November 27th 2022. First Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL: Matthew 24:37-44

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Matthew 24, 37-44

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.

‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

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

 

1. Does this text cause you anguish? It is only pointing out a simple truth, that one day this life will end and only that which is eternal in us will remain.

As we begin the adventure of Advent, why do we read a Gospel in which Jesus speaks of things that cause anguish? In the time of Noah, Jesus remarks, people continued eating, drinking and marrying right up to the moment of the Flood But instead of interpreting this text in an anxious way, we should consider that Advent (and this passage) are presenting us with nothing but the simple truth: man does not know how or when he will meet his end. Humanity, in general, has an erroneous way of looking at things, carrying on as if his life will never change, as if the things that he has at arm’s reach now will remain at arm’s reach. We tend to make absolutes out of the present moment, the concrete problems of today. The truth is that everything only has true sense in the light of the Lord. One day he will come and take what is of heaven, but what is not of heaven will remain here. Jesus tells us that, of two men working in the fields, one will be taken and one left. There are attitudes and things of this world that do not bring us anywhere. Those things will one day be left behind.

 

2. It is better to face up to a challenging truth than to live with a comfortable delusion. Better to realize that there is an end than to live convincing ourselves that everything is fine and will continue this way forever.

This text provides us with a very wise and important key for living our daily lives. It tells us that there is something which one day will go beyond the threshold of death, and it is to that thing only that I should devote my attention. Sometimes, in reflective moments, we ask ourselves if this thing I am doing will ever lead to anything good. In a sense, the Son of Man is passing us by at that moment and encouraging us to leave behind that which is of no eternal value. This is not a decision that should cause us anguish! It is the simple truth that we are called to make decisions based upon an eternal perspective. It is better to face up to a challenging truth than to live with a comfortable delusion. Better to realize that there is an end than to live convincing ourselves that everything is fine and will continue this way forever. For example, if there is a difficulty in the family, I might be very keen to justify myself and defend my own interests. But I really need to be aware that one day the end of my life will come and I should consider if I might one day be ashamed of my present behaviour. What does it matter if I lose this material thing? What really matters is that I have done my best to forgive my brother, to accept my father with his limits. Thus I can one day present myself before the Lord and say, “I did my best to love my brother, to honour my father”. Too often we have a myopic way of looking at reality, seeing things from a very small and limited perspective.

 

3. We tend to think we know everything and understand everything, but it is only when we look at things in the light of God and act accordingly that things ultimately will come to good fruition.

Noah is a very interesting character. He constructs a ship on the side of a mountain, far from the sea. He teaches us that we should work to construct things from a different perspective, the perspective of where things are heading. There are people who are always asking about the causes of events, and others who ask about how they will end. Noah looks at the situation around him and, inspired by the Holy Spirit and from the direct revelation of God, he knows that high waters are coming. Noah knows that one day we must confront the consequences of things. We tend to think we know everything and understand everything, but it is only when we look at things in the light of God and act accordingly that things ultimately will come to good fruition. We must seek to behave and act according to this more authentic vision. Advent encourages us to see beyond today, to look at the end of things, to have a non-infantile perspective. Children cannot see past the present moment but adults must look beyond, realising that my life will one day end and I must answer for the things that I have done. If this causes us anguish, then perhaps we have cut ourselves off from the truth, from right principles that enable us to build in a lasting way.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

In the Gospel, Jesus mentions the flood at the time of Noah. The fact is that many floods are necessary in the life of each one of us. Many things need to be washed away at regular intervals so that the Lord can enter our lives more fully and we can make a new beginning. In our society today, we are obsessed by physical beauty, nutrition, wellbeing and self-referential “romantic” relationships. If my life is of this sort, then my own ego is the master of my house. Then, when the Son of Man comes, when a crisis occurs, I will have difficulty coping. I will be like the people at the time of Noah who are swept away by the impending disaster. Jesus says, “The Son of Man is coming like a thief at a time you do not expect”. But if I make Jesus the master of my house, then he will not come like a thief. No thief steals from his own house! I am called to renounce possessions, projects, and the tyranny of my own ego. I am called to permit Jesus to be the master of my life and my world. When Jesus is master, then I am always ready to interrupt my projects or activities, to change direction and rethink my plans, in order to follow the one and only master of my life.

 November 20th 2022. Feast of Christ the King

GOSPEL: Luke 23:35-43

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

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: Luke 23:35-43

The rulers sneered at Jesus and said,
"He saved others, let him save himself
if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God."
Even the soldiers jeered at him.
As they approached to offer him wine they called out,
"If you are King of the Jews, save yourself."
Above him there was an inscription that read,
"This is the King of the Jews."
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying,
"Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us."
The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply,
"Have you no fear of God,
for you are subject to the same condemnation?
And indeed, we have been condemned justly,
for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,
but this man has done nothing criminal."
Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

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

 

1. Everyone is insulting Christ because he does not save himself. But Christ does not think of himself expressly for the reason that he seeks to save us.

The Feast of Christ the King, final Sunday of the year. By means of this feast, the Church recapitulates the entire liturgical year and we bow before the only true king. Many kings surround us, many powers rule over us and seek to orient us towards things that are not compatible with the only true King. We are presented with Jesus crucified and we hear the many voices who insult him and tell him to save himself – the one thing that he does not do. A king, by definition, has power and ought to be able to do as he pleases. But here, on the cross, power is understood in a different way. If Jesus had concentrated on saving himself, then he would not have saved us. Here we recognize the generosity of the only Son who does not act for himself but gives his life for our benefit.

 

2. The thief recognizes his poverty and sees that Jesus truly has a Kingdom, one that is not of this world and goes beyond death. We too need to recognize our poverty and confess Jesus as our only Lord.

A king, in fact, can be distinguished by the gifts that he bestows. Jesus might appear like a failure on the cross, but he bestows the immense gift of paradise upon the thief hanging beside him. This criminal may have done bad things but he recognizes that Jesus has dominion, that he has a kingdom. How did this thief recognize in Jesus, rejected and insulted, the ruler of a kingdom that went beyond death? This is the point. In order to be saved, the crucial thing is not what we do but that we recognize that Jesus is Lord. It is not so much the good that we do but the fact that we recognize that he is the source of all good. The good thief recognizes his own poverty and that he deserves to die. He does not ask Christ to remove his suffering but to carry him to paradise. All of us are poor, all of us have made many mistakes and are in need of salvation. But he does not ask that his misery be taken away, only that he be taken to his ultimate goal, heaven. In this time of Advent, we turn our eyes to the ultimate end of everything.

 

3. The extreme misery of the cross might seem to manifest the impotence of Christ, but in fact it does the opposite. In this extreme situation, Jesus reveals himself as love, as humble obedience and submission to the Father. He reveals a Kingdom that is not of this world.

This Sunday we celebrate our King, the one who is generous and gives his life for us. We do not follow authorities who seek to dominate and manipulate us, but the One who has offered himself for us. On the cross we see the attitude of the Son of God, who empties himself for us even onto an ignominious death. The true nobility of the Son of God is manifested in the testing crucible of the cross, when all limits have been surpassed. It is in this extreme situation that the nature of the Son is revealed, the One who loves and who entrusts himself to the Father, consigning his spirit to God. Let us celebrate the only King who deserves our obedience, the only power before whom we should bow. Let us not bow to others who seek to exploit us. Let us bow to the one who loves us to the end, the only Lord who is capable of bestowing salvation.

 

Alternative homily

For the Feast of Christ the King, the Church presents us with the account of Jesus hanging on the cross. This prompts us to ask: what kind of king can this be, nailed to a piece of wood? The people in the Gospel scene are asking the same question in different ways! First of all the religious leaders demand that he save himself. Religion seeks a Messiah, seeks salvation, but the kind of salvation they are looking for here is an earthly kind of salvation: health, wellbeing, worldly success. Then the soldiers assail Jesus. They are looking for a king with political power. They want him to show his power by coming down off the cross. Then the “bad” thief begins to insult Jesus. He wants a Christ who will bring an end to his suffering. He represents all of suffering humanity who cannot understand the absence of God and cries out for assistance here and now. It is essential to note that Jesus does not reply to any of these. Finally the “good” thief turns to Jesus. He admits his guilt and acknowledges Jesus as a king, asking to be remembered when the Lord would come into his kingdom. Unlike all the others, he does not ask to be taken down off the cross! Now, finally, Jesus replies! “This day you will be with me in Paradise”. The good thief entered into a relationship with Jesus. So long as we are with Jesus we are in paradise. Now we see the power of Christ! Now we experience true salvation! We are saved when we enter into relationship with Jesus and remain with him. That is paradise.

 November 13th 2022. Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Luke 21:5-19
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

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GOSPEL: Luke 21:5-19
When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said, ‘All these things you are staring at now-the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed’. And they put to him this question: ‘Master,’ they said ‘when will this happen, then, and what sign will there be that this is about to take place?’
‘Take care not to be deceived,’ he said ‘because many will come using my name and saying, “I am he” and, “The time is near at hand”. Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened, for this is something that must happen but the end is not so soon.’ Then he said to them, ‘Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.
‘But before all this happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name – and that will be your opportunity to bear witness. Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.’
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

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SUMMARY OF HOMILY
Sunday’s Gospel highlights the fact that the things of this earth are not eternal. In response to our anxiety about the finitude of this world, many false messiahs will come, Jesus tells us in this passage. People seek out the false messiahs of pleasure, possessions, entertainment, health, wellbeing, big ambitious projects. All of these things are efforts to exorcize our feelings of emptiness. The advice that the Lord gives us in this Gospel is not to follow any of these false solutions. These solutions make things in this world into absolutes, but such earthly things can never be ultimate. Then Jesus tells us that we must expect to be rejected by others in this world. If everyone thinks well of me and applauds me, then it is clear that I am no prophet! If we are open and honest about the emptiness and vainglory of this world, then we can expect the world to reject us! We must expect tribulation in the world because our priorities lie elsewhere. Where does a Christian normally manifest his Christianity? Upon the cross. True generosity is demonstrated in the midst of famine. Peacefulness is manifested best when a person is subjected to violence. Peacefulness at times of peace may be nothing more than wellbeing. Difficult situations are opportunities for great and sincere witness. At the end of the passage, Jesus tells us that we must not prepare our defence when we are handed over for persecution because he himself will give us his eloquence and wisdom. What is the point here? The point is that it is in our relationship with Jesus that things find their joy, meaning, peace. It is in relationship with Jesus that things go beyond tribulation, and endure beyond death, This world ends, and may bring about our end in a violent way, but if we are in the hands of God then we attain true freedom from these things that are passing.

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1. Everything in this world will come to an end. Our ultimate destination is beyond these earthly things.
“Be careful not to be deceived”, says Jesus to his disciples, while he announces that history is heading towards a dramatic climax. In fact, we can be misled when we hear that "the time will come when not a stone will be left on a stone". The first misunderstanding is to think that this concerns only the moment of the end of the world. Not so: everything we see will come to an end. All things must end, and this is not some kind of injustice: rather it is to be expected given what we know of the world and of salvation. Our final destination is not in this world, it is not something that is based on our hypotheses, our idolatries; our goal is ahead.

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2. All the tribulations we experience can become the road to salvation if we remain with Christ
But it is easy for us to be deceived about the end things. Jesus says: "When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, because these things must happen first, but it is not the end immediately." And when is the end, if it is not in the revolutions and great events of the world? That is not the issue. "By your perseverance you will save your life." Salvation, this is the goal. And human history is the story of salvation. Whatever happens - earthquakes, famines, pestilences, persecutions and betrayals – they are never what they seem. If we remain on the side of Christ, these events are nothing more than the prelude to one of his works. They become, by faith, the road to salvation.

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3. We were not born for comfort or pleasure, but for love, and love involves sacrifice and the cross. That is why tribulations are necessary if we are to live the life of love.
Of course, it is natural to be perplexed and it is completely normal to ask oneself: but why must this be the way? Why is it necessary to go through these tribulations? If we were born for comfort, for fulfilment, for the pleasure of understanding everything and possessing everything we desire, all these discourses would be absurd. But we are born for love, and that is another thing altogether. The cross of Christ is not an accident along the way, but the true face of God. In order for God to reveal himself as a Father of mercy, His blessed Son had to show the nature of their mercy and reveal himself as our Lord, suffering for love in his own body all the evil that man can produce. But this was not the end. It was the road to Heaven. Don Tonino Bello said that the cross is only a temporary location. The end of things, from Christ onwards, is not pain. The tribulation of the world is, to be precise, a labour pain, a giving birth.

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4. We seek salvation without pain, but we cannot grow without the growing pains; we cannot give birth without the pains of labour. If I seek God without the cross then I risk finding a cross without God.
We often deceive ourselves by seeking a salvation that involves no pain, but there is no birth without blood. There is no new life without the loss of the old one. "Many in fact will come in my name saying, ‘It is I’, or ‘The time is near’. Don't follow them!" The comfortable messianic promises are all traps. A young person does not become an adult without going through a purification, a marriage does not become authentic without going through tribulation, a friendship does not become real without forgiveness. It takes these things to recognize what is valid and what can be trusted. If I seek God without the cross then I run the risk finding a cross without God. This Gospel passage leads us to authentic life, a life that is beautiful precisely because it is not simple, a life that is nourished by authentic challenges. This life experiences salvation over and over again, between consolations and tribulations. This Gospel is preparing us for the time of Advent that is coming. And how does the Lord come? He comes with the style of nobility, love and self-giving, not according to what is convenient or comfortable or trivial.
 

November 6th 2022.Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Luke 20:27-38

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

 

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

 

GOSPEL: Luke 20:27-38

Some Sadducees - those who say that there is no resurrection - approached him and they put this question to him, ‘Master, we have it from Moses in writing, that if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Well then, there were seven brothers. The first, having married a wife, died childless. The second and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children. Finally the woman herself died.  Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?’

Jesus replied, ‘The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God. And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.’

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

 

The  Sadducees are mistaken in thinking that the life of heaven is the same kind of life as this earthly one.

The first reading recounts the heroic witness of the seven brothers in the Book of Maccabees, who endured terrible sufferings whilst maintaining their hope in eternal life.  In the second reading (from 2 Thes), St Paul too recalls the importance of the gift of hope in eternal consolation. In the Gospel, the Sadducees (who did not believe in the resurrection) present Jesus with the case of the woman who marries in turn seven brothers. This custom of obliging a surviving brother to marry their widowed sister-in-law was a remnant of the rules of the clan. The intention was to provide for the woman’s welfare through the brothers of the dead husband. This example, for the Sadducees, proves that there can be no eternal life, for it raises the problem of who would be the woman’s husband in the next world. Jesus, in his reply, raises the subject to another level. He is not simply saying that eternal life is of the celibate sort. Life is a journey and the point of arrival is a different matter altogether. If I am going on a trip, I wear clothing appropriate to the climate I encounter during the trip, but it might not be suitable clothing for my destination. Living according to the life of heaven does not entail “taking”  a husband or a wife. The life of  the resurrection is to live according to that kind of existence which erupted in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the life of the One who is not God of the dead but of the living.

 

Can we live the faith without believing in the resurrection?

The question that this liturgy poses is, can we live the life of faith without believing in the resurrection? It is impossible, because every  single Christian act of love requires belief in a life that is beyond. Every time we expend ourselves in loving service of others, we, in a sense, lose our own lives. If we did not believe in an eternal significance to what we are doing, then we would be reduced to doing such good deeds out of forced acts of the will. No! We believe in eternal life, in life according to  God. We experience that life already now, but will only enjoy it in full at the  resurrection of the dead. This life is incapable of giving meaning or sense to itself in material terms. It is only the destination that explains the journey. Our actions are given meaning because we believe in eternal consolation, in divine destiny. This  Sunday is an important opportunity for living according to eternal life, an opportunity to trust what we say in the Our  Father, that God’s will be done “on earth as it is in heaven”.

 

ALTERNATIVE HOMILY

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection and considered this hypothetical situation (of the woman with seven husbands) to be a serious challenge to anyone who believed in eternal life. Don Fabio tells us that, in fact, it was the Sadducees’ view of life in general (not just eternal life) that was absurd. The sort of life they believed in was horizontal, earthly, and deprived of all eternal significance. Unless we believe in the resurrection then we cannot grasp the enormous dignity of the human person. No-one would be capable of unconditional love, authentic mercy, or sacrifice for the sake of others, if he did not believe in the eternal dimension of human life and action. A true perspective on life is only possible through the lens of eternity. But why does Jesus tell the Sadducees that the people who are destined for heaven do not marry? In other places, Jesus unambiguously affirms the indissolubility of marriage and that the union of man and woman is part of God’s basic plan for humanity. He wants the Sadducees to know that marriage in an earthly sense has no place in the Kingdom of Heaven. If I get married just for my own earthly purposes, then the union will not last. I will tire of my spouse or run from her when she makes me suffer. But when I live my marriage as part of God’s design for the human race, as a sacrament of encounter with God, then I will continue to embrace her even when she makes me suffer. This is the distinction Jesus wishes to make: Marriage in the earthly sense of the Sadducees has no significance in heaven. But marriage that is focussed on eternity is a different story. In this case, I live my marriage as an angel sent on a mission from God and my marriage becomes something genuine, a place of encounter with God.