JUNE 2^nd 2013. FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Gospel: Luke 9:11-17

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

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

GOSPEL                   Luke 9:11-17

Jesus made the crowds welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing.

It was late afternoon when the Twelve came to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here'. He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves'. But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people' For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty'. They did so and made them all sit down. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd. They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps remaining were collected they filled twelve baskets.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Hunger and eating are ancient themes in Scripture and the liturgy. Humanity needs external sustenance in order to stay alive. In the face of this need, we have two options: we can be filled with burning anxiety about how our hunger will be satisfied; or we can use this hunger as an opportunity to enter into relationship with God, trusting in his loving providence. In the Gospel, the crowd is hungry and the disciples do not want to have the burden of trying to feed them. Jesus presents a remarkable solution to the problem of the anxiety of the disciples and the hunger of the masses. In order to satisfy the hunger of others, it is not a question of possessing enough food to feed them. It is a question rather of trusting in the providence of God. I, poor as I am and possessing nothing, must give what little I have to the Lord. He will transform it into a feast for others. And it is in satisfying the needs of others that my own hunger is finally satiated. On this feast of Corpus Christi, may the hunger for bread in our souls become an opportunity in which we entrust our needs to the loving providence of God. Once we make that leap, entering into relationship with him, then his power will intervene, transforming our poor offering into a feast for others.

The theme of hunger and eating are central in Scripture and in the liturgy. The first sin was a sin that involved eating. Jesus’ first temptation arose from his hunger. In Matthew’s Gospel we are exhorted not to worry about what we will eat and to trust instead in the providence of God

On this Feast of Corpus Christi we are presented with Luke’s account of the multiplication of loves and fishes. The theme of the Gospel is the problem of how to satisfy the hunger of the crowd. What does humanity need if its hunger is to be satiated? It is interesting to note that this basic need of humanity to eat and drink has a central place in the liturgy and in the sacraments. We have been created by God with this necessity of having to eat, with the requirement for external sustenance in order to survive. Hunger was the first temptation of Christ in the desert, and it had a central place in the first sin recorded in Scripture. Adam and Eve ate that which was not supposed to be eaten. They sought to satisfy their inner anxiety with a form of sustenance that was inappropriate. This is a perennial theme of the human being: our anxiety to find a source of sustenance for our lives. We have a constant, burning,  worry about where we will obtain what we need for life. This necessity gives rise to a terrible anguish within humanity, but it is ultimately a question of relationship with God. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus exhorts us not to worry about what we will eat, drink or wear; it is the pagans who worry about these things. God has given me life. Do I continue to rely on him for the source of my life, or should I take things completely in my own hands and look after that business myself?

In the Gospel the disciples are confronted with the hunger of others. They shrink from the needs of others and ask Jesus to send the crowd away

This theme is taken up by the Gospel from the point of view of how the disciples are to deal with the hunger of the crowd. The disciples are wary of this hunger and encourage Jesus to send the crowd away so that they can look after themselves. In any relationship with another, the moment always arises when the other’s needs come to the fore! It is pleasant to be with other people, to be polite and politically correct, but it is not so comfortable when the other’s genuine needs emerge and call on us for a resolution. If I have not resolved the issue of my own internal anxiety, then how am I to resolve the issue for others? My natural inclination will be to distance myself from the needs of others, to flee, and this is precisely the reaction of the disciples: 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here'.

Jesus presents a remarkable solution to the issue of how we are to satisfy the hunger of others, and, ultimately, our own hunger as well.

How are we to confront the needs of others? In this beautiful text, we see the strange and remarkable solution revealed by Jesus for this problem. He does not resolve the problem directly. His power is certainly present, and his action is of fundamental importance, but he needs us to participate in order for the solution to become concrete. What a curious thing! We are hungry ourselves, but he calls us to satisfy the hunger of others. It is in satisfying the hunger of others that our own hunger is satiated. How strange! We naturally think in completely different terms. For us it is a simple question of mathematics: “If I have, then I can give. If I do not have, then I cannot give”. This seems simple and logical, but things do not work like that with God! With Jesus, I give, not because I have, but because I trust. It is not the case that I find myself in a position to give only when I already possess that thing. Rather, I am in a position to give when I am in a relationship with God. It is not a question of possessing enough so that I can satisfy the hunger of this crowd. It is a question, rather, of giving what little I have to the Lord Jesus. We, poor as we are, possessing nothing, must first enter into relationship with Jesus. The crucial step is not to have projects, plans, and grand designs that make eminent sense for resolving other people’s problems. What is essential is that we make the leap and enter into relationship with God.

“Hunger” can become an opportunity to trust in the providence of God and enter more deeply into relationship with him

It is often the case, when families are confronted with serious difficulties, that we pursue mistaken solutions that only serve to increase the anguish felt by all. We have a tendency to try to work out plausible, reasonable solutions to problems, whilst forgetting to nurture the primary attitude in life of trusting in the providence of God. In the present economic climate, many families seek solutions to the crisis that confronts them. But our “solutions” are often worse than the original crisis and only complicate our problems. The point is that in every problem that faces us we must be impelled to enter more deeply into relationship with God. We then discover that the very thing that caused anguish for us now becomes an opportunity for growth; it becomes a place where we enter into relationship with the Father; it becomes a moment when we offer what little we have to Jesus. As in the Gospel, we then experience the intervention of God’s providence. God’s providence does not eliminate the precarious nature of our existence, but it permits us to live in peace, fully conscious of the ever-present paternal love of God.

Jesus too entrusts Himself to the Father before blessing the bread

Jesus Himself raises His eyes to heaven before blessing the bread and distributing it to the disciples. He too, in order to resolve the problem of the hunger of the masses, entrusts Himself to the Father, to the invisible, to His relationship with heaven. The Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is a feast in which we see an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God in something as concrete as a piece of bread. Everything that confronts us in life must impel us to enter into relationship with the Father, to see the invisible, to rely on His providence, to trust in Him and experience His bounty.

MAY 26TH 2013. TRINITY SUNDAY
Gospel: John 16:12-15 
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
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GOSPEL:  John 16:12-15
Jesus said to his disciples:

I still have many things to say to you
but they would be too much for you now.
But when the Spirit of truth comes
he will lead you to the complete truth,
since he will not be speaking as from himself
but will say only what he has learnt;
and he will tell you of the things to come.
He will glorify me,
since all he tells you will be taken from what is mine.
Everything the Father has is mine;
that is why I said:
All he tells you will be taken from what is mine.

THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD:  PRAISE TO YOU LORD JESUS CHRIST 

Don Fabio encourages us to approach the doctrine of the Trinity in a non-abstract way. It is not so much a doctrine to be analysed intellectually as put into practice on a daily basis in our personal lives. His homily explains how we are called to participate in the life of the Trinity by living for others and not for ourselves. Jesus tells us that a characteristic of the Holy Spirit is that he speaks not about himself but of the Father and the Son. In the same way we are called to speak not about ourselves but about the saving activity of God. Don Fabio explains how embracing the Holy Spirit can lead us away from the anxious and frantic life that is lived in the service of our own egos. It is ironic that when we stop being preoccupied with ourselves and begin to live the life of the Trinity, then we become truly ourselves.

Trinity Sunday reminds us that we are called to live the divine life!

This week we celebrate Trinity Sunday. This celebration does not only focus on the interior nature of God, but also focuses on how we are called to participate in this interior life of God. Sometimes it is hard for us to appreciate the radical manner in which the incarnation of Jesus calls each of us, here and now. to enter into the divine life. This involves a sort of divinisation of our lives, an extraordinary process in which we begin to live the kind of life that God himself lives! Hard to believe? Read on!

The life of God is a life of communion, in which one is completely oriented to the other

In the Gospel passage, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will tell us things that pertain to Jesus. But the things that pertain to Jesus, we are told, are the things that belong also to the Father. What confusion! Don't any of these divine persons have anything that belongs to them individually? How are we to distinguish their individual identities? The key to understanding the passage is to remember that God is love, and the divine life is a life of complete communion. God the Father is love, and being love he gladly gives away everything that belongs to himself. God the Son lives this love joyfully, returning it completely to the Father. Curiously, even though the divine persons give away everything they have, they do not lose their identity. And this is an experience that can be shared by anyone who is redeemed and enters into this volcano that we call the life of the Trinity. The person who is redeemed possesses nothing of his own; everything is expropriated from him; yet he remains himself. And this is how it is with God. God is the owner of the house, yet he has given his house to everyone. It is impossible to reconcile the Christian vocation with a life in which the person considers himself to be the owner of his possessions, his capacities, or his achievements. We in the Church must consider ourselves to have nothing that belongs to us. Any riches that we possess must be shared freely with others.

The Holy Spirit is hard to define because he always leads away from himself to the other persons of the Trinity

Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit does not speak of himself. The characteristic of the Holy Spirit is humility, and this is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to define him. If we reflect on him and try to figure out his nature, we are led to start thinking about the Father, or about the Son! The Holy Spirit leads us always to start thinking about others, not Himself! And Christians should do likewise. Christians who are filled with the Holy Spirit do not talk about themselves. Unfortunately we often meet the opposite. When we encounter a Christian, we hear about his achievements, his intentions, his experiences. How boring! Sometimes we want to say, "Talk to me about something that saves, because you don't save anyone!" If we must speak about ourselves, then let it be about how we have been redeemed by the Lord; let it be about the gratitude that we owe to God for his saving action in our lives.

Living the life of the Trinity involves stopping living lives that are based on our own egos

When we are filled with the Holy spirit, then our egos are no longer the frantic centres of our lives. As it stands, we live an existence in service of these enflamed egos and our principal preoccupation is with ourselves. Me, me, me. What boredom! But when the Holy Spirit comes, then we start to focus on the other. When someone is in love, they think only about the one that they love; they speak only about the one that they love; and they act principally in relation to the one that they love. And this is how the life of God operates. The Spirit speaks only of the other persons, of the Father who gives everything, of the Son who is totally obedient to the Father.

When we live the life of the Trinity then our lives become decongested and healed

It is sobering to compare the life of the Trinity with the lives that we live habitually. The tragedy of the human being is that we lose our relationship with God and live an existence that is based on our ego. All the terrible things that humanity has done originate in the basic sin of not allowing ourselves to be loved by God, and the failure to love him in return. We fail to give space to the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we listen to Him, then we experience true healing, true rest, and the decongestion of our lives. He speaks only of God. He does not speak to the ego that we have made the central focus of our lives.

It is only by living the life of the Trinity that we become truly ourselves

When we contemplate the Trinity we discover the truth about ourselves. It is important to remember that unless we open our hearts completely to the Holy Spirit, we cannot be fully ourselves. It is only when we love and are loved that we become authentically ourselves. When we are in a place where we are not valued or appreciated, we implode. We become defensive, aggressive or bitter. But when we are in a house where we are loved, then we are free to be ourselves. We speak frankly and laugh freely, without fear of rejection. We feel welcomed for who we are. The life of the Christian is to live in the House of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is to live in the knowledge that God is my father, that Jesus has redeemed me with his blood, and that I am one body with Him. When we enter someone's house, people often say, "Make yourselves at home". The Holy Spirit does not only make us feel at home in the house of the Father, he makes us take up residence in the house of God! We start to become children of God; we begin to have the love of Christ for the Father in us. What a beautiful thing it is to live like that! May the truth of the Blessed Trinity become our truth, so that by living in the Trinity we may become truly ourselves..

MAY 19^th 2013. PENTECOST SUNDAY

Gospel: John 14:15-16, 23-26

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

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

GOSPEL                   John 14:15-16, 23-26

Jesus said to his disciples

If you love me you will keep my commandments. 
I shall ask the Father, 
and he will give you another Advocate 
to be with you for ever,

'If anyone loves me he will keep my word, 
and my Father will love him, 
and we shall come to him and make our home with him. 
Those who do not love me do not keep my words. 
And my word is not my own: 
it is the word of the one who sent me. 
I have said these things to you 
while still with you; 
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, 
whom the Father will send in my name, 
will teach you everything 
and remind you of all I have said to you.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The term “Paraclete” signifies the one who stands close to us and gives us counsel. In order to have the Holy Spirit close to us, we must adhere to the words of Jesus. This is the kind of relationship that the Lord wants to have with us! If we love someone, we cherish and contemplate their words. How can we say we love Jesus if we do not treasure and esteem his words, bringing them to fruition in our lives? Once we adhere to the words of Jesus, then God, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, comes to dwell with us. In the Old Testament God was present in the Temple. Now, through the Holy Spirit, he wishes to take up residence in our hearts, in the profoundest core of our being. But how can God dwell in our hearts if we are not adhering to his words and cherishing them? The Holy Spirit also has a very important role in helping us to have a correct relationship with our past lives. Don Fabio encourages us to reconsider our entire past regularly in the light of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will remind us of all the things that God has said to us in the past. Often we tend to look at the past negatively, focusing on the moments we were hurt or misunderstood. We will not understand the events of the past correctly until we perceive the way that God was speaking to us and working on us through the events that were unfolding. Life is a journey in which we learn how to love. Even the hurts and disappointments of the past have played a role in that school of love, preparing us for becoming permanent dwelling-places of God!

The term “Paraclete” signifies the one who stands close to us.  Who does the Holy Spirit stand close to? To those who welcome Him by their adherence to the words of Jesus

The Greek term for the Holy Spirit that is used twice in the original text of this Sunday’s Gospel is Paraclete. This gift which proceeds from the Father and the Son is called “Advocate” in Latin. The meaning of the Latin and Greek terms is the same, namely, “one who is called to stand by our side”. The role of the Paraclete or Advocate in ancient legal proceedings was quite different to that of the defence lawyer of today. The lawyer was not permitted to speak aloud in favour of the defendant. Instead the lawyer would stand close to the defendant and advise him on how to defend himself, often by whispering suggestions into his ear. In the same way, the Holy Spirit does not try to do things for us, but he counsels us on what we should do. Our freedom and identity is of the utmost importance to the Lord, and he never wishes to bypass them or cancel them out. The Holy Spirit is not an imposition from God, but something that must be welcomed by us. This is made clear by Jesus when he says, “If anyone loves me he will keep my commandments. I shall ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever”. The incredible gift of the Holy Spirit comes as a result of voluntary adhesion to the words of Christ.

God wants a relationship of love with us. If we love someone we hang on to their every word. Loving God involves interiorizing, contemplating and acting on the words of Jesus

Our relationship with God must be one of love, not of obligation or imposition. Obligation and compulsion characterize our relationship with evil, as is evident when an evil vice controls us and becomes our master. The Lord always gives us the choice to accept or refuse him. “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word”. If we do not love someone, then we hardly hear what they are saying most of the time, and we certainly do not cherish or interiorize their words. But when we love someone, we cherish their words inside of ourselves, we contemplate them and we act on them. This is the kind of relationship that God wants to establish with us. It is of urgent importance for each one of us that we remember and contemplate the moments of intimacy that we have had with the Lord. Some of these moments may have occurred in our infancy, or at difficult times of our lives, but whenever we feel that the word of the Lord has entered into our hearts, we must retain the memory of this moment and cherish it continually. These were the moments when the Holy Spirit made his “landing” within us.

What role does God want to have in my life? Does he want to be an occasional visitor? A guest on Sundays only? No! God wants to come and reside at the core of my being forever!

The Gospel uses the remarkable expression, “We will make our home with them”. In the Old Testament, the home of God was the Temple. The new temple of God is my heart, the most profound part of my being. My spirit is something different to my sensibility, my psyche, or the state of my soul. It is something much deeper than these, and it is here that the Lord wishes to take up residence. God does not want an occasional or transitory relationship with us. He does not want a relationship in which we are constantly distracted, in which we are sometimes with him and sometimes not. He wants to come and live with us forever. When we live in the same house as someone, then routines of intimacy develop naturally. In a similar way we are invited to enter into a relationship of intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

How do we allow God to come and live with us forever? By adherence to his word.

How do we achieve this intimacy? By adherence to the word of God. The word of the Lord is capable of achieving this intimacy in all of us. In the Gospel Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you”. Here Jesus is speaking of a new relationship with all that has happened before in our lives, illuminated by the words of Christ. It is a very consoling exercise to start discerning the work of God in our past lives, instead of looking at our past as if it were a disordered series of events without meaning, and tending to focus on the moments in which we were hurt. Christ was present in our past lives, and the past must be revisited in the light of the word of Christ. This is true even for those of us who did not know or care about Jesus in our infancy or adolescence. John Paul II spoke of the need to purify our memories. It is very important to look back and discern the moments when Christ started to speak to us through the things that were happening in our lives. This can be an experience of purification and transformation. When our relationship with the past is transformed then we too are radically transformed. Our memories condition us in an incredibly powerful way, but the Holy Spirit is capable of renewing and cleansing our memories. Our goal is to arrive at the point where the work of God in our lives stands at the centre of our memory, where our entire past is understood in terms of the things that God was trying to achieve in us all the while. Most people carry deep wounds from the past, existential ulcers that still have a crippling influence. These wounds will not go away with superficial therapeutic treatments. Only the illuminating influence of the Holy Spirit is capable of closing these wounds. For if we look at our past existence only from the point of view of human wellbeing, then our past will never be satisfactory. There will always be deficiencies, leading us to anger or sadness.

The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we learn how to love and become permanent dwelling-places of God

If instead of viewing our past from a human perspective, we see life as a journey in which we learn how to love, then our past becomes something positive and useful. Even the hurts and evil that we have experienced become a school in which we learn how to love. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not something that merely inspires us in such a way that we are able to further our careers or job prospects! The gift of the Holy Spirit is not merely something that helps us feel ecstatic or consoled! We receive the Holy Spirit in order to learn how to love! We receive the Holy Spirit so that the presence of God will be felt in the things that happen to us every day! We receive the Spirit so that we will perceive the Lord, hear him, touch him, in the things that fill our lives. The Holy Spirit is not a gift that is directed towards occasional or transitory wellbeing, the kind of “consumerist” Sunday-only religion that modern society encourages us to embrace. The gift of the Holy Spirit is given so that we will become permanent dwelling-places of God.

MAY 12^th 2013. ASCENSION OF THE LORD

Gospel: Luke 24:46-53

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

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

GOSPEL                   Luke 24:46-53

 Jesus said to his disciples: 'You see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.

 'And now I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.' Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to  Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

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

The Ascension of Jesus shows us that the ultimate destination for all of us is the Father. We are already on the way to the Father, whether we know it or not! This passage to the Father becomes evident in our lives whenever we become less oriented towards ourselves and more oriented to the things of God. To help us on the way to the Father, Jesus bequeaths us with a precious gift, a new garment that descends on us from high. This garment is the Holy Spirit. After the Fall, Adam and Eve dressed themselves with leaves, the things of the earth. We all cover ourselves with the things of the earth! We dress ourselves with our successes, the way we look, our talents, our public image. These are just ways to cover the vulnerability and poverty that all of us feel. When we are clothed with the Holy Spirit, by contrast, we are clothed with the knowledge that God loves us and that everything is taken care of by his wonderful providence. We feel at peace and fear nothing. But where do we receive this new garment? How do we become clothed with the Holy Spirit? The Gospel tells us that after the Ascension the disciples gathered continually to praise God. We must do the same. It is in the liturgical gatherings of the Church that we encounter God, listening to his word and receiving the power of Jesus through the sacraments. Gradually, step by step, slowly but surely, bit by bit, we are “clothed with power from on high”. Then we begin to live as children of God, leaving all things to his providence.

The Ascension shows us that our ultimate destination is the Father. We show in our daily lives that we are already on the way to the Father whenever we become less oriented to ourselves and more oriented to heavenly things.

This Sunday we contemplate and celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord. The destination of the risen Lord is heaven. The life of Jesus is a journey in which he descends to earth and then leads the way to heaven. His victory over death is not his stopping place. His true destination is his Father in heaven, and he reveals to us that our destiny is just the same - to go to the Father. Through his incarnation, passion, death, resurrection and ascension, we learn the marvellous news that our ultimate destination is not a place but a relationship. We can already experience this passage towards the Father in our daily lives. We feel the paschal transformation in our lives whenever we become less oriented towards ourselves and more oriented towards the Father. This happens often through our personal experience of the Cross, which can shake us, transform us, orient us, to the Father, through the grace of Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This fact should lead us to contemplate heaven constantly and to evaluate the worth of things in the light of heaven. That which does not go to heaven has little value. The devil tempts us to worry about the future, but not about eternity. The future is doubtful, whereas eternity is something certain. Eternity is the love of the Father that has been prepared for us and which we can accept or decline in freedom. Oh, how our lives are preoccupied by trivial things that we believe represent our futures! Our ultimate future is heaven and this should dominate everything that we do.

We are destined to go to the Father. To get there we must be clothed with power from on high. To be clothed with power we must gather with the Christian community in the liturgy

Where is the road to heaven? What does it mean to live life as a journey towards the Father? In this Gospel, Jesus gives precise indications for doing just that. “Remain in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high”. The disciples have experienced the Risen Lord and are now given directions for what they are to do next. These directions also apply to us. The disciples were told to remain in the city. As the Church developed the holy city of Jerusalem (the nucleus of the early Church) came to be represented by the liturgical gathering, a place for encountering the Lord in community. The Lord manifests himself in the liturgy and Jesus asks that we “remain” in this gathering so that we can be “clothed with power from on high”. This refers to the evolution and growth that takes place within us as a result of what happens to us in the liturgical gathering. It is when we cultivate the time to contemplate God and receive the sacraments, when we gather and take on the attitude of praising the Lord, then, slowly but surely our “garment” changes. We become clothed with a garment that descends from above, the Holy Spirit.

We need to be clothed from above, but in reality we are clothed from below. We cover our insecurities and emptiness with the garment of success and public image

This notion of being re-clothed finds its origin in the third chapter of Genesis. After the Fall, humanity has a sense of nudity or poverty before God. To cover this nudity, we cover ourselves with a garment that comes from below, not from above. When Adam sins and breaks his relationship with God, he realizes that he is naked. In other words, he cannot come to terms with his own impoverishment. He has lost the paternal embrace of God and feels exposed and fragile. So what does he do? He takes the things of earth, the leaves from the trees, to cover himself. And even though he has covered himself, he still does not have the courage to confront the gaze of God. In the very same way we dress ourselves with the things of the earth, we dress ourselves with vainglory, we dress ourselves with our accomplishments, our successes, our projects. But no matter how much we try to dress ourselves up, we always feel exposed, naked like Adam, lacking authentic protection. The text in Genesis ends with God making garments for Adam and Eve from animal skins. This paternal act of clothing his children prefigures the act of Jesus at his Ascension. The Gospel tells us that Jesus blesses his disciples before ascending. The act of benediction in Scripture represents the moment when a father bequeaths his goods on to his children. At the moment that Isaac blesses Jacob, Jacob comes into his inheritance. In our Gospel reading, when Jesus blesses his disciples, at that moment they come to possess his inheritance, and this inheritance is the fact of being clothed from on high with the Holy Spirit.

To be dressed in the garment of the Holy Spirit is to be dressed in the garment of the providence of God. We no longer fear the future. We no longer feel vulnerable and exposed.

When humanity receives this new garment, it receives a new role in life. We pass from being creatures marked by sin and fear to being dignified children of God. The garment from on high is a sign of the love of the Father for us. What is a true Christian dressed in? The providence of God. The Gospel of Matthew tells us, “Do not worry about what to wear, or what to eat and drink. The pagans worry about these things. Your heavenly Father knows what you need, so seek the Kingdom of Heaven first, and all of these things will be added”. The heavenly garment, in other words, is the relationship with the Father. The garment is the inter-Trinitarian love of God, the Holy Spirit, that descends from above and, all at once, frees us from our nudity and fear.

We receive this new garment gradually, step by step, by participating wholeheartedly in the liturgy

Where is the place that this new garment descends on us from on high? Where do we receive the power of the Holy Spirit, who makes us new? The Gospel tells us that the disciples gathered together and continually praised God after the Ascension. By being present in the liturgy of the Church, we are gradually brought to the truth. The liturgy permits us to encounter God directly and, through the sacraments, the power of Jesus himself becomes present in our lives. It is through the liturgy that we are clothed with the power from on high that is described in this week’s Gospel. We are no longer clothed with our own works but with the work of God. It is one thing to try to confront reality with our own capacities, our own ways of doing things, our own ways of protecting ourselves. It is a different matter entirely to be vested with the knowledge that the Father loves us, protects us, guides us, does not abandon us, remains with us always. This garment helps me to face all things with incredible peace. The garment that we usually wear is that outward appearance that we show to the world, the role that we have in the world. But the new garment derives from our new role, which is to live a life in relationship with God, made possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. To be clothed with this new garment is to be already given over to Christ, to be his property. We must remain in the “holy city”, i.e., participate wholeheartedly in the liturgy until we are, slowly but surely, clothed with this new garment.

            

MAY 5^th 2013. SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Gospel: John 14:23-29

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

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

GOSPEL                   John 14:23-29

Jesus said to his disciples: 

'If anyone loves me he will keep my word, 
and my Father will love him, 
and we shall come to him 
and make our home with him. 
Those who do not love me do not keep my words. 
And my word is not my own: 
it is the word of the one who sent me.
 I have said these things to you 
while still with you; 
but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, 
whom the Father will send in my name, 
will teach you everything 
and remind you of all I have said to you. 
Peace I bequeath to you, 
my own peace I give you, 
a peace the world cannot give, 
this is my gift to you. 
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. 
You heard me say: 
I am going away, and shall return. 
If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father, 
for the Father is greater than I. 
I have told you this now before it happens, 
 so that when it does happen you may believe.

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

Before reading the full translation of the homily, let us focus on a number of things that Don Fabio emphasizes.

1. Jesus states that love is a prerequisite for obedience, not vice-versa. If we love Jesus, then we will naturally keep his word. This will lead to the Father and the Son coming to dwell with us. The presence of God in us will be evident in all of our doings and we will be guided by the Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus tells us of the roles that the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. He teaches us. In order to receive the teaching of the Holy Spirit, it is essential that we humbly acknowledge that we know nothing! The greatest obstacle to learning something is the conviction that I know that something already.

3. What does the Holy Spirit teach us? How to pray? How to act morally? It is important that we not try to limit the activity of the Holy Spirit to certain areas. As Jesus says, the Holy Spirit will teach us everything! This is one of the most exciting facets of being a Christian! Every single thing we do in our lives must be changed and renewed by the Holy Spirit! How many things we have to learn and discover! If there is a part of our lives where we think we have nothing to learn, then we can be sure that this part of our lives is characterized by mediocrity and is in need of renewal.

4. The Holy Spirit also helps us to recall Jesus’ words to us in the past. God has been active in our lives since our infancy. It is important that we ponder on all the various stages of our past lives with the aid of the Holy Spirit. Our identity is bound up with our memory. Our memories must be purified of self-delusion and self-deception so that we see the action of God and the glory of God in the past events of our lives.

5. When we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us, revealing to us the action of God in our lives, then we attain a state of peace, a peace that the world cannot give. Our lives become firmly based on the word of Jesus planted in our hearts.

Love leads us to puts Jesus’ words into action. Once we do that, then God will “make his home with us” – his presence will be evident in our lives

We are in the Easter Season, and to live the life of Easter, certain conditions must be met. Jesus says, “If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him”. My word! How much is condensed in these few phrases! It is important to note from these words of Jesus that love does not follow from the fact of being obedient to God’s word. In fact, the opposite is the case. During the course of one’s spiritual development, it may be important at times to emphasize obedience. But full and complete obedience flows naturally from love, not vice-versa. There is a cold, mechanical, form of obedience, and then there is an obedience that originates in faith and in love. This latter form of obedience begins from the fact that we have been visited interiorly by God. The text describes this process in very clear, step-by-step fashion. If someone loves Jesus, then he will “keep” Jesus’ word, he will treasure and hold dear the words that Jesus has spoken to him. Such a person will be loved by the Father, will be on intimate terms with the Father. And God will “make his home” with that person, will make his presence felt in the daily life and doings of that person. Thus, if we love Jesus and kept his word, the Father and Son will come to live within us, and this will lead to the experience of being guided by the Holy Spirit.

What is the greatest obstacle that the Holy Spirit encounters when He tries to teach us?

The word “Paraclete” means “the one who is near”. It is this nearness to us that makes Him the “Consoler”. When he draws near, he will do two separate things, according to this Gospel. First of all he will “teach us all things”, and secondly he will remind us of everything that Jesus has said. How difficult it is to teach something to another person! The greatest obstacle to teaching consists in the other person’s conviction that he already knows what you are talking about. The Holy Spirit’s work in us is greatly hampered by this fact. For example, we think we already know what love is, but love is something that can never be grasped in its entirety. It is always a surprise, always new. In order to continue to love someone, we must relearn how to love them every day, and we need the Holy Spirit to teach us how. The indwelling of the Blessed Trinity in us can lead us to do many beautiful things, but in order to learn how to do these things, we must stand before God humbly, acknowledging that we know nothing and that we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The verb “to teach” in vulgar Latin is “insignare” which means “to write something inside another person”. The Holy Spirit wishes to write something new and surprising inside us, but the problem is that we already have something written inside, and we simply want our teacher to confirm it! The beautiful virtue of humility is essential for authentic learning. Those who lack humility have difficulty learning and difficulty correcting the errors they have already fallen in to.

What does the Holy Spirit have to teach us? Don’t we know a lot already?

We might ask: Just what exactly does the Holy Spirit want to teach us? How to pray? How to behave in the company of others? Yes, these too, but Jesus tells us unambiguously that the task of the Holy Spirit is to teach us everything. We have a constant need to re-learn over and over again how to do everything that we do in the course of a normal day. What an amazing and exciting facet of being a Christian! If there is an area in our lives where we believe we have nothing to learn, then we can be sure that this area is marked by mediocrity and pettiness. The way we dress; the way we pay our taxes; the way we speak to others; the way we listen to others; everything about us must be renewed by the Holy Spirit! Life is a life of continual discovery of what God wishes to say and do in us.

The Holy Spirit will remind us of everything that Jesus said

The Holy Spirit’s second task is to remind us of the things that Jesus said. It is essential that we remember these things because it is from Christ’s word that we are reborn. Our lives are given substance in the profound things that Jesus says to our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings the words of the Father and of Jesus into relief in our lives. God is speaking in the unfolding of my personal story. He has spoken to me from my infancy. How many things he has yet to say to me! How many things I have yet to understand and discover! All of us have shadows in our lives, sad events, terrible events. The Holy Spirit throws light on these areas. We were made for God, so when the Holy Spirit brings these things to light and envelopes them in his truth, we welcome the enlightenment because we find it naturally convincing and consoling. As Saint Augustine says, God is closer to me that I am to myself. Thus, these things of God are within us already and need to be remembered. The word “memory” is the verb most associated with the liturgy, which is all about “doing this in memory of me”. My identity is very much linked to my memory, because in my memory is contained the work of God in my past life, the holy people that I have encountered on my journey, the graces that I have received. If my memory has been distorted by deception or self-delusion, then my whole being is out of synch with itself. If, by contrast, my memory is characterised by the recollection of the work of the Saviour in my life, then my identity is sound and healthy. As Pope John Paul II said during the great Jubilee, our memories must be purified; they must be recreated in the light of the love of Christ for each one of us in every past moment of our lives. This does not involve the denial of things that occurred to us in the past. On the contrary, this is a process of seeing our lives in the light of the truth. We will not have arrived at the truth of the things that have happened to us until we come to appreciate that the glory of God was being manifested in these events. This is not a distortion of our memories, but an act of liberation of our memories and identities from the disfigured perspective that prevailed previously.

Inner peace is a sure consequence of the teaching and reminding roles of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, in teaching and revealing all of these things to us, will give us peace. This is the true peace that the world cannot give. When the words of Christ are firmly planted in our hearts, then our hearts are freed from distress and fear. Everything that worries us becomes small. We can now face up squarely to the things that once caused us anguish. Finally we live in the state of peace.