January 31 2021, Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

 January 31^st 2021.  Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL Mark 1:21-28

Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
Jesus rebuked him and said,
“Quiet! Come out of him!”
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
“What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORT HOMILY . . . We hear today of the exorcism performed by Jesus in Capernaum, the first public miracle described in the Gospel of Mark. We are told that the man has an “impure” spirit. The demon speaks to Jesus, but he does not say anything that is incorrect. He even acknowledges that Jesus is holy and that he means to destroy him. This is how the spirit of deception functions, by taking what is true and distorting it for his own ends. The human being is a creature who is always in dialogue with himself. It is important to realize that all of the evil that we do arises from some deception that has found a way into our hearts. We allow a false word to speak intimately to us. If a false word becomes the centre of our world, then we begin to act in disordered and evil ways. In the first pages of Genesis, we learn that evil arises in the deceptive words spoken by the serpent and the fact that our first parents chose to believe that word. Similarly, in this Gospel passage, the devil’s strategy is again to claim that God is not on our side, that he wishes to destroy us! We are catechized by the demon and think of Jesus as our enemy, not as the one who gives us the fullness of life. Humans often nurture an antipathy for the good and an aversion for what is holy. It is not necessary to be possessed to be deceived in this way. We must be very careful not to develop an antipathy towards the good, to feel a reaction when we hear of the good being done by others. But as we see, the Gospel of Jesus is a new teaching with authority that casts evil out, making the man cry in pain. This pain is holy and blessed! Let us not be afraid of this pain of being liberated from sin, even if we feel antipathy for the one who is liberating us from ambiguity. May the Lord free us from every impure spirit that lives in our hearts.

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LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

The people of Israel do not want to hear the voice of God directly. It fills them with terror. Moses foretells the coming of the one true prophet who will speak God’s words, but he also warns of false prophets. There are two types of false prophecy: the exterior ones who preach a false Gospel, and the interior perversion of God’s word in our hearts

The theme of the first reading reappears implicitly in the Gospel. Moses announces the appearance of a prophet that will be of equal stature to Moses. This prophecy is made in response to the behaviour of the people at Mount Sinai. They complain that they are unable to bear hearing the words of God directly. When God proclaimed the ten commandments to them they were filled with terror. This is all very natural! The truth is tough to listen to. It wounds us and embarrasses us.  We prefer to hear the truth gradually or through a mediator who brings it to bear on us more gently. Moses accepts the role of mediator but he is aware that he will not live forever, so he announces the arrival of a future mediator. This foretells the coming of Jesus, the one, true prophet. This authentic prophet will have the words of God in his mouth. Moses also speaks of false prophets who will pretend to speak the words of the Lord. This problem of true and false prophecy is a great exterior problem and also a grave interior one. Exteriorly, there are false prophets who misinterpret God’s word and preach a false Gospel. Interiorly, all of us are susceptible to thoughts and patterns of behaviour that misrepresent God’s word.

The authority and truth spoken by Jesus flushes out the impure spirit. The impure spirits within us are not evidently contrary to God. They can profess faith in God whilst distorting and misrepresenting that faith

In the Gospel we are presented with Mark’s first account of a demonstration of authority on the part of Jesus. There are aspects of this account that are unsettling. Jesus preaches in the synagogue on a Saturday and he preaches with greater authority than the scribes. How did the scribes teach in those days? The Hebrew tradition involved citing various interpretations of a given text. No single interpretation had more authority than the others. Thus there were many opinions, thousands of beautiful reflections on various passages of scripture, but nothing definitive. Jesus, by contrast, speaks with authority, with the sense of one who has the capacity to define things. This authority is made explicitly manifest by the violent reaction of the man with the impure spirit. Each Saturday this same man would have gone to the synagogue without ever reacting because no one had ever before spoken with authority. The man could easily bear the relativism of the rabbinic practices of his time! For as long as there was a general failure to define things clearly, mistaken practices and attitudes could carry on in a hidden way. The term “impure” is not an accidental one. It is a word that seems to belong to chemistry more than to ethics. Impure water is water that has other things present in it. The fact that the spirit is termed “impure” indicates that it incorporates various elements mixed together. The spirit cries out, ““What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” There is nothing false or deceptive about this statement! The most dangerous temptations are not those in which we do or say something evidently wrong. The most insidious temptations involve being lured into doing something that seems right in itself, but at the wrong time, or in an inappropriate way. Satan is not a beginner when it comes to tempting us. We must be careful if we think we are always able to recognize when we are being tempted. After many years of the spiritual life we are still regularly led astray by the spirit of deception, who is more subtle and intelligent than the human being.

Woe to us if we think we can recognize the false prophet, or the deceit within our own hearts! Satan is an expert at helping us to justify the indefensible

The impure spirit tries to escape destruction by professing faith in Jesus as the Son of God. The most terrible things are done in the name of God. Things that are done directly against God are relatively easy to recognize. What is more difficult to combat are the false images of God, the misrepresentations of his work, the exhortation to patience when God is actually calling for action, the claim that God is severe about things that he is not actually severe about, falsifications, perversions and half-truths about the things of the Lord. This is the work of the tempter. How do we win this difficult battle? Woe to us if we think we can recognize the false prophet at first sight! The battle is all the more difficult because we react violently when the deceit in our heart is at risk of being exposed. There is a serenity and calmness about thoughts that come from the Lord, inspirations that derive from the Holy Spirit. By contrast there is a violent reactivity associated with the things that have their origin in evil. When our thinking is impure, it is self-contradictory in itself, but it doesn’t show itself immediately: it shows itself when it is confronted with the truth. There are things in our lives that are incompatible with the teachings of the Church, the content of the Gospel and the stirrings of our conscience, but we justify them with a tortuous rationalisation that only serves to obscure the truth. We use our intelligence to justify things that are unjustifiable.

Only Jesus can flush out the deceit. We must stay close to him and to the things of God if the deceit is to be driven out of our hearts

So how do we flush out this impure spirit? It is the Lord Jesus who drives it out into the open. This is the important point of the Gospel! The impure spirit attended the synagogue happily every Saturday and only Jesus was able to drive him out. We too have desperate need of real contact with Jesus and the things of God. These things are incompatible with the things of evil. We need to become ever more conscious of those things that dispel darkness and illuminate our lives. There are things we don’t like to speak about, because if we were to speak about them, our self-deceptions would come to the fore. Often we justify things that are indefensible with the expression “You are unable to understand me!” If we can’t be understood, then maybe it is because the way of thinking that we are clinging to is an irrational justification of the deceit that lies in our heart. It is common for people with a spiritual director to notice that there are things that they are afraid to talk about. The things we are afraid to talk about are shadows of the impure spirit within us. We need to be where Christ is if this battle is to be won, for it is the Lord who wins the battle in us! These things we have said about the Gospel today are poor, elementary and incomplete. How much else could be said! Recall those moments when a clear light shone in our hearts and darkness was dispelled! When the deceit and delusion was driven out! We need constant contact with Jesus in order to have this continual exorcism from our inner deceptions. 

January 24th 2021.  Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 1:14-20

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

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL Mark 1:14-20

After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. ‘The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.’

As he was walking along by the Sea of Galilee he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net in the lake – for they were fishermen.

And Jesus said to them, ‘Follow me and I will make you into fishers of men.’

And at once they left their nets and followed him.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . This Sunday has been named by Pope Francis as Sunday of the Word of God. The first reading recounts the story of  Jonah preaching to Nineveh, capital of Assyria. The city is truly enormous. In a sense it represents the entire pagan world. Jonah doesn’t want to preach among his enemies, but this story demonstrates that the reception of God’s word is possible for everyone, even the most hardened of pagans. When the people convert and begin fasting, God repents of his intention to destroy the city. The Hebrew word for God’s “penitence” has the sense of God being consoled at the people’s conversion. 

Considering the Gospel, the Greek word used by Christ in this passage, “Repent!” is metanoia. It indicates going beyond one’s customary mentality, of being liberated from one’s own fixed ideas. It also indicates a complete change of direction. Christ tells us that the time is “full”, history has reached a moment of completion. We are invited to believe in the Good News and be converted. Conversion requires a change of destination. It also has a sense of rediscovering one’s original good and pure intentions. Each one of us has a latent memory of the good state in which we were created and its good purpose. Our destination determines and influences everything that we do. St Ignatius in his Exercises asks us to consider the final end of who we are, the final end of our creation: salvation, heaven, God himself. 

Whether or not we are living a meaningful and full life depends on our destination. The issue is not how good our life is now or how difficult it is, but where we are going. One man might be living a life that appears wholesome and good, but in reality he is tending towards evil, whilst another man in a difficult situation of illness or strife is actually heading towards the good. The first situation is degenerating, whilst the other is actually entering into life. Marriages are often saved when they rediscover their goal, their original destination. It is the same for a religious vocation. We often make mistakes, but the important thing is to be converted, to go beyond our present mentality, to rediscover the good origins we once had and our true direction. It is vital that we not absolutize our own way of thinking. In this sense, it is important to leave aside everything, boats, parents, family, in order to rediscover our mission, and to find ourselves in the Lord. 

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

The first reading and the Gospel both speak of the arrival of moments of change and conversion.

The first reading tells the short story of the mission of the prophet Jonah. Jonah had to undergo an interior journey in order to become a prophet, but here we just see the episode when he finally exercises his ministry and prompts the conversion of the city of Nineveh. This was the capital of Assyria and the fiercest enemy of Israel. The Gospel is from the first chapter of Mark, the most ancient of the Evangelists, and it gives us the very first words spoken by Jesus in this narrative: “The time is at hand! The Kingdom of God is near! Repent and receive the Gospel!” Jonah, by contrast, says something much more negative in tone: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed!” What is the connection between the first reading and the Gospel? The theme in common is that of a time that has arrived. Nineveh was a great city that required several days to cross. The conversion of such a city represented a change of historic proportions. Everyone, from the great to the small, put on sackcloth and repented. In the Gospel there is an explicit call on each person as an individual to change.

Change, conversion, flexibility, openness – all these are necessary in life

How does the human being change? There can be no doubt that the theme of Sunday’s liturgy is conversion. Conversion is something that is necessary. It does not happen once and for all - it must occur continually. Our hearts and minds must be living and flexible, not petrified in stone. It is impossible to live without conversion, without the willingness to abandon one’s fixations and modes of behaviour. Love is impossible if we are unwilling to adapt in the face of the things that happen to us. How can we raise a child if we are unwilling to move beyond our own interests? How can a man love a woman all his life if he is not willing to enter into the rhythms, surprises and states of soul that characterize her? Life involves allowing oneself to be changed by things. Of course there are some things in life that are non-negotiable, but a certain flexibility and openness are necessary if we are to grow in step with reality. A good way of offending someone is to tell them that they are inflexible, unchanging, wearing blinkers that only permit them to see things as they wish. We must open our eyes and be always capable of a new synthesis. In Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis says a beautiful thing, paraphrasing the Gospel line that says “where your treasure is, there also is your heart”. Pope Francis modifies this slightly, saying, “where your synthesis of life is, there also is your heart”. All of us see the world from our own perspective, but this viewpoint is never complete, no matter how balanced and mature it might seem. We need to be changed and enriched constantly. Ecclesia semper reformanda est - the church is constantly in need of reformation and evolution, though it remains the same church. We too must be malleable and flexible, though always remaining ourselves and remaining faithful to the truth.

There is a time for everything. Some things require reflections and discernment. Sometimes it is not the right moment to act. But when it is clear what the Lord wants from us, then we must act without delay

So when does the moment of conversion arrive? Both texts this Sunday point to the question of time. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed!” “The time is fulfilled! The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Life is not just a series of uniform events. There are moments when it is right to do something and other moments when it is not appropriate. If you do something wrong, then there is a time to correct that error before it is too late. There is a time to speak to children on a particular issue. When that time passes, it is no longer possible to speak productively of that thing. When we say an offensive word to someone, then the time to make amends is immediately. Later it is much more difficult to put things right. Sometimes it is better to wait until things calm down before speaking about a particular problem. The point is that life has a rhythm. We must enter into this rhythm and do the correct things at the correct time. When Peter, James and John are called by Jesus, they leave their nets immediately. Sometimes we are called to something, and the response should be immediate. Waiting is the wrong thing to do. It is true that things must not be done in haste. The things of God are done in a balanced way. But when it is clear that the time is at hand and God is calling, then we must not wait a second. In the interval of time during which we delay, the work of destruction enters. There are forty days till the destruction of Nineveh, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand right now. Once I have understood what it is I must do, then I must wait no longer! This is not haste. It is doing what must clearly be done. When something appears to our conscience as something right, good and appropriate, then we must not delay. St Augustine tells us that while something is in doubt, we should not make a firm decision. But once things are obvious then we must act. How many people refuse to do that which is clearly right to do! How often we behave like potential Christians, a dawn of Christianity that never becomes day, a handful of promises that never becomes concrete. We wait and wait without acting, even though it is evident [k1] what the Lord wishes us to do. When it is apparent that something should be abandoned, then it must be abandoned immediately. Firstly we should use all of the discernment that is possible in this world. But once things are clear then we must act, leave Zebedee and the boats behind. The things that have nothing to do with the good must be put aside - whatever it might be - boats, nets, ways of life. If Nineveh waits, the city will be destroyed. If Peter delays, his opportunity will vanish and he will become an anonymous figure. If we are to be true to our calling, then we must enter into the rhythm of life. When the truth is clear in our hearts, then we must act without delay.

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, January 17 2021

January 17th 2021.  Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: John 1:35-42

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

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL John 1:35-42

As John stood with two of his disciples, Jesus passed, and John stared hard at him and said, ‘Look, there is the lamb of God.’ Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus. Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, ‘What do you want?’ They answered, ‘Rabbi,’ – which means Teacher – ‘where do you live?’ ‘Come and see’ he replied; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day. It was about the tenth hour.

One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked hard at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ – meaning Rock.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORTER HOMILY . . . On this Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, we consider the call of the first disciples. Jesus fixes his gaze on Simon and gives him the name Cephas (“Peter” in Greek), which means “rock”. The change of name represents the reception of a new identity, the change of orientation of his life. Isaiah speaks of a new name that the Lord will give to us. The Lord has the capacity to change us radically, but this is a process that needs to unfold in a certain way, and this Gospel shows us how. Firstly, John the Baptist points out Jesus who is passing by. It is up to us to follow him. John calls Jesus the “Lamb of God”, referring to the Paschal lamb whose blood preserved the lives and wins the freedom of the people of Israel. The first words Jesus says in John’s Gospel are: “What do you want?” The disciples respond: “Master, where do you live?” They are not looking for his street address; they want to stay with him and get to know him. This is a response that all of us should make to Jesus. We do not get to know him through abstract thinking. We need to experience life with him concretely. The Gospel tells us that all this happened at 4pm, the very hour when the Paschal lambs were slaughtered in sacrifice. Furthermore, it must be noted that Peter comes to Jesus because of Andrew’s testimony. Andrew comes to Jesus because of John the Baptist’s indication.  In the first reading, Samuel is called by the Lord,  but does not recognize his voice until the priest, Eli, gives him the correct interpretation. Similarly, none of us can come to Christ unless we allow other Christians to bear us along. Andrew doesn’t explain to Peter who Jesus, is but simply brings Peter to him. We too should speak less and simply bring people to Jesus. From generation to generation, it has been like this: one person with a generous spirit brings another person to Jesus; the second person believes in the testimony of his brother. In this way, we come to the Lord and we discover our true name, our real identity.

LONGER HOMILY FOLLOWS

In the Gospel, people are led to Christ by people who point Jesus out. Then these people in turn lead others to the Lord

Many things are contained in this text for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, but we will use the first reading as the key for reading the Gospel. In the Gospel, John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Two of his disciples hear him and begin to follow Jesus. Jesus takes them to where he lives and begins an encounter with them. The passage continues: “One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. Early next morning, Andrew met his brother and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ – which means the Christ – and he took Simon to Jesus”. John leads two of his disciples to Jesus. These disciples encounter the Lord and then, the following day, they do exactly what John the Baptist did for them! They lead others to the Lord. Simon in turn has such a powerful encounter with the Lord that his name is changed that very day. The person who is led to the Lord becomes a person who leads others to him. This is how we come to Jesus, by the fact that someone shows him to us, a person who leads, a person who invites, a person who indicates.

In the first reading, Eli helps Samuel to see that he is being called by the Lord. We too have need of the help of others if we are to get to know Jesus more deeply. And we too have the responsibility to lead others to Christ

The first reading tells the story of Samuel. This is one of the great prophets of Israel, one who governs his people. He leads them through the period of transformation in which they become a monarchy, anointing first Saul and then David, the beginning of the dynastic succession that will eventually lead to Jesus. And how did Samuel become such a great leader of his people? Because he too allowed himself to be led. The first reading, in fact, tells us that the Lord called on Samuel four times. It is only at the third call that Samuel gets prepared to respond to the Lord because at this point he is assisted by Eli, the priest. Eli instructs him as to how to respond to the call of the Lord. When the Lord summoned Samuel originally, the prophet did not understand that he was being called, but Eli understood and instructed Samuel to give the Lord his assent. This assent enables Samuel to become more fully himself, the prophet that he was destined to be. But he needed the help of Eli to guide him in the right path. Thus the first reading underlines this theme of the Gospel: the Lord does not come to us except through the help of another person. We tend to strive to make our way along our own autonomous path, a self-referential path in which we nurture the illusion of absolute self-sufficiency. We think that we can get by on our own steam even when it comes to important issues of life such as our relationship with the Lord. In reality we have a great need of guidance in all of the important areas of our lives. Incredibly, we are also called to be guides for others. The Lord Jesus loves to be assisted by us. He loves when we act as mediators who bring others to him. He loves to be made known through these means chosen by him. In the life of the Spirit we have need of the assistance of others. No-one is able to stand alone on his own two feet. In order to come to Jesus we need people who will tell us about him, assist us in understanding him. And we in our turn have the responsibility to build up the faith of others.

Others can lead us to Jesus but we must then have our own personal and profound encounter with him. Only then can we in our turn be mediators that bring others to Christ. A true guide leads people to Jesus, not to himself

The faith is something we learn from the Church, from someone who teaches it to us, who writes within our hearts those directions that we need in order to make our own personal, direct encounter with the Lord. In the Gospel, the first two disciples have a personal encounter with Jesus, and they do this because they follow the directions of the Baptist. Simon’s name gets changed to “Peter” because he follows the indications given to him by his brother, Andrew. In other words, he too has an experience that is personal and profound. None of us can reach what is important in life without the help of our brothers and sisters, without the assistance of someone who guides us. This chain of grace is a delicate thing and it is easy for us to betray it. We can refuse to follow the directions of those who lead us in the faith, and, equally, we can become deceitful guides ourselves, guides who do not lead people to Jesus but lead people to ourselves. Note how John the Baptist does not point to himself but to Jesus! This is the role of the true guide! The true guide does not lead to something that ultimately depends on himself. Rather he leads people to Jesus, and Jesus is the source of true independence and freedom.

January 10th 2020.  Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord

Gospel: Mark 1:7-11

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

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Mark 1:7-11

In the course of his preaching John the Baptist said, ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John. No sooner had he come up out of the water than he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.’

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

SHORT HOMILY . . . The first reading tells us to leave aside our own ways, to stop spending resources on things that do not satisfy. We must change paths so that the Lord can bring to fruition his design of love for each one of us. In the Gospel, when we contemplate Jesus’ baptism, it is clear that we are also contemplating our own. John’s form of baptism recalls various rites of purification that were already familiar in Israel: immersion in obedience to God, the cleansing of that which defiles, etc.. But the baptism of Jesus brings something new that was not present before, the secret of immersion in the Holy Spirit. The heavens are thrown open. Normally, there is an abyss between us and the place where God resides. If heaven is impenetrable, then our lives are just horizontal, struggling miserably here below, with the added frustration of being called to eternity! With Jesus, though, heaven and earth are united. Our baptism reveals the nearness of God the Father to us through the gift of his Holy Spirit. 

The descent of the dove recalls the moment when Noah discovers that the flood waters are receding, that the time of death is over and the time of new life through water has begun, that we can live in peace and fullness. We must trust in the Holy Spirit, not in our own efforts and enterprises! These works have dignity up to a point, but if the heavens are not open, then our work is purely horizontal and will come to an end. 

The Father says, “You are my Son the beloved. My favour rests on you”. This voice of the Father is the voice that speaks to all of us in our baptism! These words are the fulfilment of the promises of the Old Testament, that our hearts will be transformed from being solitary and isolated, fending for themselves.  Our hearts will become the hearts of children who are beloved, hearts of people who know the Lord has tender love for them. 

Everything that Christ will do on earth from this moment forward is done in the context of these words from the Father. He acts, not because he is strong, heroic or intelligent, but because he is Son. Later in Mark’s Gospel, the centurion will see him die and exclaim, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!” The Father’s words at the baptism find their fulfilment in the cross and resurrection. And if this is Christ’s baptismal truth, it is also our baptismal truth. Just as this voice reveals the identity of Christ, so our baptism reveals the fundamental element of our identity: that we are loved by God as we are.

LONGER HOMILY NOW FOLLOWS

God has something good to give us, but we are reluctant to accept it because acceptance involves rejecting our own ways

We celebrate the feast of the Baptism of Jesus with the brief and evocative account from St Mark’s Gospel. The first reading is from the 55th Chapter of Isaiah, the last part of what is sometimes called the “Second Isaiah”. Whether a second Isaiah existed or not, this passage is incredibly beautiful. It tells of people who are thirsty and are invited to come for water and food. All of this bounty is for free, and the people are scolded for spending money on that which cannot satisfy. The point is that we must open ourselves to the bounty which the Lord wishes to present to us gratuitously. And it highlights a problem: why are we so reluctant to accept the generosity of God? Because we refuse to turn away from our habitual patterns of behaviour! “The wicked man does not abandon his ways, nor the evil man his thoughts. But my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts.” We do not appreciate this chasm between God’s ways and ours, and we conceive of God in terms of our own schemes, our own categories of behaviour.

Do we think that our ways of living, our patterns of behaviour, are compatible with God? Think again!

When a person has arrived at a stage of crisis in his life, the correct response is not to present him with a ready-made answer. He must first learn to question and contest his old ways of doing things. Similarly, when a married couple is having difficulties, it is not sufficient to present them with a solution. They will mismanage that solution with the same efficiency that they mismanaged their marriage. The first thing they must do is listen and learn to change their whole approach to things, their way of dealing with life on a daily basis. The Lord asks us to listen to him and to be open to his ways, to his thoughts that are so different to ours. It is our entire internal setup that needs to be radically altered. This cannot be achieved by studying theology, or by memorizing the entire catechism. All such study leaves our basic framework of life unaltered. We need to move out of our usual mode of existence, our solitary dysfunctional way of carrying on. If we undertake a regime for losing weight, we must be willing to change our eating habits. If we wish to follow God, we must radically change our everyday mode of behaviour.

How do we learn God’s ways? Jesus crosses the gap between God and us and initiates a life of communion with us. If we wish to live in God’s ways then we must live in communion with Jesus

In the Gospel, Jesus reveals the work of God and initiates this new way of being human that was spoken of in Isaiah 55. It begins with baptism, an act of purification. Jesus does not have need of purification, but he enters into the rite out of love for us. He takes us by the hand and teaches us the way. He comes to us as we are, queuing up before John with all the sinners. In so doing, he shows us the new posture that we need to adopt. As soon as Jesus enters the water, John see the heavens split open and the Spirit descend upon Jesus. The opening of the heavens represents the victory of God over the intermediary “gap” that exists between us and the Lord. Anthropomorphically, we locate God in the skies. St Paul refers to the power of evil that prevails in the air above us, because Hebrew cosmology locates Satan in the zone between us and God. Satan is the one who impedes us from going to God and gets in the way of God’s coming to us. God is impeded from coming down because I am under the influence of the tempter and do not listen to the Lord. But in Jesus the heavens are torn open and the gap that existed between us and God is eliminated. His ways can now become our ways, if we allow them to; his thoughts can enter into me; the Holy Spirit can descend into my heart! The new life I lead is no longer according to my own schemes because, finally, between me and God there is no longer a separation. In other words, the new life we are speaking about is none other than communion with God.

Satan wishes us to believe that God cannot love us because we are unworthy. But Jesus shows us that each one of us is a beloved child of the Lord

The new life that initiates with the purification in water - the new life that comes from baptism - culminates in the cry from God, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” This cry from the Lord is also directed towards each one of us individually. The splitting open of the heavens represents the defeat of the belief that we cannot reach God, that God cannot come down to us. It is fundamentally a Satanic idea to believe that God cannot love us because we are unworthy of him, that we are too dirty or undignified for him. This idea leads us to the proud and disordered search for a false identity by means of the things that we do and the things that we possess. When the Holy Spirit descends on us in baptism, a voice penetrates to our very interior. “You are my beloved child. In you I am well pleased!” Each one of us is a source of happiness for the Lord, but what is it that impedes us from believing it? Our pretences regarding ourselves. God knows how we are made. He know our weaknesses. In Christ he takes us by the hand and teaches us how much he loves us, and that we are all his beloved children.

January 3rd 2021. Second Sunday after Christmas

GOSPEL  John 1:1-18

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL        John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word:

and the Word was with God

and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things came to be,

not one thing had its being but through him.

All that came to be had life in him

and that life was the light of men,

a light that shines in the dark,

a light that darkness could not overpower.

A man came, sent by God.

His name was John.

He came as a witness,

as a witness to speak for the light,

so that everyone might believe through him.

He was not the light,

only a witness to speak for the light.

The Word was the true light

that enlightens all men;

and he was coming into the world.

He was in the world

that had its being through him,

and the world did not know him.

He came to his own domain

and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who did accept him

he gave power to become children of God,

to all who believe in the name of him

who was born not out of human stock

or urge of the flesh

or will of man

but of God himself.

The Word was made flesh, he lived among us,

and we saw his glory,

the glory that is his

as the only Son of the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John appears as his witness. He proclaims:

‘This is the one of whom I said:

He who comes after me ranks before me

because he existed before me’.

Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received –

yes, grace in return for grace,

since, though the Law was given through Moses,

grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God;

it is the only Son, who is nearest to the Father’s heart,

who has made him known.

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

Kieran’s summary . . .  In the Old Testament, we read that God’s wisdom is present in his people. The Gospel reading from John’s Prologue tells us that the wisdom of God, in the form of his only-begotten son, Jesus, comes to live among us. The Greek expression used is to “pitch his tent” among us. Our tendency, generally, is to try to raise ourselves up, to make ourselves greater or more important, to flee our misery, but the Gospel tells us that Christ, the second person of the Trinity, comes in search of us just as we are. He is born in miserable circumstances, in the very circumstances that we seek to avoid. This time of celebrating the incarnation of Christ is not a time to despise who we are but, rather, to welcome the gift that we possess. The fixation of our culture with looks and image, of wanting to be different, is actually a form of non-acceptance of who we are. Christmas tells us that it is exactly in this humble manger, in you and me, that the Lord wishes to become incarnate. We are fixated with beauty, but we are called to real beauty, to discover who we are in the eyes of God. Vatican Two tells us that Christ reveals man to man. Only in Christ do I discover who I am. In John’s Gospel, the theme of the indwelling of God in each of us is very important. It is essential that we stop running away from ourselves in search of “treasures” when the real treasure is within us! Christ died for us on the cross to show how important we are. As John Paul II said, it is great and beautiful to be human because Christ chose to be human. This Christmas, let us allow God to unveil the wonder of our own lives. Even if our lives are difficult and complicated, this does not mean they are not beautiful. The Lord is working in us, leading us to fulness of existence.  Christ shown us the glory of the Father in a manger and upon the cross, two places that are not ideal according to our vision of success and affirmation. Here Christ shows us that he can dwell in every situation, every challenge and every difficulty. This Second Sunday of Christmas may we continue to be filled with the desire to live the Christian life, which is a wonderful life always and in whatever circumstance! 

The Old Testament tells us that the wisdom of God is present in the people of Israel. Is this referring to the way that all ancient peoples had a shared body of knowledge and customs? Or is it a prophecy about a much more profound incarnation of God’s wisdom in the midst of his people?

The first reading is a beautiful passage from the twenty fourth chapter of Ecclesiasticus. It may seem strange that this reading about wisdom is chosen for the Christmas season, but when we reflect on it we begin to see why it is so appropriate. The word “wisdom” in Hebrew is one of the possible translations for the Hebrew word for the law, Torah. Wisdom involves learning and instruction. The reading tells us that the people of Israel have been gifted with this treasure of knowing the decrees of the Lord, of understanding his reality. The book of Ecclesiasticus tries to construct a bridge between the Jewish and Hellenistic cultures. It asserts that the descendants of Jacob are characterised by the presence of this knowledge or wisdom that guides them in life. Wisdom has pitched its tent, established its dwelling, in the midst of the people of Israel. It is always interesting to discover the knowledge and customs that are possessed by ancient peoples and cultures. Israel could be considered to be one people among many others, even if the writer of Ecclesiasticus claims that they possess the one superior or definitive form of wisdom.

Jesus does not just give us an impressive collection of teachings or intellectual and moral content. He becomes one of us and lives out a relationship of sonship with his Father through our human flesh

However, we see all of this in a new light when we read Sunday’s gospel, which once again gives us an opportunity to reflect of the marvellous prologue of the Gospel of John. This passage speaks in terms that have parallels in the reading from Ecclesiasticus, but it takes the discussion to a more profound level. The same word of God, or wisdom of God, is now described as a person, a divine person, who comes to live in the midst of his people. He fulfils that which is referred to in Ecclesiasticus, and he does it in a surprising way - by his incarnation. “The word became flesh and lived among us”. In the original Greek, the text says that he “pitched his tent among us”. Thus we have the same term as appeared in Ecclesiasticus, but the Gospel makes clear that this inhabitation of wisdom is not merely on an intellectual level. The word of God actually becomes flesh! His dwelling among us is not a mere expression of his presence or availability to us: he physically lives and moves among us. The wisdom that is being spoken of here actually involves a relationship of sonship, an only-begotten Son that comes from the Father. In Christ what we discover is not merely impressive erudition or a body of teachings. Jesus cannot be reduced to the content of his verbal expression. What we have is his life and his essence. The wonderful and unique things that he said do not exhaust the extraordinary fact that he is God in human flesh. Our human condition has been physically visited by something invisible, by the creator of the universe. This divine indwelling is not the indwelling of a God that is completely incomprehensible or distant: this God, rather, is someone who is fundamentally a father.

Jesus is the Son who comes from the Father. By becoming incarnate he shows all of us how to be sons and daughters of God while we are still in this flesh.

This second Sunday after Christmas we are celebrating that which has become a reality in the midst of the world: the filial life, the life of the one who lives as a child of God. The gospel reading speaks of the “glory of the only-begotten Son who comes from the Father”. What does it mean to live life as a son? Jesus in his human flesh showed how to live every single act as one who is a son coming from the Father. Jesus does not do the things that he does because he is someone exceptional: he does them because he lives as the Son of his Father. Jesus comes from the Father, and we too, even if we do not know it, come from the providence of God. We come from the Father and we will return to him. By the grace of the sacraments, the preaching that we have heard, the faith that we live, by the hope that lives in our hearts and the charity that we exercise concretely, we too live as children of God. It is essential to be aware of where we come from! If our past was marked by abandonment, by the errors we committed, by the mercy that we did not encounter, then that would be another thing. But once we become aware that we really come from the Father, then our lives are marked by peace and liberty, by the joy that flows from the awareness that we have been graced by pardon and mercy.

Our lives must be transformed by this fact that we come from the Father. This is the determining factor in Jesus’s life, and it must be the source of all that we do as well. Before we do anything else each day we must first “be” with the Father. This requires setting aside time for prayer, recollection, meditation every day of our lives!

It is important that we cease trying to do things separately from being with the Father! Jesus is first and foremost with the Father and this leads him to come to us and redeem us. We too must “come from the Father” every single day and live as his children. Thus Christmas let us devote a little time to be still, to pray, to place ourselves in the presence of the Lord, in order that we too might live our lives as people who come from the Father and behave like his sons and daughters. This is the new life of the Christian; this is the beautiful life!