(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 02.05.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, May 5, 2024. VI Sunday of Easter. 

The name of Christ’s disciples: “Friends”.

On this sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus, who continues to invite us to “abide” in Him, reveals to us who He is: the Beloved, and that his life is a relationship of Love. This is why He calls us to be a community of people whose vocation is to share His Love.

After having exhorted his followers to remain in him like the branches in the vine (see last Sunday’s Gospel), today Jesus asks us to remain in his love, not to distance ourselves from the source of life, to open ourselves to him who, in the gift total of himself, he included us in his relationship with the Father.

The love of Christ is the greatest love because he gives his life for us, his friends : : “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. And you are my friends” ( Jn 15:13) .

Let’s not forget that among the friends Jesus addresses in the cenacle there is Judas (who has just come out and called him “friend”); there is Peter (who will deny him three times) and there are the others, who will leave him alone during his passion). And he calls them “friends”. Today we are in the cenacle of the church and we too are called by him : “friends”, even if we are fragile and sinners.

In fact, at the Last Supper, but not only, Jesus calls his friends, his equals (the love of friendship is between equal people and is reciprocal ), those who will betray him by denying him and going away from him. Why? Because he loves them with a free love and knows that they will respond to his love, that even if they do not love him fully, at least they want to love him, grateful for the love he has for them.

When they see him raised up, when they discover his boundless love, they will believe in this “excessive” love.

We too are called to become his friends by knowing his love for us. And this statement is beautiful: “I do not call you servants, but friends” ( Jn 15, 15), because ” servants” (in the Greek text it says “slaves”) is in itself an honorific title and indicates the ministers of the king . Minister is a word of Greek origin which means servant. Therefore Ministers are the most important people after the King. The greatest, after God, are the servants of God, the prophets, the saints. But today Christ teaches: “You are not “servants”, not even the greatest. You are something more. You are equal friends with each other and with Him. We are called to become equal with God. Why? Because the love that the Father has for the Son, the Son has given to us and we can love with the same love as God and we become like God who is love. So we are friends, equals. It is precisely this love of brothers in Brother Jesus that makes us equal to God. In the final part of v. 15 of the chapter. 15, continues: “the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” Jesus explains what he means by “friends”. Christ recognizes the disciples as friends because they do what He asks of them, that is, if they believe and love. Faced with the King of Kings, the condition of the disciple is in itself that of the “servant”, a term which in the Bible (but not only) represents an important title , because it characterizes the relationship with God: it indicates a faithful person available to the Gentleman. It does not have the meaning of slave, except when it indicates a man subjected to a master of this world or (see John 8:34) to the power of sin. The title of “servant” is already important, but the title “friend” indicates that at the center of the life of God and man, there is friendship, the most perfect form of Love, the free and non-possessive relationship which brings about the communion of people.

Friends of Christ.

Today Christ reveals to us that we are not just servants and disciples, but friends.

If we were nothing but ministers (=servants), we would in any case be subjected to the King. Even if we were happy to serve a good cause, we would always be subjects forced to observe the law. If we were nothing but disciples, we would have to go to school with the Master, happy to learn the truth and receive words of eternal life.

But we are also “friends”, we are “subjects” to the law of freedom generated by the Love to which He has entrusted himself and of which he makes us participants if we remain in his word: “This I command you, that you love one another”.

This, more than a command, is an imploring that Jesus addresses to us, because He first loved us and He gives us the strength so that we too do the same. It is the novelty of the ecclesial community: being a school of friendship, where we learn the logic of gift and faith.

Remaining in the friendship of Christ means entering into a new relationship with God. With the God of the new Covenant, who is not so much a supreme legislator who asks us to observe the Law, but rather a Father who implores us to believe in a Love that he came to give his own Son.

In this friendship with Christ, He – who is the shepherd, the way, the truth and the life – becomes the door through which the Love of the Father becomes our home. Because today Christ repeats that we are at home in the love that the Father has for Him, the Son. And how do we live in this house? We are in the house of love if, in turn, we love. Therefore “Love one another, as I have loved you”. By loving our brothers, we are in the Father’s House. This fraternal love makes us friends of Christ. By loving our brother we become like God, like the Son, who is such because he loves our brothers with the love of the Father.

In this friendship

• the way is not a road to follow, it is a person to follow: Christ;
• the truth is not an abstract concept, it is a man to associate with: Christ;
• and life is not simply a biological fact, life is loving as one is loved, he who loves us is loving Christ.

“Friends” is the truest name of Jesus’ disciples. We are no longer servants, forced to observe a law, but free friends of that freedom generated by the Love to which He entrusted himself and of which he makes us participants if we remain in his word: “This I command you, that you love one another.”

 The consecrated virgins, witnesses of friendship with Christ.

The vocation to friendship with Christ for consecrated virgins must be understood in the light of the Song of Songs where we read: ” Now my beloved begins to say to me: «Rise, my friend , my beautiful one, and come, quickly! Because, behold, the winter is over, the rain has stopped, it is gone; the flowers have appeared in the fields, the time for singing has returned and the voice of the turtle dove is still heard in our countryside. The fig tree is ripening its first fruits and the flowering vines spread scent. Get up, my friend , my beautiful one, and come quickly” ( Song 2, 10 – 13).

These women consecrated with the gift of themselves to Christ demonstrate that they have believed in the love of God and offer themselves without reservation to Jesus, Spouse and Friend, testifying that “at the beginning of being a Christian there is no ethical or a great idea, but rather the encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives life a new horizon and with this a decisive direction” (Benedict XVI).

As brides of Christ, the consecrated virgins bear witness to the love of friendship with which God fills us and which must be communicated by us to others.

With simplicity but with perseverance these women show that friendship with Christ coincides with what the third petition of our Father expresses: ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. In the hour of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will into a will compliant and united with the divine will. He suffered the whole drama of our autonomy – and precisely by bringing our will into the hands of God, he gives us true freedom: ‘Not as I want, but as you want’.

In this communion of wills our redemption is achieved: being friends of Jesus, becoming friends of God. The more we love Jesus, the more we know him, the more our true freedom grows, the joy of being redeemed grows. We thank Jesus for your friendship and let us be increasingly fraternal friends with each other. “If we do not celebrate with gratitude the free gift of friendship with the Lord, if we do not recognize that our earthly existence and our natural abilities are also a gift. We need to joyfully recognize that our reality is the fruit of a gift, and also accept our freedom as grace. This is the difficult thing today, in a world that believes it possesses something of itself, the fruit of its own originality and freedom” (Pope Francis, Ap. Ex. Gaudete et exultate , on the call to holiness in the contemporary world, n. 55) .

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 04.17.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, April 21, 2024. Four Sunday of Lent.

The Good Shepherd gives life

The passage from the Gospel of the 4th Sunday of Easter is taken each year from chapter 10 of the Gospel of John and presents Jesus to us as the good shepherd. This year, which is year B, the Liturgy has us read the central part of the chapter, verses 11-18, where it is said that the Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep and knows them.

Unlike the mercenary shepherd who only has interested relationships with the sheep, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, knows, that is to say, loves his own. The relationships between Jesus and believers are based on knowledge, in the biblical sense of the term: on deep bonds of love. Indeed in the Bible the word “knowledge” implies intimacy and mutual trust. This is the term generally used to describe marital relations: “Adam knew Eve his wife, who conceived and gave birth…” (Gen 4:1); “Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son; you will give him the name Jesus”, announces the angel to Mary, who responds: “How will this be done since I do not know a man? » (Luke 1:31-34). So when Jesus says: “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me,” we understand the depth of his love for us and the depth that he expects from us in return.

These strong bonds of loving knowledge between Jesus and us find their foundation in the relationships that unite Jesus to the Father. These bonds are manifested by giving his life for us (Jn 10:14). This statement is similar to that found in Jn 10:11, but stronger. If in verse 11 “to give life” means to be willing to risk one’s own life for the sheep, in verse 14 it literally means to deprive oneself of life. This total gift of self is the specific attitude of Jesus, the one which characterized his entire mission on earth and not only his passion and his death.

This total gift, a sign of a love ready to give life, brings to the fore the fact that we belong to him: ‘his sheep’, lovingly guarded and guided to life. On the contrary, the mercenaries, the opportunists, treat men as ‘goods’ and not as people.

So, today, let each of us ask ourselves the questions: “Which ‘sheep’ of the flock am I? Am I the sheep ‘lost and found’ or am I still ‘lost’? Am I the sheep who lets herself be led gently, to find rest in Him, am I the ‘wounded or sick’ sheep who lets herself be bandaged or cared for by Him? » If our answer is positive, we will follow Jesus and, when we have difficulty walking, He will carry us on his shoulders.

Follow Christ the Good Shepherd

Following Christ like docile sheep does not mean being naive, foolish and blindly obedient, but means being humble, trusting and letting ourselves be held in the arms, lovingly abandoning ourselves to Him who walks with us and for us. Moreover, being humble and trusting in Jesus does not mean not using intelligence because humility is the virtue which predisposes the intelligence to faith and the heart to love.

Following Christ like sheep conscious of being loved and not rejected people means letting ourselves be guided by Him, our saint and good shepherd, to the eternal meadows of heaven. He is a “pastor” because he is a “lamb”. It is in fact written: “The Lamb will be their shepherd to lead them to the springs of the waters of life” (Rev 7:17).

But let us not forget that Jesus wanted the priest in the Church to be like the “Good Shepherd”. Not only but especially in the parish, the priest continues the mission and pastoral duty of Jesus; he must therefore “shepherd the flock”, by teaching, by giving grace, by defending the “sheep” from error and evil, by consoling but above all by loving.

Even if the way of being a priest changes according to place and time, all priests are called to imitate Christ the Good Shepherd who, unlike the mercenary shepherd, does not seek other interests, does not pursue any other advantage than that to guide, feed, protect his sheep: “so that they may have life, life in abundance” (Jn 10.10).

All pastors

By virtue of baptism, every Christian is called to be a “good shepherd” in his environment:

– Parents must be “Good Shepherds” for their children, edifying them with love;

– Children must obey the love of parents and learn a simple and coherent faith, learning to give the life they have received as a gift;

– The spouses must give an imprint to their relationship as a couple, by conforming to the good shepherd, so that family life is always at this height of feelings and ideals desired by the Creator, to which the family owes its name “Domestic Church »;

– Teachers at school, workers in factories or offices, let each of them always seek to be “a good shepherd” like Jesus.

– But, above all, must be “good shepherds” in society are people consecrated to God: religious men and women, members of a secular institute.

This is why, on this Sunday, we must pray for all religious vocations, male and female, so that in the Church the witness of religious life is ever greater, lively, intense and effective. The world today needs convinced and totally dedicated witnesses more than ever.

I am thinking in particular of the consecrated Virgins who exercise a particular “pastoral minister” in the Church.

Even if their ministry is not an ordained ministry, these consecrated women do not limit themselves to bearing witness to the angelic condition of the children of the Kingdom, by living in virginity. In addition to chastity, which they are called to observe in perfect continence, consecrated Virgins practice their commitment to poverty of heart and life for a serious sharing of human suffering, as well as the obedience that they must bear to God. An obedience which presents itself in the exhortations and precepts of the Church, in the advice and pastoral directives, to meet the needs of people. The Ritual of the consecration of Virgins suggests that they fulfill their service (= ministry) with sobriety in life, with the help of the poor and through acts of penance: “The virgins in the Church are those women who, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, take a vow of chastity in order to love Christ with more ardor and serve by devoting themselves more freely to their brothers… They have the duty to respond to works of penance and mercy , to apostolic activity and to prayer” (Ritual of the consecration of the Virgins, 2). Therefore, even if they give primacy to prayer and contemplation, consecrated virgins serve the pastoral ministry of the Church by putting the gift of self at the service (ministry) of the Church, holy fold for saved sheep and in devoting itself to love towards all men and women in the ordinary circumstances of life, so that all may form one thing in Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 04.12.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, April 14, 2024. Third Sunday of Lent.

In the sea of ​the same old life there is a continuous novelty.

Easter was fifteen days ago. Work and school have started again at full speed and everyday life has started to flow as usual. The routine of everyday life leads to a vague recollection of the announcement that the Lord is risen. The unheard news that the risen Christ has definitively defeated death risks being reduced to an information on an important event far back in time. This happens because we forget that it is a news that not only informs us that our life does not end here but forms us as people who already on this Earth participate in the resurrection of Christ.

How can we intensely live the memory of Christ without letting ourselves be tossed by the waves of life?

How can we be mindful of the Risen One in daily life?

Living the memory of the Lord in the work and not despite work, in the family and not despite the family, in the Church and not despite the Church that with its rites defines what is true.

It is precisely the Church with its liturgy that helps us to remember Christ. Let us consider, for example, Holy Week. During this great and holy period, the Church has awakened in us the living memory of the sufferings that the Lord has endured for us and has prepared us to celebrate with joy “the true Easter that the Blood of Christ has covered with glory, the Easter in which the Church celebrates the Feast that is the origin of all the feasts“. (Ambrosian Preface of the Easter Mass).

On Holy Thursday, the Church recalled the Last Supper where the Lord, on the eve of his passion and death, instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist in which Christ gives himself to all of us as food of salvation and as a medicine of immortality.

Good Friday is the day when the Church recalls the passion, crucifixion, and death of Jesus. On this day, the liturgy brings us together to meditate on the great mystery of evil and sin which oppress humanity and to make us retrace the sufferings of the Lord which expiate this evil.

Remembrance needs silence, so Holy Saturday is marked by a profound silence. There is a need of a day of silence to meditate on the reality of human life, on the forces of evil and on the great power of good arising from the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection.

This Saturday of silence and sorrowful memory leads to the Easter Vigil, which introduces the most important Sunday in the history of the world: the Easter Sunday of Christ.

Remembering the mysteries of the dead and risen Christ means living in deep and supportive adherence to the present, convinced that what we celebrate is a living reality.

Remembering Christ does not mean simply remembering him as a person from the past who has left us a profound teaching, but it means making him present by letting us be drawn by his loving presence forever alive.

Remembering means to be in communion with Christ. The communion with Jesus is not a mystery that is celebrated simply in the liturgy with gestures and words. The commandment: “Do this in memory of me” has a double meaning: to remember the sacrament and to remember in life, to make Jesus present in the sacrament and to make him present in charity.

Remembrance and presence.

On this third Sunday of Easter, the liturgy helps us to remember by putting Christ’s presence before the eyes of the heart. It does this by proposing as a reading of the Gospel the account that St. Luke makes of the third meeting of the Risen Lord with his Apostles in the Upper Room.

On this Sunday the Church wants to make us understand how, after his resurrection, Christ is truly alive among us, in our days and in our daily life. Faith in Christ is precisely this: to believe that Christ is truly risen and lives every day with us as a faithful friend forever.

Remembering does not mean recalling the memory of a loved person but giving back to the eyes of the heart the true presence of the Beloved.

The evangelist Luke proposes almost an itinerary of the apparitions of Christ to make us better understand that the Crucified Christ is truly the Risen One.

After having on the previous Sundays presented, as evidence of the resurrection of Jesus, the empty tomb, the testimony of the angels, the apparition to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, today St. Luke tells of Jesus offering even more tangible evidence: He appears to the assembled Apostles, shows his wounds, and sits at the table with them. Jesus has a real body. The Risen One is not a ghost, but a real being who becomes a presence among his own to whom he asks to remember him and to bear witness to him.

This presence remains available to us in a sublime way in the Eucharistic bread, which is kept in every church in the world. Let us go and stand before the tabernacle to worship and visit the Risen Lord. Eucharistic adoration and the visit to the Blessed Sacrament must be done precisely because they have in themselves an orientation to Christ present under the species of bread.

In Greek “adoration” is called proskynesis. It means the gesture of submission, the recognition of God as our true measure, whose norm we accept to follow. It means that freedom does not mean enjoying life and considering oneself to be autonomous but orienting oneself according to the measure of truth and goodness to become real and good.

In Latin “adoration” is ad-oratio, that is mouth-to-mouth contact, kiss, hug and, therefore, love. Submission becomes union, because the one to whom we submit is Love. Submission acquires a meaning because it does not impose foreign things upon us but frees us in function of the innermost truth of our being, makes us permanently convert to Christ and have a relationship of friendship, sharing, love, confidence with Him and with our brothers and sisters: communion.

The union with Christ through the Eucharist eaten and adored, allows us to give, as Christians, a true testimony of a life lived with Him.

An example of how to live this remembrance and this presence of Christ comes to us from the consecrated Virgins. Their vocation is not identified in a specific task or in a particular function, but in “remembering” and in testifying that the essential in the Church is the love of Christ for each one and for all. It is a faithful and personal love that the Scripture and the word of the Church have translated with the image of the “Bridegroom”.

It is also useful to remember that “the eucharistic mystery also has an intrinsic relationship to consecrated virginity, inasmuch as the latter is an expression of the Church’s exclusive devotion to Christ, whom she accepts as her Bridegroom with a radical and fruitful fidelity. In the Eucharist, consecrated virginity finds inspiration and nourishment for its complete dedication to Christ.”(Benedict XVI, Sacramentum caritatis, n. 81). “In the Eucharist, Christ always implements the gift of himself that he made on the Cross. His whole life is an act of total sharing of self for love”(Pope Francis).

The consecrated virgin is passionate in her love for the Eucharist, receiving Christ as her inspiration and her food. She is a woman always ready to receive the intimate love of the Lord and to repay him with prayer and service. Strengthened by this food, she dares to present herself publicly as a virgin amid a hostile society, humbly recognizing that she is not only a consecrated woman but a consecrated virgin.

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The ceremony began in the atrium of the Basilica with the blessing of the new fire and the preparation of the Paschal Candle. Following the procession to the altar, with the Paschal candle lit and the singing of the Exsultet, came the Liturgy of the Word and the Baptismal Liturgy, during which the Pope administered the Sacraments of Christian initiation to 8 neophytes.

Below is the Pope’s homily translated into English:

***

The women go to the tomb at daybreak, yet they still feel the darkness of night. They continue to walk, yet their hearts remain at the foot of the cross. The tears of Good Friday are not yet dried; they are grief-stricken, overwhelmed by the sense that all has been said and done. A stone has sealed the fate of Jesus. They are concerned about that stone, for they wonder: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (Mk 16:3). Yet once they arrive, they are taken aback when they see the amazing power of the Easter event: “When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back” (Mk 16:4).

Dear brothers and sisters, let us stop and reflect on these two moments, which bring us to the unexpected joy of Easter. At first, the women anxiously wonder: Who will roll away the stone from the tomb? Then, at a second moment, looking up, they see that it had already been rolled back.

[Who will roll away the stone from the tomb?]

First, there is the question that troubles their grieving hearts: Who will roll away the stone from the tomb? That stone marked the end of Jesus’ story, now buried in the night of death. He, the life that came into the world, had been killed. He, who proclaimed the merciful love of the Father, had met with no mercy. He, who relieved sinners of the burden of their condemnation, had been condemned to the cross. The Prince of Peace, who freed a woman caught in adultery from a vicious stoning, now lay buried behind a great stone. That stone, an overwhelming obstacle, symbolized what the women felt in their hearts. It represented the end of their hopes, now dashed by the obscure and sorrowful mystery that put an end to their dreams.

Brothers and sisters, it can also be that way with us. There are times when we may feel that a great stone blocks the door of our hearts, stifling life, extinguishing hope, imprisoning us in the tomb of our fears and regrets, and standing in the way of joy and hope. We encounter such “tombstones” on our journey through life in all the experiences and situations that rob us of enthusiasm and of the strength to persevere. We encounter them at times of sorrow: in the emptiness left by the death of our loved ones; we encounter them in the failures and fears that hold us back from accomplishing the good we mean to do. We encounter them in all the forms of self-absorption that stifle our impulses to generosity and sincere love, in the rubber walls, the real rubber walls, of selfishness and indifference that hold us back in the effort to build more just and humane cities and societies; we encounter them in all our aspirations for peace that are shattered by cruel hatred and the brutality of war. When we experience these disappointments, do we also have the sensation that all these dreams are doomed to failure, and that we too should ask ourselves in anguish: “Who will roll away the stone from the tomb?”.

Yet the same women who bore this darkness in their hearts tell us something quite extraordinary. When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. This is the Pasch of Christ, the revelation of God’s power: the victory of life over death, the triumph of light over darkness, the rebirth of hope amid the ruins of failure. It is the Lord, the God of the impossible, who rolled away the stone forever. Even now, he opens our hearts, so that hope may be born ever anew. We too, then, should “look up” to him.

[The stone had already been moved]

The second moment: let us look up, then, to Jesus. After assuming our humanity, he descended into the depths of death and filled them with the power of his divine life, allowing an infinite ray of light to break through for each of us. Raised up by the Father in his, and our, flesh, in the power of the Holy Spirit, he turned a new page in the history of the human race.Henceforth, if we allow Jesus to take us by the hand, no experience of failure or sorrow, however painful, will have the last word on the meaning and destiny of our lives. Henceforth, if we allow ourselves to be raised up by the Risen Lord, no setback, no suffering, no death will be able to halt our progress towards the fullness of life. Henceforth, “we Christians proclaim that this history… has meaning, an all-embracing meaning… a meaning no longer tainted by absurdity and shadows… a meaning that we call God… All the waters of our transformation converge on him; they do not pour down into the depths of nothingness and absurdity… For his tomb is empty and the One who died has now been revealed as the Living One” (K. RAHNER, Wie heisst Auferstehung?).

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is our Pasch. He is the One who brings us from darkness into light, who is bound to us forever, who rescues us from the abyss of sin and death, and draws us into the radiant realm of forgiveness and eternal life. Brothers and sisters, let us look up to him! Let us welcome Jesus, the God of life, into our lives, and today once again say “yes” to him. Then no stone will block the way to our hearts, no tomb will suppress the joy of life, no failure will doom us to despair. Brothers and sisters, let us lift our eyes to him and ask that the power of his resurrection may roll away the heavy stones that weigh down our souls. Let us lift our eyes to him, the Risen Lord, and press forward in the certainty that, against the obscure backdrop of our failed hopes and our deaths, the eternal life that he came to bring is even now present in our midst.

Sister, brother, let your heart burst with jubilation on this night, this holy night! Together let us sing of Jesus’ resurrection: “Sing to him, everything sing to him: rivers and plains, deserts and mountains … Sing to the Lord of life, risen from the tomb, more brilliant than a thousand suns. All peoples beset by evil and plagued by injustice, all peoples displaced and devastated: on this holy night cast aside your songs of sadness and despair. The Man of Sorrows is no longer in prison: he has opened a breach in the wall; he is hastening to meet you. In the darkness, let an unexpected shout of joy resound: He is alive; he is risen! And you, my brothers and sisters, small and great … you who are weary of life, who feel unworthy to sing… let a new flame be kindled in your heart, let new vitality be heard in your voice. It is the Pasch of the Lord, brothers and sisters; it is the feast of the living” (J-Y. QUELLEC, Dieu face nord, Ottignies, 1998, 85-86).

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***

“The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” (Lk 4:20). This passage of the Gospel is striking. It always makes us imagine that moment of silence when every eye was on Jesus, in a mixture of wonder and hesitance. We know, however, what happened next. After Jesus had unmasked the false expectations of his townspeople, they were “filled with rage” (Lk 4:28), got up and drove him out of town. They had indeed looked upon Jesus, but their hearts were not prepared to change at his word. They lost the occasion of a lifetime.

Tonight, Holy Thursday, will offer us a very different exchange of looks. It involves Peter, the first Pastor of our Church. Peter too initially refused to accept the “unmasking” words that the Lord had spoken to him: “You will deny me three times” (Mk 14:30). As a result, he “lost sight” of Jesus and denied him at the cock’s crow. Then, however, “the Lord turned and looked at Peter” and he “remembered the word of the Lord… and went out and wept bitterly” (Lk 22:61-62). His eyes were flooded with tears that, rising up from a wounded heart, liberated him from his false notions and his self-assurance. Those bitter tears changed his life.

Jesus’ words and actions in the course of those years had not altered Peter’s expectations, so similar to those of the people of Nazareth. He too was expecting a political Messiah, powerful, forceful and decisive. Scandalized at the sight of Jesus, powerless and submitting passively to his arrest, he said, “I do not know him!” (Lk 22:57). How true that was: Peter did not know Jesus. He would only begin to know him when, at the dark moment of his denial, he yielded to tears of shame and tears of repentance. And he would know Jesus in truth when, “hurt because Jesus said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’”, he would let the Lord’s gaze penetrate his entire being. Then, from saying, “I do not know him”, he was able to say, “Lord, you know everything” (Jn 21:17).

Dear brother priests, the healing of the heart of Peter, the healing of the apostle, the healing of the pastor, came about when, grief-stricken and repentant, he allowed himself to be forgiven by Jesus. That healing took place amid tears, bitter weeping, and the sorrow that leads to renewed love. For this reason, I have felt the need to share with you a few thoughts on an aspect of the spiritual life that has been somewhat neglected, yet remains essential. Even the word I am going to use today is somewhat old-fashioned, yet well worthy of reflecting on. That word is compunction.

The origin of the term has to do with piercing. Compunction is “a piercing of the heart” that is painful and evokes tears of repentance. Here, another episode from the life of Saint Peter can help us. His heart having been pierced by Jesus’ gaze and his words, Peter, now purified and set afire by the Holy Spirit, proclaimed on the day of Pentecost to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified” (cf. Acts 2:36). His hearers, recognizing both the evil that they had done and the salvation that the Lord was offering them, were themselves “cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37).

That is what compunction is: not a sense of guilt that makes us discouraged or obsessed with our unworthiness, but a beneficial “piercing” that purifies and heals the heart. Once we recognize our sin, our hearts can be opened to the working of the Holy Spirit, the source of living water that wells up within us and brings tears to our eyes. Those who are willing to be “unmasked” and let God’s gaze pierce their heart receive the gift of those tears, the holiest waters after those of baptism. [1] This is my desire for you, dear brother priests.

Yet we need to understand clearly what it means to weep for ourselves. It does not mean weeping in self-pity, as we are so often tempted to do. As, for example, when we are disappointed or upset that our hopes are frustrated, when we feel misunderstood, perhaps even by our fellow priests and our superiors. Or when we take an odd and morbid pleasure in brooding over wrongs received, feeling sorry for ourselves, convinced that we were not treated as we deserved or fearing that the future will hold further unpleasant surprises. This, as Saint Paul teaches us, is “worldly grief”, as opposed to “Godly grief”. [2]

Weeping for ourselves, on the other hand, means seriously repenting for saddening God by our sins; recognizing that we always remain in God’s debt, admitting that we have strayed from the path of holiness and fidelity to the love of the One who gave his life for us. [3] It means looking within and repenting of our ingratitude and inconstancy, and acknowledging with sorrow our duplicity, dishonesty and hypocrisy. Clerical hypocrisy, dear brothers, is something we fall into all too often. We need to be attentive to this reality. And turning our gaze once more to the crucified Lord and letting ourselves be touched by his love, which always forgives and raises up, never disappointing the trust of those who hope in him. Tears thus well up and, in flowing down our cheeks, descend to purify our heart.

Compunction demands effort, but bestows peace. It is not a source of anxiety but of healing for the soul, since it acts as a balm upon the wounds of sin, preparing us to receive the caress of the Lord, who transforms the “broken, contrite heart”(Ps 51:19), once it has been softened by tears. Compunction is thus the antidote to “sclerocardia”, that hardness of heart so often condemned by Jesus (cf. Mk 3:5; 10:5). For without repentance and sorrow, the heart hardens: first, it becomes stiff, impatient with problems and indifferent to persons, and then cold, impassive and impenetrable, then finally turns to stone.Yet just as drops of water can wear down a stone, so tears can slowly soften stony hearts. In this way, a “good sorrow” miraculously leads to sweetness.

Here we can begin to see why the masters of the spiritual life insist on the importance of compunction. Saint Benedict says that, “in tears and groaning daily we should confess in prayer to God the sins of our past”, [4] and observes that in prayer, “it is not by many words that we are graciously heard, but by our purity of heart and tears of compunction”. [5] Saint John Chrysostom notes that a single tear can extinguish a blaze of sins, [6] while the Imitation of Christ tells us: “Give yourself to compunction of heart”, since “through levity of heart and neglect of our shortcomings, we do not feel the sorrows of our soul”. [7] Compunction is the remedy for this, since it brings us back to the truth about ourselves, so that the depths of our being sinners can reveal the infinitely greater reality of our being pardoned by grace – the joy of being pardoned. It is not surprising, then, that Isaac of Nineveh could say: “The one who forgets the greatness of his sins forgets the greatness of God’s mercy in his regard”. [8]

To be sure, dear brothers and sisters, all interior renewal is born of the encounter between our human misery and God’s mercy, and it develops through poverty of spirit, which allows the Holy Spirit to enrich us. Here too, we can think of the clear teaching of many spiritual masters, including, once again, Saint Isaac: “Those who acknowledge their sins… are greater than those who by their prayers raise the dead. Those who weep for an hour over their sins are greater than those who serve the whole world by contemplation… Those who are blessed with self-knowledge are greater than those blessed with the vision of angels”. [9]

Brother priests, let us look to ourselves and ask ourselves what part compunction and tears play in our examination of conscience and our prayers.  Let us ask whether, with the years that pass, our tears increase. In nature, the older we become, the less we weep. In the life of the spirit, however, we are asked to become like children (cf. Mt 18:3): if we fail to weep, we regress and grow old within, whereas those whose prayer becomes simpler and deeper, grounded in adoration and wonder in the presence of God, grow and mature. They become less attached to themselves and more attached to Christ. Made poor in spirit, they draw closer to the poor, those who are most dear to God. As Saint Francis of Assisi wrote in his testament, those whom we used to keep at a distance now become our dear companions. [10] So it is that those who feel compunction of heart increasingly feel themselves brothers and sisters to all the sinners of the world, setting aside airs of superiority and harsh judgments, and filled with a burning desire to show love and make reparation.

Dear brothers, another aspect of compunction is solidarity. A heart that is docile, liberated by the spirit of the Beatitudes, becomes naturally prone to practice compunction towards others. Rather than feeling anger and scandal at the failings of our brothers and sisters, it weeps for their sins. There occurs a sort of reversal, where the natural tendency to be indulgent with ourselves and inflexible with others is overturned and, by God’s grace, we become strict with ourselves and merciful towards others. The Lord seeks, above all in those consecrated to him, men and women who bewail the sins of the Church and the world, and become intercessors on behalf of all. How many heroic witnesses in the Church have shown us this way! We think of the monks of the desert, in East and West; the constant intercession, in groaning and tears, of Saint Gregory of Narek; the Franciscan offering for unrequited Love; and those many priests who, like the Curé of Ars, lived lives of penance for the salvation of others. Dear brothers, this is not poetry, but priesthood!

Dear brother priests, from us, his shepherds, the Lord desires not harshness but love, and tears for those who have strayed. If our hearts feel compunction, the difficult situations, the sufferings and the lack of faith that we encounter daily will make us respond not with condemnation, but with perseverance and mercy. How greatly we need to be set free from harshness and recrimination, selfishness and ambition, rigidity and frustration, in order to entrust ourselves completely to God, and to find in him the calm that shields us from the storms raging all around us! Let us pray, intercede and shed tears for others; in this way, we will allow the Lord to work his miracles. And let us not fear, for he will surely surprise us!

Our ministry will help in this. Today, in our secular societies, we run the risk of being hyperactive and at the same time feeling inadequate, with the result that we lose enthusiasm and are tempted to “pull up the oars”, to take refuge in complaining and we forget that God is infinitely greater than all our problems. When that happens, we become bitter and prickly, always badmouthing and complaining about things. Whereas if bitterness and compunction are directed not to the world but to our own hearts, the Lord will not fail to visit us and raise us up. That is exactly what the Imitation of Christ tells us to do: “Busy yourself not about the affairs of others, and do not become entangled in the business of your superiors. Keep an eye primarily on yourself, and admonish yourself instead of your friends. If you do not enjoy the favour of men, do not let it sadden you; yet consider it a serious matter if you do not conduct yourself as well or as carefully as is becoming”. [11]

Lastly, let me emphasize another essential point: compunction is not so much our work but a grace, and, as such, it must be sought in prayer. Repentance is God’s gift and the work of the Holy Spirit.

As an aid to cultivating a spirit of repentance, I would share two bits of advice. First, let us stop looking at our life and our vocation in terms of efficiency and immediate results, and being caught up in present needs and expectations; instead let us view things against the greater horizon of the past and the future. The past, by recalling God’s fidelity – God is faithful –, being mindful of his forgiveness and firmly anchored in his love. The future, by looking to the eternal goal to which we are called, the ultimate purpose of our lives. Broadening our horizons, dear brothers, helps to expand our hearts, to spend time with the Lord and to experience compunction. My second bit of advice follows from the first. Let us rediscover our need to cultivate prayer that is not obligatory and functional, but freely chosen, tranquil and prolonged. Brothers, how is your prayer life? Let us return to adoration. Have you been forgetting to adore the Lord? Let us return to the prayer of the heart.   Let us repeat: Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Let us sense God’s grandeur even as we contemplate our own sinfulness, and open our hearts to the healing power of his gaze. Then we will rediscover the wisdom of Holy Mother Church in having our prayer always begin in the words of the poor man who cries: God, come to my assistance!

Dear brothers, allow me to conclude by returning to Saint Peter and his tears. The altar we see above his tomb makes us think of how often we priests – who daily say: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you” – have disappointed and grieved the One who loved us so greatly as to make our hands the instruments of his presence. We do well, then, to repeat those prayers we say in silence: “With humble spirit and contrite heart may we be accepted by you, Lord”, and “Wash me, O Lord, from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”. Yet in every way, brothers, we are comforted by the certainty spoken of in today’s liturgy: the Lord, consecrated by his anointing (cf. Lk 4:18), came “to bind up the brokenhearted” (Is 61:1). If hearts are broken, surely they can be bound up and healed by Jesus. Thank you, dear priests, for your open and docile hearts. Thank you for all your hard work and your tears. Thank you for bringing the miracle of God’s mercy. Always forgive. Be merciful. Bring God’s mercy to our brothers and sisters in today’s world. Dear priests, may the Lord console you, strengthen you and reward you. Thank you!

Notes:

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 02.27.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024.

The Resurrection of Christ is a historical fact and a dogma of faith.

The resurrection is a dogma of the Christian faith, which is grafted into a fact that has historically happened and confirmed. Today, Easter Day, we are called to reflect “with the mind kneeled” on the mystery enunciated by the dogma, enclosed in the historical fact and celebrated in the liturgy.

The truth of the resurrection is documented by the New Testament, believed and lived as central point by the first Christian communities, transmitted as fundamental by Tradition and that continues to be deepened, studied and preached as an essential part of the paschal mystery.

My reflections follow this path that the Church offers us, but I will limit myself to the passage of today’s Gospel in which St John recounts: “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.“(Jn 20,1-9).

As you can see, the story develops around the “empty tomb”. The tomb without the body of Christ is not enough to “prove” his resurrection. The empty tomb, the removed entrance stone and the sheets that wrapped Jesus arranged in an orderly manner, if not a “proof” of the resurrection, are however “signs” for those who know how to read them correctly, kneeling with their heart.

In this prayerful “reading” of today’s Gospel, it is useful to examine the reactions of the people who first went to see the empty tomb: Mary Magdalene, Peter and the “other disciple”, John, the “Disciple that Jesus loved “.

When John entered the tomb after Peter, he “saw and believed” that the tomb carved for death had become our cradle for a new life because he who triumphed over death is the firstborn among the dead (Ap 1,5). Today is Easter, passage and liberation for Jesus and for all his brothers and sisters. Following the path that He has traced to us, the day will come when, even for us, death, which destroys everything and is our enemy par excellence, will be annihilated by the realm of immortality (see 1Cor 15,26).

A tomb that becomes a cradle

It should be noted that Peter enters the tomb and “observes” the linen and the shroud carefully folded. The Greek text of the Gospel uses the verb “theoréin”, which means more than just seeing physical: in fact, it means to “scrutinize” and involves a careful, reflective, questioning look. Actually, from the parallel passage of Luke (24.12) we learn that Peter was “full of amazement” for what happened, and of which he is the most authoritative witness. For his “seeing” John uses the Greek verb “eidein”, the perfect of “horào”, which means to look, to perceive, to get to know; in the biblical language of the New Testament the verb also indicates spiritual vision.

John says that he “saw and believed”. Why? What did he “see”, and what did he “believe”?

Unlike Peter, John had remained with Jesus until the end and had witnessed his burial. Now, bent over the tomb, he sees that the bandages and the shroud are exactly in the position in which the body had been placed so to exclude any tampering.

Let us remember that for the evangelist John “to see” (“horào”) is also to become aware of an event of revelation. The beloved disciple therefore “saw” in a deeper way than Peter. In this “seeing” he was helped – as I mentioned above – by his previous experience of having been among those who had brought Christ to the tomb.

But, above all, it was the love for Jesus, of which the “beloved disciple” had been penetrated, that let light pass through him: the bandages, slumped but still wrapped, and the shroud in that strange position, were the sign that Jesus had come out of the tomb alive, escaping in a mysterious way from the clothes that enveloped him. John therefore, in the arrangement of the bandages and of the shroud, sees a postponement. He did not see the Risen One, but his traces. However, looking with love at these traces was enough for him to believe.

Even Mary Magdalene, thanks to her love, went to the tomb, saw it open and empty and went to tell Peter. Then, she returned there and in the garden met the Risen Lord.

Let us proceed with order. Arrived at the tomb to embalm the body of the Master, Mary sees (in Greek “blépei”) the stone removed and turned away. Her vision is expressed with “blépo”, a Greek verb that indicates the physical seeing, the simple sight with the eyes, the material perception. From this perception, the woman arrives to a purely human conclusion: the corpse is gone, so it has been stolen and taken away. Hence her pain, or rather her anguish, because it was taken from her – perhaps forever – the only relic that had remained of her beloved Master.

She informs Peter and John, the two greatest exponents of the early Christian community, and they too go straight to the tomb.

After the return of the two Apostles, Magdalene could not resist the desire to visit the Master’s tomb again. The thought that the vanished body can lie without honor and without burial, torments her ardent and upset soul. Alone, she returns to the tomb. There, in her inconsolable pain, she cries.

Suddenly, she is faced with a man, and this man is Jesus. Magdalene does not recognize him: she is looking for the dead body of his Master and wants to bury him again. Love guides her, but faith does not illuminate that love; she does not notice that the one whose inanimate spoils she is looking for, is there alive and near.

Jesus, in his ineffable condescension, is kind enough to make his voice heard: “Woman – he tells her – why are you crying? What are you looking for?” Magdalene does not even recognize this voice. Her heart is as if entranced by an excessive and blind sensibility. Her spirit does not yet recognize Jesus, who finally calls her by name: “Mary!” “Master” she replies and wants to kiss his feet like when, washing them with precious perfume and tears, she received forgiveness of her sins. But Jesus stops her; the time has not yet come to abandon herself to effusions of joy. First, she must go and announce to the Apostles what she has seen and what she has heard in that garden: Who she has met, the risen Christ. It is she who will be, as the Holy Doctors say, the Apostle of the Apostles. Jesus tells her: “Go to my brothers and tell them that I ascend to my and your Father, my and your God”. Let us do the same.

“A virgin breasts found full and a full tomb found empty constitute the same sign” (K. Barth). The entrance, like the exit of the Son of God from life and from the world, remain shrouded in mystery. But it is a mystery of love. If we, with Easter, convert to this love, our daily life will be a reflection that will give light and warmth to everyone.

May the joy of Easter inspire us to bring to everyone the message that Christ has risen for the salvation of the whole world. In His name let’s bring to everyone the proclamation of conversion and forgiveness of sins, above all through the witness of a converted and forgiven life.

We must be witnesses of God’s mercy. There is no Easter in our hearts and lives if we are not at peace with God, with ourselves, with others, and with the whole world.

Easter begins with the conversion of the heart to mercy. In the Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis invited us to strive to live concretely this dimension of the resurrection of Christ which is mercy, and to have a heart open to forgiveness.

We can give this testimony of the risen and merciful Christ if we are “clothed with the power of the above” (Lk 24: 49), that is, with the inner strength of the Spirit of the Risen Lord. “To receive it, it is necessary, as Jesus told the disciples, not to leave Jerusalem and to remain in the ‘city’ where the mystery of salvation, the supreme God’s act of love for humanity, was consumed. For the Christians, citizens of the world, staying in Jerusalem can mean remaining in the Church, the ‘city of God for men”(Benedict XVI).

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 02.22.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, February 25, 2024. Second Sunday of lent

1) Temptation and Transfiguration.

On the first Sunday of Lent, we have contemplated Christ overcoming the test of hunger. It was not just a corporal hunger. Like every human being Jesus had three hungers:

1. hunger for life, which tempts man to have and to acquire a disproportionate quantity of material goods. This is why the devil asked him to turn stones into bread;
2. hunger for human relationships, which can be of friendship or power. The devil tempts Christ to satisfy this hunger by offering him power;
3. hunger for omnipotence. This hunger pushes us to stifle the desire of God and the yearning for boundless infinity and freedom. It induces the temptation to design one’s own existence according to the human criteria of ease, success, power, and appearance, and to yield to the worship of the Liar (the devil) instead of to the adoration of the true providential Love.

The Messiah defeated the temptation of these three hungers using, as a criterion of discernment, the fidelity to the project of God to which he fully adhered and of which He is the Word made flesh to redeem us.

Let us imitate the example of Christ “using” the Word of God as the instrument available to understand the will of God, and to overcome the temptation of the three hungers: the hunger of life, the hunger of love and power, and the hunger of relationships and of God. “When you are caught by the pangs of hunger – and we can also add of temptation – let the Word of God become your bread of life, let Christ be your Bread of Life” (St. Augustine of Hippo)

From the desert – the place of test, of rebellion and where the tempter and accuser lives (First Sunday of Lent) – let us go to the mountain of the transfiguration, the place of God’s manifestation, his revelation, and his holiness. This is the path that the second Sunday of Lent opens before us.

Today, from the desert, which recalls that human life is an exodus and a return home that passes through the desert, the place of trial and encounter with God, we arrive at Mount Tabor, the place of transfiguration. There, the shining truth of Christ is revealed to allow those who follow him to arrive at Easter not in spite of the Cross but through the Cross.

Jesus, in fact, tells us: “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself, take his cross and follow me” (Lk 9:23). He tells us that, to arrive with him to the light and joy of the resurrection and to the victory of life, love, and good, we too must take the cross every day, as a beautiful page of theImitation of Christ exhorts “Take therefore your cross and follow Jesus; thus, you will enter eternal life. He preceded you carrying his cross (Jn 19:17) and died for you so that you too may carry your cross and wish to be crucified. In fact, if you will be dead with him, with him and like him you will live. If you have been a companion in suffering, you will also be his companion in glory “(L. 2, paragraph 12, No. 2).

Therefore, let us meditate together the facts presented by these two Sundays because they anticipate the paschal mystery. The struggle of Jesus with the tempter anticipates the great final duel of the Passion, while the light of his Transfigured Body anticipates the glory of the Resurrection. On the one hand, we see Jesus fully man who shares with us even temptation. On the other, we contemplate him as Son of God who deifies our humanity.

2) Exodus of Transfiguration.

Today, the exodus, the path of liberation that we are called to fulfill, is the one of contemplation. Through contemplation, prayer becomes gaze, and our heart, which is the “center” of our soul, opens up to the light of Christ’s love.

In this way, we can understand the journey that the liturgy of this Sunday indicates to us: that of a pilgrim who carries out the exodus that leads him to the Promised Land, eternal Life with Christ.

It is a journey full of nostalgia, precariousness, and weakness, but also full of the hope of those who have the heart wounded by the beloved. It is full of light because “the ‘brightness’ that characterizes the extraordinary event of the transfiguration symbolizes its purpose: to illuminate the minds and hearts of the disciples so that they can clearly understand who their Master is. It is a flash of light that suddenly opens itself on the mystery of Jesus, and illuminates his whole person and his whole life “(Pope Francis).

It is true that to follow the Lord is to be crucified with Him. It is true that at every step the wounds of pain pierce our heart. Evil is true, sin is true, death is true. But the Transfiguration of everything is also true, and the beauty that surpasses and gives meaning to everything is true: “In the passion of Christ … the experience of beauty receives a new depth, a new realism. The One who is “Beauty in himself “ let himself be struck on his face, covered with spits, crowned with thorns … But in that disfigured face appears the authentic extreme Beauty of the Love that loves” to the end ” showing itself stronger than any lie and violence.

An example of how to grasp this transfigured beauty comes to us from the consecrated virgins. In a special way these women testify to three specific aspects of the Christian.

The first is to give themselves in complete abandonment to Christ because they lovingly trust his Love, “who does not hesitate to undress from external beauty to announce the Truth of Beauty” (Joseph Ratzinger). With their consecrated virginity, these women announce precisely the crucified beauty, the transfigured beauty, his beauty which is our true beauty.

The second is that of witnessing, in their life lived as virgin, the need to descend from the Mount to return to the evangelizing mission of the Lord, a mission that passes through the Cross and proclaims the Resurrection that is nothing else but the Transfiguration made eternal in the Humanity of the Lord.

The third is to show that listening is the main dimension of the disciple of Christ. Today’s Gospel tells: “This is my beloved Son: listen to him!” (Mk 9: 7).

In a world that has the habit of speaking so many words (it would be better saying: to chat), these women are constantly listening to the Word and, following the example of the Virgin Mary, become “virgins of listening and mothers of the Word”.

The Father asks each of us to be listener of the Word, whose words are words of life because, through the Cross, they purify from every dead work and unite to God and to the brothers.

This Word needs a place (our heart). It needs to go deep in it and to die there like a seed, to put root, to grow, to sprout and to resist the storms and bad weather like a house built on the Rock.

For it to be heard, this Word needs attention but also silence. Inner and outer silence are necessary for this word to be heard. This is a particularly difficult point for us in our time. In fact, ours is an age in which meditation is not encouraged; on the contrary, sometimes, one gets the impression that there is a fear of detaching himself, even for a moment, from the river of words and images that mark and fill the days.

The secluded life of the consecrated virgins shows how important it is to educate ourselves to the value of silence because with it we accept the Word of God in our personal and ecclesial life, valuing meditation and inner calm. Without silence one does not hear, one does not listen, one does not receive the Word and what it says. This observation of St. Augustine is always valid: Verba crescente, verba deficiunt – “When the Word of God grows, the words of man become less” (cf. Sermo 288: PL 38.1307; Sermo 120.2: PL38, 677).

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 02.16.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, February 18, 2024. First Sunday of lent

1) Convert to the truth of love.
The first Sunday of Lent – Year B – offers us the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert according to the Gospel of Saint Mark which, compared to that of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, is characterized by great brevity. With the sober and concise style of Saint Mark, the Gospel introduces us to the climate of this liturgical season: “The Spirit drove Jesus into the desert and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan” (Mk 1,12) and served by the Angels ( see Mk 1:13)
In these two verses we find the two aspects of the biblical conception of the desert summarized. On the one hand, the desert is seen as the place of temptation when it is said that the Spirit pushed Jesus into the desert, where he remained for forty days (like the forty years of the people in the desert) tempted by Satan. On the other hand, the reference to the desert as the privileged place of experience of the Covenant, that is, of the love of the Lord, whose angels serve Christ. Without a doubt he remembered the words of the prophet Hosea: “Behold, I will draw him to me, I will lead him into the desert and I will speak to his heart” (2, 16).

In the garden of stones that is the desert, the new Garden of Eden made a place of death by sin, Jesus overcomes the old, dull gaze on things that seduce and helps us to look at life with new eyes, holy and full of love.

After receiving baptism from John, Jesus enters the desert led by the same Holy Spirit, who had rested on Him, consecrating him and revealing him as the Son of God.
In that solitary place, a place of trial, as shown by the experience of the people of Israel, the reality of the emptying of Christ, who stripped himself of the form of God, appears with vivid drama (see Phil 2:6-7).

He, who has not sinned and cannot sin, submits to the test and therefore can sympathize with our infirmity (see Heb 4:15). He allows himself to be tempted by Satan, the adversary, who from the beginning has opposed God’s plan of salvation in favor of men.

To these men Christ tells the good news: God is near, “repent and believe in the Gospel”. Believe in love.
At the beginning of Lent, these words “convert and believe in the Gospel” are addressed to each of us. It is not an injunction that arises from arbitrariness, but an indication that flows from love.

Jesus comes to announce the law of freedom, not to denounce according to a law of slavery. His announcement is a “yes” that creates a new alliance of life, and not a “no” that punishes with death. If we respond to his yes with our yes, we will live a good, beautiful and happy life like his.

In order to say this “yes”, we must convert and believe the Gospel. This does indeed put us on the path of charity with Christ. However, let’s not forget that to take and live the path of love, one thing is an indispensable condition: converting, that is, abandoning one’s own will, through humility. Saint

Bernard of Clairvaux discovered this by reading the Gospel, where Jesus recommends to his disciples: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18.3). And what else does it mean to become children – asks Saint Bernard – if not “to become humble”? (On Lent II,1). Converting is therefore reduced to learning the difficult art of humility.

Conversion is the “humble and total yes” of one who surrenders his existence to the Gospel, responding freely to Christ who first offers himself to man as the way, truth and life, as the one who alone frees and saves him. This is precisely the meaning of the first words with which, according to the evangelist Mark, Jesus opens the preaching of the “Gospel of God”: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near; convert and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1,15).

2) Penance and conversion.
Converting means changing direction on the path of life: not, however, with a small adjustment, but with a return home as the prodigal son did.

To convert is to turn your mind and heart to God who has become close to you in Christ.
To convert is to welcome the gift of God’s closeness. In my opinion, the strongest and most meaningful word that Jesus pronounces in the Gospel today is this: the Kingdom of God is near. Which means: the lordship of God is present in the person and work of Jesus Christ and is close because it began and grows among men with the presence of Jesus. Conversion is getting closer to this presence, it is letting yourself be reached by the Spirit because we feel distant, orphans of God.
In these forty days the Church asks us to live with intense prayer, with sincere penance in contrition and with generous almsgiving which ensures that compassion towards the poor is not just an emotion but a sharing of goods.

The works of Lent that the Church asks of us are three: prayer, penance and almsgiving. Today, I will focus on penance, to help us celebrate the great mystery of the Easter of His Son, purified and completely renewed in mind and spirit.
Penance has two essential elements: contrition of the heart and mortification of the body. It should not be forgotten that if it is the human heart that wants evil, it is often the body that helps it to commit it.
But the principle of true penance is in the heart: we learn it from the Gospel in the examples of the prodigal son, of the sinner who washes Christ’s feet with her tears, of Zacchaeus the tax collector and of Saint Peter, who offered Christ his pain and Christ confirmed him in his love.
During Lent, the Christian must practice penance of the heart and consider it as the essential foundation of all the acts of this holy season. But it would always be illusory if it did not add the homage of the body to the internal feelings that it inspires.

The Savior is not content to groan and weep over our sins. He atones for them with the suffering of his own body. The Church, which is its sure interpreter, warns us that the penance of our heart will not be accepted if we do not combine it with the exact observance of abstinence on Ash Wednesday and on the Fridays of Lent and fasting, on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The devil tries to start from sensuality and gluttony, which is why during Lent we are asked to practice not only prayer, but abstinence and fasting.

At this point it is legitimate to ask what penance to do, what sacrifice to offer to the Lord to live this Lenten period well, in particular, and that of everyday life in general to atone for one’s sins and walk with Christ.

The answer, which comes to us from the Bible and Tradition, is this: “To do the Will of God in everything, always and perfectly”. Whoever offers a fast offers a part of himself to the Lord. Those who offer the Lord the adhesion of their own will to his will, however, offer him all of themselves. And in this the consecrated Virgins are an example. These women, giving themselves body and soul to Christ, perform a perfect act of love. Each of them says “Lord I love what You love and I hate what You hate. I love virtue, I hate sin.” But they show that this is not enough. They love as God wants, with an authentic, joyful and grateful love.

In fact, if love animates this authenticity, the Lord reigns in the person with his joy (see Pope Francis). Furthermore, the life of the consecrated woman concretely expresses the importance of giving everything to God with joy and simplicity. Finally, they testify that giving oneself to God with gratitude is a sign of maturity because they are grateful to experience that God supports them with the light of his face. Finally they show that a grateful heart is a faithful heart.

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 01.25.2023).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, January 28, 2024.

 An authoritative, new and liberating word.

Last Sunday we were invited to reflect on the vocation of Peter, Andrew, James and John. In the company of these four fishermen, whom Jesus called to become fishers of men, we continue the journey begun with the reading of the Gospel of St. Mark. In the passage we read today, the Evangelist tells us about the Messiah who goes to Capernaum. It is Saturday and even Jesus, like every Jew, goes to the synagogue for prayer and the reading of the Bible. Since, after the scribes and the elders, every Israelite could ask to intervene, Jesus takes the floor and teaches with an authority that amazes those who are present. This authority of teaching is then immediately followed by the authority of action that frees a possessed man. The devil is an intruder in man, who is a child of God. The word of the Son of God drives away evil and puts an end to a devastating and ruinous cohabitation.

Those who attend the scene in the synagogue “are amazed at the teaching of Jesus, because he taught as one who has authority and not as the scribes.”

Jesus teaches as one who has authority. The one who has authority is the one who not only announces the good news, but makes it happen. We can see this from the following passage: “In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Quiet! Come out of him!” The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him. shouting loudly, came out of him. “(Mk 1: 23-26). The good news is God who is among men and frees them by giving them back their healthy and holy life.

The gospel (= good news) that is Christ himself and that He brings to us, is a new teaching which does not simply mean something never said before or never heard elsewhere. This is not simply a chronological novelty. In the word of Jesus the presence of the newness of God is felt, it is a qualitative novelty: something that regenerates and renews.

The novelty of Jesus broke into the world: his teaching cannot be reduced to a doctrine, a sublime lesson in theology or ethics to be imposed on the weak shoulders of man. The novelty is He himself, who asks only to be welcomed as a liberating force. Christ, who “brings every novelty bringing himself” (Saint Irenaeus of Lyons) with his word pronounced with authority, manifests the love of God. His is a word that works and frees those who are the victims of evil, ripping them away from the power of the Evil One to restore them to their dignity and freedom as children of God.

This gospel is addressed to us today so that we welcome it by asking to be cleansed of our sins and to make our own the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “I have committed a serious sin, the conscience will be disturbed but it will not be shaken because I will remember the wounds of the Lord. Therefore, if a remedy so powerful and efficacious comes to my mind, I can no longer be troubled by any disease, however malign … My merit, therefore, is God’s mercy, as long as He is full of mercy” (Discourse n.61 on the Song of Songs).

That of Christ is the authority of a person rich in divine mercy and humanity. While the scribes “teach” with the concern of interpreting the Law and elaborating a doctrine, Jesus “teaches” by showing the novelty of his life as the “fulfillment” of the Law. From this emerges an “authoritativeness” that generates amazement. It is not just a matter of a “doctrine” that is better, deeper or better constructed and directed towards intelligence, but of a force that, while being shown, mercifully transforms the ones who open themselves to accept it. That of Christ is a strong and, at the same time, sweet word that heals and frees from sin that is running away from God and from ourselves.

Meeting the authoritative love.

The repetitive succession of time in Capernaum is broken – in the synagogue[1] then and in the church today – by the meeting of Jesus of Nazareth with the locals among whom there is a man possessed by an impure spirit. Everyone was surprised and began to wonder: “What is this? A new teaching, full of authority. He commands the impure spirits and they obey him “.

Even today we are invited to meet, in the liturgy, the Lord who comes with his word, dictated with authority, to free us from the power of the Evil One who insinuates into us to take away what baptism has given us by making us children of God.

To steal the children from God, the devil insinuates the doubt in men by inducing them to think that God is not a Father but an enemy of our humanity.

The devil is an “impure spirit” because he aims to dirty our gaze by polluting it to the source; a stained gaze no longer sees the love of God, it loses its reasons for praising Him and therefore separates from Him.

Fortunately, even today Christ enters the “place where we are gathered” in prayer and comes to meet us. He “teaches with authority” during the liturgical celebrations, through the preaching and proclamation of the Word.

We need the “authority” of Jesus, so different from that of the “scribes”. He does not speak with presumption, his chair is not far up, but next to the poor and sinners. Christ is authoritative because he brought the face of God to earth, gave flesh to his love for the Father and has “enclosed” his omnipotence in mercy.

Jesus does not speak in the name of God, as the scribes did. He is God. He descends with authority into the heart and heals it. Only He can heal us from evil by purifying the source of our evil attitudes.

The important thing is that our mind and our heart are turned towards Christ, namely converted towards Him together with our brothers and sisters. The journey that begins on this Sunday will end on the Cross. We walk looking at Christ, who, step by step, introduces us into the knowledge of his identity.

Let us be amazed at the unthinkable encounter with a God who does not crush man, but gives himself, loves him, and frees him so that he can live.

Let’s make the amazement of the listeners of the time become ours.

In today’s Gospel. St. Mark writes: “They were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who has authority and not as the scribes.” Everyone was amazed, almost incredulous, but perceived in His words the superior strength of grace, as St. Luke also wrote: “they were astonished by the words of grace that he pronounced” (Lk 4:22).

In meeting Christ, the “definitive” prophet, the attitude to have is that of a listening full of amazement.  It is a listening that demands a climate of inner silence and of amazed tension, a sign of the desire for knowledge in which an attitude of welcome and dedication is born and grows.

An example of this welcome and dedication comes from the Consecrated Virgins who testify that it is practicable what St. Paul says in the second reading of today’s Mass.

The Apostle of the Gentiles writes: “Brothers, I would like you to be without worries: those who are not married are concerned with the things of the Lord, how they may please the Lord; those who are married, on the other hand, are concerned with the things of the world, how they can please their wife, and find themselves divided! Thus, the unmarried woman, like the virgin, is concerned with the things of the Lord and to be holy in body and in spirit; the married woman, on the other hand, worries about the things of the world and how she can please her husband. I then say this for your own good, not to throw you a snare, but to direct you to what is worthy and keep you united to the Lord without distractions “(1 Cor 7: 32-35).

Today there are so many opportunities and distractions that lead us to neglect our relationship with God and to satisfy only our material needs. The teaching of St. Paul and the testimony of the consecrated Virgins show an alternative path for those who conceive love only in the horizon of present time and corporeality. The abuse of the term love and its various meanings makes us understand how problematic it is to choose the right way to live in the love of God and, in this divine love, to virginally love all our brother despite limitations and deficiencies.

[1] Synagogue is a Greek word that means ” meeting place”

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(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 01.11.2024).- Commentary on the Gospel of Sunday, January 14, 2024.

Vocation in everyday life.

After the celebration of the Baptism of Jesus that last Sunday ended the Christmas season, today the liturgy presents a passage from the first chapter of the Gospel of John to complete the narrative of the events of the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God calling us to follow him.

It is no coincidence that even the other two readings of this Sunday’s Mass, the Second in Ordinary Time, have vocation as their central theme. We have all been called to follow a “vocation” to be realized in our everyday life. We are all called to live our vocation as children of God in the only Son in the apparent banality of everyday life. We are all called to be with Christ before to do something for Christ. The greatest example in this regard is Mary who, before “performing” as a mother, “was” and “is” still mother. Even the apostles mentioned in the Gospel today before doing something for Christ, were with Christ. To John and Andrew who asked him: “Master, where do you live,” Jesus answered: “Come and see”. He proposed to “be” with him before to “do” something with him.

It is no coincidence either that the liturgy of ordinary time makes the priest wearing green vestments to indicate the green time of our lives. It is a time full of hope that accompanies and illuminates our daily life to be “spent” following Christ. The ordinary time is not a lesser time. It is the time when the Mystery of Christ’s life, and of us in Him, flows under our eyes in an ordinary way and we are called to welcome Him and understand Him to pursue the path of salvation in Christ Jesus, our Way.

Every existence is already a call: God brought us out from the confused abyss of nothingness giving us existence. He also gave us a project to accomplish, a design to realize that was even drawn “on the palm of his hands” (Isaiah 49). This is the meaning of our life: to be with God and work to the great project that He from all eternity has on each of us.

We are often tempted to believe that the vocation that God gives us is a painful duty, a mandatory and annoying virtue. No. The calling by God is for men to intertwine a love relationship with Him. He invites them to his home and welcomes them back home when they return to his love. And not only they can be with Him, but He is in their hearts. The dynamism of the man who is always in search of his house is the longing for his homeland, his birthplace. The German writer and philosopher Novalis (1772 -1801) wrote “Philosophy is the longing to go home.” The passage of today’s Gospel shows how to come to this house following Christ, asking him where he lives and staying with him.

The most beautiful consequence is that we become his home. In fact, becoming close to God is to become a living cathedral. Receiving his presence in us, we understand the magnitude of the “human” condition to which we are called. The Bible is full of stories of vocation: Abraham, Moses, David, individual prophets, the little Samuel, of whom we read in today’s first reading (1 Samuel 3.3 to 10), the Virgin Mary and the apostles.

We all, each in different forms, are united by this invitation to give to our existence the supreme value of opening to a relationship with God, saying like Mary: “Amen, Fiat, be done to me according to your Word.”

The three verbs of vocation that is not a job.

The readings of today’s Mass show that the vocation “has” three verbs:  to call, to listen, to respond.

To call. Except for a few exceptions of a direct call, the calling takes place through other men, as seen in the today’s episode. For the two disciples of John the Baptist, it is through him who indicates the Lamb of God; for Peter it was his brother Andrew; for the child Samuel it was his “guardian” Eli.

To listen, as did the little Samuel who to God who called him by name replied: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

To respond, going to live with the One who says to us, as to John and Andrew, “Come and see.”

Let’s go back again to the passage of today’s Gospel, in which we are told that, seeing that John and Andrew were following him, Jesus turned and asked, “What do you seek?” Jesus asked not to be inform, but to provoke the response and to induce them to become aware of their own search. Jesus compels man to wonder about the reasons of his journey.

The search must be questioned. There are two kinds of search. There are those who truly seek God and the ones that actually seek themselves.

Therefore, the first condition is to continually check the authenticity of the search for God. The second is not to try to understand vocation as a search to fix the world or to settle down in the world, because vocation is not the result of a human project or an organizational strategy. Vocation is Love, received and given. Vocation is not a choice, it is being chosen: “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15, 16).

Vocation to happiness through an exodus.

In Mark’s Gospel we read: “He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them:” If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. (…) Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You are lacking one thing ‘Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me “(Mark 8: 34-35; 10:21).

In today’s Gospel, with other words, Jesus repeats the invitation to John and Andrew so that they also take their journey and follow Him. In both cases, Christ asks to go with him to the new exodus, which is not only liberation from evil andfrom all other physical or moral slavery, but for freedom, truth[2], love, joy that we hold very dear.

An example of a saint who accepted totally to do this exodus with Christ, was St. Francis of Assisi (1182 -1226) who expressed his experience of liberation and vocation with the words now called the Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, harmony;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Centuries earlier, another Saint expressed the experience of being called in a very profound way. It is Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430) whose vocation-conversion was obtained by the prayers and tears of his mother Monica. In the Confessions, written to tell his vocation and give glory to God for his mercy, the great Saint says that “the weight of love lift one up” (Pondus meum amor meus – Confessions, XIII, 9, 10). It is as if the Bishop of Hippo had said: “Wherever love takes me, I’ll be there.”

He too had found love and not only did not want to lose it, he wanted to remain faithful forever.

For years he had sought truth and love. After having encountered them in the person of Christ, he remained faithful forever.

Even to him Christ asked “What are you looking for?” and to the question “Master, where do you live?”  the reply is still “Come and see.”

The witness of the consecrated Virgins in the world.

The vocation of John and Andrew was awaken by the testimony of their “old” master John the Baptist who had indicated Jesus as the “Lamb who takes away the sins of the world”, but it became clear in the dialogue with Christ “What do you seek?” “Master, where do you live?” “Come and see.”

To John and Andrew, as to the endless line of people who seek Him and ask “Where do you live?” Jesus replies with an imperative (“come”) and with a promise (“see”). The search is never finished. The discovery of God is never ended. Jesus does not say what they will see or when. It is being with Him that the future will unfold and blossom.

To follow Jesus doesn’t mean to know where he leads; it means to have faith in Him and trust in Him completely. This total abandonment is experienced in a particular way by the consecrated Virgins. These women testify that the vocation is to recognize Christ as the center of affection of the human life. Following their example, to Christ’s question “Whom, what do you want?” let us answer “You”. In their daily “yes” (fiat) these women conform to his plan of love, faithfully renewing the “yes” pronounced in the hands of the Bishop the day of their consecration.

We all know that God’s love for man is faithful and eternal. “I have loved you with an everlasting love” says God (cf. Jer 31: 3). The consecrated Virgins testify that we too can live the vocation to God’s love that is light, happiness and fullness of life on earth and for eternity.

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