April 2nd 2023. Palm Sunday

GOSPEL: Mt 21:1-11

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL: Mt 21:1-11

When they were near Jerusalem and had come in sight of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village facing you, and you will immediately find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, “The Master needs them and will send them back directly”.’ This took place to fulfil the prophecy:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion:
Look, your king comes to you;
he is humble, he rides on a donkey
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’

So the disciples went out and did as Jesus had told them. They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he sat on them. Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting:

 ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heavens!’

 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. ‘Who is this?’ people asked, and the crowds answered, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee’.

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

 

SUMMARY

 Matthew is constantly citing the Old Testament, showing how Jesus fulfils the Scriptures. Why? Is it a way of defending the authenticity of Christ? But Scripture doesn’t need to certify itself! The main reason for these citations is to show that Christ is following the plan laid out for him long ago by the Father. He is not just improvising as he goes along. Christ doesn’t come in his own name but in the name of the Lord. As the people said when Jesus entered Jerusalem, “Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!” All of the sufferings that Jesus undergoes were foreseen by the Father and it was ordained that he would accept them. This does not mean that the evil that was inflicted on Jesus was willed by God. Sin is never God’s will. But the response that we make to evil is something that is desired by God. Jesus is faced with great evil, but he responds to it with the Father, in the Father, according to the Father.  In our lives too, a plan of salvation is unfolding. But we spoil that plan unless, like Jesus, we live as children of the Father. Since the Garden of Eden we have tried to be like God and act with complete autonomy. The coronavirus is an evil, but we have the choice to follow Jesus and respond to this evil with the Father, in the Father, according to the Father. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, if we manage to live the events of our lives according to the Father, then the path of our lives becomes the plan of God, the story of our salvation. If I respond to the evil of the coronavirus with faith in God, hope in God and love for God and others, then the situation becomes an occasion of salvation. Don’t forget, the greatest evil in history, the killing of Christ, the most innocent of all people, became through faith the springboard of salvation. In these desolate days, if I can choose to make acts of faith, acts of abandonment to God, acts of fraternity with others, then all of this darkness can be transformed into light.

 

1 Matthew is constantly citing the Old Testament, showing how Jesus fulfils the Scriptures. Why? Is it a way of defending the authenticity of Christ? But Scripture doesn’t need to certify itself. The main reason for these citations is to show that Christ is following the plan laid out for him long ago by the Father. In our lives too, a plan of salvation is unfolding   

If we try to listen in a united way to the Passion of Jesus according to Matthew, we note that many times, explicitly or implicitly, the scriptures are quoted. This feature pervades almost every paragraph of the story. In the other evangelists this element is also present, but in Matthew it is very pronounced. Why? Perhaps the evangelist wants to emphasize: "Have you seen? Jesus fulfilled exactly what was written. He was in the right and our testimony is confirmed by Scripture". No, the Word of God is not so trivial. It does not need to certify itself. It is not on the defensive, but it is proactive, creative. So why does Matthew make all of these citations to the Old Testament? Because they demonstrate that Jesus is not merely improvising. Like a musician he is following a score. He is carrying out the Father's plan. According to Matthew, the last word that Jesus says is the quotation from Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is not only an expression of his pain but the key to everything. In fact, if we go to read that psalm, we will see the entirety of his passion expressed as a prayer, right up to the glory of the resurrection. To understand where his pain is leading, you must read that psalm. It is quite true what Saint Jerome said: "Ignoring the Scriptures means ignoring Christ". But how does this perspective help us? When salvation enters our existence, it begins to reveal that our history is not just a succession of human acts, There is, inexplicably, a plan of God unfolding in our lives. And this plan is always a plan of salvation. Human responsibilities exist, our faults exist, injustices exist, and evil must not be done, and those who commit injustices will account for it to God. Pain must be alleviated, cured and, if possible, avoided. But there is a plan that God, despite the evil that we do or suffer, still carries out.

 

2. The current passion that we are experiencing can become an occasion of salvation if we can unite ourselves to Christ and live it in love.

God knows how to draw good out of evil. And he has only one project, as St. Paul says: "He wants all people to be saved" (1 Tim 2: 4). Salvation is being offered to us always, in all the things that happen to us, even in those of which he will then ask for an account.
Where did Covid-19 come from? We may never know. But the hidden pathway towards our salvation can also be found in this situation. If God has saved the world by means of the greatest of crimes, the cross of Christ, then our faith announces that even in the immense pain of our present world, salvation can be won. The evil that is being suffered by many people is reversed by God when this painful situation becomes an occasion for a person’s conversion and salvation. But this disaster for health and the economy is not an automatic mechanism that leads to salvation. It is an offer from God and the choice is ours. The cross in itself is only a gallows, Christ made it an act of love. This is the opportunity being presented to each one of us now. We are undergoing a passion, but it can be lived in love. Ours always remains a salvation story.

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.

March 26th 2023. Fifth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL: John 11, 1-45

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: John 11, 1-45

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. – It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus,

‘Lord, the man you love is ill’.

On receiving the message, Jesus said,

‘This sickness will end not in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified’.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea’.

The disciples said, ‘Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?’

Jesus replied: ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by; but if he walks at night he stumbles, because there is no light to guide him.’

He said that and then added, ‘Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him’.

The disciples said to him, ‘Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better’. The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by ‘rest’ he meant ‘sleep’, so Jesus put it plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.’

Then Thomas – known as the Twin – said to the other disciples, ‘Let us go too, and die with him’.

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus,

‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you’.

‘Your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’

Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day’.

Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,

and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’

‘Yes, Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, ‘The Master is here and wants to see you’. Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’. At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart,

‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘Lord, come and see’.

Jesus wept; and the Jews said, ‘See how much he loved him!’

But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away’.

Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day’.

Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone.

Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer. I knew indeed that you always hear me,

but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them,

‘Unbind him, let him go free’.

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

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

 

 

1. The theme this Sunday is that of God bringing life to the darkest and most putrefied parts of our existence.

On these Sundays of Lent, we consider the most important messages of Christ that prepare us for Easter. The Gospel this week presents us with the greatest miracle performed by Jesus during his public ministry, the raising of his friend Lazarus. Adults preparing for baptism traditionally receive the third scrutiny on this Sunday. Last Sunday we had the theme of Jesus as the light of the world, with the previous Sunday presenting Jesus as the living water. This Sunday, we see Jesus as the life who makes his people come out of their tombs. Historically, in the people of Israel, the event of the exile and the subsequent return to the promised land was seen as a sort of existential resurrection. In the second reading, indeed, we read: “Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.” All of this drives home the fact that the difference between death and life is not simply something biological. It has to do with the Spirit. We can be alive biologically but dead spiritually, and sometimes it is death in a material sense that can lead us to an experience of true resurrection. All of this is expressed paradigmatically in the story of Lazarus.

 

2. Jesus allows Lazarus to die so that something greater than just healing from illness can be manifested. We sometimes wonder why God seems absent from the daily problems of our lives, but he is not interested in resolving superficial matters. He wishes to touch us in the deepest part of our misery.

This Gospel is immensely rich and it we discover the strategy of Jesus to lead us towards the resurrection. The starting point is the friendship between Jesus and Lazarus. Though Jesus is very fond of this younger brother of Martha and Mary, he does not come when they tell him first of the illness. Why not? Jesus says something strange: ‘Are there not twelve hours in the day? A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by; but if he walks at night he stumbles, because there is no light to guide him.’ What this means is that when God entrusts us with a mission, we walk in the light so long as we keep to that mission. When we diverge from our mission, we no longer have light because we no longer have grace. God does not bless us with his assistance because he has not called us to what we are now doing. Jesus’ mission involves going to Lazarus when he is already dead because the intention is to do something greater than just healing from illness. When we say something is “dead and buried” we mean it is definitively finished. How often we see things around us that seem to have no hope. We see the Church decline and we think that God is not listening to us. Like the apostles on the boat we think God is sleeping and is not thinking of us, but the reality is that the Lord’s plan is greater than we can see or appreciate. We are a “work in progress” that proceeds according to the Lord’s rhythm, not ours. God does not wish to just resolve the smaller and superficial problems of life, but he wants to get down to the depths of the enigma of our existence, of death, of the void.

 

3. The image of the stone covering the tomb recalls the many defensive layers under which we hide ourselves. We begin to think that our external “presentable” mask is our real self. God is not interested in our mask. He wishes to enter to the deepest and most rotten parts of our existence to bring light and life.

The image of Lazarus being raised from inside the tomb is very significant. Jesus asks for the stone to be taken away. We tend to enclose ourselves within cloaks of hypocrisy, defensive barriers and quarantines of various sorts. We hide in there and begin thinking that our defensive shell, our external skin, is who we really are. But God does not love our defensive facades, he loves us. Therefore any obstacle which prevents the voice of God from penetrating to our interior must be removed. In all of us there is this interior man who is buried, who is not loved. Too often we have believed that this interior heart of ours is not lovable. We must allow the voice of God to reach this hidden interior. Martha tells Jesus that the stone cannot be removed because a bad smell will come out. Similarly, we think that the true interior of ourselves is not presentable. We think we are only lovable when we are nice, perfumed, and publicly acceptable. Instead, God comes to love us in the part that we have hidden the most, the putrefied part that is hidden under the existential carpet of our lives.

 

4. From the time of Adam, humanity hides from God, ashamed of our own poverty, seeking to present a mask of independence. But we are nothing without God and we need his voice to penetrate the interior of our tombs and call us out into his presence where we can finally be ourselves.

The resurrection is experienced above all in the experience of God’s love and mercy, whose voice rings out within us and says, “Come out!” As he said to Lazarus, Jesus is saying to us, “Outside, here beside me!” Jesus wishes that we not remain closed in our mechanisms of survival but that we be with him and allow ourselves to be loved. As the psalm says, “In your light we see light”. From the time of Adam, humanity has hidden itself from the Lord, ashamed of its own poverty, afraid to encounter God face to face. Instead, Jesus comes in search of that which is hidden and lost, in order to bring it out and into life. This is the Christian experience of resurrection, the experience of love without conditions, the ocean of God’s mercy in which we can throw all of our anguish. Here we can lower all of our defences, not so that we can live imprudent lives, but so that, in front of him and illuminated by his light, we can finally be ourselves.

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.

March 19th 2023. Fourth Sunday of Lent

GOSPEL: Jn 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Jn 9:1, 6-9, 13-17, 34-38

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth.

He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva,

and smeared the clay on his eyes,

and said to him,

“Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” — which means Sent —.

So he went and washed, and came back able to see.

His neighbours and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said,

“Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”

Some said, “It is”, but others said, “No, he just looks like him.”

He said, “I am.”

They brought the one who was once blind to the Pharisees.

Now Jesus had made clay and opened his eyes on a sabbath.

So then the Pharisees also asked him how he was able to see.

He said to them,

“He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I can see.”

So some of the Pharisees said,

“This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath.”

But others said,

“How can a sinful man do such signs?”

And there was a division among them.

So they said to the blind man again,

“What do you have to say about him,

since he opened your eyes?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

They answered and said to him,

“You were born totally in sin,

and are you trying to teach us?”

Then they threw him out.

When Jesus heard that they had thrown him out,

he found him and said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

He answered and said,

“Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”

Jesus said to him,

“You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.”

He said, “I do believe, Lord,” and he worshipped him.

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

 

 

 

i) The blind man represents all of humanity. We are all wounded and in need of the creative touch of Jesus which brings divine light to the dark parts of our lives.

On this fourth Sunday of Lent, we encounter the theme of rediscovering the light of faith. The passage is taken from John, who, at the beginning of his Gospel, speaks of the true light coming into the world. There is a true light and a false light. In the first reading, we hear of the election of David, who is chosen despite his appearance, despite the fact that his own father does not consider him. God does not see what man sees. Man looks at appearance while God looks at the heart. The second reading speaks of being children of the darkness or of the light. We are called to have a life that springs from the divine light. The Gospel recounts the story of the man blind from birth. According to the Church fathers – Augustine in particular – this man represents humanity in general. People ask why he is blind. We tend to think in terms of cause and effect, we think that this man’s sin is a direct result of some sin or other. Jesus replies with the strange saying that the blindness is not the result of the man’s sins, nor those of his parents, but rather is the case so that the work of God can be manifested. The things that are difficult to understand in life are not amenable to mechanistic explanations; we should ask what God can do in such situations.

 

ii) Jesus touches us with his grace in the wounded parts of our lives. After this encounter, we are sent on our mission to profess the light that we have experienced

Jesus takes clay and saliva and “anoints” (in the Greek text) the man with this mixture in the very place where he is wounded. This mixture of clay recalls the creation of man who was fashioned from clay. What Jesus is doing is an act of creation. Just as this man was born without sight, so too all of us are born with a lack of grace. By means of the pains and sufferings of our lives, we are led to these moments of grace. The man is then told to bathe in the pool of Siloam, which means “sent”. We too are sent on our mission after we encounter the grace of God. In the narrative that follows, the man is challenged by various people who try to take away his faith is Christ. Even though the man is not assisted by his parents, he becomes more and more proficient in defending his faith against his accusers.

 

iii) In this fourth Sunday of Lent, let us realize that the darkness of our lives is a call to open ourselves to the light of God, to open ourselves to his power which can transform our darkness into light. He can take the things of our lives that we have never understood and turn them into a mission, an adventure, a moment of growth.

We too must defend the light of salvation that has entered into our lives. Each one of us would not have remained Christians if we did not have an experience of this divine light. Today it is very easy to leave the Church. If we have remained, it is because we have a reason for doing so. We have experienced grace, gift, mercy. We must confront the challenges and doubts the world puts before us in order to grow. Difficulties are always opportunities for growth. Suffering is not only suffering, it also becomes wisdom if it is accepted. Tribulations are also moments of training and learning. Without tribulation there is no learning. A process of learning like what we see in this Gospel is what can lead to faith in Christ. The true light is the mercy and love that we have received, which comes to touch the most wounded parts of our lives. Then, we are called to defend this light, to defend our experience of grace, to become wise advocates of our faith in this world which has such need of witnesses. In this fourth Sunday of Lent, let us realize that the darkness of our lives is a call to open ourselves to the light of God, to open ourselves to his power which can transform our darkness into light. He can take the things of our lives that we have never understood and turn them into a mission, an adventure, a moment of growth.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

The healing of the blind man in chapter nine of John’s Gospel can best be understood by reading the accounts in chapters seven and eight of Jesus’ presence in Jerusalem during the Festival of Tents (I encourage you to read below Don Fabio’s full account of this important context). During the festival, Jesus makes two pronouncements. Firstly, he invites everyone who thirsts to come to him and drink. Secondly, he declares that he is the light of the world. These two elements, water and light, were essential to the Jewish celebration of the festival, and they are combined in the healing of the blind man. Jesus anoints the man’s eyes with saliva and clay. It is impossible to speak without saliva, so the saliva of Christ clearly represents God’s word. In this image of saliva and clay, we have an unambiguous symbol of creation. In Genesis, God’s word acts on the dust of the earth to create humanity. With the healing of the blind man, Jesus shows that he is completing his creation of this person by bringing him to the light. But the healing is not completed until the man goes to bathe in the pool whose name signifies “sent”. And then the man truly becomes “sent”! He proclaims the good news of his healing and even defends Jesus to the point of being expelled from the Temple. To summarize: each one of us has painful and difficult aspects of his life, just like the man born blind. Jesus wishes to act on these very areas with his word. When we allow Christ to touch these areas, when we bathe in the waters of regeneration (in other words, allow the Holy Spirit to operate in us), then these things are transformed, they are illuminated by the light of Christ, and they become the place where we proclaim the good news of God’s love for us. We discover that the absurd areas of our lives are the very places where we learn to trust, to love. None of us can be said to be truly educated in the faith until we have made peace with the things we have not understood about our lives. We need to discover that those difficult elements in our personal existence were needed in order to encounter the Lord. These things will serve us all our lives to be instruments of the Lord, to be the way of his love, the way of his light. In this way, the “blind” find their sight, whilst whoever thinks he can see, so the Gospel passage tells us, will become blind. Those who are in love with their own interpretations of everything, those who do not accept an alternative reading of their lives, remain blind. 

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.