of us that are lives are filled with grace! There are so many good things that we ought to rejoice about! Why do we allow ourselves to be sad or disheartened because of a few aspects of our lives that we decide are all-important? The amount of people who become dejected because they are dissatisfied with how they look! But the angel tells us, "Be joyful, leave sadness behind! Stop thinking that you are far from the grace of God! How generous God is with us! Let us open our eyes to how good and patient the Lord is with us! He doesn't treat us according to our sins. He continually leads us in the way of salvation! Rejoice, rejoice!"

Faith is not against reason but involves reasoning with the noblest part of our soul

Mary is disturbed with the greeting that the angel gives her. But if an angel appeared to any of us we would be bothered! The Greek term for "disturbed" that appears in the original text indicates that Mary was not just slightly uneasy about the angel's greeting but was extremely troubled on an interior level. But Mary does not allow this distress to overcome her. She asks herself what such a greeting could mean. In other words she continues to reason, aware that God must continually surprise us, shake us, and astonish us in order to complete his plan for us. This point is very important. Faith does not entail the abandonment of reason but the correct use of reason. It involves reasoning with the noblest part of our soul, and the uncovering of the most beautiful aspect of ourselves. When life confronts us with difficulties, then we are prompted to develop, grow, ask ourselves questions like what sense do these things have in our lives? Where is God trying to lead me?

The work of God cannot be accomplished in us if we give in to fear

The angel replies "Do not be afraid". This phrase is the hallmark of the angels and appears again and again in the Old Testament. It highlights the fact that the work of God cannot be accomplished in us if we give in to fear. Fear is a poor counsellor, a bad teacher, the worst companion of life, and in reality is often based on self-deception. There are healthy fears and unhealthy fears. It is normal and right to have a sense of danger in certain situations. In Greek culture, the word for fear is "phobos", but Phobos was actually a God who was responsible for making people run away, or take evasive action. And it is true that fear often guides our actions in a decisive way. Many of our actions are motivated by our attempts to flee from something. Our desires are often camouflaged fears. We think we have carried out an action in order to achieve a certain goal, but in reality we are seeking a refuge from one of our fears. It is not possible to arrive at the glory that the Lord has destined for each of us if we continue to be instructed, hampered and driven by fear.

Faith does not consist in being strong in oneself, but in the ability to lean on the One who is stronger

We must stop seeking refuges in which to hide from fear, and instead start seeking to fulfil the plan that God has destined for us. We must stop living like refugees and start living like pilgrims. How do we manage this? How can we conquer our fears? How can we overcome the threats - genuine or otherwise - that encircle us? The angel does not simply say, "Do not be afraid, Mary". He also adds, " . . .because you have found favour with God". We do not have to overcome fear on our own merits. The angel reminds us that there is someone on whom we can lean. According to Psalm 23, "If I walk through the valley of death I will not fear". The psalm doesn't say that the valley of death does not exist, but that the Lord will be with me in that valley.

Faith does not consist in being strong in oneself, but in the ability to lean on the One who is stronger. Faith is not a state of existence in which no risks or dangers present themselves; but involves knowing how to entrust one's existence to the Lord in moments of danger. Faith is knowing how to cross the valley of death with the Lord.

The works of God are always of a marvellous sort, and so it is with the works that God wishes to accomplish in each of us.

In this moment of conquering of fear, a marvellous work will be realized. From Mary the Messiah will be generated. In Mary the period of waiting that is represented by the Old Testament will come to its fulfilment. Mary asks how exactly all of this will come about, and the angel replies that it will be accomplished by the Holy Spirit. "Your question is very pertinent Mary", the angel is telling her. "The way in which this work will be completed will not be by human means, but in a marvellous and extraordinary way". The angel then refers to Elizabeth conceiving a child when she was sterile. The works of God are of this sort, the angel is saying. A man is born of a virgin. A man comes out of the tomb. God creates the world from nothing. These are the "impossible" works that God wishes to accomplish in all of us. If we do not in our daily lives open ourselves to the extraordinary works of God, then we reduce Christianity to a series of moral precepts and questionable philosophies. The arena in which God operates is the arena of the extraordinary. Sometimes we try to interpret and explain the works of God so that they sound plausible. But I do not follow the Lord in order to achieve something that was already plausible. We do not give our lives for something that we could have done by ourselves on our own merits. No. God calls us to extraordinary things. And Christmas is not just the celebration of a family festivity that makes us feel better. Christmas is about believing that God can truly enter into our existence. To this eruption of the divine in our lives, we can rightly say "Come Lord! Let the extraordinary enter into our existence!"

Mary's reply to the angel is not just a simple granting of permission for the Lord to be conceived. Mary's expression reveals a powerful desire on her part. "Let it be done onto me according to your word!" This Sunday we too can say, "Come Lord, enter into my life! Scatter the petty designs that have me rooted to the ground in fear! Help me open myself to your plan. I want your extraordinary grace to erupt in my life!"

2011-12-07T07:04:00.000-08:00

Third Sunday of Advent (December 11^th 2011)

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Gaudete Sunday challenges us to reflect on the meaning of real joy. What is the difference between joy and pleasure?

2. In what sense do we prefer to live in the shadows? In what way does the light of Christ show up the ambiguities and compromises in our lives?

3. Is it easy and natural for us to embrace the true light, or does it involve a challenging renunciation of old ways?

4. Can we learn from the example of John the Baptist and stop placing ourselves at the centre of our world? In what way can this help the light to enter our lives?

Gaudete Sunday challenges us to reflect on the meaning of real joy.

Gaudete Sunday is traditionally the Sunday of rejoicing in the coming of the Lord. What exactly is real joy? Real joy is something different to a feeling of dizziness or light-headedness! We tend to confuse true joy with the times in which we reward ourselves with momentary pleasures. Joy brings a certain pleasure of its own, but pleasure for the sake of itself fails to bring joy of any sort and can lead to emptiness. In life we are always confronted with the issue of choosing the greater joy. Man is always seeking joy, happiness, fullness. But just what is the fullness of joy?

This passage from Chapter One of John's Gospel refers to the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist. We are told that John himself was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light, so that all might believe through him. The first thing we note in this text is that the light is something that comes into the world. I do not possess it of myself, but must await for its arrival. It must be bestowed on me as a gift. The first act of God's creation was "Let there be light!" God's creation begins with the appearance of light, and this Gospel also links redemption to the shining of light in the world.

True joy is impossible if we live in the shadows with a distorted perspective on reality. True joy requires immersion in the fullness of light

To enter into the joy that this Sunday's liturgy represents, we need someone who will bear witness to the light. We need to come to believe in the light, but the problem is that we have a reluctance to accept the light. We feel more secure in the shadows, where we can hide our compromises and ambiguities. False joy involves avoiding the light and having a distorted perspective on reality. Full joy, on the other hand, is possible wherever there is fullness of light. All of us have received witness to this light; we have heard the good news about it, and, through our faith, we have being issued with a call to enter into the battle of either accepting or refusing the true light.

What does it mean to believe in the light?

What does accepting the true light mean? It means to believe in the good, to believe in salvation, to believe in the love of God, in the fullness of our existence. It means to believe in the redemption of our past; to believe that everything in our lives can become light, can become useful, can become salvation and mission, peace, pardon, and encounter with God. We tend to resist this light and we need someone like John the Baptist to cry out "Look at the light! Look at the goodness of God manifested in your existence! That which happened in your past and that weighs you down can be resolved and healed completely! It is never true that a person's situation is hopeless! It is never true that things are as banal and empty as they might appear to us. Believe in the light! Open your eyes and fix your gaze on the invisible. That light is not the light of this world but another greater light."

Accepting the light means turning away from the darkness

No one can enter into joy without renouncing his own vision of things. No one enters the full joy of God unless he denies the "light" of the old man. We must turn away from the partial perspective, the narrow interpretation, the infantile viewpoint, the idolatrous approach to life that we have closeted ourselves in. The joy that is coming into the world at Christmas is a joy that conquers darkness. When someone is in the shadows and is exposed to bright light, his eyes hurt. Full light is a terrifying thing because it unmasks the ambiguities and unsavoury things that lie in the darkness. The true joy that can never be lost is not compatible with a life filled with ambiguities and compromises. When figures like John the Baptist bear witness to the light, they urge us to be ready to embrace the struggle that this involves. They say, "Do not despair; do not lose faith; do not be intimidated by shadows and darkness, by damaging words, by the negative voices that assail the heart of man".

Humility is a virtue that allows the light to enter our lives and take centre stage

One of the distinctive characteristics of John the Baptist is his humility. The first thing he wishes to make clear is that he is not the Christ. He does this despite the fact that people were coming to him in droves from Jerusalem. It would have been easy for him to have taken central stage and enjoyed some of the attention and glory. What a marvellous character! A man who knew how to bear witness to someone greater; who knew how to place himself on the periphery so that the truth might prosper. That is how light enters our lives too, when we take example from John the Baptist and stop placing ourselves at the centre of things; when we stop treating ourselves as absolutes. Humility - the honest recognition of one's limits and peripheral role - often brings peace to our lives. When we take ourselves too seriously, we take the weight of the world on our shoulders, like the mythical Atlas. But I am not the Christ, I am not the centre of things. Rather I am the one that is in need of salvation. I am one who needs to speak of another, and never of myself. All of the saints knew how to speak of the Lord, and never confused themselves with the true light. Humility is a great virtue. It is such a joy to be in the company of a humble person, and so trying to be with someone who is full of their own importance!

2011-11-30T08:20:00.001-08:00

Second Sunday of Advent (December 4^th 2011)

Mark 1:1-8

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Whose ways need to be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

2. In what sense do we make it difficult for the Lord to enter our lives? In what sense do we "make crooked" the entrance of God into our daily existence?

3. What are the daily compromises in my life that impede the Lord from coming?

4. Is the Advent transformation from ambiguity to authenticity a painful process, or can it also be a life-giving and uplifting experience?

The Gospel is built upon the foundation of a period of conversion

Advent refers to the time of arrival of the Lord himself. The first line of the oldest of the Gospels – that of St. Mark – speaks of the "beginning" of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The word for "beginning" in Greek signifies "foundation". According to St Mark, the foundation of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus consists in the sending ahead of a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord - a voice crying in the wilderness that will make His paths straight. Jesus, apparently, cannot come until John the Baptist has prepared the way; God cannot enter our lives unless our existence goes through a transformation of a certain sort, and this transformation is initiated by a messenger - one who has the role of preparing the way. The English text uses the term "messenger" to translate the original Greek word "angel". An angel is one who has been sent; one who must announce or proclaim a message.

Whose ways must be straightened? The Lord's, or ours?

God enters our lives through this character, John the Baptist, who has been given the role of preparing the way, of straightening the path. Whose ways does the text intend to refer to? Sometimes when we hear this Gospel we think that it is our ways that need to be straightened. We surmise that we are being asked to straighten out a few personal problems and bad habits. But this is not the full story. The fundamental point is that we must prepare the way for Him. In the ancient text from the prophet Isaiah, the verb "prepare" ("prepare in the wilderness a way for the Lord") means to "turn one's face" to the ways of the Lord; to stop being fixated with our own ways and to be attentive to the ways of the Lord. To begin to turn away from our own projects and plans and to turn towards His plans. To "prepare the way of the Lord", thus, does not so much mean to sort out a few bad habits before the Lord comes, but to make ourselves available for what He wishes to do with us, what He wishes to accomplish in our lives. So we have to make the Lord's way's straight. But why? Are the Lord's ways crooked? They are only crooked in the sense that we have twisted them! We have "domesticated" the Lord's ways and subordinated them to our own designs. The human being tends to view the world from the point of view of his own interests, and he tries to manipulate reality towards his own ends, his own rewards, his own needs. In this way, he transforms reality into a thing into which the Lord cannot enter. Man organises his existence in such a way that he has as much control over it as possible. In this way he makes crooked the way of the Lord and impedes God from entering. On the face of things, God might appear to have a place in this world of our own making. Perhaps we have relegated Him to forty-five inattentive minutes on a Sunday. Often, we domesticate God into an artificial corner of our lives and prevent Him from having a significant influence on our existence.

John the Baptist asks us to confront the comprises that impede the Lord from coming

We are experts in making the ways of the Lord crooked. The fact is that we fear the eruption of God into our lives, and we expend much effort in making His entrance as tortuous as possible. Then along comes John the Baptist who says: "Stop twisting the ways of the Lord. Stop turning prayer into a supplication for what you want, instead of what the Lord wants from you. Stop pretending that obedience to the Lord consists in a few external, publicly-seen, acts. Stop pretending that your attachment to worldly goods is compatible with the message of the Gospel."

Our lives are composed of a series of compromises that impede the Lord from entering in a meaningful way. We distort the workings of our conscience and fail to form it in an honest and healthy way. We fail to place before our consciences the ways of the Lord. The Lord cannot come into our lives because we have barricaded the entrance, and sometimes the barricades themselves are elements of our lives that we have purportedly constructed in His name! To allow the Lord to enter we must descend into the profundity of our being and confront the ambiguities that make His entrance all but impossible. It is through these small and hidden "corrections" of the twisted path that the Lord will find a way in, not in ostentatious acts or attitudes.

Conversion necessarily involves painful detachment from old ways

John the Baptist invites us to open wide the doors and to undertake a baptism of conversion. Conversion is a fundamental notion that the church places before us at significant times of the year, such as Advent and Lent. Conversion is the transformation and transfiguration of man, and we are being constantly called to mature, develop, and bring to fruition the best of ourselves. This involves abandoning the ambiguities of our lives. The word "baptism" is a Greek term meaning to "immerse oneself", and it involves the complete annihilation of that which went before. We must leave behind in the water our old stagnant ideas and false Gods. Change of this sort involves pain, the pain of detachment from old ways. It is not possible to arrive at something new without leaving behind the old. For that reason John the Baptist is a necessary step for the coming of the Lord.

The transformation from ambiguity to authenticity is beautiful and life-giving

Why did the inhabitants of Jerusalem flock to John, to hear a message so austere and severe? The human being is always searching for the clear message of John, for something greater than the mediocrity of our existence, for a message that invites transformation from the crookedness of our lives, to live a live full of beauty and meaning. When Francis of Assisi embarked upon his life of penitence and simplicity he was persecuted by the middle-class families of Assisi because their children began to follow him. These young people could see the attractiveness and beauty of the life that Francis had to offer. The mission of John the Baptist involves a similar call to live authentically, to live simply, instead of twisting the message of the Lord to our own ends. John ate locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel hair. This was a man who had returned to the life of the desert that was so much a part of Israel's history. The time in the desert for Israel was a time of transition and transformation, the transformation that all of us are desperately in need of. We are misshapen and deformed in our lives of compromise and comfort. All of us need the time of transition that is the meaning of Advent.

Someone is arriving that is "greater" than John, someone who alone has the right to be our spouse. The expression "to undo the sandal strap" refers to a Jewish custom in the situation where a man was betrothed to a woman but for some reason was unable to marry her. Before she could be given in marriage to someone else, the new spouse had to undo the sandal strap of the original candidate. John's statement emphasizes the fact that he is unworthy to take the place of the true spouse. That true spouse is coming, someone who is more powerful than the cleansing water of the Jordan, one who brings the new life of the Holy Spirit.

Let us wake up this Advent! Let us try to take our lives in hand and get rid of the ambiguities that litter our existence. How beautiful it is to get rid of the dross and return to clear and simple lives of authenticity! Let us ask the Lord for an Advent brimful of straight ways, and for genuine conversion.

2011-11-23T04:25:00.000-08:00

First Sunday of Advent (November 27^th 2011)

Mark 13:33-37

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

2. Is keeping vigil over the property of the master a frightening experience, or does it involve being entrusted with life-giving power?

3. Do I keep watch over the right and wrong aspects of my life, or do I live haphazardly, exercising no discernment over the direction of my life?

4. Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"? The things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

Is keeping vigil a dread-filled experience, or does it involve the thrill of waiting for something wonderful to happen?

We start the adventure of the new liturgical year with this passage from the Gospel that asks us to wake up. "Be on your guard. Stay awake!" we are told. To stay awake or to keep vigil sounds like hard work! Parents of newly-borns are sleep deprived and - as they can testify - it is not a very pleasant experience! On the face of it, this Gospel seems like an invitation to tension and anguish. Are we to feel threatened by the fact that we don't know at which exact moment the Lord will come? Do we have the sense that this Gospel is weighing us down with negative feelings towards the future?

The funny thing is that, when it comes to entertainment, we love tension and suspense! We watch thrillers avidly, we love suspense-stories, we revel when there are spine-tingling twists and turns in the plot! Waiting to see what will happen with bated breath is extremely entertaining in these situations. Why so? Because we feel that something important is going to happen and we can't wait to find out what it is.

Similarly, to understand this Gospel we must learn the art of waiting for something momentous to happen. A biblical figure that has much to teach us in this art of waiting is Simeon in the Gospel of St Luke. He waits all of his life to hold the child that is the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord. Simeon was a master in the art of knowing how to wait for something good.

To keep vigil over the property of the master is to be entrusted with power

In the passage of the Gospel that we reflect on this Sunday, the master leaves his house to go on a journey, gives each servant a particular task, and asks the doorman to stay awake. What does it mean to stay awake and wait for the return of the master? In this case, to stay awake is equivalent to being entrusted with power. The master has left his very own property in the care of the servants. Staying awake in this case does not involve taking huge doses of caffeine and waiting with anguish for something terrible to happen! Instead, staying awake means being attentive to the precious things that we have been entrusted with. It means being bestowed with the power of God and with the responsibility to exercise it fruitfully. To stay awake means to perform the wonderful task that we have been given.

To be entrusted with the role of watchman is to be given the amazing authority to make choices between right and wrong in our lives

The job of the doorman is usually to stay at the entrance and decide who can enter and who cannot. Thus, to be a doorman is to exercise the power of selection. It is to make a decision about what is good and right, and what is not. What an amazing duty! What an interesting life! Being awake in this sense is not a tension-filled state of mind, but to be alive, to be people entrusted with power to make positive decisions in life. Staying awake, being attentive to what is good and right, is the very thing that gives dignity to our lives. Our master has given his own power to us; he has given us wonderful tasks to do; and he has given us the authority to say yes or no to what we allow to enter our lives.

What kind of life would it be if we were not to exercise this power? The opposite of staying awake is to fall asleep; to be, in a sense, switched off, and not to do anything of significance. The origin of the word "depraved" means to live a life that "does not put things to the proof"; in other words to live without distinguishing the good from the bad; to live haphazardly without giving significance or profundity to the things we do.

In the Bible, keeping vigil is always linked to the wait for the liberating coming of the Lord

We do not know when the master will return, in the evening, at dawn, or at midday. These are the traditional times of the changing of the guard. What do they refer to in the Gospel? In the biblical world, keeping vigil is always liked to the Passover. "This night shall henceforth and for all time be a night of vigil for my people". The Lord comes in order to liberate! This is why it is important to be "awake" and to be attentive to the things of the Lord, instead of being busy doing things that are meaningless.

Who is my real master? Who do I "keep vigil for"- the things that this life has to offer, or Christ?

It is very important to keep in mind that the master of all things is someone else, and not myself. This is not demeaning for us, but it is the simple dose of reality that all of us need. We are not masters of our lives, and we must await the arrival of the real master. We are not the ultimate meaning of things; that ultimate meaning can only come from God. And we must prepare ourselves for encounter with this ultimate truth of our lives. This is not something negative, but something beautiful and liberating to reflect upon.

If I seek the final meaning of things within myself, then I fall hopelessly short. I am insufficient in myself to provide an ultimate answer for my own existence. To find that answer, Christ must be my master and Christ must be the one that I keep vigil for. What use is it to stay vigilant for the paltry recompense that this life has to offer! Am I overly-vigilant for the attention or good-opinion of others? What I should be vigilant for, instead, is my relationship with Jesus. That is what gives sense to my life. My whole existence is a journey towards him. I must measure every aspect of my existence against him because he is my true master.

You know, a Christian should not be shy to say this openly every now and then! I answer only to Jesus, not to a world that threatens me and tries to make me conform to an impoverished image of humanity; a world that is incredibly vain and wallows in the banal. My master is not the world but Jesus. It is He, and He alone, that gives sense to my life.

2011-11-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 20^th 2011)

Feast of Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. How does the vision I have of the future influence my concrete acts in the present moment?

2. Is the message of this Gospel threatening or is it something fundamentally positive?

3. What are the opportunities that I have on a daily basis to enter God's Kingdom?

4. Why are the good people in the parable completely unaware of the good actions they have done for the Lord?

5. Are acts of charity great acts of benevolence and charity on our part, or are they privileged moments of encounter with the Kingdom of God?

This Gospel challenges us to reflect on the ultimate purpose of our lives and to relate it to the ordinary things we do every day

The Feast of Christ the King marks the end of the liturgical year, so it is appropriate that the Gospel this Sunday should be concerned with the end of all things. At the end of any year, we are always inclined to reflect on the way things are changing and passing away. It is also an opportunity to reflect on more profound things like the ultimate purpose of our lives. It is sometimes said that the human being can be understood in terms of where he is going. If the vision I have of the future is based on something false or frivolous, then my whole life now in the present will be disordered. The vision I have of my future is related to the vision I have of myself. Everything a human being does is done with some sort of intention, and if I do not have an enlightened vision of my future, then my behaviour in the present moment will be misguided as a result. What kind of vision of the future does this Gospel place before us? How does it relate that future to concrete acts in the present?

A Gospel that clearly describes the tragic consequences of selfish actions

We are presented with the image of a Shepherd King who is busy putting everything in its proper order. The problem with this Gospel is that it gives a menacing, threatening description of the consequences that await us in the future if we fail to behave in a certain way. And there can be little doubt that the Gospel does intend to give a severe warning of the negative consequences of our acts. On a human level, we need to be aware of these consequences or otherwise we might never be motivated to alter our behaviour. It is a fact of life that we do engage in evil acts, and we need to be attentive to the repercussions that follow such acts.

A Gospel that embodies a warning but which has a fundamentally positive message

This Gospel can justifiably be understood to embody a tragic warning of the consequences that await our behaviour. But this is not the only purpose of this passage. The parable also holds up to us the fact that the most ordinary of acts can have a wonderful significance. It shows us how the Kingdom of God can be breached without us even being aware of it. It highlights how all of us are willed by God to enter paradise, despite our constant obstinacy with regard to doing good. Our heavenly Father has no other purpose for us except that of our fulfilment and happiness. In the end, damnation is a consequence of the frustration of God's plan for us. If there was no possibility of us failing to carry out God's will, then our freedom of choice would have no meaning or substance.

The Lord has surrounded us with opportunities to enter His Kingdom!

How should this text be understood in the context of its positioning at the end of the liturgical year? What it tells us is that God surrounds us with opportunities to go to Paradise! The Lord has not left us without ample occasions and means to enter his Kingdom. These opportunities can be found in the sick, the homeless, the poor and the imprisoned. We should not think that those in need are a nuisance that we would be better of without. They are our gates to Paradise! This is a fundamentally positive message that should motivate us towards acts of charity. Situations of need are not irritating or troublesome states of affairs, but are moments of grace. In a sick person there is grace for us. In a prisoner, there is grace for us. In a down-and-out who needs to be dressed, there is an opportunity to enter a wonderful kingdom. These people are doors that God opens to us. They should not be thought of simply as situations that make demands on us. Instead, they should be seen as occasions when the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.

Why are the good people in the parable unaware of the good they have done?

In the parable, both the good and the bad are ignorant of the repercussions of their actions in the sense that neither is aware of the true significance of what they have done. The good ones ask the King, "But when did we do these things?" It is a fact that when we do something good, often we do not feel that we are doing something great or significant. Instead we do the act in the realisation that there is a value here that must be respected. This is an important point. What brings us to Paradise is the simple intuition of the precious value of the other person. This is the gate of the Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, the One who gives us the gift of Paradise is the One who considered us so precious that He gave His life for us. It must be the same for us.

We are called not only to serve the needy but to identify ourselves with them

When we read this text, we do so as Christians, a people that God has set apart, the Holy People of God. When we encounter this figure of the Shepherd King at the end of time, it will not be the first time that we meet him. It will be no surprise to us to hear that the gate to the Kingdom of Heaven is through acts of love to needy people that surround us. The Church has always made it abundantly clear that in the sick or needy there is the figure of the Lord Jesus himself. Saint Camillus always served the sick either standing or on his knees because he was aware that Jesus was present in that person. We have the privilege of being in possession of this wonderful truth – that Christ is present in those who are in need – so let us not waste it. We must also remember that we are not simply called to serve the needy; we are asked to identify ourselves with them. We must hunger and thirst with Christ for justice. We must be, with Christ, the persecuted and the imprisoned, in the sense that we suffer with them and ache for liberation. When all is said and done, why are the needy identifiable with Christ? Because He was the one who was thirsty, imprisoned, and without clothes. Every man and woman who wishes to follows Christ on the way of the cross must be ready one day to be the one who is rejected. Through our acts of love, service, and doing good, we must be ready to find ourselves marginalised and rejected as Christ was.

The ultimate purpose of life is brought into the present by concrete acts of mercy

To look after the people around us who are suffering is the minimum that we are asked to do. That is why the good people in the parable didn't even realise that, in carrying out this minimum, they were serving Christ. They had simply done what they had discerned to be the right thing. In so doing, they had unknowingly made contact with the ultimate purpose of life. Every act of charity is a gate to Paradise. Whenever we have the chance to practice charity, let us not think that we are doing great acts of benevolence. Let us be mindful of the fact, rather, that the opportunity to carry out such acts is a great privilege. Through them we encounter the wonderful reality of the Kingdom of God.

2011-11-09T03:59:00.000-08:00

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 13^th 2011)

Matthew 25:14-30

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

2. Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been bestowed on us?

3. What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

4. Is this a parable of the moralistic sort, that makes us feel wary of the demands placed on us by the Lord, or does it wish to emphasize the Lord's bounty?

The Parable of the Talents: Is it an exhortation to use our abilities better, or is it something different?

We are inclined to interpret the parable of the talents as being an exhortation to use one's own talents to the full. As we read the parable, we tend to feel a sense of obligation to use our own abilities better, and we feel guilty that we have used them so badly up to now. But if we read the parable carefully, we see that Jesus actually intends to speak about a different matter entirely. We are presented with three servants, one of whom has a wrong relationship with his master. Jesus wants to challenge us to reflect on the behaviour of this third servant and use it to reflect on our own relationship with God.

Do the talents refer to our own personal capacities, or to the spiritual goods that have been gifted to us?

The talents spoken of by this parable are often understood to symbolize human qualities, like intelligence or artistic ability. But there can be no doubt that Jesus actually intends them to refer to something else. A man leaves on a journey and entrusts his own property to the three servants. Therefore the story is not referring to the something that belongs to the servants, but to something that belongs to the master. This distinction is important if we wish to understand the relevance of this parable to the Christian life. What are the goods that we as Christians have received? The sacraments, the Word of God, the gift of the church community with which we share the faith, the gift of the Magisterium of the Church and leaders of the faith like the Holy Father, the possibility of receiving forgiveness for our sins, and - the greatest gift of all - the Holy Spirit that has been poured into our hearts. Once we reflect on the goods that have been entrusted to us, the parable begins to lose its moralistic air and instead becomes a meditation on the wonderful bounty of the Lord, and the joy that comes from receiving it well.

What is the problem with the relationship of the third servant to his master?

The problem with the third servant can be intuited from the things he says to his master. "Lord, I know you are a hard man, reaping where you do not sow and gathering where you have not scattered. I was afraid, and I hid your talent under the ground. You gave it to me and now I restore it to you. I did not take possession of that which you gave me. In fact, I don't think well of you at all. As far as I'm concerned, you are trying to entrap me and use me for your purposes. You want to make me do things that I don't want to do, so I keep your gifts at a distance from me, buried underground".

The reason why many people do not progress in the faith is because they place themselves before God with the same identical attitude as this third servant. They feel that God is someone to be feared, someone to be kept at a distance. Their image of God is of someone demanding, someone who places excessive burdens on us. All of us share something of this third servant's attitude towards God. We feel that God is someone who basically wants something from us. But if we reflect on the behaviour of the master towards the first two servants, we see that this is not the correct way to view God at all. He gives them everything! Those servants used his property well and now he gives it to them to keep forever! He invites them to partake, not only of his possessions, but of his own joy and happiness.

A talent is not a demand placed on us, but an entrustment with something positive and beautiful

The talent that the Lord gives us, therefore, must not be viewed as a demand or burden placed by God on us, but as an entrustment with something positive and beautiful. We must open our eyes and appreciate this fact clearly! We must stop fearing that God might be asking something of us, and instead consider the paternal trust that the Lord is showing towards us. He is giving us the things that belong to him. He is placing life-giving trust in us. We did not ask for the gift of life but it was given to us, and it is God's great act of entrustment towards us. We can use it well or not.

If life can be understood as a talent, then the faith is also a talent. There is no snare hidden within it with which the Lord wishes to entrap us. The suspicion that we have towards the Lord that he wishes to exploit us, that he wishes to use us as instruments for his own purposes, is completely mistaken. The Lord is not trying to ensnare us with his demands, but is entrusting us with his joyful bounty.

What does it mean to be the parent of a child? It means to be entrusted by God with something positive and beautiful. Often people are fearful of becoming parents because they see it as a burden that will take away from their lives. But in reality it is something that will give even more life to them. To be a minister of the Church is to be entrusted by God with a special gift. Often ministers need to reflect on the fact that what they have been given is God's trust, not a wearisome task, and they need to live out that trust in the joyful awareness that God is with them.

The parable of the talents should not make us wary of the "excessive" demands of the Lord, but instead make us reflect on his enormous bounty

In short, we should not think that the Lord is making demands on us and that if we don't fulfil these demands we will get a slap on the wrist. Instead we need to see that the Lord is giving us his gifts and that the correct use of these gifts will lead to incredible joy. It is wonderful to live our faith; it is a wonderful thing to preach the Gospel; it is wonderful to bring the new generation up in the faith; it is great to forgive each other; it is marvellous to live according to the ways of the Lord. Let us leave behind this accursed attitude of suspicion towards the Lord! The words of this parable are indeed terrible towards the third servant, but these words must be interpreted in the light of what the servant lost as a result of his failure to accept and possess the gifts of the Lord. A talent in biblical times represented thirty-three kilos of gold. Therefore it represented riches on an immense scale, and points to an enormous generosity and trust on the part of the master that we would do well to make the most of.

2011-11-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (November 6^th 2011)

Matthew 25:1-13

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. If we are all invited to the wedding banquet of salvation, then why are the five foolish bridesmaids refused admittance?

2. What do the flasks of oil in the parable symbolize?

3. How can we keep our flasks of oil full?

4. Why is it impossible to share my flask of oil with someone else?

Redemption is likened to a nuptial banquet

This passage in Chapter Twenty-Five of the Gospel of Matthew comes on the heels of the so-called "eschatological" discourse of the previous chapter, which discusses the end times and the destruction of Jerusalem. The parable that appears in this Sunday's Gospel is one of three that present us with apparent judgement-day situations. A wedding feast is about to begin and the bridesmaids must get ready to meet the bridegroom. The symbol of the wedding feast occurs often in Scripture and can represent salvation or the Eucharist. The book of the Apocalypse speaks of the wedding feast of the Lamb. Redemption in this parable is likened to a nuptial banquet. We are called to be part of the banquet and one does not enter the feast by default. One must accept the invitation by availing of an opportunity that presents itself to us. First one has to wait until the opportune time arrives, and then, when that moment arrives, one must be equipped in the appropriate way in order to gain admittance.

The period of waiting before the banquet begins

First, there is the period of waiting. Periods of waiting often involve a vigil of some sort during which one must remain awake. In the parable, however, all ten of the bridesmaids fall asleep! This fragility of our nature is something that all of us must confront regularly during our lives. Weakness is something that can be overcome when the opportunity arises, but in order to overcome it we must have the reserve of oil that the parable speaks of.

The flasks of oil possessed by the wise bridesmaids

The image of the oil in small flasks represents the occasions of life in which one builds up a certain fuel. On these occasions we store up our own light, our own luminosity. Just what are these flasks of oil in the life of the Christian? All of us have multiple and continual opportunities in which we can replenish our store of oil. In the Old Testament oil is a symbol of consecration and holiness, but it is also referred to in relation to the seven lamps that were kept burning in front of the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, the place that represented the presence of God in the world. These had to be kept perpetually alight. Oil, therefore, is connected to a world of sanctity and the presence of God. Where can these flasks of life be found in the life of the Christian? Where can we obtain the resources of fuel to set ourselves alight and overcome our own weakness in the moment when we must meet the Bridegroom? These resources are to be found in the everyday occasions that form the life of the Christian. Our lives are made of simple acts of conformity to the will of God. Daily prayer in the morning and the evening, fidelity to the Sunday Eucharist, acts of charity towards others, sobriety, fasting - small things in which we manifest our fidelity to God. One should never think that the Christian life is composed of great or extraordinary events. Married life, for example, is made up of a series of small acts that maintains the relationship and forms the basis of the stability of the family. The real substance of marriage is not to be found in great declarations of love, or great feelings of enthusiasm, but in daily fidelity to small things. The religious life, similarly, is made up of the same attention to mundane matters. We may or may not have the opportunity to do world-shattering things during the course of our lives, but we will certainly have the opportunity to be faithful in small daily matters, and these must be our priority. We must always take care to keep these small flasks of oil full to overflowing.

Who are the five bridesmaids that have no oil?

The five bridesmaids that have no oil are people who possess everything but do not have this reserve that is based on fidelity in ordinary things. They are people who probably thought that, when the moment came, they would be able to measure up to the situation. They weren't concerned with conformity to the will of God in mundane matters, but felt that when the great occasions arrived they would be able to rouse themselves and do whatever was needful. This is a common but misguided conception. If we neglect to be faithful to God in small matters, then each neglected opportunity places a burden upon our ability to be obedient to God in future situations. Many Christians live disorderly lives of just this sort in which they do not bother to conform themselves to the will of God in small daily matters. When the Bridegroom comes, such people are distracted, doing something else, and they fail to encounter him.

Why do the wise bridesmaids refuse to share their oil?

It is natural to feel a bit aggrieved at the behaviour of the five wise bridesmaids in the parable. When the Bridegroom eventually arrives, they refuse to share their oil with the five who had none. How could they be so selfish, we think indignantly! This refusal, however, reflects a necessary fact of life. I cannot give my oil to anyone else because I cannot live someone else's life for them. I can pray for a person, and I can wish them well, but I cannot say their "Yes" to God for them.

The five wise bridesmaids tell the others that they cannot share their oil because, if they did so, there would not be enough to go around for everyone. What does this saying symbolize? Sometimes people who are close to us are living disorderly lives. At moments, we might be inclined to think that the best way of showing solidarity with them is to neglect our own spiritual lives temporarily and immerse ourselves in their lives and practices. But our main concern in life should always be, in the first place, to conform our own personal lives to the will of God. This is not to promote an individualistic approach to spirituality. There is a correct order of things in spiritual matters. I must have my own house in order before I can assist anyone else. The oil represents my own personal intimate relationship with God and it cannot be compromised or played around with. In that sense, it cannot be "given" to others. We cannot put our own opportunities for fidelity to God in second place out of a misguided wish to exercise solidarity with others. To have a reserve of the sacred oil that represents our own obedience to God in mundane matters must always be our prime concern.

2011-10-26T14:30:00.000-07:00

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 30^th 2011)

Matthew 23:1-12

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this reflection on the Gospel

1. Who benefits from our pious talk: the Lord, or ourselves?

2. What brings true happiness: the praise of others, or acts of love and service?

3. What is of greater value: a single act of love, or an entire convention on theology?

4. Are we are asked to choose the tree of knowing/talking, or the tree of living/doing?

5. Was redemption won for us by words, or by a concrete act on the part of Christ?

The Pharisee as an example of one who knows how to talk but does not act

This Gospel sets before us the paradoxical image of the Pharisee, a person who knows how to talk piously but who does not know how to act. Reflection on this figure challenges us to make a distinction that is of fundamental importance in life: we often understand the right thing to do; we can express it well in words; but the fundamental thing is to do it. "They talk but they do not act" - this is the terrible condemnation from the Gospel that can be justly applied to many of us.

Who benefits from our pious talk, the Lord or ourselves?

At the end of the passage we are confronted with the issue of who the real master is when it comes to spiritual matters. Real teachers always have something to learn; are always capable of being surprised; and are always in danger of being shaken from their own certainties and awoken to things that are more authentic. If, instead, a person lives for the admiration of others; covets the most privileged places at public functions; loves being greeted in public with honourable titles; then his real master is not God but his own status. He has lost his grip on what is essential in life. He may be able to speak about love, but is not able to love; he can wax eloquently about the importance of service, but he may have never served anyone in his life.

Acts of love and service bring true happiness, whilst the praise of others is of little use

It is commonplace to seek honour and admiration from others. But does it bring one jot of real happiness? The Pharisee knows how to speak well and gain the admiration of others, but the fact that he does not know how to act means that his life is an empty and unfulfilled one. What does it count in life if a person is given tributes and honour that are empty? What use is the attention of others and praise for achievements that are not authentic? It is no use at all! One might think that a life dedicated to service is a life of drudgery, but in reality it is a far more beautiful and fulfilling life. If we think of it, we will realise that every time we have sought to obey God we have been happy. Every time we have tried in the slightest way to follow the Gospel we have experienced healing, grace, and peace that cannot be obtained by mere words.

A single act of love is of more value than an entire convention on theology!

The inspiration of this Gospel should lead us to make a definite change of direction in life. It should encourage us to stop talking and start acting. A single act of love towards God or neighbour is of more value than an entire theological conference. Of this there can be no shadow of doubt. To seek to obey God and to be faithful to his word is of much greater value than anything we might do of a theoretical sort. Real life is made up of concrete things. Love itself is not an idea but an act. Service is not an abstract thing but a concrete attitude, an exercise of the noblest characteristics of our being. To seek admiration for our pious words, whilst failing to act, is to waste time on one of the most useless exercises of our existence.

Redemption was won for us by an act on the part of Christ, not by words

The desire to understand whilst refusing to act is an ancient contradiction that goes back to the beginning of man. In the Garden of Eden there were two trees, the tree of understanding, and the tree of living. Man was destined for the tree of living/doing, but instead he chose the tree of understanding/calculating/pondering, and in this way he lost the tree of living. In order to bring healing to a person, it is of little use explaining things that may be genuinely beautiful in themselves. In the end, it is concrete action on the part of another that brings healing to a person's being. That which heals all of us is not a discourse, but an act. Christ, after many acts of teaching, finally submits himself in obedience to the Father. Our redemption was accomplished by a concrete act, not mere words that may have been wonderful in themselves.

Acts of obedience to the Lord bring meaning and stability to our lives

We do not need to look too far to discern what act of obedience we are asked to accomplish in any given moment. The Lord constantly reveals to all of us our next opportunity for doing, obeying, loving, serving; for going beyond the little cubicle we live in. Do such acts make our lives difficult or dull? No, on the contrary, they bring fulfilment and happiness. Such acts of obedience represent the firm ground upon which we can stand securely amid the swamps of our existence.

2011-10-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (October 23^rd 2011)

Matthew 22:24-40

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Jesus repeats a commandment that would have been very well-known to his listeners

The Gospel passage this Sunday is very short, very simple and very direct. A doctor of the Law asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment. Jesus gives a reply that would have been very familiar to his Jewish listeners. Hillel, the celebrated rabbi, said that the whole Law rested on a single pillar: the prescription to love the Lord with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your strength. It would have been well appreciated at the time of Jesus that this commandment (which appears in Chapter 6 of the Book of Deuteronomy) was the heart of the Law. Practicing Jews, in fact, would have repeated these verses at least three times a day.

The commandment from Deuteronomy asks that a person love God in a way that is authentic; with all of the heart, all of the mind and all of one's strength. This might sound a little over the top, but how could it be any other way? A bride-to-be would not be very happy if her future husband said to her: "I love you with part of my heart, part of my mind, and some of my strength". If love is to be authentic then it has to be total and unqualified.

Jesus makes love of God inseparable from love of neighbour

The scholar of the Law that approached Jesus in this passage was looking for a reiteration of a commandment that he would already have been very familiar with. He was probably not looking for anything else, but Jesus is not content to stop at a simple repetition of the commandment from the Book of Deuteronomy. He goes on to say that the second commandment is similar. By "similar" Jesus does not mean that this second commandment resembles the first in certain respects. He means that this second commandment is inextricably linked to the first; to observe the first commandment is to observe the second. To love God in an authentic way involves loving your neighbour as yourself. The entire Law and the Prophets, Jesus asserts, depend on these two commandments.

Can our relationship with God be right if our relationships with others are wrong?

Here Jesus unifies love of God and love of neighbour into a single concept. And, when we think about it, is it possible to love God without loving your neighbour? The first letter of St John states that whoever claims to love the God they cannot see, whilst not loving the brother they can see, is a liar. Can we really have an authentic relationship with God if our relationships with our neighbour are not of the loving kind? Sometimes we try to put a division between our relationship with God and our relations with others. In the sacristy we behave like Christians, but in the outside world we live according to different principles. But Christianity cannot be something that we do in private, when we are on our own. If we really loved God, then we would love him all the time, and this involves loving him in and through our relationships with others. Our love for God must permeate everything we do in life. If someone told us that they had difficulties loving their neighbour but no problem in loving God, then we would be suspicious. The two things are inseparable. We are all children of the same father and if we don't get on with our brothers and sisters, then there is a serious problem in our relationship with God. The life of the human being is not divided up into different compartments. It is not possible that a person can have a perfectly faithful and loyal relationship with God, whilst behaving dishonourably towards the people around him. He who is faithful in small things shall be faithful also in greater things. If a person is truly faithful to God then he will be truly faithful to his neighbour. And the opposite is also true: if one's heart is truly open to his neighbour, then his heart will also be open to God.

We often think we can place God and neighbour into different compartments of our lives but there must be fundamental unity in our attitude towards both. The horizontal and vertical dimensions of our lives cannot be separated. To love our neighbour as ourselves is to love God with all of our strength. And to love God with all our heart, mind and strength is, automatically, without any doubt, to enter into a relationship of love with our neighbour.

A right relationship with myself depends on right relations with God and neighbour

The business of loving our neighbours as ourselves must not be interpreted according to "new age" principles. We should not follow the line of thinking that is favoured by many psychological approaches to humanity and its ills. Often we hear it said that in order to be able to love others, we must first learn to love ourselves. But this is the wrong approach. It is a complicated business to learn to love oneself in a healthy way, and it could take a lifetime to learn how to do it properly. Are we to focus on ourselves for all of our lives before turning to the business of loving others?

In reality, we are called to love our neighbour as ourselves. Through my relationships with others, I can set right the relationship that I have with myself. Forgive and you shall be forgiven; give and you shall receive; be merciful and you will find mercy. The point is that my relationship with myself depends on my relationship with others and with God. My personal identity is not something that is defined in purely private or personal terms. I cannot discover who I am by looking inwardly, but only by developing my relationship with the God who created me. Our nature is a relational one and it comes to fruition through love of God and neighbour.

A milestone in humanity's understanding of itself and its relationship with God

Jesus knows man through and through, and this passage from the Gospel represents a milestone in the history of humanity's understanding of itself. It provides the key by which we can understand our own nature. Believers and non-believers alike have been inspired by these words from Jesus. Our hearts are made for love, and this fact must dictate all of our doings and all of our relationships with others.

The doctor of the Law wished to know which of the commandments was the greatest. Jesus responds by telling us that the most important thing that we must do in life is to exercise our hearts in the art of how to love. The most essential aspect of our existence is love for God and neighbour. Everything else is secondary. Speaking personally, I don't believe that this is always my priority in life. And I don't believe that I often meet people who genuinely have this priority.

2011-10-12T05:24:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 22:15-21

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

The enemies of Jesus approach him with sweet words, but their intention is to trap him

This is the famous Gospel where Jesus says, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God!" In the passage that leads to Jesus uttering this phrase, the Pharisees and the Herodians approach Jesus with a question. In normal circumstances, the Herodians (those who considered Herod to be the legitimate successor of the Kings of Israel) would not have had much in common with the Pharisees, but in this case both factions join forces in an effort to trap Jesus.

They begin by praising Jesus for his honesty, truthfulness and impartiality. This is already a sign that they are seeking to ensnare him. Real friendship is not marked by adulation. Our enemies speak sweetly to us in order to lure us into a false sense of security; real friends, by contrast, speak to us honestly and forthrightly. And, in fact, Jesus reacts immediately to their two-facedness. "Hypocrites", he says, "Why are you putting me to the test?" The word "hypocrite" literally means one who does not publicly reveal his true face, whose true opinion or criticism remains underneath the surface.

A question that appears to have no satisfactory answer

The question is put to Jesus: "Is it legitimate to pay the tribute to Caesar?" A question such as this has been well chosen, for it has no satisfactory answer. If Jesus responds with a monosyllabic "Yes" or "No", then in both cases it will place him in a difficult position. On the one hand, we can discern in the biblical texts of the Old Testament a general attitude of deference towards the demands of the governing authorities. In the story of the return of the Israelites from exile, great respect and honour is shown towards King Cyrus, who allowed the Jews to return to their homeland. Therefore, it would be to go against the Scriptures for Jesus to encourage people not to pay the tax to the governing authorities. On the other hand, to tell people to go ahead and pay the tax would be to affirm the definitive power of Rome. The Jews considered the Roman regime to be an oppressive one that placed great burdens on the people. Thus, as far as his listeners were concerned, whichever answer Jesus gave would have been the wrong one.

Jesus changes the playing field and leads us into much more profound territory

Jesus responds with a technique that he often uses when confronted by his enemies. He simply refuses to play the game that his adversary wants him to play and instead leads his listeners into much deeper waters. He himself asks a question, thus bringing his adversaries onto his playing field. Firstly he says, "Show me the coin that pays the census tax". This coin would have had the image of the emperor on it and would have described him as "divine". There are two issues here that are highly relevant for the mentality of the Hebrews. In the first place, the coin has an image, and images were not allowed by the prescriptions of the Hebrews. Secondly, we have an inscription in which a human being declares himself to be God. Jesus invites his adversaries to focus on these issues by asking "Whose image is this and whose inscription?" When they reply, "Caesar", Jesus says, "Give to Caesar what belongs to him and to God what belongs to God". In so doing, Jesus implicitly turns the question of his adversaries on its head. Jesus' listeners are preoccupied with mundane matters. Their concern is; "How should we behave towards the earthly authorities?" Jesus, instead, prompts his listeners to ask how we ought to behave towards the heavenly authorities. If the payment of this coin suffices to fulfil our duty towards Caesar, then what do we need to do to fulfil our duty towards God?

The coin carries the likeness of Caesar but we carry the likeness of God

The coin carries the image and likeness of Caesar, but it is man himself who carries the image and likeness of God. What should be given by us to Caesar? That very limited part of reality that belongs to Caesar and his system of governance. And what should be given to God? It is man himself and his entire existence that belongs to God. Jesus is not just talking here about placing the civil and the spiritual components of life in little compartments. To give to God what belongs to him is to give him the most fundamental part of our existence, for we bear the likeness of God and belong completely to him. Here the issue at stake is true conversion; we are talking about how one should live the Gospel fully. If we wish to understand this text properly, then we must comprehend the radical nature of what Jesus is saying to us.

The martyrs and St Francis refused to give to Caesar that which belonged only to God

Men and women have been martyred for refusing to give to Caesar that which is not his. Caesar wished to take the place of God, declaring himself to be divine, and the martyrs of the early centuries died for not professing Caesar to be a God. Certainly they would have been good citizens, and would have paid their taxes. Christians of all ages give scandal by not obeying the civil authorities. But to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God is not resolved by just paying one's taxes. It requires a process of discernment in which we come to appreciate the immensity of what is properly due to God. Saint Francis, for example, when he gave to his father all of his clothes and declared himself to be a child of the heavenly Father, was giving to Caesar the riches of this world, and was giving to God what belonged to God - his very life and daily existence.

This is the call that was placed before us at baptism when we were asked not to be of the world. All too often, in practice, we give to Caesar what actually belongs to the Lord. Too often we give to this world the things that should only be offered to God. This is also the case with money, which has a logic of its own. We are called to show love through our use of money, to utilize money to love and to serve others. We are asked to relate to money in such a way so as not to be completely caught up in the affairs of this world.

This is NOT a Gospel that compartmentalizes the spiritual!

The Lord, through this Gospel, wants to bring a certain clarity to our lives. We have all been given a mission. If, for example, we have been given the mission of raising a family, then we must strive to give to God what belongs only to him. If a man has been called to be a husband and a father, but is busy most of the time doing other things, then he is giving to Caesar that which belongs to God. He is giving to the affairs of this world the same dedication that God requires of him to fulfil his mission as father and husband. It is the same with the mission of the priest. A priest who occupies himself doing endless meaningless things; who busies himself with matters that are mundane and of secondary importance, is giving to Caesar that which belongs to God. Let us be absolutely clear about these things; let us put them in order, and, in so doing, let us attain freedom.

2011-10-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 22:1-14

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

An invitation that is offered to those who have nowhere else to go

This story of a wedding feast tells of invitations being sent by a king to people who decline to attend. Some are too busy looking after their own affairs; others become annoyed and angry at the request, and go so far as to kill the servants who bore the invitation. The king reacts violently, killing those who had mistreated his servants and burning their city. He then says, "'The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, to the crossroads and invite whoever you find".

This expression, "crossroads", makes one think immediately of street junctions, but the original Greek word refers to the place where the street finishes. In ancient writings, certain of the Church fathers placed great emphasis on the significance of this expression. The king's invitation is being issued to those who are at the end of the road; those who are stuck in a cul-de-sac; those who are in a situation that offers no hope of escape. The invitation is thus being offered to the very ones who appear to be unworthy to be in the exalted presence of the bridegroom.

Often, in order to be willing to accept the invitation of Christ, it is necessary to be at the end of one's wits; to have exhausted all of one's own efforts. Often, it is only when we have tried everything else without success that, finally, we become open to considering the alternative offered by God.

How willingly do WE accept the invitation to the wedding feast of the Eucharist?

These considerations are interesting in themselves, but then we are confronted with a second "parable within a parable" - the story of the man who enters the feast without the proper attire. In both cases, we must try to understand what the wedding feast is symbolic of. Who are those who consider their own affairs to be more important than a wedding feast? A wedding is something joyful, something wonderful that anyone would love to attend. It is not by accident that the Gospel of John begins with the story of a wedding feast. Much of the folklore in various cultures is centred on things that happen at wedding feasts. Weddings - celebrations of married love - are at the centre of life. They are joyous events, and this is especially true of the feast to which God invites us. God wishes us to leave aside our own plans, our own affairs, and to attend his wedding feast. Our own affairs are stressful, full of mediocrity, and of temporary value only. The feast of the Son of God, which is celebrated especially in the Eucharist - the feast of the Lamb referred to in the Book of Revelation - is the feast of paradise, the greatest and most beautiful feast of all.

Do we wear the "Sunday frown" at our Eucharistic gatherings?

But sometimes in our Eucharistic assemblies, we are there with long faces and bored expressions, glancing at our watches every five minutes! This shows that we have not entered into the mystery of union with God; that we simply do not appreciate what we are celebrating. We are inclined to think that the quicker that Mass finishes the better, because our own affairs and projects are much more important, and we must return to them as soon as possible. This attitude is mistaken. To be invited to the Sunday Eucharist is an invitation to rejoice. It is a wedding feast, not a waste of time! God, in his wonderful plan, invites us to this feast as friends of the bridegroom, that we may rejoice with him. We have reason to grieve only if we fail to turn up. Why then do we so often wear the "Sunday frown" in our Eucharistic gatherings?

We must change if we are to celebrate the wedding feast appropriately

Let us consider now the man who is not dressed in the correct wedding attire. If the guests have really been gathered from the backstreets; if they are all desperate down-and-outs with nowhere else to go; if they are, as the text says, "the good and bad alike", then in what way is this man dressed inappropriately? In order to understand what this passage is referring to, we must understand the nuptial traditions of Hebrew culture. In the Jewish wedding feasts, it was the custom for the bridegroom to provide a garment for the guests as they entered the wedding feast. This guest, then, must be understood to be a man who has refused to change attire. The word "abitus" – habit – refers to one's clothing, but also to one's pattern of behaviour. To wear different clothing, or to have changed one's garment, often involves washing a garment. It is God who, above all, cleanses our garment and dresses us in new attire.

The guest in the parable is someone who wishes to enter into the feast of God without abandoning his attachment to what he wore before. Wearing his old garment represents the retention of his old attitudes and patterns of behaviour. If someone comes to a wedding celebration wearing a tracksuit, then we tend to feel indignant that they have shown up in such inappropriate dress. When someone comes to a feast, we expect them to dress suitably. And to be at the feast of Christ similarly requires the wearing of a proper garment. It is impossible to be truly with Christ and not to have changed one's old attire completely.

The "Sunday frown" on our faces is a sign that we have not changed garment

We must remember that the gift of God is not something that is imposed upon us. It is something, rather, that can only be accepted freely. Why do we treat the Eucharistic gathering like a funeral rather than a feast? Because we have not changed and taken on the new garment that is appropriate for participating in this celebration. This is something that should be done before we enter the banquet. It is the just practice of the Church to request that one be in the grace of God before approaching the holy Eucharist. The forgiveness of sins, the new garment that is offered to us, is a gift that we receive from God. Without any shadow of doubt, it is necessary to go through the stage of changing the garment before we are ready to enter into the fullness of the wedding feast. In the process of adult baptism, the adult is required to change their name at the moment of baptism. They are challenged to change their very person, and they are asked to undress and put on a white garment. It is only while wearing this white garment that they are admitted to the sacrament of the Eucharist.

A parable that challenges us to view the Eucharist as a joyous feast that is wonderful to attend, and that requires a change of habit on our part.

In the same way, this parable challenges us to be aware that we have been invited to a sumptuous feast; that there is great joy to be experienced; and that it is well worth our while attending. In order to attend, however, we are invited to allow ourselves to be changed, to put on the new garment so that we may celebrate the feast appropriately. The will of God for us, the Christian adventure to which we are called, the sacramental life in which we are invited to participate, is a joyous banquet. It is not a weight upon our shoulders, but an offer of a gift be embraced. The Eucharistic feast is not a sacrifice on our part, but a sacrifice on the part of God. It is something that makes our lives beautiful. It is a time of festival, full of nuptial joy, a unique moment of union with Him.

2011-09-28T15:53:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 21:33-43

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

A parable designed to strike fear into our hearts and spur us on to bear fruit!

Sometimes a holy sensation of fear is just what we need to make us change our ways and undergo conversion! The intention of this Gospel is exactly that – to spur us into action for fear of the consequences. The parable that Jesus places in front of us this Sunday is the story of a landowner who plants his vineyard and provides it with everything needed for it to flourish. Then he places it under the care of tenants and goes on a journey. These tenants have been given a gift - the gift of a vineyard to be managed. When harvest time arrives, the landowner sends his servants to request the fruits of the vineyard, but the servants are treated badly. One is beaten, another stoned and a third one killed. So the landowner dispatches servants in greater numbers, but these are again treated in the same way. Then the proprietor decides to send his own son, thinking that the tenants will surely respect the offspring of the owner. But instead of seeing the son with the father's eyes, they reckon that this is their perfect chance to seize his inheritance.

The trap that Jesus set for his original listeners is also a trap for US!

At the end of the parable, Jesus asks, "What will the owner of the vineyard do to these tenants?" His listeners respond that the owner will surely kill them and give the vineyard over to other tenants who will produce fruit at the proper time. In this way, Jesus traps his listeners, because they are the same ones that, in the previous passages, fiercely opposed Jesus, who in his person is none other than the Son sent by the Father.

When we listen to this parable today, we also are led by Jesus into concurring with the conclusion that, yes, these tenants most certainly deserve to be punished severely. It is important to be aware that we too have been led into the same trap as the original listeners of the parable! The question that we must ask ourselves is "Does God have the right to ask us to yield fruit?"

In the case of the parable of the vineyard, we can see without any doubt that the owner has the right to ask the tenants for fruits. In our own case, are we under the impression that God does not have the right to ask the same of us? The gift of life that we have been given is a vineyard. Those of us who are baptized have been given a series of gifts in the sacraments. We are not just talking about the physical sort of gifts given to the tenants of the vineyard, but the gifts of the vineyard of the Lord. We have received the Word of God, many brothers and sisters in the Lord, the Magisterium of the church, the Holy Father. Do we think that all of this is our property, or our right? Is my attitude the same as that of the tenants of the vineyard? Do I, like them, think that my life is mine and no-one should dare to ask me to bear produce!

Once I gave baptismal instruction to an adult, Michele, and he told me about the time he first opened his heart to the true meaning of life. He had passed his days as an atheist continually asking the question, "What meaning has life?" One day, when confronted with Christianity, he realized that life was asking him for meaning; that life had been confronting him with a series of questions that he hadn't responded to. And in order to learn to respond to them, he would have to recognize the existence of a higher authority, an owner who was looking for something from him. At that point he began the process of discovering the meaning of his life.

Life is not something to be possessed and used, but something to be given freely

It is a lazy and sterile attitude that seeks to possess life selfishly, that seeks to appropriate one's own vineyard, that sees life as being wholly mine, to be used as I alone see fit, that considers the body to my property, and time to be my time to be spent as I wish. This attitude to life is completely mistaken! If we have been born to love, then everything is the complete opposite. We possess our time truly only when we give it as a gift to others. That which is not ours cannot be given freely because it is not ours. And by the same token, it is only when we give something away freely that it attains its true meaning and becomes fully ours.

How does the owner challenge us to bear fruit? By sending servants that demand fruit of us.

Life is all about bearing fruit. There is no greater joy than to give one's life, to expend one's life for others. Life is not about the construction of a comfortable place in which I, and I alone, am in command. We must discover the higher authority, the vineyard owner that asks us to produce fruit, who helps us to grow, who pulls us out of ourselves, who makes us become fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, who enables us to give our lives. How does he do that? This owner, this higher authority, sends many servants to us, one after the other, and the role of these servants is to demand fruit from us. These are people who are on our doorstep, in our midst, close to us, and we don't recognize them. In an in-law or spouse there is Christ who is saying "Bear me fruit". In a son there is Christ who is saying "Bear me fruit". "If you do it to the least of this you have done it to me". Mother Teresa of Calcutta repeated this continually; it was her fundamental motto - "you have done it to me" One must discover the beauty and fecundity of giving fruit. Life reaches fulfilment only in giving itself. Life springs from an act of love - an act of love on the part of God primarily - and the meaning of life is to respond to this love. God has given us a vineyard and our task is to make it bear fruit.

Let us leave behind the selfish tenant of the vineyard and become the faithful servant

God has given us existence, and it is a beautiful thing to bring that existence to fruition, but we must never get discouraged. If we have failed up to now, and if God is going to give our vineyard to a new tenant, then let that new tenant be the new me! Let us leave behind the avaricious tenant and become the faithful servant. Let us leave behind the egocentric occupant who wished to kill the Son in order to become the owner. This is a highly appropriate analogy for our generation that has renounced Christianity in order to have "full possession" of its life. And the new tenant that takes over the vineyard is a wonderful analogy for every generation that converts; for the new man that is in every one of us; that noble person who knows how one must respond to life; who accepts that life involves responsibility. All of us have the means to bear fruit, even those of us who are sick in bed, even those who are dying. In every instant of our life we can say "Yes!" to the call of God; to give that little that we are in possession of. It doesn't matter if it is little, what matters is that it is ours.

2011-09-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 21:28-32

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

Neither of the sons has an inclination to work, but one son overcomes his own inclinations

Jesus is in Jerusalem and has just caused havoc in the Temple, overturning the tables of the money-changers, chasing everyone out, and bringing to a complete halt the market that was in progress. The chief priests and the scribes want to know by whose authority he dares to do such outrageous things. Jesus is struck by the hypocrisy and intransigence of their attitude and he confronts them with the following parable.

A man has two sons, and he approaches both of them with the same request – to go and work in his vineyard. The first says that he will not go, but he later repents and goes. The second son, instead, says he will go, but in fact doesn't. The issue to focus on here is that the two sons are actually of the same heart. Neither of them has any inclination to go and work in the vineyard. The first one admits openly that he is not inclined, whilst the second one shows us by his actions that he doesn't want to go. The difference between the two sons is that one of them obeys his own inclinations but the other does not.

Modern culture makes feeling an absolute, but most people have to go against what they feel in order to achieve anything

In today's world, that which we wish to do has become an absolute. The notion of the freedom to choose, of following one's desires, is placed at the heart of modern culture. But if we examine our daily lives closely, it simply isn't true that we follow our own inclinations all the time. If we were to do only what we wanted to do, then we wouldn't get very far in life. If people studied only when they felt like it, then who would ever complete his studies? If parents looked after their children only when it suited them, then how many children would be raised properly? If people cared for each other only when the mood was right, then who would tend to the sick? Our culture goes on about the absolute law of doing what we feel like, but in order to work, in order to achieve anything, we constantly go against our will. In order to earn the acceptance of others, we have to do things that we are not inclined to do. In order to make a living, to have self-esteem, to buy a car, to build a house - time and time again we go against our will. And we manage to go against our will because we wish to achieve a specific goal that we have in mind.

Spiritual growth requires going against my own inclinations and doing the will of God

But in the spiritual life, there is an inclination to think that we can just do whatever we feel like! If I only to do what I feel like, however, I will not be able to move one inch from where I am now. Unless I become of the same mind as the son who repents, the son who converts, who changes direction, who goes against what he feels like, who refuses to absolutize his own will; then I will remain a child for the rest of my life. I have to learn not to absolutize my desires, my instincts, that which I feel like doing.

There are high-priests of instinct in our culture, prophets of absolute spontaneity, of doing only what one feels like doing. The consequences of this approach are zero achievement, zero dependability, complete inconsistency. If a woman found out that the man she was about to marry was a complete slave of his own inclinations, who was incapable of going against what he felt like doing, then she would be foolish to marry him. Life with such a man would be like living with a narcissistic child.

The real point of this parable is obedience to God's will, not sincerity of heart

So this parable is not so extraordinary after all, because the struggle to conquer one's inclinations is a common feature of daily life. What diverts attention from the principal point of the parable is the fact that we can sometimes focus on the insincerity of the second son's reply. The second son says yes, not because he really wants to work in the vineyard, but because he wants to keep his father happy. "If it keeps you happy for me to say yes, then I'll say yes". Today with the great emphasis we put on psychology, immense prominence is given to sincerity with oneself and with others. It is true that the second son needs to work on his sincerity. He is unable to confront his father with the truth about what he intends doing or not doing. He plays the obedient son. But whilst sincerity is a great value, there can be no doubt that the moral of this passage is NOT about being sincere about one's inner feelings. The real point of this parable is: "Let's see what these sons did concretely, regardless of the sincerity or insincerity of what they may have said". That this is the main point is revealed by the fact that at the end of the parable Jesus asks "Which of the two did his father's will?"

That God may not do our will, but that we may do His

In the end, people are judged by their deeds. Anyone can profess great love for your neighbour, but let's see how they actually behave towards their neighbour. One can be a great proclaimer of the word of God but a very poor practitioner of the same. What really counts is to be obedient to God's word. What really changes our lives is not to hear a brilliant homily, to have a wonderful religious experience and to feel a great sense of inspiration. What counts is to be obedient to God. Obedience to the will of God always involves going against my own will. Jesus gave us an example in Gethsemane when he said "Not my will, but yours be done!" The trauma of doing God's will has already been endured by the Son of God in his assumption of our flesh.

Do we want to achieve the same thing? If we wish to have the gift of new life then we must leave our own lives behind. There is simply no other way. My will and my plans must not be absolutes. God is not a personal chaplain who comes whenever we summon him to bless our projects. Once I heard a holy monk say "You come here to church to ask God to support what you want to achieve. Try instead to ask God to help you to do what He wants!" What I want to achieve, after all, is very small, very parochial. Oh, that God may not do what I want! That God may do in my life what He wants! That God may not allow me to languish in the mediocrity of my own desires! That he may teach me to change my mind!

The whole point of this parable is to teach us to change, to teach us not to remain immobile in the pursuit of our own inclinations. Unless one undergoes this trauma of obedience to God - which involves disobedience to one's self - unless one renounces oneself, unless one accepts concretely this act, this exercise, this obedience that God asks of him, then one will never know if God can save him or not; one will never know what it is like to be with God, to do things with him, to work in his vineyard.

2011-09-14T04:11:00.000-07:00

Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 20:1-16a

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

An eccentric landowner with a strange sense of justice!

Here we have the classic passage in which labourers are hired at different times of the day, some in the morning, some during the day, and some in the evening, but all are given the same salary. This seems to be unjust, and the labourers who work longer start to complain. In order to comprehend this text, we must place it in its proper context in the Gospel of Matthew. The previous chapter in the Gospel tells of the rich young man called to follow Jesus, and of Jesus telling his disciples what they would receive for having given up everything to follow him. Chapter 19 finishes with the saying "Many who now are first will be last, and many who are now last will be first". Then Jesus recounts this parable in which the last do indeed come first, and the first do come last, in thought-provoking circumstances!

The story is about a landowner who goes out at dawn to hire labourers for his vineyard and agrees to pay them the regular daily wage, a single silver coin. Then he goes out at nine o'clock, hires some more labourers and promises to pay them a "fair wage". A fair wage in this case, one would think, should be less than the amount due to the ones who had begun work some hours earlier. The owner does the same thing at twelve o'clock and at three o'clock, promising each time a payment that is "fair". Late in the day, at five o'clock, he goes out again and says to the men standing around, "Why are you standing around here doing nothing?" The Greek word for "doing nothing" literally means "without work". They reply, "Because no-one hired us". This time the landowner simply says, "Go and work in my vineyard," and doesn't comment on the wage that he will pay. We will have to wait until the end of the day before we discover how much he will give to these who work for just one hour, and to those who were promised an unspecified "fair" wage.

In the evening, when it is time to pay the wages, the owner calls the ones who were hired last to receive their wages first. He does this intentionally so that the ones who worked all day will see the wages given to the ones who worked less - a very provocative strategy hardly designed to boost labour morale! Those who had worked all day under the heat of the sun expect to receive more, so they grumble that the ones who worked for just one hour were given the same silver coin! The problem here, surely, is that the landowner had promised to pay a "just" wage to the ones who had been hired later in the day. Doesn't justice dictate that these late-comers be paid less?

A confrontation between two senses of justice

This appeal to our natural sense of justice makes us indignant at the blatant lack of fairness, in our eyes, being displayed by the landowner. But it is the intention of the parable to challenge our defective notion of justice and to confront it with a notion of justice that is completely other. This parable turns the normal human perspective on things on its head. To be called to be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to be called to live by a different logic, a paradoxical logic in which the first shall be last and the last first.

In normal circumstances, when we think of the wage that is due to someone, we tend to think of the utility of the person's work, of their productivity, of their output. But what happens if we try to apply this logic consistently? According to this logic, the one who is efficient and productive has the right to be recompensed, and the one who is not productive has questionable value in the system. If this notion of "justice" is taken to its logical conclusion, then we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position. What do we do with the elderly, with someone who is no longer useful? What do we do with someone who is seriously ill, with someone who cannot work, or fulfil a productive role in society? Let us not pretend that the mentality of looking at the elderly, or the ill, or the unproductive with a disparaging eye is a mentality that is alien to us! We do tests on the foetus and discard those who cannot fulfil the role that we wish them to play in our lives. The logic of giving to a person that which is due to them in return for what they give to society takes us into a cynical, terrifying world. Is there anyone among us who could survive on the basis of the cold logic of being recompensed precisely according to that which we have merited? Is there anyone who could place themselves before the world, before God, and say "You must give me exactly what I have earned", without having to hope for mercy, patience, benevolence, magnanimity?

If the value of our lives, if our inter-relationships with others, if our very existence is measured on the basis of that which is owed to us, then what would any of us receive? Do we truly want our account with God to be settled fairly and completely? It is not just the sick, the elderly, the discarded in society who need the other logic displayed by the eccentric landowner - all of us need that logic! All of us desperately need the late-comer not to be discarded; we need the last one to be gathered in and accepted - because there is a last one in all of us.

Are we really envious of those who do not work in the vineyard?

If we look at the parable from another perspective, we can see a bad attitude on the part of the first workers who complain that they have worked all day under the sun. In the face of the harsh reality of unemployment endemic in today's world, what does it really mean to work and not to work? It is a much harder situation not to have work! To have been hired at dawn by the landowner meant that this problem has been solved for the early labourers, the problem of earning bread for their family, to have found someone who gave them something to do. One of the hardest things in life to cope with is the feeling of being useless. One of the greatest existential sufferings is to have no-one that will take us into their vineyard, to have no-one that asks anything of us. Who, then, is the unfortunate one? The one who has worked much, or the one who hasn't found work for the entire day? The question posed by the owner to the late-comers was, "Why are you here without work?" And the reply was "Because no-one would hire us". Man simply cannot bear having nothing to do; he needs to have something good and important to accomplish; his deepest longing is to be hired in the vineyard of the good landowner.

How many times are people converted to the Good News and ask themselves "What have I done up to now? Look at how I have wasted my existence up to now!" To work in the vineyard of the Lord is a gift, and not to work there is a form of suffering. In the modern world it is a common phenomenon to find people going through long phases of idleness and emptiness, of prolonged spiritual adolescences; to find adults of thirty-five years of age who are still at university, and who still haven't managed to extract something serious from life. The fortunate ones are the ones who were hired early, who have already managed to find the path of their existence, who have been employed in the good vineyard and who haven't been standing around wasting their existence.

The joy of working in the vineyard is itself the recompense of God

And here is the other logic par excellence. "Are you are jealous of me because I am good?" challenges the owner. God is just in his way, not according to our sense of justice. According to the justice of God, it is right to be good and generous to everyone, even to the one who has worked little. For every father, for every parent who loves their child, justice is the caring for, and salvation of, and the employment of, and finding the way for that child so that he might be happy. That is the justice of God. What is more important? To receive more because I did more than others? Or to have found my reward by working in the vineyard, and to be happy to have found my reward, and to have the joy of being in the good vineyard and to be today in possession of the happiness of the recompense of God?

Not a parable about social justice but about the joy of fruitful relationship with God

This is not a parable about social issues! It is about existential issues, about questions of faith. It is a parable that prompts us to reflect on our relationship with God. Let us hope that many of our brothers and sisters, even at the last minute, discover the joy of working for the Father, and receive the recompense of God. I think that all of us are looking forward to seeing many people in paradise, a multitude of people receiving that heavenly recompense at the end of our working day. Whether we work much, or whether we work little, let us hope that we all go to paradise. Let us hope to find all of our friends there, even those who seem to us to be wasting their lives. Let us hope that at the last minute they convert and enter into the joy of the recompense of God.

2011-09-11T05:18:00.003-07:00

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 18:21.35

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

The ability to forgive is a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit

This text is a continuation of the discourse on fraternal relations that we listened to in last Sunday's Gospel. The central focus of the passage is a challenge to enter into the mystery of one of the most profound deeds that we can perform in life, the most difficult deed of all to carry out, and an act that manifests the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts – the deed of forgiving, to know how to forgive. Reconciliation is a central issue in human life. Those who do not forgive carry enormous burdens on their shoulders, whilst those who reconcile themselves with their brothers and sisters free themselves from their own faults and from the faults of others, transforming destructive situations into positive opportunities for growth.

The parable of the unforgiving servant

In the text that comes just before this passage, Jesus had spoken about the extent we should go to in order to win back a brother who has offended us. Peter then asks how many times we should be willing to pardon someone who has offended us, and he himself suggests seven times. Jesus replies instead that we should be ready to forgive seventy times seven. Then he places a parable in front of us to help us understand what he wishes to say.

A man owes one hundred thousand talents to his king. To the modern ear, the value of a talent is hard to appreciate, but it is clear that here we are speaking about an enormous sum. The king has compassion on him and absolves him from the loan, but as soon as the servant leaves he encounters a fellow servant who owes a much smaller amount. The first servant catches the second by the throat, demands his money back, and has his colleague thrown in prison until the full debt is repaid.

How can one who has just been pardoned be so unforgiving towards others?

It is hard to understand how the first servant could be so violent and aggressive in this situation. As soon as he is forgiven, he immediately disregards the forgiveness and munificence that has been shown to him, and he is cruel and inflexible with one who owes him a much smaller sum. Why is this the case? The key to understanding the passage is in the phrase uttered by the first servant to the king. He said "Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full". Given the enormity of the debt, this plea is plainly absurd, but the man still insists that if only the king has patience, the full debt will eventually be cleared. In the end, we are to believe, the road to reconciliation is just a matter of the king having sufficient patience. This attitude on the part of the servant is frighteningly delusional, because there is quite simply no way that the ten thousand talents could have been repaid.

What is the point of the passage? The root of the failure of the servant to transform forgiveness-received into forgiveness-given is the fact that he utterly failed to comprehend the nature of the gift that he had received. He was under the illusion that the debt that he owed was something that could have been put right (if the king had given him the chance) with sufficient effort and time. And he expected similar efforts at reparation from those who had offended him, leading him to treat them harshly.

Sin must be pardoned freely, not wiped away by human effort

This brings us to a painful aspect of life that we must confront and accept. It is simply not the case that we can undo, or make reparation for, the sins that we have committed. We can, however, be forgiven for our sins. Until we accept the fundamentally negative aspect of the sins we have committed, we will never appreciate the free pardon of God. There is a pervasive conviction abroad that, as long as I apply myself, I can put everything right, I can free myself from the negative consequences of my sin. But this is a grave error. The Lord Jesus died for sin and there is no other way for us to be reconciled to God. It is not that if we made a better effort, then we could do without Jesus. It is not that if we behaved ourselves a little better, or if we were a little better organised, then we could get on without a saviour. No, all of us are radically in need of God's unconditional pardon.

Once we realize that we have been freely pardoned, only then we learn how to forgive others

To have the correct perception of our sins as something pardoned unconditionally by God, opens us to forgive those who have sinned against us. How can I pass judgement on others if I reflect on my own faults? How can I insist on reparation from others for offences that are relatively minor in comparison to the offences I have committed against God? God, after all, knows my heart. No matter how wholesome my life might appear to others, he knows my thoughts, he knows of the ten thousand talents that I can never restitute to him.

There is a road of mercy and there is only one way to tread it, and that is to realize that the mercy that has been shown to us is unconditional in nature. In the Gospel of Luke we read: "He who is pardoned little, loves little". Even though it might make our hearts bleed, we must accept the negative fact that we cannot repay our debts by our own efforts. We must escape from the illusion that, if we only apply ourselves, we might accomplish great things. This illusion cripples our ability to show forgiveness to others. We are slow in the act of pardoning others because, at the end of the day, we persist in the illusion of our own innocence.

2011-09-11T05:17:00.001-07:00

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 18:15-20

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini

A passage that is normally interpreted as dealing with internal relations in the church
This passage is normally viewed as the discourse of Jesus that addresses the question of internal relations in the church. What is at issue here is not a trivial disagreement between two individuals, or a vague grievance that one person might have against another. Here we are dealing with an interpersonal relationship between two people that has been fractured in a serious way; we are talking about a transgression with substance. The correct response to this offence, we are told, is to speak to the offender in person. If he listens to you, then you have won back a brother. If he doesn't want to listen, confront him about his offence in the presence of one or two others. If the issue is still not resolved, then it's time to take more serious steps: raise the issue in front of the Christian community. At this point, if the issue is still not resolved, then treat him as if he were a pagan or publican.

The sole objective of the words of Jesus in this passage - To win back a brother

The entire logic of this passage is dependent on a single term whose importance we must not underestimate. The text speaks of "regaining" a brother, "winning back" a brother that was lost and that must be regained. This brother may have committed a serious offence, but the issue is NOT that an injustice has been done, but that a brother has been lost. If this brother has offended me in such a serious way, then he evidently no longer considers me to be his brother. In response, we are exhorted to talk it out with him - not in order that justice may be done - but that he may be won back. This is the fundamental value at issue in the text.

Following the Lord in seeking out the lost

The passage makes use of a very definite strategy, and that is to prompt a response to the following question: Is there anyone who is listening to these words who would permit himself to lose a brother? Speaking on a personal level, would I permit myself to lose a brother? Would my life be the same following such a loss? Whether he happens to be flesh of my flesh, or a brother that is bound to me in the faith, can I carry on in the same way without him? Are we already in possession of such wealth that we can afford to lose him? Can we let him go without inflicting damage on ourselves? Maybe the real issue is that we can't permit ourselves to appear before the Lord without having all our brothers with us. The Lord Jesus gave his life to gain his brothers, and the same Lord shows us how to win back those who have been lost. The whole point of this discourse is not to discuss some sort of procedure for exacting justice from a brother who has gone astray, but to show us how to win back a brother who has been lost.

Treating someone like a publican is a way of winning him back
When someone comes to you to criticize something you have done, you understand right away if his criticism is made in love or if he is simply engaging in an act of expressing bitterness. This passage is directed towards the brother who criticizes, and we are all that brother. We shouldn't think that the target of these comments is the one who is criticized. The Gospel is telling us how we should manage our relationships with those who have hurt us; how to behave towards those who have offended us so that we might win them back. And this is what Jesus asks us to do: First, speak with your heart to the one who offends you to win him back. Second, if he doesn't listen, take other people along so that they can say to him: "Look how much he wants to regain you as a brother!" Third, if he still doesn't respond, bring him in front of the whole community and say: "I declare in front of everyone that I want to win you back as a brother. I can't carry on without making peace with you. This rupture that exists between us shouldn't go on, because you and I are brothers". Four, if you can't win him over in these ways, then how will you regain him? By treating him as if he were the pagan or publican.

Treating someone like a publican is not to exclude him, but to love him unconditionally

In order to comprehend the ecclesial practice of excommunication, used only by the Church in grave cases, then we should look to the Pauline texts where such exclusion is therapeutic in objective. Exclusion of such sort is ultimately directed towards regaining a brother, waking up a brother who doesn't realize the gravity of what he is doing. But in the comments of Jesus that we are considering today, something else entirely is at issue. In Matthew's Gospel in general, the pagan and the publican are not people to be excluded, but to be loved. In the same Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of Heaven in the Sermon on the Mount, we are told to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us. In other words, this passage is exhorting us to behave as follows: When you are grievously offended, try to talk to the offender, then try to get someone else to help you to talk to him, then tell him publicly that you have nothing against him, that you want to repair the relationship with him, that you want to win him back. If he still doesn't accept your attempts at repairing the relationship, then, at that point, you have no other option but to love him as he is. Love him, pagan or publican, as he is, offer yourself for him. This is the way it has to be. With some people you can talk to them about Christ, but with others you just have to be Christ. With some people you can enter into fruitful dialogue, with others you just have to love them freely, receiving nothing in return.

Not a three-step procedure for exacting justice from an offender, but a FOUR-step strategy aimed at winning back a brother

How could we ever think that Christ would authorize us to exclude or condemn offenders just because they didn't repent? Jesus died on the cross for those who offended him! And yet we persist in thinking that in this passage Jesus authorizes exclusion? The Church's practice of deciding when someone should or should not be allowed to receive the sacraments is one particular issue. But the forging of fraternal relations is another matter and it must always be our first concern. In summary, this passage is not a three-step legal procedure aimed at settling a quarrel with a brother, and then, when the three steps fail, in the last resort we eject him from our company. No, this is a four-step strategy, each phase of which is aimed at winning back a brother who is already lost. If, after the first three attempts at dialogue, he continues to behave as if I were no longer his brother, I am then called to respond with the ultimate strategy reserved for the pagan and the publican, the ones who are to be loved without condition. I must love them as they are.