December 24th 2023.  Fourth Sunday of Advent

GOSPEL Luke 1:26-38

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

​

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

GOSPEL Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.’

She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’

Mary said to the angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’

‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing is impossible to God’.

‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.

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

 

SUMMARY

In the first reading, David is so grateful to God for his many blessings that he tells the prophet Nathan that he plans to build a temple for the ark of the Lord. That night, however, Nathan, receives a message from God. David is not to build a house for God - God instead will build a house for David and make the sovereignty of his house permanent. In the Gospel, the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces the fulfilment of Nathan’s prophecy. The virgin is to conceive and bear a son who will take the throne of his ancestor David. Don Fabio tells us that the prophecy of Nathan is not just for David, but for all of us! David had a noble and beautiful idea, just as we have many noble and well-meaning projects. But our ideas remain merely human ideas. Only God can give life, and he always gives life virginally. In the Gospel, the incarnation of God is realized virginally. Mary provides the good soil that welcomes the seed of God, but it is only God who can generate true life. We are not the sole generators of anything good! Christmas is a time for reflecting on the fact that our task is to welcome his life when the Lord presents it to us. Our mission in our marriage, our vocation, our daily life, is not to follow our own ideas, no matter how good those ideas might seem to be. Our job is to discern what it is in our life that comes from God. Any initiatives we have must be based on the work of God in our lives. Often we expect God to bless our projects. We pray to him asking for success. We ask him to shake some holy water over the things that we own and value. This is wrong! God is not our personal chaplain who assists us in our worldly designs! The things we do will not bear permanent fruit, will not be blessed, if they do not have their origin in God. Christmas shows us that God’s work is always virginal. It always comes from him, not from us. This Christmas let us reflect on the virginal works he has sought to accomplish in us, the initiatives he has taken with us, the many times that he has sought to erupt into our lives.

 

God’s message to David is this: “I am the one who constructs my dwelling in the midst of humanity. I am the one who is the origin of life.” The Lord has the very same message for you and me!

Sunday’s Gospel is the account of the Annunciation. We have commented on this Gospel at various times from different perspectives. On this occasion we will look at the Gospel in the light of the first reading. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will give conceive a son who will be called Jesus, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. This recalls the prophecy found in the book of Samuel that we hear in the first reading. What was the original context of the prophecy? David had subdued all his enemies and had established a house that was not just a physical house but also a dynasty. David’s heart swells with gratitude for all of the unmerited blessings that the Lord has bestowed on him. He says, “How is it that I am living in a beautiful house while the ark of God dwells in a tent? It is not right that the Lord lives in conditions that are inferior to mine!” The prophet Nathan is impressed by this sentiment and encourages David to go ahead and do whatever it is that he has in mind regarding a new dwelling for the Lord.  But during the night the Lord speaks to Nathan and gives him a message for David. “David, you intend to build a house for me? Look at our relationship up to now. I have taken you from the pastures and been with you wherever you went. I have destroyed your enemies and given you a name to rank with the great on earth. I will build a house for you!” The Lord says this to David and he says the very same thing to all of us!

 

The story of the incarnation is the story of God’s initiative and humanity’s welcome for that initiative

What is the Annunciation all about? In our preparation for Christmas we reflect on the incarnation of Christ, the encounter between human flesh and the divinity of God. This encounter we find in the body of Jesus, in the little child who is born in Bethlehem and brings heaven down to earth. The glory that is in the highest heaven becomes peace for people on earth. Where does the inspiration for the incarnation come? From the mind of man or the mind of God? David had a beautiful project in mind, but the ideas of human beings, no matter how wonderful they are, are not the ideas of God. There is an abyss between us and God, and only God can cross that chasm. Salvation finds its point of departure in God, not in humanity. Our task is to welcome redemption when it is presented to us. The story of the angel’s announcement to a young unmarried girl is precisely this story of God taking the initiative and humanity (in the person of Mary) welcoming it.

 

God’s work on earth is conceived virginally. It comes purely from him. If our marriage, our vocation, our day’s work, does not find its origin in God, then it will not be life-giving, fertile, blessed

Mary conceives virginally, and this is an essential point. The life of God is always conceived virginally; it is not born from human seeds. All of God’s works in us have a virginal origin. What does this mean? When we follow our projects, it is always important to ask ourselves: “Where does the initiative for this come from?” Often we are motivated by our own impulses, and sometimes these impulses can be good, like David’s desire to build a temple for the Lord. But no matter how good our ideas are, they are always our ideas. Life comes from God’s initiative. When two young people are trying to discern whether to get married or not, they must seek to discover if there is something that is pure gift at the heart of their relationship. When a person is trying to decide if they are called to a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, they must ask themselves if their desire to give themselves to the Lord is motivated by some need of their own. If the origin of what we do is based solely on human DNA, then we cannot hope to do something that is truly good or beautiful. The essential point is this: new life is welcomed, not generated! Only God can open the heavens! At Christmas we are presented with a gift to be welcomed. It is not something that depends on our initiative, no matter how presentable and well-meaning our initiative might be.

 

We try to make God our chaplain. We ask him to bless our projects, to help us to have worldly success. This is wrong! We must open ourselves to God’s initiatives and welcome them, not expect him to bless ours

When our initiative is based upon gratitude, based on the work that God has done for us, then it becomes something beautiful, fertile and blessed. But when it is born from our flesh, it is a different story. That is why it is important to try to discern the true origin of the things that we do. How was Jesus born? From the generosity of God. Sometimes we expect God to be a chaplain to us. We ask him to come and bless our works, to throw some holy water on the things that are ours so that we might be assisted in bringing our own projects to a successful conclusion. How misplaced this is! Christmas is the story of God’s surprising initiative, the generation of new life within a virgin. This virgin is the good ground in which the healthy seed of God comes to life, free from the weeds and confusion that otherwise prevails. We must learn to recognize the virginal works of God in our lives, his eruption into our existence, the initiatives he takes with regard to each one of us! Virginity is neither an ethical nor a purely physical category. It is an existential category that pertains to our relationship with God. With the Lord we must live things virginally. The initiative is his, we cannot generate his life on our own.

December 17th 2023.  Third Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday

Gospel: John 1:6-8; 19-28

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

​

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

GOSPEL John 1:6-8; 19-28

A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
a witness to speak for the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
only a witness to speak for the light.

This is how John appeared as a witness. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ he not only declared, but he declared quite openly, ‘I am not the Christ’. ‘Well then,’ they asked ‘are you Elijah?’ ‘I am not’ he said. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ He answered, ‘No’. So they said to him, ‘Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?’ So John said, ‘I am, as Isaiah prophesied:

a voice that cries in the wilderness:
Make a straight way for the Lord’.

Now these men had been sent by the Pharisees, and they put this further question to him, ‘Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the prophet?’ John replied, ‘I baptise with water; but there stands among you – unknown to you – the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo his sandal-strap’. This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.

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

 

SUMMARY

 This is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy. What do we rejoice about in Advent? Isn’t it supposed to be a penitential time? The Christian must always seek to be joyful, even during penitence, because we are a Church oriented towards the Resurrection, towards the love of God for us. There are two types of “joy”: the self-directed “joy” I feel when I am gratified by something; and then there is true joy, which involves rejoicing in another. The first reading says that the Lord is going to clothe us in wedding garments. The joy we feel as Christians is the joy of someone who is getting married. This is the joy of giving oneself, not a joy that measures the value of something in terms of how beneficial it is to me. John the Baptist in the Gospel reading is a prime example of a person who is walking in the joy of the Lord. His entire mission is to point out Christ. He will not tell us who he is himself, only who he is not. He describes himself as a “voice”, but the words he speaks are the words of another and they are dedicated to showing the way to Christ the true light. Adam and Eve tried to make themselves the centre of existence, the light of their own world, but they fell into darkness. John the Baptist, by contrast, moves to the side and allows Jesus to come in. He allows the light to shine. John prepared the way for the Lord to come and Jesus will come into our lives too this Christmas if we stand aside and let him in, just as John stood aside! Our mission is not to serve ourselves but to point to another. In the age we live, humanity blesses its own name. We must learn to bless the name of the Lord

 

Joy is always a proper state for the Christian, even in the midst of penitence

This is Gaudete Sunday, the Sunday of Joy. Advent and Lent are both seasons of penitence, but both are broken by joyful celebrations on the fourth Sunday of Lent and the third Sunday of Advent. The Church is always joyful because it is primarily oriented towards Easter, towards new life. Therefore it is always turned away from the abyss and looking towards the heavens. Rejoicing is the proper state of the follower of Christ, not the state of sadness! Even in the midst of tribulation the Christian is capable of joy, but this is not to say that we are out of touch with reality. Our joy is a joy that is full of wisdom and fully cognizant of the negative realities in the world. The root of the word “gladness” in Italian (“letizia”) is also used for compost - it is something fertile! Christian gladness is a fertile state of being: it leads to something better and more beautiful.

 

The joy that we experience in Advent is like the joy of getting married. It is not a joy focussed on oneself but a joy that involves self-giving

The first reading prepares us for this new understanding of gladness or joy. It says: “I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God”. The speaker is to be wrapped in the garments of a wedding ceremony, like a groom wearing a crown, or a bride wearing her jewels. The Lord treats me as if I am about to enter a wedding ceremony and encounter another person. The joy of entering a wedding relationship is a particular type of joy. We can imagine a person living in solitude who enters into relationship with others only if those relationships are beneficial to himself. Entering into the marriage relationship is joyful but it involves donating myself to the other. A meagre meal eaten in company is more joyful than exquisite food eaten alone or in anger. The marriage relationship is like the earth that produces green shoots. It is fertile to the extent that it involves self-giving and dying to oneself.

 

John is a person whose focus is not on himself. He is a voice, but he allows another to speak through him.

Let us consider the Gospel in this light. Once again the text is focussed on John the Baptist. The passage is a bit curious in that it involves a series of negations. A man named John is sent from God to bear witness to the light. We are told that John himself is not the light, and when the officials ask him who he is, he denies that he is the Christ, Elijah or the prophet. “So who exactly are you then?” John replies, “I am the voice of one crying in the desert.” This does not tell us who John is either! He is only the voice - the words come from somebody else. John the Baptist bears witness to the light, but he himself is not light. How important this discourse is! John is the point of entry for the public ministry of Jesus. He has learned to be free from himself. God is working through him. In fact, Jesus says that his equal has never been born – he is the most extraordinary man in history up to that point. But he knows how to keep himself apart and be the voice for another. How liberating it is not to take oneself too seriously!

 

Adam and Eve tried to make themselves the centre, the light, and they fell into darkness. They failed to see that we are invited to a wedding relationship with him, not to a self-gratifying relationship with reality

What is the problem with Adam and Eve in Genesis 3? They try to place themselves at the centre of life, and as a result they become lost in darkness. How wonderful and illuminating is the figure of John the Baptist! He prepared the way for the Lord to come, and the Lord always comes when we put ourselves to one side. For we are invited to a marriage, not to a self-gratifying relationship with the Lord. We are called to fix our gaze on him and not on ourselves. We are asked to be his witnesses, not advocates for ourselves. How boring it is to listen to Christians who wish to speak primarily about what they have done, and who speak too little about what God has done. It gives us infinitely more dignity when we keep ourselves in our proper place, when we know how small we are, when we appreciate that our lives are directed not towards ourselves, but towards something else.

 

Our age is an age in which humanity blesses its own name. Advent is about learning to bless the Lord’s name when he comes. And he will certainly come if we move to the side.

We are living in an epoch where the human being has made himself the centre, the light, the focal point of reality. How can a creature as impoverished as I am put himself at the centre of reality! What we need to discover, instead, is that we are central only as far as the love of God is concerned. God is central, but he wishes to love us, marry us, to place a crown on our head and a ring on our hand. He wishes to unite with us and make us vest ourselves in the robe of justice, with the beautiful mantle of his love. And we must make ourselves small, make space for him in our lives. We must be able to say, “I was sent by God. It is not me who determines my mission and direction in life. My task is obedience and to follow the plan God has laid out for me. My task is to bear witness to the light, not present myself as the light”. In the spiritual life we often encounter people who have a messianic complex to some degree or other, people who present themselves as saviours of others. But only Christ can save! Let us learn to relativize our own significance! It is thanks to God that we are able to do the little that we do! If we pretend to be able to raise up others, then we take upon our shoulders an unbearable burden, and we will certainly disappoint. The Advent of the Lord is about blessing his name when he comes, and being free from preoccupation about our own. This is peace, and detachment, and freedom.

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, 

Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.

December 10th 2023. Second Sunday of Advent

 

GOSPEL: Mark: 1, 1-8

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

​

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

​

GOSPEL: Mark: 1, 1-8

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;

he will prepare your way.

A voice of one crying out in the desert:

"Prepare the way of the Lord,

make straight his paths."

John the Baptist appeared in the desert

proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

People of the whole Judean countryside

and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem

were going out to him

and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River

as they acknowledged their sins.

John was clothed in camel's hair,

with a leather belt around his waist.

He fed on locusts and wild honey.

And this is what he proclaimed:

"One mightier than I is coming after me.

I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

I have baptized you with water;

he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

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

 

SUMMARY

 On this second Sunday of Advent, we read the first words from the oldest Gospel, that of Mark. These lines cite Isaiah and we learn that John the Baptist is in the desert announcing the immanent coming of the Lord. Why is the Lord’s way always prepared in the desert? As a result of disobedience, humanity lost the beauty of the garden and finds itself in the desert. Therefore, the people of Israel (and us as well!) have to do a long and difficult passage through the desert before entering the Promised Land. In Scripture, the desert is always a place of conversion and growth, a place of changing direction. The theme of this Gospel, ultimately, is the forgiveness of sins, becoming reoriented towards the love of God. All of Judea goes to John the Baptist, searching for the experience of the pardon of the Lord. Sometimes, our churches are not filled with people, perhaps because we do not announce the pardon of God clearly enough. John, we are told, was dressed in camel hair and ate locusts and wild honey. There is something very essential and ascetic about him, and the fathers of the Church were fascinated by these details. John represented a return to something elemental and authentic. He was living for what really counts. Each one of us needs to shed the infinite layers of protection under which we hide ourselves, to detach ourselves from that which is not essential. John wished to prepare us for our encounter with our real bridegroom, and this called for us to shed whatever is false, superfluous and empty, to become our true selves, what God created us to be. This demands that we shed useless interests and useless roles. Jesus alone is the one to whom we should yearn to be united. For this, we need to prepare His way into our lives by getting rid of aimless distractions, by embracing the simplification of the desert. Here we will become ourselves and be converted to his love.

 

This Sunday we read from the Book of Consolation of the prophet Isaiah and from the opening lines of the Gospel of Mark

In this second Sunday of Advent we have two beginnings: the opening words of the Gospel of Mark and the start of the “Book of Consolation” in the prophet Isaiah. The book of the prophet Isaiah can be divided into two parts: the so-called “proto-Isaiah” – the words of a wonderful and powerful prophet who lived in the eighth century before Christ; and a second figure, who may also have been called Isaiah, whose words are found from chapter 40 onwards of the book of Isaiah. This individual is directing his prophetic words at a completely different historical epoch, about 530 years before Christ. It is the time when the people are about to return home from exile to their own land. The time of correction and purification has come to an end. The words of the “Book of Consolation” speak of this time.

 

Why is the Lord’s coming announced in the desert, the most useless place to announce anything?

The Gospel reading is from the opening words of the oldest of the Gospels and it cites the prophet Isaiah. Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." This cry in the desert represents a new beginning of some sort. The Second Sunday of Advent asks us to reflect on a passage through the desert. As the prophet says, “In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley”. Here we are talking about the way of the Lord’s coming and the necessity that it be prepared. John the Baptist was given this mission to herald the coming of the Lord. Usually a herald cries out in a crowded public square, but John does so in the desert! The desert seems the most useless place to proclaim anything. But John does so and announces a baptism of conversion. The people actually go to him from the city of Jerusalem and all of Judea. But why?

 

The desert represents our emptiness and poverty, our need for salvation. It is only when we are aware of our malnourishment and desolation that we look to the Lord

John begins in the desert. Why is such a strange place chosen for this new announcement? In Scripture the desert is the place of transformation and evolution. It is not a suitable place to live but is a place that we pass through to become something else, something new. When the people came out of Egypt they then passed through the desert in order to arrive at a new life. Many of them died on this journey, but above all it is a place where the “old man within us” must die. In this place of desolation and emptiness we encounter God. Why does the first Gospel begin in the desert? Why does the Book of Consolation begin in the desert? The ways of the Lord are prepared in the desert because the desert represents our emptiness and poverty, our failure and incompleteness, our utter fragility. We are inclined to think that we can begin from our abilities and talents, and these attributes will prompt the Lord to come to us. But how can we truly welcome him? How can we avoid missing him when he visits us every day? He visits us in thousands of ways, but we do not realize that he is present until we reflect on those things afterwards and see that we have failed to love and welcome him. How can we avoid missing the new life that comes to us in these ways? By beginning from the desert within us! We need to recognize our own poverty, failures and limitations. The new life always begins from the failure of the old one. We need to be poor so that when the Lord comes we are open to him. We need to be people who crave nourishment, who need to be consoled. Only then are we ready to welcome the Consoler.

 

John the Baptist tells us what we need to do, but only the Holy Spirit can give us the power to do these things

Who are we waiting for? John the Baptist speaks of “the one who is stronger than I am, the one who brings something greater than I can bring”. John provides a baptism in water and the challenge to repent and turn away from sin, but the one who is coming “will baptize with the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit is the principle of new life, the principle of the life of God. He is equal to God, he is God and he enters into us. Who is stronger, the one who says “make straight the paths of the Lord”, the one who tells us the things that we need to do to prepare of the Lord? Or the one who gives us the capacity to do the things of the Lord? The Holy Spirit not only helps us to understand what needs to be done, he helps us to do these things, makes us capable of doing them. Jesus is the one who gives up his Spirit on the cross and then gives it to us when he is risen. The one who dies and rises again for us, who gives us life that originates in his love for us. John the Baptist helps us to understand what we ought to do, but the Lord Jesus enables us to do these things. He came to give us this completeness, this new life, that which allows us to live in a different manner, that which makes us born again from above.

“In the Stars the Glory of His Eyes – Tales from an Irish Tour Guide in Rome”

FROM IGNATIUS PRESS

Tales of unexpected blessings, hilarious true stories, unique perspectives on the lives of the saints. An original, entertaining and orthodox presentation of the Catholic faith. You won’t be able to put it down!

"Captivating."

— Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Art History, Rome.

“Entertaining.”

— Cardinal Seán Brady, 

Ireland.

"I laughed out loud many times, and told the stories to others who laughed just as hard."

— Sally Read, Author.

"Enchanting."

— Bishop Brendan Leahy, Diocese of Limerick.

"Unique and insightful."

— Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Cashel and Emly.