Feast of Christ the King - Sunday Gospel Reflection

November 22^nd 2020. Feast of Christ the King.

GOSPEL: Matthew 25: 31-46

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

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel and summary

GOSPEL: Matthew 25: 31-46

Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?’
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."

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

Summary . . . On this feast of Christ the King, the parable proclaimed by Jesus speaks of a curious sort of universal judgement. It is a judgement on those who never knew Christ during their earthly lives. Christians often worry about how those who don’t know Christ might be redeemed. This parable shows us that those who show compassion towards the poor and needy will be saved. During the Great Jubilee of 2000, St John Paul II asked the wealthy nations of the world to forgive the debts of the poorer nations. This appeal to human solidarity, to the human heart, is something that can be addressed to any human being. The poor of the earth are an entrance ticket to heaven for all of humanity, regardless of religious profession! However, this leaves us with a question. Where do Christians stand in all of this? Matthew’s Gospel has five great discourses. This one here is the last, and the very next verse is the beginning of the Passion! The first discourse – the Sermon on the Mount – begins with the Beatitudes, and this is all about the poor in spirit, the meek, those who mourn. Then, during the Passion, it is Christ himself who becomes the one who thirsts, the one who is stripped naked, the one who is imprisoned and abandoned. As Christians, we are called to follow Christ, to resemble him, to become the least for the sake of the Kingdom. IN SUMMARY: When we show solidarity to the little ones, we minister to Christ. We are all called to this, Christians and non-Christians alike. But Christians are called to something more, to identify with Christ, to take up our crosses and abandon ourselves to his providence. Then we become little ones ourselves, united to Christ and sharing in his life.

The entrance ticket to the Kingdom of God

Many people will only meet Christ at the end of time, when He will be the authentic measure of every person. At that time, he will show himself for what he is, the King, having already met them and being treated well by them. And they will object, “But no, it can't be, we've never seen you before!” He will reply, "In truth I tell you, everything you did to one of these least of my brothers, you did to me". Many times we have asked ourselves how people who do not know the Lord are saved, but the answer is in this text. Our basic humanity tells us that the hungry and thirsty must be helped; all the poor of the earth must be cared for. It is not necessary to be a Christian to do these things, it is enough to be human. And if it is true that loving God and loving neighbor are the same command, here is a reflection of it. The disadvantaged of the earth are our ticket to heaven. To despise them is to despise heaven, but people often do not realise this until they find themselves in the next world.

Jesus begins his first discourse speaking about the little ones, and he finishes his last discourse speaking about the little ones.

One thing remains to be clarified: what about Christians? Where are they in this text? Christians are those who were made into God’s children by baptism. They are the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, the firstborn of those who overcome death. In the parable, Jesus talks about the “least of my brothers”. These brothers - the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned - are really Christ's disciples. We can see this more clearly if we consider that the Gospel of Matthew is built on the five great discourses of Jesus. Sunday’s passage is the last of the discourses, and the verse immediately following this text, is the first line of the account of the Passion! What were the opening words of the first discourse? We know them well, we heard them recently on the feast of All Saints: they are the Beatitudes. In this discourse, the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the mourners, the persecuted, all are proclaimed blessed. We are talking about the same people. In the first discourse of Jesus, these little ones are the ones who possess the Kingdom of Heaven, and in the last discourse they are the passport to heaven.

Through the Cross, we become the “least of Christ’s brothers”. In other words, we become united to him by taking up our cross and following him. So, if non-Christians can minister to Christ by their care of the least, we Christians can be united to Christ by becoming the least.

But why are these people considered the “least” brothers of Jesus? Because they are like their master, Jesus. In the passion - which begins a verse later – he will be mistreated, stripped, be reduced to thirst and weakness, be imprisoned ... and through all of this he will open the Kingdom of Heaven. Let's summarize: if we act out of our basic humanity, performing the corporal works of mercy, these works will decide the character of our life. By caring for and looking after the poor of this world, we come into contact with the Lord. These works don’t make us a Christian, but human. We become Christian through the cross. The things that cause horror, poverty, sickness, persecution - these are the places that manifest the life that Christ has given us. A life that is stronger than the void. Our humanity is a call to solidarity. Our cross is the place where we become one with Christ. There, in abandonment, we become a piece of heaven. We become Christians.

Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time, November 15 2020

November 15th 2020. Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 14-30

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 14-30

Jesus told his disciples this parable:

"A man going on a journey

called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.

To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--

to each according to his ability. 

Then he went away.

Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,

and made another five.

Likewise, the one who received two made another two. 

But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground

and buried his master's money.

"After a long time

the master of those servants came back

and settled accounts with them.

The one who had received five talents came forward

bringing the additional five. 

He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents. 

See, I have made five more.’

His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. 

Since you were faithful in small matters,

I will give you great responsibilities. 

Come, share your master's joy.’

Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,

'Master, you gave me two talents. 

See, I have made two more.'

His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. 

Since you were faithful in small matters,

I will give you great responsibilities.

Come, share your master's joy.’

Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said, 

'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,

harvesting where you did not plant

and gathering where you did not scatter;

so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. 

Here it is back.'

His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!

So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant

and gather where I did not scatter? 

Should you not then have put my money in the bank

so that I could have got it back with interest on my return? 

Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten. 

For to everyone who has,

more will be given and he will grow rich;

but from the one who has not,

even what he has will be taken away.

And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"

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

Summary . . . Last Sunday’s parable of the wedding feast concerned the Lord’s invitation to enter into a relationship with the Bridegroom. This Sunday’s parable of the talents concerns those of us who have already entered into the Lord’s service, and the way in which our Master entrusts a mission to us. By the way, we often think of “talent” as a personal characteristic or quality, but in this parable it refers to the property of the Master entrusted to the servants. Whilst it is true that the Master entrusts a quantity of talents according to the capacities of the servants, the talents nevertheless remain his gift and his property. A talent was hugely valuable, 33 kg of gold. The Master in the parable is very wealthy and also very generous – he gives these enormous quantities of wealth to the servants in the hope that they will use them well. The first two servants invest the wealth wisely. The Master tells them that, because they have been faithful in “little” they will now be given “much”. Of course there was nothing “little” about these talents, but they are small compared to what the Master wants to give them in return – entry into his joy. The third servant buries the talent and returns it to the Master. In response, the Master calls him “wicked”, not because of anything he did, but because of his negative and victimlike attitude. This servant represents each one of us whenever we have the image of God as demanding, harsh, unforgiving and punishing. This image of God will lead us away from the Kingdom. It will fill us with fear and cause us not to use the gifts God has given us for the completion of his mission. Why does God give us these gifts and this mission? Because he is good and generous, and he wants only that we enter into his joy.

In the Gospel, a “talent” is not a quality or capacity of a person but something that is the property of the master

In Sunday’s Gospel, the word “talent” can lead to a small misunderstanding. This word has become synonymous with personal qualities or specific abilities of an individual. There is artistic talent, for example, and many other kinds of gifts that people have. But, in the parable, the talents are the goods of the master, not the qualities of the servants. The master hands over the talents to them and he remains their owner. That is why he will ask them to account for how they used them. It is also true, however, that he gives out the talents "according to the abilities of each one", so the qualities of the person are relevant to some degree, yet the talents remain the property of the master.

Last Sunday, the theme of the Gospel was that we are invited to the wedding feast of the Bridegroom. This Sunday, the parable speaks to those who have entered the Lord’s service already. These people are given a mission, a portion of the master’s goods, to be used to the best of their ability.

What is the theme of the story? In the parable of the ten virgins from last Sunday, the theme was that we are called to enter into a relationship with the Lord, with the Bridegroom who invites us to his feast. The parable of the talents, instead, concerns those who, having already entered the service of the Lord, receive a task from him, a mission. Each person, according to his own characteristics, is entrusted with a portion of the master’s goods, to use them well.

The talents are enormously valuable, but the master considers them “little” in comparison to the “much” that he desires to give to the servants who are faithful. What is this “much”? It is the joy of the master.

The first two servants carry out their mission with similar success, each earning the same amount as they had been given. The master says to both of them: “You have been faithful in little, I will give you power over much; come and share in the joy of your master”. Incidentally, there was nothing “little” about what the master had given  - one talent corresponded to 33 kg of gold, an enormous wealth! In fact, this is a very rich master, and he is actually handing what he has over to his servants. Yet, according to him, these riches are "little" in comparison to the joy of the owner. That is the "much" that awaits those who had been faithful in “little”.

The problem with the third servant is that he sees his master as demanding, unforgiving, harsh and punishing, when in reality our Master is generous and joyful, whose only desire is  our perfect happiness 

The third servant declares: "I was afraid and I hid your talent in the ground". He did not use the goods received out of fear. And he explains the reason for this fear: "I know that you are a hard man, that you reap where you have not sown and you gather where you have not scattered." Who is the master, according to this third servant? A tough and demanding type. He asks for what he has no right to ask, he collects where he has not scattered. His requests are really hidden traps. It is better to give him back what he owns and not even try to use it. This servant manifests to us a particular and common vision of God: harsh and demanding, someone who is always asking too much, someone who is very quick to condemn and torture us.  In reply, the master describes the servant as “wicked”, not because of what he did, but because of his negative and victimlike thinking. This absurd idea of God is the door to hell, the route away from the Kingdom of Heaven. Instead, when the Master calls us to do his will, to a mission, it is all for one reason only: to bring us into his joy! Our Master is not severe, but generous and joyful. His will brings us peace.

Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday Gospel Reflection

November 8th 2020. The Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew 25, 1-13

Jesus told this parable to his disciples: 

‘The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, “The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him.” At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, “Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out”. But they replied, “There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves”. They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. “Lord, Lord,” they said “open the door for us.” But he replied, “I tell you solemnly, I do not know you”. So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.

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

Kieran’s summary . . . The Gospel parable for Sunday is about the bridesmaids who are waiting for the arrival of the Bridegroom. Each one of us knows intuitively that we were created for something important and beautiful! We were created to encounter fulness, to encounter the Spouse of our hearts. If we lose the sense of waiting for this ultimate encounter, then we become shadows of ourselves. Even if our Spouse seems to delay in coming, it is worth waiting for him because he is so beautiful. Woe to those who extinguish hope in the hearts of young people! We need to say to young people with confidence: prepare yourself well for your mission of being parent, spouse, friend, student; you are being called to an encounter with the beautiful! Fill up with oil the jars of your existence! If it is necessary to wait for a while and be vigilant, then so be it! We must educate our young people so that they are know how to be vigilant for what is truly beautiful and meaningful, instead of living instinctive lives of vanity and emptiness. Our young people are often fixated with the transitory, with the next weekend, as if nothing else mattered, but they need to learn to use this present moment to prepare for something greater. Now is the time to fill our jars with oil. We do not know when the Bridegroom will come, only that he surely will, perhaps on the last day of our lives to lead us into the feast of heaven, or maybe at a critical moment when we wants us to show love to someone in difficulty. Be that as it may, now is the time to fill our jars with oil. At times, life challenges us to do something important or difficult, and we are there with our reserves empty. Let us be ready for action, filled with oil. Sometimes we are visited by beauty, but we are oriented to what is empty or fleeting, we are distracted, and we end up not growing. Let us be ready. Let us not trust tin ourselves but wait for the Lord.

Three parables in Matthew 25 are directed to three different groups of people: those who never knew Christ; those who work in the service of the Church; and those of us who are invited to enter into relationship with Christ here on earth.

Chapter 25 of Matthew provides the readings for the three last Sundays of this liturgical year, with three parables on the judgments to which humanity will be subjected. The third parable is for those who meet Jesus for the first time at the end of time, the scene of the King-Shepherd who divides "all peoples" among those who, even if they did not know it, took care of and welcomed Jesus in the poor, and those who did not reach out to the poor. The second parable (that of the talents) is for those who have been in the service of the Lord. Have they carried out their mission in the way they were called to? This Sunday's parable is the first one in the chapter, and it is for those who were called to enter the feast together with the Bridegroom. They are those who have been given the privilege of encountering the Bridegroom and being invited by him into the Wedding feast to which humanity is destined, the salvation for which we were born. Have we made use of this opportunity or wasted it?

These parables have a serious message. We can fail and can lose the blessings that were possible for us.

In all three cases we are faced with a dividing line, a crossroads where life always has only two opposite outcomes: we end up either inside or outside! This is the tragic dimension of our existence; it is a fact that we are headed either towards the light or the darkness. We are challenged to accept this serious message: life can be wasted; we can misuse the chances we are given to make life beautiful. Whether we like this message or not, it is a fact. There is value in knowing that failure is possible and that we must get our act together. 

We have an innate sense that life has an ultimate meaning. We know intuitively that we are destined to enter into relationship with the Bridegroom. It is essential that we do not lose the sense of living for what is noble, just and beautiful.

In our parable, the meeting with the Bridegroom is not accidental but is the result of a period of waiting. We naturally have an expectation that life is leading to something meaningful; we understand from childhood that we were not born by chance; we sense that we are moving towards something important, that there is someone we are destined to meet. Every person who comes into the world is “programmed” for what is true, noble, just, lovable, and what is worth waiting for. And he must not miss that which he is destined for.

Like the ten young girls, each one of us tends either to live life seriously, aiming to do all things well, or we live it instinctively.

The ten young girls in the parable are awaiting their encounter with what is beautiful, but they wait in two different ways. Some do it instinctively, without preparation: they go out with their lamps and wait, without thinking about it. But important things should not be done in such a superficial way! The others make an investment for the beauty they expect to encounter, procuring extra oil for their lamps. For them, there is something at stake that is worth spending money on, worth the effort of preparation and organization. They are wise and are using their heads, whilst the others are foolish. Each one of us tends to be like these two types of youth: either we prepare for great things and aim high, or we base our lives on the immediate, on instinct. 

We all have opportunities to fill the “jars” that will provide light for our lamp. Each day, we have these possibilities to prepare, to grow, to unite ourselves with the Bridegroom

But those who sense the depth and riches of life are right. They feel the greatness of things and consider it worthwhile to prepare for it, to strive for it, to be ready to embrace it. There are many opportunities to grow and to prepare, at any age! We need to fill the “little jars” that we have with the graces that we receive here and there. These are the opportunities to receive oil, perfume, and a source of light for our lamp. It pays to prepare. Hope, says St Paul, does not disappoint.

Feast of All Saints, October 31st 2020, Homily for Sunday

October 31st 2020 - Feast of All Saints.

GOSPEL: Matthew 5, 1-12

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

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GOSPEL: Matthew 5, 1-12

‘How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Happy the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.

Happy those who mourn: they shall be comforted.

Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.

Happy the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.

Happy the pure in heart: they shall see God.

Happy the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.

Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

‘Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.’

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

Summary . . . This Sunday we celebrate All Saints with a reading of the Gospel of the Beatitudes. The list involves a lot of passive verbs – “they shall be comforted, shall be satisfied, shall be called”, etc. What this passive form highlights is that the blessed person is someone who is on the receiving end of the work of the Lord; he is the Lord’s handiwork. Unfortunately, we often think of sanctity as something that depends on our work, our activity, our qualities. Sometimes, when we read the lives of the saints, we are inclined to focus on their exceptional qualities. But a saint is really someone who does not oppose the working of God in their lives. Technically, we are all holy from the moment of our baptism. The challenge is to allow the holiness of the Lord to manifest itself in our lives. There is not a holiness of St Francis of Assisi or of Ignatius of Loyola. There is the holiness of God that we encounter in these saints. When I encounter sanctity, I am put in touch with the power and beauty of God. But how does the holiness of God become rooted in these saints? The ground in which holiness manifests itself is in poverty of spirit. This is ground that can be common to all of us! We are all in grief, all in need of mercy, all hungry and thirsty for righteousness. We are not righteous in ourselves and know that we need to be made righteous by God. We are not the parent, or child, or priest, or friend, that we should be. God supplies for our insufficiency and incompleteness. We were made incomplete so that we might be filled with God. Those who have no need of others are people who don’t enter into relationships. They don’t need to. A person, however, who knows that he needs the Lord’s mercy and his providence is someone who has opened himself to the grace of God. The feast of All Saints is not a day to marvel at the exceptional qualities of others, but a day to allow God to work in our poverty and insufficiency. We are all called to taste the holiness of God. Holiness is not simply the fruit of our good intentions. It requires connecting ourselves to the Father, living as his sons and daughters, rather than living as subjects who are autonomous. The holiness of God involves being in relationship with the Father and allowing that relationship to shine forth in our lives.

Is sanctity about conformity to an unattractive style of life? Is it all about self-denial?

The Church celebrates sanctity by proclaiming the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are a combination of poverty, grief, hunger, thirst and even persecution. Holiness doesn’t seem all that desirable, does it? The other common idea of holiness, though, is not so attractive either. It talks about self-denial, an attitude that seem unreal, even if beautiful. Who can measure up to these ideals of holiness? It must be remembered that before the multitudes of saints canonized by recent popes - which have made holiness closer and less abstract - for centuries it was more normal to look on the saints as bearers of extraordinary human virtues. Sanctity, certainly admirable, was impractical unless one was born with exceptional qualities.

In the Gospel, however, Jesus says that sanctity is all about happiness, not misery!

Yet, the Gospel passage that the Church proclaims repeats the same word, obsessively. This word becomes like a background noise, remaining under the other things that are said. The word is "blessed" (translated “happy” in the Irish/British lectionary). It is repeated nine times, coming always at the beginning of each sentence. The rules of communication say that the most repeated thing, in general – even if it is not the most important - is still central. The word "blessed", beyond the interesting etymologies that it carries within itself, is powerfully connected to happiness, to enjoyment. Jesus begins the most important of his sermons, which will unfold for three chapters in the Gospel of Matthew, repeating the word “happiness” nine times. He did not come to bring beautiful vestments for the sacristy, but joy, happiness, exultation. A saint is someone who has scored a goal. He is one who has found the path of happiness. In fact, before proclaiming anyone a saint, the Church must recognize him as blessed, a person who has reached a state of exultation.

Holiness is not about duty but joy. 

This tells us that holiness is not a question of duty, but of pleasure. Real pleasure, pleasure that is not transitory, pleasure that is worth having. Today there are so many people who mimic happiness, who feign joy. Our culture is made up of a sea of false happiness, with highs, self-affirmations, victories over others, transgressions. And it is a world full of emptiness. These false joys consume everything and leave nothing. They demand that we seek even greater “highs”, bigger risks, increased doses. Such behaviour, however, only leads to even greater emptiness. This false joy claims that the only other alternative is a mediocre life made up of security and comfort. But holiness is not mediocre! It is a life of colour, of passion, of greatness, of beauty. It's what a boy and girl want when they get married. It's what a child wants when he has great aspirations and dreams. Holiness involves going straight to the target and reaching the goal of life. It involves learning to love and to love a lot. True happiness has only one source: true love.

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October 25th 2020. The Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 25th 2020. The Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 34-40

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

 

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GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 34-40

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and,

to disconcert him, one of them put a question,

‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’ 

Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind.

This is the greatest and the first commandment.

The second resembles it:

You must love your neighbour as yourself.

On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’

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

 

Summary . . .  In the Gospel, Jesus proclaims the shema, so central to the orthodox faith of every devout Jew, the commandment to love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. Then he tells us that a second commandment “resembles” the first: you must love your neighbour as yourself. What does Jesus mean by “resembles”? Is he pointing out some kind of structural similarity? No, what Jesus is saying is that this second commandment belongs irreplaceably with the first. To obey one commandment implies obeying the other. If I “love” God and forget my neighbour, then my love is false. If I “love” my neighbour and ignore God, then my love is false. Authentic love requires both the “vertical” and “horizontal” elements. Sometimes in the Church we find people who focus on the relationship with God to the exclusion of the people around them. Often, they are preoccupied with precise liturgical norms and rubrics. But the relationship with God is deficient if it is not translated into the tenderness of fraternal love. On the other hand, if I am devoted to fraternal love and charity without reference to the invisible, then my “love” will also be deficient. To the extent that my “love” is founded purely on human considerations, then that love will be as small as we are ourselves! Love needs to be open to the greatness of that which transcends us. Christ banished the darkness of this world by showing the love of God for us from the cross. I need to be open to the love of God in order to love my brothers and sisters in the right way. I must love my brothers and sisters in order to love God genuinely. These two commandments are inseparably united in the person of Jesus. In him, the relationship with God became a relationship with our brothers and sisters. As Jesus says in the last line, on this love for God and neighbour everything depends. If the things we do are not done out of love, what sense have they? This great Gospel puts all the secondary and trivial things in perspective. Nothing matters but love for God and neighbour.  

At the end of our lives, the only question we will ask is: Did I love?

The question from Sunday’s Gospel: “What is the greatest commandment?" What is the most important thing to do? What is it that decides everything? It is not so difficult to answer: when events prompt us to look at our lives - and this can happen for a thousand reasons – the first question we ask ourselves is if we have loved others genuinely, if anyone is happy because of us. Often, when a priest hears the last confession or the last worry of a dying person, there is only one real question: did I love? Have I been a good father, a good mother, did I leave anything good to those around me?

The devil tries to distract us from the priority of love. He does not need to make us do evil to achieve his purpose. It is enough to distract us and make us fixated with secondary, empty, things.

Jesus is right: loving God and loving one's neighbour is all that matters. Everything depends on this. This insight can illuminate the futility of a thousand secondary things. We are constantly distracted from this priority by the work of the evil one. He does not need to make us do evil. It is enough for him to distract us from doing good. He keeps us engaged in secondary things, gets us caught up with activities that are not bad in themselves, but which simply are not love. Outside of love there is no happiness, but only substitutes for happiness.

Scripture tells me to love my neighbour as myself. Does this mean that my first priority must be to love myself?

Yet, there is more to love than the popular viewpoint realizes. In reality, everyone talks about love, everyone sings about it, everyone writes about it. But we have to examine what they are talking about, because the world is full of chatter about false, transitory and ambiguous love. In fact, it is not true to say that “love” brings “happiness”. What is true is that only real love brings real happiness. In recent decades, much preaching has focused on the phrase of Jesus, taken in turn from the Book of Leviticus: "You must love your neighbour as yourself". Sometimes the conclusions drawn from this phrase have been appropriate, but at other times a simplistic equation has been made of the sort: the Lord tells us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves, and therefore if one does not love himself he ends up not loving others either; conclusion: you must first learn to love yourself! 

The problem with focussing on loving yourself is that it is impossible using your own strengths. Only the knowledge that we are loved Christ can free us of self-doubt or self-hatred.

Fifty years ago it was urgent to underline this point, because we had to free ourselves from an image of love dominant at that time which only spoke of impersonal obligation. However, this led to further problems: to love yourself, to accept yourself, is not just difficult, it's impossible! The fact is that I need to be loved if I am not to despise myself. It is only when I am loved that I escape the trap of thinking that there is something wrong with me. Only Christ can lead me to look upon myself without horror, without that sense of insufficiency that I carry inside. 

The solution is not to focus on love of self, but to see that our true centre is outside of ourselves, in communion with Christ and others.

There is a mystery here! I must love my neighbour as myself, but if the first obligation becomes to love oneself, then I can become so focussed on myself that I forget the neighbour entirely! The task of that sentence is to get us out of the vortex of self-destructive narcissism. Narcissus, in Greek mythology, was the one who dies in the well of his own image because he does not listen to the nymph Echo who calls him to look at her and love her, and this is today's problem: obsession with ourselves. Christ leads us to our true centre, which is love, but this centre is outside of us, it is in relationship, in communion, in unity. Because it is precisely when I am with God and with others that I discover myself. Nowadays there is a big emphasis on teaching children to look for self-fulfilment, but what we really need to teach them is to look beyond themselves and be with others.

October 18th 2020. The Twenty-ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 15-21

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 15-21

The Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap Jesus in what he said. And they sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, to say,

‘Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in an honest way,

and that you are not afraid of anyone, because a man’s rank means nothing to you.

Tell us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?

But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied,

‘You hypocrites! Why do you set this trap for me? Let me see the money you pay the tax with.’

They handed him a denarius and he said, ‘Whose head is this? Whose name?’ 

‘Caesar’s’ they replied.

He then said to them, ‘Very well, give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar – and to God what belongs to God.’

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

 

Summary . . .  This Gospel passage is sometimes interpreted to refer to the necessity of a balanced division of loyalties: a certain debt is owed to God and a certain debt is owed to the state . . . But this would be a fairly superficial reading. Let us consider the passage more closely. The Pharisees and Herodians are the most unlikely of allies! One is on the side of Rome and the other is against, yet they join forces to try to trap Jesus, asking him if people should pay tax to the Romans or not. As he always does, Jesus lifts the discourse on to a higher level, refusing to be bogged down in questions that ultimately derive from the enemy of humanity, Satan. The Lord takes a coin which bears the image of the Roman emperor, with an inscription that proclaimed him to be divine. And then Jesus says: “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God”. The real question the Lord wants us to consider is this: what really belongs to this world and what really is owed to God? The world tries to dominate our lives, our relationships, our affections, our loyalties. It seeks to manipulate and exploit the deepest things within us for motives of worldly gain. In fact, the currencies that we use bear the images of worldly powers, but each one of us is made in the image and likeness of God! Woe to us if we give to the world those things that belong properly to God! Woe to us if we turn the faith into an instrument for advancing our own material wellbeing or power! Let us recall the martyrs of the first centuries who were killed because they refused to acknowledge the emperor to be divine. Let us follow that army of people who exercised their baptismal discernment correctly and gave back to the world, the flesh and the devil what belongs to it. St Francis gave back to his father all of his worldly possessions, even his clothes. Once we belong to God, then we will, quite naturally, give to Caesar what belongs to him. We will be good, law-abiding citizens, but as a consequence of the fact that we are living for heaven. This is a life ordered to what is good and true, the concrete realisation of the fact that we were made in His image and likeness and belong only to him. 

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates to us a good technique of discourse. Often we are bogged down in questions that do not lead anywhere. Jesus answers the question with another which lifts the conversation onto a higher level.

In Sunday’s Gospel, two unlikely factions become allies in an attempt to ensnare Jesus. Herod was on the side of the Romans, since they maintained the king in power. The Pharisees were against Roman rule, but they still united with the Herodians to lay this trap for Jesus: "Is it lawful, or not, to pay the tax to Caesar?" If Jesus had answered yes, he would have put himself on the side of the Roman invader and oppressor; if he had said not to pay, he could be denounced to the authorities as an instigator of rebellion. In response, Jesus does what he always does: he brings the discourse on to a higher and more noble level. It is a good opportunity for us to learn from this technique of his: he regularly answers questions with other questions. Often, we are besotted with the wrong questions. Instead of torturing ourselves in searching for answers, we need to jettison the questions that are misleading us. 

What is the higher level to which Jesus raises the discourse? He challenges us to consider what really belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God.

Then Jesus asks to examine the coin used to pay the tax. Normally, the Roman Senate did not permit the image of the emperor to appear on the currency, but, during the very years of Jesus’ public ministry, the emperor’s image was permitted, along with an inscription that affirmed him as "divine". The first martyrs of the Church knew all about this self-deification of the Empire. Many Christians were led to the gallows because they refused to perform sacrifices to the emperor. All regimes, before and after Rome, have some version of the public cult of the absolute leader, up to the most tragic modern examples. When Jesus sees the coin, he replies: "Render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God". This raises the question: “What, exactly, belongs to whom?” This is the level to which Jesus moves the discourse.

What is of Caesar? What is of God? Our very selves, our life, our heart, our relationships. Money bears the image and inscription of this world, but humanity bears the image and likeness of God.

An immense group of people in the history of the Church have exercised this baptismal discernment, giving back to the world what belongs to it, while handing over to God what really belongs to him. Francis of Assisi returned even his clothes to his father to take on the clothes of new life, a life that was poor in the things of this world, but immensely wealthy in truth. Money, in fact, bears the image and inscription of this world and its rulers, but man carries within himself the image and likeness of God. From Christ onwards, an army of men and women will restore to the world, the flesh and the devil what belongs to them, while handing themselves over to God to live according to the truth of heaven. What belongs to God? The life and heart of man, his love, his relationships and many other things. The world demands these things only to abuse and exploit them. Woe to us if we give the world what belongs properly to God, if we instrumentalise the faith in the interests of wellbeing or power. In every Christian act, we free ourselves from the world to give back to the Father what is his: ourselves.

October 11th 2020. The Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 1-14

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

 

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Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

 

GOSPEL: Matthew 22, 1-14

Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding”.

So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth”. For many are called, but few are chosen.

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

 

Summary . . . In the parable of the wedding feast we find the strong and paradoxical language that would have been characteristic of the Jewish mode of expression two thousand years ago. A king organizes a wonderful banquet for his son’s wedding, but the invitees respond badly, even killing the messengers who bore the invitation. Why do they react so violently? Is this parable a bit “over the top”? But, if we think for a moment, it is actually quite common for us to be suspicious of God. We tend to think that talk of God and his invitation to follow him is all designed to trap us into doing something that we don’t want. We fear that God doesn’t really want us to be joyful but demands something burdensome and tedious from us. We have difficulty in appreciating that he is really calling us to true joy. As a result, we react to his invitation with coldness or aggression. We fear that God wishes to drag us away from the things that really matter to us. What are those things? The parable lists them: business, property, our own projects. But God is truly inviting us to authentic joy! The Gospel emphasizes this with the image of the sumptuous wedding feast rejected by people who are too busy with their tedious business affairs! At the end of the parable we hear of a person who has entered the wedding feast without the correct garment. Special garments would have been given at the entrance to the feast and this man evidently refused to put it on. To enter into God’s joy, we must change! We cannot enter into his joy if we are still weighed down by our own garment, our own way of hiding our nakedness, our fixations with our own concerns. The parable challenges us to leave our own affairs behind so that we can enter into the joyful affairs of God.

The Jewish mode of expression of two thousand years ago was strong and paradoxical. We must be ready for that when we read Jesus’ parables.

The Semitic language of the first century was paradoxical, and communication was often couched in strong words and by means of sharp contrasts. This is the language of the Gospels. Anyone who cannot accept this paradoxical language, will have difficulty understanding the language of Jesus of Nazareth. In Sunday's Gospel, we find this mode of expression.  The discourse goes from one extreme to another with great rapidity and with no middle ground. It is the story of a wedding invitation, that is, the call to something beautiful: “I have prepared the banquet; my oxen and fattened animals are already killed and everything is ready; come to the wedding!”

Why do the invitees react so violently? It is quite common that people are suspicious of God or of “goodness”. They think that talk of God or of virtue is just sophistry designed to trap us into doing something that we don’t want.

But the invitation to this banquet receives bitter and violent responses. Some of the invitees even insult and kill the messengers. They interpret the king's invitation as a form of aggression, something from which to defend oneself. Why so? It is actually common enough for people to react violently to others who have good intentions. Often, people try to do something beautiful and only get harsh, sarcastic and cold reactions. There is an ancient doubt sown in the heart of man: a suspicion of God and of goodness; a prejudice that talk of God or of virtue is only deceit or a waste of time, utopias that distract from the things that really matter.

We have a tendency to think that God wants something from us, something burdensome and tedious. We have difficulty in appreciating that he is really calling us to true joy. So we react to his invitation with coldness, aggression or violence. We fear that God wishes to drag us away from the things that really matter to us: business, property, projects, our own promotion.

This text challenges us to distinguish between authentic life and the materialistic life that we make into a priority. The wedding feast, an event of pure joy, represents life in its fullness. But the people invited are more interested in property, business and income. When God invites them to a party, they perceive this as a nuisance. Joy becomes a waste of time. By projecting our utilitarianism into God, we understand his invitations as traps. “God is like us”, we think. “Therefore his invitation is not really an invitation to joy but to get something out of us, something burdensome and tedious.” We have a tendency to perceive the relationship with God and his will as something that goes against the things that are really important to us: our business, our projects, our schemes. Instead, God’s invitation is truly an invitation to joy. The result is that these men end up working rather than enjoying a wedding party. It  doesn't seem like such a smart choice! Yet such is the stupidity of man, who prefers to continue to live in a state of anxious toil, oppressed by his endless chain of problems, rather than abandon himself to the love of the Father.

To enter into God’s joy, we must change our garment. We cannot enter into his joy if we are wearing the garment of sorrow, recrimination or revenge. We must leave our own affairs behind and enter into the joyful affairs of God.

Then there is the puzzle of the poor man who enters the wedding without the wedding garment. What we are not told is that a special robe would have been given to each guest at the entrance, and it can be deduced that this man refused the robe. It is clear that one cannot enter into God's joy without changing clothes. One cannot partake of the feast of God while continuing to hold on the old dress of one's failed efforts, one's useless fixations; there is a new garment to be put on. The master says: how dare you not change when you are with me? How can you continue to wear the garment of mourning when I have called you to joy, the garment of complaint when I have called you to happiness; the garment of revenge when I called you to love? It is time to leave our own affairs behind and enter into God's affairs, which is a joyful feast.