July 31^st 2016. EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Luke 12:13-21

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 (Translation of a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” 
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”

Then he told them a parable. 
“There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. 
He asked himself, ‘What shall I do,
for I do not have space to store my harvest?’
And he said, ‘This is what I shall do:
I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. 
There I shall store all my grain and other goods
and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you,
you have so many good things stored up for many years,
rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’
But God said to him,
‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you;
and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’
Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves
but are not rich in what matters to God.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus is interrupted by a man who demands that Jesus intervene in a dispute about inheritance. The Lord responds with a parable about a rich man who rejoices over his bountiful harvest but dies that very night. The fact is that Jesus is not interested in mediating between us over our worldly disputes: he wishes to call us to focus on the true purpose of our lives. If we think about it, all of us “interrupt” Jesus while he tries to speak to us. Our heads are so filled with our own preoccupations on a daily basis that we cannot hear God talking to us. In order to follow the Lord properly, we must detach ourselves from our worldly concerns and anxieties, and focus on the things that are of eternal significance. It is no accident that St Francis of Assisi made poverty his starting point. He was not poor for the sake of being poor but in order to devote himself completely to eternal things. One day, the Lord will call us to account for our lives. This doesn’t have to be at the moment of death. It can be at a moment of crisis, tragedy, or even achievement. At that moment, we can be given a perspective on the true substance of our lives and on the things that really count.

Is Jesus a judge? Is he interested in sorting out our worldly disputes? Or is he more interested in calling us to abandon worldly concerns?

Jesus is preaching to the crowd when a man interrupts him and tells him what he ought to be preaching about. “Tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me!” This, according to the man, is the kind of catechesis that Jesus should be engaging in. There may well be a time when it is right to talk about these things, but Jesus replies: “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” 
Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” The curious thing is that Jesus is our judge, the judge of all things in heaven and earth! He is the mediator between God and man in the fundamental priestly act of the sacrifice on the cross. So he is a judge, but in the sense of establishing the true authority of God, the victory of the things that really matter. The problems that arise in families, the disputes over inheritance, the sadness that envelopes the human situation, are all linked to greed, to our self-indulgence. Jesus is not interested in mediating between us as we dispute over worldly things: he wants us to fix our gaze on heavenly things.

Our preoccupation with ourselves prompts us to interrupt Jesus while he is speaking to us. We cannot hear what Jesus wishes to say to us while our heads are filled with our own fixations

What is greed? Where does it lead? In the first reading from Ecclesiastes we are told: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” In Hebrew the word for “vanity” is “Vapour”. Everything is vapour, a non-entity. Everything for which we work disappears. We become greedy, avaricious, if we lose sight of that which really counts, that which is eternal. We interrupt Jesus while he is trying to speak to us, cajoling him to speak to us of other things that interest us, little things that count for nothing. We can be sure that we are fixated with these little things when we are unable to listen to Jesus because we have our own music playing in our heads.

The right way to judge our lives is not in terms of what we possess but in terms of the eternal significance of who we are and what we do

Jesus tells the parable of a man who has a bountiful harvest and places his trust in his own possessions. Possessions are the wrong parameter by which to measure one’s life. That very night the man dies and all of his possessions are of no use to him. The parable may seem a little macabre, but it sets in relief an important fact. If we wish to evaluate the true importance of things then we must reflect on their eschatological aspect, their ultimate purpose. Jesus is the one who shows us the ultimate purpose of all things. He is the ultimate judge and he lives in order to go to the Father through the passage of death. The Father is the ultimate purpose of life. We tend to make the things we possess today into the ultimate meaning of our lives, but life is only a passage and we will have to answer for it one day. It can be interesting to stop asking questions of life and instead allow one to be interrogated by life. “Will this behaviour of mine permit me to appear before God in a confident and serene way? Or will it make me feel ashamed? What do I care if my brother robs my inheritance! What really counts here is my heart, the way that I am, the way I live!” “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” says Qoheleth. Of all the glory of this world, nothing will remain.

Detachment from things gives us true freedom. We are not poor for the sake of being poor but so we can concentrate on being rich in the eyes of God

To attack the roots of greed is to enter into great freedom. It is no accident that St Francis of Assisi made poverty his starting point. Everything in his spirituality is rooted in poverty. In every epoch of the Church, this has been a key to salvation for many souls. Detachment from things might mean poverty in this world but great riches in heaven. Jesus’ parable ends with these words: “Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.” We are not poor for the sake of being poor, but for being rich in eyes of God. Poor in this world means being detached from things, ready to lose everything in order to be in the presence of God. Possessions lead us away from God with the anxieties and self-fixation they provoke. And what about the wonderful reputations we have in the eyes of others? A simple rumour and it all collapses! All that you earned during your life will soon be forgotten once you go on the pension - and it is probably good that things are like this, otherwise we would become slaves of our personality and reputation and never become an authentic person. We must be ever ready for God to come and ask us for an account of our lives. It doesn’t have to be at the moment of death: our true substance can be measured in moments of crisis or tragedy, or even achievement; we can be seen for who we really are when confronted by the things that really count. This Sunday’s splendid liturgy of the word calls us to be free, to live life from the right perspective. We are heading towards heaven; let us not waste time with things that do not last.

July 24th 2016. SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Luke 11:1-13

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 (Translation of a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him,
"Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples."
He said to them, "When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread
and forgive us our sins
for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,
and do not subject us to the final test."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend
to whom he goes at midnight and says,
'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey
and I have nothing to offer him,'
and he says in reply from within,
'Do not bother me; the door has already been locked
and my children and I are already in bed.
I cannot get up to give you anything.'
I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves
because of their friendship,
he will get up to give him whatever he needs
because of his persistence.
"And I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What father among you would hand his son a snake
when he asks for a fish?
Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?
If you then, who are wicked know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel this week presents the Our Father as a model of authentic prayer. We do not learn to pray once and for always. Just as we must learn continually to communicate better with others, so must our spiritual lives be continually deepened. In the Our Father, everything in our lives (the submission to God’s will, the pardon of others, the overcoming of temptation) is all placed in the context of an attitude of filial relationship with a loving Father. Then Jesus presents us with a parable. A man needs bread for his friend and he goes to the house of an acquaintance to implore his help. The acquaintance may not respond out of friendship, but he will eventually respond if the first man keeps pestering him. What does this parable tell us? It is a fact that many of us do not have a great filial relationship with God. But even if the friendship is missing, God will listen to our prayers on behalf of others if we lift those prayers to God with insistence. This is how God has chosen to channel his grace. He has made us interdependent on each other and wishes us to come closer to him through the working out of our relationships with others. Prayer for ourselves is often egoism. Prayer for others is often more authentic and allows God to act in our lives with power.

We do not learn how to pray once and for always. Life is a continual process of learning how to pray

This Sunday we hear Luke’s version of the Our Father, which is simple and stark, but perhaps more radical. The disciples had asked Jesus how to pray. We must be always in a state of learning how to pray, just as we continually learn how to communicate better with those whom we love. In the spiritual life there are many phases in which we develop a deeper and more authentic relationship with the Lord. In the first reading, Abraham intercedes with the Lord for Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham’s nephew is in the city of Sodom and he is concerned for him. In the dialogue, Abraham seems more just than God, imploring that the righteous ones in the city not be destroyed. If there are just fifty good men in the city, or forty, or twenty, or ten, Abraham argues, then the city ought not to be destroyed. In reality, it is not that Abraham is influencing God’s actions with his reasoning: he is getting to know God better and is discovering that God would not destroy the city on account of these good people within it.

Why do we need to pray? Doesn’t God know what we need already?

But why should we, or Abraham, have to pray to God in the first place? Doesn’t the Lord already know what we want? Doesn’t he already care for us enough to give us what we need whether we ask for it or not? God wishes to channel his grace through the behaviour of man, through the love that we show for others. For example, none of us receives the Gospel directly from the Lord. We receive it from others, especially our parents who are the best evangelisers of all. The love, care and service of others is the pathway of the grace of God. God has chosen to save us by means of our reciprocal love. Abraham is concerned for the wellbeing of his nephew, and thus he obtains good things from the Lord. God does not force grace upon us. Where there is no love, love does not pass. But where there is love, even if it is the faltering, weak version of love that is ours, once it is referred to God, he is able to work with all of his power. Prayer, thus, is love in action, and God has ordained that his grace should be channelled in response to love of this sort.

The Our Father places us in filial relationship with the Father. All our actions thus become acts lived as children of a loving Father

In the Gospel, prayer is presented as the place of relationship with the Father. The forgiveness of the sins of others, the victory over temptation, living in the truth - all of these follow from a life lived as children of God. This prayer of placing oneself in a filial relationship with God has no equal. It is an act of union with Jesus whose existence consists in living out this relationship of sonship to the Father.

In the parable, a man wishes to obtain bread for his friend. This prompts him to ask for help with insistence. Even if we do not have a deep friendship with God, the needs of those around us can impel us to pray to God with sincerity. God cannot refuse to listen to our requests.

Then we have the interesting parable of the man who has an unexpected visitor but has no bread to offer him. So he goes to a friend and pesters him for bread. How often we are confronted by situations in which a friend comes to us looking for something, some consolation, a word of advice, and we have nothing to give. In the parable, Jesus says that if the friend does not respond out of friendship to the demands for bread, he will eventually be moved by the persistence of the requests. In other words, Jesus is telling us that, even if we do not have a true friendship with God, the desperation of the situation of others can transform us into authentic people of prayer. The anguish of others can prompt us to lift our prayers sincerely to God. So even if we have failed to become God’s friends, the need around us can enable us to penetrate the fortress of the grace of God. Thus, our power does not derive from our human talents, nor the relationship we may have established with God. But God looks at the sincerity and persistence with which we are asking. At the end of the parable Jesus says: “Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you”. In the midst of a grave poverty of relationship and spiritual superficiality, we can come closer to the Lord by means of an authentic request for assistance for those people around us. “Lord I do not know how to help my friend in need. Lord I do not know how to raise my children.” Sometimes we are cold and distant from God, but this anguish for others can help us draw closer to him. The desire to give bread to those around us is prayer. The desire to have bread for ourselves is egoism. The request for bread for another is a good starting point. When we allow the needs of others to touch our hearts, then we become insistent, driven as we are by our concern for others. The grace of God flows through love of this sort.

July 17^th 2016. SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Luke 10:38-42

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(Translation of a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Luke 10:38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Martha is fixated with what she is doing for Jesus and seems to have little interest in what he can do for her. She scolds Jesus and asks him to tell Mary to stop listening to him and come to her aid. It is her actions that are the important ones, Martha feels. In our spiritual lives, how often we are fixated with our own struggles, our own actions! We leave little room for Jesus to act on us. We find prayer and spiritual exercises a weary burden. But prayer should be an act of reception, an oasis where we receive wisdom, consolation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has so much more to give us that we can imagine. Our egoistic fixation with what we can do is an obstacle to receiving what the Lord wishes to give us. This is not to say that we do not need to do anything! We must act also, but in a way that allows the action of God to enter into our lives and bring our acts to fruition. Our actions then will take on a grandness and beauty that will bear witness to fact that they are grounded in God. We think of God as a taskmaster who demands our fatigue, but he is the one who wishes to act tirelessly for us!

Martha is fixated with doing things for Jesus, and doesn’t seem to care what Jesus can do for her

The first reading describes the welcome given by Abraham to three travellers, who in reality are the angels of the Lord. Once they are welcomed, they leave new life behind them, promising the birth of Isaac. At the time of Abraham, to refuse hospitality to a pilgrim was to condemn him to death. Hospitality was obligatory, a sacred act. The surprising thing in this story is the fact that it was the pilgrims who had something precious to give rather than receive. And we find the same theme in the Gospel. Martha and Mary welcome Jesus to their home, but Mary does nothing whilst Martha is busy with the hospitality. It seems the classic tension between siblings. Martha, evidently, is the older sister and she feels responsible to provide hospitality for Jesus. The problem is that she remains stuck in this act. It is important for her that her welcome should be on the level of the guest, so she brings out the best of everything and wants things to go just right. It is as if she wants to provide Jesus with a sort of “trailer” that demonstrates her competence and skills as a host. Martha does not get beyond her fixation with wishing to create a good impression. The real problem here is that Martha is oblivious to the fact that her guest, Jesus, has so much more to give her.

We want Jesus to take note of what we are doing for him, but it would be better if we learned to receive from him

Closed within her own egoistic concerns, Martha becomes agitated and is unable to appreciate what Jesus is capable of doing for her. Burdened with her tasks, she scolds Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me alone to do the serving?” In other words, she is bothered by the fact that Jesus does not take interest in what she is doing for him. And this is a fact: Jesus is not primarily interested in what we do for him. Martha wants Jesus to place a priority on what she does, and she wants Jesus to get Mary to co-operate with what Martha is doing, rather than telling her beautiful things about God’s Kingdom. But Jesus would prefer if Martha learned to receive from him. In this sense, Mary has chosen the better part. It is important that we do not see this story as a tale of Martha against Mary so much as a story of how essential it is that Martha becomes like Mary. Mary has chosen to receive from Jesus. In the spiritual life, we sometimes put too much emphasis on our own actions. For example, if we are struggling against sin, the important thing is not to focus on the battle against sin but on the reception of the new life that banishes sin. The campaign against sin is something secondary, the occasion through which the Lord Jesus enters our lives. Sometimes we think of prayer as a chore. And it is demanding in that it requires discipline and tenacity. But prayer should be an act of reception, an oasis in which we receive consolation and wisdom, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Our work is secondary to that of God. We must act, it is true, but in such a way that we allow the Lord to enter into our actions and bring them to completion. Then our actions will bear extraordinary fruit and it will be evident to all that God is the primary mover.

Like Marta, we must learn that our labour is secondary to the action of God. St Vincent de Paul, who was himself a giant of charity, said that the works of God come to fruition of themselves. When one does the works of God, they have such a beauty and grandness that our part becomes something very small and secondary, whilst the part of God is something splendid and evident. All of this is not to say that we should not do anything! Rather, we must do things in such a way that the Lord is able to enter into them and bring them to completion. The lesson of this week’s readings is that what we have to offer is miniscule compared to what God wishes to do in any given situation. And yet we think that to do God’s work is tiresome! That God is a demanding taskmaster! On the contrary, to cooperate in God’s work is a tiny sacrifice for a beautiful gift, a marvellous place of encounter with him, an experience that no one can take from us.

July 10^th 2016. Fifteenth Sunday in ordinary time

Gospel: LK 10:25-37

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

Gospel: LK 10:25-37

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test him and said,
"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?
How do you read it?"
He said in reply,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live."

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied,
"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
'Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.'
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise To you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In this parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite ignore the wounded man because the Law that they follow is fixated with their personal justification. They represent the Law, which must stand on the side of life, and therefore they cannot touch anything that is dead or dying. The Old Testament Law, with its focus on personal righteousness, is unable to provide an authentic solution of how to beave in such circumstances. What is needed is that an outsider come along, a Samaritan, Jesus Christ, who despises his own personal justification and righteousness and makes himself one with the unrighteous. In other words, what is needed is love. This parable is not seeking to create an opposition between love and law. Rather, it shows how a certain type of law is incapable of guiding our actions in the face of the plight of others. Law that is focused on personal righteousness is very different to law that flows from the loving concern for others. And laws do flow from love. Love is chaste and obedient. It is generous and tenacious. It is profoundly obedient to the condition of the other and his authentic good

What is the spiritual life all about? Having our moral accounts square with God? Or something else altogether?

When reading the Parable of the Good Samaritan, it is important to read the introduction. A doctor of the Law asks Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life. Jesus asks him what the Law teaches and the man replies: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself”. Jesus says that he has answered well but the man wishes to justify himself, so he goes on, “And who is my neighbor?” This man wants to know exactly what is required for him to have his accounts squared with God. This impulse does a lot of damage to one’s spiritual life and results in a fixation with norms and protocols. It is interesting to note that, in the first reading, Moses tells the people that the task of following the Lord is not out of their reach: in fact it is something that has been made very accessible to them so that they will be able to put it into practice. But the Israelites immediately begin asking what exactly they can and cannot do if they are to fulfil what the Lord wants. This is the perennial problem that arises when we seek to be righteous by means of a system of norms. The issue of justification has to do with one’s relationship with God. Therefore it is a matter that is concerned with the heart, not with formulae or prescriptions.

The Old Testament Law was incapable of providing a solution to the kind of behaviour that was demanded by a situation of this sort. What was needed was the coming of an outsider, a Samaritan, Jesus Christ, who would put himself close to us and aid our afflictions with his love

In the Parable, both a priest and a Levite see the wounded man and pass onwards. The actions of both are determined by regulations. Neither a priest nor a Levite was allowed to touch a corpse, and in this case we are speaking of a victim who appears more or less dead. The fact that both were healthy men who were capable of coming to the aid of the sick man was obscured by a fixation on the law. The priest did not possess the solution of how to react to a victim of this sort, and the Old Testament Law as a whole could not provide an answer to how one should behave when confronted with such a situation. What was needed was for someone to come who would make himself unjust for the unjust, someone who was himself just. What was needed was the arrival of an outsider, a Samaritan, someone who would come close to us, taking bone from our bone, flesh from our flesh, cleansing what was dirty from our lives. Or to say it differently: norms are good but only love can bring life. The priest saw the sick man, but continued on. The fact that he saw entails that he made a diagnosis of the situation, but it remained only a diagnosis. The Lord Jesus, by contrast, draws near to us, becoming wholly immediate, leading us on the road to full healing. Laws can help us to see how imperfect we are, but only love can help us to become perfect.

Law and love are not in contrast to each other. Love gives rise to its own sets of laws. The drive for personal justification gives rise to a different set of laws altogether that have nothing to do with love.

We are not putting love and law into opposition with each other. Laws and regulations are important in life. In fact we see in the parable how laws are transformed by love. The priest cannot touch the sick man because he represents the Law and the Law must be on the side of life: it cannot touch what is dying. The Samaritan, by contrast, utters a different kind of norm altogether: he says to the innkeeper: “Take care of him. Whatever extra you spend on him, I will pay upon my return”. “Take care of him” – this is the new command, a command that has its source in love. The Samaritan is not concerned with personal justification: he is concerned with right relations between him and others. The justification of the priest was of the individualistic kind, but the justification that comes from the act of love is one that is based on the care and concern for others.

We must make the leap from one kind of norm to another kind: from the norms that justify me to the norms that spring from love.

We must make the transition from one type of regulation to another type of regulation, i.e., from regulations that derive from individual justification to regulations that spring from love. Love is chaste and obedient. It is generous and tenacious. It is practical and finds solutions to the woes of others, instead of being bogged down by obstacles. It is profoundly obedient to the condition of the other and his authentic good. It has its own rules and its own goal, which is the care of others. Justification by law has a very different goal, which is that of personal justification. This contrast is at the heart of the transition from the Old to the New Testaments, which is the transition from being just to having love, and therefore having the justification and discipline that is inseparable from love.