November 29th 2020. First Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Mark 13:33-37

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

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

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GOSPEL: Mark 13:33-37

Jesus said to his disciples:

"Be watchful! Be alert!

You do not know when the time will come.

It is like a man traveling abroad.

He leaves home and places his servants in charge,

each with his own work,

and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.

Watch, therefore;

you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,

whether in the evening, or at midnight,

or at cockcrow, or in the morning.

May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.

What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The first reading from Isaiah is very beautiful and deserves to be read. In it we hear the cry of a people who are poor, miserable and oppressed. They have sinned and turned away from God, but now they know they need him and they call on him to come! This too is our cry! The issue is not about knowing when the Lord is going to come: the issue is being ready at all times to encounter that which is greater than us, that which is life-giving. Since the time of Adam and Eve, we have tried to have things under our control, but the coming of the Lord into our lives is completely in the hands of God. Waiting for the Lord and being vigilant for his coming is essential. Waiting, in fact, is an important part of life. From the waiting involved in pregnancy to the waiting involved in giving time to others, life calls us to forgo the things that we want to do right now. But our society is hooked on entertainment, distraction and ever-new escapes from reality. Satan is described in Revelation as the one who goes around in a fury because he knows he has little time. Time is a gift of God and we must use it to be obedient, to wait patiently, to look to the Lord, to be on our guard not to let the enemy enter. Those who do not know how to wait on the Lord are driven by appetites, impulses, and interior aggression. This Gospel tries to shake us out of our half-drugged coma in which we carry on, following ourselves and do not look to the Lord. Advent tells us that the King of kings is coming right to our homes and that we must be ready for him! When an important visitor comes, it is right that we get the place in order for him, that we throw out all that is incompatible with his presence.

The first reading from Isaiah is the cry of a people who have turned away from God and now realize that they are desperately in need of his visitation

The very important season of Advent begins, the start of a new liturgical year, and it is set in motion with a word of great beauty and appropriateness from chapter 63 of the prophet Isaiah. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down . . .” Here is expressed the burning desire of a people to be visited by God. This part of the book of Isaiah was written in the period after the exile. The people were poor, miserable and oppressed. “Return for the sake of your servants!” the reading says. “Once you did marvels for us that we did not expect. No eye has seen, no ear has heard any God but you perform such deeds”. This is the recollection by a people in a state of misery of the wonderful deeds the Lord once did for them. But they have not been mindful of the Lord. They have squandered the gift of faith that was given to them. Having brought evil upon themselves, they now are in need of the visitation of God. Various verses from the cry of this poor people, as expressed in chapters 63 and 64 of Isaiah, are put together in our first reading on Sunday.

The issue is not knowing when the Lord will come: the issue is being always ready in life to encounter what is greater than us, to encounter the in-breaking of God into our lives.

How should we welcome the Lord who comes to visit us? Advent tells us that the Lord is not distant in the heavens while we try to get by on earth. This season announces that He is coming to meet us. It is important to be ready and to be free from the wrong sort of expectations. In the Gospel, Jesus says, "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” We could reply: “Tell us when you are coming, Lord, so that we can be ready for you”. But the problem is not that the Lord comes without warning: the issue at the heart of being vigilant is a different matter altogether. We are called as a people to be always ready to encounter that which is greater than we are. But we try to flee from this situation. Since the time of Adam and Eve we have sought the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We wish to know everything that relates to our own destiny and we pretend to be able to keep our lives within the control of our own schemes. But this is not possible! We simply must recognize that we have no other option than to be ready for the unexpected, to be prepared for the occurrence of the sublime, of that which is outside of our control. As the Gospel says, our gatekeeper must be on the look-out. A building without a doorman is liable to have strangers entering and wandering around the house without the owner’s consent. In life, we all have need of a gatekeeper who is constantly on guard. When we are on guard, we can prevent the enemy, deceit, and treachery from entering in. It is essential that we all be vigilant.

Life involves having the ability to wait, the ability to give one’s time up for others and the Lord. Satan is the one who cannot wait because he is so preoccupied with his own schemes

Waiting might seem like a frustrating business, but without waiting there is no life! Pregnancy is a time of waiting. Life involves having the ability to wait. Some people are capable of waiting and giving their time to people, whilst others are impatient. It is interesting that in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, the devil is defined as the one who is full of fury because he knows he has little time. But none of us have our own time in reality because time is made by God. It is not necessary for us to have time but to be obedient to time, obedient to reality. Those who are not obedient to time, those who do not know how to wait, are driven by impulses and appetites and interior aggression. The text tells us to be vigilant at evening, at midnight, at cockcrow and in the morning, the four classic watches of the night when the changing of the guard used to happen. The sentries must always be ready because life is important!

This Gospel tries to shake us out of our half-drugged coma in which we go from one distraction to another, one entertainment to another. This Advent we are called to empty ourselves of those things that are incompatible with our Lord, who is on his way to us very soon

This passage calls us to stop going on in an unthinking daze. Don’t forget, we live in a society hooked on entertainment, diversions, distractions. Our society is, as it were, in a half-drugged coma, constantly looking for new escapes from reality. Advent is the marvellous announcement of the visitation by God, a fact that requires us to have our feet soundly planted in reality. We are called to live in a way that is attentive to life, that is in harmony with what is essential, ready for the visit of our Master who is coming again. He will come again! And when he comes it will be beautiful to be with him. Advent is an illuminating time. It is not a sad time. It is indeed a time of penitence, certainly it is! Everything that is incompatible with the coming of the Lord must be thrown away. The more the better. There is nothing surprising about that. When someone important comes to our house, we get the place in order before he arrives. Let us prepare ourselves for the Lord’s visit because the King of kings is coming right to our door!

Feast of Christ the King - Sunday Gospel Reflection

November 22^nd 2020. Feast of Christ the King.

GOSPEL: Matthew 25: 31-46

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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 and summary

GOSPEL: Matthew 25: 31-46

Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."

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

Summary . . . On this feast of Christ the King, the parable proclaimed by Jesus speaks of a curious sort of universal judgement. It is a judgement on those who never knew Christ during their earthly lives. Christians often worry about how those who don’t know Christ might be redeemed. This parable shows us that those who show compassion towards the poor and needy will be saved. During the Great Jubilee of 2000, St John Paul II asked the wealthy nations of the world to forgive the debts of the poorer nations. This appeal to human solidarity, to the human heart, is something that can be addressed to any human being. The poor of the earth are an entrance ticket to heaven for all of humanity, regardless of religious profession! However, this leaves us with a question. Where do Christians stand in all of this? Matthew’s Gospel has five great discourses. This one here is the last, and the very next verse is the beginning of the Passion! The first discourse – the Sermon on the Mount – begins with the Beatitudes, and this is all about the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn. Then, during the Passion, it is Christ himself who becomes the one who thirsts, the one who is stripped naked, the one who is imprisoned and abandoned. As Christians, we are called to follow Christ, to resemble him, to become the least for the sake of the Kingdom. IN SUMMARY: When we show solidarity to the little ones, we minister to Christ. We are all called to this, Christians and non-Christians alike. But Christians are called to something more, to identify with Christ, to take up our crosses and abandon ourselves to his providence. Then we become little ones ourselves, united to Christ and sharing in his life.

The entrance ticket to the Kingdom of God

Many people will only meet Christ at the end of time, when He will be the authentic measure of every person. At that time, he will show himself for what he is, the King, having already met them and being treated well by them. And they will object, “But no, it can't be, we've never seen you before!” He will reply, "In truth I tell you, everything you did to one of these least of my brothers, you did to me". Many times we have asked ourselves how people who do not know the Lord are saved, but the answer is in this text. Our basic humanity tells us that the hungry and thirsty must be helped; all the poor of the earth must be cared for. It is not necessary to be a Christian to do these things, it is enough to be human. And if it is true that loving God and loving neighbor are the same command, here is a reflection of it. The disadvantaged of the earth are our ticket to heaven. To despise them is to despise heaven, but people often do not realise this until they find themselves in the next world.

Jesus begins his first discourse speaking about the little ones, and he finishes his last discourse speaking about the little ones.

One thing remains to be clarified: what about Christians? Where are they in this text? Christians are those who were made into God’s children by baptism. They are the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, the firstborn of those who overcome death. In the parable, Jesus talks about the “least of my brothers”. These brothers - the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned - are really Christ's disciples. We can see this more clearly if we consider that the Gospel of Matthew is built on the five great discourses of Jesus. Sunday’s passage is the last of the discourses, and the verse immediately following this text, is the first line of the account of the Passion! What were the opening words of the first discourse? We know them well, we heard them recently on the feast of All Saints: they are the Beatitudes. In this discourse, the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the mourners, the persecuted, all are proclaimed blessed. We are talking about the same people. In the first discourse of Jesus, these little ones are the ones who possess the Kingdom of Heaven, and in the last discourse they are the passport to heaven.

Through the Cross, we become the “least of Christ’s brothers”. In other words, we become united to him by taking up our cross and following him. So, if non-Christians can minister to Christ by their care of the least, we Christians can be united to Christ by becoming the least.

But why are these people considered the “least” brothers of Jesus? Because they are like their master, Jesus. In the passion - which begins a verse later – he will be mistreated, stripped, be reduced to thirst and weakness, be imprisoned ... and through all of this he will open the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's summarize: if we act out of our basic humanity, performing the corporal works of mercy, these works will decide the character of our life. By caring for and looking after the poor of this world, we come into contact with the Lord. These works don’t make us a Christian, but human. We become Christian through the cross. The things that cause horror, poverty, sickness, persecution - these are the places that manifest the life that Christ has given us. A life that is stronger than the void. Our humanity is a call to solidarity. Our cross is the place where we become one with Christ. There, in abandonment, we become a piece of heaven. We become Christians.

Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time, November 15 2020

November 15th 2020. Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 14-30

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 25, 14-30

Jesus told his disciples this parable:

"A man going on a journey

called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.

To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--

to each according to his ability. 

Then he went away.

Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,

and made another five.

Likewise, the one who received two made another two. 

But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground

and buried his master's money.

"After a long time

the master of those servants came back

and settled accounts with them.

The one who had received five talents came forward

bringing the additional five. 

He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents. 

See, I have made five more.’

His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. 

Since you were faithful in small matters,

I will give you great responsibilities. 

Come, share your master's joy.’

Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,

'Master, you gave me two talents. 

See, I have made two more.'

His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. 

Since you were faithful in small matters,

I will give you great responsibilities.

Come, share your master's joy.’

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, 

'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,

harvesting where you did not plant

and gathering where you did not scatter;

so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. 

Here it is back.'

His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!

So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant

and gather where I did not scatter? 

Should you not then have put my money in the bank

so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? 

Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. 

For to everyone who has,

more will be given and he will grow rich;

but from the one who has not,

even what he has will be taken away.

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"

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

Summary . . . Last Sunday’s parable of the wedding feast concerned the Lord’s invitation to enter into a relationship with the Bridegroom. This Sunday’s parable of the talents concerns those of us who have already entered into the Lord’s service, and the way in which our Master entrusts a mission to us. By the way, we often think of “talent” as a personal characteristic or quality, but in this parable it refers to the property of the Master entrusted to the servants. Whilst it is true that the Master entrusts a quantity of talents according to the capacities of the servants, the talents nevertheless remain his gift and his property. A talent was hugely valuable, 33 kg of gold. The Master in the parable is very wealthy and also very generous – he gives these enormous quantities of wealth to the servants in the hope that they will use them well. The first two servants invest the wealth wisely. The Master tells them that, because they have been faithful in “little” they will now be given “much”. Of course there was nothing “little” about these talents, but they are small compared to what the Master wants to give them in return – entry into his joy. The third servant buries the talent and returns it to the Master. In response, the Master calls him “wicked”, not because of anything he did, but because of his negative and victimlike attitude. This servant represents each one of us whenever we have the image of God as demanding, harsh, unforgiving and punishing. This image of God will lead us away from the Kingdom. It will fill us with fear and cause us not to use the gifts God has given us for the completion of his mission. Why does God give us these gifts and this mission? Because he is good and generous, and he wants only that we enter into his joy.

In the Gospel, a “talent” is not a quality or capacity of a person but something that is the property of the master

In Sunday’s Gospel, the word “talent” can lead to a small misunderstanding. This word has become synonymous with personal qualities or specific abilities of an individual. There is artistic talent, for example, and many other kinds of gifts that people have. But, in the parable, the talents are the goods of the master, not the qualities of the servants. The master hands over the talents to them and he remains their owner. That is why he will ask them to account for how they used them. It is also true, however, that he gives out the talents "according to the abilities of each one", so the qualities of the person are relevant to some degree, yet the talents remain the property of the master.

Last Sunday, the theme of the Gospel was that we are invited to the wedding feast of the Bridegroom. This Sunday, the parable speaks to those who have entered the Lord’s service already. These people are given a mission, a portion of the master’s goods, to be used to the best of their ability.

What is the theme of the story? In the parable of the ten virgins from last Sunday, the theme was that we are called to enter into a relationship with the Lord, with the Bridegroom who invites us to his feast. The parable of the talents, instead, concerns those who, having already entered the service of the Lord, receive a task from him, a mission. Each person, according to his own characteristics, is entrusted with a portion of the master’s goods, to use them well.

The talents are enormously valuable, but the master considers them “little” in comparison to the “much” that he desires to give to the servants who are faithful. What is this “much”? It is the joy of the master.

The first two servants carry out their mission with similar success, each earning the same amount as they had been given. The master says to both of them: “You have been faithful in little, I will give you power over much; come and share in the joy of your master”. Incidentally, there was nothing “little” about what the master had given  - one talent corresponded to 33 kg of gold, an enormous wealth! In fact, this is a very rich master, and he is actually handing what he has over to his servants. Yet, according to him, these riches are "little" in comparison to the joy of the owner. That is the "much" that awaits those who had been faithful in “little”.

The problem with the third servant is that he sees his master as demanding, unforgiving, harsh and punishing, when in reality our Master is generous and joyful, whose only desire is  our perfect happiness 

The third servant declares: "I was afraid and I hid your talent in the ground". He did not use the goods received out of fear. And he explains the reason for this fear: "I know that you are a hard man, that you reap where you have not sown and you gather where you have not scattered." Who is the master, according to this third servant? A tough and demanding type. He asks for what he has no right to ask, he collects where he has not scattered. His requests are really hidden traps. It is better to give him back what he owns and not even try to use it. This servant manifests to us a particular and common vision of God: harsh and demanding, someone who is always asking too much, someone who is very quick to condemn and torture us.  In reply, the master describes the servant as “wicked”, not because of what he did, but because of his negative and victimlike thinking. This absurd idea of God is the door to hell, the route away from the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead, when the Master calls us to do his will, to a mission, it is all for one reason only: to bring us into his joy! Our Master is not severe, but generous and joyful. His will brings us peace.

Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday Gospel Reflection

November 8th 2020. The Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: 

‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out”. But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves”. They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you”. So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel parable for Sunday is about the bridesmaids who are waiting for the arrival of the Bridegroom. Each one of us knows intuitively that we were created for something important and beautiful! We were created to encounter fulness, to encounter the Spouse of our hearts. If we lose the sense of waiting for this ultimate encounter, then we become shadows of ourselves. Even if our Spouse seems to delay in coming, it is worth waiting for him because he is so beautiful. Woe to those who extinguish hope in the hearts of young people! We need to say to young people with confidence: prepare yourself well for your mission of being parent, spouse, friend, student; you are being called to an encounter with the beautiful! Fill up with oil the jars of your existence! If it is necessary to wait for a while and be vigilant, then so be it! We must educate our young people so that they are know how to be vigilant for what is truly beautiful and meaningful, instead of living instinctive lives of vanity and emptiness. Our young people are often fixated with the transitory, with the next weekend, as if nothing else mattered, but they need to learn to use this present moment to prepare for something greater. Now is the time to fill our jars with oil. We do not know when the Bridegroom will come, only that he surely will, perhaps on the last day of our lives to lead us into the feast of heaven, or maybe at a critical moment when we wants us to show love to someone in difficulty. Be that as it may, now is the time to fill our jars with oil. At times, life challenges us to do something important or difficult, and we are there with our reserves empty. Let us be ready for action, filled with oil. Sometimes we are visited by beauty, but we are oriented to what is empty or fleeting, we are distracted, and we end up not growing. Let us be ready. Let us not trust tin ourselves but wait for the Lord.

Three parables in Matthew 25 are directed to three different groups of people: those who never knew Christ; those who work in the service of the Church; and those of us who are invited to enter into relationship with Christ here on earth.

Chapter 25 of Matthew provides the readings for the three last Sundays of this liturgical year, with three parables on the judgments to which humanity will be subjected. The third parable is for those who meet Jesus for the first time at the end of time, the scene of the King-Shepherd who divides "all peoples" among those who, even if they did not know it, took care of and welcomed Jesus in the poor, and those who did not reach out to the poor. The second parable (that of the talents) is for those who have been in the service of the Lord. Have they carried out their mission in the way they were called to? This Sunday's parable is the first one in the chapter, and it is for those who were called to enter the feast together with the Bridegroom. They are those who have been given the privilege of encountering the Bridegroom and being invited by him into the Wedding feast to which humanity is destined, the salvation for which we were born. Have we made use of this opportunity or wasted it?

These parables have a serious message. We can fail and can lose the blessings that were possible for us.

In all three cases we are faced with a dividing line, a crossroads where life always has only two opposite outcomes: we end up either inside or outside! This is the tragic dimension of our existence; it is a fact that we are headed either towards the light or the darkness. We are challenged to accept this serious message: life can be wasted; we can misuse the chances we are given to make life beautiful. Whether we like this message or not, it is a fact. There is value in knowing that failure is possible and that we must get our act together. 

We have an innate sense that life has an ultimate meaning. We know intuitively that we are destined to enter into relationship with the Bridegroom. It is essential that we do not lose the sense of living for what is noble, just and beautiful.

In our parable, the meeting with the Bridegroom is not accidental but is the result of a period of waiting. We naturally have an expectation that life is leading to something meaningful; we understand from childhood that we were not born by chance; we sense that we are moving towards something important, that there is someone we are destined to meet. Every person who comes into the world is “programmed” for what is true, noble, just, lovable, and what is worth waiting for. And he must not miss that which he is destined for.

Like the ten young girls, each one of us tends either to live life seriously, aiming to do all things well, or we live it instinctively.

The ten young girls in the parable are awaiting their encounter with what is beautiful, but they wait in two different ways. Some do it instinctively, without preparation: they go out with their lamps and wait, without thinking about it. But important things should not be done in such a superficial way! The others make an investment for the beauty they expect to encounter, procuring extra oil for their lamps. For them, there is something at stake that is worth spending money on, worth the effort of preparation and organization. They are wise and are using their heads, whilst the others are foolish. Each one of us tends to be like these two types of youth: either we prepare for great things and aim high, or we base our lives on the immediate, on instinct. 

We all have opportunities to fill the “jars” that will provide light for our lamp. Each day, we have these possibilities to prepare, to grow, to unite ourselves with the Bridegroom

But those who sense the depth and riches of life are right. They feel the greatness of things and consider it worthwhile to prepare for it, to strive for it, to be ready to embrace it. There are many opportunities to grow and to prepare, at any age! We need to fill the “little jars” that we have with the graces that we receive here and there. These are the opportunities to receive oil, perfume, and a source of light for our lamp. It pays to prepare. Hope, says St Paul, does not disappoint.