April 26^th 2020. The Third Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL: Luke 24, 13-35

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Luke 24, 13-35

That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

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

Sunday’s Gospel tells the story of the disciples who encounter the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. These disciples end up changing direction: at first they were leaving the holy city, and at the end they return there. But this is really a story about a change of mind and heart! Knowing that the Lord is risen is not just a matter of acquiring information, but of being transformed in mind and heart! Their change of direction comes at the end of a process. The Lord walks alongside them and enters into their current way of looking at life. Then he challenges them by telling them in no uncertain terms that their hearts are foolish and slow to comprehend. Then he dismantles their current “wisdom” by explaining the true connections of the Scriptures with the facts. To change their hearts, he must first work on their minds. When we exit the coronavirus lockdown, we must hope that we will not be the same as we were before it began. It would be a pity if this tribulation didn’t become for us an opportunity to change. This time of Easter and this time of quarantine are wonderful occasions to look at everything in a new way. It is time to realise how stupid we are, how we consistently fail to comprehend the meaning and transforming power of the Cross in our lives. Let us abandon our attachment to our own way of looking at things. Let us reevaluate things by walking with Jesus and allowing his Spirit to make our hearts burn within us.

The disciples end up changing direction: at first they were leaving the holy city, and at the end they return there. But this is really a story about a change of mind and heart! Knowing that the Lord is risen is not just a matter of acquiring information, but of being transformed in mind and heart!

Two disciples leave Jerusalem, where they saw Jesus die and their expectations dashed. At the end of the story, they will change direction completely and return to Jerusalem. This reversal of direction is also a reversal within the heart. At the beginning, Jesus says: "Foolish and slow-hearted to believe ..." and then he begins to explain the Scriptures to them; at the end of the story, their hearts are burning within them and they return to the Holy City. Let's take a good look at how this happens: meeting the risen Lord leads to a change of direction, but this change is only a consequence of something that must happen in the mind and the heart. Getting to know that the Lord is risen is not just an acquisition of information, but, in the case of these two disciples, it involves a radical transfiguration in their behaviour and in their inner life.

This change of direction comes at the end of a process. The Lord walks alongside them and enters into their current way of looking at life. Then he challenges them by telling them that their hearts are foolish and slow to comprehend. Then he dismantles their current “wisdom” by explaining the connections of the Scriptures with the facts. To change their hearts he must first work on their minds.

Let's analyze the different stages of this process. It all begins from an ongoing argument - the disciples are not talking amiably, but the Greek term used in the passage implies an altercation. And this is to be expected. If our direction in life is not right, then we will end up on a collision course with any travelling companion. The Lord enters the scene as a complete stranger and their eyes are "prevented from recognizing him". Jesus does not wear a mask, he is simply himself; the problem is in their eyes. Eventually, in breaking the bread, their eyes will be opened. But the first stage of this development began with Jesus walking alongside them, enquiring what they have understood so far. "What are you discussing as you walk along?" Interestingly, Jesus does not “know” what they are talking about. His knowledge is different from theirs. They list the things that happened; this list, even if they don't realize it, contains everything they need to believe! Those same elements of information will be announced by the Church over the centuries, but these two disciples still cannot make the leap of faith. Jesus listens to them and then begins: “Foolish and slow of heart!” The term "foolish" in the Scriptures is a very strong rebuke, and refers to a perverse and culpable type of stupidity. Jesus condemns their "knowledge" in order to open them up to a new wisdom. To get to the heart you have to go through the mind. Their “wisdom” must be dismantled, and the Lord does this by creating connections between the Scriptures and the facts that have taken place in recent days. This is the new wisdom: a different synthesis of the information that the disciples already had to hand.

When we exit this lockdown, we must hope that we will not be the same as we were before it began. It would be a pity if this tribulation didn’t change us. Rather, this time of Easter and this time of quarantine are opportunities to look at everything in a new way. We must realise how stupid we are, how we consistently fail to comprehend the meaning of the Cross. Let us abandon our attachment to our own way of looking at things. Let us reevaluate things by walking with Jesus and allowing his Spirit to make our hearts burn within us

What will change our situation in this moment is not simply the permission to exit the lockdown (even if we hope to do so as soon as possible!) It would be a pity if we were to pass through this tribulation in vain, and if we end up going out exactly as we were before we were locked up in the first place:  ill-oriented to life. Rather, what is needed is that we open ourselves to a different synthesis of life. We must realize our stupidity, because we always are stupid relative to him! In the face of the Cross and the failure of our expectations we are consistently foolish. But if we let go of our attachment to our own “wisdom”, then our eyes can be opened, we can change direction and do new and beautiful things. The risk we face is that we do not allow ourselves be changed by Easter, by the things that happen to us, by Covid-19. But if we open up our hearts, everything becomes bright and positive and we can live with joy, even in these dark times.

April 19^th 2020. Second Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL: John 20:19-31

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: John 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nail marks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In Sunday’s Gospel, we have the story of Thomas. Sometimes we think that this story ends with a big reproach to Thomas: “You believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”. However, if we read the Gospel narrative, we will see that nobody (not Peter, not the apostles, nor Mary of Magdala) believed until they had a personal encounter with Christ! Thomas is no worse that they are. It is normal and good that we have personal experience before we believe, otherwise belief could become a big forced mental effort. The story is less about Thomas’ doubt than about Jesus’ desire to stand in the middle of his disciples and show them his wounds of love. Maybe that statement from Jesus is not a reproach at all, but a prophecy. The Lord is foretelling that future disciples will be blessed, even though they have not seen Jesus in person. But how can these future Christians believe, if they have not seen? Because Thomas and the others, by their lives and preaching, will make Jesus known. Just as the Father and Jesus are one, so is Jesus one with his disciples. Those who encounter the disciples, thus, are also encountering Jesus. In this time of Covid-19, the disciples of Jesus by their loving witness, can bring people to belief in the Lord.

Sometimes we think that this Gospel is all about the doubt of Thomas and Jesus reproaching him for his unbelief. But the fact of the matter is that all of the others didn’t believe either until they had seen the Lord in person

Jesus said to Thomas: "Put your finger here and look at my hands, and do not doubt, but believe!" Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you saw me, you believe; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!” (John 20.19-31) The last words of Jesus before the explanation of the meaning of the whole Gospel of John are often understood in terms of a final reproach to Thomas and the hope for better belief from others. Maybe we are all left feeling a little insufficient in front of a Lord who looks at us with a raised eyebrow, because we worry that we will never quite measure up to his notion of faith? But this is not what the text is really about at all. Jesus appears specifically to be seen and touched by Thomas, as he had done with the others a week before: “Jesus came, stood in the middle of them and said: ‘Peace be with you!? Having said that, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples rejoiced to see the Lord." They do not rejoice at first, but only after seeing the hands and the side. Someone else too, Mary of Magdala, had said the exact same phrase: "I have seen the Lord!" The disciples themselves had said to Thomas: "We have seen the Lord!", And they, like Thomas, had not believed until they saw him. Mary of Magdala too had not believed before seeing Jesus. When we think about it, nobody believed before seeing! Nobody can believe without having personal experience, without encountering the Risen Christ.. Otherwise you have to build a sort of faith that is a mental effort, a concerted activity to force yourself to believe. And it is very understandable that someone might want to reject this perspective.

When Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”, he is not reproaching Thomas, but foretelling that Thomas and the other disciples, by their testimony, will bring this great blessing on future believers

What if the final sentence (“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”) was not a rebuke but a prophecy? What if it was a joyful opening to something grander? There is no space here to explain how the original Greek text suggests that Jesus is announcing something bigger. At this moment the disciples believe because they have seen, but something even more wonderful is on its way: Jesus had spoken to the Father of those who "will believe in me by their word" (Jn 17,20) and elsewhere said: "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me" (Mt 10,40). Similarly, the Gospel passage on Sunday ends by announcing that it is possible to have "life in his name". To have life in the name of Christ, His own life. Thomas, today you see me and believe, but soon there will be joyful people who will believe, not because they see me, but because they see you! Today you see and believe me, but tomorrow you will show me to others. For this I go to the Father: because you will be here, and you will love others in my at the time of Covid-19, and you will live my very life. And you won't need to see me, because, just as the Father and I are one, so you and I will also be one. And you will not believe because you see, but because of what you are (joined in communion with me).

April 12^th 2020. Easter Sunday

GOSPEL: Matthew 28, 1-10

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew  28:1-10 
After the Sabbath, and towards dawn on the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to visit the sepulchre. And all at once there was a violent earthquake, for the angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and sat on it. His face was like lightning, his robe white as snow. The guards were so shaken, so frightened of him, that they were like dead men. But the angel spoke; and he said to the women, ‘There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would. Come and see the place where he lay, then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has risen from the dead and now he is going before you to Galilee; it is there you will see him.” Now I have told you.’ Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell the disciples.

And there, coming to meet them, was Jesus. ‘Greetings’ he said. And the women came up to him and, falling down before him, clasped his feet. Then Jesus said to them,
‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; they will see me there.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . In the Gospel on the Vigil of Easter, the angel says: “I know you are looking for Jesus the crucified one. He is ​​not here. He is risen”. The Greek verbs for both “crucified” and “risen” are passive in form. The resurrection of Jesus is the work of God! The destruction that humanity caused is changed into life by God alone. The areas where men operate evil, God can transform into a place of life. This is the proclamation that we must make this Easter while we are closed inside our houses! We are experiencing something painful that seems a sort of death. This is the very area in which God can operate! Our time in lockdown is not simply a matter of waiting for this state of enclosure to end. Rather, we can accept it and welcome it. Remember, the original meaning of the Sabbath day was a time devoted to uselessness and inactivity in which God was permitted to operate. And this has always been the announcement of Easter – God operates at the very time that we are unable.  During our lives we experience many dark moments, many deaths, but God has the capacity to transform them into Easters. What appears to us to be the end becomes in the hands of God the beginning of the kingdom of heaven. God can operate in this ultimate closure of being imprisoned in our homes. He can transform it into one of his works. Let's open ourselves to the power of Easter! Let us make this leap of faith!  Let's arm ourselves with the weapon of abandonment into the arms of God. Maybe then our eyes will be opened and we will realize the graces that the Lord is sending our way. Everything can become an occasion of thanksgiving in the hands of God. Let us listen to the angel who comes, sits on the tombstone, and speaks to us. The stone that was the place of despair becomes the place of proclamation. And what is proclaimed to us is this: where humanity crucifies, where humanity destroys, this is the very place that God brings life. Happy Easter!

The Easter ceremonies, over three days, are really a single act.

It is a movement from death to life. There can be no Easter 

resurrection without the dying of Good Friday

At this Easter Triduum we find ourselves in such a serious situation 

that we really need the Liturgy to help us. The Easter liturgy is in 

three days from Holy Thursday through Good Friday to the Easter 

vigil. But it is actually a single act. On Good Friday there is a 

greeting from the priest, who enters making an act of prostration, 

and then simply speaks to the Father and begins the liturgy, ending

 without blessing without greeting. There is a solemn silence on 

Good Friday with which the celebration of the Lord's Passion ends,

 because, in reality, we are just awaiting the moment of the liturgy 

of the light that inaugurates the vigil of that holiest of nights. Here

 there is only one reality.  There is no Easter without dying and there

 is no Good Friday without the Easter of Resurrection. The Paschal

 movement is one from death to life, while in human affairs we ​​start

 alive and end up dead! The solemn Easter liturgy is the most

 important of the year, articulated in four wonderful parts. It is 

deeply baptismal and is all oriented to celebrate our union with

 Christ as the culmination of this process. Then, on Easter Sunday,

 the Gospel that the Church reads is John's 20th chapter. That is 

always the same every year, while the vigil Mass follows a 

three-year cycle (this year the Gospel is Matthew chapter 28).

The space in which God operates is the one in which we discover that we are incapable of doing anything ourselves

The space in which God can finally operate in our lives is very often when we have arrived at our limits! Easter is experienced when we experience the complete insufficiency of ourselves, where we no longer know what to do.  We should not fear our insufficiencies but rather open them up to the power of God. Then we can discover the new creation that the Lord wishes to operate in us on this “first day of the week”. The Gospel read at the vigil tells of the angel who comes with an earthquake, rolls away the stone of the tomb and sits on it. An earthquake represents the complete collapse of worldly certainties. It is a moment when we feel our fragility and impotence, a moment when we need divine assistance. It is interesting to note that the stone that covered the tomb now changes its function! First of all, it represented closure and finality. Now it becomes the place from which the triumph of love is proclaimed. It has become the lectern that proclaims the Gospel. The angel’s face was like lightning and his robe was as white as snow. This emphasis on light and newness tells us that everything has been transformed into light, everything has changed. The guards, however, were shaken and stood transfixed like dead men. It is a slightly comic scene. These soldiers were supposed to be guarding a dead man, but now the dead one is no longer dead and the live ones seem no longer alive! Many times there are people who go to visit the sick and they are much more lifeless than the sick people they are visiting. The sick person, often, has found peace, while those who consider themselves healthy and alive are in reality dead (according to the book of Revelation).

It is God alone who can operate the resurrection.

The angel begins by telling the women not to be afraid. You cannot hear what God has to say to you if you are dominated by fear. The guards were fearful and they would have understood nothing of what the angel had to say. The angel goes on: “I know you are looking for Jesus the crucified one. He is ​​not here. He is risen”. It is interesting that the Greek verbs for both “crucified” and “risen” are passive in form. Certainly, one does not crucify oneself, but “risen” is also passive. The resurrection of Jesus is the work of the Father. The destruction that humanity caused is changed into life by God alone. In the areas where men operate evil, God knows how to transform into a place of life. This is the proclamation that we must make this Easter while we are closed inside our houses! We are experiencing something painful that is a sort of death and humiliation. This is the very area in which God can operate! Our time in lockdown is not simply a matter of waiting for this enclosure to end. Rather we can accept it and welcome it. Remember, the original meaning of the Sabbath day was a time devoted to uselessness and inactivity in which we permitted God to operate. And this has always been the announcement of Easter – God operates at the very time that we are unable.

What seems a place of death and destruction becomes a place of life, but only if God is allowed to operate

This announcement echoes something that was said by the patriarch Joseph when he is found by his family. We recall that this beloved son of Jacob was sold off into slavery by his brothers. The Lord raised him from slavery and led him to be prime minister in Egypt. The brothers come to Egypt during a famine, begging for food.  When they recognize him, they are terrified but he says, “Do not be afraid because the evil you have done, God has wanted to use it for good”. During our lives we experience many deaths, but God has the capacity to transform them into Easters. What appears to us to be death and destruction becomes in the hands of God the beginning of the kingdom of heaven. God can operate in this ultimate closure of being imprisoned in our homes. He can transform it into one of his works. Let's open ourselves to the power of Easter! Let us make this leap of faith!  Let's arm ourselves with the weapon of abandonment into the arms of God. Maybe then our eyes will be opened and we will realize the graces that the Lord is sending our way. Everything can become an occasion of thanksgiving in the hands of God. Let us listen to the angel who comes and speaks to us from the stone. The stone that was the place of despair becomes the place of proclamation. And what is proclaimed to us is this: where humanity crucifies, where humanity destroys, it is in this very place that God brings life. Happy Easter everyone!

April 5^th 2020. Palm Sunday

GOSPEL: Mt 21:1-11

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

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PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL: Mt 21:1-11

When they were near Jerusalem and had come in sight of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village facing you, and you will immediately find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, “The Master needs them and will send them back directly”.’ This took place to fulfil the prophecy:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion:
Look, your king comes to you;
he is humble, he rides on a donkey
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’

So the disciples went out and did as Jesus had told them. They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he sat on them. Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path. The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting:

 ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heavens!’

 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil. ‘Who is this?’ people asked, and the crowds answered, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee’.

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

Kieran’s summary . . .  Matthew is constantly citing the Old Testament, showing how Jesus fulfils the Scriptures. Why? Is it a way of defending the authenticity of Christ? But Scripture doesn’t need to certify itself! The main reason for these citations is to show that Christ is following the plan laid out for him long ago by the Father. He is not just improvising as he goes along. Christ doesn’t come in his own name but in the name of the Lord. As the people said when Jesus entered Jerusalem, “Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord!” All of the sufferings that Jesus undergoes were foreseen by the Father and it was ordained that he would accept them. This does not mean that the evil that was inflicted on Jesus was willed by God. Sin is never God’s will. But the response that we make to evil is something that is desired by God. Jesus is faced with great evil, but he responds to it with the Father, in the Father, according to the Father.  In our lives too, a plan of salvation is unfolding. But we spoil that plan unless, like Jesus, we live as children of the Father. Since the Garden of Eden we have tried to be like God and act with complete autonomy. The coronavirus is an evil, but we have the choice to follow Jesus and respond to this evil with the Father, in the Father, according to the Father. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, if we manage to live the events of our lives according to the Father, then the path of our lives becomes the plan of God, the story of our salvation. If I respond to the evil of the coronavirus with faith in God, hope in God and love for God and others, then the situation becomes an occasion of salvation. Don’t forget, the greatest evil in history, the killing of Christ, the most innocent of all people, became through faith the springboard of salvation. In these desolate days, if I can choose to make acts of faith, acts of abandonment  to God, acts of fraternity with others, then all of this darkness can be transformed into light.

Matthew is constantly citing the Old Testament, showing how Jesus fulfils the Scriptures. Why? Is it a way of defending the authenticity of Christ? But Scripture doesn’t need to certify itself. The main reason for these citations is to show that Christ is following the plan laid out for him long ago by the Father. In our lives too, a plan of salvation is unfolding   

If we try to listen in a united way to the Passion of Jesus according to Matthew, we note that many times, explicitly or implicitly, the scriptures are quoted. This feature pervades almost every paragraph of the story. In the other evangelists this element is also present, but in Matthew it is very pronounced. Why? Perhaps the evangelist wants to emphasize: "Have you seen? Jesus fulfilled exactly what was written. He was in the right and our testimony is confirmed by Scripture". No, the Word of God is not so trivial. It does not need to certify itself. It is not on the defensive, but it is proactive, creative. So why does Matthew make all of these citations to the Old Testament? Because they demonstrate that Jesus is not merely improvising. Like a musician he is following a score. He is carrying out the Father's plan. According to Matthew, the last word that Jesus says is the quotation from Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This is not only an expression of his pain but the key to everything. In fact, if we go to read that psalm, we will see the entirety of his passion expressed as a prayer, right up to the glory of the resurrection. To understand where his pain is leading, you must read that psalm. It is quite true what Saint Jerome said: "Ignoring the Scriptures means ignoring Christ". But how does this perspective help us? When salvation enters our existence, it begins to reveal that our history is not just a succession of human acts, There is, inexplicably, a plan of God unfolding in our lives. And this plan is always a plan of salvation. Human responsibilities exist, our faults exist, injustices exist, and evil must not be done, and those who commit injustices will account for it to God. Pain must be alleviated, cured and, if possible, avoided. But there is a plan that God, despite the evil that we do or suffer, still carries out.

The current passion that we are experiencing can become an occasion of salvation if we can unite ourselves to Christ and live it in love.

God knows how to draw good out of evil. And he has only one project, as St. Paul says: "He wants all people to be saved" (1 Tim 2: 4). Salvation is being offered to us always, in all the things that happen to us, even in those of which he will then ask for an account.
Where does Covid-19 come from? We may never know. But the hidden pathway towards our salvation can also be found in this situation. If God has saved the world by means of the greatest of crimes, the cross of Christ, then our faith announces that even in the immense pain of our present world, salvation can be won. The evil that is being suffered by many people is reversed by God when this painful situation becomes an occasion for a person’s conversion and salvation. But this disaster for health and the economy is not an automatic mechanism that leads to salvation. It is an offer from God and the choice is ours. The cross in itself is only a gallows, Christ made it an act of love. This is the opportunity being presented to each one of us now. We are undergoing a passion, but it can be lived in love. Ours always remains a salvation story.