17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C) [27 July 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us! This time I have taken a little longer to present some important details of the readings in the NOTES, which are useful for personal meditation and for lectio divina during this holiday period.

*First Reading from the Book of Genesis (18:20-32)

This text marks a step forward in the idea that men have of their relationship with God: it is the first time that one dares to imagine that a man can intervene in God's plans. Unfortunately, the liturgical reading does not allow us to hear the previous verses in which we read that immediately after the encounter at the Oaks of Mamre, Abraham takes his leave, accompanying the three mysterious men to contemplate Sodom from above. The Lord, speaking to himself, says: 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, when Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?' (vv. 17-19). God takes the covenant he has just made very seriously, and it is here that what we might call 'the most beautiful negotiation in history' begins: Abraham, armed with all his courage, intercedes to try to save Sodom and Gomorrah from a punishment they certainly deserve. In essence, he asks if God really wants to destroy these cities even if he finds at least fifty righteous people, or only forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. What audacity! Yet, apparently, God accepts that man should act as his interlocutor: at no point does the Lord seem impatient and, indeed, he responds each time exactly as Abraham hoped. Perhaps God appreciates that Abraham has such a high opinion of his justice. In this regard, it can be noted that this text was written at a time when people were beginning to become aware of individual responsibility: in fact, Abraham would be scandalised by the idea that the righteous could be punished together with sinners and for their sins. We are far from the time when an entire family was eliminated for the sins of one. The great discovery of individual responsibility dates back to the prophet Ezekiel and the period of the Babylonian exile, i.e. the 6th century BC. We can therefore formulate a hypothesis about the composition of the chapter read today and last Sunday: it is a text written at a rather late date, although it derives from perhaps much older stories, whose oral or written form was not yet definitive. God loves it when people intercede for their brothers and sisters, as we can see with Moses: when the people made a 'golden calf' to worship immediately after swearing never to follow idols again. Moses intervened to beg God to forgive them, and God, who was waiting for nothing else, hastened to forgive them (Ex 32). Moses interceded for the people for whom he was responsible; Abraham, on the other hand, intercedes for pagans, and this is logical, after all, since he is the bearer of a blessing for all the families of the earth. This text is a great step forward in discovering the face of God, but it is only a stage, still within a logic of accounting: how many righteous people will it take to obtain forgiveness for sinners? The final theological step will be to discover that with God it is never a matter of payment. His justice has nothing to do with a scale, whose two pans must be perfectly balanced, and this is what St. Paul will try to make us understand in this Sunday's passage from the Letter to the Colossians. This text from Genesis is also a beautiful lesson on prayer, which is offered to us on the day when Luke's Gospel recounts Jesus' teaching on prayer, beginning with the Our Father, the plural prayer par excellence, which invites us to open our hearts to the whole of humanity. 

NOTE: Development of the notion of God's justice in the Bible: In the beginning, it was considered normal for the whole group to pay for the fault of one: see the case of Achan in the time of Joshua (Joshua 7:16-25). In a second phase, it is imagined that each person pays for himself. Here, there is a new step forward: if ten righteous people are found, they can save an entire city. Jeremiah dares to go further: a single righteous person can obtain forgiveness for all: 'Go through the streets of Jerusalem, search for one man who acts justly... I will forgive the city' (Jer 5:1). Ezekiel also reasons in these terms: 'I sought for a man among them who would stand in the breach before me... but I found none' (Ezek 22:30). It is with the book of Job, among others, that the final step is taken: when it is finally understood that God's justice is synonymous with salvation, not punishment. Jeremiah even goes so far as to invoke unconditional forgiveness, based solely on God's greatness: "If our sins testify against us, act, Lord, for the honour of your name!" (Jer 14:7-9). Before God, just like Jeremiah, Abraham understood that sinners have no other argument than God himself! Finally, note Abraham's optimism, which fully earns him the title of "father of faith": he continues to believe that all is not lost, that not all are lost. Even in a city as horrible as Sodom, he is convinced that there are at least ten good men!

Responsorial Psalm (137/138), 1-2a, 2bc-3, 6-7ab, 7c-8)

This psalm is a song of thanksgiving for the Covenant that God offers to humanity: the Covenant made first with Israel, but also the Covenant open to all nations, and Israel's vocation is precisely to bring other nations into it. Three times 

: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart', 'I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness', and – in verse 4, which we do not hear this Sunday – 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you'. Here we see a progression: first, it is Israel speaking on its own behalf: "I give you thanks, Lord, with all my heart"; then the reason is specified: "I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness"; finally, it is the whole of humanity that enters into the Covenant and gives thanks: "May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you". 

Since we are talking about the Covenant, it is normal that there are allusions to the experience of Sinai and echoes of the great discovery of the burning bush when God told Moses that he had seen the misery of his people and had come down to free them (Ex 2:23-24). Echoing this, the psalm sings: "On the day I called, you answered me" (v. 3). Another reference to God's revelation at Sinai is the expression "your love and faithfulness" (v. 2): these are the same words with which God defined himself before Moses (Ex 34:6). The phrase "Your right hand saves me" (v. 7) is, for Jews, an allusion to the exodus from Egypt. The "right hand" is, of course, the right hand, and since Moses' song after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15), it has become customary to speak of the victory that God obtained with a strong hand and a powerful arm (Ex 15:6, 12). The expression "Lord, your love is forever" (v. 8) also evokes all of God's work, particularly the Exodus, as in Psalm 135/136, whose refrain is: "For his love is forever." Another link between this psalm and Moses' song is the connection between the entire epic of the Exodus, the Covenant at Sinai, and the Temple in Jerusalem. Moses sang:

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him" (Ex 15:1-2, 13), and the psalm echoes:

"Not to the gods, but to you I will sing, I bow down toward your holy temple" (vv. 1-2) because the

Temple is the place where all God's work on behalf of his people is remembered. However, God's presence is not limited to a stone temple, but that temple, or what remains of it, is a permanent sign of that presence. And even today, wherever they are in the world, every Jew prays facing Jerusalem, towards the holy temple mountain, because it is the place chosen by God, in the time of King David, to offer his people a sign of his presence. Finally, God's greatness does not crush man, at least not those who recognise their own smallness: "The Lord is exalted, but he looks upon the humble; he recognises the proud from afar" (v. 6). This too is a great biblical theme: his greatness is manifested precisely in his goodness towards the smallness of man (cf. Wis 12:18) and Psalm 113/112: "He raises the weak from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap" and in the Magnificat: "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the humble". The believer knows this and is amazed: God is great, he does not crush us, but on the contrary, he makes us grow.

These parallels, that is, the influence of Moses' song, the experience of Sinai from the burning bush to the exodus from Egypt and the Covenant, are found in many other psalms and biblical texts.

This shows how much this experience was – and remains – the foundation of Israel's faith.

Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians (2:12-14)

God has cancelled the document written against us (Col 2:14). Paul here refers to a widespread practice when money was borrowed: it was customary for the debtor to give the creditor a 'debt acknowledgement document'. Jesus also used this image in the parable of the dishonest steward. On the day his master threatens to fire him, he thinks of making friends for himself; to this end, he summons his master's debtors and says to each one, 'Here is your debt document; change the amount. Did you owe a hundred sacks of wheat? Write eighty' (Lk 16:7). As he often does, Paul uses the language of everyday life to express a theological thought. His reasoning is this: because of the seriousness of our sins, we can consider ourselves debtors to God. Moreover, in Judaism, sins were often called "debts"; and a Jewish prayer from the time of Jesus said: "In your great mercy, cancel all the documents that accuse us." Well, anyone who looks up at the cross of Christ discovers the extent of God's mercy for his children: with Him, it is not a matter of keeping accounts: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' is the prayer of the Son; but it is He himself who said, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father'. The body of Christ nailed to the cross shows that God is like this: He forgets all our wrongs, all our faults towards Him. His forgiveness is displayed before our eyes: "They will look on him whom they have pierced," said the prophet Zechariah (Zech 12:10; Jn 19:37). It is as if the document of our debt had been nailed to the cross of Christ. However, we are still surprised because this whole passage is written in the past tense: "buried with Christ in baptism, you have also been raised with him... with him God has given you life... forgiving us all our sins and cancelling the document written against us... he took it away by nailing it to the cross". 

NOTE Paul wants to affirm that the salvation of the world is already accomplished: this 'already-realised' salvation is one of the great themes of the Letter to the Colossians. The Christian community is already saved through baptism; it already participates in the heavenly reality. Here too we see an evolution with respect to some of Paul's earlier letters, such as 'We have been saved, but in hope' (Rom 8:24); "If we have been united with him in death, we will also be united with him in resurrection" (Rom 6:5). While the Letter to the Romans places the resurrection in the future, the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians speak in the past tense, both of burial with Christ and of resurrection as an already present reality. “When we were dead in our sins, he made us alive with Christ – by grace you are saved –; with him he raised us up and seated us in the heavens in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:5-6). “You were buried with Christ, with him you were also raised... You were dead... but God gave you life with Christ.” For Paul, baptism is like a second birth, and his insistence that salvation has already taken place through birth into a totally new life is probably also linked to the historical context: behind many expressions in the Letter, we can glimpse a climate of tension and conflict. The community in Colossae seems to be under dangerous influences, against which Paul wants to warn them: "Let no one deceive you with seductive words" (Col 2:4)... "Let no one trap you with empty and deceptive philosophy" (Col 2:8)... "Let no one judge you in matters of food and drink, or in regard to festivals or sabbaths" (Col 2:16). Thus, a recurring problem reappears in the background: how does one enter into salvation? Must one continue to strictly observe all Jewish law? Paul answers: through faith. This theme is present in many letters, and we find it clearly here as well (v. 12): buried in baptism with Christ... raised... through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. The Letter to the Ephesians repeats it even more clearly: 'It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not the result of works, so that no one can boast.' (Eph 2:8-9) Life with Christ in the glory of the Father is not only a future hope, but a present experience of believers: an experience of new life, of divine life. From now on, if we want, Christ lives in us; and we are enabled to live the divine life of the risen Christ in our daily lives! This means that none of our old ways of acting is any longer an inevitable condemnation. Love, peace, justice, and sharing are possible. And if we do not believe this is possible, then we are saying that Christ has not saved us! Be careful! Until now, we have always spoken of the Letter to the Colossians as if Paul were the author; in reality, many exegetes believe that it was written by a disciple very close to Paul, inspired by his thought, but from a later generation. 

From the Gospel according to Luke (11:1-13)

It may come as a surprise, but Jesus did not invent the words of the Lord's Prayer: they come directly from Jewish liturgy and, more profoundly, from the Scriptures. Starting with the vocabulary, which is very biblical: Father, name, holy, kingdom, bread, sins, temptations... Let us begin with the first two questions: with great pedagogical skill, they are addressed first of all to God and teach us to say 'your name', 'your kingdom'. They educate our desire and commit us to collaborate in the growth of his kingdom. The Our Father, probably taught by Jesus in Aramaic, 'Abun d'bashmaya... nethqadash shimukin', which recalls liturgical Hebrew, is a school of prayer, or if you prefer, a method for learning to pray: let us not forget the disciple's request that immediately precedes it: 'Lord, teach us to pray' (v. 1). Well, if we follow Jesus' method, thanks to the Lord's Prayer, we will end up knowing how to speak the language of God, whose first word is Father. The invocation 'Our Father' immediately places us in a filial relationship with God and was already present in the Old Testament: 'You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting'. (Is 63:16). The first two questions concern the name and the kingdom. "Hallowed be thy name": in the Bible, the name represents the person himself; to say that God is holy (kadosh / shmokh in Aramaic - separate) is to affirm that He is "beyond everything, and this request means: "Make yourself known as God". "Thy kingdom come": repeated every day, this question will transform us into workers in the Kingdom. God's will, as we know, is that humanity, gathered in his love, should become queen of creation: 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:27), and believers await the day when God will be recognised as king over all the earth, as the prophet Zechariah announced: 'The Lord will be king over all the earth' (Zech 14:9). Our prayer, our method of learning the language of God, will make us people who desire above all else that God be recognised, adored and loved, that everyone recognise him as Father, passionate about evangelisation and the Kingdom of God. The next three questions concern daily life: "Give us", "Forgive us", "Do not abandon us to temptation". God never ceases to do all this, and we place ourselves in an attitude of acceptance of his gifts. "Give us this day our daily bread" (τὸν ἐπιούσιον): the manna that fell every morning in the desert taught the people to trust day by day, and this request invites us not to worry about tomorrow and to receive food each day as a gift from God: here bread has various meanings, including the Eucharistic bread, as I will explain in the Note, and the plural "our bread" invites us to share the Father's concern to feed all his children. "Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who is indebted to us": God's forgiveness is not conditioned by our behaviour, and fraternal forgiveness does not buy God's forgiveness, but is the only way to enter into the divine forgiveness that is already given: those who have a closed heart cannot receive God's gifts. "Do not abandon us to temptation." Here there is a translation problem, because – once again – Hebrew grammar is different from ours: the verb used in the Hebrew prayer means "do not let us enter into temptation." This refers to every temptation, of course, but above all to the most serious one, the temptation to doubt God's love. The whole of life is involved in the Lord's Prayer: speaking the language of God means knowing how to ask, and asking is not only permitted but recommended because it is an exercise in humility and trust. Nor are these just any requests: bread, forgiveness, strength against temptation. All the requests are in the plural, and each of us makes them on behalf of the whole of humanity. Ultimately, there is a close connection between the first petitions of the Lord's Prayer and the subsequent ones: we ask God for what we need to fulfil our baptismal mission: Give us all we need – bread and love – and protect us, so that we may have the strength to proclaim your Kingdom. The Gospel immediately follows with the parable of the importunate friend who invites us never to stop praying, certain that the heavenly Father always gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (v. 13), so that even if our problems are not solved with a wave of a magic wand, we will no longer experience them alone but together with Him.

NOTE 

1 – Regarding 'bread' in verse 3: the same adjective is found in a prayer in the Book of Proverbs: 'Give me neither poverty nor riches; give me only my daily bread' (Pr 30:8).  

2 The term bread τὸν ἐπιούσιον, a very rare adjective, is a hapax legomenon, i.e. it appears only here (and in Mt 6:11), and is not found elsewhere in classical Greek literature or in the LXX (Septuagint). There are many interpretations, but ἐπιούσιος remains enigmatic and carries with it a wealth of meanings: the material bread necessary for daily life; spiritual bread, that is, the Word of God and the Eucharist, the sign of daily trust in the Providence of the Father. Some exegetes read it as 'bread for the day that is coming', thus a confident invocation for the immediate future. 

3. Jesus takes the Our Father directly from the Jewish liturgy, and here are some Jewish prayers that are at its origin: 'Our Father who art in heaven' (Mishnah Yoma, common invocation); 'May your name be sanctified in the world you have created according to your will' (Qaddish, Qedushah and Shemoné Esré); May your kingdom come quickly and be recognised throughout the world... May your will be done in heaven and on earth... Give us our daily bread...

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us... Lead us not into temptation... Yours is the greatness, the power, the glory... (1 Chr 29:11)

4. The final doxology of the Lord's Prayer: Many Christian groups, well before the Second Vatican Council, recited at the end of the Lord's Prayer: Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power and glory forever. This "doxology" (word of praise) is found in some manuscripts of Matthew, and is probably derived from a very ancient liturgical use, already in the first century, but dating back even further, to David's prayer (cf. Chronicles 29:11).

5. On the importance of prayers of petition, I echo an interesting image proposed by Duns Scotus: imagine a boat on the sea; on the shore there is a rock, on which there is a ring, and another ring on the boat, tied together with a rope The man who prays is like someone in the boat pulling on the rope: he does not pull the rock towards himself, but brings himself – and the boat – closer to the rock.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

(Lk 11:1-13)

Teach us to pray: no longer looking outward

«When you pray, do not babble like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their wordiness» (Mt 6:7; cf. Lk 11:1).

The God of religions was named with an overabundance of high-sounding honorific epithets, as if he craved ever more numerous ranks of incensers.

The «Father» is not accompanied by prestigious titles. A child doesn’t address the parent as a very high, eternal and omnipotent, but the a reliable family Person who transmits life to him.

And the son doesn’t imagine that he has to offer external cries and acknowledgments: the Father looks at needs, not merits.

«Et ne nos inducas in tentationem»: ancient Prayer of the sons.

«Do not induce us [Lead us not into]» is (in the Latin and Greek sense: «until the end») an ancient Symbol of the ‘reborn in Christ’, in the experience of real life.

In religions there are clearly opposed demons and angels: disordered and dark powers, contrary to the bright and "right" ones.

But by dint of relegating the former, the worst continually resurface, until they win the game and spread.

In the lives of the saints we see these great women and men strangely always under temptation - because they disdain evil, therefore they do not know it.

Gradually, however, the little constant naggings becomes overwhelming crowds.

The persons of Faith do not act according to pre-established and superficial models, not even religious ones; they are aware that they are not heroes or paradigm phenomena.

That's why they rely on. They let intimate problems go by: understood its strength!

This is the meaning of the formula of the Our Father, in its original sense: «and lead us not into [the end of] temptation [trial] (because we know our weakness)».

If, on the other hand, our 'counterpart' becomes a protagonist, a one-sided pivot, a constant afterthought, and a block, we are done for.

Pain, failures, sadness, frustrations, weaknesses, a thousand anxieties, too many falls, accustom us to experience transgressions as part of ourselves: Condition to be evaluated, not "guilt" to be cut horizontally.

In the process of true salvific transmutation, that signal speaks of us: within a deviation or the eccentricity there is a secret or a knowledge to be found, for a ‘new personal birth’.

Looking at the discomforts and oppositions, we realize that these critical sides of being become like a malleable magma, which approaches our healing more quickly. As if through a permanent, radical conversion… because it involves and belongs to us; not in peripheral mode, but basically, of Seed and Nature.

Absorbed patterns and beliefs don’t allow us to understand that the passionate life is composed of opposing states, of competitive energies - which must not be disguised in order to be considered decent people.

Perceiving and integrating such depths, we lay down the idea and atmosphere of impending danger, devoid of further opportunity; only for death.

We become mature, without dissociation or hysterical states resulting from contrived identifications, nor disesteem for an important part of us.

In short, straits and "crosses" have something to tell us.

They shake the soul to the root, sweep away the absorbed masks, ignite the person, and save the life.

In this way, inconveniences and anxieties help us. They hide capabilities and possibilities that we do not yet see.

In the virtue of the shaky yet unique exceptionality for each person, here is the true journey opening up.

Path of the Father and of the heart, Way that wants to guide us to alternative trajectories, new dimensions of existence.

The difference of the Faith, compared to ancient religiosity [in the sense of the ‘Cross-inside’]?

It’s in the consciousness that only the sick heal, only the incomplete grow.

Only the halting women and men regain expression, evolve. And falling, they snap forward.

(Lk 11:5-13)

Sometimes we put the Father in the dock, because he seems to let things go as our freedom directs them.

But his Design is not to make the world work to the perfection of old-fashioned transistors, or integrated circuits (in their respective “packages”) or “chips” [various “little bits”]...

God wants us to acquire a New Creation mentality. His Action shapes us on the Son, transforming projects, ideas, desires, words, standard behaviors.

At first, perhaps prayer may seem tinged with only requests. The more one proceeds in the experience of prayer in Christ, the less one asks.

The questions are attenuated, to the point of almost entirely ceasing - in an ever more conscious welcome, which becomes real contemplation and union.

We don’t know how long, but the ‘Result’ takes over suddenly: not only certain, but disproportionate.

As extracted from a continuous incandescence process, where there are no logical networks, nor easy shortcuts.

We receive the maximum and complete Gift.

And we can host it with dignity. A new Creation in the Spirit, a different aspect.

Unusual destination - not simply one that’s fantasized or well arranged [as transmitted or expected].

God allows events to take their own course, apparently distant from us;  therefore prayer can take on dramatic tones and arouse irritation - as if it were an open dispute between us and Him.

But the Lord chooses not to vouch for our external dreams. He doesn’t allow himself to be introduced into small limits.

The Eternal wants to involve us in something other than our goals, which are often too similar with what we have under our noses.

He invents expanded horizons, and makes us dialogue with our deep states, so that we give up the rigid point of view and are introduced into another kind of programs.

Reading from a totally "inadequate" point of view can open minds - and change feelings, transform us inside.

When someone believes to have understood the world… other, more intense expectations become already conditioned, which vice versa would like to invade our space.

Prayer then must be insistent, because it’s like a look placed on oneself; not as we thought.

The inner eye creates a sort of clear space, inside, to welcome the Presence that does not pull the essential self of the person elsewhere.

(By dwelling for a long time in the House of our very special essence).

The conscious emptying out of the piled-up junk is as if filled by the interpersonal dialogue-Listening with the Source of being.

Our particular Seed is nestled in this Wellspring of flowing water: there the difference in face that belongs to us is as if seated and in the making.

Without the definitions and aspirations of nomenclature, in a "discharged" state but full of potential energies - our characteristic and unmistakable Plant touches the divine condition.

Through incessant dialogue with the Father in prayer, we make room for the Roots of Being, for a different fate.

This in the conscious gap of that part of us that seeks certainties, approvals.

Continuous prayer [incessant listening and perception] excavates and disposes of the volume of banal redundant thoughts.

In such a space, opportunities are opened up, inner cleansing is created so that the Gift - even extravagant ones - can arrive. Not second-hand.

[17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C), July 27, 2025]

(Luke 11:1-13)

Cross within Prayer: no longer looking outward

Sons’ Prayer: performance or listening?

In the communities of Matthew and Luke, the "prayer" of the children - the "Our Father" - does not arise as a prayer, but as a formula of acceptance of the Beatitudes (in its sections: invocation to the Father, the human situation and the coming of the Kingdom, liberation).

In any case, the full difference between religious prayer and expression animated by Faith lies in the distinction between: Performance or Perception.

[As Pope Francis says: 'Praying is not talking to God like a parrot'. 'Our God does not need sacrifices to win his favour! He needs nothing'.

In religions, in fact, it is the praying subject who 'prays', expressing requests, exposing himself, praising, and so on.

Again in Thomism, the virtue of religion was considered an aspect of the cardinal virtue of Justice. In other words, the right position of man before God is that of one who recognises a duty of worship (worship that comes from him) towards the Creator; and man - the subject of prayer - would fulfil it.

Conversely, the son of God in Christ is a 'listener' to the Logos: he is the one who listens, perceives, welcomes: in short, the authentic Subject who expresses himself is God himself.

He reveals himself through the Word, in the reality of events, in the folds of universal and personal history, in the particular Call he grants us, even in intimate images.

These become plastic expressions of Mystery (and personal Vocation) which, wave upon wave, even guide the soul.

"When you pray, do not babble like the pagans, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words" (Mt 6:7; cf. Lk 11:1).

In Faith, we participate in the authentic prayer of Jesus himself - Person in us - addressed to the Father, first of all in "listening" to His providential proposals: as if, united with our Friend and Brother, we were entering into this Dialogue - filled with even figurative suggestions.

But it is the Only Begotten Son who prays; we are not the great protagonists. Only in this sense can the act of prayer be defined as "of the children" or "Christian".

Our life of prayer is not an ascetic exercise - much less a duty or a shopping list - because God does not need to be informed about something He had not thought of before.

As the Master says, the Father knows what we need (Mt 6:8). Therefore, no effort is necessary to turn to Him [no painful struggle to focus on ourselves and come out of ourselves...]. Nor does He oblige us to say too many (or the right) words.

Authentic prayer is not a repetition, nor a leap into the external darkness, but rather a searching and sifting, a gift. It is a plunge into our being, where the intimacy of the Agreement seeks to understand the Author's signature in the heart of events, even in emotions.

The prayer of the man of Faith does not aim to introduce God's will and the reality of situations into narrow horizons and already understandable judgements, as if pushing it into unnatural harmonies.

Prayer is a perceptive leap without repetitive identities, from one's own core - which eliminates mental toxins; and thus becomes an experience of fullness of being, in search of global and personal meaning.

The praying man is not even prey to some kind of excited (ridiculous or soporific) paroxysmal state: he is welcoming an Action - a Work of paradoxical suspension, on the path towards his own Beatitude.

Prayer is even an aesthetic gesture in Christ. Precisely because it tends to jolt our everyday imagination, so that it may be shaped according to the guiding vision that dwells within. It shifts and almost directs the eye of the soul, and the ecclesial experience.

A virtue-event that gradually chisels away at that very personal image that brings to awareness a goal or a communal reality of praise, or rather an innate narrative... A voice of unknown energies, for important changes.

Step by step, this perception and dialogue that emerges leads us to internalise hidden glimpses of the path that belongs to us: a missionary spirit that seeks harmony, the creation of a living environment, and so on. Even destabilising ones.

Only in this sense is prayer beneficial to us.

Nor can it be reduced to a group distinction, because while recognising themselves in certain knowledge, each person has their own language of the soul, a significant history and sensitivity, an unprecedented iconic world (also in terms of dreamed micro and macro relationships), as well as a unique task of salvation.

For this reason too – although in relation to the community of reference – the Symbol of those reborn in Christ who turn to the Father has come down to us in different versions: Matthew, Luke, Didache [‘Teaching’, perhaps contemporary with the last writings of the New Testament, a sort of early Catechism].To introduce us to specific considerations, it is appropriate to ask ourselves: why does Jesus not frequent places of worship to recite traditional formulas, but rather to teach?

And there is never any mention of the apostles praying with Him: it seems that they only wanted a formula to distinguish themselves from other rabbinical schools (cf. Lk 11:1).

The Lord stands firm only on the mentality and lifestyle: he proceeds on fundamental options - and insists on a perception aimed at welcoming, rather than on our saying and organising (which are not deeply imbued with a well-founded eternity).

Father

The God of religions was named with an abundance of high-sounding honorific epithets, as if He craved ever larger crowds of flatterers.

The Father does not surround himself with prestigious titles. A child does not address his parent as someone who is very high, eternal or exalted, but as the one who gives him life.

And the son does not imagine that he must offer cries and external acknowledgements - otherwise the superior and master would be offended and might punish him: the Parent looks at needs, not merits.

The God of religions rules his subjects by issuing laws, as a sovereign does; the Father transmits his Spirit, his very Life, which elevates and perfects both the capacity for personal listening and awareness (e.g., of one's brothers and sisters).

The only request is to extend our missionary resources and to feed ourselves with the Bread-Person who remoulds us according to his own virtues, according to what we should be, and perhaps already could have been.

A reality within our reach is the cancellation of the material debts that our neighbour has incurred out of necessity.

There is no witness to God-Love that does not pass through a fraternal community, where the communion of goods is lived.

The assurance of being at peace with God lies in the joy of living together and sharing.

In religious belief, material blessings are often confused with divine blessings, which accentuates competition, artificial primacy and the hardships of real life.

Conversely, the spirit of the Beatitudes is evident in a people where distinctions between creditors and debtors are abolished.

«Lead us not»: ancient prayer of sons, in real life

The essence of God is: Love that does not betray or abandon; it is useless, confusing and blasphemous to ask a Father: 'Do not abandon me' [cf. Greek text]. Even if it may be effective to the external ear.

The false mystics of Jesus abandoned (even by the Father!) do not educate; they may fascinate, they certainly confuse - and they brainwash.

In prayer, only the Spirit is guaranteed: the clarity to understand the fruitfulness of the Cross, the gain in loss, life not in triumph but in death. And the strength to be faithful to one's calling, despite persecutions, even 'internal' ones.

The community and individual souls, however, ask not to be placed in extreme conditions of trial, knowing well their own limits, their personal invincible precariousness, even if redeemed.

This is the threshold that distinguishes religiosity from Faith: on the one hand, the 'safe' formula of the convinced and strong; on the other, a humble and expectant prayer: that of the unsteady, redeemed by love.

'Lead us not' is precisely (in the Latin and Greek sense: 'lead us to the end') an ancient symbol of those reborn in Christ, in the experience of real life.

In religions, there are clearly opposing demons and angels: disordered and dark powers, contrary to the luminous and 'right' ones.

But by dint of pushing back the former, the worst continually resurface, until they win the game and spread.

In the lives of the saints, we see these great men strangely always under temptation - because they disdain evil, they do not know it. Gradually, however, the constant harassment becomes an uncontrollable crowd.

Women and men of faith do not act according to pre-established, superficial models, not even religious ones; they are aware that they are not heroes or paradigm phenomena.

That is why they entrust themselves. They let their intimate problems pass: they have understood their power!

This is the meaning of the Lord's Prayer in its original sense: 'do not bring us to trial, for we know our weakness'.

This attention arises so that sin itself - by dint of denying it, then masking it - does not paradoxically become the hidden protagonist of our journey. The focus of attention, which unfortunately clogs the mind, blocking the internal processes of spontaneous growth, perception of Grace and self-healing [in accordance with one's own unique Calling].

This would be the opposite of Redemption and Freedom, and therefore of Love: it is destroyed where there is a superior who dominates - even if it is God.

On the other hand, it is very beneficial to recover the energy that has brought us into contact with our deepest layers, opening up new horizons. We should take it on board and make it our own, in order to (only then) invest it in unexpected and wise ways.If, on the other hand, our 'counterpart' becomes a constant afterthought and block, we’re done for.

Pain, failure, sadness, frustration, weakness, a thousand anxieties, too many falls, accustom us to experiencing evil as part of ourselves: a condition to be evaluated, not a 'fault' to be cut out.

In the process of true salvific transmutation, that signal speaks about us: within a deviation or eccentricity there is a secret or knowledge to be discovered, in order to be personally reborn.

By looking at discomfort and opposition, we realise that these critical aspects of being become like malleable magma, which more quickly brings about healing. It is like a permanent, radical conversion... because it involves us and belongs to us; it is not artificial or superficial, but fundamental, coming from our core, from our seed and nature.

Absorbed patterns and beliefs prevent us from understanding that a passionate life is made up of contrasting states, of competing energies - which we must not mask in order to be considered respectable people.

By perceiving and integrating these depths, we abandon the idea and atmosphere of impending danger, devoid of further opportunities, only for death.

We become mature, without dissociations or hysterical states resulting from artificial identifications, or contempt for an important part of ourselves.

In short, limitations and 'crosses' have something to tell us.

They shake the soul to its core, sweep away absorbed masks, ignite the person, and save lives.

In this way, inconveniences and anxieties help us. They hide abilities and possibilities that we cannot yet see.

In the virtue of the fragile yet unique exceptionality of each person, the true path opens up.

The path of the Father and of the heart, the Way that wants to guide us towards alternative trajectories, new dimensions of existence.

What is the difference between Faith and ancient religiosity [in the sense of the cross within]?

It lies in the awareness that only the sick are healed, only the incomplete grow.

Only the limping regain expression, evolve. And by falling, they spring forward.

Continuous prayer: a condition of grace and strength that does not lead astray.

Failing without failing. Struggle: incessant, effective, with ourselves and with God

(Lk 11:5-13)

Sometimes we put the Father in the dock, because He seems to let things go as our freedom directs them.

But his plan is not to make the world work with the perfection of transistors (of the past) or integrated circuits (in their respective 'packages') or 'chips' [various 'bits and pieces']...

God wants us to acquire a New Creation mentality. His Action shapes us in the image of his Son, transforming our plans, ideas, desires, words and standard behaviour.

At first, prayer may seem tinged with requests. The more we progress in the experience of prayer in the Spirit of Christ, the less we ask.

The questions diminish until they almost cease altogether.

Desires for accumulation, revenge and triumph give way to listening and perception.

The penetrating eye notices what is within reach and what is unusual, in an ever more conscious acceptance that becomes real contemplation and union.

We do not know how long it takes, but the 'result' comes suddenly: not only certain, but disproportionate.

But as if extracted from a process of continuous incandescence, where there are no logical networks or easy shortcuts.

We receive the greatest and most complete Gift. And we can welcome it with dignity. A new Creation in the Spirit, a different aspect.

An unexpected Face - not simply the one fantasised or well arranged (as transmitted by the family or expected in the background).

God allows events to follow their course, apparently distant from us; therefore, prayer can take on dramatic tones and arouse irritation - as if it were an open dispute between us and Him.

But He chooses not to be the guarantor of our external dreams. He does not allow Himself to be confined within narrow limits.

He wants to involve us in something far greater than our goals, which are often too conformist to what we have right under our noses.

He invents expanded horizons, but in this struggle it must be clear that we must not fail ourselves. That is, the character of our essence and vocation.

All this, precisely by not betraying ourselves - that is, by giving up our rigid point of view and dialoguing with our deepest layers.

This process shifts the conditioned emphasis.

It is not that God takes pleasure in being constantly prayed to and relied upon by the poor.

It is we who need time to encounter our own souls and allow ourselves to be introduced to other kinds of programmes that are not conformist and predictable.

Reading events according to totally 'inappropriate', eccentric or excessive visions, less constrained by the usual armour (and so on) can open the mind.

Broadening one's gaze increases intuition, changes feelings, transforms and activates. It captures other patterns, opens up different horizons - with already prodigious, certainly unpredictable intermediate results.

When someone believes they have understood the world, they already condition themselves to further, more intense desires that would invade our space.

This artificial 'nature' of spurious, external or other people's attitudes blocks the path that leads to the nature of character, the true calling and personal mission.

Prayer must be insistent, because it is like a gaze fixed on oneself; not as we had thought: authentically. 

The inner eye serves to create a sort of clear and individual space within, which opens up to our own and others' Presence, to be looked at (in the way that matters).

It will be the wisest, strongest and most reliable travelling companion... carrying our identity-character and not pulling the essential self of the person elsewhere.

The conscious emptying of the clutter piled up (by ourselves or others) must be filled over time through an intensity of Relationship.

This is interpersonal dialogue-Listening with the Source of being.

Nestled within it is our particular Seed: there, the difference in the face that belongs to us is seated and in the making.

It will be the radical depth of the relationship with our Root - perhaps lost in too many regular, even elevated or functioning expectations - that will give us another, more convincing Way.

And it will reveal the unique tendency and destination that belongs to us, for the Happiness we never imagined.

Goals, resolutions, disciplines, memories of the past, dreams of the future, searches for points of reference, habitual assessments of possibilities, piles of merit... sometimes these are ballast.

They distract us from the land of the soul, where our grain would like to take root and become what is in our hearts.

And from the Core, we understand the Mission we have received - not conquered, nor possessed - so that it may grant us another prodigious quality (not visibility).

Often, the mental and emotional system recognises itself in an album of thoughts, definitions, gestures, forms, problems, titles, tasks, characters, roles and things that are already dead.

This morphology of interdiction loses sight of the authentic present, where, on the contrary, the divine Dream takes root and completes us, realising us in our specificity.

So here is the therapy of absolute premonition in Listening - of non-planning; starting with each one of us.

This is done in the conscious gap of that part of us that seeks security, approval, and indulges in banality.

Through incessant dialogue with the Father in prayer, we make room for the roots of Being, which (in the meantime) is already filling us with visions and opportunities for a different fate.

By reactivating the exploratory energy suffocated in the gears, we create the right space and set off again on the Exodus.

Being satisfied, stopping, settling in one place would transform even qualitative achievements into a land of new slavery.

It would force us to act and retrace steps we have already taken - which, on the contrary, we are called upon to overcome.

Exodus... within a spring-like, cosmic and identifying relationship that is uniquely fundamental.

Thanks to prolonged listening in prayer, we children acquire the knowledge of the soul and of the Mystery.

We dwell for a long time in the House of our very special essence.

In this way, we plant it - or root it even deeper - in order to understand it and recover it completely, clear and full.

Now freed from the destiny traced in an environment of hardship, already marked but devoid of dreams.

When we are ready, Uniqueness will come into play with a new solution, even an extravagant one.

It will give birth to what we truly are, at our best - within that chaos that solves real problems. And wave after wave, it will leap towards the finish line.

Away with definitions and aspirations from nomenclature, in a sort of letting go of ourselves - in a 'discharged' state but full of potential energy - we will give space to the new Seed that knows more than anyone else.

Already here and now, our characteristic and unmistakable Plant wants to touch the divine condition.

Continuous prayer [listening and perception, not sporadic] digs and disposes of the volume of banal, redundant thoughts in this space.

In this interstice and 'void', opportunities open up. Inner cleansing is created so that the Gift may arrive - not second-hand.

Do we want a decisive conversion? Do we desire a return to the totality of humanising existence, without limitations and in our uniqueness?

[Then can divine action reach anyone? Does it take root in any face? And how can we avoid breaking it?].

Why not start afresh now? Prayer and the "new fullness" of the Spirit become for us - children in the process of growing up - the milk of the soul.

[Cf. Jn 16:23-28: Prayer in the Name: Saturday 6th Easter] [Cf. Mt 11:25-27: Jesus' only prayer that is little taught: Wednesday 15th T.O]

The second fall

Pros and cons

Lk 11:14-23 (14-26)

Prejudice undermines unity, and no one can seize Jesus and hold him hostage. He is the strong one whom no fortified citadel can contain.

Those who fear losing their command and losing their artificial prestige have already lost. No armour or booty can hold them back.

There is no custom, compromise or police force to trust that can withstand the siege of Freedom in Christ.

The Scriptures form an inseparable unity. However, only in Him does Tradition not block charisms, diminish us, cause anxiety, or lead to scruples—rather, it acquires its vital significance.

Friendship with the Risen One is in fact extraordinarily original and respects uniqueness. It lies in continuity and at the same time in a break with the old mindset. It is the vital monotheism of a new Spirit who welcomes gifts.

Those who do not commit themselves to expanding the creative work of the Father, those who do not do their utmost to understand and enliven situations or people - even respecting eccentricities that previously had no place and seemed incommunicable - hover over illusions, disperse themselves and undermine the whole environment.

The Tao Te Ching (LXV) says: "In ancient times, those who practised the Tao well did not make the people perceptive, but strove to make them obtuse: the people are difficult to govern because their wisdom is too great."

Normal people accept chaos, they do not shun life. Missionaries are trained to find in every effort, in every mistake or imperfection, a new order, orderly and secret. Nothing external.

In every uncertainty there is a certainty, in every insecurity a greater security, in every shadow an unexpected pearl, in every disorder a cosmos: this is the secret of life, of happiness, of the experience of Faith.

The authorities were attached to their false prestige and very concerned that Jesus was faithful to his unique task and might succeed in taking away from them the people they had lured - but now liberated - from the religion of fear.

He (his community) remained more convincing because he was bringing about the Kingdom, he was beginning to show it; not in fantasies of cataclysms that would put souls on a leash, but alive and efficient, step by step, person by person.

It met the desire for human fulfilment that dwelled in every heart, so it did not rely on obsessions and paroxysms or on the Law, but on real good, healing, life (always different).

The care of individual and relational infirmities was no longer a secondary matter: thus, for example, the liberation of a single unhappy person began to seem to have absolute, definitive value.

The scene on earth could no longer be dominated by adapted catechisms and pious customs that denied everything except fears.

In short, Christ himself is the strong man who sees far, a sign of God's effective coming among men.

With him, the reign of illusions and fixed positions declines; the world opposed to the disintegration of concrete existence takes over, respecting the uniqueness and conviviality of differences.

The activity of his Church performs exorcisms: it emancipates from dehumanising forces, conditioning and structures. It moves not on a legalistic level, but on a level of active faith and love that guarantees to each person the path of spontaneity and fulfilment desired in their heart.

Even today, the fraternal community must be aware that it is an instrument of redemption and an energetic presence of God among ordinary men and women of all cultural backgrounds, to lead them and accompany them towards a present-future that gives breath not only to the group but also to individual inclinations.

The assemblies of the children are enabled by grace and vocation to untie knots and overcome mental barriers, thus creating a welcoming environment that accepts travellers: this is the principle and non-negotiable horizon of the Faith.

By overcoming old fixed convictions that bracket the reality of people and accentuate their blockages, the community of children in the Risen One is called to become the power of God.

It is urged to become a clear sign of the enterprising presence of the personal and diligent Holy Spirit [“the finger of God”: v. 20], who surpasses reassuring and empty spirituality, as well as the superficial, indolent distraction of devotion according to customs imposed by conventions and chains of command.

But why does Jesus emphasise that the second fall is more ruinous than the first (vv. 24-26)?

If the mind of the faithful is emptied of the great step of the living Christ - which it has first practised and recognised within itself and in its mission - it is no longer focused on something useful, vital and splendid: weakened, it is lost.

While Luke was writing the Gospel, in the mid-80s, there were quite a few defections due to persecution.Believers were discouraged, dismayed by social contempt - thus many saw the enthusiastic excitement of the early days fade away.

Love could not be put in the bank, but several brothers in the community who had come from paganism, after an initial experience of conversion, preferred to return to their former life, to imitating models, to the usual easy thoughts, to the attractions and approval of the crowds.

Falling back and resigning themselves to the forces at work, some abandoned the position of inner autonomy they had gained through the liberating action of the idols, favoured by the wise and prayerful life in the fraternal community.

Then they also attempted an individual search for compensation and revenge for the difficult years spent being faithful to their vocation, in that stimulus to grow together through the exchange of gifts and resources.

Lk warns us: it is normal that there are as many nights as there are days.

We understand the stress of wandering in order to approach the infinity of the soul, the competitive reality and our neighbours (even those in the community) - but be careful... a second fall would be worse than the first.

The person who once returned to himself and gave up everything in despair would then succumb to general disillusionment, to a more global lack of judgement, awareness and trust.

All this still happens today due to particular pressures, discouragement or hastiness, after seeing ideals shattered by imperfect circumstances. Or because of the effort of facing discoveries and developments (which always call everything into question) in the long time needed to achieve patient consistency with one's own deep-rooted codes.

Thus, those who allow themselves to be stunned would easily return to seeking the green light from others and that alignment that hides conflicts and makes them tremble less - because the old conviction that has become a modus vivendi does not change the ways of doing things or the normal frame of reference.

Difficulties caused some to give up, and this seemed to put a tombstone on the hope of actually building an alternative society without hurting ourselves too much.

But the Gospel reiterates that a neutral attitude (v. 23) from a safe distance is not an option. There are no half measures: only clear choices and no repressed needs.

Integrate, yes: contradictory sides always dwell in our hearts, and there is no need to be alarmed by this. Opposing states of being are a richness that completes us.

Indeed, we become neurotic precisely when reductionist obsessions or single-issue (club) demands prevail and stifle the multifaceted Call - which, although chiselled by Name, is never one-sided.

To live fully, freely and happily, it is good to be ourselves, aware of who we are: perfect children (for our task in the world).

So we can ignore the discomfort of the insults of those who scold and belittle us, let them flow away - and do without chasing praise.

The man of Faith has experienced and knows the essential: it is life that conquers death, not the other way around; therefore, he disregards obsessions (even those cloaked in sacredness) and does not allow his spirit to be worn down.

He enjoys a critical conscience that knows how to put immediate results in the background, thus regenerating himself; he incessantly reactivates and does not eradicate his strengths.

Those baptised in Christ live attitudes full of authenticity and totality of being, regardless of favourable or unfavourable circumstances. They remain distant from childish fears, enjoy a free heart and are steadfast in action. 

They anticipate that they may be wayfarers, besieged by a hysterical system that cannot tolerate real change (v. 22).

In this they rest, always calling upon their natural and character roots - where the primordial energies of the soul and the innate (not derived) dreams that heal and guide are kept.

After all, his journey is against the grain and will certainly be punctuated by hard lessons.

But the cliché is all induced rhetoric; it tries to invade us with weightless recriminations: futile attempts to block the way forward.

It is no surprise that the acolytes of the conformist world defend themselves in every way possible.

And they attack with that standard, socially 'acceptable' rhetoric that attempts to accentuate intimate and personal conflicts. With the vast resources at their disposal, they leverage feelings of guilt.

We will continue to walk swiftly on the Way of the Lord, even when urged on by doubts and indecision; without retreating, even when we feel lost - but with a taste of gain even in loss.

The most difficult moments will be further calls for transformation.

And in every circumstance, we will experience the taste of victory of a full life over the power of evil and over the imitative, banal cultural tenor of others.

Here - in fidelity to our inner world that wants to express itself, and in a change of style or imagination in our approaches - we will resolve the real problems and all the issues in a rich and personal way.Reborn in Christ, who protects and promotes us starting from our exceptional originality, we cannot 'die' by losing our essence and the unrepeatable Encounter.

Returning to identify ourselves in roles, like photocopies - without the Journey of the soul.

Free towards the promised land that belongs to us, we do not seek circumstantial perfection, but fullness.

To internalise and live the message:

Who and what activates me or loses me?

Is Jesus my Lord or am I (my status, my group, my 'respectable' manners, even religious influences...) His master?

How do I face situations, open up paths and not lose myself, in harmony with the ancient and new Voice of the soul, and in the Spirit?

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

This Sunday's Gospel presents Jesus to us absorbed in prayer, a little apart from his disciples. When he had finished, one of them said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11: 1). Jesus had no objection, he did not speak of strange or esoteric formulas but very simply said: "When you pray, say: "Father' ", and he taught the Our Father (cf. Lk 11: 2-4), taking it from his own prayer in which he himself spoke to God, his Father. St Luke passes the Our Father on to us in a shorter form than that found in the Gospel according to St Matthew, which has entered into common usage. We have before us the first words of Sacred Scripture that we learn in childhood. They are impressed in our memory, mould our life and accompany us to our last breath. They reveal that "we are not ready-made children of God from the start, but that we are meant to become so increasingly by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus. Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth [English translation], Doubleday, 2007, p. 138). 

This prayer also accepts and expresses human material and spiritual needs: "Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins" (Lk 11: 3-4). It is precisely because of the needs and difficulties of every day that Jesus exhorts us forcefully: "I tell you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Lk 11: 9-10). It is not so much asking in order to satisfy our own desires as, rather, to keep a lively friendship with God who, the Gospel continues, "will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13). The ancient "Desert Fathers" experienced this, as did contemplatives of all epochs who became, through prayer, friends of God, like Abraham who begged the Lord to spare the few righteous from the destruction of the city of Sodom (cf. Gen 18: 21-32). St Teresa of Avila addressed an invitation to her sisters with the words: we must "beseech God to deliver us from these perils for ever and to keep us from all evil! And although our desire for this may not be perfect, let us strive to make the petition. What does it cost us to ask it, since we ask it of One who is so powerful?" (Cammino, 60 (34), 4, in Opere complete, Milan 1998, p. 846) [title in English: The Way of Perfection]. Every time we say the Our Father our voices mingle with the voice of the Church, for those who pray are never alone. "From the rich variety of Christian prayer as proposed by the Church, each member of the faithful should seek and find his own way, his own form of prayer... each person will, therefore, let himself be led... by the Holy Spirit, who guides him, through Christ, to the Father" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian meditation, 15 October 1989, n. 29; ore, 2 Jan. 1990, p. 10).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus, 25 July 2010]

1. “Our Father, who art in heaven . . .”.

We stand at the altar around which the entire Church in Sarajevo is gathered. We say the words taught to us by Christ, Son of the Living God: Son consubstantial with the Father. He alone calls God “Father” (Abba – Father! My Father!) and He alone can authorise us to address God as “Father”, “Our Father”. He teaches us this prayer in which everything is contained. Today, we wish to find in this prayer what can and must be said to God – our Father – at this moment in history, here in Sarajevo.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." 

"I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: 'From pestilence, from hunger and from war, deliver us!'"

2. Our Father! Father of men: Father of peoples. Father of all peoples who dwell on earth. Father of the peoples of Europe. Of the peoples of the Balkans.

Father of the peoples belonging to the family of the South Slavs! Father of the peoples who, here on this peninsula, have been writing their history for centuries. Father of the peoples, sadly affected not for the first time by the cataclysm of war.

“Our Father . . .”. I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: “From pestilence, from hunger and from war – deliver us!”. I know that many join me in this plea. Not only here in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but throughout Europe and beyond its borders. I come here carrying with me the certainty of this prayer that is uttered by the hearts and lips of countless brothers and sisters of mine. For a long time, they have been waiting for this “great prayer” of the Church, of the people of God, to be said in this place. For a long time, I myself have been inviting everyone to join in this prayer.

How can we forget the prayer offered in Assisi in January last year? And then the one raised in Rome, in St Peter's Basilica, in January this year? Since the beginning of the tragic events in the Balkans, in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the guiding thought of the Church, and in particular of the Apostolic See, has been prayer for peace.

3. Our Father, 'hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come...'. May your holy and merciful name shine forth among men. May your kingdom come, a kingdom of justice and peace, of forgiveness and love.

"Thy will be done . . .".

May your will be done in the world, and especially in this troubled land of the Balkans. You do not love violence and hatred. You abhor injustice and selfishness. You want men to be brothers and to recognise you as their Father.

Our Father, Father of every human being, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Your will is peace!

4. Christ is “our peace” (Eph 2:14). He taught us to call God “Father”.

He who by his blood conquered the mystery of iniquity and division, and by his Cross broke down the massive wall that separated men, making them strangers to one another; He who reconciled humanity with God and united men among themselves as brothers.

This is why Christ was able to say one day to the Apostles, before his sacrifice on the Cross: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you" (Jn 14:27). It was then that he promised the Spirit of Truth, who is at once the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Peace!

Come, Holy Spirit! “Veni, creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita . . .!” “Come, Creator Spirit, visit our minds, fill with your grace the hearts you have created.”

Come, Holy Spirit! We invoke you from this city of Sarajevo, a crossroads of tensions between different cultures and nations, where the fuse was lit at the beginning of the century that sparked the first world war, and where, at the end of the second millennium, similar tensions are concentrated, capable of destroying peoples called by history to collaborate in harmonious coexistence.

Come, Spirit of peace! Through you we cry out: 'Abba, Father' (Rom 8:15).

5. "Give us this day our daily bread . . .".

To pray for bread is to pray for everything necessary for life. Let us pray that, in the distribution of resources among individuals and peoples, the principle of universal participation in the goods created by God may always be realised.

Let us pray that the use of resources for armaments will not damage or even destroy the heritage of culture, which is the highest good of humanity. Let us pray that restrictive measures, deemed necessary to curb conflict, will not cause inhuman suffering to the defenceless population. Every person, every family has a right to their "daily bread".

6. "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us . . .".

With these words we touch on the crucial issue. Christ himself made us aware of this when, dying on the cross, he said of his killers: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).

The history of individuals, peoples and nations is full of mutual resentment and injustice. How important were the historic words addressed by the Polish bishops to their German confreres at the end of the Second Vatican Council: "We forgive and ask forgiveness!" If peace has been achieved in that region of Europe, it seems that this has been thanks to the attitude effectively expressed by those words.

Today we want to pray for a similar gesture to be renewed: "We forgive and we ask forgiveness" for our brothers and sisters in the Balkans! Without this attitude, it is difficult to build peace. The spiral of "guilt" and "punishment" will never end unless, at some point, forgiveness is granted.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. If memory is the law of history, forgiveness is the power of God, the power of Christ acting in the events of individuals and peoples.

7. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil . . .”.

Lead us not into temptation! What temptations do we ask the Father to keep us from today? They are those that make the human heart a heart of stone, insensitive to the call of forgiveness and harmony. They are the temptations of ethnic prejudice, which make us indifferent to the rights of others and to their suffering. They are the temptations of extreme nationalism, which lead to the oppression of others and the desire for revenge. They are all temptations that express the culture of death.

Faced with the desolate spectacle of human failure, we pray with the words of our Venerable Brother Bartholomew I, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople: 'Lord, let our hearts of stone be broken at the sight of your sufferings and become hearts of flesh. Let your Cross dissolve our prejudices. With the vision of your agonising struggle against death, may our indifference or rebellion flee' (Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, Good Friday 1990, Opening Prayer).

Deliver us from evil! Here is another word that belongs entirely to Christ and his Gospel. "I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world" (Jn 12:47). Humanity is called to salvation in Christ and through Christ. The nations that the current war has so terribly divided are also called to this salvation!

Let us pray today that the saving power of the Cross may help us overcome the historic temptation of hatred. Enough of the countless acts of destruction! Let us pray, following the rhythm of the Lord's Prayer, that the time of reconstruction, the time of peace, may begin.

May the dead of Sarajevo, whose remains lie in the nearby cemetery, pray with us. May all the victims of this cruel war pray, invoking reconciliation and peace for the survivors in the light of God.

8. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God!” (Mt 5:9). This is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel passage. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we will truly be blessed if we become artisans of that peace which only Christ can give (cf. Jn 14:27), indeed which is Christ himself. “Christ is our peace.” We will become builders of peace if, like him, we are willing to forgive.

“Father, forgive them!” (Lk 23:34). From the Cross, Christ offers forgiveness and asks us to follow him on the arduous way of the Cross to obtain his peace. Only by accepting his invitation can we prevent selfishness, nationalism and violence from continuing to sow destruction and death.

Evil, in all its manifestations, is a mystery of iniquity, in the face of which the voice of God rises clear and decisive, as we heard in the first reading: “Thus says the High and Lofty One . . . I dwell in a high and holy place, but I am also with the oppressed and the lowly” (Isaiah 57:15). These prophetic words contain an invitation to all of us to examine our consciences seriously.

God is on the side of the oppressed: he is close to parents who mourn their murdered children, he hears the helpless cry of the defenceless who are trampled underfoot, he is in solidarity with women humiliated by violence, he is close to refugees forced to abandon their land and their homes. He does not forget the suffering of families, the elderly, widows, young people and children. It is his people who are dying.

Such barbarism must be stopped! Enough with war! Enough with destructive fury! It is no longer possible to tolerate a situation that produces only death: killings, destroyed cities, ruined economies, hospitals without medicines, the sick and elderly abandoned, families in tears and torn apart. A just peace must be achieved as soon as possible. Peace is possible if moral values are recognised as taking precedence over claims of race or force.

9. Dear Brothers and Sisters! At this moment, together with you, I raise to the Lord the cry of the psalmist: 'Help us, God, our saviour, for the glory of your name, save us and forgive our sins' (Ps 79:9).

Let us entrust this supplication to her who "stood" silently and prayerfully beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25). Let us look to the Blessed Virgin, whose Nativity the Church joyfully celebrates today.

It is significant that my visit, long desired, has been able to take place on this Marian feast day so dear to you. With Mary's birth, hope blossomed in the world for a new humanity no longer oppressed by selfishness, hatred, violence and the many other forms of sin that have stained the paths of history with blood. We ask Mary Most Holy that the day of full reconciliation and peace may also dawn on your land. 

Queen of Peace, pray for us!

[Pope John Paul II, in connection with Sarajevo, 8 September 1994]

In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 11:1-13), Saint Luke narrates the circumstances in which Jesus teaches the “Lord’s Prayer”. They, the disciples, already know how to pray by reciting the formulas of the Jewish tradition, but they too wish to experience the same “quality” of Jesus’ prayer because they can confirm that prayer is an essential dimension in their Master’s life. Indeed each of his important actions is marked by long pauses in prayer. Moreover, they are fascinated because they see that he does not pray like the other teachers of the time, but rather his prayer is an intimate bond with the Father, so much so that they wish to be a part of these moments of union with God, in order to completely savour its sweetness. 

Thus, one day they wait for Jesus to finish praying in a secluded place and then they ask him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (v. 1). In responding to the disciples’ explicit question, Jesus does not provide an abstract definition of prayer, nor does he teach an efficient technique to pray in order to “obtain” something. Instead, he invites his own to experience prayer, by putting them directly in communication with the Father, causing them to feel nostalgic for a personal relationship with God, with the Father. Herein lies the novelty of Christian prayer! It is a dialogue between people who love each other, a dialogue based on trust, sustained by listening and open to a commitment to solidarity. It is the dialogue of a Son with his Father, a dialogue between children and their Father. This is Christian prayer. 

Hence, he delivers the “Lord’s Prayer” to them, perhaps the most precious gift left to us by the Divine Master during his earthly mission. After revealing to us his mystery as Son and brother, with that prayer Jesus allows us to enter into God’s paternity. I want to underscore this: when Jesus teaches us the “Our Father”, he allows us to enter into God’s paternity and he points the way to enter into a prayerful and direct dialogue with him, through the path of filial intimacy. It is a dialogue between a father and his son, of a son with his father. What we ask in the “Our Father” is already fulfilled for us in his Only-begotten Son: the sanctification of the Name, the advent of the Kingdom, the gift of bread, of forgiveness and of delivery from evil. As we ask, we open our hand to receive; to receive the gifts that the Father has shown us in his Son. The prayer that the Lord taught us is the synthesis of every prayer and we address it to the Father, always in communion with our brothers and sisters. Sometimes distractions can occur in prayer, but we often feel the need to stop at the first word, “Father”, and feel that paternity in our heart.

Jesus then recounts the parable of the importune friend and Jesus says: “we must persevere in prayer”. My thoughts turn to what children do when they are three-and-a-half years old: they begin to ask about things they do not understand. In my country, it is called “the ‘why’ age”, I think it is also the same here. Children begin to look at their father and ask: Why Dad? Why Dad? They ask for explanations. Let us be careful: when the father begins to explain why, they come up with another question without listening to the entire explanation. What is happening? Children feel insecure about many things that they are only partially beginning to understand. They only wish to attract the father’s gaze, and thus the “why, why, why?”. If we pause on the first word of the “Our Father”, we will be doing the same as when we were children: attracting the father’s gaze upon us: saying, “Father, Father” and also asking, “why?”, and he will look at us. 

Let us ask Mary, woman of prayer to help us pray the “Our Father” in unity with Jesus in order to live the Gospel guided by the Holy Spirit.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 28 July 2019]

(Mt 13:24-30)

The metaphor that follows the initial parable is intended to emphasize that the presence of “evil” in the world is not to be attributed to the lack of vitality of the Seed, nor to the divine Work.

And Jesus upsets the precipitous cliché of apostolic morality:

«So You want us to go and gather them? But He declares: No, for by reaping the tares you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.» (vv.28-30).

In his commentary on Tao Tê Ching xxxvi master Wang Pi writes: «By conforming to the nature of creatures, the best way to avoid future difficulties is to induce them to spontaneously run to ruin, without subjecting them to punishment».

Qualities are intertwined with errors, weaknesses and inconsistencies, but from the earliest days in the communities, some believers struggled to live with the different mentalities of their brethren of faith - a situation that nevertheless allowed life to teem.

It was experienced that time was the best medicine to make the parasitic weed spontaneously dry up: and it did not even was turning out to be so infertile; quite the contrary.

The parable of the good wheat and the weeds is meant to help us not to fall into exclusivism - not because of ideological issues, but vital ones.

The rough hands of some disciples would tear up all the intertwining of the various roots with the earth and each other.

Premature sorting would ruin everything good in the present, and the future itself.

The Lord's teaching is a reminder.

It is not immediate to understand the multifaceted significance of these preparatory energies, which from their magma and dissent will give birth to the unexpected attunements of God's inopinable future.

New opportunities also sprout from personal or institutional mediocrity. Even it a paradoxical condition of growth and prosperity of the Church, 'perfect' to the extent that it recognises itself on the path of conversion to Christ: «semper conformanda».

As in the Community, those who face life in the Spirit and wish their adventure to flourish, must learn to respect discomforts and make contradictions live within themselves.

The uniformity of fundamentalists or purists would like an external, immediate and decisive justice (in eloquent forms) but only God is able to plumb the depths of events.

Fraternities must not enclose themselves within suffocating hedges.

They have the mission to learn dialogue with differences and standing with disparate oppositions, so that life becomes rich through diverse relationships and the concrete exchange of personal gifts, in varied and even discordant contexts.

Such is the added value that opens up New Life, while the myth of indefectibility remains confined to sects.

In fact, not infrequently that very side of ourselves that we do not want, that we reject, that we would like to exclude or correct - and misjudged by others - has perhaps already revealed itself or will in time reveal itself to be the best part of us, both from the point of view of exceptional realisation of personality and of the Calling by missionary Name.

Each believer is both 'ally' and unfaithful at the same time, but in such friction lurks the new sparks [also of disappointment, but fruitful] and our completion - traversing the paradoxes of fallibility.

As well as unprecedented cultural, even economic, political and social paths.

[Saturday 16th wk. in O.T.  July 26, 2025]

Rebirth - from failures

(Mt 13:24-30)

The metaphor that follows the initial parable is intended to emphasise that the presence of 'evil' in the world is not to be attributed to the lack of vitality of the Seed, nor to the divine Work.

Jesus upsets the precipitous cliché of apostolic morality:

"Do you therefore want us to reap them? But He declares: No, lest by reaping the darnels you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest' (vv.28-30).

In the commentary to Tao Tê Ching xxxvi Master Wang Pi writes: "By conforming to the nature of creatures, the best way to avoid future difficulties is to induce them to run to ruin spontaneously, without subjecting them to punishment.

Qualities are intertwined with errors, weaknesses and inconsistencies, but from the earliest days in the communities some believers found it hard to live with the different mentalities of the brothers of Faith - a situation that nevertheless allowed life to teem.

And it was experienced that time was the best medicine to let the tares dry up spontaneously: in perspective, it did not even turn out to be so; quite the contrary.

The parable of the good wheat and the weeds is meant to help us not to fall into exclusivism - not for ideological reasons, but for vital ones.

The rough hands of some disciples would tear up all the intertwining of the various roots with the earth and each other.

Premature sorting would ruin everything good in the present, and the future itself.

The fulfilment of the laws of purity had ensured the separation of Judaism from other cultures.

Thus some converts to the Christ Messiah were unwilling to give up their identity marks.

Others like Paul taught that impurity is good to be persecuted, but the sinner is to be tolerated.

The internal debate raised awareness: in real life there persists a mixture of things - in harmony and [at least at first sight] contrary to the Word of God.

Apparently there is like an ambitious enemy sleeping within each one of us and even in the churches, who may sometimes seem to want us to lose the very reason for believing.

Faced with the ambiguity of good and evil - or rather of ideas about good and evil - some people rush to want to resolve it immediately.

They claim to be able to eradicate indecency definitively on the basis of opinions, doctrinal and moral preconceptions - which, however, do not look at people and events [except in the usual (rigid) way].

The Lord's teaching is a reminder.

It is not immediate to understand the multifaceted significance of these preparatory energies, which from their magma and dissent will give birth to the unexpected attunements of God's inopinable future.

New opportunities also sprout from personal or institutional mediocrity. Even a paradoxical condition of growth and prosperity of the Church, 'perfect' to the extent that it recognises itself on the path of conversion to Christ: "semper conformanda".

The uniformity of fundamentalists or purists would like an external, immediate and decisive justice (in eloquent forms), but only God is able to plumb the depths of events.

Some cling to the certainties of the norm, but such schemes immediately close off the imbalances of the chaos that could have been made fruitful precisely by those providential novelties: those that supplant the stale, reworking and adapting the unsuspected [thus solving the real problems and making people dream of different intentions - another destiny].

In order not to mortify life in the illusion of 'non-negotiable' behaviour and procedures [mostly, cultural and religious certainties that are then abandoned], communities must not close themselves within suffocating hedges.

They would be unbearable: they have the mission of learning dialogue with differences and standing with disparate oppositions, so that life may become rich through diverse relationships and the concrete exchange of personal gifts, in varied and even discordant contexts.

Such is the added value that opens up the New Life, while the myth of indefectibility remains confined to sects.

In fact, not infrequently that very side of ourselves that we do not want, that we reject, that we would like to exclude or correct - and misjudged by others - has perhaps already revealed itself or will in time reveal itself to be the best part of us, both from the point of view of the exceptional realisation of the personality and of the Calling by Missionary Name.

Each believer is both 'ally' and unfaithful at the same time, but in such friction lurks the new sparks [even of fruitful disappointment] and our completion - walking the paradoxes of fallibility. As well as unprecedented cultural, even economic, political and social paths.

Says the Tao (LVIII): 'When the government in everything meddles, the people are fragmented [!] Fortune originates in misfortune, misfortune hides in fortune. Who knows its culmination? Those who do not correct. Correction turns into falsehood, good becomes an omen of misfortune, and every day the bewilderment of the people grows deeper and more lasting. That is why the Saint is square but does not cut, is incorrupt but does not wound, is straight but does not flaunt, is bright but does not dazzle'.

As in the Church, those who face life in the Spirit and want their adventure to flourish must learn to respect discomforts and make contradictions coexist within themselves.

Embrace the opposing sides and his own different images - dwelling within. And without commenting, more casually, with unencumbered perception.

Rejecting, naming and repressing what we imagine to be 'flaws'... precludes us from the other horizon - the one that becomes an Ally.

It is the unexpected point of view, which recovers and puts things right; generating knowledge, complete life and full, unpredictable, awe-inspiring relationships.

Here is Happiness unleashed - when you don't disturb it upstream.

Anxieties, prejudices, reproaches, customary opinions, expectations, unnatural propositions, fears, false attitudes of the approved ego (and so on) do not make one grow.

External preconceptions relegate and torment us into fideistic, historical, moralistic or performance digressions; ultimately confining each one to a sense of inferiority to models.

Judgments, paradigms, cliché epithets, cerebral conceptions and attitudes lock us all into neuroses, conflicts, anxieties, and vicious lapses that alter the possibilities of personal discovery - cutting off the sense of Mystery and the glimpse of the Other.

The world of God outside and inside us does not live by comparisons and judgements of guilt, which hold us back - but (pausing in the 'shortcomings') by a Goal that is not expected.

Excessive energy, untamable tendency, which overcomes all pious one-sidedness.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you dwell in the "lacks", or do you look Elsewhere?

The subject of this Sunday's Gospel is, precisely, the Kingdom of Heaven. “Heaven” should not be understood only in the sense that it towers above us, because this infinite space also takes the form of human interiority. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a field of wheat to enable us to understand that something small and hidden has been sown within us which, nevertheless, has an irrepressible vital force. In spite of all obstacles, the seed will develop and the fruit will ripen. This fruit will only be good if the terrain of life is cultivated in accordance with the divine will.

For this reason in the Parable of the Weeds [tares] among the good Wheat (Mt 13:24-30). Jesus warns us that, after the owner had scattered the seed, “while men were sleeping, his enemy” intervened and sowed weeds among the wheat. This means that we must be ready to preserve the grace received from the day of our Baptism, continuing to nourish faith in the Lord that prevents evil from taking root. St Augustine commenting on the parable noted “many are at first tares but then become good grain”, and he added: “if these, when they are wicked, are not endured with patience they would not attain their praiseworthy transformation” (Quaest. septend. in Ev. sec. Matth., 12, 4: PL 35, 1371).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 17 July 2011]