(ZENIT News /  05.14.2023).-

1) We are not orphans.

This Sunday the liturgy continues the reading of Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John. The theme is love, as it appears from the beginning (“if you love me“) (Jn 14,15) and the conclusion (“whoever loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to Him “) (Jn 14:21) of today’s Gospel. The disciples, terrified by the real possibility that the Master could die, are comforted by Jesus who opens their hearts calling them” friends “and not” servants “, giving them the Eucharist, and opening a new way, that of the love given to the world through the Cross. His Cross is the concrete revelation of God who loves to the full gift of self, and a sign of his unlimited presence in the world. On the Cross Christ does not fail but brings to the full the manifestation of His immense love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn 15: 12-18).

Jesus teaches to his disciples that his donated Love is the strength that allows not to be locked into a confined past, but to be open to a future perceived as the space of their loyalty to Him in a community and in the world. Only the disciple who accepts the reality of Jesus’ death can open up to a new relationship with the Crucified Risen. The true “following” begins with Easter, an event that returns Jesus to the believer in a new way.

The Cross is not the end, but the beginning of a new path and of a relationship with Jesus Christ that has become indestructible. With his death and resurrection, He opens the “Way” leading to the “Truth” of the experience of God who “Life” in full.

On the evening of the first Holy Thursday, the scared Apostles are consoled by Christ who, in addition to proclaiming His love, tells them “I will not leave you orphans.” That evening, Jesus seemed concerned not so much for himself as for his friends, who would know the depth of their weakness and the great pain of abandonment, and would look for something to comfort them. Jesus himself would be consoled by the presence of an Angel during his agony in Gethsemane, at the time when the desire to escape the crucifixion could also be born in him. “Father, if possible, keep away from me this cup, but not mine, but thy will be done.” It is amazing how Jesus, who promised us the Consoler, wanted to be a ‘man of all time’: a man, every man, who knows the abyss of test and solitude. But in the end the design of realizing the great design of Love for us triumphed.

Even today Jesus repeats to us, “I will not leave you orphans.” These words were, are and will always be a certainty for those who follow Him, yesterday, today and always. He said these words at the most difficult time of his earthly existence and, almost becoming the voice of our fear of being abandoned by everyone, to the point of crying from the cross: “My God, my God, why did you abandon me?” (Mt 26: 46). The Risen Christ tells us that the One who loves is the home of the beloved: he brings him into his heart as his life. We have always been in God, who loves us with eternal love. If we love him, he is in us as we are in him.

2) If you love me …

“If you love me you will keep my commands” (Jn 14:15). The words of this verse are repeated as a refrain in verses 21, 23 and 24. This is not an injunction (you must comply) but a revelation of goodness: “if “you love, you will enter a new world. Everything begins with the conjunction “if”, a word filled with delicacy and respect: if you love me.  “If”: a starting point so humble, so free, so confident that helps us to understand that to observe the commandments of Christ is not to obey to an external law, but to live in love like Him. Just as the first Apostles of Christ and of the Gospel were moved by love lived as a law, we too, moved by the love of Christ, are moved to carry on the task of bringing to the world the love of God made flesh.

If we love Christ, He lives in our thoughts, actions and words and changes them. By doing so, we live his good, beautiful, and happy life. If we love Jesus and observe his commandment of love, not only we do not hurt, betray, steal, lie and kill, but we help, welcome and bless.

If it is true that today’s theme is love, as I said at the beginning of these reflections, it is equally true that the dominant ideas are two. The first is that the most appropriate criterion to verify the reality of love for Christ is the obedience to his will, that is, the concrete observance of the commandments, which in Saint John are reduced to the commandment of fraternal love. The second one is that the practice of love is the place where Jesus reveals himself.

Love is so that, when we love someone, he or she is in our heart and in our mind and becomes the rule of our life. We know what he or she thinks, what he or she does, and we do what he or she does because we too love what he or she does. In conclusion, love is not only a feeling, but it also concerns all our being:

• It concerns knowledge: we know a person if we love him or her, and “love is the way to know God” (Pope Francis)
• It concerns will: loving is wanting the good of the other person; really wanting his or her good
• It concerns our actions: if it concerns intelligence and will, it concerns our actions; it is acting like the other person.

Therefore, love is a communion in the deep of our being, it is a union of intelligence, will, and action that makes us like Christ, the Son of God, with the same intelligence, the same will, and  the same actions.

3) “My” Commandments.

In addition to the conjunction “if”, I would like to draw attention to the possessive pronoun “mine”. Saying, “If you keep the commandments” he says “my” commandments. It is as if to say: the Commandments are mine not because prescribed by me, but because they manifest what I am and your future. They summarize me and my whole life. If you love me, you will live like me and with me”

If we love Christ observing his commandments, He lives in us and changes our thoughts, our actions, our words into thoughts, actions and words of good. Then we participate to his freedom, his peace and to the joy of his living in love.

The testimony that what I am proposing is true, comes from the life of the consecrated Virgins. They show discretely but firmly that a life devoted to practicing his words makes factual the following of Christ as disciples (see Mt 7:24) It is the observance of his commandments which makes concrete the love for Him and attracts the love of the Father (see Jn 14:21). Therefore, there is no love without obedience (“you are my friends, if you do what I command you”), but without love obedience is servile. We are reminded of that by Saint Ambrose who, speaking to the consecrated Virgins, wrote: “With what ties is Christ held? … Not with the knots of ropes, but with the constraints of love and the affection of the soul” (De virginitate, 13.77). Finally, by taking to the letter the lesson of St. Paul “More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” (Phil 3: 8-9), these consecrated women live love with” detachment “. The virginal love that they are called to witness to all the baptized, especially to the married couples, realizes the objective and actual good of self and of others if it maintains an attitude of distance. Only in detachment there is true possession in God, because the hands, rather than clinging to each other, are united in prayer. These folded hands open the heart of God who pours his merciful love over humanity.

Patristic Reading

Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430)

Sermon 17

We have heard, brethren, while the Gospel was read, the Lord saying: “If ye love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter [Paraclete], that He may abide with you forever; [even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you.”1 There are many points which might form the subject of inquiry in these few words of the Lord; but it were too much for us either to search into all that is here for the searching, or to find out all that we here search for. Nevertheless, as far as the Lord is pleased to grant us the power, and in proportion to our capacity and yours, attend to what we ought to say and you to hear, and receive, beloved, what we on our part are able to give, and apply to Him for that wherein we fail. It is the Spirit, the Comforter, that Christ has promised to His apostles; but let us notice the way inwhich He gave the promise. “If ye love me,” He says, “keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever: [even] the Spirit of truth.” We have here, at all events, the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, whom the catholic faith acknowledges to be consubstantial and co-eternal with Father and Son: He it is of whom the apostle says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us.”2 How, then, doth the Lord say, “If ye love me, keep my commandments: and I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter;” when He saith so of the Holy Spirit, without [having] whom we can neither love God nor keep His commandments? How can we love so as to receive Him, without whom we cannot love at all? or how shall we keep the commandments so as to receive Him, without whom we have no power to keep them? Or can it be that the love wherewith we love Christ has a prior place within us, so that, by thus loving Christ and keeping His commandments, we become worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, in order that the love, not of Christ, which had already preceded, but of God the Father, may be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given unto us? Such a thought is altogether wrong. For he who believes that he loveth the Son, and loveth not the Father, certainly loveth not the Son, but some figment of his own imagination. And besides, this is the apostolic declaration, “No one saith, Lord Jesus,3 but in the Holy Spirit:4 and who is it that calleth Him Lord Jesus but he that loveth Him, if he so call Him in the way the apostle intended to be understood? For many call Him so with their lips, but deny Him in their hearts and works; just as He saith of such, “For they profess that they know God, but works they deny Him.”5 If it is by works He is denied, it is doubtless also by works that His name is truly invoked. “No one,” therefore, “saith, Lord Jesus,” in mind, in word, in deed, with the heart, the lips, the labor of the bands,-no one saith, Lord Jesus, but in the Holy Spirit; and no one calls Him so but he that loveth, And accordingly the apostles were already calling Him Lord Jesus: and if they called Him so, in no way that implied a feigned utterance, with the mouth confessing, in heart and works denying Him; if they called Him so in all. truthfulness of soul, there can be no doubt they loved. And how, then, did they love, but in the Holy Spirit? And yet they are i commanded to love Him and keep His commandments, previous and in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit: and yet, without having that Spirit, they certainly could not love Him and keep His commandments.

2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by having the more he may love the more. Already, therefore, had the disciples that Holy Spirit whom the Lord promised, for without Him they could not call Him Lord; but they had Him not as yet in the way promised by the Lord. Accordingly they both had, and had Him not, inasmuch as they had Him not as yet to the same extent as He was afterwards to be possessed. They had Him, therefore, in a more limited sense: He was yet to be given them in an ampler measure. They had Him in a hidden way, they were yet to receive Him in a way that was manifest; for this present possession had also a bearing on that fuller gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might come to a conscious knowledge of what they had. It is in speaking of this gift that the apostle says: “Now we have received, not the spirit of this world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God.”6 For that same manifest bestowal of the Holy Spirit the Lord made, not once, but on two separate occasions. For close on the back of His resurrection from the dead He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”7 And because He then gave [the Spirit], did He on that account fail in afterwards sending Him according to His promise? Or was it not the very same Spirit who was both then breathed upon them by Himself, and afterwards sent by Him from heaven?8 And so, why that same giving on His part which took place publicly, also took place twice, is another question: for it may be that this twofold bestowal of His in a public way took place because of the two Commandments of love, that is, to our neighbor and to God, in order that love might be impressively intimated as pertaining to the Holy Spirit, And if any other reason is to be sought for, we cannot at present allow our discourse to be improperly prolonged by such an inquiry: provided, however, it be admitted that, without the Holy Spirit, we can neither love Christ nor keep His commandments; while the less experience we have of His presence, the less also can we do so; and the fuller our experience, so much the greater our ability. Accordingly, the promise is no vain one, either to him who has not [the Holy Spirit], or to him who has. For it is made to him who has not, in order that he may have; and to him who has, that he may have moreabundantly. For were it not that He was possessed by some in smaller measure than byothers, St. Elisha would not have said to St. Elijah, “Let the spirit that is in thee be in a twofold measure in me.9

3. But when Jn the Baptist said, “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure,”10 he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spirit by measure; for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.11 And no more is it independently of the grace of the Holy Spirit that the Mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus:12 for with His own lips He tells us that the prophetical utterance had been fulfilled in Himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because He hath anointed me, and hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor.”13 For His being the Only-begotten, the equal of the Father, is not of grace, but of nature; but the assumption of human nature into the personal unity of the Only-begotten is not of nature, but of grace, as the Gospel acknowledges itself when it says, “And the child grew, and waxed strong, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in Him.”14 But to others He is given by measure,-a measure ever enlarging until each has received his full complement up to the limits of his own perfection. As we are also reminded by the apostle, “Not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly; according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.”15 Nor is it the Spirit Himself that is divided, but the gifts bestowed by the Spirit: for there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.16

4. But when He says, “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete,” He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete is in Latin called advocatus (advocate); and it is said of Christ, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”17 But He said that the world could not receive the Holy Spirit, in much the same sense as it is also said, “The minding of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be;”18 just as if we were to say, Unrighteousness cannot be righteous. For in speaking in this passage of the world, He refers to those who love the world; and such a love is not of the Father.19 And thus the love of this world, which gives us enough to do to weaken and destroy its power within us, is in direct opposition to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. “The world,” therefore, “cannot receive Him, cause it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.” For worldly love possesseth not those invisible eyes, whereby, save in an invisible way, the Holy Spirit cannot be seen.

5. But ye,” He adds, “shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and be in you.” He will be in them, that He may dwell with them; He will not dwell with them to the end that He may be in them: for the being anywhere is prior to the dwelling there. But to prevent us from imagining that His words, “He shall dwell with you,” were spoken in the same sense as that in which a guest usually dwells with a man in a visible way, He explained what “He shall dwell with you” meant, when He added the words, “He shall be in you.” He is seen, therefore, in an invisible way: nor can we have any knowledge of Him unless He be in us. For it is in a similar way that we come to see our conscience within us: for we see the face of another, but we cannot see our own; but it is our own conscience we see, not another’s. And yet conscience is never anywhere but within us: but the Holy Spirit can be also apart from us, since He is given that He may also be in us. But we cannot see and know Him in the only way in which He may be seen and known, unless He be in us.

1 Augustin has cognoscetis for the second “know,” and scit for that immediately preceding. The Greek text, however, has ginwvskw in both places, and in the present tense. He has also manebit et in vobis erit. The tense of menei, whether, present or future, depends simply on the place of the accent, mevnei, or menei`: while, as between the two readings ejsti;n and e]stai, the preponderance of Ms. authority seems in favor of the latter, although the presentgimwvskete in the principal clause would be more naturally followed by an equally proleptic present in those which follow.-Tr.
2 (Rm 5,5,
3 Or, “Jesus is Lord.” The weight of authority is clearly in favor of the reading followed by Augustin-levgei, Kuvrios jIhsou`”, giving the direct utterance of the speaker; and not the indirect accusative, Kuvrion jIhsou`n, followed by our English version.-Tr.
4 (1Co 12,3).
5 (Tt 1,16,
6 (1Co 2,12,
7 Chap. 20,22.
8 (Ac 2,4,

The post The center of Christianity is to love Jesus, who loves us by infinite love appeared first on ZENIT - English.

(ZENIT News / Paris, 02.09.2023).-

Roman Rite

Sir 15.16 to 21; Ps 119; 1 Cor 2.6 to 10; Mt 5.17 to 37

Ambrosian Rite

1 Sam 21, 2-6a; Ps 42; Heb 4, 14-16; Mt 12, 9b-21

VI Sunday after the Epiphany

1) Love is the fulfillment of the law.

The opening prayer of the Mass of this 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) says: “O God, you who reveal the fullness of the law in the new justice founded on love, make the Christian people, gathered to offer the perfect sacrifice, consistent with the demands of the Gospel, and be for every man a sign of reconciliation and peace “(Prayer of the sixth Sunday of the year).

With this prayer that sums up the Liturgy of the Word, the Church invites us to pray that the evangelical law of love may guide the thoughts and the actions of each one of us. When there is no love, everything becomes difficult, heavy, and often unacceptable. There is no human rule that can stand before those who do not love and do not feel in the heart the voice of God who is love. For this reason, the Liturgy makes us pray with this opening prayer that can be used every year: “O God, who teach us that you abide in hearts that are just and true, grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace as to become a dwelling pleasing to you. “. [1]

In fact, in today’s Gospel, Christ does not offer updated rules, improved because more complete. Saying: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets[2]; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill it “(Mt 5, 17), Jesus says that he wants to complete the Law and the Prophets. The Redeemer gives fulfillment to the law because, complying with it, carries it out and because, indicating love as a pivot of the law, completes it: everything is done in love.

Let us not forget that all the commandments are expression of God and the source of love among us. They are the cornerstone of life that builds the way to heaven, as -for example- the Book of Sirach reminds us: “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him. Immense is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power, and all-seeing. The eyes of God are on those who fear  him; he understands man’s every deed. No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.“(Sir 15: 16-21 – First Reading of today’s Mass).

It is important to remember that already the Law (the Torah given to Moses) is a gift that God has given to his people to make them knowledgeable of his saving will. An example of this thinking can be found in Psalm 119 where the praises of the law are sung: “Be good to your servant, that I may live and keep your words. Open my eyes, that I may consider the wonders of your law. Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes, that I may observe them exactly. Give me discernment, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart.”(Ps 118 17-18.34-36).

Today, with the new Law, Jesus, the new Moses, gives us a command teaching us to build our life and the relationship with the Lord as a response of love to his infinite love, the only true source of salvation. Salvation comes from the Lord, it is love, it is not from the law, it is not from our works but from God. Our works and the observance of precepts should be there, but in faith and in love. In faith, knowing that it is the Lord who gives us every grace and salvation, and we are happy to live in humility and truth before God. In love, that it is to be passionate and in love with God because He has conquered us. In love, that is sharing and giving ourselves to others excluding judgements, feeling superior, confrontation, contempt, and exclusion from the salvation of the Lord. These are the typical behaviors of the Pharisees and ours due to the many forms of self-righteousness that we carry inside.

2) But I say to you…

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, repeats several times: “But I say to you …” He does not oppose the Old Testament. The Lord does not want a formal fulfillment of the law that does not involve the heart. Knowing fully well that what pollutes a person is violence, judgments, and treasons coming out of the heart, he came to “fulfill” the old law. He has totally donated and offered himself to the Father and, risen from the dead, now he gives us a new spirit. We do not enter the Kingdom of God with the meticulous observance of the law, like the scribes and Pharisees did. Now a “higher justice is possible”: “Be holy as I am holy” (Lev 19, 2).

The “righteousness of the scribes and of the Pharisees” had, like ours, the limits of its own flesh because it is based on works that have lost the taste of gratuity and are a dead thing without the Spirit. This is demonstrated in today’s Gospel by the words of Jesus: ““You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, you shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool, ‘will be liable to fiery Gehenna “(Mt 5: 21s). These statements seem to say that Jesus pronounces absurd words such as: “A thought that just touches the mind and is like killing a man.” Pope Francis has clearly reminded that gossip and grudges are subtle and “easy” form of murder: “Those who in their hearts hate their brothers and sisters are murderers. We are used to gossiping. How often our communities, even our family, are a hell where this crime of killing our brother and the sister with the tongue is done! ”

They are paradoxical words that reveal the evil that flows into the hearts of all: if we are not able to “think well”, how could we being able to “do well”? We celebrate many Masses and prayers, we do many good words and give good advice, we have many humble eyes, but where is the heart? What happened to our neighbor, our father, mother, blood brothers and sisters, neighbors and coworkers, and the brothers and sisters in the community? Killed in the heart, buried, and forgotten.

It is not the good feelings but the heart (namely the root of our being) that must change.

The purpose of God’s law is nothing more than to cherish, nurture, and make man’s humanity blooming. That is why- I repeat- Jesus “commands “a single leap: conversion of the heart.

The conversion of heart is experienced by the Consecrated Virgins through their consecration and  the perseverance in a journey in which in each of them (but this is also true for each of us) Christ is everything: “We are all of the Lord, and Christ is everything for us: if you  desire to heal your wounds, he is a doctor; if you are distressed by the thirst of a burning fever, he is the spring; if you find yourself overwhelmed by guilt, he is justice; If you need help, he is strength; if you are afraid of death, he is life; if you desire heaven, he is the way; If you run from darkness, he is light; if you’re in search of food, he is nourishment “(St. Ambrose of Milan, De Virginibus, PL 16, 99).

The vocation of the Virgins is a call to bloom and to fulfill in Christ their humanity thanks to an angelic virtue. In this regard, St. Cyprian, writing to virgins, rightly says: “What we will be one day, you have already begun to be. You already possess in this world the glory of resurrection; you pass through the world without suffering its contamination. In preserving virginity and chastity, you are the equals of the angels of God “(De habitu virginum, 22: PL 4, 462).

Happy is the one who makes her life choices in the light of the law of the Lord and earnestly implores, through prayer, that the Lord will give her the strength to keep the law in her heart and observe it in everyday life.

To complete the information I’d like to remind you that the JEWISH BIBLE has 39 books divided as follows:

1. The Torah (Pentateuch);
2. The Prophets a) the first (Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings); b) the others (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets);
3. The other writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Daniel, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles 1-2, Lamentations.

The CHRISTIAN BIBLE is made of 73 books

The Old Testament (46 books)

1. The Pentateuch (corresponding  to the Hebrew Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
2. The Historical Books (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1-2 Maccabees)
3. The Wisdom Books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach).
4. The Prophetic Books: • major (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel) • minor (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi).

The New Testament (27 books)

1. Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
2. Acts of the Apostles
3. Letters (Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians 1-2, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, Peter 1-2, 1-2-3 John, Jude)
4. Revelation

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Roman Rite: Jan 15.1 to 6; 21.1-3; B 11, 8.11-12.17-19; Luke 2, 22-40

Ambrosian Rite

Jer 31.15 to 18. 20; Ps 123; Rm 8.14 to 21; Mt 2, 13b-18

Sunday – The fourth of the eighth days of Christmas

1) The Family who is Holy, hence true.

Today the liturgy proposes the celebration of the Holy Family as the model of all human families and not just of the Christian families[1]. In a time of a deep crisis of identity for families, especially for the Western ones, with separations, divorces, and cohabitations of all kind, to bring to the attention of our families this unique family of Nazareth means “to rediscover the vocation and mission of the family, of every family. And, what happened in those 30 years in Nazareth, can thus happen to us too: in seeking to make love and not hate normal, making mutual help commonplace, not indifference or enmity. “. (Pope Francis, General Audience, December 17, 2014).

The Holy Family of Nazareth shows what is the beginning and the central point of each true family: Jesus Christ. The Family of Christ was holy because it is His family, because it welcomed Him and gave Him to the world. Our families are called to do the same. If we are rooted in Him who has lived in it, we can understand and live the great assets that are marriage, family, and the gift of life. We will also understand what great danger their degradation in civil institutions is for man and for his dignity.

I think that it is useful to start from the episode narrated by St. Mark in Chapter 3, in which to those who tell him, “Your mother, your brothers and your sisters are outside asking for you,” Jesus replies “Who are my mother and my brothers?”

Looking around on those who sat near him, he said: “Here are my mother and brothers.” Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister and mother “(Mk 3: 31-35). It is as if Jesus Christ said: “My family is all here. I have no other families. The blood relations do not count unless they are confirmed in the spirit. My brothers are the poor who are crying, and my sisters are the women who have said yes to the Love who has purified and elevated love. ”

Jesus was not despising His Mother, St. Joseph, his legal father, and his relatives. He did not disown the Mother of whose womb He was the fruit. He meant that he did not belong only to the “small” Holy Family of Nazareth, but to His mission of Savior of the “great” human family. God comes to reconstruct the true meaning of the human family; the vocation of every man is the one of child and brother. God convenes his family to teach how to be really a family, because he wants to free us from the temptation of loneliness. God knows that it is never good for man to be alone. God himself does not want to be alone, thus He creates a family for “all nations”, as sung by Simeon.

 2) Pilgrims to Nazareth.

As Pope Francis has recently proposed to every family, to every mother, father, and child, let us make a spiritual pilgrimage to Nazareth to fill our own spirit with the sublime virtues of Mary, the humble servant of the Lord, of Joseph, the righteous man, the carpenter, the Keeper of the holy family, and of Jesus, the Son of God who was obedient to them and grew in age, wisdom, and grace.

Today’s liturgy offers us a meditation all centered on Christ, which is of particularly interest for the Christian families. It presents us the mystery of the life of the child Jesus with his parents.

The passage of today’s Gospel presents a familiar picture of great effectiveness for the understanding of the mystery of the Savior. We are at the time of the presentation of the Lord to the Temple and, waiting this extraordinary and anticipated event, there is an old man, Simeon, who now occupies the main scene of the Gospel on the Holy Family. He recognizes Jesus as the true and awaited savior and is happy that the Lord allowed him to see this day. He is the person of gratitude, but also of prophecy, of courage and of the absence of any fear of death because in the Child Jesus he already sees the victory over it. This holy man of God, who had waited years for the coming of the Messiah, can now happily leave the earth to meet the Lord in eternity.

In our families let us teach the sense of the eternal and of communion. Children grow up watching how adults live. Therefore, to educate the children means making them participate in the reality of the communion of the father and the mother who gave them life.  To educate the children means introducing them to life by teaching them gratitude.

3) A forgotten hero.

The Holy Family was not a family without problems. Mary and Joseph shared the condition of their disconcerting son, following him step by step in the revelation of his mystery. It is precisely because of their total availability that they deserve our admiration. It is not easy to know to have custody of the Son of God, to flee to Egypt, to return home and live in Nazareth, a village considered suburban for the Jews, and to see Jesus grow in wisdom and grace leading an ordinary life with no exceptional events up to his thirtieth birthday.

One would like to know more about the life of this extraordinary family; in the end, though, St. Luke says just enough to outline its physiognomy. Although extraordinary in many ways, it is a family like all the others with its joys, its pains, its secrets. A family which leads a life according to faith, experiences the joy of the birth of a child who grows healthy and strong, and is affected by the prophecies that announce a difficult future. In all families the years not always run without troubles; sooner or later problems, sufferings, and concerns arise, and they are more painful if caused by the lack of love. The Family of Nazareth faced joys and difficulties of life under the guidance and custody of St. Joseph.

It is important to understand the greatness of this unique man who was the husband of Mary, and who was often reduced to be the supplier of material goods, as if in the Holy Family he had only the “external” role of a man to whom are given unimportant tasks that do not require highest virtues. In fact, if we think of the situation of Mary carrying in her womb the incipient carnal life of the Son of God, from the legal point of view this situation is something shocking for Joseph because – humanly and legally speaking – his girlfriend had to be considered an adulteress worthy of the punishment of stoning.

How could Joseph acknowledge that Mary was innocent? Yet he was not even touched by doubt. His love for Mary was not injured and he protected her reputation so that she would not risk her life. Joseph believes the Angel and takes Mary so that she does not fall into danger. She and her baby need Joseph who with his spousal love even agrees to remain virgin so that He who is in Mary by the Holy Spirit can be born, grow and save the world. The angelic announcement: “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife” is the seal of God on this wedding unique and at the heart of the deeper, more authentic, more divine human love. A man who is capable of such a greatness belongs to the race of giants and of saints. Joseph accepts to live his virginal love to not inflict the slightest injury to his beloved. The marriage of Mary and Joseph has allowed Christ to enter the world with honor and to live the hidden life of Nazareth well protected, growing in wisdom and grace. In Nazareth Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived day to day in a heroic way, so that the heroic becomes day to day and we too might imitate them in our daily lives.

Joseph participated with his whole person in the work of the Redemption of the Son of Mary: he has given to God the essence of his tenderness and his heart, sacrificing his love.

If we are parents, due to marriage or spiritually, the example of the Holy Family asks us to be ready for the sacrifice that makes life true.

I ask St. Joseph, who is the guardian and protector of virgins as he was of Mary, that he may make the consecrated virgins in the world know how to bear fruits from the riches of their heart so to persevere in the path of holiness through the total gift of themselves to the Lord who loves us with infinite patient and tender love.

Patristic Reading

Golden Chain

9239 Lk 2,39-41

THEOPHYL; Luke has omitted in this place what he knew to have been sufficiently set forth by Matthew, that the Lord after this, for fear that He should be discovered and put to death by Herod, was carried by His parents into Egypt, and at Herod’s death, having at length returned to Galilee, came to dwell in His own city Nazareth. For the Evangelists individually are wont to omit certain things which they either know to have been, or in the Spirit foresee will be, related by others, so that in the connected chain of their narrative, they seem as it were to have omitted nothing, whereas by examining the writings of another Evangelist, the careful reader may discover the places where the omissions have been. Thus after omitting many things, Luke says, And when they had accomplished all things, &c.

THEOPHYL. Bethlehem was indeed their city, their paternal city, Nazareth the place of their abode.

AUG. Perhaps it may strike you as strange that Matthew should say that His parents went with the young Child into Galilee because they were unwilling to go to Judea for fear of Archelaus, when they seem to have gone into Galilee rather because their city w as Nazareth in Galilee, as Luke in this place explains it. But we must consider, that when the Angel said in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Rise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, it was at first understood by Joseph as a command to go into Judea, for so at first sight the land of Israel might have been taken to mean. But when afterwards he finds that Herod’s son Archelaus was king, he was unwilling to be exposed to that danger, seeing the land of Israel might also be understood to include Galilee also as a part of it, for there also the people of Israel dwelt.

GREEK EX. Or again, Luke is here describing the time before the descent to Egypt, for before her purification Joseph had not taken Mary there But before they went down into Egypt, they were not told by God to go to Nazareth but as living more freely in their own country, thither of their own accord they went; for since the going up to Bethlehem was for no other reason but the taxing, when that was accomplished they go down to Nazareth.

THEOPHYL. Now our Lord might have come forth from the womb in the stature of mature age, but this would seem like something imaginary; therefore His growth is gradual, as it follows, And the child grew, and waxed strong.

THEOPHYL; We must observe the distinction of words, that the Lord Jesus Christ in that He was a child, that is, had put on the condition of human weakness, was daily growing and being strengthened.

ATHAN. But if as some say the flesh was changed into a Divine nature, how did it derive growth? for to attribute growth to an uncreated substance is impious.

CYRIL; Rightly with the A growth in age, St. Luke has united increase in wisdom, as he says, And he was strengthened, (i.e. in spirit.) For in proportion to the measure of bodily growth, the Divine nature developed its own wisdom.

THEOPHYL. For if while yet a little child, He had displayed His wisdom, He would have seemed a miracle, but together with the advance of age He gradually showed Himself, so as to fill the whole world. For not as receiving wisdom is He said to be strengthened in spirit. For that which is most perfect in the beginning, how can that become any more perfect. Hence it follows, Filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was in him.

THEOPHYL; Wisdom truly, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, but grace, because it was in great grace given to the man Christ Jesus, that from the time He began to be man He should be perfect man and perfect God. But much rather because He was the word of God, and God needed not to be strengthened, nor was in a state of growth. But while He was yet a little child He had the grace of God, that as in Him all things were wonderful, His childhood also might be wonderful, so as to be filled with the wisdom of God. It follows, And his parents went every year to Jerusalem, at the feast of the Passover.

CHRYS. At the feast of the Hebrews the law commanded men not, only to observe the time, but the place, and so the Lord’s parents wished to celebrate the feast of the Passover only at Jerusalem.

AUG. But it may be asked, how did His parents go up all the years of Christ’s childhood to Jerusalem, if they were prevented from going there by fear of Archelaus? This question might be easily answered, even had some one of the Evangelists mentioned how long Archelaus reigned. For it were possible that on the feast day amid so great a crowd they might secretly come, and soon return again, at the same time that they feared to remain there on other days, so as neither to be wanting in religious duties by neglecting the feast, nor leave themselves open to detection by a constant abode there. But now since all have been silent as to the length of Archelaus’ reign, it is plain that when Luke says, They were accustomed to go up every year to Jerusalem, we are to understand that to have been when Archelaus was no longer feared.

[1] Pope Francis: ” I have therefore decided to reflect with you, this year, precisely on the family, on this great gift that the Lord has made to the world from the very beginning, when he entrusted Adam and Eve with the mission to multiply and fill the earth (cf. Gen 1:28); that gift that Jesus confirmed and sealed in his Gospel. The nearness of Christmas casts a great light on this mystery. The Incarnation of the Son of God opens a new beginning in the universal history of man and woman. And this new beginning happens within a family, in Nazareth. Jesus was born in a family. He could have come in a spectacular way, or as a warrior, an emperor…. No, no: he is born in a family, in a family. This is important: to perceive in the nativity, this beautiful scene”. (December 17, 2014)

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                        Christmas: birth of the Heart of our heart, amazed by Light, Joy, and Simplicity[1]

                                                   Mass of the night, dawn, and of Christmas day

 Introduction.

The Church with its liturgy helped us making our hearts so different that Heaven finds more space in it. For us, with the heart inhabited by Christ, it is possible to have a “heavenly behavior” where the concern to avoid sin is greater than the concern of avoiding Covid-19. It is with this behavior that we obtain to ” groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies “(Rom 8:23).

We are faced with a new Christmas that completes the Christmas of Bethlehem: the pilgrimage that the Son of God made from Heaven to Earth is renewed in our hearts, in our families and communities.

The new instead of the old, the truth instead of the shadows, the light instead of the deep night (3 Adv. F. 2 Resp 3). The newness of Christ began from the moment when the Virgin Mary said, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord”, and “the Word became flesh” and it grew like the vine that puts out its branches. We too, through his total gift from the cradle to the cross, are made partakers of his divine nature. Let us make Our Lady’s “Yes” our own, and Christ will make his home in us, living nativities. Moreover, he will make us more like him in whom our nature has been united with him (cf. Nat Di Missa 1 Secr.).

The Child lying in the crib has come to make us children like Him, but not like the idea of ​​children that we theoretically or emotionally have. In fact, only “the children will enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 18: 3) because they are like this Child who is Life and source of life. The Savior of the world born “today” not only makes us reborn in Him but gives us immortality.

1) The Living Nativity: us.

An anonymous wrote: “Our body is the Living Nativity in the places where we are called to live and work. Our legs are like those of the animals that have warmed Jesus the night of His birth. Our belly is like that of Mary who welcomed and nurtured Jesus. Our arms are like those of Joseph who rocked, raised, embraced Jesus, and worked for Him. Our voice is like that of the angels that praise the Word that became flesh. Our eyes are like those of the ones who saw Him in the night in the manger. Our ears are like those of the shepherds who heard -amazed- the angelic song coming from the sky. Our intelligence is like that of the Magi who followed the star to the “home” of Jesus, the cave. Our heart is like the manger that welcomed the Lord who became small and poor like one of us.”

Let us go to the crèche to become more and more a Living Nativity that reveals the Man and God. The man that we are not yet but that we are called to be and the God that cannot manifest himself if not in a diaphanous humanity that makes go through itself this Love that is only Love.

If we go to the crèche it is because Christmas is the center of the Universal History. It is in relation to Christmas that all ages are counted.

If we go to the crèche it is because the birth of Christ is our birth, our dignity, our greatness, and our freedom.

If we go to the manger it is because God there reveals himself not any more as a master who dominates us, claiming rights over us, but as a sweet Love that wants to hide in us and that continues to wait for us because the “only” thing that He can do is to always love us.

 2) Christmas: a fact, not an emotion, much less a fairy tale.

The Liturgy of Midnight and of the dawn of Christmas Mass offers the narrative of the birth of Jesus according to Luke (2.1 to 20). In the Mass of the day the claims of the prologue (introduction) of the Gospel of St. John on the divine origin of the Word are not ends in themselves, but necessary to understand the incarnation and Jesus in his role as revelator. The center of the prologue (introduction) is the statement: “The Word became flesh” (1:14).

The narration of St. Luke begins with a historical background: date, place, people and causes of the event.[2]

On the night of this Christmas day, from the gentle womb of Mary, Love was born in the world, incarnate in human flesh. The birth of Jesus is a historic event that happened at a time and in a particular place. When this fact is announced to the shepherds, they say to one another, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us ” (Lk 2:15).

The shepherds of Bethlehem say to each other let us “go beyond”[3] to see the baby. It is precisely to “cross” the night and the heart, to go beyond, to dare the step that goes beyond the “crossing” through which we exit our modes of thoughts and life and go beyond the purely material world to come to the essential.

Going beyond means, ultimately, to change our ill relationship with time and with people. The shepherds hurried. A holy curiosity and a holy joy drove them. Among us, perhaps, it happens very rarely that we hasten to the things of God. Nowadays, God is not part of the urgent reality. The things of God, we think and say, can wait. Yet He is the most important reality, the One who, in the final analysis, is important.

When they came to the cave after the crossing, what did the shepherds see?

A baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger as the angels had announced. It is the wonder of Christmas: to be proclaimed Lord, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah and Savior is a child who has as a throne a manger and a cave as a royal palace. The overall simplicity of the first nativity is surprising. The detail that most surprises is the absence in the cave of any wonderful sign. The shepherds are wrapped and awed by the glory of God, but the sign that they receive from the Angels is simply “You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.” And when they come to Bethlehem, they see nothing but “a child in the manger.”

The wonder of Christmas is here. Without the revelation of the angels, we would not understand that the child lying in a manger is the Lord. It is the wonder of Christmas: to be proclaimed Lord, Messiah and Savior is a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

Without the baby in the manger, we would not understand that the glory of the true God is different from the glory of man. The glory of God is the life of man in peace (cf. St. Irenaeus) “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom God loves.” Peace among men is the earthly transcript of what happens in heaven. Thanks to Christmas we can really make ours the singing of the angels announcing that there is glory in the highest and peace on earth and among men. If you want to give glory to God, you must build peace.

Let us identify with the shepherds who were the first worshipers of the Body of the Incarnate Word of God. Let us go to Jesus with the same faith of the shepherds who once believe the Angel. Let us imitate them in their humble generosity which they exercised offering the little that they had, “milk and cloths of white wool.”  Let us follow them in their sincere love for Christ: when they did return to their homes and their flocks, they left their heart in Bethlehem. It is a heart that the baby Jesus gave back to them enriched of love. Then they were able to walk the path of life because it is not enough thinking about life to go through it; it is love that pushes forward and beyond.

3) “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14) in Bethlehem.

Becoming flesh the Word of God was made manifest. It is a Word that not only is felt but that is lived and allows to live. “Flesh” also means that the Word did not recoil from the opacity of history, but on the contrary entered it, sharing it. The Word of God is transmitted to man through a deep sharing of experiences, fitting in the contradictions of man, in his death and in his grief, in his request and in his defeats. Jesus is truly God among us, the companion of our existence. Jesus Christ is the event in which the alliance desired by God with each of us is fulfilled before our eyes in an exemplary way.

This too is the beauty of the Christmas in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem! In Hebrew, the city where Jesus was born according to the Scriptures means “house of bread.” There was born the Messiah who would say of himself: “I am the bread of life” (Jn 6, 35.48).

In Bethlehem was born the One who, in the sign of the broken bread, would leave us the memorial of his Easter. The Adoration of the Child Jesus in this Holy Night continues in the Eucharistic adoration. We love the Lord who became flesh to save our flesh, and who became living Bread to give life to every human being. We recognize as our only God this fragile child who is helpless in the manger. “In the fullness of time you became a man among men to unite the end to the beginning, that is, man to God” (see St. Irenaeus, Adv. Hear., IV, 20.4). In the Son of the Virgin, “wrapped in swaddling clothes” and lying “in a manger” (Lk 2:12), we acknowledge and adore “the Bread that came down from heaven” (Jn 6, 41.51), the Redeemer who came to give life the world.

4)  In Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to life.

We too, this Christmas say to each other: let us go – or rather, return- to Bethlehem. Let us return to the simplicity and purity of the origins; let us rediscover the cradle where we were born. We have moved too far away from Bethlehem; our faith is overloaded with complicated and sometimes abstruse reasoning that clashes with the beauty of this “baby in the manger.”

A– Concretely: what does it mean for us now to go to Bethlehem?

It is not enough to visit the Nativity in a church, or the one which we make at home, and to contemplate the mystery of Jesus child with Mary, Joseph, the ox, the donkey, the shepherds, and the Magi. We must ensure that all we are and all we have can bring the good news of this mystery of joy and peace to men, and especially to the poor.

This is a Mystery that continues, not a legend for children. Memory rescues faith, but more than memory, it is to see how the Lord enters in every moment in our world to stay with us.

Every day there is a poor “Christ” that stops by us, who goes down into our poverty, and accepts our hospitality.

Every day, for those who believe, it is Christmas.

Christ is born today. Let us go to see Him.

What can we say to Him? Everything, because a child does not give us awe. Even the beggars speak to the children they meet in the street; even people who do not know or do not dare to talk to anyone have courage in front of a child. A child understands every language.

What can we ask to Him? Everything. Or nothing:  let us ask Him “only” to remain with us. We can still be bad, but if he stays with us, evil is overcome and then we will feel less pain in the heart. Today, there is already something new: He is there.

B– Concretely: how can now we walk away from the crib, which keeps the baby Jesus?

Imitating the shepherds who went back to their fold and to their homes (daily life) glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. We now are called to do the same: to glorify God for the word that we have heard, for the bread that He now breaks for us, for the joy that He has multiplied in our heart. Returning home, we are called to tell others what we have learned not from a child, but from this child to whom Mary gave birth in Bethlehem. A young woman gave birth to the Light that enters the world to stay with us always, as St. John the Evangelist teaches us when he writes about the Christmas of the World: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

C- Concretely: how can we be the abode of Christ?

Imitating the Virgin Mary. If we say yes to God as she did, it means that in the deep of our heart at least a little generosity is still alive. Like the Virgin Mary we want God to dwell in us, and this always happens whenever humbly and quietly we accept Christ in the depths of our hearts.

Looking at the crib and seeing the Child entrusted to Mary, I understand why the Almighty becomes a child. The omnipotence wears the biggest impotence letting to be “protected” by a humble woman, asks everyone, and needs everything, even a humble stable, the breath of an ox and a donkey, a little straw, a cave, which is the home of the Condescending. The Nativity is the school that confounds the wise and puts down the mighty, brings peace with the love that gives life because it is a poor force the force that kills. The love of God is so great that does not need strength to present itself.

In the Nativity, Mary becomes the ostensory showing the love of Jesus. The consecrated Virgins in the world, and we with them, are called to be the cradle of the true Adam, where the whole world is brought into the world in divine communion. “I expect, therefore, that the ‘spirituality of communion’, indicated by St. John Paul II, becomes a reality and that you are at the forefront in understanding ‘the great challenge that lies before us’ in this new millennium: to make the Church the home and the school of communion “(Pope Francis, Letter for the Year of the consecrated Life, November 2014).

Patristic Reading

From a sermon by Saint Leo the Great, pope

(Sermo 1 in Nativitate Domini, 1-3: PI, 54, 190-193)

Christian, remember your dignity

Dearly beloved, today our Savior is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to his people on earth as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

[1] The Eucharistic liturgy of this Christmas Sunday is full of texts for the various celebrations: the eve, the night, the dawn, and the day; they are all significant and even suggestive moments. Therefore, I try to humbly offer a reflection on the three moments to meditate together on the truth of Christmas and contemplate its beauty.

[2] “In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus^* that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. So, all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.” (Lk 2,1-5)

[3] This the literally translation from the Greek dielthomen and the Latin transeamus from which comes the word transit.

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4th Sunday of Advent – Year B – December 20, 2020

2 Sm 7:1-5, 8B-12, 14A, 16; Ps 89; Rom 16.25-27; Lk 1: 26-38

Ambrosian Rite

6th Sunday of Advent – Sunday of the Incarnation or of the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Is 62.10-63.3b; Ps 71; Fil 4.4-9; Lk 1, 26-38a

Introduction.

Very few days separate this fourth Sunday of Advent from the feast of Christmas which is rich in symbols linked to different cultures. Of all, the most important is certainly the Nativity that “arouses so much amazement and moves us, because” it manifests God’s tenderness. He, the Creator of the universe, lowers himself to our smallness. The gift of life, for us already mysterious, fascinates us even more when we see that He who was born of Mary is the source and support of every life. In Jesus, the Father has given us a brother who comes looking for us when we are disoriented and lose direction; a faithful friend who is always close to us. He gave us his Son who forgives us and raises us from sin “(Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter, Admirabile signum, 3)

Next to the nativity scene we find the traditional “Christmas tree”. An ancient custom which enhances the value of life because in winter the evergreen fir becomes a sign of a life that never dies. Usually, Christmas gifts are placed on the decorated tree and at its feet. This symbol thus becomes eloquent also in a typically Christian sense: it recalls the “tree of life” (cf. Gen 2,9), the figure of Christ, the supreme gift of God to humanity. The message of the Christmas tree is therefore that life remains “always green”, if it becomes a gift not so much of material things but of yourself in friendship and sincere affection, in fraternal help and in forgiveness, in shared time and mutual listening.

Nothing is more beautiful, urgent, and important than freely giving back to men what we have freely received from God. Nothing can exempt or relieve us from this onerous and fascinating commitment. The joy of Christmas, which we already look forward to, while it fills us with hope at the same time pushes us to announce to everyone the presence of God among us.

• The time of the “Yes”

               During the previous Sundays, the Liturgy has drawn attention to the figure of John the Baptist, the Precursor. Today it is Mary, his Mother that He gave also to us, that is offered as the example of the waiting for Christ to welcome him into our lives and in our flesh.

Hence, it is important to grasp the behavior of the Virgin towards the One who comes to take home in us and became Flesh to save our flesh so that we may “conceive” the Word of God concretely. With her “fiat” (yes), Mary conceived Jesus under her heart. With our fiat we conceive Him in our hearts. May Mary Annunciation teach us to say the great word “Yes, fiat, O Lord, thy will be done.”[1]

The “yes”, the “fiat” of the Virgin Mary was not pronounced by a heart dull or sleepy, but by one tense and watchful. Even if uttered by a humble young woman, this spousal “yes” is the expression of a simple and profound heart. Mary is the Mother of God not only because she gave physical life to Jesus, but also because, before conceiving Him in her womb, she listened to Him with his ear and conceived Him in her heart. She is mother because she listens and welcomes the Son and let Him live like He is, not just because she brings Him in her womb and gives Him birth[2].
Mary’s yes was the expression of the freedom of this Virgin pure, fruitful and conscious of belonging to a history, a great history, that was bringing God into the world.
A fact is history not only because it occurs in time, but also because it occurs in a place.
The time is indicated as follows, “It was the sixth month from the conception of St. John the Baptist by Elizabeth.” It is the episode preceding the one mentioned in the today’s Gospel. Now, a six-month-old is not fully developed. John the Baptist represents the Old Testament and the promise. It is important to take note that the Annunciation fulfills the promise ahead of time. When does the conception happens? At the sixth month, namely when the promise is not yet mature. That, in my opinion, means that the realization of a promise depends not only on God. God has made the promise, He could fulfill it immediately, He does it at the sixth month, He only waits for someone to say “yes, let it be to me as you have said, I welcome the Word.” In short, God has been forever “Yes” to man. When finally, we also say yes as Mary did, then the conception takes place. We become mature and complete people when we say yes to God. Do not wait for tomorrow to say “Yes”. Normally we think of the future waiting for better times. No. The only time we have is the present. This is the only time when we touch the eternal: the past is gone; the future is not yet here. What we are living is the time of listening. We must not look for a better one, otherwise we spend half of our life thinking about the future, the other half regretting the past, and never live. God is “present”[3], and his proposal is done “now.” It was not yesterday, it was not for tomorrow, it is for today. In the Gospel of Luke let us remember the first words of Jesus: “Today this word is fulfilled.”

2) The place and the characters of the Yes. 

In this day of the Yes, it is important to understand also the place where it was pronounced, the location that the Evangelist Luke presents in deliberate contrast to the previous narration of John the Baptist.
The announcement of the birth of John the Baptist takes place in the Temple of Jerusalem, it is made to a priest who is carrying out his duties and occurs, so to speak, officially, as required by law, and in accordance with the cult, the place and the Jewish rites.
The announcement of the birth of the Messiah is made to Mary, a woman who lives in Nazareth, a small, insignificant country village of semi-pagan Galileans. Nazareth for us today means: the place of everyday life. It is to teach us that the Word is the place where we live every day. It is in our daily lives that we can and must live as children of God and    listen to the Word. Then it will be helpful to go to shrines, basilicas and in the places where we can be with many others because these places call us to a life of communion in the Church. But the important thing is the “here and now”: the present and the place of everyday life. It is there that every day the Word is made flesh as, in the everyday life of Mary who has become the “place” of welcome, the new life begins. This life began not in the temple but in simple humanity of Jesus Christ, who became the true temple, the tent of the encounter.
After having considered the “place” where God has revealed his love, the simple house of the humble Mary, let us look at the characters of this announcement.
Let’s start with the angel Gabriel, whose name means “power of God”, who addresses Mary that with her “yes” will bear fruit by the power of God’s grace.
The Angel’s greeting to Mary is “Rejoice, full of grace,” that we might paraphrase “Be joyful, you who are freely and forever beloved by God.” Our Lady is called to a mission, but first she is invited to joy, and her anguish is cancelled because the Lord “is with her” to save her and the entire humanity.
Let us fix our eyes on the heart of Mary, who calls herself “servant” and whom the Angel of God defines full of grace. Grace and service: in these two words it is enclosed all the Christian understanding of existence. The gift received continues to become a gift.
Mary is troubled by the angel’s words. However, her confusion is not derived from misunderstanding or from fear. It comes from the emotion produced by the encounter with God who, through the Angel, tells her that “free to be loved by God” is her new name.
When God calls someone to make him an instrument of salvation, He not only calls him by name, but gives him a new name capable of expressing his identity and his vocation. For Mary, the new name is “Full of Grace” that is “freely and forever loved by God.” This new name of Mary speaks immediately of the gratuitousness and faithfulness of God, the root of all correct understanding of God, man, and the world. Of this root Mary is the luminous and transparent icon. And this is already the happy news of the miracle of Christmas, which is now imminent.
“To accept and to welcome the miracle of Christmas, is to accept that Mary is truly the ‘Mother of God’ and the ‘Virgin Mother’. This is not against sexuality and human love. The meaning is another. We know very well that the life we give is a life toward death. God’s intervention was needed. It was necessary that the chain of birth to death should be broken so that with Jesus a creature totally alive could rise, a living creature that would not be inside death like us, but that would voluntarily grab it to destroy it. The fruitful virginity of Mary, as well as the appearances of the Risen One, behind closed doors, are a sign of this life more living than ours, a transfigured materiality.”[4]
The example of Mary, who gives life to the totally alive, today is especially continued by the consecrated Virgins. By freely choosing virginity, these women confirm themselves as persons mature and capable of living. At the same time, they realize the personal value of their own femininity by becoming “a sincere and total gift” to Christ, Redeemer of man and Spouse of souls. The naturally spousal disposition of the feminine personality finds a response in a virginity understood in this way. The woman, called from the very “beginning” to be loved and to love, finds in the vocation to virginity first of all Christ as the Redeemer who “loved to the end” through the total gift of self. She responds to this gift with the “sincere gift” of her entire life (see Saint John Paul II, Mulieris dignitatem, 34).
The consecrated virgins in the world show us how to follow the fruitful example of Mary, living like her the grace of simplicity. They testify with simple humility that we should not force ourselves to think about big things, let alone to do them, because we become ridiculous in our presumption. Like the Virgin Mary we must recognize and accept the presence of the Word of God in us.
Let us pray Our Lady that what happened in her may happen in us. Let us ask the Lord that His love may take root like a flower in the fragility of our flesh.
And let us all push ourselves to imitate the attitude of Mary of Nazareth, who shows us that “being is prior to doing, and that we must leave it to God to truly be what He wants us to be. It is He who does in us many wonders. Mary is receptive, but not passive. In the same way in which she, at the physical level, receives the power of the Holy Spirit but then gives flesh and blood to the Son of God that takes form in her, so, on a spiritual level, she welcomes the grace and responds to it with faith “(Pope Francis, Angelus, December 8, 2014).

Patristic Reading

Leo, the Great

  Sermon XXII. On the Feast of the Nativity, II. 

1. The Mystery of the Incarnation Demands Our Joy. 

Let us be glad in the Lord, dearly beloved, and rejoice with spiritual joy that there has dawned for us the day of ever-new redemption, of ancient preparation, of eternal bliss. For as the year rolls round, there recurs for us the commemoration of our salvation, which promised from the beginning, accomplished in the fulness of time will endure for ever; on which we are bound with hearts up lifted to adore the divine mystery: so that what is the effect of God’s great gift may be celebrated by the Church’s great rejoicings. For God the almighty and merciful, Whose nature as goodness, Whose will is power, Whose work is mercy: as soon as the devil’s malignity killed us by the poison of his hatred, foretold at the very beginning of the world the remedy His piety had prepared for the restoration of us mortals: proclaiming to the serpent that the seed of the woman should come to crush the lifting of his baneful head by its power, signifying no doubt that Christ would come in the flesh, God and man, Who born of a Virgin should by His uncorrupt birth condemn the despoiler of the human stock. Thus, in the whole and perfect nature of true man was true God born, complete in what was His own, complete in what was ours. And “ours” we call what the Creator formed in us from the beginning and what He undertook to repair. For what, the deceiver brought in and the deceived admitted had no trace in the Saviour nor because He partook of man’s weaknesses, did He therefore share our faults. He took the form of a slave without stain of sin, increasing the human and not diminishing the Divine: because that “emptying of Himself” whereby the Invisible made Himself visible and Creator and Lord Of all things as He was, wished to be mortal, was the condescension of Pity not the failing of Power.
II. The New Character of the Birth of Christ Explained. 
Therefore, when the time came, dearly beloved, which had been fore-ordained for men’s redemption, there enters these lower parts of the world, the Son of God, descending from His heavenly throne and yet not quitting His Father’s glory, begotten in a new order, by a new nativity. In a new order, because being invisible in His own nature He became visible in ours, and He whom nothing could contain, was content to be contained: abiding before all time He began to be in time: The Lord of all things, He obscured His immeasurable majesty and took on Him the form of a servant: being God, that cannot suffer, He did not disdain to be man that can, and immortal as He is, to subject Himself to the laws of death. And by a new nativity He was begotten, conceived by a Virgin, born of a Virgin, without paternal desire, without injury to the mother’s chastity: because such a birth as knew no taint of human flesh, became One who was to be the Saviour of men, while it possessed in self the nature of human substance. For when God was born in the flesh, God Himself was the Father, as the archangel witnessed to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “because the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee: and therefore, that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of God.” The origin is different but the nature like: not by intercourse with man but by the power of God was it brought about: for a Virgin conceived, a Virgin bare, and a Virgin she remained. Consider here not the condition of her that bare but the will of Him that was born; for He was born Man as He willed and was able. If you inquire into the truth of His nature, you must acknowledge the matter to be human: if you search for the mode of His birth, you must confess the power to be of God. For the Lord Jesus Christ came to do away with not to endure our pollutions: not to succumb to our faults but to heal them. He came that He might cure every weakness of oar corruptness and all the sores of our defiled souls: for which reason it behoved Him to be born by a new order, who brought to men’s bodies the new gift of unsullied purity. For the uncorrupt nature of Him that was born had to guard the primal virginity of the Mother, and the infused power of the Divine Spirit had to preserve in spotlessness and holiness that sanctuary which He had chosen for Himself: that Spirit (I say) who had determined to raise the fallen, to restore the broken, and by overcoming the allurements of the flesh to bestow on us in abundant measure the power of chastity: in order that the virginity which in others cannot be retained in child-bearing, might be attained by them at their second birth.
III. Justice Required that Satan Should Be Vanquished by God Made Man. 
And, dearly beloved, this very fact that Christ chose to be born of a Virgin does it not appear to be part of the deepest design? I mean, that the devil should not be aware that Salvation had been born for humanity, and through the obscurity of that spiritual conception, when he saw Him no different to
others, should believe Him born in no different way to others. For when he observed that His nature was like that of all others, he thought that He had the same origin as all had and did not understand that He was free from the bonds of transgression because he did not find Him a stranger to the weakness of mortality. For though the true mercy of God had infinitely many schemes to hand for the restoration of mankind, it chose that design which put in force for destroying the devil’s work, not the efficacy of might but the dictates of justice. For the pride of the ancient foe not undeservedly made good its despotic rights over all men, and with no unwarrantable supremacy tyrannized over those who had been of their own accord lured away from God’s commands to be the slaves of his will. And so there would be no justice in his losing the immemorial slavery of humans, were he not conquered by that which he had subjugated. And to this end, without male seed Christ was conceived of a Virgin, who was fecundated not by human intercourse but by the Holy Spirit. And whereas in all mothers’ conception does not take place without stain of sin, this one received purification from the Source of her conception. For no taint of sin penetrated, where no intercourse occurred. Her unsullied virginity knew no lust when it ministered the substance. The Lord took from His mother our nature, not our fault. The slave’s form is, created without the slave’s estate, because the New Man is so commingled with the old, as both to assume the reality of our race and to remove its ancient flaw.
IV. The Incarnation Deceived the Devil and Caused Him to Break the Bond Under Which He Held Men. 
When, therefore, the merciful and almighty Saviour so arranged the commencement of His human course as to hide the power of His Godhead which was inseparable from His manhood under the veil of our weakness, the crafty foe was taken off his guard and he thought that the nativity of the Child, Who was born for the salvation of mankind, was as much subject to himself as all others are at their birth. For he saw Him crying and weeping, he saw Him wrapped in swaddling clothes, subjected to circumcision, offering the sacrifice which the law required. And then he perceived in Him the usual growth of boyhood and could have had no doubt of His reaching man’s estate by natural steps. Meanwhile, he inflicted insults, multiplied injuries, made use of curses, affronts, blasphemies, abuse, in a word, poured upon Him all the force of his fury and exhausted all the varieties of trial: and knowing how he had poisoned man’s nature, had no conception that He had no share in the first transgression Whose mortality he had ascertained by so many proofs. The unscrupulous thief and greedy robber persisted in assaulting Him Who had nothing of His own, and in carrying out the general sentence on original sin, went beyond the bond on which he rested, and required the punishment of iniquity from Him in Whom he found no fault. And thus, the malevolent terms of the deadly compact are annulled, and through the injustice of an overcharge the whole debt is cancelled. The strong one is bound by his own chains, and every device of the evil one recoils on his own head. When the prince of the world is bound, all that he held in captivity is released. Our nature cleansed from its old contagion regains its honourable estate, death is destroyed by death, nativity is restored by nativity: since at one and the same time redemption does away with slavery, regeneration changes our origin, and faith justifies the sinner.
V. The Christian is Exhorted to Share in the Blessings of the Incarnation. 
Whoever then thou art that devoutly and faithfully boastest of the Christian name, estimate this atonement at its right worth. For to thee who was a castaway, banished from the realms of paradise, dying of thy weary exile, reduced to dust and ashes, without further hope of living, by the Incarnation of the Word was given the power to return from afar to thy Maker, to recognize thy parentage, to become free after slavery, to be promoted from being an outcast to sonship: so that, thou who was born of corruptible flesh, mayest be reborn by the Spirit of God, and obtain through grace what thou has not
by nature, and, if thou acknowledge thyself the son of God by the spirit of adoption, dare to call God Father. Freed from the accusings of a bad conscience, aspire to the kingdom of heaven, do God’s will supported by the Divine help, imitate the angels upon earth, feed on the strength of immortal sustenance, fight fearlessly on the side of piety against hostile temptations, and if thou keep thy allegiance in the heavenly warfare, doubt not that thou wilt be crowned for thy victory in the triumphant camp of the Eternal King, when the resurrection that is prepared for the faithful has raised thee to participate in the heavenly Kingdom.
VI. The Festival Has Nothing to Do with Sunworship, as Some Maintain. 
Having therefore so confident a hope, dearly beloved, abide firm in the Faith in which you are built: lest that same tempter whose tyranny over you Christ has already destroyed, win you back again with any of his wiles, and mar even the joys of the present festival by his deceitful art, misleading simpler souls with the pestilential notion of some to whom this our solemn feast day seems to derive its honour, not so much from the nativity of Christ as, according to them, from the rising of the new sun. Such men’s hearts are wrapped in total darkness and have no growing perception of the true Light: for they are still drawn away by the foolish errors of heathendom, and because they cannot lift the eyes of their mind above that which their carnal sight beholds, they pay divine honour to the luminaries that minister to the world. Let not Christian souls entertain any such wicked superstition and portentous lie. Beyond all measure are things temporal removed from the Eternal, things corporeal from the Incorporeal, things governed from the Governor. For though they possess a wondrous beauty, yet they have no Godhead to be worshipped. That power then, that wisdom, that majesty is to be adored which created the universe out of nothing and framed by His almighty methods the substance of the earth and sky into what forms and dimensions He willed. Sun, moon, and stars may be most useful to us, most fair to look upon; but only if we render thanks to their Maker for them and worship God who made them, not the creation which does Him service. Then praise God, dearly beloved, in all His works and judgments. Cherish an undoubting belief in the Virgin’s pure conception. Honour the sacred and Divine mystery of man’s restoration with holy and sincere service. Embrace Christ born in our flesh, that you may deserve to see Him also as the God of glory reigning in His majesty, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit remains in the unity of the Godhead for ever and ever. Amen. 

[1] If by chance we pray the Rosary, we repeat 50 times in a row what is the core of this Sunday’s Gospel passage. And the bells ring three times a day; St. Francis of Assisi had introduced them on his return from the East, precisely in memory of the Annunciation. The Incarnation of the Word, Mary’s yes, is at the beginning and at the end of the day and in the heart of the day.

[2] In this regard let us remember that when they say to Jesus: “Your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you”, Jesus answers: “Who is my mother, who are my brothers? Those who listen and do the word”. Mary is his mother because she listens to the Word and does the Word. And to a woman who says to him: “Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that nursed you”, Jesus says:” Blessed are those who hear and do the Word”. So, Mary is always presented as the prototype of those who listen and through listening do what they hear.

[3] Among other things, in addition to living spiritually what Christ says, “The pain of each day is enough”, living in the present is also a matter of sanity. Instead, we live thinking about the future anxiously and suspended in the void of uncertainty, and thinking about the past, drowned in regret and frustration.

[4] Olivier Clément. La mère de Dieu, un éclairage orthodoxe”,in Jean Comby (ed), Théologie, histoire et piété mariale. Actes du colloque de la faculté de théologie de Lyon, 1-3 octobre 1996, Lyon, Profac (1997), 209-221.

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3rd Sunday of Advent – Year B – December 13, 2020 – Gaudete Sunday

Is 61, 1-2.10-11; Ps Lk1:46-48, 49-50,53-54; 1Th 5.16 to 24; Jn 1, 6-8.19-28

Ambrosian Rite

5th Sunday of Advent – The Precursor

Is 11.1 to 10; Ps 97; Heb 7.14 to 17. 22. 25; Jn 1,19-27a. 15c. 27b-28

Introduction

This third Sunday of Advent emphasizes the joy of waiting and it is called ” Gaudete Sunday” taking its cue from the Entrance Antiphon, which in Latin begins with the verb “Gaudete” and continues: “Always rejoice in the Lord: I repeat to you, rejoice, the Lord is near”.

Then the liturgy of the Word proposes:

“I fully rejoice in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God,” (First reading).

“My soul rejoices in my God” (Responsorial Psalm).

“Brothers, always be joyful, pray uninterruptedly, in everything give thanks” (Second reading).

“Now my joy is complete” (Gospel: Jn 3:29).

These are phrases that we could summarize as follows: to the joy for a new beginning (first reading), to the one that must be communicated (psalm) and to the one that must be complete (second reading), it is added the joy of the mission accomplished (Gospel).

By proposing the figure of Saint John, the Baptist, the Gospel reminds us that full adherence to the Christian vocation, the response to God’s call, is the source of joy and allows us to arrive at the evening of life by living – like the Precursor of the Messiah – as true witnesses of Christ.

The witness can also be a fanatic; it depends on what he testifies, and it depends on the object of the testimony. If he testifies to freedom, fraternity, and mercy, he should not be a fanatic, otherwise, he is not a witness to what he says because the witness is the one who lives what he says.

There are the witnesses of truth and there are also the false witnesses of truth, that is, those who testify in a wrong way, in a fanatic way, what in self is not the object of fanaticism. Then there are also the witnesses of falsehood, those who are champions of lies, violence, domination and who use the Word precisely to dominate and not to serve truth, justice, and freedom. Among other things, in the introduction, the trinomial truth, justice, and freedom must be taken together because if truth is taken away there is no freedom and there is no justice. It is like cutting off the head of a man.

There is no man except in truth. So, if you take away justice, it is like taking away the heart; justice means love for one’s neighbor, for one’s brothers and sisters. If you take away freedom, it is like taking your breath away, the lungs, the place where truth has room, where freedom and justice have room. Therefore, they must always be taken together.  When one takes only one of the three, it is something empty, it means that one is lying, and it is precisely about the truest things that one can lie. These three words are more necessary than bread, that is, man lives on these words. The witness is the one who lives them and testifies them to others as St. John the Baptist did. 

 1) The joy for the coming Christmas.

The Birth of Jesus has a special fascination for everyone and for the entire world. I have seen the word “Noel, Christmas, Navidad, Natale” written also in countries and towns where Christians are a small minority. It may be an excuse to increase spending, however, a charm and a longing for peace and joy remain. It is as if, remembering the birth of Jesus, the God with us, we enter a life of hope almost predicting that the song of the Angels over the stable of Bethlehem, “Peace on earth to those whom he loves”, can really revive hope in our time in need of feeding on consolation, security, and a true, deep, and rediscovered joy.

In the proximity of Christmas, today the Church gives us a taste of the great joy that God has given us with Jesus. In his letter to the Thessalonians (second reading of the Roman Rite), the Apostle Paul invites us to become brothers and sisters always happy once again, to pray continuously, and give thanks for everything because this is God’s will for us. The Apostle continues with the wish: “May the God of peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it” (1 Thessalonians 5.16 to 24).

Of course, there is the risk of trying to stifle the need for the joy of Christ and of his Christmas. Unfortunately, this risk has become a reality that has turned everything into a noisy and fleeting moment of superficial joy that leaves emptiness of the heart. It is a big risk, and it is difficult to escape because strong is the attraction of ‘something fashionable ‘.

To counteract this fashion, it would be enough to fill the heart with the feelings of the prophet Isaiah, who thus expressed his joy “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release the prisoners, to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God. I will rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in the mantle of justice like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels “(Is 61: 1-11 – the first reading of the Roman Rite).

The words of Isaiah are indeed words of deep joy. The prophet, at the thought of seeing God coming, exclaims: “I will rejoice heartily in the Lord.” Christian joy comes not from a simple emotion, but from an encounter. An encounter that has transformed our lives.

 2) The encounter with the Witness and Precursor.

This encounter can and should happen again and again especially at the coming Christmas. John the Baptist, the Witness, and Precursor, with his example and with the intercession can help us to renew this encounter.

“John preceded Christ both in birth and in the announcement, but he preceded him as a humble obedient servant without getting above him” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 66.19). He is the voice of the Word of joy, he is the torch that indicates the Light of love, he is the Witness of Jesus, he baptizes waiting for His Baptism, and he is completely tied to Him. Without Jesus, the Baptist cannot live because without Christ his life would make no sense, namely, it would be without meaning nor purpose.

John came as a witness, sent by God to bear witness to the Light. He does not bear witness to the greatness, the majesty, the power of God, but to the Light of Love, to the light of a Presence.

John testifies that the world is based on a principle of light so that it is much more worthy to light a lamp than to curse the night a thousand times.

We too, even in our weakness and smallness, are called to testify that history is a way of the Cross which becomes the way of Light when we have the strength to fix the gaze on the dawning light of the child Christ. Apparently, Christ, whom in a few days we will contemplate in the crib of Bethlehem, is small, fragile, and helpless, yet he is a winner, and from the City of Bread (= Bethlehem) he will move the first steps of goodness and justice that he will realize in the City of Peace (= Jerusalem).

To each one of us is given the prophetic ministry of the Baptist, to be announcer not of the degradation and the collapse of sin which beset the world, but of the light that illuminates the world and saves it. We must be -like St. John- witnesses of hope and future, of a God who is Light, a God of love and so near that is among us, healer of our life and of that of all the brothers and sisters in humanity.

We must be witnesses because we asked that He covers us with his mantle and makes us germinate a Spring of Justice, a Spring that without him is impossible.

By the intercession of St. John, we could imitate him who is the image of a true man who knows his limits and is open to the novelty of the encounter. Like the Precursor we must be aware of being flesh, but we must also live of the desire of God imprinted on him from the creative Word and the promise made to Israel. We will be disciples saved by the Redeemer because like him (St. John) we search, we encounter, we recognize and we accept Jesus as the Son of God, bearing witness to others by saying “Behold the Lamb of God.” We too are the poor voice of a Word that creates and elevates gently. “Then the Lord will make a gift of his sweetness and our land will yield its fruit” (St. Augustine, En. in Psalmos, 84,15).

 3) The Witness of a Presence.

The Gospel of John says: “There was a man sent from God” (Jn 1, 6). Each one of us is a person sent by God, called to be a witness to the light.

The strength of John is not to shine for himself, but to spend his life so that the light can be seen. And God is the light that enlightens even the greatest darkness. John shouts to proclaim the Gospel and proclaims it pointing to Christ Jesus. He does not draw attention to himself following a leading role overbearing and normal. His voice indicates someone who is already “among you” (Jn 1, 26), “one who is coming after me, to which I am not worthy to untie the thong sandals” (Jn 1, 27).

The greatness of John is that he had been able to recognize God in Jesus and therefore showed the presence of God among humanity.

The Baptist does not attract the attention on an absent Messiah who will come, but on a Messiah already among us and that we do not know: “There is one among you whom you do not recognize “. (Jn 1:26). John is the witness of a God already here. His presence is already among us, but it is to be discovered and not everyone sees it; therefore, there must be a prophet that points it out.

It is now up to us, as a person and as a Christian community, to imitate the Baptist showing to the world a Christ already present in the world.

A particular way to show Christ is one of the Virgins consecrated in the world. The total offering of themselves to Christ the Bridegroom indicates that He deserves everything. To be vigilant in prayer indicates that Advent is the waiting for the Beloved clinging to Him who is already present in their heart entrusted completely to Him in total abandonment, loving trust, and joy. In this world they, and we with them, experience that “when the Lord calls us to be saints, He is not calling us to something burdensome and sad. It is an invitation to share his joy, to live and to offer with joy every moment of our lives, making it at the same time a gift of love for the people around us “(Pope Francis, Catechesis at the Audience general, November 19, 2014).

We, ordinary people, are called to make known to many the One who is among us. Weak, we are strong; sad, we are happy because the Lord comes and germinates the earth making it again a garden where freedom, fraternity, and mercy are not only announced, but practiced, lived, and shared.

Patristic Reading

St. Augustine of Hippo

Sermo 293, 3: PL 1328-1329

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning, Christ is the Word who lives forever.

Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.

In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him”.

What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well”? What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts”? We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ”, you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself.

He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

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2nd Sunday of Advent – Year B – December 6, 2020

Is 40, 1-5.9-11; Ps 85; Pt 3.8 to 14; Mk 1, 1-8

Ambrosian Rite

4th Sunday of Advent – The entrance of the Messiah.

Is 16.1 to 5; Ps 149; 1 Th 3.11 to 4.2; Mk 11.1 to 11

1) John the Baptist who invites us to convert to Someone and not to something.

On the first Sunday of Advent the Liturgy of the Word has invited us to be vigilant to be ready for the coming of God who wants to be close to us. Last Sunday, Christ repeated “to all: watch!” (Mk 13,37). If we need to keep watch it means that we are in the night. “Now we do not live in the day, but waiting for the day, between darkness and fatigue. The day will come when we are with the Lord. It will come, let us not be discouraged; keep watch, that is, wait for the Lord who makes himself neighbor. Waiting is not to be overwhelmed by discouragement; this is called living in hope “(Pope Francis).

The invitation that Christ addresses not only to his disciples, but to everyone: “Watch!” (Mt 13:37) is a useful reminder that life does not have only an earthly dimension but is projected towards a “beyond” like a little plant that sprouts from the earth and opens towards the sky. Man is a thinking plant, endowed with freedom and responsibility, and all of us will be called to account for how we lived and how we used our abilities: whether we kept them for ourselves or made them bear fruit also for the good of our brothers and sisters.

The Liturgy of the Word of this second Sunday of Advent presents us the figure of John the Baptist. Through today’s Gospel passage, the Precursor speaks to all of us. His clear and harsh words are especially healthy for us, men and women of our time, in which even the way of living and perceiving Christmas is unfortunately very often influenced by a materialistic mentality. The “voice” of the great prophet asks us to prepare the way for the Lord who comes in today’s deserts, exterior and interior deserts, thirsting for the living water that is Christ. May the Virgin Mary, whom in a few days we will celebrate as the Immaculate Conception, guide us. May she, who waited with love for the birth in time of the Love that she carried in her womb, guide us to a true conversion of heart and mind so that we can make the choices necessary to convert to the mentality of the Gospel.

Let us also look to John the Baptist because he was the man sent by God to invite to conversion, to prepare the way for the imminent coming of Jesus and to indicate him as the Lamb of God who forgives with infinite love. To learn from John’s teaching, I will briefly answer to three questions about him: “Where did he go, what did he say and do to fulfill his mission?”

He went into the desert. For us today that means to go in the “desert” of our hearts and pray listening to God who takes the beloved soul into the desert and speaks to its heart (see Hosea 2). The Precursor of Christ, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness“, preaches in the wilderness of the soul that is hungry for meaning, love and peace.

He said “Repent”, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that is given to us when, contrite, we ask for it.

He did: He gave the baptism of repentance where conversion means:

– Reversal, a return to the previous relationship with God (the one before the fall) to take the road back home as did the Prodigal Son.

– Straightening the way of the heart that forgiveness purifies and opens to Love.

This is not a physical path, but the path of the heart. The road of the heart has two entry points: sight and hearing. The purer the look the easier Jesus, who is light from light, enters in each of us. The more the ear is focused to listening the easier is to hear the “voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” (Isaiah 40.3). First, it is the voice that reaches the ears of the heart, then after the voice, or better together with the voice, it is the word that penetrates the heart through the hearing.

But with the birth of Jesus, the Word of God can not only be heard, it can also be seen (see G. d’Igny) as it was seen by the shepherds and the Magi in the cave of Bethlehem, by the penitents on the banks of the Jordan River, and by us today in the life of fraternal communion of the believers in Christ.

2) The entire life is an Advent.

As I wrote above, in this second Sunday of Advent the liturgy of the Word offers us the figure of John the Baptist the Precursor, the prophet of Fire.

Let us imitate John the Baptist by living as an Advent our entire life and not just the period before Christmas. Indeed, the Precursor lived his life as a witness of the Advent (see Saint John Chrysostom, Homily 37, 1-2 in Mt., page 57, 419-421) and as a preparation for the encounter with God. When Jesus came to him, he indicated Him to the others as the good News. Yes, because the Gospel, the Good News is Jesus himself, as the third reading of this Sunday reminds us: “Beginning of the gospel[1] of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mk 1, 1). The Evangelist St. Mark begins his story reminding us that the good news is Christ: He is the center of our lives and only expects that each of us opens the door for him. It is the beginning of real life; it begins even for us.

The most dramatic thing is that, if we are alone, we only learn that we must die. The good news is Christ/ Life that conquers death and whose Divine Love allows us to live human love in an everlasting and holy way, namely in the true way.

The gospel is God who comes bringing love; all that is “no-love” is “no-God, “no-life”, therefore, it is death. God comes and speaks to the human heart. He teaches to his prophets “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, tell her that the night is over” (Isaiah), but also reveals that Jesus is “the strongest” precisely because He is the only one who speaks to the heart tenderly and powerfully, satisfying the human thirst for justice (see Malachi 3,1ss), freedom (see Is 40, 1-11), and life.

How can we recognize Christ when He comes?

The figure of John is a privileged example of how to encounter God and how to recognize Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, indicating him as the one who forgives our evil and gives us the true meaning of life and death.

Let us briefly contemplate the figure of John the Baptist, son of old age and of a miracle. Before his birth he was consecrated by the visit of Mary, who was carrying Jesus in her womb. Then, at birth, he was consecrated Nazarite (pure). Growing up, he never shaved his hair, never drank wine nor touched a woman. He knew no other love then the one for God. Still young, he left the home of his parents and hid in the desert. There he lived for many years alone, homeless, without a tent, with nothing beyond what he was wearing, a camel skin and a leather belt. He had a beard and long hair, piercing eyes, and a strong voice. His body was burned by the desert sun and his soul by the ardent desire of the Kingdom. He was able to announce the Fire of Love. To those who came to him, his magnetic “wild man “appeared as the last hope for a lost people.

Contemplating this great figure, this strength in passion, it is natural to ask: where does this life, this interiority so strong, so straight, so consistent, spent completely for God and preparing the way for Jesus, comes from? The answer is simple: from the relationship with God and from prayer, which is the main theme of his entire existence.

The announcement of the birth of John the Baptist came in the place of prayer, in the Temple of Jerusalem. Moreover, it occurred when Zechariah, his future father, was in the most sacred place of the Temple, the Holy of Holies, to burn incense to the Lord.

Even the birth of John the Baptist was marked by prayer: the song of joy, praise, and thanksgiving that Zechariah elevated to the Lord: the “Benedictus”. This song came out of the mouth and from the heart of Zechariah, and the Church does recite it every morning in the Lauds to enhance the action of God in history and to indicate the mission of his son John: to precede (this is why he is called the Precursor) the son of God made flesh to prepare the way for Him and to prepare the hearts of the people to meet the Lord.

The entire existence of the Precursor of Jesus, and in particular the period spent in deserted areas, were nourished by the relationship with God. This is because, if it is true that the desert is a place of temptation, it is also true that it is the place where man feels the poverty of lacking support and material security and understands that the only point of solid reference remains God.

John the Baptist was not only a man of prayer and of the permanent contact with God, but also a guide to prayer and to the recovery of the relationship with God, preaching repentance and pointing with his voice and with his index finger: “Here is the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. “He was a guide to prayer in daily life, if Jesus’ disciples asked Him: “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (cf. Lk 11, 1). And the Son of God taught them the “Our Father”.

Praying is not time wasted or stolen to action. Prayer is the soul of our every act as it was for John the Baptist. Prayer is work, because, like or much more than human labor, transforms people and things. “Prayer is an exchange of life: God becomes man and takes upon himself our poverty, but we take of Him all that He is” (Divo Barsotti). God is Love. God is Word. He addresses people with a word of love, and we can “learn the heart of God in the Word of God” (Saint Gregory the Great).

Following the example of the consecrated Virgins, who on the day of their consecration received the breviary to pray with it every day and all day long, let us take the Word to turn to God. It is a Word full of all that we are, become flesh in us.

These consecrated, devoting themselves daily to the reading of the Word, make it the nutrient medium of prayer. Let us do the same.

These consecrated virgins, by listening daily to the Word, live in the Word as true disciples. At least during the period of Advent, let us dedicate a bit of time to listening to the Word so that it will take flesh in us.

Finally, let us learn from these people how to imitate John the Baptist: with humility. As the Precursor put into practice his words: “It is necessary that Christ will grow and I must become smaller”, the consecrated humbly do the same, indicating with their lives their Spouse and becoming small for Him.

Let us learn from these consecrated women to live as little humble people the feast of the Immaculate, which is celebrated on December 8th. The Immaculate Heart of Mary is tuned in the mercy of God who knows us all personally by name, one by one, and calls us to shine of his light. Those who in the eyes of the world are the first, to God are the last; those that are little, for God are as big as the Virgin Mary.

Following the example of Mary and her intercession “let us clean” our heart from all that is not perfect and keep it free for Christ who is descending among us as a “child”.

Patristic Reading

Saint John Chrysostom on John 6

HOMILY VI.

Jan 1,6

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”

How then do some say,3 that the expression, “being in the form of God” (Ph 2,6) is not used of His invariable likeness4 to the Father, because no article is added?5 For observe, that the article is nowhere added here. Are these words then not spoken of the Father? What then shall we say to the prophet who says, that, “Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way” (Ml 3,1, as found in Mc 1,2)? for the expressions “My” and “Thy” declare two Persons.

Jn 1,7. “The same came for a witness, to bear witness of that Light.”

What is this, perhaps one may say, the servant bear witness to his Master? When then you see Him not only witnessed to by His servant, but even coming to him, and with Jews baptized by him, will you not be still more astonished and perplexed? Yet you ought not to be troubled nor confused, but amazed at such unspeakable goodness. Though if any still continue bewildered6 and confused, He will say to such art one what He said to John, “Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Mt 3,15); and, if any be still further troubled, again He will say to him too7 what he said to the Jews, “But I receive not testimony from man.” (c. 5,34). If now he needs not this witness, why was Jn sent from God? Not as though He required his testimony —this were extremest blasphemy. Why then? Jn himself informs us, when he says,

“That all men through him might believe.”

And Christ also, after having said that “I receive not testimony from man” (c. 5,34), in order that He may not seem to the foolish to clash with8 Himself, by declaring at one time “There is another that beareth witness of Me and I know that his9 witness is true” (c. 5,32) (for He pointed to John;) and at another, “I receive not testimony from man” (c. 5,34); He immediately adds the solution of the doubt, “But these things I say” for your own sake, 10 “that ye might be saved.” As though He had said, that “I am God, and the really-Begotten 11 Son of God, and am of that Simple and Blessed Essence, I need none to witness to Me; and even though none would do so, yet am not I by this anything diminished in My Essence; but because I care for the salvation of the many, 12 I have descended to such humility as to commit the witness of Me to a man.” For by reason of the groveling nature and infirmity of the Jews, the faith in Him would in this way be more easily received, and more palatable. 13 As then He clothed Himself with flesh, that he might not, by encountering men with the unveiled Godhead, destroy them all; so He sent forth a man for His herald, that those who heard might at the hearing of a kindred voice approach more readily. For (to prove) that He had no need of that (herald’s) testimony, it would have sufficed that He should only have shown Himself who He was in His unveiled Essence, and have confounded them all. But this He did not for the reason I have before mentioned. He would have annihilated 14 all, since none could have endured the encounter of that unapproachable light. 15 Wherefore, as I said, He put on flesh, and entrusted the witness (of Himself) to one of our fellow-servants, since He arranged 16 all for the salvation of men, looking not only to His own honor, but also to what might be readily received by, and be profitable to, His hearers. Which He glanced at when He said, “These things I say” for your sake, “that ye might be saved.” (c. 5,34). And the Evangelist using the same language as his Master, after saying, “to bear witness of that Light,” adds,

“That all men through Him might believe.” All but saying, Think not that the reason why Jn the Baptist came to bear witness, was that he might add aught to the trustworthiness of his Master. No; (He came,) that by his means beings of his own class 17 might believe. For it is clear from what follows, that he used this expression in his anxiety to remove this suspicion beforehand, since he adds,

Jn 1,8. “He was not that Light.”

Now if he did not introduce this as setting himself against this suspicion, then the expression is absolutely superfluous, and tautology rather than elucidation of his teaching. For why, after having said that he “was sent to bear witness of that Light,” does he again say, “He was not that Light”? (He says it,) not loosely or without reason; but, because, for the most part, among ourselves, the person witnessing is held to be greater, and generally more trustworthy than the person witnessed of; therefore, that none might suspect this in the case of John, at once from the very beginning he removes this evil suspicion, and having torn it up by the roots, shows who this is that bears witness, and who is He who is witnessed of, and what an interval there is between the witnessed of, and the bearer of witness. And after havingdone this, and shown His incomparable superiority, he afterwards proceeds fearlessly to the narrative which remains; and after carefully removing whatever strange (ideas) might secretly harbor 18 in the minds of the simpler sort, so instills into all 19 easily and without impediment the word of doctrine in its proper order.

Let us pray then, that henceforth with the revelation of these thoughts and rightness of doctrine, we may have also a pure life and bright conversation, 20 since these things profit nothing unless good works be present with us. For though we have all faith and all knowledge of the Scriptures, yet if we be naked and destitute of the protection derived from (holy) living, there is nothing to hinder us from being hurried into the fire of hell, and burning for ever in the unquenchable flame. For as they who have done good shall rise to life everlasting, so they who have dared the contrary shall rise to everlasting punishment, which never has an end. Let us then manifest all eagerness not to mar the gain which accrues to us from a right faith by the vileness of our actions, but becoming well-pleasing to Him by these also, boldly to look on Christ. No happiness can be equal to this. And may it come to pass, that we all having obtained 21 what has been mentioned, may do all to the glory of God; to whom, with the Only-Begotten Son and the Holy Ghost, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 ta; katepeivgonta.

2 al). prohgovreutai, “is foretold.”

3 Vid. supra, Hom. 4,3).

4 ajparallaxiva vid. supra, Hom. 3,4 ad fin.

5 i.e. to Qeou`.

6 ijliggiw`n, “dizzy.”

7 [kai; pro;” aujto;n], perhaps “and with reference to him (the Baptist), Sav. al). kai; pro;” sev.

8 peripivptein.

9 aujtou`. h(n marturei` peri; ejmou` G. T.

10 diAE uJma`” (not in G. T).

11 gnhvsio”, “genuine.”

12 tw`n pollw`n.

13 eujkolwtevra.

14 hjfavnise.

15 Lit. “unapproachable encounter of that light.”

16 ejpragmateuvsato.

17 oJmovfuloi.

18 uJformou`n).

19 al. “goes on and instills.”

20 politeia.

21 al. “living worthily of.”

[1] In the first century the word gospel (from the Greek euangelion, good news) did not indicate the literary genre of which the work of Mark is perhaps the first example, followed  later by the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, but the announcement of Jesus by the apostles and then by the Christian community. It is a source of joy because announces salvation. The specification of Jesus may refer to both the subject and object of the announcement.

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1st Sunday of Advent – Year B – November 29, 2020

Is 63, 16-17.19; 64.2 to 7; Ps 80; 1 Cor 1, 3-9; Mk 13, 33-37

Ambrosian Rite

3rd Sunday of Advent – The fulfilled prophecies

Is 51.1 to 6; Ps 45; 2 Cor 2, 14-16a; Jn 5.33 to 39

1) A vigilant waiting so that our heart may become a Nativity

Advent, the powerful liturgical time that in the Roman rite begins today, invites us to pause in silence to accept and understand the presence of Christ. Let us make our heart different so that this presence of heaven finds space in our heart dilated by conversion. Indeed, the miracle of Christmas for which we are preparing, does not consist in celebrating the fact that more than two thousand years ago a child who was someone special was born in Judea. If Christ is born two thousand times in Bethlehem and not in each of us, we would not be saved. The important thing is that our dilated heart becomes a crib, then once again God would become a child on this Earth.

It is an invitation to live waiting, listening to the Word of Christ who said “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Lk 8:21), doing the will of the Father because “Whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:50), and recognizing that the individual events of the day are hints that God sends to us, signs of the attention he has for each of us. Pope Francis completes it saying “Advent is the time we are given to welcome the Lord who comes to meet us to verify our desire for God, to look ahead and prepare for the return of Christ. He will return to us on Christmas, when we commemorate his historic coming in the humility of the human condition. However, he comes in us whenever we are willing to receive him, and he will come again at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. For this reason, we must always be vigilant and wait for the Lord with the hope of encountering him”.

If we live Advent as it is suggested to us in a masterly way, Christmas will not only be a celebration to remember a fact of the past, but the present and living implementation of an event. In fact, what happened once becomes today an event in the life of the believer. As more than two thousand years ago the Lord came for everyone, He always comes again for each of us. That is why we must experience the waiting and his coming so that for each of us salvation is born.

The first characteristic that qualifies the season of Advent is the vigilant waiting, as suggested by St. Mark ‘s Gospel. Today’s passage invites the community to pay attention reading contemporary history in the light of the presence of Christ, whose coming time is not known to us. This is where vigilance originates because it is not known when the landlord returns. Mark tells his community of converted pagans (and therefore also to us, children of converted pagans) that waiting for the Lord’s return is a decisive event on today’s way of acting. There are two points that qualify our vigilance: attention and fidelity of us servants to whom Christ has left his house to be cared for.

It should also be kept in mind that, when we wait for a known person, we are happy and this four-week period is given to us to become familiar with the person of Christ, the real Savior. He comes as a friend that we cannot find the greatest in the world and He comes as a true friend because he does not think so much about himself as about his friends.

We should live the waiting of the coming of the baby Jesus in the same way a mother waits for the child she is carrying: pondering the miracle of the imminent coming of a person desired but unknown, maybe even a little ‘dreaded‘ even if it is a little one that needs tenderness, the result of a love to be accepted with an open heart and without fear.

If the heart is not dull, it can and should be stretched toward Christ. We should have a keen attention to the Lord. He comes always, but often the encounter does not take place because we live a superficial and distracted spiritual life. Unfortunately, we are rarely able to perceive this spiritual “coming” of God.

The important thing is to live Advent as the certain waiting of the “coming” of God, as the Mother per excellence has lived the waiting of the coming of the Son, Jesus.

I think that, first, the Virgin Mary spent the months of waiting looking, thinking and reading everything that could have enriched her knowledge on the Waited by people, the Son of the Almighty  conceived with humility and abandonment.

Second, the Mother of God prayed earnestly. She asked the Spirit of God to enlighten her in the search for the face of her Son and Lord. God then established between Himself and Mary a bond of loyalty, trust, and agreement, in one word of obedient faith.

Third, the Virgin Mother practiced loving the Son whom she was carrying in her womb. How could she love One that she did not know? She put into practice what, years later, St. John the Apostle wrote in his first letter “the one who does not love his brother, whom he has not seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen”. Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth whose son received the visit of the Son of God. Mary loved, not with words but with facts, not with feelings but doing, making herself a pilgrim of charity and of the mercy of God.

2) The joy of the presence of God who is near.

If we live the Advent of Christ-like the Virgin Mary lived the expectation of his birth, we will educate our heart to a real daily waiting, aware of the presence of Christ who became man for us to save our lives. And we will be in joy, because – like the Virgin Mary- we can be certain that God is at hand. He was in her and is in us always, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as a friend and faithful spouse. This joy remains even in trials and in suffering, not on the surface but deep in the person who puts himself or herself in the hands of God and trusts in him.

Jesus’ birth brought joy to Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi, the people who welcomed him, and therefore also to us. Nevertheless, this question arises “Is this joy possible even today?” The answer is given by the lives of men and women of all ages and social condition who are happy to dedicate their existence to others for the love of Christ incarnated for us.  Was not Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta an unforgettable witness of the true evangelical joy? She lived in daily contact with misery, human degradation, and death. Her soul knew the trials of the dark night of faith, yet she has given to all the smile of God. Once she said “We impatiently look forward to heaven, where God is, but it is in our power to be in heaven here on earth and from this very moment. Being happy with God means to love like him, to help like him, to give like him and to serve like Him. ”

Joy enters the hearts of those who put themselves at the service of the little and the poor. God takes home in those who love in this way – as He did in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in the manger, in the house of Nazareth – and the soul is in joy. If happiness is made an idol we are on the wrong path, and it is hard to find the joy of which Jesus speaks. Unfortunately, this is the proposition of cultures that put individual happiness in the place of God, a mentality that finds its emblematic consequence in the pursuit of pleasure at any cost. Even at Christmas we can go wrong if we exchange the real feast with the one that does not open the heart to the joy of Christ and becomes only an exchange of material gifts.

3) Advent is the coming of Jesus.

How many centuries of waiting and how many souls consumed in the desire of the waiting! May Jesus come! “The Church bride waits for her groom! We must ask ourselves, however, with great sincerity, are we sparkling and credible witnesses of this expectation, of this hope? Do our communities still live in the sign of the presence of the Lord Jesus and of the passionate waiting for his coming, or do they appear tired, numb, under the weight of fatigue and resignation? Do we also run the risk of running out of the oil of faith and of the oil of joy? Be careful! Let us invoke the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope and the Queen of Heaven, to be kept always in an attitude of listening and waiting, so that we can be already permeated by the love of Christ and can participate one day in a joy without end, in full communion with God. Do not forget, never forget “We shall always be with the Lord ” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) “(Pope Francis, October 14, 2014).

Another question arises “How to discern the signs of “The One Who Is Coming “?” The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, to test him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He said to them in reply “In the evening you say, ‘Tomorrow will be fair, for the sky is red’; and, in the morning, ‘Today will be stormy, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to judge the appearance of the sky, but you cannot judge the signs of the times “(Mt 16)”. In the same way, when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the gates.” (Mt 24, 33).

The rebuke is also true for us because Christian sensibility, incarnated and redemptive, is decreasing. We look for exciting facts and do not recognize the exceptionality of the real presence of Christ in the consecrated Host. Many of us want to see crowds kneeling and praying and miracles of all kinds. These are facts that have their significance but are not the only signs of the “One who is coming”. We must have a heart stretched forward to the most delicate and almost imperceptible voices of our generation who, alongside violent detachments, knows the ineffable pangs of a waiting that, if it has not even a name, gives great hope to those who can see.

The consecrated Virgins in the world, imitating the Virgin Mary, are called to embody the spirit of Advent, which involves listening to God, deep desire to do his will and joyful service to others. Let us be guided by their example so that the God that is coming does not find us closed or distracted but can extend a bit of his kingdom of love, justice, and peace in each of us.

With their example, they proclaim to a world often disorientated but increasingly in search of meaning that God is the Lord of life and that his “love is greater than life” (Ps 63.4). By choosing obedience, poverty and chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven, they demonstrate that any attachment or love for people and things is incapable of definitively satisfying the heart and that earthly existence is a longer or shorter period of waiting for the “face to face” encounter with the divine Bridegroom. It is a waiting to be lived with a vigilant heart so to be ready to recognize and welcome him when he comes. By its nature, therefore, consecrated life is a definitive, unconditional, and passionate response to God. (see Consecrated Life, 17)

Patristic Reading

From the GOLDEN CHAIN

Theophylact: The Lord wishing to prevent His disciples from asking about that day and hour, says, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

For if He had said, I know, but I will not reveal it to you, He would have saddened them not a little; but He acted more wisely, and prevents their asking such a question, lest they should importune Him, by saying, neither the Angels, nor I.

Hilary, de Trin., ix: This ignorance of the day and hour is urged against the Only-Begotten God, as if, God born of God had not the same perfection of nature as God. But first, let common sense decide whether it is credible that He, who (p. 270) is the cause that all things are, and are to be, should be ignorant of any out of all these things. For how can it be beyond the knowledge of that nature, by which and in which that which is to be done is contained? And can He be ignorant of that day, which is the day of His own Advent? Human substances foreknow as far as they can what they intend to do, and the knowledge of what is to be done, follows upon the will to act. How then can the Lord of glory, from ignorance of the day of His coming, be believed to be of that imperfect nature, which has on it a necessity of coming, and has not attained to the knowledge of its own advent?

But again, how much more room for blasphemy will there be, if a feeling of envy is ascribed to God the Father, in that He has withheld the knowledge of His beatitude from Him to whom He gave a foreknowledge of His death. But if there are in Him all the treasures of knowledge, He is not ignorant of this day; rather we ought to remember that the treasures of wisdom in Him are hidden; His ignorance therefore must be connected with the hiding of the treasures of wisdom, which are in Him.

For in all cases, in which God declares Himself ignorant, He is not under the power of ignorance, but either it is not a fit time for speaking, or it is an economy of not acting.

But if God is said then to have known that Abraham loved Him, when He did not hide that His knowledge from Abraham, it follows, that the Father is said to know the day, because He did not hide it from the Son. If therefore the Son knew not the day, it is a Sacrament of His being silent, as on the contrary the Father alone is said to know, because He is not silent. But God forbid that any new and bodily changes should be ascribed to the Father or the Son.

Lastly, lest He should be said to be ignorant from weakness, He has immediately added, “Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is.”

Pseudo-Jerome: For we must needs watch with our souls before the death of the body.

Theophylact: But He teach us two things, watching and prayer; for many of us watch, but watch only to pass the night in wickedness; He now follows this up with a parable, saying, “For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave his servants power over every work, and commanded the porter to watch.” (p. 271)

Bede: The man who taking a far journey left his house is Christ, who ascending as a conqueror to His Father after the Resurrection, left His Church, as to His bodily presence, but has never deprived her of the safeguard of His Divine presence.

Greg, Hom in Evan, 9: For the earth is properly the place for the flesh, which was as it were carried away to a far country, when it was placed by our Redeemer in the heavens. “And he gave his servants power over every work,” when, by giving to His faithful ones the grace of the Holy Ghost, He gave them the power of serving every good work.

He has also ordered the porter to watch, because He commanded the order of pastors to have a care over the Church committed to them. Not only, however, those of us who rule over Churches, but all are required to watch the doors of their hearts, lest the evil suggestions of the devil enter into them, and lest our Lord find us sleeping.

Wherefore concluding this parable He adds, “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.”

Pseudo-Jerome: For he who sleeps applies not his mind to real bodies, but to phantoms, and when he awakes, he possesses not what he had seen; so also are those, whom the love of this world seizes upon in this life; they quit after this life what they dreamed was real.

Theophylact: See again that He has not said, I know not when the time will be, but, “Ye know not.” For the reason why He concealed it was that it was better for us; for if, now that we know not the end, we are careless, what should we do if we knew it? We should keep on our wickedness even unto the end. Let us therefore attend to His words; for the end comes at even, when a man dies in old age; a midnight, when he dies in the midst of his youth; and at cockcrow, when our reason is perfect within us; for when a child begins to live according to his reason, then the cock cries loud within him, rousing him from the sleep of sense; but the age of childhood is the morning. Now all these ages must look out for the end; for even a child must be watched, lest he die unbaptized.

Pseudo-Jerome: He thus concludes His discourse, that the last should hear from those who come first this precept which is common to all; wherefore He adds, “But what I say unto you I (p. 272) say unto all, Watch.”

Augustine, Epist., 199, 3: For He not only speaks to those in whose hearing He then spake, but even to all who came after them, before our time, and even to us, and to all after us, even to His last coming. but shall that day find all living, or will any man say that He speaks also to the dead, when He says, “Watch, lest when he cometh he find you sleeping?”

Why then does He say to all, what only belongs to those who shall then be alive, if it be not that it belongs to all, as I have said? For that day comes to each man when his day comes for departing from this life such as he is to be, when judged in that day, and for this reason every Christian ought to watch, lest the Advent of the Lord find him unprepared; but that day shall find him unprepared, whom the last day of his life shall find unprepared

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XXXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A – Christ the King of the Universe, November 22, 2020

Ez 34.11-12.15-17; Ps 23; 1Cor 15.20-26.28; Mt 25: 31-46

Ambrosian Rite

2nd Sunday of Advent

Is 51.7-12a; Ps 47; Rom 15: 15-21; Mt 3,1-12

Method introduction.

The solemnity of Christ the King is always celebrated on the last Sunday of the liturgical year and prompts us to look at Christ who reigns on the throne of the Cross and tells us “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,  a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you dressed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me “(Mt 25, 34 -35).

Contemplating the story of the Crucifixion and that of the Last Judgment, we could identify five ways of looking at Christ: the way of the leaders of the people, that of the soldiers, that of one of the two criminals who cursed Jesus, that of the good thief who prayed Christ and that of someone who, like this “good” criminal, was able to recognize Christ in the suffering and destitute neighbor. Only the last two are the right ways: only the fourth and the fifth free us from the power of darkness and transfer us to the Kingdom of the Crucified Son.

Then we must clearly understand each one of the five ways.

The leaders of the people, the soldiers, and one of the two thieves cry out to the Crucifix “Save yourself” and the reason why the Crucifix must save himself is that he must demonstrate that he is “the Christ of God”, namely that he belongs to God, and “the king of the Jews”, that is someone strong and powerful. Therefore, the first three ways of looking at the Crucified King all arise from a certainty: the salvation of oneself is the demonstration of one’s strength; the affirmation of oneself is the act that manifests one’s personality; royalty means dominion, it means to have, to be powerful, to appear. If the Crucifix does not prove that he is capable of saving himself through a sensational manifestation of his power, he is – for the leaders – religiously cursed, politically – for the soldiers – a powerless, and personally – for the thief – a failure.

Chiefs, soldiers, and thieves looked at the Crucifix measuring his truth with the yardstick of human expectations, and they do not understand anything. Thus, the passage from the power of darkness to the Kingdom of the Son and to the participation in the destiny of the saints in the light, was precluded.

However, there is a fourth way of looking at the Crucifix, that of the other thief. It begins with the amazement of seeing him condemned to the same punishment, of seeing him fully share our condition, of seeing him immersed in our own misery. The amazement at the divine sharing makes me discover the truth of my injustice: we are guilty, we deserved to die. “He did nothing wrong”. Then the ultimate question arises: why is He on the cross? To be close to man, to be with man even where he feels cursed, desperate, alone in his death, and to bring him back to life. Looking at Jesus on the cross, man discovers both who God is and salvation. He is grace, He is mercy, He dies so that we can live.

The fifth way of looking is the way of those that Christ places on his right hand because, with pure eyes and a big heart, they knew how to recognize him in the hungry, the sick, the poor, the prisoner, and in all those who, asking for bread, perhaps without knowing were asking for the Bread of Life.

1) Shepherd king

On this Sunday in the Roman Rite, we celebrate Christ King of the Universe[1], ruler of a kingdom of mercy, justice, and peace founded on the gift of himself that He gave to us on the Cross.

Jesus did not descend from the throne of the cross because it is from the Cross that he rules the new and joyous Kingdom. From his “scandalous” throne, the Lord Jesus looks at us straight in the eyes as he looked at the good thief, and says “Today, you will be with me in Paradise, in the eternal Kingdom, in the infinite love.”

The Kingdom of Earth becomes the Kingdom of Heaven through the cross by which he offers us his love of Shepherd King, as the first reading taken from the book of the prophet Ezekiel tells us.

Ezekiel (34.11 to 17), disappointed by the shepherds of Israel (kings, priests and teachers) who care for themselves rather than for their flock, dreams of a different shepherd, a shepherd who does not “scatter” but “gather”, leads his sheep to pasture and there let them rest, goes in search of the lost sheep and dresses its wounds. These are all the traits of Jesus that we find in the Gospels.

Christ is the true shepherd who cares for his flock, who goes in search of all the lost sheep because none of them can be left out from his love and from his look of divine goodness. Christ exercises his kingship as a good shepherd, because his majesty, which we celebrate today, is the kingship of love and service, of giving, and of mercy.

2) King of life.

In the Second Reading, the passage from the first letter to the Corinthians helps us to capture in a concise way the meaning of the Solemnity of Christ the King. The Apostle Paul tells us about the true kingship of Christ which He exercises in the mystery of death and resurrection. A royalty that will be brought to fullness when, after having passed the barrier of the death of the body, he in the day of the judgment will overcome this barrier for all humanity. Death, in fact, will be for us the last “enemy” to be overcome while now we think of it as a passage to eternity of which we must have absolutely no fear because Christ has conquered death. He has won everything.

Thus, inspired by Jesus, our beloved King and Lord of the universe, let us pray to God the Father who has opened his Kingdom of love with the resurrection of Christ to make us passionate and sincere workers so that the kingship of his Son may be recognized in each corner of the earth. At the end of the liturgical year, which is a time of holiness and perfection of charity, let us join the prayer of the celebrating priest and let us say with him “Almighty and eternal God who wanted to renew all things in Christ, your Son, the King of the universe, make all creatures, free from the slavery of sin, serve and praise you without end.”

3) Judge King.

However, it is the third liturgical reading, the Gospel of Matthew (25, 31-46), that shows us the most amazing side of the kingship of Jesus. The parable of the judgment (Matthew 25.31-36) is a page that calls attention not only for the strength of its message but also for the grandeur of its scenery. There are three parts: the introduction that presents the glorious coming of the Son of Man, the call of the people and their separation (25.31 to 33), the dialogue of the King speaking first with those to the right and then with those to the left (25.34 to 45), then the conclusion which describes the execution of the judgments (25,46).

In this parable we see a Judge King holding court with love and understanding but also with the strict rules which he has laid down for the eternal salvation of his children. The basic rule is charity, attested and realized in our behavior and in simple actions such as to feed, quench the thirst, assist and be close to those in pain, those who suffer, and those who are marginalized. What touches us is that God will not judge us by scrolling through the list of our weaknesses, but through one of our acts of kindness. He will not regard our shadows, but he will consider the seeds of light and goodness that we have sown. If, like David in the Psalm of tears and repentance, we say “Look away from my sin,” God hears our cry of pain, confirms us in his love, and on the last day will turn away his look from evil and will set his eyes forever on goodness, on simple and concrete goodness because God has bound salvation to the gift of a little of the bread, a glass of water, a dress, a visit to the poor or the sick. God is not bound to things but to the heart which uses things. St. John of the Cross wrote, “At the end of life, we shall be judged on love.”

This is the greatness of the evangelical Christian faith: the ultimate contrast between man and God is not sin but good. The measure of God and, therefore, the measure of man and of history, is goodness; it is the love of God. Our future, heaven, and sky, is generated by the loving good that each of us has donated to the countless “Lazarus” of the Earth who deserve much more than the crumbs they ask for. The judgment of God is the gesture which tells the ultimate truth of man and to find it He will not look at us, but around us: to our relationships and to the portion of poor people, tears and love that was given to us and that we must preserve with our life. If there is something eternal in us, if something is left when nothing is left, this is Love.

4) Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Of all the creatures of the universe, God has chosen the Virgin Mary to associate her in a  special way to the kingship of his Son made man. The Virgin regally and maternally distributes what she has received from her King Son.  By her power she protects us, her sons and daughters acquired at the foot of the Throne of the Cross, and gives us joy with her gifts because the King commanded that all grace goes through her hands of generous motherly queen.

May Mary teach us to bear courageous witness to the Kingdom of God and accept Christ as King of our existence and of the Universe.

To this testimony are called in a special way the consecrated virgins in the world. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church (922 – 923) teaches ” From apostolic times Christian virgins called by the Lord to cling only to him with greater freedom of heart, body and spirit, have decided with the Church’s approval to live in the respective states of virginity or perpetual chastity “for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven”. (Mt 19:12). “”Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are consecrated to God by the diocesan bishop according to the approved liturgical rite, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to the service of the Church.” By this solemn rite (Consecratio virginum), the virgin is “constituted . . . a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church’s love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ and of the life to come.” The consecrated Virgin bears in a special way witness of the kingship of Christ who deserves everything, and with her whole person is a message of love and a sign of the regal character of the Christian life. Those who keep their virginity become like the Virgin Mary. “In the same way that from Her the Son, the Word of God who rules the world, was born, so those who keep their virginity generate effective words that instruct others in virtue” (Card. Spidlík) and hold them in everyday life.

In short, today’s liturgy invites us to contemplate the kingship of Christ and then asks us to live like a king, that is, to make ours a way of life high, noble, and solemn because so is charity. How can we not think of that small and frail woman who was Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta? All the powerful of the earth bowed in front of her. Her life was that of a queen without scepters and crowns but made beautiful by all the poor people she loved. And we know that in each of those poor people she loved Jesus. Let us virginally do the same.

  Patristic Reading

   Origen, priest

         Thy kingdom come

                  From the  notebook “On Prayer”

               (Cap. 25: PG 11, 495-499)

The kingdom of God, in the words of our Lord and Savior, does not come for all to see; nor shall they say: Behold, here it is, or behold, there it is; but the kingdom of God is within us, for the word of God is very near, in our mouth and in our heart. Thus it is clear that he who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it might grow and bear fruit and become perfect. For God reigns in each of his holy ones. Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city. The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him, Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.

Thus the kingdom of God within us, as we continue to make progress, will reach its highest point when the Apostle’s words are fulfilled, and Christ, having subjected all his enemies to himself, will hand over his kingdom to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Therefore, let us pray unceasingly with that disposition of soul which the Word may make divine, saying to our Father who is in heaven: Hallowed be your name; your kingdom come.

Note this too about the kingdom of God. It is not a sharing of justice with iniquity, nor a society of light with darkness, nor a meeting of Christ with Belial. The kingdom of God cannot exist alongside the reign of sin.

Therefore, if we wish God to reign in us, in no way should sin reign in our mortal body; rather we should mortify our members which are upon the earth and bear fruit in the Spirit. There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with his Christ. In us the Lord will sit at the right hand of that spiritual power which we wish to receive. And he will sit there until all his enemies who are within us become his footstool, and every principality, power, and virtue in us is cast out.

All this can happen in each one of us, and the last enemy, death, can be destroyed; then Christ will say in us: O death, where is your sting? O hell, where is your victory? Ans so what is corruptible in us must be clothed with holiness and incorruptibility, and what is mortal must be clothed, now that death has been conquered, in the Father’s immortality. Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.

[1] This feast was properly positioned on the last Sunday of the liturgical year to show that Jesus Christ is the Lord of time and in him the whole plan of creation and redemption is fulfilled.

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Roman Rite

Prv 31, 10-13.19-20.30-31; Ps 128; 1 Thes 5, 1-6; Mt 25, 14-30

Ambrosian Rite

Is 24, 16b-23; Ps 79; 1Cor 15,22-28; Mc 13,1-27

1st Sunday of Advent

Introduction

Thanks to last Sunday’s Gospel, we meditated on the parable of the ten virgins which showed us how the meaning of our life is the encounter with the bridegroom and the walk with him towards the wedding feast that celebrates the full union with the Lord.

To make this journey with the Bridegroom who arrives at night, we need lamps that give light, we need to have the oil that burns in them and we must get it now.

On this Sunday, with the parable of the talents, Christ tells us what we must do to obtain this oil: invest the talents.

However, the expression “invest the talents” should not be understood in a commercial sense. With this parable, Jesus wants to teach the disciples of then and today to use his gifts well. God calls every man to life and gives him talents, while at the same time entrusting him with a task to perform.

These gifts, in addition to natural qualities, represent the riches that the Lord Jesus left to us as an inheritance so that we make them bear fruit:

– his Word, deposited in the Gospel;

– Baptism, which renews us in the Holy Spirit;

– prayer – the “Our Father” – which we raise to God as children united in the Son;

– his forgiveness, which he commanded to bring to everyone;

– the sacrament of his immolated Body and his shed Blood.

It would be foolish to think that these gifts are due, just as giving up using them would be a failure to fulfill the purpose of one’s existence. Commenting on this Gospel passage, St Gregory the Great notes that the Lord makes no one lack the gift of his charity and of love. He writes: “It is therefore necessary, my brethren, that you take every care in the custody of charity in every action that you must perform” (Homilies on the Gospels 9,6). And, after having specified that true charity consists in loving both friends and enemies, he adds: “if a person lacks this virtue, he loses every good he has, is deprived of the talent received and is thrown out into the darkness” (ibidem).

1) The first talent is God’s Love.

The “talents”[1] of which Jesus speaks in today Gospel are not only the qualities or the abilities that God has given to each one of us, but His Love and gifts of grace, strength and intelligence with which He fills us so that we assume the responsibility of children and brethren.

In this regard Pope Francis asks: “Have you thought about how you can put your talents to the service of others?” Then he says: “Do not bury your talents! Bet on great ideals, ideals that enlarge the heart, the ideals of service that will make your talents fruitful. Life is given to us not to jealously preserve it for ourselves but to give it to others.”

The Pope reminds us that, in the parable of the talents[2], Jesus wants to teach his disciples (and us) to make good use of the gifts that God gives to every man and woman. He calls them to life, gives them talents and a mission to be accomplished using and sharing such gifts. This is also a parable with which Christ invites us not to be afraid of life and of God. He is not a master excessively and unfairly demanding, but a Father who with the gift of Charity allows us to live in freedom and love.

In addition to His love, these are the gifts/talents that Jesus offers us: his Word deposited in the Gospel, Baptism which renews us in the Holy Spirit, prayer – the ‘Our Father’ – that we address to God as children united in the Son, his forgiveness which he commanded to be given to everyone and the sacrament of his sacrificed Body and Blood. In a word: the Kingdom of God, which is Christ himself who is present and alive among us.

The talents that Jesus has entrusted to us, his friends and brothers, multiply when we donate them to others. It is a treasure given to be invested and shared with everyone. If it is foolish to think that the gifts of Christ are due to us; it is also foolish to renounce using them because it would be defeating the purpose of our existence. Commenting on this passage of the Gospel, St. Gregory the Great notes that the Lord does not deprive anyone of the gift of his charity and love. He writes: “It is therefore necessary, my brethren, that you’d put every effort in the safekeeping of charity and in every action that you must perform” (Homilies on the Gospels 9.6). And, after stating that true charity consists in loving both friends and enemies alike, he adds “If one lacks this virtue, he loses every good, he is deprived of the talents received and is thrown out into the darkness”.

2) A parable framed by two others parables.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, the parable of the talents is preceded by the one of the wise virgins and followed by the parable of the final judgment on love (I was hungry, thirsty, I was naked … and you gave me something to eat, something to drink, to get dressed …).We can consider it as the central pillar that illuminates the other two. First, it sheds light on the meaning of wisdom, represented by the reserve of oil. True wisdom comes from the novelty of a free and creative relationship that a person has with the Lord. Second, the parable of the talents teaches that the grace given by God and accepted and recognized by us, becomes a gift for his or her brothers who identify with the person of Christ. Also, if we consider the Gospel of Luke, this parable is closely linked with the story of Zacchaeus freely encountered by Jesus. This parable reveals a curious fact: in front of God man is not only forever in debt, but is called freely to an encounter with him, who is pure grace. Being wise and skilful in front of God is the only way to a liberation, which will become a gift in the encounter with the brother.

Unfortunately, sometimes we are in front of God like the third servant, the one who did not grow his talent, and we remain closed in our preconceptions about God and our modest ideas about Him. We care too much for our peace of mind and our routine. Novelty frightens us. Christ calls us to be his confident disciples who are not afraid of him and stand by without servile fear. The disciple of Jesus must move in a relationship of love from which can spring courage, generosity, freedom and even the courage to take the required risks.

Looking to the One who “has made all things new”, we are-unfortunately- more frightened than enlightened. This is why the parable of the talents stimulates the freedom and generosity that flows from the recognition of the sheer gratuitousness of an encounter. This meeting is indeed desired by man as it was for Zacchaeus, but it is realized by the goodness and love of God who came to his house and brought salvation. It was the advent of Christ in the house of a repentant sinner.

3) Coming = Advent.

All Latin Christians equate Advent to a period of 4 weeks for the Roman rite and 6 weeks for the Ambrosian rite, but many ignore the origin of the word “advent” and some “curiosities” that this term carries with it and that is worth reminding.

Let’s start with the word “Advent”, which is derived from Latin and literally means “arrival”, “coming”. It was used by the rulers of ancient times, especially in the East, to indicate the ritual with which they wanted to solemnly celebrate their arrival (in fact, their “coming”) to a city. They demanded to be welcomed as benefactors and gods. For the Christian liturgy the choice to use this term for the “coming” among men in the great cities of this world of Jesus Christ, the true giver of salvation and redemption, was therefore consistent with the mentality of ancient times.

Thus, the real “advent” would coincide with the celebration of Christmas, which is the day when we celebrate the coming of Someone. The word Advent later was amplified to indicate the period of preparation for the feast of December 25th. Therefore, the question of how long we should prepare for Christmas came up. The most ancient solution, that the Ambrosian rite has retained to this day, was to “build” the period of preparation for Christmas in imitation of the period of preparation for Easter, namely Lent. Because Lent is marked over six Sundays, so Advent was “built” on six Sundays[3].

These are Sundays intended to keep alive the vigilance of expectation, so that Christ does not find us indolent and lazy and the devil does not rob us of this treasure.  These are Sundays when we are reminded that to have faith means to make fruitful the talent that has been placed in our hands.

4) The one who loves, lives in vigilant expectation.

To receive and treasure the presence of Christ in us we must have the vigilance of the heart that the Christian is called to exercise in everyday life but especially in the season of Advent when we prepare with joy to the mystery of Christmas.

The environment that surround us offers the usual commercial messages, even if perhaps to a lesser degree now, due to this period of crisis. The Christian is called to live Advent as a time of waiting without being distracted by the lights of shops and supermarkets, but looking with the eyes of the heart to Christ, the true Light.

In fact, if we persevere “vigilant in prayer and rejoicing in praise”(Preface for the First Sunday of Advent), our eyes will be able to recognize in Him the true light of the world that comes to enlighten our darkness.

The Virgin Mary teaches us an active and joyful vigilance on the path to the encounter with God. Following the example of our Heavenly Mother, the consecrated Virgins are daily witnesses of how to live this expectation by showing that the greatest talents are the Love of God, his Kingdom and His righteousness.

The virgin is the person who waits, even with his or her body, the eschatological marriage of Christ with the Church, giving himself or herself completely to the Church in the hope that Christ gives himself to the church in the full truth of eternal life. The virgin anticipates in the flesh the new world of the resurrection. He or she is the witness in the Church of the awareness of the mystery of marriage and defends it from any reduction and impoverishment. (cf. Saint John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, nr. 16)

The consecrated Virgins in the world are called to testify that, being persistent and “vigilant in prayer and rejoicing in praise” (Preface First Sunday of Advent), allows our eyes to be able to recognize in Christ the true light of world that comes to enlighten our darkness.

The task of the consecrated Virgins is to build a life on the rock of a Lord loved, listened and waited (cf. Mt 7.24 to 25).

—

Patristic Reading

          Saint John Chrysostom

Homely on Mt 78

And if in Luke the parable of the talents is otherwise put, this is to be said, that the one is really different from the other. For in that, from the one capital different degrees of increase were made, for from one pound one brought five, another ten; wherefore neither did they obtain the same recompense; but here, it is the contrary, and the crown is accordingly equal. For he that received two gave two, and he that had received the five again in like manner; but there since from the same beginning one made the greater, one the less, increase; as might be expected, in the rewards also, they do not enjoy the same.

But see Him everywhere, not requiring it again immediately. For in the case of the vineyard, He let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country; and here He committed to them the talents, and took His journey, that thou might learn His long-suffering. And to me He seems to say these things, to intimate the resurrection. But here it is no more a vineyard and husbandmen, but all servants. For not to rulers only, nor to Jews, but to all, doth He address His discourse. And they who bring a return unto Him confess frankly, both what is their own, and what their Master’s. And the one says, Lord, “Thou gave me five talents;” and the other says, “two,” indicating that from Him they received the source of their gain, and they are very thankful, and reckon all to Him.

What then says the Master? “Well done, thou good” (for this is goodness to look to one’s neighbor) “and faithful servant; thou was faithful over few things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” meaning by this expression all blessedness.

But not so that other one, but how? “I knew that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou sowed not, and gathering where thou sown not: and I was afraid, and hid thy talent: lo, there thou hast that is thine.” What then the Master? “Thou ought to have put my money to the exchangers,”14 that is, “that ought to have spoken, to have admonished, to have advised.” But are they disobedient? Yet this is nought to thee.

What could be more gentle than this? For men indeed do not so, but him that hath put out the money at usury, even him do they make also responsible to require it again.

783 But He not so; but, Thou ought, He says, to have put it out, and to have committed the requiring of it again to me. And I should have required it with increase; by increase upon the hearing, meaning the showing forth of the works. Thou ought to have done that which is easier, and to have left to me what is more difficult. Forasmuch then as he did not this, “Take,” say He, “the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents? For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”16 What then is this? He that has a gift of word and teaching to profit thereby, and uses it not, will lose the gift also; but he that gives diligence, will gain to himself the gift in more abundance; even as the other loses what he had received. But not to this is the penalty limited for him that is slothful, but even intolerable is the punishment, and with the punishment the sentence, which is full of a heavy accusation. For “cast ye,” says He, “the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” See thou how not only the spoiler, and the covetous, nor only the doer of evil things, but also he that doeth not good things, is punished with extreme punishment.

Let us hearken then to these words. As we have opportunity, let us help on our salvation, let us get oil for our lamps, let us labor to add to our talent. For if we be backward, and spend our time in sloth here, no one will pity us any more hereafter, though we should wail ten thousand times. He also that had on the filthy garments condemned himself, and profited nothing. He also that had the one talent restored that which was committed to his charge, and yet was condemned. The virgins again entreated, and came unto Him and knocked, and all in vain, and without effect.

Knowing then these things, let us contribute alike wealth, and diligence, and protection, and all things for our neighbor’s advantage. For the talents here are each person’s ability, whether in the way of protection, or in money, or in teaching, or in whatsoever thing of the kind. Let no man say, I have but one talent, and can do nothing; for thou canal even by one approve thyself. For thou art not poorer than that widow; thou art not more uninstructed than Peter and John, who were both “unlearned and ignorant men;” but nevertheless, since they showed forth a zeal, and did all things for the common good, they attained to Heaven. For nothing is so pleasing to God, as to live for the common advantage.

For this end God gave us speech, and hands, and feet, and strength of body, and mind, and understanding, that we might use all these things, both for our own salvation, and for our neighbor’s advantage. For not for hymns only and thanksgivings is our speech serviceable to us, but it is profitable also for instruction and admonition. And if indeed we used it to this end, we should be imitating our Master; but if for the opposite ends, the devil. Since Peter also, when he confessed the Christ, was blessed, as having spoken the words of the Father; but when he refused the cross, and dissuaded it, he was severely reproved, as savoring the things of the devil. But if where the saying was of ignorance, so heavy is the blame, when we of our own will commit many sins, what favor shall we have?

Such things then let us speak, that of themselves they may be evidently the words of Christ. For not only if I should say, “Arise, and walk;”20 neither if I should say, “Tabitha, arise,”21 then only do I speak Christ’s words, but much more if being reviled I bless, if being despitefully used I pray for him that doeth despite to me. Lately indeed I said, that our tongue is a hand laying hold on the feet of God; but now much more do I say, that our tongue is a tongue imitating the tongue of Christ, if it shows forth the strictness that becomes us, if we speak those things which He wills. But what are the things which He wills us to speak? Words full of gentleness and meekness, even as also He Himself used to speak, saying to them that were insulting Him, “I have not a devil;”22 and again, “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil.”23 If thou also speak in this way; if thou speak for thy neighbor’s amendment, thou wilt obtain a tongue like that tongue. And these things God Himself says; “For he that brings out the precious from the vile, shall be as my mouth;” such are His words.

When therefore thy tongue is as Christ’s tongue, and thy mouth is become the mouth of the Father, and thou art a temple of the Holy Ghost, then what kind of honor could be equal to this? For not even if thy mouth were made of gold, no nor eve
n of precious stones, would it shine like as now, when lit up with the ornament of meekness. For what is more lovely than a mouth that knows not how to insult, but is used to bless and give good words?

—

[1] Talent was not a currency, but a unit of account. It was impossible to mint a coin weighing almost 27 kilograms! In any case, it indicated a very great value because the treasure left by Jesus is enormous. In fact, a talent was 60 minas and 6000 drachmas. The drachma was equated to a denarius (which was the currency of the time) and an unskilled worker earned about one denarius a day. Misna says that the minimum for a family was 200 denarii a day. So, with a talent a family could live 30 years.

[2] In the famous parable of the talents reported by the evangelist St. Matthew (cf. 25: 14-30), Jesus tells of three servants to whom, at the time of leaving for a long journey, the master entrusts his money. Two of them did well, because they doubled the talents they have received. The third one, however, hid the money received in a hole. Back home, the master calls the servants to account for what he had entrusted to them and, while he appreciates what the first two have done, he is disappointed with the third. That servant, in fact, who kept his talent hidden without valuing it, miscalculated : he behaved as if his master would never return, as if there were no day when he would ask him account of how he had “managed” the gift received.

[3] This year November 15 is exactly the sixth Sunday before Christmas: precisely the beginning of the Ambrosian advent. In more recent times, the Roman rite shortened this period to “only” four Sundays, and this explains the difference in calendar and the words “Roman advent” for November 29, 2020

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