June 25th 2023. Twelfth Sunday of the Year

GOSPEL: Matthew 10, 26-33

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

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

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 10, 26-33

Jesus instructed the Twelve as follows: ‘Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.

‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.

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

 

1. Fear is the key. If we fear people, then the word of God does not come to fruition in us. Between the moment of being fertilised by the word of God in our hearts, and the visible manifestation of the word in our lives, the process is often interrupted by our fear of the opinions of others.

The first reading recounts the dramatic events of the life of Jeremiah. He is called to say things that are unpleasant and unpopular. The truth is often unpopular! He who lives for popularity is often a hypocrite. As Christians, we too run the risk of paying too much attention to our audience and not enough on the truth. In order to avoid this tendency of living for vainglory, we must be led out of the slavery of fear. In fact, Jesus’s opening words in Sunday’s Gospel are: “Do not fear men.” This is the key! If we have fear of people, then we end up living as hypocrites, living a double life, one life that is public and another life that is hidden. It is normal that Christianity has a hidden inner part. The word of God is spoken to our hearts, in an internal room, then gradually it becomes visible. If it does not become visible, then it is not real. If it does not become concrete, then it was not fertile. There is a journey to be undertaken between the moment that the heart was touched by a beautiful word (that caused it to want to follow Christ) and the moment in which the word bears visible fruit. The journey can be interrupted by fear, fear of incurring the wrath of others. The fear of disappointing those around us is one of the most common elements that brings out human ugliness. Herod goes ahead and kills John the Baptist out of the fear of losing face in front of guests at a banquet, even though he had already intuited the importance of John. When we try to satisfy our companions of life, we become shadows of ourselves. In order to get a laugh from them, or a good reaction, we become scarecrows who live a life inferior to that to which we have been called.

 

2. There are many people who are obsessed with the care of their bodies but who radically neglect the soul. They go to great lengths to enjoy the pleasures of the body but do not know the pleasures of the soul. The pleasures of the soul are more intense, more profound and more long-lasting.

What must we do? We must stop fearing those who can kill the body. This Gospel presents us with a dichotomy: which is more important, to kill the body or to kill the soul? What use is my body if I lose my soul? Jesus will say elsewhere that I gain nothing if I win the whole world and lose my soul. A body without soul is an inconsistent and superficial life. This Gospel calls on us to conserve and nurture integrally the life of the soul, the heart, that which is central. There are many people who are obsessed with the care of their bodies but who radically neglect the soul. They go to great lengths to enjoy the pleasures of the body but do not know the pleasures of the soul. The pleasures of the soul are more intense, more profound and more long-lasting.

 

3. The present generation has a very intense anxiety for recognition. What we need to do is to reverse this situation: in order to realize that we are cherished and recognized, held valuable, we must recognize God as our Father.

How do we live this harmony between the body and the soul? We must recognize who we are in the eyes of God. We must recognize who the Father is and who we are for him. The present generation has a very intense anxiety for recognition. What we need to do is to reverse this situation: in order to realize that we are cherished and recognized, held valuable, we must recognize God as our Father. This leads to our freedom, because we know that we are held dear by our heavenly Father. Recall St Francis of Assisi: in front of his own father, he recognized the Fatherhood of God, and in so doing he became an enormous gift of grace for the entire Church and all of humanity. In recognizing our only true Father, we can all become gifts for humanity. But to do this, we must disobey our fear for the body. Let us enter into a covenant with the Lord on this point, that we will place our priority on the care of our souls, and then, secondarily, manage the body. The point of departure must be our soul, not our body, this is wisdom for a life that is beautiful and true.

“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.

June 18th 2023. Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 9,36 – 10,8

When Jesus saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest’.

He summoned his twelve disciples, and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to cast them out and to cure all kinds of diseases and sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who was to betray him. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows:

‘Do not turn your steps to pagan territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go rather to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.

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

 

1. Authentic faith includes the acknowledgement of our fragility, our insufficiency. The delirium of autonomy always leads to shame, to the revelation that we are inadequate and in need of God.

On this eleventh Sunday of ordinary time, the first reading from Deuteronomy recounts the words of the Lord to Moses from Sinai. The people of Israel, he says, are to become a kingdom of priests, of intercessors, a people who prays for the world to God and makes God present to the world. What does it mean to be the Lord’s people, to be his property? This is the question raised by our baptism, which is an echo renewed in Christ of the covenant made by God with Israel. In Sunday’s Gospel, we read of the compassionate gaze of Jesus upon the people who are like sheep without a shepherd. It is important to note that in those times, a flock without a shepherd could not survive. The sheep needs to live in a flock and to be shown the places to obtain water and food. We too have need of God in a similar way, but this is opposed by an anthropology that has come to dominate human affairs since the 1800s. At this time there arose the delirium of a way of looking upon humanity as being autonomous, of being able to survive by himself, of not needing God. This, ironically, has led in turn led to a widely diffused feeling of insecurity, a sense that we are fragile, an instinct that we are insufficient after all. To counter this, we harbour the delusion of the victorious human being who is able to overcome all adversaries. In sport we see this with the victor being glorified and everyone else counting for nothing. Consequently, we have lost the understanding of who we are and what the faith is. Authentic faith includes the honest realisation of our own fragility. In the third chapter of Genesis, humanity asserts its autonomy in opposition to God the Father and then it discovers itself to be naked, fragile and ashamed of itself. This is always the consequence of those who proclaim themselves autonomous – they find themselves naked and incapable of maintaining this pretext of independence.

 

2. We carry in ourselves the memory of our dignity, of our being chosen by God, of our true greatness, but we decides instead to become “great” following the path of the serpent, until we arrives at the point of shame, a disordered relationship with our own body, and with other people

When we look at the Twelve that Christ called, we see what a fragile bunch they were. Peter is a flawed man who makes many mistakes. James and John, sons of Zebedee, are embarrassed before the others when their mother seeks for them the most advanced careers in the Kingdom. Thomas has his doubts and Judas Iscariot even ends of betraying his master. In summary, the “casting” of Jesus wasn’t done so well. He did not choose the best but rather men who had many limits. Yet these are the ones who are sent to console, heal and liberate from impure spirits. The impure spirit was a mixture of the good and the bad, taking a little of that which comes from God and combining it with evil. This is the story of humanity who carries in himself the memory of his dignity, of his being chosen by God, of his true greatness, but who decides instead to become “great” following the path of the serpent, until he arrives at the point of his shame, a disordered relationship with his own body, and with other people, living always in a state of rivalry with others, seeking constantly to exalt himself in an effort to recreate the memory of his true beauty and true goodness.

 

3. What we are called to is love, not to perfection according to the idolatrous models of this world.

Jesus is seeking workers for his harvest. He is not seeking “victors” but people who have the same compassion that he has. If we consider the gaze of Jesus upon the crowds, his way of looking at them, it is sobering to think of the obsession in our times with the external aspect of ourselves as if it were everything. Jesus looks deeper than our appearance, deeper than our make-up, deeper than our existential deodorants, deeper than our disguises in which we try to present ourselves as perfect people, even in church. We try to present ourselves as people without weaknesses, but then the weaknesses pursue us and reveal themselves when we least expect it. We must accept that we are vulnerable and weak. What we are called to is love, not to perfection according to the idolatrous models of this world. The human being reaches perfection when he has love and mercy in his heart, not when he is capable of defeating every enemy. We must rid our hearts of these delusions so that we can embrace the love that God shows us. Our lives are a training in love, not a training for victory. This Sunday, may we all accept that we are sheep in need of a shepherd, that we desperately need to be cared for by him, and let us leave behind us the delirium of autonomy of the 1900s. Just as the people of Israel were unable by themselves to confront any of their challenges, so too may we enter into the covenant with the Lord, acknowledging our absolute need of him, refraining from believing ourselves to be something that we are not. All of our strength resides in our covenant with God, not in anything of ourselves that makes us feel independent, but in the gift of our heavenly Father! Let us live as children of the Father, as allies with him in the covenant, as sheep who are cared for by a Good Shepherd, who are fed, washed and healed by One who loves them.

“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.

 June 11th 2023. Feast of Corpus Christi

GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

______________________________________________________________

 

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:

"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;

whoever eats this bread will live forever;

and the bread that I will give

is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,

you do not have life within you.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father,

so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven.

Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,

whoever eats this bread will live forever."

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

 

1. The sacraments are a practical way of entering into the divine life, which is not an abstract or philosophical thing. In the Eucharist we discover the surprising truth that God is a generous Father who gives himself completely for us.

The Feast of Corpus Christi, coming as it does after Trinity Sunday and the celebration of Easter, is a way of making concrete the mysteries that we have celebrated. We need to put into practice the divine life that we have received and thus we have the sacramental life. We cannot live the faith in an abstract or philosophical way. Rather, we practice it by means of the sacraments. The bread of the Eucharist is prepared in the Old Testament by the manna described in Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy. It is presented as an unexpected grace, something surprising. In the Gospel, there is also something unexpected about the gift of Christ’s body. The listeners ask how he can give them his flesh to eat. God redeems us in a way that is unexpected according to our way of understanding salvation. It was a scandal to think that the Messiah would be one who gives of himself to nourish others. We tend to think of God as someone who wants something from us, not as someone who gives, but such a vision is of a deity who is not autonomous, who needs our sacrifices.

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2. The life of faith begins from the gift of God, not from what we need to do, nor from our faults.

The truth, rather, is that our God is one who saves, who gives himself, who has much to offer us. This revelation of God as a generous Father, who gives, is difficult for us to comprehend. God is on our side. He feeds us even with his body. This causes us to live with gratitude and joy and we are called to recognize this mode of being of God in this Sunday’s feast. The life of faith finds in this gift of God our point of departure! Our point of departure is not what we need to do, or the faults we have committed. Sometimes our starting point involves doubts about ourselves, but the correct starting point is to realize our great dignity. How important we are for God! The Son of God gives himself over to us completely. What is more important, the person who eats, or that which is eaten? Certainly, he who eats. Jesus has chosen to place himself in this type of relationship with us.

 

3. We life in a culture anxious for self-satisfaction, self-gratification. Our faith calls us to live by Christ, to comprehend that he satisfies our every need, that we do not need to defend ourselves. The Eucharist reveals our immense dignity, who we are for God.

In our time, the anxiety and drive for self-gratification is all-prevalent. In a disordered way we seek satisfaction and compensations. Our faith, by contrast, calls us to live by this food, to live for Christ, to live according to this light, to be inebriated by this love. It is easy to see when someone lives by Christ because he is a person of serenity, someone who is not always seeking to defend his right to exist, who is not fixated with the infantile and disordered means of self-promotion that enslave so many. To live by Christ! He truly satisfies our hunger, he truly is real food. In the Sequence for Sunday, Christ is described as the bread of angels, the food of pilgrims, the banquet of the king. Every Sunday we are called to realize our dignity when we consume the Eucharist. It bestows light on who we are. We are one single thing with Christ, united with him. Just as a bride and groom become a single flesh and generate new life, so too the life in us is generated by Christ who loved us so much as to give himself for us. Just as Adam said to Eve, “Behold, flesh of my flesh”, so too Christ says to his Church (to each one of us), “You are my flesh to whom I give my life, dying on the cross and rising again so that I can love you and be your Lord.” Let us allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the Eucharist so that it might inspire and illuminate our lives, helping us to comprehend our true dignity.

“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.

June 4th 2023. Trinity Sunday
GOSPEL: John 3:16-18
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

​

GOSPEL: John 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

​

SUMMARY
On this feast of the Trinity, it is a great opportunity to correct our image of God! The first reading proclaims, as Pope Francis often reminds us, that God’s name is “Mercy”. How often we think of God as a moralist, someone who is cold, someone who uses power arbitrarily to control and punish! A whole generation of people have left the Church because they were tired of being scolded by God, or because they were bored by this petty and mean-spirited God. And then we wonder why there are so few vocations to the priesthood and religious life! But these images of God are defective! The problem began in the Garden of Eden when Eve began to form a flawed idea of God. She stopped believing that God was loving and truthful. If we have a wrong name on God in our soul, then the consequences are enormous. To ruin humanity, it is sufficient to ruin our image of God. This is what the serpent did in Eden. In the Gospel passage this Sunday, we get a startling glimpse into the REAL life of God, the corrective to the false perspective of the serpent. It should be a wake-up call for all of us. God loves us so much that he sacrificed his Son for us. We discover that God is not a cold creator who uses his power arbitrarily. He is a loving and providential Father. His Son empties himself for us, even when we crucify him. And the Holy Spirit is speaking in our hearts, giving us the intuition that God is loving and merciful. Once this intuition takes hold in our hearts, then we begin to have the desire to live the life of fullness, the life that is lived by the children of God.

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1. God’s name is “Mercy”. A name is not just abstract information about someone. In the Bible, a  name is linked to the deepest identity of a person. When we discover God’s name our lives can be transformed.
Why do we need to celebrate the Feast of the Trinity? The liturgy turns around the meaning of the name of God. In the first reading from Exodus 34, the covenant is renewed after the sin of the people and the name of the Lord is proclaimed. We discover, upon reading it, that God’s name is “Mercy”. Then in the passage from John’s Gospel we get a startling glimpse into the very life of God:  a life of unrestrained love that does everything to save us. In order to be saved, however, it is essential that we believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. How important is this name? To us, a name seems only a word that acts as a sort of code for recognizing something, but knowing the name of God means having truly understood Who He is. And this is something decisive.

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2. In Genesis, Eve begins to believe in a wrong image of God, a god who is not loving and providential. Once the name of God is ruined in our hearts, then we too are ruined. Many people leave the Church because they have the wrong image of God. They consider him a moralist, not a loving Father.
In the story of the fall of Genesis 3, the denigration of the image of God begins in the heart of Eve. She falls into error when she is tempted to think that God is deceitful and bad. To destroy humanity, it is enough to ruin the image of God in his heart; that is, to put a false name on God in his soul. If God is not Father, then what is he? If he is not tenderness, what remains? If God does not love me unconditionally, then I am alone, after all. I must earn the right to exist and survive on my own strength. This leads to an insecure existence derived from an image of God alien to love. In the last part of the last century, an entire generation left the Church because God had been presented to them for a long time as a moralist. This led to a process of de-Christianization. People did not want to stay with a god so unpleasant, so petty. This process is ongoing still. We turn God into a moralist, and use him to scold our young people. Is it any surprise that they flee the Church having being scolded and bored?  And then we wonder why there are so few vocations! We have hidden the true nature of God underneath our anxieties to govern the lives of people. The truth is that God wants our freedom and wishes to show us love without limits.

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3. On this feast of the Trinity, let us look at who God really is! He is a loving Father. He is providential. He is not cold. He does not use power arbitrarily. He sent his Son who loves us and gives his life for us. The Holy Spirit enables us to see the loving and fatherly nature of God.
For this reason it is worth celebrating the feast of the Most Holy Trinity: to correct our image of God. Like the disciples on the day of the Resurrection, we need to fix our gaze on the One who was pierced, and rejoice in who He is. We need the Liturgy, the inspiring tradition of the Church and the Word of God to make the name of God shine once again in our hearts. We need to remember that God is Father. He does not use his power in an arbitrary way. He is providential. He does not create in a cold and chemical way, but generates life because he loves life. None of us is a mistake. We need to look at our dear Lord Jesus Christ as he really is: a loving Spouse who gives everything for us, who loves us even when we crucify him. When we see the Father and the Son in this positive light; when we appreciate that they are utterly for us; that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. It is He who gives us this true intuition of who God is. Once we have this intuition, then we begin to have the desire to live a life of fullness, the life that is lived by the children of God.

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4. The Church proclaims this feast not as an intellectual thing but as an experience of the infinite love and mercy of God who makes our existence beautiful.
The Church can proclaim the feast of the Trinity because it has had an experience of who God is. It is not an intellectual thing, nor a philosophical deduction, but an experience, an adventure of liberation, of mercy, of salvation. As the Gospel tells us, whoever believes in Christ is not condemned. This theme of condemnation is interesting. In Romans, St Paul says there is no condemnation for those who believe in Christ Jesus. This condemnation is often the inner censor that tells us we are in error, that we were not created well, that points the finger of blame at others for our unhappiness. However, once we know the love of the Father for us, then we no longer need to justify ourselves. We are justified by his love. Whoever knows the Son knows his generous love even at the moment of crucifixion, perceives his infinite mercy, knows salvation, the beauty of life and of his own existence.

“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.