December 27^th 2015. FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

GOSPEL                                  Luke 2:41-52

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL                                  Luke 2:41-52

Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover, 
and when he was twelve years old, 
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning, 
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, 
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, 
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple, 
sitting in the midst of the teachers, 
listening to them and asking them questions, 
and all who heard him were astounded 
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished, 
and his mother said to him, 
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them; 
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favour
before God and man.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . .  Parents think they know their children, but every child has gifts and capacities given by God that go beyond the capacities and expectations of their parents. How true this was of Jesus! When he says, “I must take care of my Father’s business”, the phrase really signifies, “I must be in my Father’s business”. What this means is that Jesus is totally caught up in his relationship with his Father. It is impossible for him to be any other way. And the same should be true for each one of us! We are created by God and our existence receives its meaning by its connection with God. If we are to live authentically, then we must base on lives on our primary relationship with the Father. Once we do this, then all the other relationships in our lives and in our families are ordered properly. Without God, our relationships with others are at a horizontal level. They can become obsessive, easily threatened, violent or abusive. But once we base all other relationships upon our primary connection with the Father, then these other relationships begin to draw life from the God who is the source of life. This Christmas, let us contemplate the Christ who is born of the Father. May we too become new creatures whose life derives from our relationship with the Father.

What does it mean to be a parent? To have possession of a child? Are relationships based on connections between people or should they be grounded first and foremost in God?

The first reading tells how Hannah, the mother of Samuel (the one who will anoint David as king of Israel), takes her son as soon as he is weaned and gives him over to the Lord. Samuel is left with the priest, Eli, who will raise him and educate him. Hannah had longed for a child for many years but now she has little time to enjoy him before giving him to the Lord. Maternity is not about the possession of a child. The sacrament of matrimony is about the construction of the Church and society, about raising, instructing and welcoming life in all its forms. In opposition to that, the tendency towards self-reference and egoism is ever-present in all that we do. Familial relationships are potentially salvific, consoling and edifying, but they can also be disordered and destructive. How can we foster authentic maternal and paternal relationships?

In every child there is something mysterious and novel that goes beyond the understanding and expectations of his parents

The Gospel tells of a journey to Jerusalem on the occasion of Passover, and the story refers to a definite rite of passage or transformation in the life of the family. At the age of twelve, a Jewish boy was considered to pass to adulthood and would undergo a ritual called Bar Mitzvah. He was expected to be able to read the scriptures in Hebrew, answer questions and be knowledgeable about his Jewish faith. Jesus goes to Jerusalem at this age along with a caravan of people. But when it is time to return home, Jesus affirms that he has a new home, the true home of his existence. His parents are unaware at first that he is missing, and when they find him they do not understand his response. There is always something in a child that cannot be fully understood by his parents. When a child becomes an adult, we begin to discover that he is a mysterious and surprising creation of God. There is always an aspect of the child that will go beyond the conceptual schemes of his parents. Parents must accept that being a parent involves one day having to face up to this surprise. Your child cannot be fully comprehended by you. There is a side to your child that you will not be able to fully comprehend. Every parenthood, even the spiritual fatherhood of the priest, must one day confront this trauma of incomprehension before the mystery of the other. A parent raises a child and believes that she knows him through and through, but this is simply not true. In every child there is the invisible that God will unveil in them, the substance of their personal relationship with God, something unique and unrepeatable.

Our God is the God of surprises. His work always involves innovation and originality

Jesus has left the caravan and can no longer be found among his relatives and friends. He has gone beyond the parameters by which his parents would normally have understood him. When they eventually find him, he is in the Temple among the elders and he is being questioned by them. He demonstrates wisdom beyond his years. How often we hear children express intuitions that leave us flabbergasted. Children nowadays demonstrate an aptitude for technological matters that far exceeds that of their parents. This is just an example, but every new generation always has something new to contribute that goes beyond what is expected of them. We see this in the story of Jesus in the Temple. God bestows something new upon each of us that surpasses that which has been given to us by our parents. It is incredible to think that the mother of Jesus is the Blessed Virgin Mary, but God has even more to say to his son than this wonderful lady can say to him. We call Mary the “Seat of Wisdom” and rightly so, but even she was perturbed by the words of the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. Our God is the God of surprises, and the work that he is bringing to fruition in his own son is full of novelty and innovation.

Jesus cannot help but be totally caught up in the things of his Father. And if our relationships are to be authentic, then we must be the same

Mary is at the centre of this passage. When they find Jesus, she asks why he has done this. “Your father and I have been searching for you”, she says. Here we see great refinement. It is not easy for men to communicate their feelings. In this phrase Mary mediates between Joseph and Jesus and helps her husband to communicate with her son. It is easier for mothers to relate their feelings to their sons, and here Mary mentions the sentiments of her husband before she mentions her own. Jesus replies, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must take care of my Father’s business?” Yes, they knew in one sense, but in another sense they did not know at all. The things of the Father are always new and surprising. The words of Jesus do not signify to be occupied by the things of his Father, but to be in the things of the Father. The nature of Christ’s complete being is such that he cannot be anything else but completely caught up in his relationship with the Father. And it is the same for us, even if we do not know it. It is a fact of our existence that our entire being is in relationship with God. We are truly ourselves when we cultivate that relationship with the Lord. Just as Jesus is in the Father, so we too are called to save our relationships by basing them on this marvellous connections with God. It is in and through our relationship with God that our relationships with others settle down and become less anguishes. Life does not depend on horizontal relationships between people. These relationships rather are an echo and a consequence of our primary relationship with our heavenly Father. When we have a proper relationship with God then we are not threatened or obsessed by other relationships; we do not become slaves of such relationships, nor do we descend into violence or abuse. It is God who is the source of life in our relationships. When we seek life from horizontal associations with others, then we end up being immersed in vengefulness or hatred. May the Lord grant us this Christmas to contemplate Christ and to become new creations ourselves, born from the Father. God can bring Christ to life within each one of us.

December 20^th 2015. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

GOSPEL                                    Luke 1:39-45

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(Translation of a homily by Don Fabio  Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio)

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel.

GOSPEL                                    Luke 1:39-45

Mary set out
and travelled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah, 
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb, 
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, 
cried out in a loud voice and said, 
“Blessed are you among women, 
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, 
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . This Sunday’s Gospel highlights the fact that the Christian life is not an ethical system of following prescriptions! It is about being filled with the Spirit, as Mary was, and going forth to spread the happiness to others. New life has just been generated in Mary, and God generates new life within us too by pardoning us, by touching us with his word, by consoling us. Each one of us has received promises from the Lord, and in the same measure as we open ourselves to these promises, the life of God begins to burn inside each of us. The logic of the eruption (or flowering) of the life of God into our personal existence involves the following steps: a promise is made to us and we are asked to believe it; then the promise is brought to fulfilment by the work of Providence. If we trust in God’s life-giving action within each of us, then we too will be blessed as Mary was! As Elizabeth says, blessed are we if we believe! Blessed are we if we trust in the goodness of God, if we open ourselves to the paternity and fecundity of God! Let us repeat the sentiment again: to the same extent as we open ourselves to the promise and blessing of God, to that extent are we filled with the life of God. Mary is the living proof of that!

The Christian life is not an ethical system of following prescriptions! It is about being filled with the Spirit, as Mary was, and going forth to spread the happiness to others.

The first reading on Sunday speaks of him who will come forth from Bethlehem Ephrata, the one who has remote origins and who will rule over Israel with the power of the Lord. In this last part of Advent 2015, we see that it is God who takes the initiative. He is not motionless but is a dynamic, creative source of life. In the Gospel passage, we hear of Mary’s actions as soon as she has finished speaking with the Angel. She has just become pregnant but despite all the transformation that this entails, she rises “in haste” to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. When God enters into our hearts, we too begin to take the initiative. The Christian life is not an ethical system that is directed towards avoiding doing anything objectionable. If someone says, “I live a good life. I never commit serious sin”, this by itself is not sufficient. If that were sufficient, then the chair I’m sitting on could be considered a good Christian. Our life must involve initiative. The Christian life is not about defence or about avoiding ugly things. It is about doing beautiful things, about having a happy desire to go forth and act, as Pope Francis often reminds us. The Gospel tells us that Mary “arises” – this is the same verb as is used in the resurrection. The word “in haste” is a translation from a Greek word that really means “with zeal”. Mary goes with zeal to her cousin’s side. She wishes to do something positive and beautiful. We see all the happiness of a woman who is pregnant and wishes to share the news with someone. She carries something that she does not wish to keep just for herself.

God generates new life within us by pardoning us, by touching us with his word, by consoling us

The Christian cannot be someone who does things out of obligation or scruples. Instead we must be people who act because we have experienced great joy, great love, great tenderness; people who wish to communicate what they have experienced with others; who wish to say “Look at the beautiful things that have happened to me!” Christianity cannot be promoted by presenting it as a repressive system! It is something that is full of affirmation! Too often we have been overly-concerned with defending ourselves. Sure, the faith must be defended, but the best way to defend it is to present it, announce it, shout it aloud. The beautiful things we have in our Christian memory! The number of times that we have experienced the Lord’s mercy! The number of times that he has generated in us a life that we would not have been able to generate ourselves. The word of the Lord reaches us, surprises us, and generates in us an extraordinary newness, places the Spirit within us, consoles us.

Each one of us has received promises from the Lord, and in the same measure as we open ourselves to these promises, the same life of God begins to burn inside each of us

Elizabeth feels the child within her leap with joy. This child of only six months is already capable of that thing that we must search for with perseverance in life – joy. In the last line of the Gospel, we discover the secret of all of this life and joy that is expressed in the reading. Elizabeth says, “Blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Mary had replied to the angel: “Be it done onto me according to your word”. These words express a great desire on Mary’s part that God’s promise come to fulfilment in her. Each one of us has received promises from the Lord, and in the same measure as we open ourselves to these promises, the same life of God begins to burn inside each of us. The logic of the eruption (or flowering) of the life of God into our personal existence involves the following steps: a promise is made and we are asked to believe it; then the promise is brought to fulfilment by the work of Providence. God, after all, is the one who know how to bring such promises into concrete fulfilment. As Elizabeth says, blessed is the one who believes; blessed is the one who trusts in the goodness of God, who opens oneself to the paternity and fecundity of God; blessed is the one who opens herself, who trusts that God can create in her a new life. When we celebrate Christmas, we believe that God can be born in the midst of us, at the heart of our lives, in our epoch, our society. We do not follow Christianity as a philosophical system. Our belief is that our flesh can be the flesh of Christ. In the Eucharist we celebrate the fact that his body can become our body. We are bearers of Jesus in our daily lives. A greater joy than this does not exist.

December 13^th 2015.  Third Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL Luke 3:10-18

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 Luke 3:10-18

When all the people asked John, ‘What must we do, then?’ he answered, ‘If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.’ There were tax collectors too who came for baptism, and these said to him, ‘Master, what must we do?’ He said to them, ‘Exact no more than your rate.’ Some soldiers asked him in their turn, ‘What about us? What must we do?’ He said to them, ‘No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!’

A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to think that John might be the Christ, so John declared before them all, ‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fan is in his hand to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.’ As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading states that we have no reason for despondency. It encourages us to rejoice because the Lord, Our Saviour, is among us. In the Gospel, John the Baptist, we are told, announces the Good News. But all he seems to be doing is telling people to act justly and honestly. Is this the sum total of the Good News? Moral obligations? No! What John is doing is telling people that they do not have to be condemned to living lives of mediocrity and corruption. He is asserting that people have a beautiful nature that is capable of acting justly, of sharing, of giving bread to the hungry. This is not the sum total of the Good News, but it is a necessary beginning. If we wish to evangelize young people, then we must first tell them that they have a beautiful nature that has the potential for great good. And when the Lord Jesus comes, he is the one who can lead us into an authentic existence. John the Baptist states clearly that these moral prescriptions of his are not the complete story. He says that our true spouse is someone else, someone much more powerful than him. Jesus is the one who immerses us in himself, who seeks out union with us, who wants to bring us to the fullness of life. So we have little reason for despondency this Sunday, only joy!

We have no reason for despondency. Our Saviour lives in our midst!

The first reading from the prophet Zephaniah says, “Fear not, Zion, do not let your hands fall limp”. This image of hands hanging limply is commonly used to signify being completely powerless in a given situation. Zephaniah tells us not to let our hands fall limply because the Lord God is in our midst as a powerful saviour. He rejoices over us and will renew us with his love. If our lives depend on our own capacities and abilities then we would really have reason to let our arms fall limply. But from the Lord’s point of view, everything is different!

John tells people to act justly. This also is part of the Good News: the fact that we have the wonderful capacity to respond to the God things that God calls us to.

This Sunday is Gaudete Sunday. The serious nature of Advent is relaxed and we focus even more than usual on the joyous aspect of waiting for the Lord. In a very real sense, the Church is always in a state of celebration of that which we are living through. The Gospel passage ends as follows: “As well as this, there were many other things he said to exhort the people and to announce the Good News to them”. John is spreading the Good News by means of the sort of exhortations that we hear in Sunday’s Gospel. “If anyone has two tunics he must share with the man who has none, and the one with something to eat must do the same.” The tax collectors and soldiers are asked not to cheat and not to maltreat people. Evidently these moral obligations are not the Good News in themselves. The Good News refers to the public manifestation of the incarnation of Jesus in his public ministry. The point is that we have a humanity which has the wonderful capacity to respond to this Good News. If we have two tunics we have the capacity to give one to a person who has none, to give food to the hungry, to behave in a just manner, to be content with our pay. We have the potential to live well but too often we resign ourselves to living in a warped and unworthy way. This also is part of the Good News! The first thing to announce is that life can be very beautiful. It is not true that we are condemned to live in a mediocre and obscure way. God can count on us because we are indeed capable of responding to him.

The first step of evangelisation is to tell people that they have good and beautiful natures and are capable of being transformed by the action of Jesus. Then we can tell them of the wonderful things that God intends to do with that nature that we possess

We need to believe this before we can evangelize people. God calls us in the depth of our consciences to follow him and do good. If we can do not believe this then how can we bring salvation to anyone? We do not try to pour a bottle of wine or liquid for someone who does not have a container to receive it. And we possess the container to receive the grace of God, his mercy, his action within us. This is what John the Baptist does. A tax collector and a soldier were not exactly models of humanity in that period. The tax-collectors exploited people and the soldiers exercised violence. John the Baptist tells them that it is possible not to mistreat and extort. It is possible to act justly. When we seek to raise the new generation, it is essential that we help them to be aware of their beauty. We must do like John the Baptist who is not scolding the people but encouraging them towards the good. And this is only the beginning. The people were in a state of expectation at that time in Israel. John is trying to get people to uncover what is good in them so that God can act on them in a extraordinary manner. The Baptist announce that someone is coming, “someone who is more powerful than I am”. John prepares the people but what Jesus will accomplish is something else altogether. He “will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” He will liberate us as the winnowing fan liberates the grain from the chaff. We will be freed from that within us that is useless and burdens us down. God can accomplish great things in us! This is the Good News! The human being is beautiful and God loves him! God can visit him and dwell within him, baptize him and immerse him in the divinity, can fill him with gifts.

John the Baptist tells us that Jesus is our true spouse, the one who wants full communion with us

When John says that he is unworthy to undo the laces of Jesus’ sandals, he is referring to an Old Testament law that dealt with cases where a man had the right to marry a particular woman but renounced that right. If another man wanted to marry that woman then he had to undo the straps of the first man’s sandal and put it on his foot. This symbolized the passage of the legal right from the first spouse to the second. John the Baptist is telling us that Jesus is the spouse. Jesus is the one who will marry us and he (John) is not worthy to usurp his place. Jesus has a beautiful right over us. He wants to become one flesh with us. He wants to immerse us in novelty and act within us. So we have little reason to let our hands fall limp! We have wonderful things to do and to expect from the Lord.

December 6^th 2014.  Second Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL Luke 3:1-6

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 Luke 3:1-6

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrach of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah:

A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled in,
every mountain and hill be laid low,
winding ways will be straightened
and rough roads made smooth.
And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading for Sunday says that we must be clothed with the garment of the justice of God. Where do we get that garment from? From our own just acts? No! It is something bestowed freely by God upon us! And this is the key to Advent. Advent is about God’s action in our lives, not our own actions. The Gospel lists all the powers that held sway at the time of Jesus. Then it switches to the desert, to the place where humanity has no power. In this place, the word of the Lord comes to John the Baptist who preaches the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is something no earthly authority can bestow, only God. God is coming to me this Advent and always. He comes through the events of my life. I think I am doing things for God, seeking him out, but it is God who is seeking me! When we try to interpret the events of our lives, even the negative ones, then we must try to see how God is using that event to come closer to me. In the disasters and problems of life, in the people we have difficulty getting on with, God is trying to get closer to me. The Lord is searching for me in the events of my life, even the events that bewilder me. I must allow him to find me in these events. I must be open to his action. Through all these events he is sculpting me, correcting me, leading me.

In Advent we must be clothed with the garment of the justice of God. Where do we get that garment from? From our own just acts? No! It is something bestowed by God! Advent is about God’s action in our lives, not our own actions.

The first reading invites us to rid ourselves of our garments of mourning and to enter into the feast of joy. It is an unusual kind of joy, however. The prophet Baruch speaks of the mantle of the justice of God as the garment that will be worn at the feast, and the guest will wear the diadem of the glory of the eternal one. Normally, when we are invited to a feast, we try to emphasize our own beauty, our own attributes. But in this feast to which God invites us we are to be clothed with the justice of God, with his glory - not our own. The point is this: Advent is about the coming of the Lord. In our anguish and fear, we have the tendency to be always preoccupied by what we think we need to do. But Advent is all about what God is bringing about in the world.

The Gospel lists all the powers that held sway at the time of Jesus. Then it switches to the desert, to the place where humanity has no power. In this place, the word of the Lord comes to John the Baptist who preaches the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is something no earthly power can do, only God.

In the Gospel we hear a list of the powers that be in this world. The Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip, and even the religious leaders, Annas and Caiaphas. In the midst of all of these rulers, the word of the Lord comes to John in the desert. In the desert there are no kingdoms or worldly interests. It is a place where there are no human achievements. The human being is weak and powerless here. And the prophet who inhabits this place preaches nothing less than baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins! The forgiveness of sins requires being oriented to the work of God, because it is something that only God can do. It was one of the essential parts of the liturgy of the Temple. All the acts of purification and rituals were directed towards this work which could only be accomplished in the end by God. John the Baptist cries out: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight his paths!” He is not talking about our paths, but the paths of the Lord. The issue is to cease being fixated by what we are doing and to begin being captivated by the Lord’s action in our lives. It is a radically different way of looking at life.

God is coming to me this Advent and always. He comes through the events of my life. I think I am doing things for God, seeking him, but it is God who is seeking me. In the disasters and problems of this life, in the people we have difficulty getting on with, God is seeking me.

Let us consider this a bit more closely. We are fundamentally ill at ease with our own insufficiency and limitations. We have a profound difficulty in understanding events that happen in our lives when we seek to comprehend them using our own criteria. Advent is about looking at the events of our lives and discerning the way that the Lord seeks to encounter me, seeks me out, by means of these events. Even through events that are dramatic, violent and devastating, the Lord is trying to encounter people. It is a mystery, but the Lord can also use events that derive solely from human sinfulness, events that did not arise from the will of God, and he can still find a way to come to us through those events. What does the Lord wish to do in this encounter? Nothing less that save us. We have the tendency to think that it is our initiative and our action that has overriding importance. It is true that our action has importance, but it is the Lord in the first place who wishes to come to us. We tend to think in horizontal terms, fretting about things from the point of view of this world. We need to be open to the vertical, to the fact that the Lord wants to encounter me and teach me how to love in and through these difficult events. Sometimes it is the defects of those around us that serve to challenge us, to lead us to the light, to help us to grow and deepen our humanity.

The Lord is searching for me in the events of my life, even the events that bewilder me. I must allow him to find me in these events. I must be open to his action. Through all these events he is sculpting me, correcting me, leading me.

The Lord is searching for us in every event. Therefore we must seek to simplify his paths, to “straighten them”, to make the encounter with him more direct. We must allow God to search us out and to make us his through the things that happen to us on a daily basis. Salvation comes from God! The last line in this Gospel passage says: “Every person will see the salvation of our God”. Sometimes we treat our faith as if it were something just to comfort us in times of distress. When we are in a difficult moment, we go to the Lord and he caresses us and puts us back on our feet. It is true that the faith can comfort us, and this is important, but the faith is not something inert. In the same Gospel of Luke, the virgin Mary recites the Magnificat, and here we learn that the mercy of the Lord involves casting people down from their thrones, exalting the humble, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away with empty hands. It is the mercy of God that accomplishes all this! The action of God corrects us and makes us grow, it topples us from the ridiculous thrones where we lodge ourselves, thinking that they give us security. Sometimes it is in moments of instability that the action of God is felt. Often, by contrast, the work of God involves forgiving our sins and raising us up in moments of desperation or despair. John the Baptist says that “every valley will be filled in and every mountain laid low”. This is not the work that God asks of us: it is he himself who does it! Our lives are a constant development of being filled in and laid low by the action of God who seeks to encounter us in the process. Advent is not just about preparing for God at Christmas; it is allowing God to encounter us in all the events of our lives. Let us not be content with a banal relationship with God whose parameters are the actions that we do with regard to the Lord; instead, let us allow him to relate to us in every aspect of our lives. God does not will sin. He does not wish people to do wrong to me, but he knows how to bring good from that wrong behaviour. He is capable of making himself present through that wrong because he is omnipotent. So let us allow ourselves to be operated on by God! Let us allow him to examine us, mould us, sculpt us, that he will correct us when we have need of correction, that he will console us when we need consolation. Advent is not just a particular period of the year. God is always, constantly, coming in search of deeper encounter with us.

November 29^th 2015.  First Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

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

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

(Check us out on Facebook – Sunday Gospel Reflection)

GOSPEL Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; men dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.’

‘Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened with debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will be sprung on you suddenly, like a trap. For it will come down on every living man on the face of the earth. Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to stand with confidence before the Son of Man.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading we hear wonderful prophecies promising good things for God’s people in the future. But in the gospel, Jesus speaks of a future day of anguish and despair. What is going on here? Does God intend to bless us in the future, or bring about doom? Do these readings contradict each other? No! The fact is that God has wonderful graces and blessings in store for each of us, but these blessings will seem like a curse if we are not prepared to receive them. In fact, Jesus tells us how to prepare ourselves for the dramatic events of the future. We must stand up and renounce debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of this world. Debauchery refers to the way that we squander the good things the Lord has given us. Drunkenness refers to the way each one of us is addicted to the gratification of our senses and our egos. The cares of this world refers to the way we are attached to money, possessions, social status, the admiration of others. If we are living our lives in this self-obsessed manner, then the future coming of Jesus into our lives will be a day of anguish and despair for us! But if we are prepared for the coming of Jesus (by living simple and upright lives of abandonment to Christ), then our future encounter with the Lord will be experienced as a wonderful blessing. Advent is about the future coming of Christ. We must live every day in preparation for his coming. This means “travelling light”, not being weighed down with the cares of this world and with habits of self-indulgence. We must be like athletes focussed on a big event, eliminating everything that distracts us from our goal.

God promises that good things are going to happen to us. But how can we ensure that we are ready to welcome those things?

The first reading is taken from Chapter 33 of the prophet Jeremiah, a chapter that has many consoling and uplifting passages. Jeremiah is talking to a people in exile, a people who has lost everything and seems to be heading nowhere. But God will do something new, the prophet tells them. “In those days and at that time, I will make a virtuous Branch grow for David,
who shall practice honesty and integrity in the land. In those days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in confidence. And this is the name the city will be called: the Lord-our-integrity”. How are these promises of good things to be realised? In this time of Advent, we too look forward to something good that is arriving. How can we prepare ourselves so that we will not miss the good that is on its way to us? God is always promising good things to us and it is essential that we know how to embrace them.

 The Gospel speaks of a terrible day when everything will be changed. This might seem like a day to be dreaded, but it is a day to be embraced, if we only have the right attitude in life

In the Gospel passage from Luke, we hear of people in great fear and anxiety before the terrible things that are about to happen. What attitude should a disciple of Jesus have in the face of promises such as these? There is an art in learning to be ready for a new beginning, instead of living in a state of fear that things are going to end. There is always goodness in that which comes. There is always grace on its way to us through the events that occur in our lives. How can we make sure that we do not lose this passing grace? Jesus gives us some direct advice. We must stand up straight and hold our heads high. These are symbolic gestures. The psychology of a person can be deduced in part from his posture. We can infer the interior state of a person from the position of his head. Jesus asks us to stand up and combat those negative sentiments that make our heads go down. The human being overcomes the forces of gravity with his upright posture and straight backbone, allowing him to proudly behold the horizon and gaze into the distance. Of course this is symbolic language that does not exclude in any way people who have difficulties standing upright, but the idea is that the grace that comes to us is destined for the most dignified part of us, and we must stand up and be ready to embrace it properly.

 To be ready for the day of the Lord, our hearts must not be weighed down by attachment to the things of this world and to our own titillation. The first thing Jesus warns against is the way we waste the good things we have been given, squandering them in evil or useless pleasures.

To embrace the coming grace, Jesus tells us that our hearts must not be weighed down. What are the things that weigh my heart down? What are the things that slow me down and make me sluggish in life? These weights prevent me from utilizing the good things that life puts in my way. My heart is leaden and slow to respond to the positive stimuli that I receive. Jesus tells us what it is that weighs down our hearts: coarseness, debauchery, drunkenness and the cares of life. Debauchery refers to the wasting of what is good and beautiful. It entails having possession of good things and allowing them to be wasted in evil ways, or exchanged for things that are much less worthy. Each of us should ask ourselves this question: What good things do I possess that deserve to be defended? We all have things in our life that are beautiful and important.

 The second thing that prevents our hearts being ready for the coming of the Lord is our addiction to gratification, the things that indulge our senses and our egos.

Jesus also speaks of drunkenness. This need not refer solely to excess alcohol but also to the way that each of us is addicted to things that titillate our senses and our egos. We waste our time on secondary things, frivolity, a myriad of useless pastimes. We are busy doing ten things at a time, text messages, phone calls, little treats that gratify our senses. When an athlete sets his mind on a great goal, he simplifies his life and cuts out the superfluous. There is an art in managing oneself and not falling in to the habit of trying to do too many things. There is an art in doing only the things that count and leaving everything else aside. But too often we are drunk with the things that titillate us.

The third thing that contaminates our hearts is our attachment to worldly goods. Is my goal in life some earthly good? Money, possessions, social position?

Jesus also speaks of being weighed down with the cares of the world. This can refer to the stress and care that comes with being weighed down by riches and possessions. In this situation of comfort and wellbeing, we are often filled with anxiety. There are three questions, then that we need to put before ourselves. What are the real goods in my life that I must be careful not to squander? What makes me “drunk” in the sense of being a focus of my drive towards gratification? And the third question is what ultimate goal do I strive to attain? Is this ultimate goal something transitory that will be taken from me? Jesus warns us to be careful that the things weighing down our hearts do not fall upon us suddenly. How can I ensure that, on the day of the Lord, I will not have these things fall upon me out of the blue? The answer is simple: just as an athlete trains himself so that he can endure the race, so we too must prepare ourselves so that we are not too attached to these worldly things when the day comes that they are taken from us. Those who are not ready are unable to free themselves from the worldly structure that is collapsing around them. However, those who are ready, those who have prepared themselves by not giving themselves over to debauchery, gluttony and the cares of the world, these people are agile and ready to give up everything. Jesus speaks of those who have made their domain on the face of the earth having difficulty in this day of great transformation. If we remain aware that the earth is a transitory home, then I am ready to go. I do not carry many things around with me, so to speak. Some people, when they go on a trip, take a huge amount of luggage, including things that they don’t need. Good travellers travel light, fully aware that we need little, and that in any case we can find what we need at our destination. We too must be good travellers in the sense of being prepared to live elsewhere, not attached to the life I have here and now. Often, an event happens and our life is turned upside down. We must be ready, we must keep watch and not be deceived by the apparent solidity of these empty things. We must be prepared to be with Jesus. Our entire life is a preparation to meet him. If all of our existence is directed towards being ready for Jesus, then when he arrives we will truly be prepared. If, however, we live for the things of this world, then when Jesus comes we won’t know how to react. Jesus will in that case be an annoyance and a trauma. For those who are ready to depart, life is beautiful and agile, light and enjoyable. When life is fundamentally directed towards the newness that is God, then when novelty comes we are able to embrace it freely.

November 22^nd 2015.  Feast of Christ the King

GOSPEL: John 18:33-37

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­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 18:33-37

‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked. Jesus replied, ‘Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others spoken to you about me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am 1 a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?’ Jesus replied, ‘Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this kind.’ ‘So you are a king then? said Pilate. ‘It is you who say it,’ answered Jesus. ‘Yes, 1 am a king. 1 was born for this, 1 came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . . On the Feast of Christ the King we are presented with a Gospel story in which Christ is shown completely humbled before the secular powers! Yet he enters into a dialogue with Pilate, and in this dialogue he tells us the very reason for his incarnation. He has come to bear witness to the truth. This truth is that he is Lord of a very different kind of kingdom, a kingdom that is not of this world. Does this simply mean that Jesus is king in a different place, in a different world? No, his kingship is of a completely different kind from worldly kingship. It is not based on force of arms or any of the things that give dominion in this world. His dominion is based on the fact that he is love. His power consists in this love. Paradoxically, this power of love is shown to its fullest when he is nailed to a cross and exerts absolutely no power in the temporal and physical sense. What exerts dominion in my life? Which kingdom do I give my allegiance to? Where do my true loyalties lie? If Christ is really my king then I cannot remain attached to worldly goods, worldly enjoyment, worldly glory. I must follow Jesus who, when nailed to the Cross, showed that his kingship of love is expressed most fully when he becomes nothing for our sake.

Jesus is Lord of a kingdom that will never end. But what is it that never ends? All the things we possess will come to an end. The only thing that endures is ourselves, the identity that has been given to us by God

On this Sunday in which we proclaim Christ to be King of the universe, the first reading from the prophet Daniel announces the coming of one who will have true power, one who will be given the kingdom, the power and the glory. This will be given to him by the heavenly Father and all peoples will serve him in a kingdom that will never end. Every kingdom that has ever been established in this world has come to an end! Powers fade and disappear. If it is this world that confers authority, then that authority will endure to the same extent that the powers of this world endure. And the forces of this world are inevitably transitory; everything we possess here will pass away, they do not remain in our possession, everything will one day be taken away from us. Woe to us if we attach ourselves to the things of this world that pull us down! What is it that endures, transcends? Curiously enough, it is we who endure; it is our souls that endure, our inherent dignity. The importance we have does not derive from who we are in this world but who we are before God.

The liturgy for the feast of Christ the King presents us with Jesus at the moment of his greatest humiliation. He is being treated as a criminal and is hauled before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea. Jesus is supposed to justify himself before the accusations made against him, but he has no interest in doing so. However he does enter into a dialogue with Pilate. In the previous section of John’s Gospel, Jesus was extremely reticent, refusing to respond to his interrogators. But now he enters into a profound and marvellous exchange with Pilate. Pilate begins by asking if Jesus is really King of the Jews. This is a curious question, because no one had previously formulated an accusation against Jesus in these terms. Jesus replies by asking, “Do you ask this of yourself or because others have spoken to you about me?” It is Pilate who is now the target of interrogation! What Jesus wants to do is demonstrate that his power does not come from this world. The world, in fact, is rejecting him and torturing him. There is another source for the power of Jesus, and this places him above Pilate. In fact, the governor is bothered that Jesus has placed himself above him and responds aggressively: “Am I a Jew? The chief priests and the scribes have handed you over to me. What have you done?”

Jesu says that his kingdom is not of this world. This does not mean that his kingdom is simply in a different PLACE. It means that it is a different kind of kingship altogether, not based on force of arms or any material thing

Finally, Jesus responds to a question. It is the first time he has done so since the various interrogations have begun. “My kingdom is not of this world”, he says. What a wonderful explanation of the kingdom that we invoke every time we pray the Our Father. “Thy kingdom come!” Which kingdom are we calling for? Where do we desire to live? Which dominion do we wish to be under? Jesus goes on to say that if his kingdom were of this world, his followers would have fought to prevent his capture. Sometimes we interpret this phrase incorrectly. We think that Jesus is saying that if his kingdom were based in this or that region, then his followers would have fought to protect him. But the fact is that the disciples did try to protect him! All the Evangelists recount that Peter took out his sword and tried to fight his assailants, but Jesus stopped him. The point he wishes to make to Pilate is that his kingdom is a different kind of kingdom altogether, a kingdom in which true disciples do not fight or defend in this manner at all.

The kingdom of Jesus is not defended by violence or force of any sort. It involves the freedom necessary to respond to God in love

Many servants of the kingdom will appear throughout history, servants who do not fight but love. This is something that has often been misunderstood, however. Many people have believed that once Christianity achieved a certain dominion in the world, then one would be justified in defending it. This is mistaken. The servants of the Kingdom of God do not have this competence or calling. They ought to keep their swords in their scabbards, for “He who lives by the sword will die by the sword”, as Jesus tells us. The type of kingship that Jesus is referring to, and the type of kingdom involved, is completely different in kind. The oldest text we have of this passage is in the Greek language. When Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world”, the word we translate in English as “of” has a particular meaning in Greek. It is like saying, “This table is not of wood, it is made from a different material”. Jesus kingdom is not of this world in that it cannot be established using the things of this world. It is not made of those things. It consists in something else entirely.

Pilate comes to realize that Jesus is a king, even if he (Pilate) has little understanding and barely disguised contempt for this unique kind of kingship

“Therefore you are a king”, Pilate responds. Jesus replies, “It is you who say it”. This reply of Jesus is not just an expression of speech. He is referring back to their original exchange when Pilate asked if Jesus were a king, and Jesus wanted to know if Pilate was saying that of his own accord or because others had described him as a king. Now Jesus is pointing out that Pilate has come to affirm of his own accord that Jesus is a king. The governor has listened to Jesus speak and has concluded, “So you are a king then”. Jesus reply is to say in effect, “Yes, Pilate, you have said it. You who represent the Roman empire, the climax of temporal power, you can see that the kind of kingship I am talking about is completely different to that you know of”.

Jesus makes a dramatic statement to Pilate regarding his kingship and the very reason for his incarnation: he came to this world to bear witness to the truth about God. He is that truth in person, for God is love. The Kingdom of Jesus is a kingdom in which God pours himself out in love for all of humanity

Then Jesus makes a statement that is nothing less than an explanation of the reason for his incarnation. “For this I was born, for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth”. The power of Jesus consists in this truth that he bears witness to. This is a different sort of power to that of Pilate, a different kind of sword, a different kind of weapon of combat. It does not simply ward off death but destroys death from the inside. “Bearing witness to the truth” does not involve giving a lesson in philosophy nor entail delivering a certain conceptual content. It involves being something. In fact, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. Jesus bears witness to a truth that humanity has lost at the beginning of history, the truth about God. Humanity has been deceived by the serpent, the “father of lies”. Humanity has become a slave of wrongdoing because it thinks wrongly of God. As Jesus is dying on the Cross, he says, “It is accomplished”. Here on the Cross he reveals that God is love and that the serpent is a liar, that God is good and that he doesn’t deceive us, that he is on our side. Christ puts this truth into the heart of people, removing the violence from their hearts, the fear, the shame, the solitude. This is a kingdom completely unlike those kingdoms that are established and defended by violence. In the kingdoms established by despots, laws are imposed from above. In the Kingdom of Jesus, disciples act from the heart in freedom, bearing witness to truth, and living according to the rule of love.