Palm Sunday (April 1^st 2012)   

Processional Gospel: Mark 11:1-10

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Jesus enters Jerusalem on an ass, instead of using a more glorious means of transport. What does this tell us about the way that the Lord wishes to be carried to the world?

2. The ass is originally tied, and is then untied in order to carry Jesus. What are the ties that prevent us from carrying Jesus to others?

3. In the Gospel, a humble beast of burden carries Jesus into Jerusalem. In what way might I, humble though I am, be a bearer of the beauty of Christ to the world?

4. Don Fabio asks us to contemplate the fact that "Jesus saves the world and he does it through our humble service". Do I really believe that my humble service can carry the glory of Christ into the world?

"The glory and kingship of Christ is borne by poorly qualified subjects who often start out in the state of being tethered. Every human being has the possibility of carrying in himself the King of Kings. Everyone can become the instrument by which this King, who is the most beautiful of the sons of men, is brought into the world. The Lord makes use of our lowly state, but he first needs to free us from that which tethers us."

Jesus needs humble beasts of burden to bear him to the world

The powerful liturgy of the Passion of Our Lord requires little discussion and speaks for itself. This year the readings are from Mark's Gospel. The Gospel passage that accompanies the processional part of the Mass recounts the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is an unusual kind of triumphalism with a lot of contradictory elements in it. But the Gospel is also full of biblical resonances with prophetic texts that speak of the coming of the Messiah.

            From our point of view it is important to note that this entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is something that must be prepared for properly. The Lord does not come without preparing the way first, and without making use of means of a very particular sort. Bethphage was the traditional place where pilgrims used to purify themselves before arriving in Jerusalem. As Jesus approaches Bethphage, he gets things ready for his entry into Jerusalem by sending two of his disciples to a nearby village where they will find a tethered colt. These references to an ass's colt, tied up, that no-one had yet ridden, seem to be irrelevant details, and of little importance to the story. But these details are in fact of the utmost importance for a proper understanding of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The Lord, as we know, took on human flesh. Through signs of the sort that we find in this Gospel story, he continues to express the incarnate nature of redemption. Jesus needs this humble beast of burden, and the disciples are to make this fact known to anyone who tries to stop them taking it. Jesus wants to make use of things and people - not in order to possess these things - but to give them liberty. If Jesus asks something of us (and we have experienced this many times), it is not to take something away from our existence, but to give our existence illumination and greater meaning.

In order to bear the Lord to others, we must be freed from our ties to the masters of this world

The colt is tethered when the disciples take it for the purpose of bearing Jesus to Jerusalem. In the same way, the proclamation of the Gospel needs humble beasts of burden. The Lord uses weak instruments to advance his message and kingdom. The glory and kingship of Christ is borne by poorly qualified subjects who often start out in the state of being tethered. Every human being has the possibility of carrying in himself the King of Kings. Everyone can become the instrument by which this King, who is the most beautiful of the sons of men, is brought into the world. The Lord needs our state of humility, but he also needs to untie us from that which tethers us. And we need to be freed from the masters that dominate us. In the Gospel the masters of the colt ask the disciples why they are trying to free it, and the disciples reply, "The Master needs it". All of us are tied to various masters who own us and keep us obedient to their will. In order to be able to serve the Lord and to be able to bear the glory of God in us, we must learn to disobey these masters. Our priorities must be turned upside down. We must be freed, and we must keep in mind that we have a desperate need to be freed. We must learn to appreciate that the worldly obligations that appear to us to be absolute are not absolute in the least.

            When we spread the Gospel we must be willing to tell people that the master that they usually serve is not their real master at all. Someone greater needs their service. Where once they bore the meaningless weights of the masters of this world, now they can be bearers of light, of joy, of beauty, of the One who comes in the name of the Lord. The One who comes in the name of the Lord cannot come at all if he is not carried by this humble ass's colt, by this poor animal who – however - has been freed, and who finally can be himself and perform the task for which he was created.

Any glory that comes as a result of proclaiming the Gospel is glory that belongs to Christ and not to the humble instrument that bears him

The colt bears the Lord and finds himself in a glorious procession, stepping on fine garments and hearing the acclamation of the crowd. It sometimes happens that people applaud us and acclaim us, but we must keep in mind that it is not us that they are applauding. Those who have the joy of being ministers in the church should not overestimate their own value in this regard. Those of us who announce the Gospel should realize that we are ass's colts and nothing more. If our message has efficacy, it is only because Jesus is borne by it. We should not think that the applause and the cries of "Hosanna!" have anything to do with us. However, it is beautiful to be involved in proclaiming the Gospel and to be instruments of the Lord's glory. This Palm Sunday let us contemplate this truth that Jesus has need of our service. Jesus saves the world and he does it through us. What a marvellous fact!

Fifth Sunday of Lent (March 25^th 2012)     

John 12:20-30

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 When I think of the glory of God do I think of thrones, angels, choirs?

2. In what sense can the glory of God be understood in terms of his self-giving nature?

3. Is it easy or hard for me to appreciate that the self-giving of Jesus constitutes his real glory?

4. When we pray, do we ask God to remove our burdens, or do we ask to be given the strength to accept the burdens that life places on us?

"We should be aware that our hour will surely come too, the hour in which we must choose between saving our own skins, or trusting in God. When that hour comes, will we continue to hide behind the defensive barriers that we erect around us? Or will we open the doors of our prison and say: "This hour is upon me because the Father wishes to accomplish something in me". This Lent we still have time to say along with Jesus: "Father, I'm not going to ask you to save me from this hour! Glorify your name, make your works known through me!"

The glory of God does not consist in fame or recognition, but in an intrinsic trait of the divine nature

This passage presents us with the lead-up to Christ's passion as recounted by the Gospel of John. It make clear that what Christ goes through at the hour of his passion is something that is relevant for all of our lives. The text refers to a festival at which a number of Greeks are present. These Greeks had heard of Jesus and were looking for him. Philip – the Greek member among the apostles – and Andrew - the brother of Peter – are excited by this fact and go to tell Jesus. The word of his deeds had spread overseas! He was famous! Jesus replies by saying, "Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified". In saying this, Jesus appears at first to be going along with the triumphalism of the apostles. He seems to be saying, "I'm important now. The moment of my glory has come". But then he immediately pours cold water on the apostles' aspirations! "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone, but if it dies it yields a rich harvest." What does the glory of Jesus consist in? The word glory in Hebrew, kabod, refers to the weight of something, the value that it has in itself. Glory does not consist in outward appearances but in something intrinsic to the person. To see the glory of God means to understand him truly. It does not simply refer to an experience of a spectacular manifestation of God, seated on magnificent thrones and surrounded by angels. The glory of God is something that can only be appreciated through deep reflection and experience.

The glory of God consists in his capacity to empty himself for others

This passage tells us that the time had come for the Son of Man to make his intrinsic value – his glory – known. How will he achieve this? Through his capacity to sacrifice his life, to give himself completely. This is what the nature of God consists in. God's nature is not egocentric but is love itself. It is not in the nature of God to emphasize his own self. That is a human tendency. Humans seek to base their worth on their own identity and capabilities. That which reveals the true nature of God is his ability to annihilate himself, to lose himself, to donate his very being, to produce fruit by means of his own death. The absurd-sounding mystery of Easter is that life in abundance comes forth from the nullification of oneself. According to ordinary human thinking, when one gives away everything, then all is over; nothing is left; the end has come. But the areas of our life in which we empty ourselves become – in Christ – the places where the power of God makes itself present.

Jesus leads us in the way of glory, which is the way of self-giving

What do we really look for from our friends, relatives, colleagues? Deep down we wonder, subconsciously, if this person is willing to extend himself in a genuine way for my good. We discover love when we encounter someone who is willing to give himself on my account. At the end of our lives, if we ask ourselves if we have ever loved someone truly, then we are really asking ourselves if we have given ourselves completely, or if we have retained possession of ourselves in this egocentric sense. Did we continue to clasp our fists tightly in order to hold onto our possessions, or did we open our hands and give freely to others? The Lord Jesus teaches us this art of giving that terrifies us. "Whoever loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life will keep it". Jesus leads us in a way of life that is of a different quality altogether than our previous existence. Easter teaches us that the glory of God has nothing to do with fame and recognition, and everything to do with the capacity to love.

When we pray, do we ask God to remove our burdens, or do we ask to be given the strength to accept the burdens that life places on us?

At this point the Gospel of John presents us with a scene that in the other Gospels occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane. "My soul is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?" Matthew, Mark and Luke recount the story of Jesus in the Garden asking if he could be spared the cup of suffering, but he nevertheless bows to the will of the Father. John expresses this event in another way. Jesus is the grain of wheat that must die, and his flesh is rebelling against the very thought. Jesus truly had human flesh, and his pain was genuine and complete. His flesh was crying out "No! No! No!", wishing to be preserved from this hour, but Jesus knew that he had come precisely for this hour.

            We should be aware that our hour will surely come too, the hour in which we must choose between saving our own skins, or trusting in God. When that hour comes, will we continue to hide behind the defensive barriers that we erect around us? Or will we open the doors of our prison and say: "This hour is upon me because the Father wishes to accomplish something in me". This Lent we still have time to say along with Jesus: "Father, I'm not going to ask you to save me from this hour! Glorify your name, make your works known through me!" How often, when confronted by difficult moments in life, do we say, "Father, save me from this hour!" Often our prayers are like this because the God we adore is not the God of Jesus Christ. We ask God to do our will, and we get angry if he doesn't comply. The God of Jesus is the one to whom we must entrust ourselves saying, "Father, make your glory known", and we must abandon ourselves to his will. It would be a great pity to arrive at Easter without having attempted to put this into practice. And it would be poor show if after Easter we continue to attend every ceremony that is going on in church, merely listening to every homily that is being preached, without making the essential leap. We must lower our defensive systems, relinquish the fearful grip on our own lives, and place them instead in the provident hands of God. What might God do with our lives? We were not born to save ourselves from real life, but to allow ourselves to be guided to eternal life, and to experience one day the genuine glory of God.

Fourth Sunday of Lent (March 18^th 2012)  

John 3:14-21

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 How difficult is it for me to believe in God's unconditional love for me?

2. Are there aspects of my life that I think God would condemn me for?

3. When I place myself before God, are there areas of my life that I wish to keep in darkness? Places where I would prefer the Lord didn't enter?

4. Am I inclined to believe that God wants things for me that do not coincide with what I truly want? Do I hide aspects of myself from God because I fear that God will have a devastating effect on these aspects if I allow him to?

5. If I believe in God's unconditional love for me, despite my faults, then can this help me to uncover my malice, confront it, and allow the light of God's love to transform it?

"The primary challenge of the Christian life is to believe in the love of God. This challenge involves the purification of our hearts and the banishment of darkness. Let us stop looking to ourselves in our efforts to understand God! Let us stop looking at the chaos within us, and at the guilt complexes that we have! The psychological mechanisms that go round in circles and take us nowhere! Let us look only to Jesus! Let us lift our gaze to the "serpent raised up in the desert", the man who became sin out of love for us. Let us lift our gaze to his mercy, and believe in his unconditional acceptance of us".

Jesus wants Nicodemus to know that the most essential thing in life is to trust in God's unconditional love for us

Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and refers to this strange event from the Old Testament in which Moses lifted up a snake in the desert so that the people might be saved from the attack of a serpent. Here the Israelites are asked to trust in God's word and perform this weird act in order to be saved. In reality, the problem that is being addressed in the passage from the Book of Numbers is the issue of their lack of faith in God, the difficulty of believing in his love for them, and the prevalent notion that the Lord was setting snares for them that would lead to their destruction. Jesus addresses the same point in his conversation with Nicodemus, and wants to emphasize how vital it is that we believe in the love of God for us. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but have eternal life".

We wish to keep the evil side of us in darkness, away from God's sight

Believing in the love of God for us is the most difficult thing for us to do. We continue to believe that the Lord wishes to judge, condemn and punish, but Jesus has only one desire for us, and that is our happiness.  We, however, close the door in our hearts and keep the Lord out because we doubt that he really wants what is good for us. To really believe in his love for us would involve the destruction of the structure of self-defence that we have erected within us. The tempter encourages us to doubt God's benevolent attitude towards us, and to make us think of ourselves as being defective in God's sight, something that the Lord wishes to destroy or punish. When we present ourselves before God, we do so in a tense and defensive way, thinking that if God could see us as we truly are then it would be devastating for aspects of our life that we wish to retain. Just as Adam and Eve hid themselves from God after the Fall, we try to hide the side of ourselves that we consider to be unacceptable in God's sight. We don't want the Lord to know us fully, or to relate to those aspects of us that we consider shameful. The Gospel passage, in fact, goes on to describe the actions of those who prefer to remain in darkness "The light has come into the world, but people prefer darkness to light, because their actions were evil".

           

We have a decision to make: remain in the darkness of our malicious ways, or place our entire selves before the illuminating light of God's love for us

Everyone's actions are evil. None of us can place ourselves before God thinking that we are unblemished or perfect. All of us are poor in God's sight. But the decision we have to make is this: Can we place ourselves, poor as we are, in the presence of God? Or will we remain separated from God in the shadows of our malicious ways? We are all fragile and tend towards malicious acts. We all have dark areas in our lives. But these dark areas can be illuminated and pardoned. This does not entail becoming perfect overnight. What is essential is that we accept the truth of God's love for us and enter into the truth, seeing ourselves and our faults in the light of that truth. To be in the truth is to know one's humble state.

            We run from the tender, merciful light of God's love because we don't see it for what it is, and believe instead that God's gaze towards us is antagonistic and judgemental. The judgemental and condemnatory gaze towards the dark areas in our hearts comes not from God, but from the accuser, Satan, who always strives to attach his own evil to God. The first temptation - that of Eve - was to look in a negative way on God, and to believe that God wished to deny humanity something that was good in itself. From that moment on, life became a process of defending ourselves, protecting ourselves from the God that we suspect does not want what we want.

The primary challenge of the Christian life is to believe in the unconditional love of God.

This Sunday let us proclaim and accept the unconditional love of God for each one of us. Jesus comes to us for one reason only, to love us, comfort us, liberate us, break our chains, make us appreciate his tenderness towards us. Judgement, curiously enough, is placed in our hands. This is perhaps the most disturbing, yet liberating, aspect of Sunday's Gospel. Jesus has freed us. Anyone who refuses to accept this liberation has condemned himself. The Lord will strive until the last moment of our lives to save us, to snatch our hearts away from the influence of evil. But the heart of the human being remains free. We can say no the love of God. Even those among us who are very involved in the life of the Church can still have hearts that are not completely open to the unconditional love of God. We can resist that love and remain attached to darkness. Even if our hearts refuse to abandon themselves to God, the Lord keeps on striving to conquer us, through Divine Providence, through moments of difficulty in life that challenge us, like a Father who is tender yet strong.

            The challenge of the Christian life is to believe in the love of God. This challenge involves the purification of our hearts and the banishment of darkness. It does not require violence, but demands that we open ourselves to the light. We may be poor and miserable, but we are destined for a loving relationship that is simply extraordinary. Let us stop looking at ourselves in our efforts to understand God! Let us stop looking at the chaos within us, and at the guilt complexes that we have! The psychological mechanisms that bring us round in circles and take us nowhere! Let us look only to Jesus! Let us lift our gaze to the "serpent raised up in the desert", the man who became sin out of love for us. Let us lift our gaze to his mercy and believe in his unconditional acceptance of us.

Third Sunday of Lent (March 11^th 2012)     

John 2:13-25

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Jesus purifies the temple by turning over the merchants' tables. In what way does preparation for Easter demand the overturning of tables in our lives?

2. The real temple that Jesus wishes to purify is the heart of the human person. In what way are we temples of God that are in need of purification?

3. The Gospel speaks of Jesus' zeal for the purification of the temple of God. Do we believe that he has similar zeal to purify us and bring us to the fullness of life?

4. Is new life possible without leaving behind the old ways? Can there be genuine Easter without the overturning of tables and the destruction of the old man?

"There is no Passover without the Angel of Death. There is no Passover without the Red Sea that saves the new man and destroys the old. There is no Easter without chasing away the money-changer, the consumer-mentality, the greed and possessiveness that are present in our hearts."

Jesus performs an act of purification

It is important to reflect on the reason why this Gospel passage is read on the third Sunday of Lent. The passage relates how Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers in the temple. The other three Gospels place this scene near the end of Jesus' ministry, when the confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities in Jerusalem was reaching its climax. In John's Gospel, by contrast, the scene appears early in Jesus' public life, immediately after the miracle at Cana. At Cana, Jesus takes the water of the purification jars of the Jews and turns it into wine. He makes his glory known, and his disciples begin to believe in him. Then Jesus heads directly to Jerusalem where the Passover is about to be celebrated. The Jewish Passover had various rituals that were performed in preparation for the feast. One of these involved cleaning the house and removing all traces of the old yeast for bread-making. This was to make way for the new yeast and the new bread of the Passover. We also have traditions of spring cleaning coming up to Easter. Jesus too performs an act of preparation for the Passover, and it is the classic mode of behaviour of a prophet. It is not that Jesus in this scene has lost control of himself and has gone crazy. No, he is performing a prophetic act. Many such acts are to be found in the Old Testament when the prophet comes in the name of God to denounce a situation.

Preparation for Easter demands that we overturn the money changer's tables in our lives

Jesus performs this act of purification when he discovers people at the temple selling cattle, sheep and pigeons, and changing money. All of these elements were actually necessary for the system of sacrifice and ritual that was in place at the temple in those days. Offerings had to be made using a particular coin which the money-changers provided. Jesus puts an end to all of this activity, saying, "Take all of this away, and stop turning my Father's house into a market". The disciples remember the words of Scripture "Zeal for your house will consume me". Zeal is a particular type of attentive regard for the things that belong to God. Such zeal demands that the things that are holy be purified of that which is not holy. Preparation for Easter demands a similar purification, and that is why we are reading this Gospel on Sunday. Lent is the season for overturning the money-changer's tables that are part of all of our lives. It is the time for throwing away the things that occupy the place of something else.

Jesus' attempts to purify the temple will result in the destruction of the temple that is his body

As we read on, we come to the climax of the text. The Jews were indignant because Jesus would have prevented anyone from doing business at the temple that day. They confront him about his destructive actions and Jesus replies in an enigmatic way: "Destroy this sanctuary and in three days I will raise it up". The Jews are incredulous and remark that it has taken forty six years to build the temple. The Evangelist then tells us that Jesus has deepened the meaning of the discourse and is speaking of a different kind of temple, his own body. In this case it will be they who destroy the temple and it will be him who rebuilds it. What does the Evangelist wish to tell us in this story? Jesus is performing an act of purification. He is removing the things that have no place in the house of the Father. This destructive action on the part of Jesus is not acceptable to those who do not want the purification to take place. The battle of purification thus becomes a two-way battle in which the cleansing action of Jesus is resisted by the religious authorities. The combat will eventually result in the destruction of Jesus body, and the rebuilding of that sanctuary in three days.

The real temple that Jesus wishes to purify is the heart of man

The Gospel reading for Sunday ends with a sentence that might not seem very significant, but in fact it is of central importance. "During his stay in Jerusalem for the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he gave, but Jesus knew them all and did not trust himself to them; he never needed evidence about any man; he could tell what a man had in him."

            Taking this final passage into consideration, the Gospel reading as a whole can be read in three stages. Firstly we hear of the zealous action of Jesus in purifying the temple. Secondly, Jesus' own body is understood as a temple, which means, by extension, that the  body of any person can be considered to be a temple. Thirdly, we are told that Jesus knows exactly what is in the heart of man.

            The real temple that is to be purified is the heart of man. We must live the experience of Lent by engaging ourselves in this conflict, which is not a trivial business. There is no Passover without the Angel of Death; there is no Passover without the Red Sea that saves the new man and destroys the old man; there is no Easter without chasing away the money-changer, the consumer-mentality, the greed and possessiveness that are present in our hearts. This Gospel from John is particularly directed against the tendency to make our lives places of profit and self-advantage. We must enter the fray against these tendencies! Easter is a time in which we are drawn to new life, and this process requires the loss and the purification of that which obstructs life.

Jesus has a burning zeal to purify our hearts of the things that obstruct life

We should not be surprised that Jesus is zealous and passionate in this scene from the Gospel. Jesus is the one who brings life, and life is incompatible with death. He brings truth, and truth is incompatible with deception. Jesus is absolutely uncompromising in the face of anything that keeps us from him. When we read this text, we must seek the strength and courage to overturn the money-changer's tables. We must rid our hearts of those things that are incompatible with Easter. Jesus performs this gesture of purification so that our bodies might become the temples destroyed and rebuilt, bodies that have passed through the stage of self-denial and sacrifice. There cannot be new life unless the old life is left behind. The human being, who loves material things, destroys the temple of God. But in God this temple can be rebuilt and resurrected. Let us allow ourselves to be changed by the discipline of Lent that strives to bring us to new life, and wishes to distance us from death and deception.