July 28th 2024. Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   John 6:1-15

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

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

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GOSPEL John 6:1-15

Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or of Tiberias and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.

Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.

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

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SUMMARY

In the first reading, the servant of Elijah asks how they can expect to feed such a large group of people with just twenty loaves. Something similar happens in the Gospel. It is interesting that the multiplication happens at the time of Passover, the very time when God brings wondrous goods from a desperate situation. The people are satisfied by the food Jesus provides, but it is the disciples alone who are in a position to appreciate the significance of what has happened. Firstly, Jesus presents them with the challenge of how to find food for such a crowd.  When the Lord puts us to the test, it is always for the reason of prompting us to grow. Andrew replies that a boy has five loaves and two fish, but how can that suffice? Now Jesus begins to operate, asking the disciples to get the crowd to sit down. This sitting down on the grass recalls the psalm which describes the Lord as a providential shepherd who makes us lie down to rest in green pastures. The miracle that follows shows us that there are two ways we can live life: according to our own capacities and our own calculations (“What is such little food among so many?”); or according to the providence of God. Another essential point is that the Lord feeds thousands of people, but only does so using the little that the disciples offered him. The act of placing our meagre offering in the hands of God is something that occurs in every celebration of the Eucharist. The Lord operates upon the bread and wine that we offer him. This is the secret of a fundamental synergy where the power comes from God but he still requires that we provide something that is ours. The works of God usually involve our contribution, even if what we provide is relatively miniscule. This is our great dignity. Christ fed this multitude, but it is also true that the disciples fed them. Let us open ourselves to the works of God which pass by way of our things. The will of God is not extraneous to our lives and our impoverished things. To experience Easter is not to search for something that is alien to us. It is our bread that the Lord multiplies! Our choice is either to give these loves to the Lord or to hold them back. For so long as we continue to live lives calculating on our own capacities, we will live a mediocre existence, but if we entrust our little offering to God, then we will experience the extraordinary.

“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.

July 21 2024. Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 6:30-34

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From a homily on Vatican Radio

 

GOSPEL Mark 6:30-34

The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught. Then he said to them, ‘You must come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while’; for there were so many coming and going that the apostles had no time even to eat. So they went off in a boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But people saw them going, and many could guess where; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them. So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.

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

 

SUMMARY OF DON FABIO ROSINI'S HOMILY

The delusion of our century is the belief that we can be completely free and autonomous. The truth, however, is that we are creatures who need to be guided by the Lord into life. Without the Lord, our supposed freedom is really a slavery to our own egos. All of us need the Lord to shepherd us into the paths of life. By ourselves. we follow disordered paths that lead nowhere. Each of us needs to be shepherded by the Lord, but each of us is also called to be shepherds for others. There is no-one, not even a person who is sick in bed, that is not called to live for others. By uniting our sufferings or illness with the Lord, who is the source of life and mercy, we can bring life to others. How mediocre and ugly life is when it is lived for myself, following my own disordered impulses, but how beautiful it is when it is lived in obedience to the promptings of the Good Shepherd, who calls us to live lives of reciprocal mercy.

 

God, in the person of Jesus, comes among us to be our shepherd

On this sixteenth Sunday of ordinary time, we are presented with the very important scriptural image of the relationship between the flock and the shepherd. In the first reading we hear the condemnation of the Lord towards those so-called “shepherds” who disperse their flocks. The Lord condemns these shepherds and proclaims that he himself will one day gather his people to himself. The Lord himself, concretely in the person of Jesus, will take direct care of his flock. In the Gospel we see how Christ, when he comes, looks with compassion on these crowds who have no other point of reference.

 

We delude ourselves into thinking that we can set the direction of our lives, but we do not have life within us. We need the Lord to lead us to authentic life

It is a curious and interesting fact that sheep need a shepherd to take care of them. They require someone to take them out to pasture and to lead them to water. They are meek animals and the shepherd has to use a series of sounds and whistles to guide them to where they need to go. We too are sheep who are in need of a shepherd. It is not true that we are totally autonomous. Autonomy is a good and beautiful thing, but only when it is in the context of a proper relationship of communion with the Lord. We are called to allow ourselves to be guided by him. The anthropological delusion of the past century has been the self-referential notion of the autonomous self. Freedom is understood in an absolutist and indefinable way. It is simply not true that we can live without limits. We have a fundamental need to be guided by a shepherd. We sometimes think that we are exercising complete liberty, but in reality we are always under the guidance of someone or something. The liberty we imagine ourselves to have is really a slavery to our own egos, to an emptiness that becomes a disordered impulse to do things that have no direction.

 

We are creatures and do not have life within ourselves. We need the Lord to shepherd us into life

I do not have an in-built sense of direction for my life. I cannot deduce or invent of my own initiative the path I should take in life. My task, instead is to receive the indications for the direction of my existence. I must allow myself to be shepherded; I must learn how to obey the Lord and obey reality. If I allow myself to be led by the Lord, then how beautiful life becomes! Consider the contrast between this attitude and the approach of someone who tries to impose his own ideological expectations on life; who seeks to coerce life along the path that he considers desirable. Life for this person becomes a torture because it never obeys his expectations. All of us are creatures. We do not have life in and of ourselves. And for this reason all of us need to be shepherded by the Lord. He must show us the paths that lead to life.

 

The Lord is the source of mercy and he calls us to be shepherds of this mercy for others

This leads to another discourse. All of us are called, according to the graces that the Lord gives us, to be shepherds in our turn. The first murderer of history, Cain, when he was asked where Abel was, responds, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” This is how those who neglect the lives of others always speak. The word “keeper” in Hebrew also means “shepherd”. Am I the shepherd of my brother? Yes, I certainly am! All of us have a responsibility for each other’s lives. If a friend is behaving in a way that damages him, and I do not speak to him, then what kind of friend am I? There is always someone whose life I must help to take care of. Even a person who is himself ill in his sickbed is nevertheless a shepherd because he can offer his suffering for another person. By living his sickness in communion with the Lord he can become a fount of life for others. So each one of us is a shepherd, and, at the same time, each one of us has need to be led by others. How can we live if we do not take care of each other? The fount of this attitude can be found in Sunday’s Gospel. “So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd

“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.

July 14th 2024. Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL Mark 6:7-13

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

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

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GOSPEL Mark 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses. They were to wear sandals but, he added, ‘Do not take a spare tunic.’ And he said to them, ‘If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district. And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.’ So they set off to preach repentance; and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.

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

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SUMMARY

In the first reading, the prophet Amos describes himself as a cultivator of sycamores. This task involved piercing and cutting the trees. It is a good metaphor for prophecy because when the prophet speaks, his listener must be pierced and wounded momentarily if he really takes the message to heart. In the Gospel, Jesus sends his apostles out in pairs, with no sack, money, or spare clothes. They are to bring simply the word they have received from Christ. Like Amos, the disciples could well be rejected. Sometimes we forget that the Good News is something that we can only offer to others, not force on them. Evangelisation is not about conquests or victories. Just as God offers us his grace, so too we can only offer to others what we have received. The reason Jesus instructs the disciples to carry nothing is so that they are placed in a completely vulnerable state. They do not threaten nor exert force. Love is like this. If love is not given freely then it is not love. Every mission that the Lord gives us, every good work that he prompts us to do, must be carried out by us with the attitude of being willing to accept the rejection of others. We must not be fixated by success but be always willing to leave things in the hands of God. Our work becomes defensive and destructive if we do not maintain this attitude. Christ came among us with nothing. All he bore was his staff – the cross – by which he healed and saved us. On the cross, naked and despoiled of everything, he achieves our redemption. Often we have the mentality of power and success which we tend to project onto the Gospel. We look for results and affirmation for our work. We forget that Christ failed as far as earthly success is concerned. And that is how it is. The victory of Christ is not a mundane, worldly victory. It is the victory of love, which can be refused. But when one welcome it, one experiences the power of God.

“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.

July 7th 2024. Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mark 6:1-6

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                                  Mark 6:1-6

Jesus went to his home town and his disciples accompanied him. With the coming of the sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, ‘Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him? This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?’ And they would not accept him. And Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised- in his own country among his own relations and in his own house'; and he could work no miracle there, though he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.

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

 

SUMMARY

Jesus teaches in the synagogue of his home town and is rejected. This happens at Nazareth, the place of faith, the place where Mary gave the most perfect response to the word of the Lord – “I am the servant of the Lord. Be it done onto me according to your word”. Jesus cannot perform great works here because the people do not believe and consequently do not open the door of their hearts to allow Jesus to work. Jesus is manifesting his identity, his greatness and his mission, but he is confronted with a petty attitude that only considers him in terms of mundane, horizontal things. He is placed in a box: he is a carpenter, a relative of such and such, the man whose mother became pregnant before she ought to. They are saying, in other words, that they know everything there is to know about this man. The truth is that Jesus is much more than they know. He is the son of Mary, yes, but also the Son of God. A man cannot be reduced to his homeland. The first person called by God, Abraham, was called to leave his own land. We are all called to be much more than our homeland, our job, our talents, our family connections. These connections are there, but they are not everything. If we wish to have a prophetic vision of who we are, then we need to confront these connections and not be bound by them. If we wish to be men or women of God, then we need to be more than our banal biology. This is exactly the definition of faith, to believe beyond biology, to see beyond the material composition of things. We are more than our appearance, more than what we have done. As our marvelous Pope of the youth, John Paul II, said, we are the work of God. Man is not the sum total of his sins and weaknesses, but the immense love that God expresses toward him and man’s response of “Yes” to that love. We can say yes or no to God. To say yes, we must go beyond biology and homeland, infancy and family. We must go beyond those things that make us banal and mediocre. We are all called to greatness for we are all called to paradise and to live our lives right now in the light of Paradise.

“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.