June 29^th 2014. SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-19

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

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GOSPEL:                                                       Matthew 16:13-19
You are Peter, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ And they said, ‘Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets’.

‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?’ Then Simon Peter spoke up, ‘You are the Christ,’ he said ‘the Son of the living God’.

Jesus replied, ‘Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man! Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church. And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio tells us that the theme of liberation is very important in this week’s readings. In the first reading, Peter is freed from his chains by an angel. This is an echo of an interior liberation that is much more significant. We are inclined to think that Christianity is a moral or ethical system. To be a good Christian, or so we think, all we need to do is behave well and go to confession whenever we fall. But Christianity is so much more than this! Jesus wants to liberate us from the interior chains that bind us! All of us are oppressed by darkness and interior states of imprisonment. So were Peter and Paul. Peter was proud and believed that he could follow Jesus by his own strength. Saul considered himself to be righteous, but he was actually a persecutor of the righteous. Jesus freed both of them from their interior delusions and gave them the capacity to be pillars of the Church. Jesus, the Son of the living God, wishes to free you and me from our inner states of imprisonment as well! Once he has freed us, then we will be capable of significant moral acts. Free us, Lord Jesus, so that we will be capable of following you authentically like Peter and Paul!

Jesus tells Peter that the Church will be a liberating force in the world. The theme of being set free is very important this Sunday.

In the Gospel reading, Peter demonstrates that he knows who the Lord is. In Hebrew the verb “to know” signifies a very deep and intimate knowledge of the other person. In response, Jesus gives Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven and says that the gates of the underworld will not hold out against the church built upon Peter. Some translations of this passage makes it sound as if the powers of the underworld will attack the church but will be unsuccessful. The original version, however, states that the Church will confront the powers of the underworld and will prevail over them. The Church will drag humanity away from these powers of darkness, away from the slavery associated with them. The Church will be a force of liberation that will rescue people from the dark prisons in which they are enclosed. That is why the notion of keys is so important. The Church will shatter the locks on these doors behind which we are barricaded, and open up the doors to a very different kind of kingdom.

Christianity is not a moral or ethical system. It is something that liberates a person from slavery and darkness

The first reading sheds light on this theme of opening and closing doors. The passage from Acts recounts how Herod imprisons Peter and wishes to publicly torture him. An angel appears and frees Peter from his chains. The beginning of the reading mentions something significant that we should not overlook: we are told that Peter was imprisoned during Passover week. Passover is the celebration of the liberation from the imprisonment in Egypt. It commemorates the moment when the way to freedom is opened, when darkness passes and the light finally appears. The story of Peter replicates the same drama. The chains of the underworld are broken and the way to the kingdom of heaven is opened. The dynamism of these texts are highly significant. We are constantly tempted to reduce Christianity to a moral or ethical system. We think that the principal thing is to behave in an upright way and remain in the grace of God. If we fall, then we can go to confession and be restored to a state of grace. No! Christianity should not be diminished to these static and moralistic terms! Our moral behavior is merely the consequence of something deeper. When a human being has been liberated in the deepest sense of the word, when he has been drawn out of his interior state of darkness, fear and oppression, then he is in a position to complete great moral acts! We are inclined to think that if a person makes a mistake, then all we need to do to sort him out is tell him where he went wrong. But this approach only works for small errors. For the deep problems that touch our very essence, moral correction is of little use. It does not give the person the strength he needs to emerge from his state of darkness.

The Lord freed Peter and Paul in the deepest sense of the word, and he wants to liberate you and me also!

Peter and Paul both understood what was needed for real liberation. Both of these men were freed from their personal deceptions by the power of the Lord. Peter believed that he had the ability to follow the Lord by his own strength and force of will. He tried and failed. Saul believed that he was a righteous man, but then he discovered that he was not righteous but a persecutor of the righteous. Both men were freed from the deceit that lay in their very hearts. One was made head of the Church and the other the great Apostle to the Gentiles. Both were given the capacity to change radically the lives of others and the entire religious spirituality of the Mediterranean basin in a short span of time. They achieved this because God gave them a key that is also indispensable for each one of us. Our God is a God of liberation! He can break the chains that hold all of us! Some of the chains that hold us are small, but some are chains of real slavery. We have vices and situations of oppression in our lives that can be opened by the Lord. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you can break my chains! When Peter experienced being released from the chains of Herod, he was experiencing the echo of an interior liberation that derives from the resurrection of Christ. As Christians, none of us is faced with a cul-de-sac. There is always a way to freedom available to us. No matter how oppressive the chains that bind us, the experience of Easter is always at hand. Let us turn to the one who freed Saul from his delusions, the one who liberated Peter from his pride, making these men great and humble saints.

June 22^nd 2014. FEAST OF CORPUS CHRISTI

Gospel: John 6:51-58

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

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

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GOSPEL: John 6:51-58

Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:

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

whoever eats this bread will live forever;

and the bread that I will give

is my flesh for the life of the world."

The Jews quarrelled among themselves, saying,

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

Jesus said to them,

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

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

you do not have life within you. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day. 

For my flesh is true food,

and my blood is true drink. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood

remains in me and I in him. 

Just as the living Father sent me

and I have life because of the Father,

so also the one who feeds on me

will have life because of me. 

This is the bread that came down from heaven. 

Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,

whoever eats this bread will live forever."

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

Kieran’s summary . . .  In the first reading, Moses reminds the people how God looked after them during the forty years in the desert. When we know that we are in a desert, we realize that we have nothing to rely on but God. We no longer live on bread alone but on the life-giving word that comes from the mouth of God. Our existence is a desert, but we don’t always realize it. What do we try to base our lives upon? How many silly and frivolous things we are fixated with! Jesus comes to us in the form of bread to show us that he is as essential to us as physical food is for our existence. The feast of Corpus Christi is a wonderful opportunity for us to look at our situations and ask ourselves “What is really essential for me to live an authentic life?” We must reflect on our lives and recognize that much of what we base our identities upon is non-essential. Those things are an empty desert that fail to nourish us in a permanent way. Jesus is our true bread that gives us life of a genuine nature. When we look to the Eucharist, we see the same loving, provident God that looked after the people of Israel during those forty years. He looks after us too in the desert of our existence, this God who becomes bread for his people and nourishes us to eternal life.

Just as the people of Israel depended on the providence of God during the forty years in the desert, so too we must learn to trust in the providence of God in the desert of our lives

To celebrate the gift of the body and blood of Christ, the first reading this Sunday is the important passage from Deuteronomy 8. Here we learn that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Moses is recounting all of the events that took place during the glorious exodus of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt. At this point there are close to the Promised Land, and Moses is about to hand the reins over to Joshua. Before entering the Promised Land, Moses wants the people to reflect on what they have experienced during these forty years in the desert. Remembering is a very important part of our faith! The words, “Do this in memory of me”, are central to the Eucharist. Remembering is our way of taking possession of history. Sometimes our memories can play terrible tricks on us because it is an affective faculty. It can be preoccupied with events that are negative or obscure, whilst burying things that are much more important and helpful. Moses must work on the memories of the people so that they will recall history from the right perspective. They must never forget that the forty years in the desert were an experience of dependence on the Lord who never fails to provide. As Moses reminds them, this great desert was a frightening place filled with poisonous snakes and scorpions. But they survived with manna from heaven and water from the rock.

What is my life based on? Silly things? Or the providence of God?

What gives us life? What do we live for? Are we aware of those many times when our lives were balanced on nothing more than a knife edge? Quite often we forget the precariousness of our existence and we become fixated instead with silly issues and frivolous things. When moments of crisis come, these things are simply wiped away from our set of priorities. Even economic difficulties can show us how that certain elements of our lives are vain and without substance. What do we truly live for? What is it that is absolutely necessary? A person that knows the power, mercy and providence of God discovers that what brings life is that which comes from the mouth of God. God’s word is active. He created the heavens and the earth by his word. He said let there be light, and there was light. He said let the waters be separated from dry land, and so it came to pass. I can choose to live for the silly things that I customarily base my life on, or I can choose to live by what the Lord places at my disposal through his providence.

Jesus chooses to be present to us in the form of bread because just as food is necessary for life so too he is necessary for true life.

In the Gospel passage from John for this Sunday we learn that Jesus offers himself to us in the form of bread. God could have chosen many other ways to enter into relation with us. Why did he choose food? Because food and drink are linked to survival. We can survive without many of the things we possess, but we cannot survive without food and drink. Jesus decides to be present in the bread because he wants to show that he is absolutely necessary for us. It is incredible how we Christians think that we can go through life with an occasional prayer, and with ambivalent attitudes towards obedience to the Lord We abandon ourselves to God only if there is no other alternative. Ideally, we think, we should never have to abandon ourselves to God. We ought to be able to manage by ourselves. In the depths of our heart, we do not live by the word that comes from the mouth of God; we live by other things. And this is evident in our behaviour. If we really had true life, then we would not be frantically pursuing the things that we do pursue. Authentic Christians, by contrast, manifest a marked peace and serenity. They are not plagued by fears and anxieties. The fact is that it is possible to live by Christ, to be detached from the world and to have serenity at the most authentic level of our being. Many Christians who claim to live by Christ are full of anxiety! They are always seeking something, always complaining about things as if it were a national sport, always feeling insufficient as if something fundamental were missing. Christ is our true food, our real sustenance. We still need to eat and drink ordinary food too, but we must do so according to Christ. Everything we do must be done in the light of Christ. His love, tenderness and providence must be discerned in everything that we experience.

By making the Eucharist the centre of our lives, we submit to the loving providence of God and begin to partake of eternal life here and now.

When everything is embraced as coming from Christ, we are able to get by with much less that we habitually do. In some monasteries where people live a frugal life by Christ, we find more serenity and happiness than in palaces where there are things in abundance. Many Christians, on the other hand, fail to find satisfaction in ordinary things because they lack this attitude of submission to the providence of God. The Gospel text tells us that whoever eats the bread that Jesus gives us will live forever. This does not mean that we avoid bodily death. It signifies that we begin to partake already of the eternal dimension of things, a dimension that is characterised by attachment and surrender to that which bestows authentic life. The feast of Corpus Christi is an opportunity to contemplate the true manna, a food that nurtures us even in the most frightening and desolate deserts of our lives. The Lord Jesus, in his providence, gives his very self to us in the wonderful sacrament of the Eucharist.

June 15^th 2014. TRINITY SUNDAY

Gospel: John 16:12-15

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

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

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GOSPEL John 16:12-15

Jesus said to Nicodemus,

God loved the world so much

that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him

may not be lost but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.

No one who believes in him will be condemned;

but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,

because he has refused to believe

in the name of God’s only Son.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The doctrine of the Holy Trinity might seem like an abstract theological doctrine. But the readings on Sunday show us a God who is far from abstract! The first reading tells us how God reacts when the people of Israel worship a golden calf. The Lord responds by forgiving them tenderly and revealing his very name to them. The Gospel reading tells us even more about the nature of the Trinity. The Father is someone who loves us so much that he gives us his only Son. Which one of us would give a beloved son over to torture and death for any cause, no matter how worthy? We often think of the passion of Jesus but we should also remember the passion of the Father in giving his son over to suffering of this kind. On this feast day, let us consider who the Holy Trinity is, and who we are for the Trinity. Is God a magnanimous king with a big heart who puts up with us and forgives us? No, God is something more than this! God does not merely overlook our waywardness; he loves us to an extent that defies human categories. Ultimately God wants us to bring us all to life and freedom. We seek to be autonomous masters of our own destiny, but this is a guaranteed recipe for mediocrity! We lock ourselves up in the cages of our own securities! The only way to live lives of complete freedom is to entrust ourselves unconditionally to the God who loves us. And he loves us to this scandalous extent in order to melt our hearts and conquer our trust.

The first reading links the name of God - his very nature - to the act of forgiveness

The first reading tells of the revelation of the name of God following the terrible episode of the golden calf. In the 34^th chapter of Exodus, God proclaims his name, and this signifies that he extends his forgiveness to the people. This scriptural passage is the nucleus of a Hebrew liturgy commemorating the day of Great Pardon, the day when the people of Israel are forgiven and the name of the Lord is proclaimed. Why does proclaiming the name of God bring about forgiveness? To be capable of proclaiming the name of the Lord is to know him, and to know the nature of God is to understand that he is love.

We often think of the passion of the Son who suffered and died for us. But we must never forget the suffering of the Father who sacrificed his only son for us!

The Gospel reading for this Feast of the Holy Trinity is chosen so as to reveal to us the very heart of the Trinity. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.” Here in the western world we tend to focus on Christ, which is a good thing in itself, but sometimes we lose sight of the fuller picture of the Trinity, which must always be seen in a unified manner. The Father sends his only begotten Son. That which Christ does is not simply done on his own initiative but always in union with the Father. Sometimes we tend to remain cold and abstract when we consider the Trinity, but we cannot remain cold if we contemplate this Gospel reading. The fact that Jesus loved us so much as to give his life for us is already extraordinary. This marvellous being, ineffable in his majesty, comes to us who are ungrateful and violent, and he still sacrifices himself on our behalf. It is even more extraordinary, however, to consider what the Father has done in all of this. Which one of us would allow his son to be given over to suffering and death, no matter how worthy the cause? Any one of might have the capacity to sacrifice our lives for others, but how many of us would be capable of sacrificing the life of our dearly beloved son? Who would allow his son to be tortured and massacred in such a hideous way? We must never forget the passion of the Father who gave his son because he loved us so much!

Right from the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, the Father was revealing the extent of his love for us - a love that was willing to stake his own beloved son

The Son offers himself up out of love for us. And the Father loves us so much that he allows his son to be handed over. We must open our hearts to this kind of love, a love that completely transcends human categories. The human inclination is to protect the lives of our children at all costs. But the kind of love that the Father has for us was proclaimed right from the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. When Jesus was baptized by John, the voice of the Father was heard saying, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” The Father was announcing what he was willing to wager out of love for us. He was letting us know the extent to which he was willing to go on our behalf.

The Holy Spirit wishes to enter our hearts today and impel us to look at God with complete trust. How can we not trust someone who has loved us in this extreme way?

After the season of Easter and the great feasts of the Ascension and the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit, Trinity Sunday challenges us to let our hearts to be melted by this text. How can we not be moved by a God of this sort? How can we not entrust ourselves to one like this who is willing to give us everything? This Gospel passage tell us who we are before the Holy Trinity. Do we think that we stand before a king who, out of his magnanimity, generously forgives a wayward people? No! It is not like that at all! This king loves us to the extent that he, in Christ, prefers our lives to his own. The Father, in order to ransom the slave, sends his own son to death. Let us contemplate this on the feast of the Holy Trinity! Who are we for the Father? Who are we for the Son? Who are we for the Spirit that he wishes to enter into our hearts? And what truth does the Spirit wish to bring into our hearts? He wishes us to look at God with boundless trust, without conditions, without fear. Let us cease looking at God with fear! Our lives are dominated by strategies of self-defence and attempts to be utterly autonomous. We seek to be masters of our own destiny, but this just renders us mediocre. We become trapped inside the securities of our own making. Trust in God is what ultimately sets us free. To conquer our trust he loves us in a way that is scandalous.

June 8th 2014. PENTECOST SUNDAY

Gospel: John 20:19-23

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

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

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GOSPEL: John 20:19-23

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me,

so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven;

for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Don Fabio’s homily focusses on two themes from Sunday’s readings: the wonderful communication abilities of the apostles on the day of Pentecost as recounted in the book of Acts; and the link between the gift of the Spirit and the forgiveness of sins in the Johannine account.

            The book of Acts tells us how the Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues of fire and the disciples were driven out on the street to preach the good news. Their preaching was understood by people from different parts of the world, as if each listener was hearing the words in his own language. Don Fabio says that this remarkable fact is not the central message of the reading. Our ability to communicate with others is enabled when we stop talking about ourselves and start talking about the salvific action of God. The greatest barrier to communication is the fact that our discourse is largely in the service of our own egos. Once we stop trying to attract attention to ourselves, once we stop seeking the admiration of others, then we develop the capacity to speak in a way that will be readily welcomed by our listeners.

            In John’s account of the gift of the Spirit, Jesus appears to the disciples, breathes the Spirit on them and sends them out. How are we to understand the words “ . . whose sins you shall retain, they are retained”? Don Fabio does not agree that this statement concerns the ability of the ministers of the church to withhold forgiveness at their discretion. Instead he believes that it refers to the fact that if we do not carry the forgiveness of God to others, then those sins will be retained because they will not experience the effects of the redemption. If we do not carry the forgiveness of God to the world, then people will remain in their sins. John’s account makes an inextricable link between the action of the Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. Sometimes we yearn for the gifts of the Spirit, expecting to attain the ability to speak eloquently or understand deep mysteries. But the gift of the Spirit is primarily concerned with the sanctifying action of God’s mercy in the world. This is the most urgent task of the Church. This is what Jesus sends us out to do at Pentecost.

Pentecost is the completion of Easter

The wonderful feast of Pentecost brings to completion what happens at Easter. We must never forget that the true goal of the resurrection of Christ is not actually his own resurrection but ours.  He wishes to regenerate us and bring us to new life, and this cannot happen without the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost does not simply mark the end of the Easter season; it is the end goal of the Easter season in which we become partakers of the life of God himself.

The central message for us from the first reading is not the wonderful linguistic abilities of the apostles. What really enables communication with others is when the speaker is filled with the fire to speak about the great works of God, instead of simply talking about himself

The first reading recounts the events of Pentecost Sunday. These particular events are not described in the Gospels themselves, although the Gospel reading from John expresses the Johannine way of understanding the gift of the Spirit. The version in Acts tells us about the Holy Spirit coming in the form of tongues of fire. Afterwards the disciples go out on the street and preach the good news, with listeners from different parts of the world able to hear what was being said in their own languages. Sometimes we are inclined to focus on this miraculous ability to communicate, the reversal of the scattering of people into different language groups that happened at the destruction of the tower of Babel. At Pentecost we marvel at the way in which communication problems seem to be resolved! But this is perhaps an incomplete way of looking at what happened on that day. The central point is not the fact that the listeners could understand what the apostles were saying in a different language. If someone asked Peter, “What time is it?” in Greek and Peter responds in Aramaic, this would indeed be impressive in itself, but it is not the point that the passage wishes to make. What is much more important is that these peoples from different parts of the world all understand what the disciples tell them about the great works of God. It is the work of God that underpins the new found communication between peoples, not our mode of speaking and the content of what we say, which can often be inconsistent to say the least. Sometimes we think we are saying something important, but it might have little meaning for the person who is listening. What brings about communion is not our ability with languages but the activity of God. What helps is get through to others is not our wonderful words, but the action of the Spirit through those words.

We learn how to communicate when our discourse is no longer in the service of our own egos

When we talk about ourselves, we raise barriers to communications. But when we speak about the works of God, then we can break down barriers even with people very different to ourselves. The great discourse given by Mary is the Magnificat: “What wonderful things the Lord has done; holy is his name!” Each one of us finally learns how to communicate when our discourse is no longer in the service of our own egos. We learn how to connect with others when what we say is immersed in the source of joy, life and love. If I speak only of myself, then I don’t really care about the welfare of the listener who is in front of me. But when my speaking concerns that which saves him and me, then we are united by what is authentically life-giving, powerful and true. In that case the listener will welcome my words willingly. How often we speak with the intention of glorifying ourselves, of making ourselves look good and admirable! How often people in the Church use religious occasions to speak about their own wonderful works. All of us like to be appreciated and esteemed by others, but let us not forget the words of Matthew 5. Here Jesus exhorts us to be the light of the world so that people may see these good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

John’s account: the gift of the Spirit is linked inextricably to the mercy of God

John’s Gospel presents the coming of the Spirit as occurring on the evening of the day of the resurrection. In this account, the gift of the Spirit is intrinsically bound to the forgiveness of sins. After Jesus breathes the Spirit on the disciples, he says, “Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained.” Sometimes this phrase is understood to mean that the minister of the church has the power to withhold the forgiveness of sins at his discretion, or even at his whim. But the deeper meaning of this phrase is surely very different. What Jesus intend to say is this: “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; but if you do not carry the forgiveness of sins to others, then there will be no-one to forgive them, and those sins will be retained. They will never experience the salvific effects of the redemption.” This prompts the question: What is at the heart of every true evangelist? The true evangelist has the conviction that he has something essential to carry to the world; something that no one else can carry because this something is not a book, or a philosophy, or a theory. We are a Church that is infused with the Spirit of forgiveness and commissioned with the mandate to carry that Spirit to the world.

The gift of the Spirit is not so much about developing marvellous abilities to speak, understand or accomplish heroic deeds. The primary activity of the Spirit is the forgiveness of sins, the sanctifying action of God’s mercy in the world

Let us be crystal clear about this. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of pardon. It is not in any way comparable to the gift of money, or of objects, or of abilities. It is the gift of liberating someone from their impoverished state. Only God can give this gift; only God can forgive sins; only God has the power to act in this sphere of human affairs where we have abused our glorious freedom. The Holy Spirit directs his sanctifying activity to the errors of humanity. The reception of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we are suddenly enabled to say wonderful things, give our bodies to the flames, or understand all mysteries. As St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, what counts is to have love, and this is none other than the capacity to pardon. For the risen Christ, the most urgent task for the disciples is to bear the forgiveness of sins to others. It is the first thing he says when he bestows on them the gift of the Spirit. Still today, the most important matter is that people experience the mercy of God. This is more urgent than any other rebuilding work we can do in the Church.