Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 19^th 2012)        

Mark 2:1-12

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that faith is an individual relationship between God and me? Or is it something that needs to be cultivated in me by others?

2. In what way can I become a "stretcher-bearer" for others, leading them to the Lord?

3. When I approach the Lord, am I more preoccupied with the healing of my physical ailments, or with the healing of my spiritual ills?

4. What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

Faith is not an individual thing. We need others to bring us to the Lord

The Gospel story presents us with the image of a sick man being carried by others to the Lord. Being led to the Lord by others is a necessary element in the life of faith. Relationship with God is not a purely individual thing between him and me. Instead, it is necessary that we be carried to the Lord by people who have more faith than we do. In the Gospel passage, when the people strip the roof in order to lower the paralytic inside, Jesus takes into consideration their faith, not the faith of the paralytic himself. We are not saved because of the level of personal relationship that we have with the Lord. On the contrary, we have need of the faith of ours to bring our salvation to fulfilment. We receive that faith from others in the first place. Often, our faith life is at a standstill and we need someone else to bring us forward. We need to be carried on someone else's shoulders for part of the journey. The dream of autonomy in the faith is an illusion that takes on nowhere. We all need stretcher-bearers to bring us closer to the Lord, and we all need to become stretcher-bearers for others one day. We must develop a faith that will be capable of illuminating the unhappy lives of others who do not have the courage to go on by themselves.

Sometimes the path that leads to healing can be tortuous

The paralytic was carried by four stretcher-bearers and entered the house in unusual circumstances. It was impossible to enter by the door, so the roof had to be dismantled before he could be lowered down. Often it is the case that it is difficult to enter by the door. Sometimes the normal channels are not accessible and it is not straightforward to come to the stage of being healed. We have need of someone who knows an alternative way and who is willing to carry us. The paralytic was lowered from a height and risked being dropped. This story highlights the level of support that the stretcher-bearers would have had to give to the sick man. It is essential to trust the one who carries us to the Lord. It is often necessary to expend great effort to bring someone to the faith. Often we can be closed to Christ and it may be necessary for others to discover an unusual way to bring us to him.

A healthy spirit and a sick body is better than a healthy body and a sick spirit

When the man is placed in the centre of the room, Jesus looks at him and says, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Jesus sees the faith of the ones who brought the sick man in. Seeing that faith, he goes to the heart of the problem, which is not the physical healing of the man. The heart of the matter is his interior healing. To physically heal a man who is sick within would be to deceive him terribly. To have a healthy body and a diseased spirit is much more dangerous than having a sick body and a healthy spirit. Saint Clare of Assisi lived for many years as a paralytic, unable to rise from bed, and during that time she did incredible good for the whole world. Blessed John Paul II possibly did more evangelisation in his last years, with a sick body but a spirit full of light, than he did when he was fully mobile and able to go wherever he wanted.

What is more important: to heal someone's illness or to forgive their sins?

No-one would wish to trivialise the significance of physical suffering. Jesus can heal physical suffering, but his priority is to heal the interior. It is illness of the spirit that is the origin of much suffering in the world. In the Gospel passage, Jesus proclaims that the man is forgiven, because the healing of the heart is achieved by forgiveness. What makes a man healthy is the forgiveness of his sins. No-one can offer this kind of treatment but God alone. Psychotherapeutic techniques can rearrange the elements of a person's mental life, but they cannot dissolve sin. Sin and evil can only be cured by God. God knows how to create and he knows how to regenerate. Only he knows how to give new life.

Only God can treat the illnesses of the soul

This, in fact, is the reason why the scribes are scandalized. "Who can forgive sin but God alone?" they ask. "This man is blaspheming!" In reality these scribes are stating something that is perfectly true. They are outraged by the fact that Jesus assumes a role that is reserved for God only. Their outrage would be justified if, in that moment, they were not in the presence of the Son of God himself. In the rabbinic tradition, not even the Messiah himself was considered to have the power to forgive sins. The Messiah, according to that tradition, was expected to be a man, elected by God, with the role of saving his people. Here, the scribes found themselves in the presence of something much greater, the precious Son of God.

Jesus' healing of the paralytic reveals the wonderful news that sin is not the last word

Jesus is capable of healing the paralytic and is capable of forgiving sins. This is the unexpected good news that is revealed to the scribes and to all present. To show that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic, "Get up and walk". This act of Jesus bears witness to the wonderful news that sin is not the last word. It is not true that our mistakes remain encrusted deep in our essence and cannot be eliminated. A marriage that is in crisis because of errors made in the past can be made healthy. If it is true that a man can be healed of physical paralysis, then it is true that a man can be healed of his sin. This fact has become the constant miracle of the Christian life, the miracle of conversion. Throughout Christian history we have had the constant miracle of persons being carried to the Lord, who stand up and become capable of carrying others.

            We must allow the faith of the church to carry us and guide us. We must allow the faith of these "stretcher-bearers" to lead us to these experiences of healing and pardon. There is an entire school of saints, a multitude of wonderful Christians, a long history of the faith that demonstrates that God can dissolve sin in the heart of humanity. No matter how grave the sin we may have committed, no matter how ugly or shameful our deeds, God's power is infinitely greater.

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 12^th 2012)    

Mark 1:40-45

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I believe that drawing close to Christ will have unpleasant consequences for my lifestyle? Or do I believe that it will bring healing and liberation?

2. Am I inclined to think that I have to be holy before God will do great things for me? Or do I believe that God will touch me when I am still unclean?

3. Does God's will for me involve unpleasant duties that I have to carry out? Or is it something primarily directed towards bringing me to the fullness of life?

4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things while I am still in a state of infirmity before God? Or is healing by God a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life?

5. Is the Lord's action in our lives directed towards attaining the adulation of the multitudes, or genuine encounter with individuals?

A Gospel story that is full of significant gestures

The Gospel stories recount concrete events in the life of Jesus, but they are placed before us so that we can connect them to aspects of our own existence. In this story recounting the healing of a leper, there are a number of gestures that are highly significant for us, but they might go unnoticed in a superficial reading of the text. A leper approaches Jesus and pleads before him on his knees. This act of placing himself before the Lord on his knees is the act of one who supplicates or prays. The suffering of the leper has transformed itself into prayer. Who is this leper, and what leads him to make this beautiful entreaty, "If you want to, you can heal me"? The condition of leprosy is one of the most terrible diseases imaginable. One's very flesh is in a state of decomposition while one is still alive. The Law of Moses required that lepers live separately from normal human habitation. When non-lepers drew near, the leper was required to cry out "Unclean!  Unclean!" The leper, thus, was obliged to denounce himself, and the condemnation for his condition was one of isolation.

The leper recognizes that we need to approach Jesus and be close to Him

In the case that we consider today in the Gospel, the solitude of the leper becomes the springboard that drives him to approach Jesus. The law demands that he remain isolated and refrain from contact with others, but, in the case of Jesus, the leper ignores the rules and draws near. This Gospel has interesting parallels with the Gospel that we read two weeks ago in which the unclean spirit in the synagogue cried out to Jesus, "Stay away from us! You have come to destroy us!" In today's Gospel, we have man who is "unclean", and it is he who approaches Jesus looking for healing. These two readings inspire us to reflect on just who Jesus is. Is he the one we should keep away from, as the evil spirit believed, or is he the one that we should approach for help?

The leper recognizes that Jesus wants what is good for us

The leper comes close to Jesus and says, "If you want to, you can heal me". The evil spirit believed that Jesus would destroy him, but the leper believes that Jesus can free him, do good for him, give new life to him, defeat the death that is already making itself evident in his diseased flesh. This prayer arises from an awareness of solitude and abandonment. Genuine prayer always arises from the awareness of one's own vulnerability, one's own limits, one's own emptiness, from the desire to escape from one's own condition of isolation. This leper knows how to pray, and his prayer touches the heart of Jesus who has compassion for him. Here is revealed the motive and the source of our liberation: the compassion of the Lord. Jesus is able to understand the darkness of our isolation and his only desire is for our good.

The gestures of Jesus are a liturgy in themselves

In response to this anguish, Jesus makes a series of gestures that constitute a kind of liturgy in themselves. He stretches out his hand, touches the diseased man and says, "I want to. Be healed". The Christian liturgy is composed of gestures and words, and here we have a gesture and a word. It is not enough to say, "I want to. Be healed". And it is not enough simply to touch the leper. A simple word in itself, or a simple caress in itself, is not sufficient. What is needed instead is a relationship in all of its fullness.

            In this act of touching the leper, Jesus breaks the regulations. It was not permitted by law to approach a leper, and it was certainly not permitted to touch him. Jesus touches the leper before he is healed. He touches him while he is still sick, while he is still putrid. He touches him and says "I want to! Be healed!"

God's will for us is not something negative 

There is a play on words here. The leper says "If you want to, you can heal me". Jesus replies, "I want to. Be healed". This play on words reveals what it is that God wants to do. It uncovers the will of God for us. This poor leper has understood that the Lord wishes for his good, and Jesus confirms that with his reply. We are often inclined to think that the will of God is something that makes unpleasant demands on us. When we say "Your will be done", we feel that we are handing our lives over to God so that he can do things with us that we do not want. This is simply not true! The will of God coincides perfectly with his compassion. The will of God is that we be healed. The will of God is that process by which we are touched by God, made clean, and led to a state of life that is finally free.

Healing is a necessary stage that must be gone through before I can live the healthy life

It is important to note that healing is a fundamental step in the spiritual life. Sometimes we think that we can do great things, achieve great spiritual results, without passing through the stage of healing. That process of being touched in heart and soul, of being tended to in the depths of our being is a necessary stage in life. We cannot pass from a condition of abandonment directly to the condition of being blessed by God. Jesus stretches out his hand and says to us, "I want to! Be healed!" In this brief interaction there is concentrated the entire process of approaching God, prayerful supplication, and being responded to by Jesus who wishes to heal us.

            The term "purify" that appears in this passage derives from an expression that signifies "not to be of different natures; to be of a single nature". Pure water means that there is nothing else present but water. Before becoming an ethical term, "purify" was a chemical term, and it meant "to be of one reality only". This leper was a man who had death present in his flesh. To be purified signified to be made completely alive. This process of attaining the fullness of life is what Jesus wants. We must become ever more aware that God has only one wish for us, and that is our salvation. The grace that the Lord offers for us is for our salvation, and no other motive.

Jesus does not seek the adulation of the masses, but encounter with the individual

The leprosy disappears from the leper and Jesus gives him a stern warning. In fact he sends him away quite severely! Why does Jesus behave this way? We might expect someone to banish a leper from his sight while the leper still has the disease, but Jesus banishes him when he is healed! It is important that we know how to depart from Christ, in the sense that we must know how to enter into a life of obedience; to pass from the stage of healing to the stage of living the healthy life; to pass from the stage of being looked after by Christ to the stage of being able to fulfil our mission. The leper is instructed to show himself to the priest in order to give witness to what has been accomplished in him. Once the leper goes to the priest and is examined by him, the priest is in a position to allow the leper to re-enter the life of the normal healthy person. But the man disobeys! This demonstrates that it is possible to be healed, and still fail to live the life that should follow naturally from the act of being healed. It is possible to continue along the wrong way, despite having received immense graces from the Lord. The desire of fame, of seeking attention for the graces received, can become more important than the graces themselves. In this respect, the Gospel text gives us great insight into the person of our Lord. Previously, it was the leper who was obliged to remain in isolated and deserted places. Now it is Jesus who retreats into the desert because the leper did not maintain the reserve that has been asked of him. Jesus has no love of fame. He knows the mentality of the masses, who search - not for authentic things - but for things that are of popular appeal. He withdraws from this multitude because he wishes to encounter each individual personally. The holy people of God is composed of individuals who have had this personal encounter of grace with the Lord

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 5^th 2012)     

Mark 1:29-39
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

 Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel
1 Do I consider encounter with God to be something that occurs primarily in church, or is it something that occurs at every moment in life?
2. When I ask the Lord for healing, do I expect instant results regardless of my personal behaviour? Or am I prepared to take Jesus’ hand and follow him?
3. Do I believe that wellness consists in the ability to serve others?
4. Do I believe that I can achieve great things by myself? Or is the fulfilment of our mission dependent on fidelity to God's plan?

The arena of God’s action is not just holy places but also our own homes

This passage recounts a series of events from a day in the life of Jesus, and, through it, we learn a great deal about his mission. Jesus leaves the synagogue (having just healed the man with the impure spirit) and goes to the house of Simon. This movement is highly significant. The action of God's Messiah shifts from the synagogue – a place associated with the word of God – to a normal human dwelling. The movement of God's action from the synagogue to the home is a historic movement that corresponds to the advent of Christianity. Jesus wishes to enter the house of Simon, and into all of our homes, because there are things that he wants to accomplish there. The arena in which God enters our lives is no longer exclusively the sacred places, but the very places where we live. Holy places can assist us to pray in a concentrated way, but, with the advent of Christ, it is no longer the location that decides whether God is present or not. The Lord comes into our most personal of places seeking genuine encounter with us.

To be healed by the Lord, we must allow him to take our lives in hand
Jesus enters the house of Simon and what does he find? Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. And what does he find generally in our homes? Sickness, difficulty, people who cannot move, people who are trapped inside the unresolved problems of their existence, people who are nailed down by the things they are fixated with.
            Approaching the sick woman, Jesus takes her by the hand. Sometimes we are not healed because we don’t allow Jesus to take us by the hand. We need to allow ourselves to be taken by the hand and do the things that Jesus wants us to do. Healing cannot happen until we become obedient to the Lord and allow him to lead us by the hand. While we persist with our own projects, as long as we refuse to permit Jesus to guide our actions, then we remain infirm with sicknesses that never go away.

The goal of God’s saving action is to enable us to serve others
In the Gospel, the fever leaves the woman and she begins to serve them. The point is that the goal of God’s saving action is to enable people to serve. The person who is well is the one who knows how to serve, the one who is able to take care of others. This world can be divided into two types of people: those who need care and those who know how to care for others; those who are black holes of needs without end, who demand constant affection and attention, and those who have finally been healed and are able to care for others; those who devour life and those who give life. In the Gospel, the woman first had need of care, but then she becomes someone able to give care. What a beautiful image! All of us are well when we are able to serve! All of us are fit and alive when we are able to take care of others!

Wellness consists in the capacity to serve others
The human being is called to paternity and maternity. The woman in the Gospel was a mother, a person who had once been an expert in taking care of others, but who was no longer capable of serving. In our time, members of the older generation are often in this situation.  They fail to create a caring role for themselves. Many elderly people pass their time doing things that are vain and of little value. The children ask “Where is Grandma?” and they find that she is busy doing a course of salsa, or is on the phone six hours a day! The image that elderly people desperately need to rediscover and nurture is that of the adult who knows how to serve, who has attained wisdom, and who is available to others. This is the kind of senior citizen that this world needs more and more as the average age of our population grows. One of the problems of the older generation is that elderly people often feel useless. They think that no-one needs them. This demonstrates that acts of service towards others makes us feel whole. We must learn how to serve others. The fullness of life is maternity, paternity, being available to devote oneself to the needs of others.

The goodness that we are capable of achieving depends on our fidelity to God’s plan

Once Jesus heals the sick woman, the occupants of the entire town come searching for him. The house is assailed by requests from the infirm, and from those possessed by demons. Jesus heals the sick and drives out the demons, ordering them to be silent. The success of Jesus in curing people means that everyone now wants him. So what does he do? He rises early in the morning while it is still dark and goes to a lonely place to pray. When the disciples eventually find him they say “Everyone is looking for you!” Why does Jesus go away in private to pray like this? In the Gospels, Jesus is always shown praying at the moments that are fundamental to his mission, and when he is tempted. We see this while he is in the desert, when he is at Gethsemane, and when the crowd comes to carry him off and make him king. At the times when his life could take a wrong direction, at moments when he must remain faithful to God’s plan, Jesus unites himself with the Father in prayer. In the words of the disciples “Everyone is looking for you!” the temptation is evident. “You’ve made it! You’re a huge success! You’re no longer an obscure carpenter from Galilee!”
Jesus replies “Let us leave here. I haven’t come for this, but to preach also in other places”. As soon as Jesus attains great success he removes himself from the success, demonstrating that he has come not to do his own will but that of the Father, and so fulfil his great mission. We too must be on guard against the temptations that come with success. We must be wary of remaining only with the things in our lives that work well, instead of confronting the challenging things that life places before us, so that the good that we are all capable of doing might be uncovered.

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 29^th 2012)  

Mark 1:21-28

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Do I sometimes feel discomfort when I listen to the word of God?

2. Could such discomfort be the result of the word of God confronting contradictions or compromises within me?

3. Do I believe that conversion entails the ruination of my life as I am living it now, or true liberation?

4. Does a surgeon make a cut with the primary intention of inflicting a wound, or in order to restore health? Why are we inclined to believe that conversion involves pain primarily, instead of liberation?

5. Jesus does not negotiate with the evil spirit but orders him to leave. What does this tell us about how we should confront the vices and contradictions in our lives?

The teachings of Jesus confront us with the contradictions that dwell within us

The Gospel passage from St Mark describes the opening miracle performed by Jesus on the day that he embarks upon his mission. Jesus enters the synagogue and heals a man possessed by an impure spirit. This story of healing and liberation is significant for us, because all of us have need of healing and liberation. Jesus is a liberator and a redeemer. He is the one who pays the ransom for the slave and frees him. He is the one who comes to rid humanity of its ills, its idols and its deception.

            Jesus enters the Synagogue at Capernaum and begins to teach. It is the teaching of Jesus that smokes out this demon in the first place. And this is true for all of us. In order that our problems might be uncovered and brought to light, we need to be confronted and challenged by the word of God. When Jesus teaches at Capernaum, the possessed man begins to feel unwell and starts shouting. When we are confronted by the word of God, it is important that we be attentive to any discomfort that might arise in our hearts. Discomfort of this sort is the Lord striking at the contradictions within us. These contradictions should be listened to and acted upon. Why does the Gospel often annoy us? Such annoyance is sometimes a covert effort by us to erect barriers to the word of God. When we hear the word of the Lord, we try to hide aspects of ourselves. We don't want our real selves to be smoked out, or to be challenged at the depths of our being. And so we begin to react to what we hear. We often start to complain about the person who is proclaiming the word of God. Biblical scholars sometime claim that certain texts are historically doubtful, or have problems in translation. We develop incredible methods for disputing the good news and for escaping from the contradictions that the word of God reveals inside us!

Deception involves taking the truth and manipulating it to arrive at false conclusions

In the Gospel the impure spirit is smoked out because the word of God has struck at the evil that lies within. The spirit starts to say, "What do you want from us, Jesus of Nazareth? Do you want to destroy us? We know that you are the holy one of God!" These words express self-deception of a classic sort! True deception rarely involves the communication of statements that are false, full stop. Real deception involves putting together various true statements in a way that leads to a false conclusion. Evil has always utilised the word of God, or statements that are true, or matters of fact, and puts them together in a way that leads us to draw conclusions that are wrong.

            It is clear that Jesus of Nazareth is incompatible with the forces of evil. There can be no doubt that the light of Christ is incompatible with the kingdom of darkness. It is clear that evil cannot survive where goodness is cultivated, and vice-versa. But the impure spirit interprets all of this in a way that misleads. "What do you want from us? Do you want to destroy us?" The deception here is that the holy one of God has come in order to destroy. The image of God presented is of one who comes to annihilate. Many people are reluctant to undergo conversion because they fear this very manifestation of God. But this is the voice of evil speaking. It whispers that the work of God involves our ruin and our destruction.

The work of God is directed primarily to our liberation, not to our destruction

In reality, the chastising aspect of the work of God is secondary in nature. Where conversion is concerned it is true that renunciation is required, and it is correct to say that certain things will have to be abandoned. But the problem with this statement from the impure spirit is that it focuses completely on the alleged destruction that is involved in the work of God. And this focus leads us to forget the fundamental good that is the driving impulse behind the work of God. I am being liberated by the action of Jesus; I am constructing a marvellous new edifice: therefore the old one will have to be dismantled. There is always something that will have to be dismantled in order to follow the Lord Jesus! But this dismantling is done only in order to build something greater. The impure spirit diverts attention from this fact and speaks only of the destruction. The central truth that Jesus has come to liberate is obscured completely.

            To overcome a vice is a process that involves a certain amount of pain and suffering. But to overcome a vice is to restore one's dignity and to live a new life. To prevail over a vice is without doubt to have endured a kind of "destruction"! But look at the quality of one's life afterwards! To escape from deception or sin, or to be freed from a state of being possessed by evil, is to have recuperated one's own liberty. The evil spirit cried aloud, "You have come to destroy us!" But this is secondary! Jesus has come in the first place to free us! A surgeon that removes a tumour must inflict a wound of some sort. But the primary intention is to restore health, not to inflict the wound.

How does Jesus win the battle over the evil spirit?

How does Jesus win this symbolic battle that is so important for all of us? He says, "Be silent and come out!" Jesus doesn't attempt to respond to the statements uttered by the impure spirit. He doesn't enter into a discussion with him, but simply orders him to be quiet and leave. One does not negotiate with unclean spirits; one does not negotiate with vices; one does not try to compromise with wrong. In battles of this sort, there is a frontier between right and wrong that must be surmounted. Either we surmount that frontier and enter into life, or we do not. This is a point of fundamental importance. With many temptations that confront us, the only right response is "Be quiet and leave!" We should enter into no negotiations with the impure spirits that seek to tell us what God wants to do with us. Often, we remain entrapped in strange interpretations of our own experience that lead us nowhere. The tree is known by its fruits. If something does not lead to good then let is be silent forever and leave our lives! Christ is a liberator and makes no compromises with evil. Let us allow ourselves to be liberated, and let that which must be destroyed be destroyed, so that which needs to be freed may be truly freed.

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time (January 22^nd 2012)     

Mark 1:14-20

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Which kingdom do I give my allegiance to?

2. Who do I follow in my daily life? Jesus? Or someone else?

3. Do I believe that God can take my ordinary characteristics and use them to extraordinary effect?

4. In what sense can I, with my own natural characteristics and traits, become a "fisher of men"?

Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Which kingdom do I give my allegiance to?

This Sunday we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark and we hear of the call of the first disciples. The passage comes directly after the news that John the Baptist has been arrested, upon which the mission of Jesus immediately begins. Everything happens in its own time. When John the Baptist fell into the hands of the evil Herod, people may have thought that the time of grace had come to an end. But God always draws good from evil, light from darkness. God created the world from nothing, so who knows what he might do with our humble lives? From human failure God can make a new beginning. John's mission ends, and Jesus immediately appears, proclaiming the Kingdom of God!

            The good news that Jesus proclaims is that the time is "complete" and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. In other words, we are in touching distance of something marvellous, something whose moment has finally arrived. If the Kingdom of God is not here, then what is here? The kingdom of men, the kingdom of nothingness, the kingdom of evil, a kingdom of anarchy that lacks a true point of reference. If the Kingdom of God is not actual in our lives, then we are living an empty existence that is heading nowhere.

Embracing the Kingdom of God means making God the focal point of my life

If the Kingdom of Heaven is not here, then who is in charge here? This is a question that we should often ask ourselves? Who or what is dictating the course of our lives? To who, or to what, have I bound myself in order to survive? We are all vulnerable and insecure, and we need supports to lean on, lights to illuminate our darkness. Who do I lean on? What are the "lights" that I use to illuminate my way?

            The Kingdom of Heaven is near, and, if I choose, I can make God the focal point of my life. I can make him my strength, and my organising principle. The Kingdom of Heaven is near and I can change mentality completely. I can stop being a victim, move away from the sad, unhappy, and hopeless concerns that dominate my life. What a load of unnecessary preoccupations fill our heads! What silly obsessions we cultivate in our minds! How many trivial things fill up the space in our souls that should be reserved only for God! How many senseless things occupy the place in our hearts that can only be warmed by the certainty of the love of God for us!

            Jesus appears and tells us: "Change mentality and be converted! Leave behind that which is inconsistent and senseless! Reject that which is false and confused so that you will be able to believe in the Good News!" My soul was created to believe in the good. The human soul was made to believe in the Light. When one opens his heart to God, everything becomes a source of light and salvation.

Embracing the Kingdom means to follow Jesus and no-one else

All of this sounds good and warms the heart, but everything we have said so far remains only chatter unless something concrete arises from it. The Gospel goes on to relate how Jesus presents people with the opportunity to put these sentiments into action. He sees Simon and Andrew throwing their nets into the sea. It is a very ordinary act and there is nothing wrong with it. But there is something better that they could be doing. "Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!" It is important to understand well the significance of this phrase. To follow Jesus means to no longer follow anyone else. He alone deserves our attention. He alone has given his blood for us. He alone is willing to do anything for us. He alone knows how to look after us and love us. To follow Jesus means not to go ahead of him, in the sense of thinking that he should do what we want. To follow Jesus means to stop following others and asking "life" from them.

God uses the ordinary characteristics that we have, and transforms them to extraordinary effect

"I will make you fishers of men". This saying is curious in the sense that fishers of men must still perform the act of fishing, but the "prey" has been transformed. So God uses, in part, the talents that we already have. We remain ourselves with our own characteristics, but God uses us for a completely different and nobler end. How wonderful it is to "capture" (in the most beautiful of senses) another human being for God! To draw another human being from the sea of death, from the sea of nothingness! What a marvellous thing to be called to do, to bring good into the lives of others through our actions! Whatever our profession is at the moment, whatever our gifts or characteristics are, they can be transformed so that we can become fishers of men. I remain myself with my own ordinary characteristics, but my actions are transformed so that they have extraordinary effects on the lives of others.

It is our responsibility to follow Jesus, and it is Jesus' responsibility to transform us.

What a wonderful call! But we must be careful how we understand that call. In the Gospel, Jesus says, "I will make you fishers of men". This is not an act of ours, but an act of God. It is not sufficient for me to say resolutely, "From now on everything I do will be directed towards leading others to God!" If I try to do it on my own steam, then I will get so far and no further. We have to remember that it is the work of God that is at issue here. It is necessary in the first place to follow the Lord, obey him, and put ourselves in a condition to carry out his work. Jesus is telling us in this Gospel that it is our job to follow him, and it is his job to transform us.

            How many people waste their lives and do not know how to be fishers of men! How many people do not know how to express or defend the Gospel, or use the creativity that is in their hearts. Just consider the amount of beautiful things that there are to be done in this life! And it is our characteristics that can become beautiful in the hands of the Lord. We remain fishermen, but our work is taken and becomes for others an instrument of salvation.

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 15^th 2012)      

John 1:35-42

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

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1. Who are the mediators that indicate Jesus to me?

2. What am I seeking for most in life?

3. Where are the places in my life that I encounter God?

4. In what ways can I cultivate my relationship with God?

5. Have I begun to discern the mission that God has for me?

We have need of mediators in order to come to know Jesus

At the beginning of the new adventure of ordinary time, we are presented with this beautiful passage that has so many important elements for our life of faith. The story is about the encounter between Jesus and his first disciples. John the Baptist fixes his gaze on Jesus and points him out to his own followers. This is the first important point that emerges from the passage: We have need of someone who shows us Jesus. It is not possible for a person to arrive at faith in Jesus purely on their own efforts. Faith is not a natural trait of the human person, but a supernatural gift from God. We receive it with the aid of others who lead us to the faith. When someone claims to have discovered Jesus purely by means of their own efforts, then the fear arises that they are not speaking about the real Jesus at all. In this passage from the Gospel, Jesus is pointed out by John the Baptist, a prophet who bears the legacy of the entire Old Testament. We need mediators in order to come to know Jesus truly. And, in fact, this text speaks of other mediations of just this sort; his first disciples bring still other disciples to Jesus.

We must take the initiative and follow the indications that we have been given

John's first description of Jesus is "Behold, the Lamb of God!" Here he is referring to the lamb sacrificed at the Passover, and that represents the action of God in liberating his people. The lamb is a meek animal, easy to apprehend and to kill. And it is a fitting animal to represent Jesus, who never imposes himself on any believer, but simply offers himself. Jesus invites us to follow him, and the way of Jesus is demanding, but we have the free choice to follow him or not. He never tries to constrain us. There is no constriction in God, for constriction is alien to the nature of genuine love.

            John says "Behold the Lamb of God!" and his disciples begin to follow Jesus. It is important to follow the indications that we are given! There are many people who listen attentively to the scriptures, listen to great preachers and to leaders in the faith; but when it comes to following the indications that they are given, they fall short. What is important is to take one step after another, and put into practice what we have received.

We must ask ourselves the questions that lead to adult faith

Seeing that they were following him, Jesus asked "What are you looking for?" This is a question that we should all reflect on, and that should inspire us to consider our faith in an adult way. What am I really looking for? We can be in church but have a heart that is distracted by other interests, by other things that I am seeking out, by other priorities. What am I seeking truly? What is it that I cannot live without, that I have genuine need for? Our eyes see the things that they are interested in; our ears hear the things that they wish to hear; our senses in general perceive the things that they are actively seeking to perceive. We do not have a global perspective on the world around us; what we see is selective and is dependent on what we wish to obtain from the world. What am I looking for? If I encounter something that I am not looking for, then I disregard it and continue on, even if that thing represents my salvation! My heart needs to be in tune with that thing if I am to see it for what it is. Jesus puts the disciples' hearts in tune by challenging them to relate to him: "Why are you doing? Why are you following me?"    

Where are the places in our lives that we encounter God?

They reply, "Master, where do you live?" They wish to know where his resting place is, but Jesus, in reality, is someone who is always moving. In all of the Gospels, Jesus is one who passes by and doesn't stay still. But yet the disciples ask, "Where do you live? Where do you hang out? Where do you stop?" And this is an important question for all of us to ask: Where does God live? Where are the places in my life thatI can encounter God? Each one of us has grace-filled moments and places where we can meet Jesus. Every one of us a personal story that has revealed to us numerous blessed places in our hearts and outside of ourselves where we can experience God. And these places are places where we can genuinely cultivate our growth in faith and our relationship with God. It is important that we know how to identify these places where God resides, but we must ask Him where they are! This is what the disciples did, and it is a fact that we must bear in mind.

We must cultivate the desire we have for God and actively seek him in the places where we have learned to find him

We must show initiative! God invites us and facilitates our relationship with him, but the moment comes when we, like the disciples, must make the move from John the Baptist to Jesus. We must cultivate the relationship with God; we must promote the desire to have an intimate relationship with him, to seek out the place where he lives, and to want to be with him there. This kind of relationship does not present itself to us automatically; we have to reach out and make it ours. If our faith is to be an adult one, then we must seek God out and follow him. We cannot expect him to do everything for us. Many people remain stationary in the spiritual life because they are waiting for God to do something. But if I have a desire in my heart, a hunger that has been placed there by God, then it is up to me to follow it! In the Song of Songs, it is recounted how the bride and groom seek each other out. The bride has to struggle to find the groom. It is the same with our relationship with God. He moves way from us to see if we have a genuine interest in following him or not. The Lord respects our hearts. He does not constrain us to follow him, but gives us the glorious opportunity to seek him out freely.

To be on intimate terms with the Lord is to be given a new name and to receive a mission

The disciples follow Jesus and experience an encounter with him. From this encounter, there arises a powerful desire to announce to others what they have experienced. The encounter was so beautiful that they have an irresistible urge to lead other people to the Lord. In this way Simon is taken to Jesus, and the event that occurs is of special significance to us. Jesus changes Simon's name and his identity. To be on intimate terms with the Lord is to have a new name, to be a different person. Every genuine experience of God transforms us. If an experience of God does not change us, then it is clear that we did not receive what God intended to give.

Let us summarize this Gospel!

First, we must listen to the indications given to us by the prophets;

Secondly, we must obey the indications of the prophets;

Then, we must begin to follow Jesus;

We must ask ourselves some serious questions that promote a growth in faith;

We must start to obey the insights that arise from these questions:

Then we must BE WITH JESUS!

Why? So that our identities can begin to be changed!

To what end? To become a new person that has a mission to accomplish. 

Simon was a man who had a mission to accomplish. According to his new name his mission would be to bring the work of the church to fruition. All of us have a mission to accomplish, and these are the steps by which we can discern what it is.

The Baptism of Our Lord (January 8^th 2012)

Mark 1: 7-11.

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

Questions raised by this Gospel

1.    What does the baptism of Jesus reveal to us about our own baptism?

2. Do we have difficulty in discerning the loving gaze of God towards each of us?

3. Can it really be true that God’s contentment consists in my existence?

4. In what way is God’s love for us the key to our existence?

Baptism means to be immersed in the Spirit who gives new life

The short reading with which we celebrate the feast of the baptism of Jesus is from the oldest of the Gospels, that of St Mark. In a stark and powerful passage, John the Baptist says, “Someone is following me who is more powerful than I am.” John was the one who showed people the way of the Lord. Who or what can be more powerful than that? John continues, “I baptize you with water but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit”. To baptize signifies more than simply to wash or make clean. The Greek term “baptize” means to be immersed completely. The Holy Spirit is the same spirit that hovered over the waters at the creation of the world. To be immersed in the Holy Spirit means nothing less than to have a new life, to be filled with the life that comes from above.

            When Jesus is baptized by John, the heavens are opened. The scene is described in a way that tells us that the heavens are no longer separated from earth by an insuperable barrier. They are “torn open” and there is direct communication between heaven and earth. A dove descends from heaven towards Jesus. This evokes the story of Noah’s ark when, after the flood, a dove with an olive branch descends on the ark as a sign that the time of death and purification has been completed. The dove alights on Jesus and a voice comes from the heavens that have been ripped open: “You are my son, the beloved, in whom I am well pleased”.

Jesus’ baptism reveals the nature of our own baptism

If we had wondered earlier why John had described Jesus as the “one who is stronger”, now we know why. He is the Son of God; he is the one who has the presence of the Holy Spirit; and he is the beloved of the Father. God loves this son, and the son’s strength comes from the fact that he is loved. The root of his very essence is his loving union with God, generated from the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God. What is expressed in this passage from the Gospel about the baptism of Jesus, is essential for understanding our baptism, because the baptism of Jesus is the paradigm by which we must understand our own. Our baptism has a foundation; our Christian existence has a particular source; and this source is the same love of God expressed by the Father at the baptism of Jesus. Our life is rooted in the fact of being loved; of being important for someone. Life has no meaning without love. Life demands love. To be alive is to embark on an adventure in which we learn how to love. But in order to learn how to love, we need a source and a master. God teaches us how to love through Jesus. The love that we see in the life of Jesus and that consoles us in our weakness is founded in the acceptance of the love of the Father.

The love of God for each of us is a remedy for our natural inclination to consider ourselves unlovable

This is the foundation of a beautiful life, and it is a remedy for a contrary tendency in life: the inclination to think that we are not lovable; the difficulty we have in believing that we are acceptable; the interior resistance we have in the depths of our soul that puts us always on the defensive, and makes us erect walls around our existence so that it becomes a prison. This belief that we are unworthy; this tendency to hide ourselves, like Adam after the moment of original sin; derives from the failure to discern the loving gaze of the Father upon us. “In you I am well pleased”. We must seek out this place within us where God directs his loving gaze. In every man and woman there is a good light; there is a root of faithfulness; there is a predisposition to believe in God and to believe in his love; to believe in the beauty of life. We are the place in which God’s contentment and approval resides. We must learn to cultivate all of those things in our lives that represent God’s contentment with us and approval of us.

The fact that we are God’s beloved must become the key by which we live our lives

We must remain constantly aware of the significance of our baptism. It is the moment when the heavens were torn open and the fact was proclaimed aloud that we are God’s children and that his love towards us is constant and enduring. The Lord has an abundance of love for each of us, an abundance of patience, forgiveness and magnanimity. God is the one who basically wants to find contentment with us. We spend a lot of time discussing what we think, what we believe, what we consider to be important. But it would be much more liberating if we spent some time contemplating what we are for God. Just what are we for God? This Gospel tells us: “You are my child, the beloved!” That this saying would descend into each of our souls and become the key by which to live our lives! The baptism of Jesus reveals who we are: each one of us is immensely precious. We are something essential that God cannot bear to be without. None of us can feel despair in his heart without denying a part of himself. Even in the worst of circumstances, a part of our being continues to hope and search for the light. That part is the part God has placed within us and in which he is well-pleased. We must focus completely on that part of our existence and leave everything else behind us in the waters of baptism.

This Gospel tells us that the one who is stronger has arrived. Why is he stronger? Because he loves and is loved. Whoever loves understands life better and understands himself better. Whoever allows himself to be loved by God is in possession of the key to life, knows how to tear the heavens open, and how to survive always the waters of the flood.