December 30^th 2018.  Feast of the Holy Family

GOSPEL: Luke 2, 41-52

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 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 . . .  It can be traumatic for families when children begin to take different paths to those expected by their parents. But it is a grave matter if parents do not allow their children the freedom to be the people that the Lord is calling them to be. Parents must accept the trauma of the mystery of the otherness of their children. And how true this was of Jesus! Mary had experienced the Annunciation and knew that this child was extraordinary. But even she has to live through the trauma of the unexpected. In the Gospel, Jesus leaves the path that the family is taking and walks a road that is his own. When they find him in the Temple, he has a wisdom and a way of reasoning that is surprising to everyone. A child at twelve years of age (typically) begins to manifest his own identity. It is at this stage that a parent must accompany rather than force a child. The parent must allow the child to flower according to what God has sown within, not according to parental expectations! Yes, it is traumatic when a child takes his own path, but it is healthy and terribly important that he do so. When Jesus says, “I must take care of my Father’s business”, the phrase in the original Greek 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 true meaning from 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. It is because of this that many familial relationships end up broken. 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. The passage ends with the return of the family to Nazareth and Jesus’ submission to Mary and Joseph. This is true for all families. If I have the correct relationship with our heavenly Father, then I can have a correct relationship with everyone else. Our families in the modern world are so fragile and broken. They are saved by our connection with God, not by human techniques. With God we are freed from our dependencies on empty things and we become free to construct our families on their only authentic foundation, our relationship with God. 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 Lord.

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. Perhaps in Christian formation in the past we have been too concerned with demanding that people conform to certain expectations rather than allowing them the freedom to follow God’s path for them. 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 23^rd 2018.  Fourth Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Luke 1, 39-45

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 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 . . . On this fourth Sunday of Advent, Don Fabio gives a beautiful reflection on the exchange between Elizabeth and Mary. Elizabeth says, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. . . 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." These words are also for each one of us. The Lord has spoken to us all in many and various ways throughout our lives. There are moments for all of us when we felt the presence of God, his mercy, his patience. We have all felt wonder at his creation and his being. There is a room in our hearts that has been visited by God alone at some point in our lives, perhaps very often. Like Mary, we must believe in this word that the Lord has spoken to our hearts! And like Mary, if we believe in the word that the Lord has spoken to us, then our lives will become fruitful! It is important that our lives be fruitful, be of service. Otherwise we feel empty. The Lord has created each one of us to be fruitful. He has spoken a word to our hearts. If we can believe in this word, then we will give rise to a blessed, life-giving fruit, as Mary did.

Mary is blessed because she believed the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord is not empty! It gives rise to blessed fruit once it is believed.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear the exchange of words when Mary visits Elizabeth. Mary goes “in haste” to see her cousin. The Greek word in the original text signifies to go “with zeal”, “with desire”. We see here an action that is done with care and with joy. When Elizabeth hears the greeting of Mary, the child leaps in her womb. She says, “As soon as your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy”. And then she finishes with this marvellous phrase, “Blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled”. Mary is blessed because she believed that the word of the Lord was not empty.

The word of the Lord is not an idea or an abstraction. It has power. But it must be believed.

The words of the Lord, the sacraments we receive, are not just ideas, or values or abstractions. No! They have power; they bring to fulfilment. He or she who believes the word of the Lord, will see the fulfilment of this word. Often we carry in our hearts the beautiful words that the Lord has spoken to us, and the challenge is to believe in their power. How many times we find ourselves at crossroads in our lives, and what we need to do is believe in what the Lord has communicated to us. Each one of us had had moments in our lives, or perhaps many such moments, when we have felt the Lord close to us. Even those who call themselves atheists have had such moments. We feel the profound beauty of life and the wonder of a God who cares for us. We sense his patience, his mercy. Like the child who leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, we too at various times have felt the new life springing up within us.

Some fruits are blessed but some are not blessed and do not bring life

“Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb”. The call to be a woman and the call to be blessed is the call of the entire Church. What is fulfilled in Mary is to be fulfilled in the Church as a whole. The Church is to be blessed in favour of all humanity. This does not mean to be superior in any way, because everything is by grace. But it signifies to be in the world and to be blessed because we have believed in the word that the Lord has communicated to us. And through this to bear fruit. Our lives have a great need to be fruitful. We have a need to be useful, to produce a fruit that is blessed. Life is like a seed. It is born in order to be fruitful. But there are fruits which are blessed and those which are not blessed. We do not judge a tree by the colour of its bark but by the taste of its fruit. Often we think something is beautiful because we are struck by its appearance, even though its fruit may not be wholesome. To see what a blessed fruit is, let us look to Mary! She gave birth to the blessed fruit of her womb and she is a school for us on how to be fruitful ourselves. We must be courageous and single-minded as she was. If we see that our acts are not bearing fruit, are not giving rise to new life, then let us change. Let the prophet inside us, the young John the Baptist, decide if we are doing something worthwhile or not. Our hearts have a room inside them that is reserved exclusively to God. In that room which only God can visit, He deposits a truth. Let us enter this room, look at our lives and see if they are blessed or not.

What is fruitful leads to authentic life

In the joy that we see expressed between these two expectant mothers, true happiness lies. For here there is a manifestation of that which is life. Life by its nature is fecund. That which is not fertile or which gives rise to bitter fruit is not life and does not lead to life. Let us abandon such empty things with serenity! Let us ask the Lord for the grace not to walk on unfruitful paths. It is important in life to remain always fruitful. But, you, might ask, how can an elderly person be fruitful? With their wisdom, with their welcome, their mercy, their patience. A man or woman can generate life in so many different ways. Some people have children but then raise them in a sterile way, a fruitless way which does not say “yes” to life, with closed unfruitful attitudes that do not give the space to others to mature. Some parents suffocate their children with their fixations and paternalism. We are about to celebrate Christmas. We celebrate the life that comes forth, Christ who is born, the encounter between God and man that finds realisation in His body. Let us take on attitudes of fruitfulness, of openness, of welcome! This is what the Lord is calling us to from the moment of creation: to bear fruit, to grow constantly, to multiply, to live as mothers and fathers in various ways and according to our own condition.

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December 16^th 2018.  Gaudete Sunday - 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

The crowds asked John the Baptist, “What should we do?”
He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them, “Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him, “And what is it that we should do?”
He told them, “Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying, “I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize 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 with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . On this Gaudete Sunday, we hear the preaching of the good news by John the Baptist. But wait a minute – did you say “good news”?  Why then does John preach about being shaken and cleansed and purified by fire? In order to receive the good news of salvation, we must first turn away from sin, selfishness, mediocrity. John the Baptist does not provide the solution for an authentic and full life, but he prepares us for it by presenting us with the first essential step. And this is not easy. We cannot begin to do good until we have stopped doing evil. It is not easy for us to give up those habits and practices that are oriented towards ourselves. We are asked to begin by making this small step, by doing what is possible for us, so that the Lord can then enter our lives and do the impossible!

On Gaudete Sunday we encounter John the Baptist who prepares us to receive the good news

This third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, in year C begins with an invitation to rejoice from the prophet Zephaniah. “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” According to the first reading, the Lord has revoked our condemnation. What does this refer to? Let us try to understand it by considering the Gospel. The passage from Luke tells of the preaching of John the Baptist and how it was received by the people. The Messiah is coming and John is preaching a message of conversion in order to prepare the way. The Pharisees, tax collectors and soldiers all want to know what it is that they need to do in response to this good news. Let us recall that the preaching of John was an essential stage in the coming of the Messiah. In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear how the apostles chose a substitute to take the place of Judas. The sole criterion was that he should have been with the Lord from the time of the preaching of John the Baptist.

The “good news” of John involves being cleansed and purified with fire! Sometimes it is hard for us to accept change that requires us to abandon the mediocrity and distortions within me which are incompatible with the Lord.

At the end of this Gospel passage we have a sample of the preaching of John, and it is described as “evangelisation” – the preaching of good news. “I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. He will baptize 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 with unquenchable fire.” At first sight this doesn’t seem very consoling! It involves being cleansed, shaken, having our “chaff” removed and burned. How is this connected to the revocation of our condemnation that we mentioned earlier? It is the transformation that is the good news. Whenever something new presents itself, we have a fear of certain kinds of change, whilst we desire other kinds of change. Newness strikes fear in our hearts but is also desired by us. That is because part of our hearts are affected by that which is unresolved or mistaken, worldly or mediocre. When the good news is announced and draws me towards the light, I realise that there is much in me that is not compatible with the light. I fear that these things will have to be abandoned. Being attached to things that are twisted and wrong, I fear a change that would stop me from doing these things that are wrong. We are dependent on many things in our existence, and we think that we cannot get on without these things. But whenever we become aware that a greater good can be obtained by getting rid of these things, then the acceptance of change becomes easier. To lose what is mine in order to have more of what is mine can be done very easily! But if I think that that which I will receive is less than that which I will lose, then real conversion is required to accept a transformation of this sort.

John the Baptist does not give the definitive solutions to our problems. He simply exhorts us to do justice, to refrain from doing evil

John the Baptist is not the Lord and does not give definitive solutions. However he provides the preparation for the definitive solutions. He exhorts people to distributive justice. He who has two tunics should give to him who has none. He who has enough to eat should do likewise. The tax collectors who come to John would have been really implicated in injustice. They collected money for the Romans and their “commission” consisted in extorting as much as possible from individuals and keeping the change. If someone owed the Romans 50 coins, then the publicans would extort 70 or 80 and keep the rest for themselves. As well as exhorting the publicans to justice, John asks the soldiers to be content with their pay and not to maltreat those under them. This distributive justice preached by John is very comprehensible from a human point of view. It seems absurd that the rich countries do not assist the poor countries, that some nations are burdened with debts that they cannot ever repay. When John Paul II asked that these debts be cancelled for the great jubilee of the year 2000, there was a negative reaction from many quarters, but he had not simply asked for something in the name of Christ. In the name of humanity these injustices should be put to rights. The preaching of John the Baptist is at the level of this call to righteousness: to stop being unjust, to refrain from extortion, to not seek more pay.

John the Baptist positions himself at the first stage of conversion, which is to refrain from doing evil. If you want to do good, then the first step is to stop doing evil!

What does all of this mean? John the Baptist positions himself at the first stage of conversion, which is to refrain from doing evil. If you want to do good, then the first step is to stop doing evil! Some people go through complicated processes of discernment, asking themselves if they should go out to other countries to serve, but at the same time they are unable to overcome more local and trivial issues of rancour that they feel towards certain people around them. Do you really think you can go and evangelise in the third world when you are unable to forgive your own brother? The first step is to do things that are at hand, to stop doing wrong. The good news is that when you take this first step, then something greater is on its way. We can begin the combat against that which is objectionable in our lives, but then the stronger one arrives, the one who is true, the one who brings authentic life. We start with something small, and how small it is compared to that which is offered to us by the one who gives new life! The little dot that we give will result in an ocean of grace to us from Christ, but without our little dot Christ is unable to begin. If I do the little step that is possible for me, then the impossible will be achieved by the Lord.

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December 9^th 2018.  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 the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The word of the Lord comes to a strange man living in the desert, a place where there is no-one around to listen to him! The word does not come to the great and the mighty political and religious leaders mentioned in the Gospel passage. Maybe it is only in the desert that there is enough silence to hear the word of God? We are told then that John’s message is to prepare the way of the Lord, filling in the valleys and levelling the mountains. Is this our task? Are we to fill in valleys and level mountains? No, our task is to “prepare” the way of the Lord, which means to place ourselves in front of the Lord and his ways. Our task is to cease following our own ways and open ourselves in humility to his ways. Once we do that, then the Lord will fill in our valleys and level our mountains. Our valleys are the dead-ends and blind alleys that we follow, in which we debase ourselves and forget our human dignity. Our mountains are the ways in which we exalt ourselves and consider ourselves and our projects to be all-important. The path of the Lord is different to these two paths. It is straight and is the only path grounded in reality. When we place ourselves before the ways of the Lord, then he will lead us out of our arrogance and false autonomy into humility, and he will draw us out of the blind alleys and help us to realize our true dignity.

The word of the Lord comes to a strange man in the desert. It does not come to the great and mighty of this world. It is only in the desert that we can hear the word of God.

In this second Sunday of Advent we read the invitation of the prophet Baruch to leave aside the robe of mourning and to dress ourselves in the splendour of the glory of God: “For God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground.” The Old Testament speaks often of the various returns from exile, these important stories of the liberation of Israel. The principal cases were the Paschal event of the exodus from Egypt - the transformation from slavery to freedom – and the return from Babylon when the people rediscovered their faith in God after a period of purification and correction. In the first reading Baruch is referring to the return from the humiliating exile in Babylon. Baruch speaks of the action of the Lord in bringing the people back, and, as we shall see shortly, Luke refers to this action in his Gospel passage for Sunday. The appearance of John the Baptist is described by Luke in precise historical terms. The various political rulers in power at the time are catalogued, as are the high priests. We are told then, that while all of these men were in power, the word of the Lord came to John in the desert. Wouldn’t it have been great if the word of the Lord had come to Tiberius Caesar or Pontius Pilate? What great influence they might have had! And we would have been satisfied if the word had come to Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests of the time. But, instead the word of the Lord comes to a man in the desert, an “outsider”. At one point in John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “My word does not find a home in you”. Maybe the word of the Lord is given no place by these great political and religious leaders. How does it arrive? It comes to this strange man who is living in a place where, in theory, there is no one to listen to him. Sometimes the word of the Lord needs to be spoken in the desert, because it is only when everyone else is silent that we can listen to God! Who will hear the word of the Lord in a noisy city?

Who prepares the way of the Lord? Is it up to me to level the mountains and fill in the valleys?

Luke’s Gospel gives a strange translation of the words from Baruch. In Baruch, the prophet was speaking about the work of the Lord, but here it seems that John is calling on mankind to carry out the task: A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Must mankind carry out these operations? No. The original meaning of “prepare” (as in “prepare the way of the Lord”) means to place oneself in front of something. Thus we are being asked to place ourselves in front of God’s ways, his word. The “ways” of the Lord are another name for his laws. In Scripture we hear regularly that the ways of the Lord are straight and they gladden the heart. The longest psalm, Psalm 119, speaks repeatedly of the laws of the Lord as a lamp that lights the steps along our way. To place oneself in front of the ways of the Lord and to make those ways straight means that we must cease obstructing and twisting his ways. Once we place ourselves before the Lord in the proper way, then the filling in of the valleys and the levelling of the mountains are carried out by him.

The Lord will lead us out of arrogance into humility – thus he will level the mountains. But he will also lead us out of the valleys of abasement to realise our true dignity

The valleys are the places where humanity falls down and become degenerate. We follow paths that are obscure, leading nowhere except to unhappiness. We lower ourselves to the ground and slither like serpents, losing our dignity. Humanity also has the tendency of erecting towers that seek to make ourselves independent. So on the one hand we underestimate our true dignity, and on the other hand we overestimate our independence and autonomy, living as if everything depended on us, taking ourselves and our projects and preoccupations too seriously. These are the two poles of our self-deception and they prevent us from finding the path that is straight. This path of the Lord is the only one that is firmly grounded in reality. Whoever denigrates his true dignity betrays himself. However exalts his own ego betrays himself. No-one who follows either of these paths can ever be happy.

The Lord restores our dignity and leads us to have an authentic and humble knowledge of ourselves. He wishes to transform the geology of our hearts. Let us prepare his way by placing ourselves before him in the right manner.

The mission of John the Baptist is to announce this work of the Lord in straightening our hearts, challenging us to allow our hearts to be questioned, placing ourselves before the word of the Lord, so that his word can correct us, console us in our desperation, and lead us out of our arrogance into humility. The Lord comes to us because we are the ground that needs to be worked. The geology of our hearts must be transformed. The way that we have formed ourselves up to now must be challenged and changed. The word of the Lord comes to reform and regenerate us. We must not give in neither to sadness nor to self-exaltation. Let us be disobedient both to the promptings of depression and those of self-glorification. Whatever causes us to become discouraged, on the one hand, or to over-estimate ourselves, on the other hand, let us ignore. The Lord knows who we are. Let us look to him in order to understand ourselves.

Gospel Reflection - First Sunday of Advent

December 2^nd 2018.  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 ...

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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 25^th 2018. Feast of Christ the King

GOSPEL: JN 18,33B-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: JN 18,33B-37

Pilate said to Jesus,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The feast of Christ the King marks the end of the liturgical year. In the Gospel, we see him before Pilate. What kind of king can he be? He is a condemned prisoner, about to be humiliated and killed. What kind of kingship is that? As history unfolded, however, no man came to have the kind of impact that Jesus of Nazareth did. Even people who don’t believe in him must confess that he has exerted an influence on the world that can be matched by no other individual. But if we look closely at the scene with Pilate, we already begin to see that Jesus has a kingship that is utterly different to the powers of this world. The rulers of this world rule by force and coercion. They themselves are contaminated by the very power they exert. But Jesus shows before Pilate that he has a freedom that is unheard of. His nobility consists in his capacity to be unreachable by mundane powers of this sort. Who has freedom of this sort? Pilate certainly hadn’t. Does true freedom consist of wandering around the streets doing what you like? Or is freedom something that can be possessed wherever you are, even if you are in chains? Who bears true royalty, the one who is possessed by things, or the one who is able to detach himself from things? Who is more powerful, the one who can coerce people into doing what he wants, or the one who loves everyone he meets, even those who do him wrong? Royalty of that sort is not of this world! Jesus of Nazareth reveals to us the kind of people we, deep down, long to be. When we marry, we long to be able to love in the same radical way that he loves. When we begin a friendship, we long to be able to be true in the way that he is true. Jesus has the power of love, and he has the power to plant love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. This is real power! This is the power of Christ our King!

The end of any process is important. The feast of Christ the King marks the end of the liturgical year. It is an opportunity to reflect on who Christ is for me as time comes to an end

With the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, we conclude the liturgical year. The question we ask ourselves is: how do we understand the kingship of Christ? On this feast, which comes at the end of the year, the liturgy is inviting us to reflect on the entire year. The endpoint of any journey or process is always very significant. This feast is the celebration of the royal dominion of Jesus of Nazareth, true God and true man. The readings open with a passage from the prophet Daniel which reflects the great suffering endured by the people at the time this book was written. Israel was under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. The prophet during the hours of the nights sees a figure like a “Son of Man” coming upon the clouds, a man who will be given all glory, power and dominion, and to which all peoples will render homage.

But what kind of king is Jesus? He is a condemned prisoner, about to be humiliated and killed. Yet Jesus is the person who has had the greatest influence on human history, even for those who do not believe in him

The dialogue between Pilate and Jesus evokes this kingdom referred to in the first reading. The scene from the Gospel of John is the dramatic and tragic encounter between the Lord and the Roman procurator. Pilate wishes to know in what sense Jesus can be considered a rival to the power and dominion of Rome. Jesus replies, “Yes, I am a king, but not of this world. I am a king of a different sort”. But in what sense can Jesus be described as a king? He has been accused and is about to be condemned. He has no apparent power, and will soon be humiliated and tortured in every manner imaginable. What kind of king is that! In human terms, he is the most miserable of all. What sort of kingdom does he rule over? What sort of kingship or dominion has a person who seems powerless before the status quo? Surely, he is the king of nothing, a king without any relevance? But, wait a minute. In all of history there is no man more famous than Jesus of Nazareth! Before him, all of the ages must bend. No-one has left a greater mark in human history, even if we do not believe in him or welcome him. There can be no shadow of a doubt about this. The obscure, thirty-something carpenter, who neither wrote nor built anything, and left no visible work behind him, is nevertheless the man with the greatest influence on the movement of human history. Many people who have no interest in him nevertheless have to reckon with him in order to understand where they stand in the progress of human affairs.

If we look closely, we see in Jesus a royalty and kingship that is utterly different to the mundane powers of this world. Jesus is completely free, totally capable of love, detached from the things of this world that cause enslavement

So there is something strange here in this prisoner who stands before Pilate. Perhaps he bears a royalty that goes beyond this world, has nothing to do with the vanities of this world? Yes, this is not only true but terribly important. What is human power after all if not a function of coercion and force that fails utterly to give true liberty? The powerful tend to exploit their power for their own ends. The power is not only used for the domination of others, but ultimately comes to dominate and contaminate even the ones who have the power. In reality, this dialogue between Pilate and Jesus is a conflict between a world system of enslavement and a man who is beyond worldly power of that sort, a man with an unheard-of freedom. If we look closely at this confrontation between the governor of the people of Judea and the man who had been rejected by those same people, we will see in fact that we have here a very normal man in the presence of the sort of nobility that had never been seen before. His nobility consists in his capacity to be unreachable by mundane powers of this sort. Who has freedom of this sort? Pilate certainly hadn’t. Does true freedom consist of wandering around the streets doing what you like? Or is freedom something that can be possessed wherever you are, even if you are in chains? Who bears true royalty, he who possesses everything, or he who is free from everything? The one who is possessed by things, or the one who is able to detach himself from things? Who is more powerful, the one who can coerce people into doing what he wants, or the one who loves everyone he meets, even those who do him wrong? Royalty of that sort is not of this world!

The kingship and power of Christ is in his utter freedom to love. He bestows on us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we too can be transformed from being cold-hearted to being capable of authentic love. This is the power of Christ – a power not of this world!

All this liturgical year, we have journeyed in order to have his truth in our hearts. If a human heart opens itself to truth, then that truth will speak with the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. As he says, “Whoever is of the truth, listens to my voice”. How many people have stood before this man crucified and risen and found themselves probed to their depths by his love. What Jesus has manifested to us is what humanity seeks to encounter and desires to be. When a man marries, he wants to love in this radical way. When a woman marries, she wants to love in the same manner. When two people embark on a friendship, they wish to have an authentic relationship by behaving in the way that Christ behaves. We cannot do it without his help. It is great to see humans giving the best of themselves without ever arriving at the sublimity of this man. Not only is Jesus capable of loving, he is able to plant love in human hearts. He is able to transform cold hearts into places that are filled with love. This is where his power resides! This is the power that we celebrate on the feast of Christ the King! Let us not expect from him victory in this world. What we expect from him is the gift of his Holy Spirit which sets us free and makes us greater, completely independent of this world and free to love.

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