December 26th 2021.  Feast of the Holy Family

GOSPEL: Luke 2, 41-52

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

 

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

 

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GOSPEL                                  Luke 2:41-52

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

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

 

HOMILY

1. Our life is not just biological. There is something distinctive, other about us.

In the first reading, we hear the story of Hannah who gives her child to the service of the Lord. Her son, Samuel – of which two books of the Old Testament are named – becomes a very important figure for Israel. This story of a lady who greatly desired a son but then gives him up to the Lord might seem strange, but it offers us a perspective on this Feast of the Holy Family. The second reading, from the letter of John, tells us that we are really children of God. But aren’t we really children of our biological parents? Not only; there is something more, and this feast highlights that fact. The Hebrew word for holiness refers to something distinct, separate. In our human lives there is something distinctive that we must become aware of. Our life is not just biology! There is a deep mystery in our lives.

 

2. Jesus says that he is “in” the things of the Father. What does this mean?

The Gospel recounts the finding in the Temple. Every year they go to Jerusalem for the Passover, and on this occasion it is Jesus himself who “passes over”, in the original sense of the term. At twelve years old, as would be typical for a Jewish boy of his age, Jesus shows that he has gone beyond infancy. When his parents cannot find him, they expect that he is in the “caravan” a term that refers to the normal walking together of the people, but Jesus has gone beyond the common pathway of men. They find him in the Temple with the masters of Israel. As is completely normal, Mary reproaches her son and asks why he has done this. Jesus’ reply, in the original Greek of the Gospel, means, “Did you not know that I must be in the things of my Father?” This moment in which Jesus shows his maturity of faith is a lesson for all of us: we too must recognize that we must be “in” the things of the Father. Our parents have given us our flesh and blood, but prepared us for something that is greater than our biology. We see this in every Eucharist in which the elements become more – the body of Christ. We too who are baptized are called to be something more, to be truly children of God.

 

3. Our culture no longer supports the family. For a family to survive, it must place itself “in” the things of the Father.

Once our culture supported and protected the family. In our time, this support no longer exists. A couple who wish to marry and begin a family must go against the current. Our culture has a “single” mentality. It emphasizes individual interests like entertainment and material wealth. The pathway that humanity is now treading does not help the challenges of the family. These difficulties that confront us are actually an opportunity to realize that our life is a life according to heaven. When a man and woman love each other but then encounter problems, they should remember that there is much more here than their human fragility. God is with them and they are invited to forgive, welcome, and care for the other. If they are to survive the challenges to the family, they must place themselves “in” the things of God. This is true of everything in life, but especially in the business of the indissoluble relation of marriage.

 

4. If we remain at the level of our own good qualities and talents, we will never unveil the mystery of our true greatness.

Mary and Joseph must live this moment of anguish as they discover that the salvation being achieved by this child is now becoming manifest. This Sunday all of us are called to do the same, to “pass over”, to experience Easter, to make a qualitative leap in our lives. To live a great life, we must have a relationship with the one who is Greatness itself, to see things as the Father sees them. Only then can a human father and a human mother raise their child so that he will discover who is truly is. If we remain at the level of our own good qualities and talents, we will never unveil the mystery of our true greatness. We need to be among the things of the Father! We need to go beyond the purely human, to experience Easter, to walk with the Lord, no longer merely walking the pathway of humanity.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

It can be traumatic for families when children begin to take different paths to those expected by their parents. But it is a grave matter if parents do not allow their children the freedom to be the people that the Lord is calling them to be. Parents must accept the trauma of the mystery of the otherness of their children. And how true this was of Jesus! Mary had experienced the Annunciation and knew that this child was extraordinary. But even she has to live through the trauma of the unexpected. In the Gospel, Jesus leaves the path that the family is taking and walks a road that is his own. When they find him in the Temple, he has a wisdom and a way of reasoning that is surprising to everyone. A child at twelve years of age (typically) begins to manifest his own identity. It is at this stage that a parent must accompany rather than force a child. The parent must allow the child to flower according to what God has sown within, not according to parental expectations! Yes, it is traumatic when a child takes his own path, but it is healthy and terribly important that he do so. When Jesus says, “I must take care of my Father’s business”, the phrase in the original Greek really signifies, “I must be in my Father’s business”. What this means is that Jesus is totally caught up in his relationship with his Father. It is impossible for him to be any other way. And the same should be true for each one of us! We are created by God and our existence receives its true meaning from its connection with God. If we are to live authentically, then we must base on lives on our primary relationship with the Father. Once we do this, then all the other relationships in our lives and in our families are ordered properly. Without God, our relationships with others are at a horizontal level. It is because of this that many familial relationships end up broken. But once we base all other relationships upon our primary connection with the Father, then these other relationships begin to draw life from the God who is the source of life. The passage ends with the return of the family to Nazareth and Jesus’ submission to Mary and Joseph. This is true for all families. If I have the correct relationship with our heavenly Father, then I can have a correct relationship with everyone else. Our families in the modern world are so fragile and broken. They are saved by our connection with God, not by human techniques. With God we are freed from our dependencies on empty things and we become free to construct our families on their only authentic foundation, our relationship with God. This Christmas, let us contemplate the Christ who is born of the Father. May we too become new creatures whose life derives from our relationship with the Lord.

December 19th 2021.  Fourth Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Luke 1, 39-45

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

 

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

 

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GOSPEL: Luke 1, 39-45

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

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

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. When we have authentic faith, we are filled with zeal to do the good things the Spirit prompts is to do. We act with joy because we are motivated by something beautiful and illuminating.

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we have the description of the encounter between Mary and Elizabeth, two women who are pregnant by the extraordinary grace of God, one who was too old to conceive, the other a virgin. How is this passage relevant to our preparation for Christmas? At the Annunciation, the angel had told Mary about the pregnancy of Elizabeth, thus giving her a sign of the course of action she must follow. Mary responds by leaving “in haste”. The original Greek term means to do something with zeal, with zealous attention to doing something well. This is a characteristic of authentic faith, which expresses itself in joy at doing what needs to be done. One rejoices at what one is doing when one is motivated by something beautiful and illuminating.

 

2. Heaven salutes Mary and Mary salutes Elizabeth. It is like a wave of greeting initiated by God. Before we can say something worthwhile to the world, we must listen to God. Otherwise what we say is mediocre and barren. It is more urgent to improve our listening ability than our communication ability.

Mary enters Elizabeth’s house and salutes her cousin. In response, the infant leaps in Elizabeth’s womb. The Greek word for “salute” indicates to open oneself to the other; it refers to the initiating of the encounter, the onset of the relationship. Interestingly, the angel Gabriel had saluted Mary with the words, “Hail, full of grace!” Heaven had saluted Mary, and now Mary salutes Elizabeth. It is like a progressive wave of greeting initiated in heaven. Heaven salutes us and we in turn salute the world. If we do not open ourselves to heaven’s communication, if we do not say yes, then we remain mediocre and barren in our relationship with the world. But when we welcome what heaven is communicating to us, we can say marvellous things to the world. Often, what we as Christians say to others is based at efforts to improve our communication skills, but what we really need to do is receive better what heaven is saying to us. Before saluting others, we must first listen and allow ourselves to be saluted by heaven.

 

3. We have all been visited by grace. Let us contemplate it and recognize it. Let us allow ourselves to be filled with joy at the way God has manifested his love by coming among us and touching me personally.

This salutation that comes from Mary – who has opened herself to the word of God – becomes in turn the leap of John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb. What has just happened to John the Baptist in the womb is something we have all experienced to some degree. When the Gospel is preached to us in the right way, our hearts are moved within us. Like John the Baptist, we too have the Holy Spirit. We must seek to remember the joy we experienced on those occasions when we heard the Gospel being announced to us properly. Just as Elizabeth, simply upon hearing the voice of Mary, was conscious of the presence of God, so each one of us innately perceives the operation of God in our lives. Each one of us has been touched by grace and experienced the beauty of God at some point. Elizabeth says, “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled”. To that we can add that we are blessed if we welcome the joy that comes with belief that the Lord is fulfilling his promises. This Advent may we welcome the Good News, welcome with joy the visit of the Lord, nurture that joy in our hearts so that it becomes a song of exultation. At the visitation we have two women who sing with joy at the life that is being born. In all of us, new life can be born, if only we welcome it and recognize it. Let us not repress our joy before the Good News, the love of God that presents itself through grace in our lives.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

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

December 12th 2021.  Gaudete Sunday - Third Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Luke 3, 10-18

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

 

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

 

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GOSPEL: Luke 3, 10-18

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

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

 

SUMMARIZED HOMILY

1. John the Baptist shows us how to place ourselves in the right condition to receive the Lord, but good actions do not redeem us. The Gospel is the announcement of what God does, not what we have done.

This third Sunday of Advent – Gaudete Sunday – recalls that authentic faith leads to the joy of salvation. In the first reading from Zephaniah we are told to rejoice because we have been liberated from our condemnation: “Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! The LORD has removed the judgment against you”. In last week’s Gospel, John the Baptist spoke about levelling the mountains and valleys, but this week’s passage contains practical advice for doing good, acts of kindness, generosity and fraternity. Even the soldiers and tax-collectors – the latter were considered irredeemable – are given concrete instructions for placing themselves on the path of salvation. All of these instructions represent what a human being can do to better himself. The people start to believe that John is the Messiah, but he corrects them, for the joy that the real Messiah brings is not something that can be obtained by our actions alone. In another passage from the Gospels, Jesus tells us that John is the greatest man ever born, but is yet the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, what the Baptist brings is not the salvation of the Messiah. In fact, John himself says that he is only pointing to the one who is coming, the stronger one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire.

 

2. Our good actions cannot vanquish the sin that is within us.

The Good News contained here is that the power of God goes beyond our works and can achieve what we cannot manage by ourselves. We are unable to vanquish the ancient evil that is within us, but Jesus is stronger and can overcome it and renew our lives. If the Good News was simply an announcement of what we can achieve, then the Gospel would be nothing more than a code of ethics. The true Gospel involves placing ourselves on the path of the good – as John teaches – and then Goodness himself comes to us, enters into our existence, removing our folly, our stubbornness, the interior burdens that distort us and make us ugly. The Gospel is not an announcement of what humanity does but what God does. Yet, it is essential that we make the effort to do good and to place ourselves in a condition to receive the Lord when he comes.

 

3. Jesus brings the Holy Spirit, a fire that purifies that within us which is immature and unresolved, leading to a life that is joyful and fruitful.

Then we will be baptised – immersed fully and intimately – with the Holy Spirit. The fire mentioned here is, above all, a fire that purifies, eliminates. May this fire arrive in our hearts and burn away that which is immature, infantile, blocked, unresolved, so that the Holy Spirit can thus give us the joy of living, the beauty and joy of salvation. The salvation offered to us by the Lord is much greater than our good intentions or our force of will. It is something that can transform our lives into something beautiful. This is not a theory. Many men and women of history have experienced this eruption of God in their lives, the new life that burns the chaff with inextinguishable flams and yields the good wheat.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

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

​

December 5th 2021.  Second Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Luke 3, 1-6

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

 

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

 

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GOSPEL: Luke 3, 1-6

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

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

 

SUMMARY OF HOMILY

1. Is Advent about preparing a road for the Lord, or for finding the right road for ourselves?

The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Advent recounts the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in John the Baptist. The theme of this passage from Isaiah, and also the first reading from Baruch, is that of return from Babylon after seventy years of purification in exile. The theme of return is fundamental in Scripture. The word “conversion” in Hebrew signifies to return to the good origins, to turn around and go back to the place of truth. Conversion, the forgiveness of sins, the call to change path, are the road by which the Messiah comes. Question: is this road a way that we must follow, or is it the road by which Christ comes? On the one hand, it is the Lord’s way and we must allow him to enter into our lives. However, on the other hand, the way is ours, for we must put ourselves on the right road so that we can receive him.

 

2. Two things distract us from the Lord: our mountains of pride and self-reliance, our valleys of being bogged down in our sins.

 

John the Baptist says:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low”.

 

The Lord is coming, but we must be on the straight path to receive him, and this requires filling in the valleys and levelling the mountains. This is referring to internal transformations. In the Magnificat, Mary speaks of raising the humble and bringing down those who are proud of heart. Thus, the levelling and raising that John the Baptist speaks of are actually existential or spiritual matters. How do we make sure that we see the Lord when he comes? The problem is that we are distracted by our own things, and there are two aspects to this – the mountains and the valleys. It is essential that we do not absolutize two extreme tendencies. The first is to give two much importance to our sins, forgetting that the Lord has forgiven us. The second is to delude ourselves, thinking that our own ideas are the truth, that our own ways are the best ways, that our own capacities are important. “Lowering the mountains and filling the valleys” is the art of being freed from our own twisted paths, our egocentric ways of thinking that seem straight to us but are distorted in the eyes of the Lord. We follow our own projects, seeking after things and results that the Lord has not given us. Advent is a manual for de-absolutization. When the Lords arrives, he must find us, not our projects and ideas, not our sins or our self-exaltation.

 

3. In the end, we are the ground that the Lord wishes to visit and plant his seed. Let us be that ground, let us be ourselves, instead of thinking that we are those mountains or valleys.

“All flesh shall see the salvation of God”. When a person is himself, he is ready to be saved. When he is neither in the valley of discouragement nor the mountain of self-pride, the Lord can touch him. This week, let us forget our exaggerations and fixations, and become like unleavened bread. God did not make a mistake when he created us as we are. By means of those mountains and valleys we seek to be different to who we really are. In reality we are simple and poor, but also noble and important as the Lord has made us. The beginning of the Gospel mentions Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Philip and other kings, and the high priests Annas and Caiaphas. After all these great figures, we are told that the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert, in a place far from any seat of power, a place nobody considered important. We are the place, we are the ground that the Lord wishes to visit.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

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