Not from the precept, but from the overthrow

(Lk 10:25-37)

«You are a fool and a samaritan!» - so the Jewish leaders (Jn 8:48). «No, I am not crazy...»: this is how the Stranger defended himself from the accusation that the fanatics moved to him, of being a possessed, obsessed and mentally ill.

Yet he quietly accepted the infamous title of «Samaritan»... epithet that designated one out of the loop, a vilified by decent people. 

An excluded person from the sacred enclosure; practically alien, irritating, avulsive, heretic and impure: a «bastard» and deranged who allowed himself to preach love in all decisions [heart], at every moment [life], with any of the resources [forces], not excluding intelligence, nor the others’ legitimate desire for the full being (v.27).

Well, the non-careless perception and the very sensitive work of a "mestizo" seem to be those of God!

They answer the crucial, intimate question: «Who loves me first, so that feeling welcomed, adequate and appreciated, I too can love my neighbour?» (v.29).

We know the Gospel passage. Those obsessed with ritual purity [the ministers who had just officiated] become ruthless.

And here is a new Decalogue, with an accumulation of "verbs" of the «take charge»:

«He came near, and saw him, moved to piety, went down, poured out his first aid, wrapped the wounds, loaded the wretched on the mount, brought him in the abode that receives everyone, took care, pulled out money».

Finally He exposed himself, with special regard also for a thoughtful and further look: «I will return to pay, where necessary».

The Ten authentic new Decrees deify us without deception, in harmony with the plan and the feeling of the Father in our favor: neither He nor his intimates ‘pass beyond’ the victims.

Promise and concern that ramify on our future: when there should be something else to be put in addition, the Friend Rescuer will give it in more and always.

From here Love starts: from Someone who considers us, without conditions.

Therefore, despite the risk of becoming entangled in the situation, even the common sons of God ‘notice’ the wounds, and does not “neglect” the shaky persons.

They identifiy with, preferring to challenge the events - redeeming the beaten, cornered as refusals that now await only the coup de grâce.

He’s a God of concrete experience; without patterns. And He tells us:

We are totally lovable in every condition, not "wrong" or marked for life.

From this awareness springs the desire and energy of altruistic love - even unknown and without reputation.

As the encyclical Brothers All emphasizes, so it will be possible to «start from below and, case by case, act at the most concrete and local levels, and then expand to the farthest reaches of our countries and our world, with the same care and concern that the Samaritan showed for each of the wounded man’s injuries» (n.78).

In the desert of Judah, on an engraved stone of a caravanserai that a tradition wanted to identify as the Everyone’s Home [image of the Church] to which Jesus referred in the parable - more or less halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho - an anonymous pilgrim wrote in medieval Latin:

«If even priests and the churchmen pass over your anguish, know that Christ is the good Samaritan, who will always have compassion on you, and in the hour of your death He will introduce you in the eternal Inn. Whoever you are, He will take you there».

[Monday 27th wk. in O.T.  October 7, 2024]

Not from the precept, but from the overthrow

(Lk 10:25-37)

"You are a fool and a Samaritan!" - accused the Jewish leaders (Jn 8:48). "No, I am not mad...": this is how the Stranger defended himself against the accusation that the fanatics made against him, that he was possessed, obsessed and mentally ill.

Yet he calmly accepted the infamous title of 'Samaritan'... an epithet designating one who was out of the loop, vilified by decent people. 

One excluded from the sacred enclosure; practically an outsider, an irritant, an outsider, a heretic and impure: a 'bastard' and unbalanced, uninterested in his career, in the face of which one had to find strength in coalition.

The ancient religion seemed to have achieved tried and tested balances, sustained by the leadership of the interested alliance between throne and altar. Yet there was nervousness and dissatisfaction in the faithful.

The leaders quoted Scripture from memory, but to create restrictions - demonising those who did not immediately recognise them as 'authority'.

According to the Law - Leviticus and Numbers - the rules of purity prevented those who officiated in the Temple from touching a wounded person.

But the practitioners of the sacred do not understand that ancient procedures are worthless if they cause suffering to others.

By sacralising their own grievances, the legalists in the parable imagine that they do not have to learn anything, so they become perhaps worse than the insensitive and qualunquist: to us they appear rather, cruel and inhuman.

When there is a conflict between religious norms and the good of the brothers, they already have their excuses ready: they do not even notice the others. Painful events do not call them out, do not concern them.

In this way, even the traps of the vain against Jesus were never dialogue: always projections.

And the questions were only hurled to ridicule him, not to understand - question - or create freedom.

In short: what matters to some is the integrity of the doctrine-discipline and the prestige of the institution (which rules it).

Yet we ask ourselves: how much is the joy of humanity, and the good of the unfortunate, worth?

The man of 'titles' has no doubts whatsoever.

On the other hand, the careless perception and sensitive work of a 'half-breed' seem to be those of God himself!

The Lord gladly narrated his proposal of sharing, and of the new face of the believer.

Let us say it in words closer to us:

"Listen... no curtains: Love has no end point, and the believer is not one who obeys external provisions, but one who resembles God!".

After a brief reflexive gasp that he tried to disguise, the disposition expert retorted:

"Nice to say, of course; but how is it done in practice?".

And Jesus:

"In the same way as you think and equip yourself and desire fullness of life for yourself: in every decision [heart], in every moment of the way [life], with any of your resources [strength], not excluding intelligence" (cf. Mk 12:29-31), nor the legitimate desire for the life of others (v.27).

Already boiling over, the veteran squabbler played his last cards:

"I have to put a boundary on my neighbour, don't I?! And I justify myself again: who is 'my' neighbour?" (Lk 10:29).

"That is: who ever listens and loves me first, so that I can really do to others what I always desire for myself, even to those far away and enemies?"

"They do not feed us... and perhaps do not even respect us! So who is first 'to me' neighbour?"

Again the doctor of the law 'stood over', looming over the onlookers; but the different Rabbi did not flinch.

In conversations he was often forced (and accustomed) to lift his head, looking up at his interlocutor.

Everyone posed as an expert and chosen one, ready to scrutinise and judge; no one to be a disciple, subordinate and servant like him.

This is how he had behaved both with Zacchaeus (Lk 19:5) and with the adulteress - perhaps caught in the act by the group of peepers and watchers of public decency in Jerusalem (Jn 8, vv. 2.6-8.10; Greek text).

That carpenter's son proclaimed Father the One who related from below, without prior judgement; who made himself the Servant of man, putting himself on a par with the least.

In short, the crucial question was:

"Who loves me first, so that by feeling welcome, adequate and appreciated, I too may love my neighbour"?

The young Rabbi then told a story, to emphasise who is neighbour - He who is first Intimate and Close to us; so that we too are generated to proximity.

The ancient list of the Ten Commandments had over time become almost only an underlining of natural transience.

It was a code that imbued and exhausted the very souls most attentive to the ideal of perfection.

The last of the famous Words was summarising, but terrible: "Thou shalt not covet"!

It had spread dramatic lacerations and a sense of emptiness in the affairs of those closest to them who continued to attempt the impossible adventure.

Thus, the obsessives of ritual purity [priest and sacristan who had just officiated] became - by Law - ruthless.Instead, here proclaimed - by the stranger who had just arrived - a new Decalogue, with an accumulation of "verbs" of "taking charge":

"He came near, saw him, moved to pity, went down, poured out his first aid, bound up his wounds, loaded on his horse, carried to the dwelling that welcomes all, took care, brought out money".

Finally, he expounded, with special regard also for a caring and additional outlook: 'I will return to pay, where necessary'.

The authentic Ten New Decrees deify us without deception, in keeping with the Father's plan and feeling on our behalf: neither He nor His "pass over" victims.

In short, the Lord announced a different "Sacrifice".

In the custom of the time, through worship, the victim was supposed to be taken out of profane contact, in a bloody manner; on an altar.

With this sacral practice, the priests ideally introduced the victim into the world of the Most High, through the shedding of blood or a holocaust.

Instead, the Messiah did not want to distance the criteria of sanctification from the lives of ordinary people.

That which is made sacred [sacrifice: sacer-sacrum facere] must never depart from reality. It does not pass into the sphere of purity by means of a 'separation' from the weekday unclean.

For Jesus it is Communion - conviviality of differences - that transfigures the ordinary into the "Holy", because such a relationship makes the weak strong; and lifts all from misery.

Promise and concern that branch out into our future: when there is something else to be added, the Relief Friend will give it more and always.

This is where Love starts: from Someone who considers us, unconditionally.

Therefore, despite the risk of getting entangled in the situation, even the ordinary child of God notices and does not pass over the shaky person.

He identifies with it, preferring to defy the unknowns - and redeem the beaten, cornered like a reject who now only awaits the coup de grace.

He is a God of concrete experience; without schemes. And he tells us:

We are totally lovable in every condition, not 'wrong' or scarred for life.

From such awareness springs the desire and energy of selfless love - even unknown and without reputation.

As the encyclical Fratelli Tutti emphasises, so it will be "possible to start from the bottom and case by case, to fight for what is most concrete and local, to the last corner of the homeland and the world, with the same care that the wayfarer of Samaria had for every wounded man's wound" (No.78).

In the wilderness of Judah, on an engraved stone of a caravanserai that one tradition has identified as the Everyone’s House [image of the Church] to which Jesus referred in the parable - more or less halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho - an anonymous pilgrim wrote in medieval Latin

"If even priests and churchmen pass over your distress, know that Christ is the Good Samaritan, who will always have compassion on you, and at the hour of your death will bring you into the eternal inn. Whoever you are, He will take you there".

18. Love of neighbour is thus shown to be possible in the way proclaimed by the Bible, by Jesus. It consists in the very fact that, in God and with God, I love even the person whom I do not like or even know. This can only take place on the basis of an intimate encounter with God, an encounter which has become a communion of will, even affecting my feelings. Then I learn to look on this other person not simply with my eyes and my feelings, but from the perspective of Jesus Christ. His friend is my friend. Going beyond exterior appearances, I perceive in others an interior desire for a sign of love, of concern. This I can offer them not only through the organizations intended for such purposes, accepting it perhaps as a political necessity. Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave. Here we see the necessary interplay between love of God and love of neighbour which the First Letter of John speaks of with such insistence. If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God. But if in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be “devout” and to perform my “religious duties”, then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely “proper”, but loveless. Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me. The saints—consider the example of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta—constantly renewed their capacity for love of neighbour from their encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, and conversely this encounter acquired its real- ism and depth in their service to others. Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment. But both live from the love of God who has loved us first. No longer is it a question, then, of a “commandment” imposed from without and calling for the impossible, but rather of a freely-bestowed experience of love from within, a love which by its very nature must then be shared with others. Love grows through love. Love is “divine” because it comes from God and unites us to God; through this unifying process it makes us a “we” which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).

[Pope Benedict, Deus Caritas est]

The different commandments of the Decalogue are really only so many reflections of the one commandment about the good of the person, at the level of the many different goods which characterize his identity as a spiritual and bodily being in relationship with God, with his neighbour and with the material world. As we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "the Ten Commandments are part of God's Revelation. At the same time, they teach us man's true humanity. They shed light on the essential duties, and so indirectly on the fundamental rights, inherent in the nature of the human person".22

The commandments of which Jesus reminds the young man are meant to safeguard the good of the person, the image of God, by protecting his goods. "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness" are moral rules formulated in terms of prohibitions. These negative precepts express with particular force the ever urgent need to protect human life, the communion of persons in marriage, private property, truthfulness and people's good name.

The commandments thus represent the basic condition for love of neighbour; at the same time they are the proof of that love. They are the first necessary step on the journey towards freedom, its starting-point. "The beginning of freedom", Saint Augustine writes, "is to be free from crimes... such as murder, adultery, fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege and so forth. When once one is without these crimes (and every Christian should be without them), one begins to lift up one's head towards freedom. But this is only the beginning of freedom, not perfect freedom...".23

14. This certainly does not mean that Christ wishes to put the love of neighbour higher than, or even to set it apart from, the love of God. This is evident from his conversation with the teacher of the Law, who asked him a question very much like the one asked by the young man. Jesus refers him to the two commandments of love of God and love of neighbour (cf. Lk 10:25-27), and reminds him that only by observing them will he have eternal life: "Do this, and you will live" (Lk 10:28). Nonetheless it is significant that it is precisely the second of these commandments which arouses the curiosity of the teacher of the Law, who asks him: "And who is my neighbour?" (Lk 10:29). The Teacher replies with the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is critical for fully understanding the commandment of love of neighbour (cf. Lk 10:30-37).

These two commandments, on which "depend all the Law and the Prophets" (Mt 22:40), are profoundly connected and mutually related. Their inseparable unity is attested to by Christ in his words and by his very life: his mission culminates in the Cross of our Redemption (cf. Jn 3:14-15), the sign of his indivisible love for the Father and for humanity (cf. Jn 13:1).

Both the Old and the New Testaments explicitly affirm that without love of neighbour, made concrete in keeping the commandments, genuine love for God is not possible. Saint John makes the point with extraordinary forcefulness: "If anyone says, 'I love God', and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (Jn 4:20). The Evangelist echoes the moral preaching of Christ, expressed in a wonderful and unambiguous way in the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:30-37) and in his words about the final judgment (cf. Mt 25:31-46).

15. In the "Sermon on the Mount", the magna charta of Gospel morality,24 Jesus says: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Mt 5:17). Christ is the key to the Scriptures: "You search the Scriptures...; and it is they that bear witness to me" (Jn 5:39). Christ is the centre of the economy of salvation, the recapitulation of the Old and New Testaments, of the promises of the Law and of their fulfilment in the Gospel; he is the living and eternal link between the Old and the New Covenants. Commenting on Paul's statement that "Christ is the end of the law" (Rom 10:4), Saint Ambrose writes: "end not in the sense of a deficiency, but in the sense of the fullness of the Law: a fullness which is achieved in Christ (plenitudo legis in Christo est), since he came not to abolish the Law but to bring it to fulfilment. In the same way that there is an Old Testament, but all truth is in the New Testament, so it is for the Law: what was given through Moses is a figure of the true law. Therefore, the Mosaic Law is an image of the truth".25

Jesus brings God's commandments to fulfilment, particularly the commandment of love of neighbour, by interiorizing their demands and by bringing out their fullest meaning. Love of neighbour springs from a loving heart which, precisely because it loves, is ready to live out the loftiest challenges. Jesus shows that the commandments must not be understood as a minimum limit not to be gone beyond, but rather as a path involving a moral and spiritual journey towards perfection, at the heart of which is love (cf. Col 3:14). Thus the commandment "You shall not murder" becomes a call to an attentive love which protects and promotes the life of one's neighbour. The precept prohibiting adultery becomes an invitation to a pure way of looking at others, capable of respecting the spousal meaning of the body: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment'. But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment... You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery'. But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:21-22, 27-28). Jesus himself is the living "fulfilment" of the Law inasmuch as he fulfils its authentic meaning by the total gift of himself: he himself becomes a living and personal Law, who invites people to follow him; through the Spirit, he gives the grace to share his own life and love and provides the strength to bear witness to that love in personal choices and actions (cf. Jn 13:34-35).

[Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor nn.13-15]

Today the Gospel presents the well-known parable of the “Good Samaritan” (cf. Lk 10:25-37). When questioned by a doctor of the law on what is necessary to inherit eternal life, Jesus invites him to find the answer in the Scriptures, and says: “You shall love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” (v. 27). There were, however, different interpretations of who was intended as “neighbour”. In fact, that man also asks: “And who is my neighbour?” (v. 29). At this point, Jesus responds with the parable, this beautiful parable — I invite all of you to take up the Gospel today, the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 10, verse 25. It is one of the most beautiful parables in the Gospel. And this parable has become the paradigm of Christian life. It has become the example of how a Christian should act. Thanks to the Gospel of Luke, we have this treasure. 

The protagonist of the brief narrative is a Samaritan who, along the road encounters a man stripped and beaten by robbers, and takes care of him. We know that the Jews treated Samaritans with contempt, considering them as outsiders to the chosen people. Thus, it is no coincidence that Jesus chooses precisely a Samaritan as the positive character in the parable. In this way he seeks to overcome prejudice, by showing that even a foreigner, even one who does not know the true God and does not attend his temple, is capable of acting according to His will, showing compassion for a needy brother and helping him with all the means at his disposal.

Along that same road, before the Samaritan, a priest and a Levite had already passed — that is, people dedicated to the worship of God. However, on seeing the poor man on the ground, they continued on without stopping, probably so as not to be contaminated with his blood. They had prioritized a human rule — not to be contaminated with blood — linked to worship, over the great commandment of God who wants mercy above all. 

Jesus therefore, offers the Samaritan as an example — precisely one who did not have faith! Let us also consider the many people we know, perhaps agnostics, who do good. As a model, Jesus chooses one who was not a man of faith. And this man, by loving his brother as himself, shows that he loves God with all his heart and with all his strength — the God whom he does not know! — and at the same time expresses true religiosity and full humanity. 

After recounting this very beautiful parable, Jesus again addresses the doctor of the law who had asked Him “Who is my neighbour?”, and Jesus asks him: “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” (v. 36). In this way he throws the question back to his interlocutor, and also overturns the mindset of us all. He makes us understand that based on our criteria, it is not we who define who is neighbour and who is not, but it is the person in a situation of need who must be able to recognize who is his neighbour, that is, “the one who showed mercy on him” (v. 37). Being able to have compassion: this is the key. This is our key. If you do not feel compassion before a needy person, if your heart is not moved, it means that something is not right. Be careful; let us be careful. 

Let us not allow ourselves to get carried away by egotistical insensitivity. The capacity for compassion has become the touchstone of Christians, indeed of the teachings of Jesus. Jesus himself is the Father’s compassion towards us. If you go along the street and see a homeless person lying there and pass him by without looking at him or you think: “well, it’s the effect of wine. He is a drunk”, do not ask yourself whether the man is drunk; ask yourself whether your heart has hardened, whether your heart has turned to ice. This conclusion indicates that mercy towards a human life in a state of need is the true face of love. This is how one becomes a true disciple of Jesus and the face of the Father is manifested: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). And God, our Father, is merciful because he is compassionate. He is able to have this compassion, to draw near to our suffering, our sin, our vices, our miseries.

May the Virgin Mary help us to understand and above all to experience ever more the unbreakable bond between God, our Father, and concrete and generous love for our brothers and sisters, and may she give us the grace to be compassionate and to grow in compassion.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 14 July 2019]

(Mk 10:2-16)

Legalistic conception and hardness of heart

(Mk 10:1-12)

The controversy with the fanatics of the law highlights the need for a new messianic community, which goes beyond the exclusively legalistic moral conception.

The theme chosen by the Pharisees lent itself to putting Jesus in difficulty regarding the ideal of love.

The marriage law required the wife to become the property of her husband.

So in any case the divorce redounded to the detriment of the woman, always seen as an inferior being.

In the society of the time, male domination and marginalization of the weak were established situations.

To protect the freedom of women (Dt 24:1-4), the law required that the tired husband [even for a nonsense or whim] still wrote a divorce "letter" that sanctioned her free.

Unlike Roman society, the wife didn’t have the same right: a social plague, which obscured her dignity.

In practice she was like an object, and a slave even in her own home.

But in creating the human being, this was not the intent of the Creator. Thus Jesus takes away the privileges - even domestic ones - asking for maximum equality of rights and duties.

He knew that the apostles themselves preferred not to marry than to renounce the exclusivity of command (Mt 19:10: «If the situation of a man with a woman is like this, it’s not worth getting married»).

The Master does not allow the dominion of the strong over the weak, therefore the man must lose hegemony over the woman.

The new law is love, and love doesn’t allow possessions, emotional exploitation, fixed chains of command.

Both marriage and celibacy are choices that recognize the value of the Person.

Awe-inspiring options for God's Kingdom - not in the service of any compromise, supremacy, or other pretentious interests.

The divine plan for humanity is transparent, broad and generous. The marriage union itself is called to express the goal of a Fullness.

The stronger does not buy the weaker in ownership, but both enrich each other - with loyalty and even in differences, seen as advanced points of a proposal for growth and expansion.

Christ demands a new approach to ethics. This goes beyond the regulations, which they try to adapt to the order.

Therefore, the Lord's teaching here appeals to the divine creative Act which has engraved a capacity for gift and growth in person's nature - and it can’t be regulated by contract clauses, nor subjected to conditioning and subjection.

The step of the Faith builds people and communities, completing them without too many accelerations, or forced restrictions. For a Love that originates us without rest.

The Family thus becomes a ‘small domestic Church’ because it’s both autonomous and comprehensive; no more nomenclatures, compromises, masks, gags or straitjackets.

Then the complementarity experienced in an authentic way - without exteriority - can go beyond the case studies of the legal systems.

In this way it has good personal and social outcomes, evoking the very Presence of God in the world.

Let the freewheeling excluded come to Me

The renunciation of pride - and the ‘nose’ without citizenship

(Mk 10:13-16)

«Because in the synodal process, our listening must take into account the sensus fidei, but it must not neglect all those “intuitions” found where we would least expect them, “freewheeling”, but no less important for that reason. The Holy Spirit in his freedom knows no boundaries or tests of admission. If the parish is to be a home to everyone in the neighbourhood, and not a kind of exclusive club, please, let’s keep the doors and windows open […] Don’t be disheartened; be prepared for surprises» (Pope Francis).

Jesus identifies with the weak (v.16). And in certain terms He even intends to propose them to veteran followers!

This is precisely to indicate the type of believer he dreams they will become (v.15): persons who recognize the desires of others as legitimate, and doesn’t make too many fuss if see themself diminished in social consideration.

Not infrequently church leaders felt expert and self-sufficient from the very beginning...

Conversely, they must be ready in Christ Jesus to be ‘born’ again and again, otherwise their eye will remain in a caricatured and blocked vision of the Kingdom.

The "little one", on the other hand, has not mental reserves - as well as fewer ballast: he throws himself in a genuine and enthusiastic way toward the exploits of the Faith’s adventure.

The Lord doesn’t refuse to «touch» directly (v.13) those who are considered impure, women, little ones or their mothers: a disgrace according to the ritual norms of the time.

Women and children - together with pagans - were considered unreliable and impure by nature, indeed contaminants.

The Master has no fear of transgressing ancient religious law, or of being evaluated as infected himself!

Christ embraces, blesses, puts his hand on the small servants - as if to recognize and truly consecrate them: He is reflected in them as if were one of them.

It means that the concern of the disciples mustn’t be that of “re-education” common to all various more or less mystery creeds of the time.

Indeed, the most eloquent sign of the Kingdom of God on earth is precisely the welcoming spirit of the marginalized: those who do not even know what it means to claim rights only for themselves.

The quality of Life in the Spirit is measured by the ability to recover the opposite sides in each believer who has the desire to walk towards his own completeness.

Thus, in the Community this dynamic of recovery increases and overtakes thanks to the ‘integration’ that becomes a fruitful conviviality of differences.

Welcoming, hosting the weak, distant, small and excluded is personal and common enrichment - an eloquent sign of the same life and divine character in us and in the Church.

Not a winning institution, but servant of humanity in need of everything.

And it’s precisely the ‘little’ ones in Christ who become teachers of adults.

This the angelic modesty and evangelical ‘littleness’ that makes us emancipated and immediately up to par; but above all Blessed, happy to be «minors» even ill-considered.

[27th Sunday in O.T.  (B)   October 6, 2024]

Mt 19:3-12 (cf. Gen 2:18-24)

We are familiar with the fluctuations of our emotionality: the person who now makes me lose my head, in a week's time will perhaps strike a nerve. Every morning we get up in a different mood; after a while the psyche gives opposite signals, then returns to its previous positions.

Obviously the invisible thread of the relationship cannot succeed happily and firmly if the assumptions are only seductive: it will end in an escalation of apathy or arguments.

The Word of God proposes a very wise discernment for engaged couples: the new birth.

A girl will leave her father if in the flamboyant relationship she discovers a prospect of improved security, and even greater fatherhood or protection possibilities; a young man will leave his mother if in the torch of the new relationship he sees a principle of welcome, listening and understanding unknown or superior to his own mother.

New Genesis: this is the unrenounceable vocational perspective, the only one capable of integrating the fatigue of putting oneself on the line and welcoming the idea in two of being able to also step out of one's own positions - even those at the beginning of the relationship.

In falling in love we allow ourselves to be activated and traversed by a mysterious Force that [even beyond the charm of the partner] wants to lead us to a sort of unleashing of hidden energies, in the incessant search for identity-character.

Love originates us, it leads us along a path not without interruptions, which incessantly force us back to the Beginning; to re-choose the values on which we have gambled. Hence, to be born and to begin anew, unexpectedly becoming more and more 'young'.

That flaming torch will make us make extraordinary encounters, first of all in the meaningful direction of the regenerated intimate; thus there will be no more need to capture the spouse, to keep him or her still or close to him or her.

It is the sacred desire that creates us; then - at Two - it becomes even more effectively the substance of what each one is called to be - through steps of happiness that prepare a new origination, a distinct outline and destiny.

All this so that from wave to wave, from birth to birth, and under the stimulus of continuous Dialogue, our essence is fulfilled, allowing the profound Calling by Name to flourish.

Natural complementarity can wear away with age, fatigue, frustrations. On the other hand, a reflection of absolute Love, which postpones and gives vertigo [because it places us in plots outside of time] is a spectacle that shakes, moves and conquers.

Irradiating God who creates (within us and in relationship), reflecting a great unceasing Origin within human unity, makes us be together - in two but with ourselves present, and be-With our Root.

An innate Source that does not express itself in straitjackets or in an identification: it gives meaning and breath even to the secondary, the repetitive and everyday that undermines - and seems to want us to fade into disenchantment.

If the idea of the Principle is always at home, it will no longer be necessary for the bark of everyday life to change, nor for too many situations to change: it is that glimpse of Eternity that makes one re-born into the (personal but complete) human project of Genesis.

It is a Presence... and a Source that generates, and the Life Horizon of the One who puts Himself into things... that changes so much of our little things.

The Action of the One who gives birth to the ancient and new radiance of the soul makes us grow and be born again, to be both with ourselves and more firmly together.

The Family becomes a small 'domestic church' from which 'the new citizens of human society are born' (Lumen Gentium no.11).

It thus manifests and unfolds the icon of a God who does not express Himself rigidly, but in creating.

Thanks to Parents who are able to second the "vocation proper to each one", in the new beginnings and in the rush of successive sprouts and buds each sapling "will leave his father and mother".

To internalise and live the message:

What more has the church experience given you in understanding the man-woman relationship? What about communion and autonomy?

Legalistic conception and hardness of heart

(Mt 19:3-12)

The polemic with the fanatics of the law emphasises the need for a new messianic community, which overcomes the exclusively legalistic moral conception.

The theme chosen by the Pharisees lent itself to challenging Jesus on the ideal of love.

The marriage law of the time required the wife to make herself the husband's property.

So in any case, divorce reverberated against the woman, always seen as an inferior being.

In the society of the time, macho domination and marginalisation of the weak were established situations.

In order to protect the woman's own freedom (Deut 24:1-4), the law required that the fed-up husband [even for a trifle or whim] should write a divorce 'letter' anyway, sanctioning her freedom.Unlike Roman society, the wife did not have the same right: a social plague, which obscured her dignity. In practice, she was like an object and a slave even in her own home.

But in creating the human being, this was not the Creator's intent. So Jesus removed privileges - even domestic privileges - demanding maximum equality of rights and duties.

He knew that the apostles themselves preferred not to marry than to renounce the exclusivity of leadership, even if only to scapegoat: "If the man's situation with the woman is like this, it is not good to marry" (Mt 19:10).

The Master does not allow the dominion of the strong over the weak; therefore man must lose his hegemony over woman.

The new law is love, and love does not allow possessions, emotional exploitation, fixed chains of command.

Both marriage and celibacy are choices that recognise the value of the Person. Awe-inspiring options for the sake of the Kingdom of God - not in the service of any compromise, supremacy, or other vested interests.

The divine plan for humanity is transparent, broad and generous. The marriage union itself - without being bound by domination or sector - is called to express the goal of fullness.

The stronger does not buy the weaker in property, but [shading from those rigid positions, without hypocrisy and field compromises] both enrich each other - with fairness and even in the divergences, taken as advanced points of a proposal of growth and expansion.

Christ demands a new approach to ethics [once 'jurisdiction-based'], now marked by primary values. This is beyond regulations, which seek to adapt to order... perhaps curbing our parodies, or mediocrity.

Thus, Christ's teaching here appeals to the divine creative Act, which in the nature of a person has engrained a capacity for gift and growth - and which cannot be regulated by contract clauses, nor subjected to conditioning and subjection.

The seed of love must be entrusted to the earth, even muddy soil; aware of one's own weakness and the power of other providential forces.

Even with steep or uncertain ground, if one does not rush into artificial prejudices (or lamentations of ingratitude) the very interweaving of the roots will genuinely produce its flowering.

In such a spontaneous, non-subordinate energetic current, a different self-denial will be built - where the given fact from being regular becomes an overcoming that unleashes other virtues or views.

Here, the step of Faith builds persons and communities, completing them (without too much acceleration, or imperial restrictions). For a Love that unceasingly originates us.

The Family thus becomes a 'little domestic Church' because it is both autonomous and inclusive; without nomenclature, compromises, masks, gags or straitjackets.

Then complementarity lived authentically - without externalities - can go beyond the casuistry of ordinances: it has good personal and social outcomes, evoking the very Presence of God in the world.

Let the excluded come to Me

The Renunciation of Pride and Fear without Citizenship

(Mk 10:13-16)

After the surprising advice on equality in the relationship between man and woman, Jesus ups the ante by proclaiming not only the dignity of relationships between adults and children, but also between community veterans and incipients.

For the incipients, the Kingdom of God was their thing and their work. It did not come to humanity as a Gift - first and foremost to be received - but (according to the pattern) it had to be attained by corresponding observances and merits.

In the Gospel passage Christ does not speak of irresponsible childishness - a criterion unfortunately abused in asceticism (and one that makes one lacking)

No one can occupy the Lord's role on earth, simply because He remains Present and Coming; not manipulative.

If we become simple and childlike, we are so only before God: no institution can be a substitute for Jesus.

In the past, a humanly evasive Christology has unfortunately matched triumphalist ecclesiology.

In front of it - especially in provincial or mission territories - people considered puerile could sometimes fulfil it with uncritical fideism. At most, utter a few babblings (mystical or formulaic).

At the time of Jesus, failure to observe the rules of purity excluded from worship and social life both infants and those considered unfaithful or mixed, despite the fact that they gave clear evidence of solid charity.

The Greek term used - paidìon-paidìa diminutive of pàis - indicated an age between 8-12 years, typical of shop assistants and servants who in the home had to take orders from others (even strangers).

The Master took these children as an example of helpfulness, primarily for his zealous Apostles.

The latter in fact did not immediately and spontaneously enter into the way of God's family... as a true believer would into that of the Father.Only those who have the openness of children can welcome salvation, because they feel small, remain receptive, humbly know how to start again and even from below.

Jesus identifies Himself with the infirm (v.16). And in no uncertain terms he even intends to propose them to the veteran followers!

This is precisely to indicate the kind of believer he dreams of them becoming (v.15): the person who recognises the legitimate desires of others, and does not make too much fuss if he sees himself diminished in social consideration.

Church leaders not infrequently already in the early days felt themselves to be experts and self-sufficient....

Conversely, they must be ready in Christ Jesus to be born again and again, otherwise their eye will remain diseased with a caricatured and blocked vision of the Kingdom.

Those who do not trust the Father's plan will not proceed with spontaneity and generosity: they will only move forward if reassured upstream, playing a stagnant character, or a well-reciprocated task.

The small and insufficient one, on the other hand, has far fewer mental reservations - as well as fewer practical ballasts: he throws himself genuinely and enthusiastically into the enterprises of the adventure of Faith.

All this while for the 'chosen ones' (even of the official Church) the 'uncertain ones' do not count or represent anything - if not a frame sometimes useful to make numbers, but often also annoying.

Before the far-flung could approach actual inward acceptance (or mere consideration), the Judaizers wanted to subject those who approached the threshold of the churches to a lengthy and artificial verification.

This involved a kind of discipline of the arcane (typical of the various devotions) and a nerve-wracking rigmarole of code and casuistry corrections - all to be verified over time.

Jesus, on the other hand, has no qualms about directly 'touching' (v.13) those considered unclean, women, little boys or their mothers: an obscenity according to the ritual norms of the time.

Women and children - along with pagans - were considered untrustworthy and impure beings by nature, indeed defiling.

The Master has no fear of transgressing the religious law, or of being evaluated as infected Himself!

The Kingdom does not belong to the sterilised who haunt the lives of others with precepts of legal impurity; futile, external, hypocritical, senseless minutiae.

Christ embraces, blesses, lays his hand on the servants - as if to recognise them and truly consecrate them - taking into himself the unpromoted of the 'synagogues' of the time: he mirrors himself in them as if he were one of them.

It means that the disciples' concern must not be that of traditional re-education, common to all the various more or less mysterious creeds of the time.

On the contrary, the most eloquent sign of the Kingdom of God on earth is precisely the welcoming spirit of the marginalised: those who do not even know what it means to claim rights only for themselves.

Incidentally - as we well experience simply by observing our own realities - the discarded are not infrequently better introduced into the practice of even summary charity than those in roles of disembodied prestige.

Pretensions and mere sophistry degrade the concreteness of discipleship. They exclude the specific value of the new Kingdom, to the point of transforming and corrupting it - turning it upside down into caricature.

The quality of Life in the Spirit is measured by the capacity to recover the opposite sides in each believer who has the desire to walk towards his or her own completeness.

Thus, in Community this dynamic of recovery increases and recovers thanks to the integration that becomes fruitful conviviality of differences.

Welcoming, accommodating the weak, the distant, the small and the excluded is personal and communal enrichment - an eloquent sign of the same life and divine character in us and in the Church. Not a winning institution, but a servant of humanity in need of everything.

And it is precisely the little ones - totally deprived of the spirit of self-sufficiency - who in Christ become professors of the adults, that is to say, of the life-long leaders, chiefs, veterans and super-Apostles.

This is the angelic modesty and evangelical littleness that makes us emancipated and immediately equal; but above all happy, content to be minors (even misunderstood).

In short, the Kingdom is not an environment for self-sufficient adults.

To internalise and live the message:

What have you learnt from the distant ones and their call? And is your community ready for welcome, for hospitality?

Or does it consider itself self-sufficient, and is it only a big player in alms-giving - turning others into objects of paternalism?

The Feeling without citizenship

In the synodal journey, listening must take into account the sensus fidei, but it must not overlook all those 'presentiments' embodied where we would not expect it: there may be a 'sniff without citizenship', but it is no less effective. The Holy Spirit in his freedom knows no boundaries, nor does he allow himself to be limited by affiliations. If the parish is the home of everyone in the neighbourhood, not an exclusive club, I recommend: leave the doors and windows open, do not limit yourself to considering only those who attend or think like you - that will be 3, 4 or 5%, no more. Allow everyone to come in... Allow yourself to go out and let yourself be questioned, let their questions be your questions, allow yourself to walk together: the Spirit will lead you, trust the Spirit. Do not be afraid to enter into dialogue and allow yourselves to be moved by the dialogue: it is the dialogue of salvation.

Do not be disenchanted, be prepared for surprises. There is an episode in the book of Numbers (ch. 22) that tells of a donkey who will become a prophetess of God. The Jews are concluding the long journey that will lead them to the promised land. Their passage frightens King Balak of Moab, who relies on the powers of the magician Balaam to stop the people, hoping to avoid a war. The magician, in his believing way, asks God what to do. God tells him not to humour the king, but he insists, so he relents and mounts a donkey to fulfil the command he has received. But the donkey changes course because it sees an angel with an unsheathed sword standing there to represent God's opposition. Balaam pulls her, beating her, without succeeding in getting her back on the path. Until the donkey starts talking, initiating a dialogue that will open the magician's eyes, transforming his mission of curse and death into a mission of blessing and life.

This story teaches us to trust that the Spirit will always make its voice heard. Even a donkey can become the voice of God, opening our eyes and converting our wrong directions. If a donkey can do it, how much more so can a baptised person, a priest, a bishop, a pope. It is enough to entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit who uses all creatures to speak to us: he only asks us to clean our ears to hear properly.

(Pope Francis, Speech 18 September 2021)

Cf 19(s) ok; 27 B (2)

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

This Sunday, the Gospel presents to us Jesus' words on marriage. He answered those who asked him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, as provided by a decree in Mosaic law (cf. Dt 24: 1), that this was a concession made to Moses because of man's "hardness of heart", whereas the truth about marriage dated back to "the beginning of creation" when, as is written of God in the Book of Genesis, "male and female he created them; for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one" (Mk 10: 6-7; cf. Gn 1: 27; 2: 24). 

And Jesus added: "So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mk 10: 8-9). This is God's original plan, as the Second Vatican Council also recalled in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes: "The intimate partnership of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws:  it is rooted in the contract of its partners... God himself is the author of marriage" (n. 48). 

My thoughts now go to all Christian spouses: I thank the Lord with them for the gift of the Sacrament of Marriage, and I urge them to remain faithful to their vocation in every season of life, "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health", as they promised in the sacramental rite. 

Conscious of the grace they have received, may Christian husbands and wives build a family open to life and capable of facing united the many complex challenges of our time. 

Today, there is a special need for their witness. There is a need for families that do not let themselves be swept away by modern cultural currents inspired by hedonism and relativism, and which are ready instead to carry out their mission in the Church and in society with generous dedication. 

In the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, the Servant of God John Paul II wrote that "the sacrament of marriage makes Christian couples and parents witnesses of Christ "to the end of the earth', missionaries, in the true and proper sense, of love and life" (cf. n. 54). Their mission is directed both to inside the family - especially in reciprocal service and the education of the children - and to outside it. Indeed, the domestic community is called to be a sign of God's love for all. 

The Christian family can only fulfil this mission if it is supported by divine grace. It is therefore necessary for Christian couples to pray tirelessly and to persevere in their daily efforts to maintain the commitments they assumed on their wedding day. 

I invoke upon all families, especially those in difficulty, the motherly protection of Our Lady and of her husband Joseph. Mary, Queen of the family, pray for us!

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 October 2006]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. Today, too, I would like to continue my reflection on marriage, the family and natural law. At the basis of the family is the love between a man and a woman: a love understood as a gift of self, mutual and profound, expressed also in sexual, conjugal union.

The Church is sometimes reproached for making sex a 'taboo'. The truth is quite different! Throughout history, in contrast to Manichaean tendencies, Christian thought has developed a harmonious and positive vision of the human being, recognising the significant and valuable role that masculinity and femininity play in human life.

After all, the biblical message is unequivocal: 'God created man in his own image . Male and female he created them' (Gen 1:27). Carved into this statement is the dignity of every man and woman, in their equality of nature, but also in their sexual diversity. It is a fact that profoundly touches the constitution of the human being. "From sex, in fact, the human person derives the characteristics that on a biological, psychological and spiritual level make him or her man or woman" (Congr. pro Doctrina Fidei, Persona humana, 1).

I reiterated this recently in my Letter to Families: "Man is created 'from the beginning' as male and female: the life of the human community - of small communities as well as of the whole of society - bears the mark of this original duality. From it derive the 'masculinity' and 'femininity' of individuals, just as from it every community draws its own characteristic richness in the mutual completion of persons" (John Paul II, Letter to Families, n. 6).

2. Sexuality thus belongs to the Creator's original design, and the Church cannot help but hold it in high esteem. At the same time, neither can she fail to ask everyone to respect it in its profound nature.

As a dimension inscribed in the totality of the person, sexuality constitutes a 'language' at the service of love, and therefore cannot be experienced as pure instinctuality. It must be governed by man as an intelligent and free being.

This does not mean, however, that it can be manipulated at will. In fact, it possesses its own typical psychological and biological structure, aimed both at communion between man and woman and at the birth of new persons. Respecting this structure and this inseparable connection is not 'biologism' or 'moralism', it is attention to the truth of being a man, of being a person. It is by virtue of this truth, perceptible even in the light of reason, that so-called 'free love', homosexuality and contraception are morally unacceptable. These are behaviours that distort the profound meaning of sexuality, preventing it from being at the service of the person, communion and life.

3. May the Blessed Virgin, model of femininity, tenderness and self-mastery, help the men and women of our time not to trivialise sex, in the name of a false modernity. May young people, women and families look to her. May Mary, most chaste Mother, enlighten the representatives of nations so that at the next meeting in Cairo they may take decisions inspired by authentic human values, which are the basis of the desired civilisation of love.

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus 26 June 1994]

This Sunday’s Gospel reading (cf. Mk 10:2-16) offers us Jesus’ words on marriage. The passage opens with the provocation of the Pharisees who ask Jesus if it is “lawful for a man to divorce his wife”, as the Law of Moses provides (cf. vv. 2-4). Jesus firstly, with the wisdom and authority that come to him from the Father, puts the Mosaic prescription into perspective, saying: “For your hardness of heart he” — that is, the ancient legislator — “wrote you this commandment” (v. 5). Thus it is a concession that is needed to mend the flaws created by our selfishness, but it does not correspond to the Creator’s original intention.

And here, Jesus again takes up the Book of Genesis: “from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’” (vv. 6-8). And he concludes: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (v. 9). In the Creator’s original plan, it is not that a man marries a woman and, if things do not go well, he repudiates her. No. Rather, the man and the woman are called to recognize each other, to complete each other, to help each other in marriage.

This teaching of Jesus is very clear and defends the dignity of marriage as a union of love which implies fidelity. What allows the spouses to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual giving supported by Christ’s grace. However, if in the spouses, individual interests, one’s own satisfaction prevails, then their union cannot endure.

And the Gospel passage itself reminds us, with great realism, that man and woman, called to experience a relationship of love, may regretfully behave in a way that places it in crisis. Jesus does not admit all that can lead to the failure of the relationship. He does so in order to confirm God’s plan, in which the power and beauty of the human relationship emerge. The Church, on the one hand, does not tire of confirming the beauty of the family as it was consigned to us by Scripture and by Tradition; at the same time, she strives to make her maternal closeness tangibly felt by those who experience relationships that are broken or that continue in a difficult and trying way. 

God’s way of acting with his unfaithful people — that is, with us — teaches us that wounded love can be healed by God through mercy and forgiveness. For this reason in these situations, the Church is not asked to express immediately and only condemnation. On the contrary, before so many painful marital failures, she feels called to show love, charity and mercy, in order to lead wounded and lost hearts back to God.

Let us invoke the Virgin Mary, that she help married couples to always live and renew their union, beginning with God’s original Gift.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 7 October 2018]