April 27^th 2014. Second Sunday of Easter. Feast of the Divine Mercy

Gospel: John 20:19-31

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

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Your translator will attend the canonisations of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II in Rome next Sunday. For that reason it hasn't been possible to translate Don Fabio's new homily this week. Here below please find the homily for the second sunday of Easter last year (same Gospel). Normal service to resume next week!

Gospel:   John 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,

when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,

for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst

and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,

“Receive the Holy Spirit.

Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,

and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,

was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he said to them,

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands

and put my finger into the nailmarks

and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside

and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,

and bring your hand and put it into my side,

and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples

that are not written in this book.

But these are written that you may come to believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,

and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

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

Like the Apostles, we are all locked in inner rooms behind barriers of fear. This fear is at the background of all our sinful activity. Our obsession with our own preservation drives us to engage in activity that is harmful to others and ultimately to ourselves. How do we escape from this closed room of sin and fear? We are not capable of escaping using our own methods. Self-analysis and psychological techniques can only take us so far. The forgiveness of sins is something that only the Lord can do. In the Gospel, Jesus appears in the closed room and says "Peace with you!" He shows them his wounds of love and commands them to bring his pardon to others. We too need to have Jesus in our midst. We must look to him, listen to his word, and welcome him wholeheartedly into our inner enclave of sin and fear. We must contemplate his wounds, as Thomas did, and believe in his forgiveness. The Lord will dissolve our sin and make us capable of carrying his pardon to others. Who is this Jesus who wishes to live in our midst? He is the God who has carved us on the palm of his hands – the hands that bore the nails of the cross out of love for us. When I contemplate the risen Jesus I must do so in the light of his passion and cross, which demonstrate graphically the extent of his love for me.

The story of doubting Thomas is perfectly in line with Divine Mercy Sunday

The great Pope John Paul  II will be canonized today and he dedicated the second Sunday of Easter to the Divine Mercy. At first glance, this dedication might seem incompatible with the traditional Gospel reading which recounts the story of doubting Thomas. But in fact the dedication is perfectly consistent with the Sunday readings - the forgiveness of sins is the central element in the apparitions of Jesus to the apostles. "Those whose sins you forgive shall be forgiven. Those whose sins you retain shall be retained". This command should not be interpreted as a form of dominion or arbitrary power given to the Church by Jesus. It would be very worrying if that were the case. The command rather, should be understood to mean that we should make every effort to carry the forgiveness of God to as many people as possible, because no-one else except us has been entrusted with this mission. In this sense, if we do not bring pardon to people then there is no one else who will do it. We must not forget that the forgiveness of sins is very much a divine capacity. In the Gospels, the Pharisees object when Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins have been forgiven. Sin is an issue that only God can resolve. Our various techniques for analysing human brokenness can achieve some things that are positive, but they cannot dissolve sin. We can analyse ourselves endlessly, but only a relationship with God - the only being who is greater than sin - has the power to create things anew and eliminate sin. 

The Resurrection is the first day of a new order in which God's forgiveness is transmitted to the world.

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, let us reflect on how this divine capacity for the forgiveness of sins is transmitted to human beings. The Gospel begins on the evening of the first day of the week. Which week is being referred to here? It is the week which begins immediately after the week of God's new act of creation. During this act of creation the new Adam is wounded in the side, out of which flows blood and water. The week ends on the Saturday, the Sabbath day (according to the order of the Old Testament) in which Jesus is placed in the tomb. The following day, the day of Resurrection, is the beginning of a new order in which God is doing something entirely new. The forgiveness of sins requires going beyond the categories of the old world. The forgiveness of sins is effectively life after death. After the death of sin, the dissolution of sin allows us to live a new life. We can begin again because Christ is risen.

Just like the disciples, we are locked in closed rooms behind barriers of fear. Our sinful activity is a response to deep-seated fears. Only Christ can overcome these barriers and dissolve our sinfulness.

It is interesting that Sunday, the day of resurrection, is described in the Gospel as the first day of the week. In our secular world, Sunday is considered part of the weekend. But Sunday is properly viewed as the first day of the week, the day from which the week takes its departure! It should not be thought of as the day we arrive at exhausted after our week's work, looking to be regenerated in whatever way takes our fancy. The celebration of the Eucharist adds a completely new dimension to our existence  and sends us out into the world to live the new week that has begun. The Gospel tells us that the disciples were locked in the upper room for fear of the Jews. The human being is not capable by himself of escaping from the closed room in which his fears entrap him. Fear is in the background of all sin, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us. The fear of annihilation, the fear of death is the motor that is whirring away behind all sinful activity. The human being, in his fear of destruction and his disordered quest for life, engages in behaviour that is harmful to himself and others. This wall of fear that generates sin must be demolished, but we are not capable of doing it. The pardon that makes us overcome the fear that generates sin is the free gift of God, the eruption of Christ in person in the upper room in which we are enclosed. 

We cannot overcome sin unless we have Jesus standing in our midst

The Gospel tells us that Jesus comes and stands in the midst of the disciples. What a beautiful expression - to stand in their midst! Chapter 15 of the same Gospel says, "If you remain in me then my word will remain in you". Jesus is the one who wishes above all to remain in our midst. He departs from us only because he leads the way and we do not follow. The basic characteristic of the Christian community is to have Christ in their midst. How many people focus obsessively on their own errors and problems because they remain only with themselves. Do we really think that this organism of body and spirit that produces sin can, of itself, find a way of escaping from our situation? And so we continue going around in circles until the one who says "Peace be with you" comes in our midst. This Hebrew greeting is a greeting that initiates a relationship between two people. In this case it is heaven itself that salutes us, indicating that heaven is not distant from us. Even if we are in a state of sin, enclosed inside our barricades of fear, Jesus comes to us exactly where we are, demonstrating that he simply wishes to be with us. 

In the Old Testament, God tells us that he has carved us on the palm of his hands. The wounds of love on the risen Jesus are the way that the Lord has carved us on his hands. 

He salutes the disciples as a friend, and then shows them the scars in his hands and side. In other words he recalls the memory of the Cross. Jesus is not with them as he was before. He is with them after the event of the Cross. His wounds are a demonstration of what he has done for them. As the prophet Isaiah says, "A mother cannot forget her child, but even if a mother were to forget her child, I have carved you on the palm of my hands". Those hands are the hands of Christ who bear upon themselves the marks of suffering love. The disciples look on Jesus and rejoice. We too must look only for him and to him. In order for pardon to enter our lives, and in order for us to become instruments of pardon, we must take our point of departure from the Lord. At the heart of our misery, we must allow ourselves to be visited by Jesus, we must listen to his word and look upon him. We do not have the solution for sin within ourselves; we must look to him for the solution. When Thomas is finally present, he too must look at Jesus and contemplate his wounds. All of us need pardon for our sins in order to escape from the narrow room in which we are enclosed. To bring this about, we must look at Jesus and stop looking at ourselves.

April 20^th 2014. Easter Sunday.

Gospel: John 20:1-9

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

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A Happy and Blessed Easter to all our regular readers and to new ones as well!

GOSPEL                          John 20:1-9
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb' she said 'and we don't know where they have put him.'

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.

They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.

Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio focuses on the empty tomb in his reflection. Do we think that the resurrection of Jesus is God’s way of opposing our sinfulness – the sinfulness that led to the death of Jesus? No! The resurrection should not be thought of as being in conflict with sin and death. There is perfect continuity between the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection. By our sins Jesus was crucified. He submitted himself to death out of unconditional love for us. His resurrection is the perfect continuation of this saving work. Out of love for us God raises Jesus to life – and all of us with him! Am I preoccupied by my sinfulness? Do I think that they put an obstacle between me and God? But look at how Jesus has loved me to the point of death! He has borne those very sins that preoccupy me! In his resurrection he has transformed those dark aspects of me into light! If I am inclined to think that sin and death have ultimate finality, then let me contemplate the empty tomb. The emptiness of this tomb shows that sin and death have disappeared. The love of God has the final say and it is an eternal one.

We go to Mass on Sunday to hear about the resurrection but instead we are told about an empty tomb!

What a gift to us is this liturgy of the feast of the Resurrection, the central feast of our faith! This is an incredibly joyful celebration and every word has an immense profundity that should find a reflection in our lives. The Gospel reading for Sunday morning, however, leaves us with our mouths open. People come to Mass to encounter the risen Lord but what they hear about is the empty tomb! Mary Magdalen finds the stone of the tomb rolled back. She tells Peter who comes with John to the tomb. They enter and believe. Why does the Church choose this reading for us on Easter Sunday?

The resurrection shouldn’t be thought of as something that conflicts with the condition of man. God is not opposed to us. He is not interested in victory over us, sinful though we may be. God accepts our sinfulness to the point of being crucified by it. His response is to raise Jesus – and all of us – to life.

In the first reading from the tenth chapter of Acts, Peter announces the faith to the household of Cornelius. “You have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, how he went about doing good and healing the sick. We can witness to the things he did, and to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree. Yet three days afterwards God raised him to life.” The word “yet” appears in the translation, but in the original text it is not present. A better translation would say: “ . . . they killed him by hanging him on a tree. The same Jesus was raised to life by God three days later.” This seems like a small point, but it is very important! If we say “Jesus was killed by us, yet God raised him to life,” it makes it sound as if God’s action is opposed to our action. But that is not exactly the sentiment contained in Peter’s words if we read the original text carefully. Similarly in St Mark’s Gospel, when Jesus makes the third prophesy of his passion and resurrection, he says “the Son of Man will be scourged, spat upon and killed, and he will rise three days later.” Jesus doesn’t say “ . .but he will rise three days later.” It is important to recognize that the salvation wrought by God is not something that is opposed to humanity, or that involves vanquishing humanity. There is not simply an opposition between the evil of humanity and the salvific action of God. Instead God takes the evil of humanity and draws salvation from it. God is not opposed to us! The resurrection does not stand in opposition to the condition of man; in fact it is the last chapter in the process by which God comes closer to us, by which God loves us.

The resurrection is the ultimate statement of God’s love for us. As such, it stands in perfect continuity with the crucifixion.

This is one of the reasons why the Church this Sunday underlines the emptiness of the tomb. We are presented with a surprise, an empty tomb. Death has not had the final word! The story continues! Death seemed once a full-stop but now has been reduced by Jesus to a comma. Life from this point forward will never again be brought to an end by death. Life will never again be brought to a definitive conclusion by evil. God has the last word, and the last word is an eternal one. The love of God is stronger than the sinfulness of man.

Are we preoccupied by our sinfulness? It is that sinfulness which has crucified Jesus. But we need not be preoccupied by it. Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by us because he loved us. And his response to our sin is the resurrection, the ultimate statement of love for us. We killed him by our sin – his response is to raise us to life!

The empty tomb confronting Mary, Peter and John is a sign that they must continue to contemplate how God has responded to sin. Sin is not an ultimate thing, something that stands in opposition to the action of God. From the perspective of the resurrection, sin is no longer the primary thing in the condition of man. The emphasis now shifts to the way that God has responded to sin. That is why the point made at the beginning of this reflection was not a pedantic one. Instead of saying: “We sinned but Jesus loved us,” it is better to say: “We sinned and Jesus loved us.” This Sunday we can say confidently that for everything anguished and negative we have done, there is a word from God that is more powerful still. The love of God for us transforms all these things into light. This is what allows him to be crucified by us and risen for us. He assumes onto himself our human nature and transforms it so that we can become children of God.

APRIL 13^th 2014. PALM SUNDAY

Gospel: Matthew 21:1-11

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

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

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PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL Matthew 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

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio encourages us to have a short homily on Palm Sunday because the narrative of the Passion in itself gives us so much to reflect on. The processional Gospel tells of Jesus entering Jerusalem on a humble beast of burden. Jesus deliberately chose this means to enter the city and receive the glory of Jerusalem. By doing so he shows us that human glory is an empty and meaningless thing, something that is based on trivial, external trappings, such as the animal chosen to bear the king. The glory of this world is inflated, full of itself. We all yearn for glory based on our own ego, our own achievements. How different is the glory of Jesus! He renounces his ego and does not come in his own name, but in the name of his heavenly Father. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! This is the glory that all of us are destined for. When Jesus frees us from the dictates of our own ego, only then have we the freedom to love unselfishly, to serve others and do good. For as long as I pursue my own glory, I will lack the freedom that leads to true glory. Jesus does not impose himself on us. He respects our freedom and wants us to respond to him in freedom. He comes to us respectfully, showing the marks of the passion which bear witness to his love for us. See his dignity! See his interior glory!

Let us join the procession on Palm Sunday! Faith is not a private thing but something to be celebrated publicly!
For Palm Sunday a short homily on the processional Gospel is perhaps the best way to go. The long reading of the Passion requires no commentary at all. How could we even begin to comment on the beautiful and extraordinary events of the Passion? The processional Gospel precedes a procession, and hopefully the procession in your parish will be a joyful and colourful event! Christianity is a public thing. There is a tendency nowadays to think that religious practice should be something private; something to be confined within the walls of the church. But a more correct view maintains that our profession of the faith must be public; it must have consequences for real life. If it does not have consequences for real life then we - the so-called children of God - are behaving like children of this world, and that makes no sense whatsoever! If our faith does not inform everything we do, then it is something superficial that does not authentically form our identity.

Jesus chooses the most humble way to enter the city and receive the honour of the people. In doing this he is teaching us about the emptiness of human glory and the depth of God’s glory.
Jesus permitted this procession to happen and he ordered his disciples to prepare it for him. Therefore we should reflect deeply on what it all means. The disciples are instructed to procure the donkey and the colt for him. These beasts of burden will bear the weight of Jesus in the procession. This whole narrative recalls the biblical notion of kingship. The king in Israel was a figure of humility, someone who owed his position entirely to God and not to his own power. There is something very bitter-sweet about the procession as people lay their cloaks and palm branches in front of the donkey. Jesus is being honoured all right, but has chosen this humble means to enter the city. Imagine a great world leader comes to visit our town and we are lined on the side of the streets waiting for him to come. The roads are flanked by police. A great cheer goes up and the world leader comes driving along in an old Volkswagen Beatle! We would be surprised to say the least. But with Jesus, where there is glory there is great humility. And this text challenges us to recognize that our human glory consists in trivial things that have no lasting meaning. The glory of this world is something that is inflated, full of itself.

We yearn for a glory that is based on our own ego. The glory of Jesus is based on the fact that he renounces his own ego and comes in the name of someone else.
The Old Testament scriptures recognize that the ancient King of Israel was an unworthy figure. Any glory associated with him came from heaven. In fact the people cry out to Jesus, “Hosanna in the highest heavens”. The glory that belongs to Jesus is something that comes from the highest part of heaven. Jesus is the son who comes in the name of the Lord. This is the true glory of Christ, one that comes in someone else’s name, one that comes on a beast of burden. This is the same kind of glory that all of us are destined for. But we in our stupidity strive constantly for a glory that is born in us, that derives from our ego. Love for ourselves blinds us to the nature of true glory. Real glory is in the name of the Lord, not in my own name. We acknowledge this every time we pray the Our Father and say “hallowed by Thy name.” There are many freedoms we can have, but the greatest is freedom from the dictates of my own ego! This is the freedom that allows us to love, to serve and to do good.

Jesus is humiliated externally, but this humiliation only serves to highlight even more his interior dignity and glory
The procession on Palm Sunday is the procession of the poor, the humble, the small people, the people who acclaim another. We, however, want to be acclaimed by others. We wish to be loved, adored, glorified. This is not the Christian way of acclaim! The procession we must participate in is one that acclaims another, acclaims the one who loves us, acclaims the humiliated Christ. When the Lord Jesus comes in glory, he will appear with the signs of his passion. He will appear humbly, respectfully, not forcing himself upon humanity, not seeking anything from humanity. Instead all he does is give, and what he gives us is freedom. Through this Gospel passage we see the glory that is proclaimed in the Passion. The man who is crucified is full of dignity. The external humiliation of Christ is in contrast to his interior glory. The union between man and God is the union of humility and glory.

April 6^th 2014. FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: John 11:1-45

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 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, '1 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

Kieran’s summary . . . Jesus waits until Lazarus is in a state of decomposition before he goes to him. Everyone in the Gospel passage complains about the slowness of Jesus in coming to Lazarus’ aid. Why did Jesus delay so long? He tells us himself in the passage. The glory of God is fully revealed when the dead are raised to life. We often think that we can solve our own problems by applying our talents diligently enough. But when it comes to death we have no doubt how helpless we really are! Jesus shows us in this passage that he is ready and willing to enter into the decayed and dead areas of our existence in order to bring us back to life. Jesus is the only one who loves us right to the end, no matter how distorted or unpleasant we are. There is much in all of our lives that is decaying and gives off the scent of death. And what do we do? We put on a mask and show a presentable face to God and the world. We think that God will only accept us if we prove ourselves to be “worthy”. What we really need to do is acknowledge our unworthiness and allow Jesus to enter into the most sinful areas of our lives to bring them back to life. Until we allow Jesus to enter into the tombs of our lives, we cannot be transformed by his grace. The slab that covered the tomb of Lazarus is like the mask that covers my state of internal decay. Do I really think that I can tackle this decay on my own? This Lent, as we prepare for Easter, let us listen to the words of Jesus who said to Lazarus “Come out!” Let us allow him to call us back to life.

The greatest manifestation of the power of God is in the opening of tombs
The first reading tells us that the power of God will become manifest when the Lord opens the graves of his people and raises them up. Opening a tomb, however, is not usually considered a pleasant experience. In the passage from John’s Gospel, in fact, Martha reacts to the notion of Jesus opening her brother’s tomb. Lazarus has been dead for four days and Jesus’ behaviour since he heard of Lazarus’ illness has been a little strange. He knew of the illness but didn’t decide to come until he received news of the death. As a result Jesus is reprimanded for his delay a number of times, above all by each of the sisters. “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” The Jews, too, grumble about Jesus. “He opened the eyes of a blind man. Could he not have prevented this man’s death?”

We sometimes think that we can solve our own problems. But we know that only the power of the Lord can transform death to life
Why did Jesus decide to stay away until after Lazarus’ death? The first reading from Ezekiel tells us that the power of the Lord is revealed when God acts at this impossible level – the level of bringing life from death. Where do we recognize more clearly the power of God? In silly things or in great things? Do we see the hand of God in things that are difficult or in things that we could have resolved by ourselves without his help? Jesus waited until the situation reached a point of such crisis that its resolution could only be achieved by the power of God, thus manifesting his glory.

God loves us not because of our wonderful qualities. He wishes to be with us even when we are repulsive and have the scent of decay
Jesus arrives at Lazarus’ house amid grumbling and complaints. “Why couldn’t he have come sooner,” everyone wants to know. When Jesus begins to weep, there is a feeling that these are just crocodile tears. If he really cared, surely he would have done something before now? Then Jesus asks to open the tomb. This is a difficult request to grant because Lazarus should already be in a state of decomposition. Even Mary comments that her brother will now smell. But this is exactly the point that Jesus wants to arrive at. In response to Mary’s comment about her brother’s state of decomposition, Jesus addresses a blessing to his heavenly father. Jesus has waited to raise Lazarus up at this late stage because he wants to show us that his salvific actions are not reserved for those who are worthy or pleasant-smelling. God comes to us when we give off the scent of death, the scent of mortality, the scent of our own limitations.

We seek to cultivate our own worthiness in the sight of the Lord, but what we really need to do is acknowledge our unworthiness and allow the Lord to enter into the decaying and unacceptable areas of our lives
In each one of us there is much that is decaying and unresolved. But we persist in thinking that we can only approach God when we have something to offer, when we are presentable. We strive to be worthy of God’s love, but none of us can merit the favour of God! The only sort of relationship with God that can save us fully is to allow ourselves to be washed and touched by the Lord when we are undeserving and unclean. God loves us most of all when he opens our tombs and touches the parts of us that are dead and decaying. The human being has areas within that are distorted, unpleasant, sick and ugly. When Jesus loves us in these area, our lives are transformed. We no longer seek to live life on the basis of our own dubious capacities but on the power of God. How few Christians allow themselves to be truly loved by God! How many people continue to cultivate their own worthiness, as if God did now know what we are really like! How often we are fixated with trying to make a good impression in the eyes of others. Instead we are a church that owes its existence to mercy. We are a people whose scent of decomposition has not dissuaded the Lord from approaching us. Our state of decay has not deterred Jesus by one jot from loving us.

We will not be transformed by the grace of God until we allow him to love us in the most undeserving and pitiful areas of our lives

Jesus cries out to Lazarus to come out. How many of us lie buried in our bunkers! We create systems of security around us that become prisons. The rock that enclosed Lazarus is like the masks that we put on to hide the ugliness and decay that is underneath. Jesus is the only one who loves us to the end, who loves us right into the tomb. Until we allow Jesus to love us in the most miserable areas of ourselves, we cannot be transformed by his grace. If we continue to think that, by our own efforts, we can raise ourselves from this misery and be worthy of his grace, we are greatly mistaken. The grace of God is free gift, pure and entire. This Sunday let us prepare for the celebration of Easter in humility and openness, accepting that the Lord must love us in those areas that are dead and decaying. It is here that the glory of God is revealed, in loving us in a way that is scandalously unconditional.

March 30^th 2014. FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: John 9:1-41

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 9:1-41

As Jesus said went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?' 'Neither he nor his parents sinned,' Jesus answered 'he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

'As long as the day lasts
I must carry out the work of the one who sent me;
the night will soon be here when no one can work.
As long as I am in the world
I am the light of the world.'

Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man and said to him, 'Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam (a name that means 'sent'). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?' Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one'. Others said, 'No, he only looks like him'. The man himself said, 'I am the man'. So they said to him, 'Then how do your eyes come to be open?' 'The man called Jesus' he answered 'made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, "Go and wash at Siloam"; so I went, and when I washed I could see.' They asked, 'Where is he?' 'I don't know' he answered.

They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a Sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man's eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, 'He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see'. Then some of the Pharisees said, 'This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the Sabbath'. Others said, 'How could a sinner produce signs like this?' And there was disagreement among them.

So they spoke to the blind man again, 'What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?' 'He is a prophet' replied the man. However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his parents and asking them, 'Is this man really your son who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?' His parents answered, 'We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but we don't know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.' His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. This was why his parents said, 'He is old enough; ask him'.

So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, 'Give glory to God! For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.' The man answered, 'I don't know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see'. They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?' He replied, 'I have told you once and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?' At this they hurled abuse at him: 'You can be his disciple,' they said 'we are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from'. The man replied, 'Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don't know where he comes from! We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn't do a thing.' 'Are you trying to teach us,' they replied 'and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!' And they drove him away.

Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' 'Sir,' the man replied 'tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.' Jesus said, 'You are looking at him; he is speaking to you'. The man said, 'Lord, I believe', and worshipped him. Jesus said:

'It is for judgement that I have come into this world,
so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind'.

Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him,
'We are not blind, surely?'
 Jesus replied:

'Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty,
but since you say, "We see", your guilt remains.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading tells of the anointing of David. The prophet Samuel is presented with Jesse’s older sons. They are tall, strong and handsome, and Samuel is convinced that the chosen one of the Lord must be among them. But the Lord tells Samuel not to judge according to appearances, but to look at the heart. He directs Samuel to anoint David, the youngest and most insignificant of the sons. In the Gospel we hear how Jesus heals a blind man using saliva and clay. God’s word (the saliva) is capable of transforming the dust that we are made of into something pure and noble. In response to this wonderful healing, the religious leaders condemn Jesus for “working” on the Sabbath.  In the same way, each of us tries to restrict the action of God in our lives. God must not cross certain barriers or upset certain social conventions. He must not upset us or demand too much from us. He must not cause us to look silly in the eyes of others. In the end, the previously blind man is cast out of the synagogue for being faithful to the man who healed him. Are we ready to be cast out by our peer-group in order to follow Jesus? Are we ready to renounce the acceptance and expectations of others to embrace the action of God in our lives? Can we reject our own narrow ways of looking at things and start seeing the world in the light of the Lord?

The first reading tells us to look to the heart, not to external appearances

The first reading is the celebrated story of the anointing of David. The prophet Samuel takes his jar of oil and goes to the house of Jesse to anoint the future King of Israel. Jesse presents his finest sons to Samuel, not bothering to call David, who is the youngest and least significant of his family. Samuel sees Eliab, the tallest and most handsome of the sons, and believes that the chosen one of the Lord must be before him. But the Lord tells Samuel not to be persuaded by a person’s outward appearance, for “God does not see as man sees.” We look at the exterior but the Lord looks at the heart. Samuel is told by the Lord to anoint the one who is less impressive in appearance but whose heart is right.

God’s word transforms and redeems the dust from which we are made

The Gospel on Sunday has a similar theme. To receive the light of Christ we must shed our own ways of categorizing things. In an interesting ritual, Jesus anoints the man’s eyes with a mixture of clay and spittle. The saliva represents the word of Christ whilst the clay represents the dust from which man is made. When the dust of our existence encounters the word of the Lord, then the most painful parts of our lives can be consecrated. These areas of our existence can be redeemed, purified and raised up.

The Gospel illustrates how we try to restrict the action of God to our own conventions and categories. If something good happens that does not conform to our rules then we dismiss it altogether

The man in the Gospel story recovers his vision, but he soon discovers that this fact in itself does not satisfy human requirements for what is considered to be an action of God. He is immediately subjected to a sort of trial by the Jewish leaders. The healing took place on a Saturday, but making a paste of clay on the Sabbath was forbidden by the Law! This legalism is a frequent feature of human life. We try to encapsulate our relationship with God inside human categories. The way in which we relate to God becomes formalised and regularized in certain ways. Any relation with God that does not conform to these stipulations is considered wrong or inappropriate. Jesus liberates us but then we enslave ourselves moments later by formulating rules according to which our future dealings with Jesus must conform! These impoverished rules replace the wondrous work of the Lord in our lives with actions that are merely of our own making. The purely gratuitous, redeeming, and merciful work of the Lord is reduced to something of a mechanical, legalistic kind.

We all feel constrained by the acceptance and expectations of others. This causes us to walk in the shadows of our own creation instead of walking in the light of the Lord

We refuse to walk in the light of the Lord, preferring to walk in the more controllable light of our own creation. The religious leaders are confronted with a certain miracle, but all they can see is that this miracle doesn’t conform to their regulations of what can or cannot be done on the Sabbath. The parents of the blind man are called to testify. Incredibly, they betray their own son for fear of being frowned on by the religious status quo. Their son has just been healed but their only fear is that they will be excluded from the synagogue if they hail the marvellous nature of his transformation. The behaviour of these parents seems absurd, but in fact we behave like this on a regular basis. We become fixated with certain issues and fail to see the true light. The blind man in this story sees the true light because he comes to recognize Christ. He is willing to be thrown out of the synagogue in order to be faithful to the man who has saved him. A relationship with the Messiah is more important than any kind of acceptance in human terms. We are not always aware of the pressure we feel to conform to the expectations of others. We all have our own “synagogues” to which we desperately want to belong.

Walking in the true light involves having a relationship with Jesus. The light of Jesus is opposed to our light, to our conventions and categories, to our way of viewing the world. This Lent let each of us renounce our own schemes and embrace God’s way in our lives!

For as long as we are fixated with how presentable our lives are before others, we risk losing possession of the true light. The true light involves having a relationship with God. This is worth everything and is the only basis of having an authentic relationship with others. Too often we walk in the shadows of mediocrity and do not open ourselves to the marvellous wonders of grace. The blind man in the story is born with a grave disability, with something that has been closed off, a light that he cannot possess. The true light is diametrically opposed to his schemes, is altogether different from his usual way of apprehending things, the conventions that he holds dear. Will you and I be able to abandon our conventional schemes in order to be able to welcome the surprises that God has in store for us? This is the challenge that faces us every day. We simply must reject our way of looking at things and begin to see things from God’s perspective. The choice is stark: remain attached to our ways or embrace the work of God in our lives. Lent is the period for abandoning our light and beginning to walk in his light; for looking at the things that he looks at, and ceasing to be fixated with the things that we customarily wallow in; a time to turn away from appearances to see what is in the heart.

March 23^rd 2014. THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Gospel: Matthew 4:5-42

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 4:5-42

Jesus came to the Samaritan town called Sychar, near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well is there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat straight down by the well. It was about the sixth hour When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink'. His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him, 'What? You are a Jew and you ask me, a Samaritan, for a drink?' - Jews, in fact, do not associate with Samaritans. Jesus replied:

'If you only knew what God is offering
and who it is that is saying to you:
Give me a drink,
you would have been the one to ask,
and he would have given you living water'.

'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered 'and the well is deep: how could you get this living water?
 Are you a greater man than our father Jacob who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?' Jesus replied

'Whoever drinks this water
will get thirsty again;
but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give
will never be thirsty again:
the water that I shall give
will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life'.

'Sir,' said the woman 'give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water.' 'Go and call your husband' said Jesus to her 'and come back here.' The woman answered, 'I have no husband'. He said to her, 'You are right to say, "I have no husband"; for although you have had five, the one you have now is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.' 'I see you are a prophet, sir' said the woman. 'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, while you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.' Jesus said:

'Believe me, woman, the hour is coming
when you will worship the Father
neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
You worship what you do not know;
we worship what we do know:
for salvation comes from the Jews.
But the hour will come - in fact it is here already –
when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth:
that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants.
God is spirit,
and those who worship
must worship in spirit and truth.'

The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah - that is, Christ - is coming; and when he comes he will tell us everything'. 'I who am speaking to you,' said Jesus 'I am he.'

At this point his disciples returned, and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, 'What do you want from her?' or, 'Why are you talking to her?' The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people.  'Come and see a man who has told me everything I ever did; I wonder if he is the Christ?' This brought people out of the town and they started walking towards him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat; but he said, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about'. So the disciples asked one another, 'Has someone been bringing him food?' But Jesus said:

'My food
is to do the will of the one who sent me,
and to complete his work.
Have you not got a saying:
Four months and then the harvest?
Well, I tell you:
Look around you, look at the fields;
already they are white, ready for harvest!
Already the reaper is being paid his wages,
already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life,
and thus sower and reaper rejoice together.
For here the proverb holds good:
one sows, another reaps;
I sent you to reap
a harvest you had not worked for.
Others worked for it;
and you have come into the rewards of their trouble.'

Many Samaritans of that town had believed in him on the strength of the woman's testimony when she said, 'He told me all I have ever done', so, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and when he spoke to them many more came to believe; and they said to the woman, 'Now we no longer believe because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he really is the saviour of the world'.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Prayer is an encounter between the thirst of humanity for God and the thirst of God for humanity. The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well illustrates this encounter very well. Jesus asks the woman at the well for a drink. What kind of thirst is Jesus experiencing here? The thirst to satisfy her deepest thirst! He goes on to say to the woman, “If you knew the gift of God, you would ask him and he would give you living water.” We tend to think that God wants something from us. We complain at his request for our obedience, at his insistence that we trust in him. God appears to be asking for something when he demands our obedience and trust, but in reality it is through our obedience and trust that he wants to satisfy our deepest thirst. We tend to make our own needs absolute. When we have a necessity of some sort, we become fixated with the satisfaction of that necessity. If we could manage to forget our own needs for a moment and turn to God at these times, then we would experience grace of an incredible sort. The woman at the well is thirsty for physical water, but Jesus encourages her to open herself to her more profound thirst for living water. It would be wonderful if, during this season of Lent, we could forget our physical wants for a moment and open ourselves to our need to be satiated profoundly by Jesus. We would discover then that the place of real encounter with Jesus is not some select “holy place”. The place of intimate encounter with Jesus in spirit and truth is in this attitude of receptiveness to the self-giving of God.

The first reading speaks of a thirst that is satisfied by the Lord in an extraordinary way

In the first reading we hear how the people of Israel began to complain about the thirst they were experiencing in the desert. They had complained earlier about the lack of food. If we examine the text, we discover that it was only three months since they had experienced the wonders of the Lord in bringing them out of Egypt. Despite this, their memories are short and they have lost faith in the providence of God. In the ensuing crisis, Moses fears that he will be stoned if he does not find water soon. The Lord responds by directing them to a rock from which water flows. With this background theme of water and physical thirst we approach the Gospel story, which deals with different types of thirst and different way to satiate that thirst.

God thirsts for us and we thirst for him. This is a story about the encounter between both thirsts

The catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that prayer is the place where the thirst of humanity encounters the thirst of God. But in what sense can God experience thirst? Let us first consider the nature of human thirst. Thirst is a condition that is much more critical than hunger. We become dehydrated much more quickly than we starve. In the kind of desert areas where the history of the Bible revolves, thirst is an issue of acute importance. In the Gospel story, the woman comes to the well looking for water. But she meets Jesus who does not offer her a drink. Instead he asks her for a drink. Then, curiously, he offers her a live-giving water of a completely different kind. If we read the full version of this long Gospel text, then we discover that neither Jesus nor the woman actually drink water during their encounter! The woman leaves her water jar at the well and goes off to tell the townspeople about Jesus. She is now utterly focussed on a different kind of thirst that Jesus has awoken in her.

God’s thirst is a thirst to bestow graces upon us

In the first reading, God provides the people with water from a new source. And that is how it is with all of us. God has a different water to give us. But we only discover this water when we are confronted by God’s thirst for us. It was Jesus who asked this woman in the first place to quench his thirst. And what is his thirst? His thirst is the desire to quench our thirst. The Samaritan woman thinks she has encountered someone who wants something from her, but then she discovers that Jesus is someone who only wants to give. This is an experience that we have one thousand times with God. When it seems that God wants something from us, we discover that what he truly wants is to give. We tend to think that we are doing something for God when we are obedient to him, or when we trust in his name. But it is at that very moment that the Lord is doing something for us.

At moments of necessity, we make our own needs absolute. These are the times we should forget our needs, open ourselves to God and obtain satisfaction of a much profounder sort

It often happens that at a moment of critical personal necessity, we tend to become fixated with our own needs, obsessed with our own wants. But if we try to open ourselves to the giving of God at those moments, then we will experience satiation of a dramatic sort. Sometimes these times of desperate necessity can be moments of incredible grace. Jesus utters a phrase in this Gospel that is of great importance: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask him and he would give you living water.” Do you really know the gifts that the Lord wants to give? Do you really appreciate the generosity of God? If we knew someone of incredibility creativity and goodness who asked us to come with him on a great adventure somewhere, then we would want to go. That person asks us to go with him, but in reality it is we who benefit from the experience. That is how God is. When God asks us something, it is a request to open ourselves to his generosity. And that is the experience of the Samaritan woman. She was asked by Jesus to open herself to what he wanted to give, and then she encountered the truth.

Where do we encounter God in an intimate way? Not in a place but in an attitude that opens itself to the Lord, allowing him to satisfy our deepest thirst.

One of the central lines of this text concerns the place where we encounter and adore God. The Greek work for “adore” contains the word for “kiss”. Adoration entails approaching God with an intimate attitude. Where can we encounter God in an intimate way? This Gospel tells us that we encounter God in such a way not in a place but in an attitude. The thirst of this woman is satiated in an unexpected way and in an unexpected place. The Samaritan woman has a chequered history and perhaps that is why she goes to draw water at the unconventional hour of midday. She has already had five husbands and maybe she wished to avoid the judgemental glances of other women in the town. But now she encounters a husband of a different sort and an intimacy of a new kind. In a blessed moment she makes the transition from being fixated with her own needs to trusting in the Lord who is capable of satisfying all of her deepest longings. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we too, in a blessed moment during this time of Lent, could make the transition from being obsessed with the satisfaction of our own appetites to the condition of trusting in the Lord who only thirsts for our good. If we could open ourselves to the Lord in this way for a moment, then we would begin to encounter him in an intimate manner, in spirit and truth, an encounter of the kiss that the Lord wants to give us, an encounter with our true and deepest spouse, an experience of a food that we have never tasted before, the taste of a  water that satisfies the thirst at the core of our being.