September 27th 2020. The Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 21, 28-32

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 21, 28-32

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: ‘What is your opinion? 

A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, “My boy, you go and work in the vineyard today”.

He answered, “I will not go”, but afterwards thought better of it and went.

The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, “Certainly, sir”, but did not go.

Which of the two did the father’s will?’ ‘The first’ they said.

Jesus said to them,

‘I tell you solemnly, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.

For John came to you, a pattern of true righteousness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did.

Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.

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

 

Summary . . . The parable of the two sons is directed by Jesus at the Pharisees and elders of the people. The father asks both sons to go and work in his vineyard. The first son merely simulates obedience; it is only a façade. The other son refuses to go, but later changes his mind. The theme of this Gospel is the capacity to change one’s mind and one’s behaviour. Some people are proud of the fact that they never change their minds! But if we think that we have understood something completely, then we need to be very careful. The presumption that we have understood everything renders us incapable of listening with openness to the word of God. In reality, we have an amazing God-given capacity for changing our mind, altering our behaviour, for growth and development. The son who at first refuses to go into the vineyard had made his own inclinations into an absolute. But then he overcomes his original rigidity and repents. Each one of us must engage in this battle constantly! We must allow our relationship with the Father to overcome our own habits and tendencies. To fulfil the will of the Father, we must permit our ideas to be challenged, we must be open to interior change. The publicans and prostitutes go to heaven before the Pharisees because they repent. They are aware of their own grave shortcomings. They are not content with their own “righteousness” as the Pharisees are, and thus they abandon themselves before the righteousness of God. The word “conversion” is central in the Christian life. It is not possible to be a spouse, a parent, or a friend, unless we have a constant capacity for conversion. The Greek term is metanoia which means “to go beyond one’s own way of thinking”. We need to live with constant openness. This openness saves our existence and makes it beautiful because it opens us to God.

The capacity to change behaviour, to admit error, is a wonderful thing

Rabbinic literature speaks of something that God created to "rebalance" the chaos of the world. In Hebrew, this thing is called teshuvah and means "conversion". It is the act of "going back", the ability to reverse course, retrace one's steps, change one's mind about things. Who is greater, the one who does not make mistakes, or the one who knows how to admit mistakes? Of course,  the first person doesn’t exist, but the question is useful because it underlines the importance of knowing how to change course, knowing how to consciously contradict oneself for the good. There are people who boast of having always had the same ideas, of never having changed position. Their lives are based on granite-like, immovable certainties. Often, they have difficulty with nuances and changes. Living next to them can be torture, however, because they are so fixed in their opinions and practices.

The ability to change one’s mind is a sign both of youth and of maturity. We must be open to the voice of the Lord. If we remain stuck in our own ways, listening only to our own counsel, then we are on the path of self-destruction

To be able to grow, to question oneself, to learn something new, to do things differently  - these are signs both of youth and of maturity. There are elderly people with open hearts like children, and there are young people whose ideas are stiff and old! Changing your mind should not be an occasional event, it should something that you are always ready to do. Otherwise you will not listen and never learn anything new. What is the worst threat that God makes in the scriptures? “But my people did not listen to my voice, Israel did not obey me. I abandoned him to the hardness of his heart. I let him follow his own counsel!"(Ps 81.12s). In the Our Father, we ask not to be led into temptation, not to be left to the mercy of ourselves. Saint Bernard used to say: "Whoever makes himself a teacher of himself becomes the disciple of a fool". A culture that "follows its own counsel" takes the path of self-destruction. It ends up permitting practices that injure itself, thinking that it is doing what is right.

The first of the two sons represents those who are righteous on the outside only; those who have the external appearance of virtue, but who are really living a tortuous life; a façade of righteousness while their hearts are far from being virtuous. The second son represents those who have sinned but who convert, repent, humble themselves and change their way of life.

In the parable of the two sons, one of the boys responds badly and later repents, while the other says a superficial "Yes, sir!” but does nothing. In the case of this son who does not go to work in the vineyard, the father's word has no effect on him. The son says the right thing, but he is really uttering the name of God in vain, boasting willingness to be obedient, but in reality doing what he likes, following his own counsel. The great Mounier described the typical Christian of his generation with these words (paraphrased): "Caught between the moral conviction that he expresses more or less openly and the real motivation that he conceals, partly out of spiritual conformity, partly out of impotence, he subscribes to vague compromises of life. Indeed he does not even subscribe to them; he just puts up with them. We are more willing to put up with a bad conscience than a bad reputation. Thus, having set his relations with himself obliquely, with a face that only half belongs to him, lacking in real virtue, he leads a tortuous life”. If we call ourselves Christians, we mustn’t live banal lives, with external “virtue” only, but be converted interiorly. It is better to repent, to deny ourselves, to humble ourselves, to make ourselves small, to know how to ask for forgiveness and change our attitude. As Jesus tells us, the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom before the Pharisees. For the former there is hope because they are willing to change. It is better to convert and ask for forgiveness than to remain in an illusory state of external righteousness.

September 20^th 2020. The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 20, 1-16

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 20, 1-16

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. 
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard. 
Going out about nine o’clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
So they went off. 
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o’clock, and did likewise. 
Going out about five o’clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
They answered, ‘Because no one has hired us.’
He said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard.’
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
‘Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.’
When those who had started about five o’clock came,
each received the usual daily wage. 
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage. 
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
‘These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day’s burden and the heat.’
He said to one of them in reply,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you. 
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? 
Take what is yours and go. 
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? 
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? 
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

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

 

Summary . . . In today’s society many people seem to live rudderless lives. They appear to be without direction. Many young people are no longer even looking for meaningful work. We might feel inclined to judge such people. We might start complaining about how little they do in the service of the Lord. The parable for Sunday, however, teaches us that this issue is not about justice. It is not a matter of: “They worked less, yet they are receiving the same reward of eternal life. That’s not fair!” God created us in his image and likeness and gave us the privilege of administering creation. When we work in God’s service, we are becoming what we were made to be. We are ennobled. Our lives are given meaning. The tragedy of employment is twofold: the economic hardship and the humiliation of not being useful to others, of not having that meaning. Being able to work is a joyful privilege. There are those in the Church who complain about others who seem to serve the Lord less than they do. But this is to fail to appreciate their own blessed faith of being joined to the Lord in this way when they cooperate in his work.

 

Today, many people live lives that seem to be heading nowhere. Should we judge them? Complain to them that they have not done all the service that I have done? But if we look at the question from the point of view of human dignity, then we see that there is a sense in which their dignity needs to be built up and affirmed.

The master says to those he finds idle outside, "Why are you standing here all day doing nothing?" Many people live in a state of inconsistency. Their lives seem to be inconclusive. How come? Many young people seem like a car with the gear in “neutral”, you push on the pedal but the car remains stationary. Why so? Let's try to read this parable from the perspective  of human dignity. Work is tiring and burdensome, of course; but being employed is a dignified condition that permits a person to provide for himself and his family. The tragedy of unemployment has two aspects: the economic one and the no-less tragic one of dignity. What makes the unemployed suffer is not only that they cannot afford to live, but also that they can suffer the humiliation of feeling useless. Seeing that no one needs me, I must be useless. In the same way, old people can become embittered. They can feel that there is no need for them, that no-one really wants them.

 

God gave us the gift of work. We are to govern and administer his creation. This gift of work derives from the fact that we are made in his image and likeness, and he is fundamentally creative. Being able to work gives us nobility and makes us who we are.

Having a job is a great thing. It is the first gift of God to man: "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and give him dominion over the fish of the sea and on the birds of the sky ..." In fact, in Hebrew, the verb "to dominate" means “to govern, to administer”. It is a dimension that derives from our similarity with God. It is something heavenly that lives within us, ennobles us and makes us who we are, leading us to create all the good there is.

 

Idleness and sloth are signs that a soul is adrift. Being able to work for the Lord, by contrast, is a blessed state. The “salary” of working for the Lord is that it gives meaning to my life today and leads me to eternal life. Serving the Lord does not furnish the Lord with anything, but it fulfils me and makes me whole.

The phenomenon of a growing number of young people who are not looking for work is a serious matter. Effectively, it means that their souls are adrift; that they have not made the connection between effort and the reward that comes from effort. What a blessed state, to be able to work, toil and tire for something valid. How wonderful it is to serve the Lord, to be employed by the best of Masters, who knows how to give the wages of today, which is the meaning of life, who invites us to do such beautiful things, his works. Saint Paul says: "Proclaiming the Gospel is not a boast for me, because it is a necessity that is imposed on me" (1 Cor 9:16) That is, serving the Lord does not give me privileges. Rather it fulfills my needs, and makes me whole. I do not serve Him when I do His will, but the opposite.

 

The workers who toiled all day think that an injustice has been done to them. But this parable is not about justice! It is about the joy and the privilege of being able to work for the Lord. Those who only worked for an hour enjoyed less of this holy privilege. The happy state of serving the Lord gives meaning to my life. When I am busy doing the work of the Lord, I am becoming what I have been created to be: a creature in the image and likeness of God.

The workers in the parable who toiled all day felt that the master was not making sense in giving the same pay to those who worked for only an hour. But do you know what the real nonsense is?  It is when we do not understand or appreciate the real reward of this master. It is when we wait aimlessly for someone to give real meaning to our heart, even though he is already here. The workers who laboured all day felt that they had been done an injustice. But this is not a question of justice. If someone in the Church reproaches those who work little for the Lord, then they have not understood their own blessed fate. The alternative is between a life spent in holy effort for his will, or a life of emptiness.

September 13th 2020. The Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 18, 21-35

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 18, 21-35

Peter went up to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.

‘And so the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants. When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents; but he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt. At this, the servant threw himself down at his master’s feet. “Give me time” he said “and I will pay the whole sum.” And the servant’s master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt. Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him. “Pay what you owe me” he said. His fellow servant fell at his feet and implored him, saying, “Give me time and I will pay you”. But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt. His fellow servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him. Then the master sent for him. “You wicked servant,” he said “I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you?” And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt. And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.’

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

 

Summary . . . In the Gospel passage, Jesus recounts a parable to help us understand how to forgive others continually. The starting point is to recall that each one of us has enormous debts. Each one of us is in debt to God, to nature, to others, for the poor use of our intelligence, for the lack of love we have shown in our actions. The fact that God is ready to forgive us these sins should be central when it comes to the challenge of forgiving others. In fact, our relationship with others must be illuminated by the nature of our relationship with God. God forgives me and I live by his mercy. Am I then to be ungrateful for his loving mercy in my lack of forgiveness towards others? One of the Beatitudes says: Blessed are the merciful, they shall have mercy shown onto them. The dynamo of my relationship with others ought to be gratitude for the fact that I have been forgiven by the Lord. Let us be aware that God is a Father who is always on our side! Let us rejoice in the mercy of God which each one of us needs desperately. In the parable, a servant has a truly colossal debt. In fact, Jesus chose an enormous magnitude of debt to make it clear that repayment was impossible. How can a man who has been forgiven so much be so unforgiving to others? Because the servant in the parable deludes himself into thinking he can pay it back! And for that reason, he expects others to pay back immediately what they owe him. This servant has all the characteristics of a serial debtor, who needs counselling to help him face up to what he owes. Who is this serial debtor? It is each one of us! We all owe more than we can pay, so let us stop thinking that we can settle our debts with the Lord. This attitude causes us to expect others to settle their debts with us, immediately! Rather, let us live in gratitude for the mercy of God. And may this gratitude inform us of how we relate to others. We live by the grace of the mercy of the Lord. Therefore, let us show mercy in our relationships with others.

 

Let us try to understand how a man who has been forgiven so much can be so unforgiving to others.

The parable of this Sunday's Gospel is prompted by Peter's question: “If my brother commits an offence against me, how many times should I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus replies: "Not seven times, but seventy-seven times ", in other words, always. The Lord then recounts the parable, which is to help us understand how to forgive in this way. A servant has just been freed by the king of an enormous debt, but he goes on to punish a colleague who owed him only a small sum. The question is: how can a man who has been forgiven so much be so severe with someone who owes him much less?

 

The servant in the parable is unaware of the magnitude of his debt. He thinks that he can pay it back, even though the sum is colossal. The only think he needs is for the king to be patient. The problem is not the size of the debt in itself, but the size of the King’s patience!

Let us try to understand where this attitude comes from: the servant owes ten thousand talents to the king in the parable. This is a monstrous debt when you consider that a talent, at the time of Jesus, was worth about thirty kilos of gold! More than five hundred million euros in today's currency ... a truly colossal amount. We do not understand how this situation arose, but the debtor's response should be noted: "Have patience with me and I will pay you everything back". This is more absurd than the size of the debt: the idea of being able to pay it all back! The servant does not say "I will give back what I can", but "I will give back everything". This is impossible, the debt is too great, but what is most revealing is the beginning of the sentence: "Have patience with me and I will pay back". This shows us that, for the servant, the problem is not the amount, but the patience of the king. If the king is patient, the thing will be resolved; he must simply wait and the money will arrive, in full. The servant believes that he just needs time, he doesn't really feel in debt. Those who provide counselling for serial debtors would recognize this precise mentality: they think they have no real debts; people just need to have a little patience with them; this is just a difficult moment, it will pass; a little calm, and everything will be resolved. When debtors think like this, they are incurable. They have developed an entrenched victim attitude - the responsibility is always someone else's and the problem is denied.

 

Who are these serial debtors? They are us! We all owe more than we can pay, so let us stop thinking that we can settle our debts with the Lord. This attitude causes us to expect others to settle their debts with us, immediately! Rather, we live by the grace of the mercy of God, and this must be central in how we relate to others. We live by mercy. Therefore, let us show mercy.

But these people are no strangers to us, are they! We are those chronic debtors! We all tend to have the idea that we are  able to pay our debts, that we are able to stop sinning. All we need is a little more commitment, a little more determination. If I decide to stop committing this sin, then I will stop, you will see. But this is false! It is a fallacy that makes us look at the debts owed to us by others as debts that should be settled, right now! After all, if I wanted to, I could settle my debts with God and stop sinning. Therefore, these other people should stop offending me, immediately. Unfortunately, it is a fact that overcoming one's sinful behaviour is a very difficult process. Good will alone, for the most serious problems of our inner life, is not enough. There is only one solution for settling these accounts that do not add up. If we settle them with the Lord, they will never come back. The solution is to live in mercy. We can't afford to maintain unresolved estrangements with anyone. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy".

Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time. September 7th 2020

September 7^th 2020. The Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 16, 21-27

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Matthew 16, 21-27

‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you:
the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge.

‘But if he refuses to listen to these,
report it to the community;
and if he refuses to listen to the community,
treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.

‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.

‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’

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

 

Summary . . . Jesus tells us that if we ask for anything in his name, it will be granted. Really? Then why do our prayers every Sunday in church seem to have such little result? The problem is not so much what we ask for, but the MANNER  in which we do the asking. How distracted and automatic are our prayers in church! We show more attention when we click “ok” to accept cookies on the internet. The thing that is lacking the most in our prayer is COMMUNION. When that communion appears, God appears and our prayers are effective. Gatherings, assemblies, reunions are not necessarily communions! People standing in the same geographical location is not a communion! Fraternal communion is so important that Jesus gives instructions at the beginning of this Gospel passage for how to resolve differences with a brother or sister. The objective of all of this effort is to gain a brother. Some people do everything for money or fame, but Jesus wants us to do everything to gain brothers and sisters!  By the way, does Jesus in this Gospel tells us to shun those who remain stubbornly in error? No! People rejected Jesus and crucified him, but he didn’t shun them, he laid down his life for them! When Jesus says, “let them be to you like the pagan or tax collector”, let us recall that Jesus died for the pagan and tax collector.

 

Jesus tells us that if we ask for anything in his name, it will be granted. Really? Then why do our prayers every Sunday in church seem to have such little result? The problem is not so much what we ask for, but the manner in which we do the asking.

"If two of you on earth agree to ask for anything, my Father who is in heaven will grant it to you." Our attention is naturally drawn to the words "anything", and we are intrigued by the greatness of the promise: could we really ask for anything? Even an end of all war? These words of Jesus seem to say that there is no limit to the power of prayer. This leaves us perplexed, because it seems too unrealistic. Don’t the facts seem to show the opposite? Every Sunday, enormous things are asked in the prayers of the faithful, but with what result? However, maybe the central issue that Jesus wishes to emphasize is not the power of the request, but the previous condition: "If two of you on earth come to an agreement". The strength of prayer does not come from the things we ask for, but the manner in which we ask. If there is communion between brothers, union of hearts, unity of purpose, then we have prayer that is effective.

 

How distracted and automatic are our prayers in church! The thing that is lacking the most in our prayer is communion. When that communion appears, God appears.

If we examine our Sunday assemblies with the reading of prefabricated prayers of the faithful, we see that often the reader and the congregation are not really praying together with a communion of hearts. The crowd responds “Lord hear us” in a distracted and automatic way, with no more attention than the ok we give to cookies on a website. Did we ask for an end to all wars? Yup? Really? We see that prayer of this sort is useless because it is not prayer at all, just noise coming from our mouths. Sometimes, during these assemblies, we do indeed pray from the heart, but it still may not be a prayer done in communion with our brothers and sisters. The thing we are lacking most in the Church and which renders prayer, preaching and our presence in the world ineffective, is communion among us. When that communion appears, God appears. "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." Not "together in the same place", but "gathered in my name".

 

Gatherings, assemblies, reunions are not necessarily communions

If we meet for afternoon tea, a business meeting, or a local community gathering, then what we have is a geographical coincidence, not communion. Sometimes we attend Church as if we were going to the supermarket: everyone takes out of it the things that they need, sometimes just the appeasing of conscience - because they feel guilty if they don't go to Mass. But what Christ wants is communion between us. When that communion is a reality, he gives us what we ask for, because when we are in communion we ask for beautiful things. For this reason, the first part of the Gospel speaks of fraternal relationships, especially with brothers who are in error: "If he listens to you, you will have gained your brother". You try to sort it out with him alone, then you ask for help from others, and finally you talk about it to the community in order to restore the relationship. There are those who give everything to earn money or fame. And then there are those who earn brothers! In truth, for this communion, you would do anything.

 

Does Jesus tells us to shun those who remain stubbornly in error? No! When people rejected Jesus and crucified him, he laid down his life for them! When Jesus says, “let them be to you like the pagan or tax collector”, let us remember that Jesus died for the pagan and tax collector.

A final note: Jesus says that if our brother still refuses to listen, "let him be for you like a pagan or a tax collector". Does this mean that we are to shun him? No! In the Gospel, the pagan and the tax collector are the ones we are asked to love even when they don't listen. They are the ones for whom to give one's life because it is the only way to touch their hearts. At the crucifixion, many people in Jerusalem shouted, “Crucify him!” Did Jesus shun them? No he died for them, and at Pentecost these same people became the first Christians.