SEPTEMBER 30^th 2012, TWENTY SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 9:38-43,47-48

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

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The disciples reject the good deeds of a man who is not part of their privileged circle. Jesus criticizes this attitude and insists that exclusion of a different sort be part of our daily lives. We must “cut off” our limbs rather than risk doing something that leads away from the fullness of life. In order to care for the sick or elderly, or to be a good parent, we must “cut off our hands” in the sense of renouncing actions that we would otherwise have preferred to occupy ourselves with. We must cut off our feet in the sense of not going to places we would have preferred to go for our own interests. The way of love that Jesus calls us to involves routine renunciation of this sort, but it brings us to the fullness of life and to communion with others

  

The disciples were more concerned about vetting people’s membership credentials than in the spreading of the Gospel

The Gospel passage discusses the issue of who should be considered to belong rightfully to Jesus’ circle. John tells the Lord that they had seen a man casting out devils in his name, and they tried to stop him because he was not a recognized member of their group. Casting out demons is a difficult task and cannot be done without invoking the power of God. But the man who was doing it did not have the correct “label” in the apostles’ eyes. He did not have official membership in the right group. Jesus, however, declares that it is not possible to do good in the name of evil. Evil cannot bring about genuine victory over evil. True victory over evil can only be brought about by God. The apostles therefore were combating against a brother who was doing genuine good in the name of Jesus. They were more concerned with protecting their own circle than with allowing others to participate in the saving work of Christ.

Exclusion is incompatible with salvation, but modern society routinely selects who has life and who is to be excluded from life

This is the first part of the Gospel passage, and it tells us that Christianity is not simply about criteria of adherence to a certain group. The second part of the passage goes on to tell us what being a Christian really involves, and it is extremely challenging! “If anyone creates an obstacle to one of these little ones who have faith, it would be better if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone around his neck.” It would be better to have a hand or leg cut off, to be permanently lame, to endure physical limitations of this sort, rather than to exclude someone from the Kingdom of God. The logic of salvation, the logic of life, is incompatible with the practice of exclusion. In modern society embryos are routinely excluded or selected in order to bring about a higher quality of life. The Nazis systematically excluded people who were considered inferior in order to create a higher quality of life for those who were “superior”. The Nazis are no longer around but our culture has become suffused with the principles of Nazism. In other words, we have become arbiters of who can have life and who cannot. We select who should be allowed in and who should be kept out.

We must be willing to “cut” ourselves first before cutting others off from the fullness of life

Jesus declares that instead of cutting others off from life, we must first be willing to “cut” ourselves. We should be ready to cut off one of our own limbs rather than do something that leads others away from life. We must renounce part of ourselves rather than exclude someone else from the fullness of life. When we look at ourselves in this light, we see that many of our choices are choices for death rather than life. Decisions that appear to defend a certain quality of life are in fact to the exclusion of others. The choice for communion with others, the choice for the life of others, is not simply a moral obligation. It leads, rather, to the fulfilment of our own existence. What kind of life am I living if it is at the expense of the lives of others? Exclusion of others ultimately leads to the negation of myself. This unhappy generation of ours is a generation of elitists that routinely practices the exclusion of others, and cries aloud the right to its own privileges. The Lord Jesus has shown us another way, giving his body for the life of others. He allowed his hands and his feet to be nailed to the cross so that everyone might enter life. He entered heaven covered in wounds so that the gates of paradise would be thrown wide open for us.

Giving life to others involves “losing” our own preoccupations and interests

There is a type of “good” that one does in an abstract or conceptual way. The disciples insist that one should belong to a certain circle in order to be able to perform this good. Then there is the type of good that is brought about by the shedding of one’s blood. We cannot be real fathers unless we pay with our very lives for the happiness of our children. We cannot become mothers in the fullest sense of the word unless we are willing to shed our blood for our children. We cannot be brothers in the fullest sense of the word unless we renounce in our bodies that which must be renounced in order to bring about communion. To truly love others always involves losing one’s own privileges, one’s own prerogatives. If we wish to walk with others then we have walk at the pace of others and lose our own pace. We must move out of our own privileged circles and prerogatives.

These sayings of Jesus are not directed to someone else! I must be routinely “cut off” my hands and feet in order to love others

The Lord Jesus, in order not to lose a single brother or sister, was literally cut to the flesh. This is the law of love. It is not possible to have brothers or sister or friends, or to found a church and maintain it in existence, without “striking” at one’s own body. These sayings of Jesus regarding the cutting off of an arm or a leg are not sayings that are directed at someone else! These are things that all of us must do thousands of times. We must “cut off our hands” and renounce certain actions of ours in order to love others. We must “cut off our feet” and not go where we would like to go in order that we are available to love others. It is not possible to take care of a sick person without renunciations of this very sort. It is not possible to take care of an elderly person, or raise a family, without restrictions of ones’ own movements. We live in a society where everything is centred on the values of the single individual. But without the capacity for self-renunciation, the individual is doomed to solitude and can never achieve true communion with others.

The renunciation that Jesus is referring to is not some kind of cold philosophical stoicism. What Jesus is speaking about is the action of God breaking through our terror of individual-preservation and opening us to the fullness of life and truth. What loss is a hand if as a result I have communion with others? What loss is a foot if others are led to happiness because of me? What is it that really matters in life? Is renunciation of this sort really a loss, or is it a gain?

SEPTEMBER 23^rd 2012, TWENTY FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 9:30-37

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

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This Gospel passage puts two ways of life before us: the path of putting ourselves first, and the path of putting ourselves last. The latter is the way of love, because we can only learn how to love when we cease putting ourselves first. Love is the practice of putting the other in first place and taking second place ourselves. Jesus uses the example of a child to illustrate the attitude that all of us must have. We must submit to the paternal will of God for us, following Jesus in the way of love, and renouncing our inclinations to place ourselves at the centre of the universe.

Jesus uses the example of a child to show two alternative paths to life: the path of selfish ambition, and the path of submission to the paternal will of the Father

This Gospel has two parts. In the first part Jesus speaks of the suffering that he must endure before the Resurrection. The disciples do not understand and are filled with fear by his words. This is because their minds are on a subject of a different sort altogether - they were discussing who among them was the greatest! This was the level of their mental exertions during the journey!

                Here we have two attitudes that are diametrically opposed – the attitude of subjecting oneself to the plan of God, and the attitude of following one’s own ego. Jesus takes a child to demonstrate to the disciples which of the two ways is correct. Should we live in the pursuit of our own glory, competing with others so as never to feel second best to anyone? Or should we dedicate our lives to pursuing the sublime call that God issues to each of us? Should we live by following the path that leads to true resurrection? Or do we follow the path that claims to lead to the fulfilment of our egoistic impulses, but in reality leads nowhere?

                There are two paths here, and both purport to lead to fulfilment, to authentic life. What is it that brings life in the fullest sense of the term? The affirmation of my ego? The satisfaction of having surpassed someone else? The feeling of being superior to others? The glory that comes from defeating others? Or, is life attained by welcoming Christ? By having a genuine relationship with him? Does life consist in relationship with others rather than in competition with others?

               

We fear being put in second place. But we cannot love unless we learn to take second place and put others first.

But this is not yet the full message of the Gospel passage for this Sunday. We will not understand God’s plan for us as long as we are wallowing in the fears that issue from our egoistic self-preoccupation. Each of the twelve apostles is filled with the fear of not being important in comparison to the others. We all fear not being taken into consideration by others! We all have a terror of being humiliated in the eyes of others! Is it possible to love others while we are consumed by this fear? Is it possible to love a spouse, a son or daughter, a friend, a brother in the faith, while we foster this fear of being second? The fact is that love does involve being in second place! How can I truly love if I continue to put myself in first place? How can anyone else love us if they place themselves and the satisfaction of their own egos before everything and everyone else? If someone is not willing to put us first then we feel that we are simply being used by them.

No-one can truly love unless they overcome their terror of not just coming second, but coming last, of being overlooked, of not being consulted. What a terror we have of these things! The book of Ecclesiastes says that the entire enterprise of man on earth is nothing other than envy and competition. The tragedy of man, according to Chapter Three of Genesis, begins with his fear of coming second to God. In the grotesque attempt to be number one, man becomes nothing. He loses himself, loses sight of the true meaning of life, and becomes consumed by the fear that he is nothing. He views others as antagonists, and even views God as his opponent. Jesus Christ came into the world so that we would no longer have fear of this void. He himself became the last among men, the most despised, to the extent of being killed. All of this shows us that being last is not a tragic thing, being despised by others is not a tragic thing. The tragedy is not knowing how to love others! The tragedy is the inability to do what love requires; namely, to put others in first place. The tragedy is not having a heart that loves, but to have a heart that is focussed on one’s own ego.

The capacity to love comes at a cost, and that cost is the renunciation of our egoistic aspirations

This Gospel asks us to decide between the child, the one who comes last, and the powerful and great on earth. The “great” man lives in solitude, consumed by his own ego, whilst the child lives under the paternity of God. In the depths of our hearts there is a desire for friendship and communion that can only be satisfied when we overcome the demands of our ego. This desire for communion and fellowship comes with a cost, and cannot be otherwise. This cost is the renunciation of our own supremacy. But this renunciation is not a tragedy but a liberation. There is no greater burden on the soul than obsession with oneself. This burden will not leave you in peace until it is dissolved by the grace of God. Let us ask for the grace to follow Jesus in the way of love, in the way of liberation from the obsessive terror of not being first. Once we cease putting ourselves first, then we obtain the capacity to love. It is more important and joyful to know how to love, to know how to put oneself in second place, than to have the “glory” of being first.

SEPTEMBER 16th 2012. TWENTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Gospel: Mark 8:27-35
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
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The Gospel tells how Peter recognized that Jesus was the Christ, but did not agree that the Christ should suffer. Jesus responds by telling Peter in no uncertain terms that it is he (Peter) who must follow Christ, and not Christ who must follow Peter. Don Fabio asks us to apply this message to our own lives. Whatever our vocation in life, we are asked to follow Jesus, and this inevitably involves the Cross. Real living involves sacrificial love, fidelity, commitment, trust in God's providence. It is the spirit of evil who whispers that life should be comfortable, easy, involving no commitment or sacrifice. To this spirit Jesus commands "Get behind me Satan!" and demands that we follow him, instead of vice-versa.

Peter's profession of faith, and Jesus' reprimanding of Peter are inextricably linked
This week's Gospel recounts the entire story of the profession of faith by Peter in Jesus. But we don't just read the glorious part where Peter professes his belief that Jesus is the Christ: we also hear of how Peter tries to reproach the Lord, and Jesus responds with the words "Get behind me Satan! You are not reasoning according to God's way but according to human ways." These two moments are inextricably connected to each other, and on Sunday we get to read the passage in its entirety.
Jesus has reached the most northerly point of his ministry, Caesarea Philippi, the furthest place from Jerusalem that his journey take him. He puts the disciples to the test, asking what other people say about him, and then asking what they themselves think about him. This is a fundamental episode in Mark's Gospel and constitutes the structural centre of the Gospel. The entire first half of Mark's Gospel is a lead-up to the moment of this profession of faith in Jesus as the Christ. After this profession of faith, the entire Gospel is oriented towards the Cross. It becomes directed towards exploring the fact that Jesus is not just the Messiah, but is the Son of God, and demonstrating that he is not just the fulfilment of the promises of the past, but is something completely new and unexpected.

Peter has understood that Jesus is the Christ, but he has failed to understand what being Christ entails
Peter has understood that Jesus is the Christ. He is not the first in Mark's Gospel to recognize that fact. Earlier in the Gospel, Jesus had to silence the demons who were aware of the same fact. There is a continual temptation to take possession of the profession of faith in Jesus and to use it to inappropriate ends. We sometimes think that the fundamental strategy of evil is to deny the existence of God. But this is not exactly right. In the Gospel passage Jesus is telling the disciples that they have indeed understood that he is the Christ, but they have not grasped what being Christ entails. Peter has utterly failed to comprehend the nature of Jesus' mission and takes the Lord aside to scold him. This is a dramatic development! Peter considers Jesus to have taken a wrong direction and is not in agreement with him as to how his mission should unfold.

Jesus wants to take the focus off the glorious aspect of being Christ and emphasize the sacrificial aspect
Jesus turns to his disciples and reproves Peter. It is interesting to note that Jesus looks at his disciples while he is correcting Peter, and this indicates that all of them are wrong in their thinking and need correction. It is also interesting to note that Jesus often asks people to keep secret their profession of him as the Christ, but he makes no secret of the fact that being Christ entails that he is destined to suffer. Jesus does not want a one-sided emphasis on the victorious, glorious side of his mission, and on the fact that he is the Messiah. He wishes, rather, to emphasize that victory is something that comes about through defeat and suffering. Victory is not something that is wrought by an easy and comfortable road, but by a process that is more enigmatic.
Peter tries to tell Jesus in secret that he is making a mistake, but Jesus wishes to state publicly that it is Peter who is making the mistake, and he says, "Get behind me Satan!" Peter wants Jesus to follow his way of doing things, but Jesus responds by saying that it is Peter who must do the following. When Jesus originally called Peter, he used the exact same words, "Follow me!" and now he finds that he must repeat it again. This thought alone would be enough to reflect on for this Sunday! It is we who must follow God, and it not God who must follow us! If it is me who is choosing the road then I am no longer with Christ and I am no longer on the road to salvation. I am on the road to nowhere, following vain things that are of no use. To have life in all of its fullness - the life of the Resurrection - I must follow Christ.

Evil tries to convince us that salvation is possible without the Cross
Jesus addresses his rebuke to Satan - "Get behind me Satan!" What is it exactly that the powers of evil are trying to achieve here? Evil says that we can be saved without the cross. It says that salvation is something easy and comfortable. It says that the fullness of life can be achieved with the affirmation of our egos, by following ourselves rather than Christ. All of this is to think according to human ways and not according to God's ways. It is frightening to reflect on the fact that human beings can think according to Satan's influence, but that is how things are. This passage emphasizes the beautiful fact that people can also think according to God.
Here we have a confrontation between true salvation and something that is only an impostor. True salvation is not easy; it is not something that can be had at a discounted rate; it is not something that you pay for two and get three in return. Matrimony is never like that, the consecrated life is never like that, true friendship or raising a family are never like that, These are not things that are low risk and zero commitment, but involve salvation and love.

The way of God is distinguished from the way of Satan by the Cross
What distinguishes the way of God from the way of Satan is the Cross. Just one minute earlier Peter had recognized Jesus as the Christ, and now he tries to ruin his mission. In the Gospel of Mark Jesus had silenced the demons right up to this moment because they had done the exact same thing as Peter, trying to take Christ's mission as Messiah and fill it with the spirit of disobedience, egoism, and preoccupation with one's own wellbeing. Our interior life is a constant battle that must involve discipline of our thoughts, so that we think according to God's way and not according to human ways. It is our relationship with the Cross that draws the line between God's way of thinking and our way of thinking. We must journey towards that over which we have no dominion, recognizing the paternity and providence of God.
The text ends by saying that whoever loses his life for the sake of the Gospel will save it. To have life according to the Gospel is to radically trust in God, focussing on Jesus crucified on the Cross, and being aware that real living is not a stroll in the park.

SEPTEMBER 9^th 2012, TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 7:31-37

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

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Once again Don Fabio asks us to apply this reading directly to ourselves. We are all deaf mutes insofar as we listen only to the promptings of our own egos and speak only in reference to the things that interest us. To break through the barriers of selfish isolation that we have built around ourselves, the Lord needs to place his fingers in our ears and his saliva on our tongues. This symbolizes our need to open our senses to the way in which the Lord wishes to speak to us. The Lord must open our closed lines of communication and enable us to speak his words rather than the words that flow from ourselves.

A healing that takes place in a pagan context: how relevant is that for us today?

To understand this passage we must pay attention to the geographical context in which it unfolds. The cities of Tyre and Sidon were outside of Israel and were located in an area dominated by paganism and the worship of multiple Gods. In this place Jesus performed an act of healing that has an important role in the Gospel of St Mark. We must ask: why was this particular action of Jesus remembered by the early Church and written down in the Gospel? Not all of the words or actions of Jesus were written down, only those that had a particular significance for the early church. This passage tells the story of a deaf mute who lived in a pagan city. The people take him to Jesus to be healed, but Jesus does not lay his hands on him immediately. He takes the man apart, away from the crowd. In order for this man to be healed, he must be taken out of his familiar surroundings. This is a significant point. Learning to live like a child of God is not an everyday event. Having our means of communication with others healed is not an everyday event. It involves a process of being extracted from the daily mechanism of our lives and our familiar comfort zone.

We are all deaf mutes insofar as we listen only to our own needs and speak only to ourselves

A deaf mute is someone who cannot hear or speak. We encounter deaf mutes every day. Many times in our lives we ourselves are deaf mutes, people who do not know how to speak or how to listen, people whose lines of communication are always busy, whose lines of communication are totally occupied with themselves, people who listen only to themselves and think only of themselves. The deaf mute, in this existential sense, has difficulty being truly present to others. Even if he is physically present, his lines of communication are so occupied with himself that he is not fully in attendance with others. How many people exist in this state! How many people are in desperate need to have their means of communication healed. Many of us find ourselves regularly in a condition where no one can say anything to us that will make an impression on us because we are so full of ourselves. And when we speak, we speak only of things that interest or preoccupy us. Our egos bind us within ourselves and create a solitude that is comparable to that of the deaf mute.

States of solitude or despair are often the occasions when we finally start listening to God

To heal us, Jesus must take us far away from the crowd, far away from the environment that is familiar to us. The Lord often does this, even if we don’t ask him. We find ourselves lost and alone. We ask ourselves why we are not part of the crowd, why no one speaks to us or seems interested in us. Very often unhappiness or unease is the road to change and renewal. Often, being cut off from our familiar comfort zone leads us to start reasoning in a more enlightened way about the state of our own lives. We begin to truly listen.

          Jesus places his fingers in the ears of the deaf mute, and puts saliva on his tongue. We would not be inclined to allow anyone to put their fingers in our ears or saliva on our tongues! What is the significance of these strange acts? The fingers of Jesus are the fingers of the God who comes to us in the form of Jesus. The “finger of God” refers always to the work of God. To have the work of God placed in our ears signifies to open our senses to the divine order. It signifies to start listening to reality and to stop being preoccupied with our own works, to stop being preoccupied with our own faults and failings.

What does it take for us to start feeling the finger of God in our ears? St Clare of Assisi is supposed to have said, “If one of the sisters breaks a dish, I get annoyed, but if the convent starts falling in around us, then I sit down and start listening, because that is God speaking”. When things get too much for us, God is speaking to us; God’s finger is in our ear, and we must stop being preoccupied with our own works and start asking ourselves what the Lord is doing. We must begin to bow down before the works of God, start listening to his word, pay attention to the stories regarding his works and his deeds. Very often in the spiritual life, before we start talking, we must place ourselves in no-man’s land where we refrain from talking about ourselves and listen to the stories about God’s works. In this way we begin to develop new points of reference for our lives.

I need the saliva of Jesus on my tongue. I need to start speaking with his words, and not words that come from preoccupation with my own ego

The idea of having someone else’s saliva on my tongue is slightly disturbing. But every time we sit down to pray we have someone else’s saliva on our tongues, in the sense that we have the words of others on our tongues. When we pray, we often use prefabricated words like the psalms. Sometimes we complain about praying with prefabricated prayers, but the essential point is that we need words on our mouths that do not come from ourselves and our own preoccupations. I need the saliva of Christ in my mouth. I need the word of God to fill my mouth so that I can speak with his words. I need words that are not my own, for I am deaf and listen only to myself. I am dumb and talk only of myself.

The road to healing for the deaf mute involves moving away from the crowd. He must be touched with the works of God in the interior of his ears and on his tongue. Jesus utters the word, “Ephphatha!” which means “Be opened!” The last part of the rite of Baptism involves touching the ears and mouth of the child, and this action which Jesus performs on the deaf mute is truly baptismal. We cannot take possession of the new life of baptism if we have not seriously listened to the words of God, and taken the words of God into our mouths. I encourage the readers to find the opportunity to distance themselves from their own thoughts and fixations, to distance themselves from the slavery to their own egos, so as to be able to listen and to speak according to the Lord. This is what breaks the solitude of the deaf mute and rescues us from slavish preoccupation with ourselves.

SEPTEMBER 2^nd 2012, TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

GOSPEL: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

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

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Don Fabio challenges us to read this text as if it were directed personally to us today. The modern world is as obsessed with external “ablutions” as the Pharisees ever were. The preoccupation with physical and mental wellbeing has become the religion of our day. There is a tendency to believe that all of our problems have been caused by external circumstances, and that they can be “healed” by altering these external circumstances. But this preoccupation with what is external never brings the wholeness or healing that is promised. It is from within that we must be changed. This can only be achieved by opening ourselves in the depths of our being to the love of Jesus which is capable of transforming us completely.

We might think that Jesus’ critique of the ritualism of the Pharisees is a topic that has nothing to do with us today, but we are wrong!

This discourse of Jesus is concerned with a subject that seems to have little relevance for us nowadays – the ritualism of the Pharisees. But the issue, in fact, is extremely relevant to us. The Pharisees washed their hands and vessels for meals in particular ways, were attentive to the traditions of the elders, and when they returned from the market they performed many ablutions. These are attempts by the human being to purify himself, to resolve his problems, to clean himself of that which makes him dirty and to set his life to rights. The human person has a persistent tendency to think that his life can be put into order and cleansed by external activity. As a result he multiples laws and rituals, and obsessively focuses on the external aspects of daily action and relationships.

The ritualism of today consists in an obsessive attention to physical and mental wellbeing

In our day the rituals we engage in often concern the care of our psyche, the maintenance of our “mental equilibrium”, the care of our body, and the preservation of our health. Physical and mental wellbeing has become a religion in which the human being tries to attain happiness and fulfilment, but he doesn’t succeed. Happiness does not consist in physical or mental wellbeing, and the human being is not cleansed by external preoccupations of this sort. In this passage Jesus says, “Nothing entering a man from without can make him impure. It is the things that come out from man that make him impure.” It is a waste of time changing house, changing job, changing friends, changing our external habits, unless we are changed also from within. It is from within that things are rendered impure, and it is from within that they are cleansed. Jesus, by means of the Cross, has changed from within the meaning of suffering. Incredibly, the man who redeemed the world was in a horrific situation as far as the ritualism of the Pharisees was concerned. Jesus was the condemned outcast; he was dirty and covered with blood. Even though he was unclean from a ritual point of view, he becomes the one who purifies others.

I can be transformed only from within, not by a focus on the alleged external “causes” of my behaviour

Things are changed from within. For as long as we refuse to touch the true origins of our problems, which are the delusions that lie in the deepest parts of our hearts, our lives will remain disappointing, exactly as they are. But our lives can equally become magnificent from the inside. The most ugly of experiences can be transformed from the inside once we learn how to love. This is done, not in forcing ourselves to change by the power of our will, but by a simple exposure to the truth. The human being is responsible for the ruination of his own life, and the source of this ruination is in his heart. Our generation sometimes seems incapable of understanding this. There is a wholesale tendency nowadays to consider ourselves to be victims of the past and of our social and family circumstances. We have developed a refined system of psychological and sociological “explanations” that seek to justify all of our errant behaviour and frustrations. These structures are supposed to heal and change me, but they cannot, because the real me is never really engaged by this focus on what is external to me.

Wholeness of life can be achieved, not through external ablutions, but by allowing the love of the Lord of Life to enter into the depths of my being

This passage denounces a problem, and at the same time announces the solution. It denounces the practice of seeking wholeness from the external aspects of my life, and it proclaims the liberty that is only possible through Jesus Christ. My life comes from God, and if I wish to have life, then I must ask God for it. Until I truly ask for life from the Lord of life, who is Jesus Christ, then I will continue to attribute the source of the problems that surround me to other things, instead of recognizing that it is my lack of adhesion to the Lord of life that is the source of those problems. If my problems really came from without, if I were truly a victim of my circumstances, then I would be condemned to remain exactly as I am. But Jesus instead has proclaimed our liberty, has proclaimed our capacity and responsibility to transcend our external circumstances and take our lives in our own hands. How can this be achieved? By looking at my life from within rather than without; by asking Jesus who is the Lord of life to give me life; by opening myself in the depths of my being to the love of God, and through this to transform whatever situation in life I find myself in.