May 3^rd 2015.  Fifth Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL: John 15:1-8

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

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

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GOSPEL: John 15:1-8

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘I am the true vine,
and my Father is the vinedresser.
Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes
to make it bear even more.
You are pruned already,
by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.
As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself,
but must remain part of the vine,
neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me, with me in him,
bears fruit in plenty;
for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
is like a branch that has been thrown away
– he withers;
these branches are collected and thrown on the fire,
and they are burnt.
If you remain in me
and my words remain in you,
you may ask what you will
and you shall get it.
It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.’

---

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel tells us that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. If we are to have life, then we must remain attached to Jesus. The parable tells us that without Jesus we can do nothing! We tend to think that we can do quite a lot by ourselves, but the Gospel gives us the startling message that all of our apparently wonderful achievements have no lasting value if we are not rooted in Christ. But how are we to be rooted in Christ? The Gospel answers this clearly. We remain attached to Jesus if we keep his word in our hearts. Our hearts are filled with many other words, sterile, angry, bitter and sad words! The Father prunes us by eliminating these words from our hearts. To be “pure” means to be of one nature only, to be no longer duplicitous, to have only the words of Jesus in our hearts, and no other words. God has spoken a word to each of us personally. We are faithful to ourselves only if we are faithful to that word. We must allow God to purify us, to clear away the other words that lead nowhere. We must allow the word of Jesus to penetrate deep into our hearts and yield fruit that will last. In this way, the resurrection of the Lord will transform us from within.

Let our judgement not be influenced by the events of the past! God is doing something new with people and with history!

The first reading presents us with a figure who could easily go unnoticed in the Bible – Barnabas. He is the one who accepts Saul even though the other disciples feel that this previous persecutor of Christians must be a spy. Do we see people as being purely products of their past? Or do we allow that God’s initiative can transform a person? There are many saints of the church who had a questionable past. If we were to view them solely in terms of the people they were originally, or they things that they had done, then we would reject them altogether and miss the gifts of grace that had led to their complete transformation. St Francis of Assisi or St Ignatius of Loyola are just two example of great saints with a chequered past. Barnabas does not allow past events to colour his judgement and he takes the former persecutor, Saul, with him to the Apostles. Barnabas explains what has happened and becomes the custodian of this gift that the Church has received from God.

If we are to have authentic life, then we must be attached to the vine that is Christ. If we are not rooted in this vine, our achievements will have no lasting value.

The Gospel this Sunday tells us that life comes from God. It also tells us the road we must travel if we too are to have life in God. We must be the branches of the vine that is Jesus, a vine that is cultivated by the Father. The issue is not whether we are good, or bad, or talented, or disciplined: the issue is whether or not we remain attached to the vine. A branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains attached to the vine. One phrase in particular of this Gospel is frightening: “Whoever remains in me will bear much fruit. Without me you can do nothing.” We tend to think that we can do a lot of things by ourselves! Even those of us who consider ourselves Christians try to do a lot without Christ. And we interpret things and judge others from our own limited point of view, not from a viewpoint informed by an attachment to Christ. This phrase from Jesus – without me you can do nothing – is terrible, but it is profoundly true. So much of what we do has no lasting value. Many of our achievements cannot endure any robust testing from reality over time.

How do we draw life from Jesus? By keeping his word in our hearts.

“If you remain in me . . .”. Jesus says. How do we remain in him? How do we ensure that the life we have is a life that comes from him, the life of the Resurrection, the life that comes from his pardon? The things that we possess are the things that spring from the flesh. These can be dignified too, in their own way, but they do not have eternity within them.  Jesus says, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you . .” These two things are completely identifiable.  I will remain in the vine that is Jesus, cultivated by the Father and irrigated by the Holy Spirit, if I keep the word of Jesus in my heart. Deep within me there is a personal zone. If Jesus’ word is allowed to penetrate this zone then it becomes the fount of life in my heart. It is important to have this seed in our heart if we are to produce an eternal harvest. Saul was transformed from being a persecutor to being an Apostle by a word that entered his heart. The Lord Jesus spoke these words to his heart, throwing him to the ground and shaking him from his previous convictions, changing the fundamental orientation of his being.

The Father prunes us. This is an act of purification in which the word of God eliminates other “words” from our hearts.

The Gospel tells us that we are pruned already on account of the word that has been spoken to us. What does it mean to be “pruned”? The original Greek term refers to a process of purification, but in a chemical sense rather than a moral sense. Something is pure if it is of a single nature, not contaminated with impurities. To be pure means to be no longer duplicitous. When the word of Jesus enters our heart, it has a job to do: to chase out other “words”. There is a battle raging at the depths of our being, a process of selection of words. Each one of us has a profound need to listen to what Jesus is saying to us. God directs a word into the depths of our being. That sacred root is the fount of the fruitfulness of our life. We are challenged to be faithful to ourselves and to what God has planted within us, to be purified by the word of God, recognizing that there are other words that need to be eliminated.

If we are to become channels of grace then we must become totally centred on the word God has planted within us. Sterile, bitter, angry and vain words must be eliminated from our hearts.

The parable tells us of the work of the Father in pruning, cutting away, simplifying, so that we become channels of grace, instruments of God. This requires that we must become simple and totally centred on the word that God speaks to my heart. As the Gospel of Matthew says, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”. Our lives must be based on what God says to us. Instead we often try to base our existence on sterile words that lead us nowhere. Our hearts are filled with words that are bitter, angry, sad, imposed on us by the secular culture around us. These are not the true words that God has placed in our hearts. The resurrection transforms us from within, from the word that Christ directs personally to our hearts.

April 26^th 2015. GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY. Fourth Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL John 10: 11-18

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

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

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GOSPEL John 10: 11-18

Jesus said:

‘I am the good shepherd:
the good shepherd is one who lays down his life for his sheep.
The hired man, since he is not the shepherd
and the sheep do not belong to him,
abandons the sheep and runs away
as soon as he sees a wolf coming,
and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep;
this is because he is only a hired man
and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd;
I know my own and my own know me,
just as the Father knows me
and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for my sheep.
And there are other sheep I have
that are not of this fold,
and these I have to lead as well.
They too will listen to my voice,
and there will be only one flock,
and one shepherd.
The Father loves me,
because I lay down my life
in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me;
I lay it down of my own free will,
and as it is in my power to lay it down,
so it is in my power to take it up again;
and this is the command I have been given by my Father.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel contrasts the Good Shepherd with the hired hand. The Good Shepherd cares for his sheep and lays down his life for them. The hired hand is only in it for his own profit. Once the situation ceases to be beneficial for him, he disappears. Jesus comes from the Father, an environment in which the natural mode of relationship is self-giving love. We, by contrast, live in a world where everything must be bought and paid for. When we are kind to others, we expect something in return. We tend to relate to others in ways that benefit ourselves. Then we project this same mode of relating onto God! When we place ourselves before God, we tend to think that he will only love us if we do this or do that. We approach God with fear and trembling, with the mentality of the orphan who distrusts relationships and focusses on what he can get out of the situation for himself. We must cease to relate to God like that! Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has died out of love for us! He does not care what we do or do not do. He offers us his unconditional love and pardon at no price! We have been traumatized by a world in which nothing is given freely. Let us immerse ourselves fully in the sea of love that is offered freely by God!

Jesus is the corner-stone, the Good Shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. The hired shepherd works only for his own advantage and disappears when the situation is no longer of benefit to him

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the first reading gives us a key for understanding the Gospel. Here, Peter says that Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders that eventually becomes the corner-stone. Jesus is the sure and only means of redemption. There is no other name under heaven that saves us. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and this signifies that there are plenty of bad shepherds. The passage from John’s Gospel, in fact, makes the contrast between the Good Shepherd and the hired man. The hired man does not give his life for his sheep because he is just that – a hired hand. He runs from the wolf because he doesn’t care about the sheep; he works only for profit, for his own reward. The Good Shepherd, by contrast, cares for his sheep. They belong to him and he to them.

Jesus very mode of being is to relate to others in a self-giving way. Our mode of being is more like the hired hand: we relate to others in a self-preserving way

The text goes on: “I am the Good Shepherd, I know my own sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know Him. I lay down my life for my sheep”. It is the relationship between Jesus and the Father that is the basis of the relationship between the Shepherd and the sheep. Jesus is to the sheep as the Father is to him. It is like a person who lives a life of great earnestness and sincerity. Wherever he goes in the world, he continues to live life and to relate to others in this way. This is Jesus very mode of being. He comes to us and relates to us just as he relates to the Father. We, on the other hand, are like orphans. We tend not to relate to others in this giving and protective way. We are more like the hired hand who relates to others to the extent that it suits him, or is profitable for him. Inside we have a great emptiness and coldness. The environment that we come from is a self-absorbed one. We find it difficult to go beyond that which benefits us. We are filled with fear of that which is not to our advantage.

When we experience the unconditional love and pardon of Jesus towards us, we are enabled to relate to others in a similar way.

The letter to the Colossians speaks of a new creature in Christ who lives a new kind of existence; a person who does not relate to others as a hired hand does. This is a creature that comes from a relationship in which he knows he is treasured, and he is enabled to relate to others in the same way. When someone receives the mercy and pardon of God, he begins to understand the need that others have for forgiveness. He begins to understand the life-changing transformation from the coldness of merely following regulations to the warmth of receiving forgiveness. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who touches the coldness within us, the sure corner-stone upon which we can build a life of authentic relationships. Jesus comes from the Father where there is true love and knowledge of the other. Let us not forget that in Hebrew, “knowing” another person refers to a relationship of great intimacy between people. The Good Shepherd loves us with this kind of knowledge, this kind of profound union. From where can we find the capacity to relate to others in a way that is different to the kind of relationship typical of the hired hand? We can learn to care for others when we experience the care that Christ has for us.

Jesus’ nature is pure gift. He emanates from the life-generating love of the Father and continues to pour this love onto us. He could never act like a hired hand!

At the end of the Gospel we are told that: “The Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will”. It is a completely free act on the part of Jesus. The incarnate Word, true God and true man, generated from the Father, gives himself freely to us. He continues the stream of joy and love that emanates from the Father. It is a curious thing that the “command” that Jesus receives from the Father is the command to love! This is Jesus very nature, that of being pure gift. Christ is the fruit of the generosity of the Father. And this is how he relates to us, not as a hired hand!

We must cease projecting our own mode of relating onto God. We come from the realm of hired hands, where everything must be bought and paid for. When we stand before God we continue to think that we must buy his love. But God loves us regardless of what we do or don’t do.

But sometimes we place ourselves before God like hired hands, measuring the things we have done and the things we have failed to do, in a state of fear before him. This is nothing other than the manifestation of the inner mentality of the orphan, standing before God in a distrustful and trembling manner. But how can we doubt the intentions of God when we consider the cross of Christ? How can we fear someone who has died out of love for us? We project the ambient from which we have come onto God. We live in an environment where everything must be paid for; things are only done if there is a reward in exchange. We are traumatized by the lack of unconditional giving. The relation with God, by contrast, is a full immersion in gratuitous giving! We are accepted by God for who we are, not for this ability or that. Just as a mother loves her child because he is her child, not because he is beautiful or smart. We must learn to feel that we belong to Jesus! The Good Shepherd gives his life for his sheep because they belong to him, and they know that they belong to him. I belong to the Good Shepherd! Every person is a treasured possession of God. Let this Gospel prompt in us an Easter transition from the coldness of our own solitude to the warmth of his mercy.

April 19^th 2015.  Third Sunday of Easter

Gospel: Luke 24:35-48

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

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

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Gospel: Luke 24:35-48

The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised Jesus at the breaking of bread.

They were still talking about this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; yes, it is I indeed. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and feet. Their joy was so great that they could not believe it, and they stood dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?‘ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes.

Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel recounts the surprise of the disciples when the Risen Lord appears among them. The resurrection is always a surprising event in our lives! The Lord redeems us and touches us in ways that we do not expect. This is how it has always been in the history of salvation. Abraham climbed a mountain thinking he would have to sacrifice his son, but in the end it was God himself who offered his own son. Moses arrived at the Red Sea with his enemies closing in on him, thinking he was at a dead end, but God opened the most unexpected path in front of him. All of us experience difficulties and problems, dead ends and unresolved conflicts. It is in these very places that the Risen Lord is active in our lives! Let us open ourselves to the unexpected action of God in the desperation and despair of our lives, just as the Father raised the Son amid the despair of the crucifixion. The last lines of the Gospel speak of the repentance and forgiveness of sin that comes about as a result of the resurrection. This is the most powerful manifestation of the Risen Lord among us. At every moment of every day he offers us the generous pardon of the Father, leading us to repentance and transformation.

We are redeemed in ways that we do not expect. Therefore we must always be open to the surprising initiatives of the Lord towards us on a daily basis.

The Gospel recounts the surprise of the disciples when they encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It is in the breaking of the bread that they finally recognize him. The first reading also highlights our need to be open to the novelties that the Lord continually places before us. Peter tells the Jews that they have betrayed and handed over the very one that God has glorified. They have taken the Just Holy One and killed the Author of Life. Here Peter highlights the absurd and paradoxical nature of Christian belief. Salvation, the Easter event, is not a logical consequence of our schemes for understanding the world. Our concepts can aid us in approaching God to some extent, but, on the other hand, they are also in need of being overturned and abandoned. God’s ways of behaving are not our ways. Peter acknowledges this when he declares to his listeners that they acted out of ignorance when they killed Jesus. This ignorance within all of us must be acknowledged. When God saves us, it is always in a manner that we do not expect. The history of salvation is the history of the unexpected. Abraham climbs the mountain to sacrifice his son, but discovers that he is called to so something completely different. God no longer demands Abraham’s son, but, when the proper time arrives, offers his own. Moses arrives at a dead end, confronted by the sea, with his enemies closing on him from behind, but God comes up with the unexpected solution. Easter, similarly, is something that is outside of our expectations. It is not an event that is predictable or planned. We sometimes think that our lives can be codified and regularized perfectly. We work out detailed programmes for the education of youth. But it is God’s work in the end that is important, the way that he responds to our poor initiatives.

We do not encounter the Risen Lord on a purely intellectual level. Our experience of Him in our daily lives is something much more personal and real

In the Gospel from Luke, the Christian community are confronted with the unexpected. Jesus appears in the midst of them and says “Peace be with you!” The disciples are afraid and think they are seeing a ghost. They do not comprehend that Jesus is something real and physically approachable. Jesus asks them why they have doubts in their hearts and encourages them to touch his wounds, saying that a ghost does not have flesh and blood as he has. The resurrection involves a physical experience of Jesus, not just some kind of inner experience. The disciples encounter him with all of their senses, touching him, hearing his word, eating with him, seeing him with their eyes. The resurrection is not simply an event that involves rational comprehension. In fact, intellectual understanding is humiliated by the resurrection and consigned to second place. In order for our minds to be opened, the Lord shows us that the categories of our mind are inadequate. This is a work of the Lord, his initiative in our lives.

We must learn to abandon ourselves to the Lord, accepting his surprising action in our daily existence

We are called to abandon ourselves to the working out of the plan of the Lord within us, to be open to his surprising way of dealing with us. As the disciples did in the Gospel, we must place ourselves at the heart of a Christian community, in a position of dialogue with other believers, allowing Jesus to appear among us and work on us. Through suffering, death and failure, God unexpectedly brings about salvation and transformation. We, instead, would prefer to go step by step, from one safe haven to the next, but the Lord goes from abandonment to abandonment. We like to move from certainties to certainties, but the Lord proceeds from one surprise to another. In our lives there are many doubts and difficulties. What should we do with these things? Open ourselves to the Lord, realizing that he uses these very things to appear as the Risen One in our lives. Easter is not simply an event of 2000 years ago, nor is it simply some intellectual news that concerns the person of Jesus. It is something that is relevant to our existence today, especially those things that we consider wrong or disordered. It is right here that the Easter of the Lord manifests itself.

The continual surprise of Easter involves being open to the generous and surprising pardon of God that is offered to us at every turn in our daily lives, a pardon that facilitates our conversion and transformation

The Christian life is not something that tends towards a static state of self-sufficiency. It is something that causes our minds to be continually opened, a state of surprise that is never exhausted, a repeated act of acceptance on the part of God of each of us, his pardon of our weakness and poverty. As Jesus says when he appears: “ . . in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem”. Repentance entails overcoming our previous state of sinfulness; the forgiveness of sins entails the acceptance of our uncleanliness and poverty by the generous love of the Father. Living this life of repentance and the forgiveness of sins is not possible if we try to confine our Christian existence neatly within a rational box. The forgiveness of sins is illogical. The acceptance of the injustice of another doesn’t make sense from our limited perspective. Easter involves a total change of perception. It is a constant state of openness to the transforming and redeeming power of God in our lives.

April 12^th 2015. SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Gospel: John 20:19-31

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

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

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Gospel: John 20:19-31

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you,’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:

‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . Sometimes we are inclined to think that we can live the faith in a private, individualistic way. Read the readings on Sunday and think again! The first reading tell of the wonderful communion of the early church. Their experience of the risen Lord (through the testimony of the apostles) led them to share everything, living completely in the service of others. When we live as a community of faith we testify to the power of the risen Lord. In other words, the way of life of our community is the most powerful way of bringing the message of Christ and his pardon to others. Faith arises from a community and causes people to live as a community. The Gospel tells us that Thomas was not with the others when Jesus appeared and he refused to believe in the risen Lord. Exactly a week later, Thomas was present when Jesus appeared again. The Christian assembly gathered every week then, as it does now. Thomas was brought to faith in the resurrection only when he participated in the weekly assembly, and that is how it is with us. We must enter into the life of the Church if we are to be brought to a deeper faith in the risen Lord. And when we enter into the life of the church, we will be enabled to bring the message and pardon of Jesus to others.

The early church lived a life of wonderful communion

We will read this marvellous Gospel in the light of the first reading which describes the life of Christian believers. None of us is born with the faith – we must become believers. The Christian faith is a gift that is offered to us and that we accept. The first reading tells us that the early Christian community were of one heart and one soul. It is possible to have great uniformity in a community but to have many different hearts. The heart refers to the centre of a person’s being. The soul (in the Hebrew conception) referred to the personality of a person. Thus, to be united in heart and soul is a wonderful picture of true communion. The early community were profoundly united and had similar attitudes towards things.

Was this communion an early form of communism? No! Communism involves external constraint, whereas the life of the early community came from the Spirit within

They also shared everything they had. Was this an early form of communism? No; they simply were not attached to the things that they owned. They still owned those things (unlike communism) but they used them in the service of others. These possessions consequently became an instrument of communion, instead of being a function of one’s self-absorption. This is not a statement against private property, but the Holy Spirit was acting in the hearts of the believers, inspiring them to put everything to work in the service of others. It was the love in the hearts of the believers that led to this radical sharing. The illusion of an ideology like Communism is that it compels people to share everything by the force of law, but the mutual love in the hearts of people is missing. Communion cannot be created by the imposition of external constraints! If the heart is not open to placing everything at the service of others then such external constraint is futile. Corruption and sin destroys systems of this sort that depend on external factors. Only the interior conversion of the heart can lead to true communion.

The mark of a genuine relationship is that it should tend towards selfless communion with others

We need communities of this sort that call people out of individualism and into a life of love. All of our relationships should tend towards self-emptying love of this sort. All other relationships lead to tension, frustration and ultimate conflict. The first reading tells us that everyone placed what they had at the disposal of the apostles, who were witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus. Anyone that was in need could then avail of whatever they required. The joy of the believers consisted in these acts of giving. They did not require formal structures that prescribed what they ought to give. Everything was done in a spirit of fraternity.

Thomas only encounters Jesus when he is present at the weekly assembly. Similarly, we too will only encounter the Lord through a life of communion with others

In what way does all of this illuminate the Gospel? The Gospel has various themes. The risen Jesus appears to the disciples and gives them the Spirit of pardon, the Spirit that defeats sin. Thomas is not present and says that he cannot believe in the risen Lord without seeing him. A week later the disciples are gathered again, as it was the custom of the Jews to gather on a weekly basis. The Gospel speaks of “eight days later” because the Hebrew way of counting a week from now included the present day as well. On this occasion Thomas is present and he encounters the Lord. We must ask the question? How does Thomas encounter Jesus? By being present in the weekly Christian assembly. The first reading speaks of the way in which the Christian community bore witness to the risen Christ through their life of giving and mutual acceptance. The Christian faith is not a private, individual thing. No-one encounters the risen Lord except from within a situation of fraternal communion. If the resurrection is not experienced from an ecclesial standpoint, and if it does not lead to ecclesial communion, then it is not the resurrection of the Lord; it is a deceptive form of individualistic perfectionism, or the fruit of our imagination. The resurrection is fundamentally a fraternal, ecclesial event. Sometimes we have a tendency to think that we can experience the resurrection as individuals, but the entire Christian faith is something that is plural in nature. The original Greek form of the Creed that comes from the early Church councils consists in statements beginning with “We believe . . .” Believing is something that we do along with others. If my faith does not lead me to union with others, then it is not real faith but a religiosity that has been put together for my personal advancement. The origin and goal of my faith is encounter with others.

The mission of the Christian community is to carry the pardon of God to others, and we do this together as a community bearing witness to the life of Christ. The origin of the faith is in the community and its goal is to create community

The risen Christ sends us out with the mission of pardon, saying: “For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained”. In other words, Jesus is saying that if we don’t carry the pardon of God to others, then who will bear it? We alone can accomplish the task because we are the ones who have encountered the life that is stronger than sin – the life of Christ. It is a community, a church, that evangelises. It is a community that bears witness to the power of the Risen Lord by its way of life. Let us leave behind all private, individualistic approaches to the redemption! True redemption leads us into a life of communion with others.

EASTER SUNDAY, APRIL 5^TH 2015. Gospel: John 20:1-9

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel. We are still awaiting this week's homily on the radio, so in the meantime, here is the homily from a couple of years ago on the same Gospel passage. Once the new one comes, we will post it!

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GOSPEL : John 20:1-9
It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD: PRAISE TO YOU LORD JESUS CHRIST

Kieran’s summary . . . Easter is not simply a beautiful historical event in which Jesus overcomes the barrier of death. Don Fabio encourages us to consider Easter also as a relational thing. In everything that we do we must live Easter. We must go beyond the here and now of this culture of death and follow Jesus towards the Father. Easter is a call to action, a call to follow Jesus beyond the absurdities and preoccupations of this life and to focus our existence on heavenly things. It is a call to leave behind the things that belong to the phase of death, a call to stop making absolutes out of ourselves and the things that we possess. How we are fixated with passing material things, the praise and esteem of others! The resurrection is a call to look beyond all these transitory things that will pass. In every moment of our lives we must undergo the growth and evolution towards the Father that is Easter. Jesus asks Mary Magdalen not to cling to him because “I must go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God”. Just as Jesus is passionately directed towards heavenly things, so must we.

Easter is about transition, passage, development 

We are celebrating Easter, which is at the heart of our faith.. There are many things important for the faith hidden in this enigmatic passage from St John's Gospel. The stone has been rolled back from the tomb and the question is raised: "They have taken the Lord away, and we don't know where they have put him". The word "paschal" refers to a passage or transition. When the Apostles are confronted by the enigma of the empty tomb, they are themselves being prompted to undergo a passage or transition. In fact they run to the tomb, led by Peter, and they find that Jesus is no longer there. What is happening in this passage? The disciples are doing what Jesus called them to do: they are following him. Easter is a movement, a going beyond. We are confronted here with the greatest of all obstacles - death. We have arrived at the final destination, and this final destination has become a point of departure. Easter is not simply about receiving the news that Jesus has overcome death. Easter is about following Jesus so that we too go beyond death. 

Easter involves leaving something behind and moving on to something new

Peter and John stand in the empty tomb and they see the cloths used for the burial of Jesus. These cloths belong to the phase of death that Jesus went through and they remain here. They have not been taken with him because they do not belong where Jesus is now. To go through Easter signifies to leave something behind. It signifies to follow Jesus and to go towards the Father. When Jesus called the disciples originally he asked them to come and follow him. They said that they wanted to know where he lived and he replied, "Come and see". The call of Jesus is always a dynamic call. It always involves action like coming and seeing. The disciples run to the tomb to see where Jesus has gone. They see and they believe, but then they are driven to go elsewhere. Easter launches all of us towards that which happens in the aftermath of the Paschal events, always in the company of the Lord. Easter makes us look upon death, the tomb, putrefaction, as stages of a journey, as places from which we go beyond. Easter does not simply reveal beautiful news about the future: that in the death of Jesus our deaths will be overcome, that the impregnable wall of the void has been broken down by Jesus. Easter does more than this. It proclaims that the essence of the Christian life is a state of movement.

Easter is not a historical event to be noted; it is a way of life, a relationship, a journey with Jesus to the Father

We must live Easter in everything that we do. Every event of our lives must become a passage towards the Father. Jesus did not come out of the tomb simply to come out of the tomb; he came out so that he could go towards the Father. Later Jesus asks Mary Magdalen not to cling to him. He asks that their relationship not remain as it is in that moment. "I must go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God".  We too, in everything we do, must follow Jesus on the road to the Father. In every situation we must undergo this moment of growth and evolution that is Easter. We must go beyond death, beyond injustice, beyond the absurdities of life. In all of these situations there is a stone that must be rolled back. God will look after the business of moving the stone. We are not capable in ourselves of following Jesus. It is Jesus who makes us capable. Easter is not something to be comprehended with our rational faculties alone. It is not that we contemplate on Easter and then decide that we have understood it completely. Easter is a relational thing. It is an act of following Jesus towards the Father. Human existence is essentially a journey from the self towards God. Life becomes terrible and horrible when it is lived in a solitude without God, when we do not live the Paschal mystery of passage towards the Father, when we do not allow the Lord to throw the doors open, when we are left with no apparent way out. 

When we live Easter, we are freed from the tendency to make absolutes out of ourselves and the things that we possess

Easter has a fundamental eschatological note; it is concerned with that which is beyond this world. We cannot comprehend the resurrection unless we are freed from the tendency to make absolute the things that we are and that we possess. We are not made for this world. Jesus is risen and has gone beyond. When he came out from the tomb he didn't stay among us saying, "Look how I overcame that little obstacle there". We too must go beyond this world. Easter is a process of transformation of everything into that which is heavenly. In the Our Father we say, "on earth as it is in heaven". Heaven is descending on earth because we are in a process of entering heaven. Our condition is one of making a leap into a dimension that is beyond temporal things. From our childhood we enter into a mode of existence in which our primary concern is to find contentment in this life. Even when we pray, we ask that events unfold so that we can continue to be contented in this life. It is true that faith can bring contentment to our lives here and now, but this is only a collateral effect. Faith makes us contented here and now because we are no longer here. We achieve a detachment from everyday things and find our point of reference in things that are beyond. The Easter passage has been made to that which is greater. It often happens that we meet seriously ill people who are evidently living the resurrection, and then we come across healthy people living in death. These latter people are bogged down in the here and now, they do not live Easter, and they do not follow anyone except themselves.

March 29^th 2015.  Palm Sunday

PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL: Mark 11:1-10

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

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

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PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL: Mark 11:1-10

 When they were approaching Jerusalem, in sight of Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go off to the village facing you, and as soon as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, “What are you doing?” say, “The Master needs it and will send it back here directly.” They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it, some men standing there said, ‘What are you doing, untying that colt?’ They gave the answer Jesus had told them and the men let them go. Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, others greenery which they had cut in the fields. And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, “Hosanna! Blessings on him who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heavens!’

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The central figure in the processional Gospel is the donkey who carries Jesus into Jerusalem. Much of the Gospel text describes how the animal is to be untied and taken to the Lord because it is needed. When the Lord comes to us, he is always borne on the shoulders of someone else! The Christian life is a life called to service. We bring Christ to others by becoming beasts of burden, carrying the weight of others. Service is all about bearing the burdens of others, not focussing on carrying our own load. The donkey becomes important because he carries Jesus to glory. We too only become significant when we bear the burden and carry Jesus to others. While we carry only our own weight we remain obscure and alone. The liturgy of Palm Sunday relates the Passion of Jesus. We encounter the one who truly bears the burdens of all of us. The first reading from Isaiah tells of the suffering servant who does not turn away from pain and disgrace. Jesus does not turn away from our suffering. The attitude he displays during the passion is of one who can bear all shame and ignominy because he trusts in the Lord. Shame cannot touch him inside because of his unshakeable relation to the Father. How quick we can be to feel ashamed when we do not win, when we look bad in the eyes of others! Let us imitate Jesus who never wavers in placing his trust in the Father. The reading tells us that the suffering servant knows how to speak words of consolation to others because he knows how to listen like a disciple. To be a good leader we must be a good follower, as Jesus was. How often we seek to lead without having ever learned obedience. This Holy Week let us follow the example of Jesus and develop the listening ear of the true disciple!

The central figure in the processional Gospel is a beast of burden.

The liturgy begins with the recollection of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, and then moves on to the very different kind of reception given to Jesus at the moment of his Passion. Jesus is proclaimed as the “one who comes in the name of the Lord”, bringing about the restoration of the kingdom of his father David. Strangely enough, the central figure in the processional Gospel is the donkey. Jesus sends his disciples to a nearby village with detailed instructions on how to find this donkey and on what to say to his owner. Then the entire sequence of events is repeated in detail. The text doesn’t just say, “The disciples did as they were asked”. Every detail is gone through twice. Why is the story of the donkey given such prominence? In the prophet Zechariah it was foretold that the Messiah would be enthroned after entering the holy city of Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus thus fulfils a prophecy that contains within it an aspect of humility – the entry into glory borne upon a modest beast of burden.

Jesus is always carried into people’s lives on a beast of burden, a person who acts in the service of others

The donkey is found in a village on the outskirts of the city, and is not even kept in a stall. No-one has ever mounted it previously. An animal that was made for carrying people has never yet fulfilled its function. The fundamental characteristic of this donkey is that it is a beast of burden, and that Jesus has need of it. The fact is that Jesus always enters the lives of people borne by a poor beast of burden. But beasts of burden will never fulfil their function unless someone unties them, unless someone goes to them and announces “The Lord has need of you”. None of us would have Jesus carried into our lives if another person had not taken it upon themselves to bear the weight. Each of us must learn the art of bearing burdens, namely, the art of service. Service always involves carrying the burden of others instead of that of oneself. The Christian life is a life where we are called to bear burdens in this way. It is not important if we are beautiful, capable, or intelligent. What matters is that the Lord unties us from that which impedes us and teaches us how to act in the service of others.

We become important when we carry the Lord instead of ourselves

In the Gospel, the disciples place their mantles on the donkey and the animal takes on a beautiful aspect. We are unimportant for as long as we continue to be directed towards ourselves, but we become significant when we carry the Lord, when the Lord has need of us. What a beautiful thing to discover that the Lord needs us, that we are not useless! The yoke of the Lord is light and easy to bear. Often when we do things for the Lord, we receive thanks and blessings, even though it is really the Lord who accomplishes everything! The donkey in the Gospel must have marvelled at how everyone applauded him. Sometimes we are inclined to think that is we who are deserving of praise, but it is the one that we carry who must be praised alone. Once we learn to carry the Lord we must keep returning to these situations where we can serve to carry him.

We can only speak consolation to others when we learn how to listen to the Lord

The liturgy of Palm Sunday then turns to the events in which we learn of the One who truly carries the burden of all. Jesus had said in Chapter 8 of Mark: “He who wishes to be my disciple must carry his cross and follow me”. In the Gospel reading we see how he himself carries his cross and enters into a state of total service. In a very clear way, Jesus is presented as the servant of all in Mark’s Gospel. In Chapter 10 he says “I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life in ransom for many”. This logic of service is presented in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah where we listen to the third song of the suffering servant. “The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue so that I might know how to speak to those who are in despair”. To become beasts of burden of the Lord signifies being able to console the broken hearted. It is interesting that the servant has learned how to listen like a disciple and this is what enables him to speak consolation to others. Good teachers are those who were once good students. Often we try to be good teachers without having ever been good listeners or followers. We want to tell others what to do but we have no notion of true obedience ourselves.

Jesus does not turn away from suffering. He knows that the shame does not touch him inside. He places his trust in the Father who will deliver him

This servant offers his shoulders to those who flog him and his face to those who tear at his beard. He does not turn away from insults and spittle. In tribulation God is near. He does not turn away. We fear rejection and physical pain, but this servant of God has learned to find God in these things. The Lord comes to his aid, we are told, so that he will not be ashamed. We are quick to feel shame when we lose, when we are rejected, when things do not go our way. But the servant of the Lord has discovered that shame does not enter into his heart. He sets his face like stone and is not dismayed because he knows that the Lord will come to his aid. This Sunday we enter into the liturgy of Holy Week, the horror of the sufferings of Christ, illuminated by the light of the Resurrection. This is the Christian way. We poor beasts of burden carry with us the announcement of the victory of the Lord over all anguish. The Lord transforms all paths of sorrow and suffering into paths of life. Only he can do this.