God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Best wishes for these Christmas holidays and for the new year 2025. 

Feast of the Holy Family [29th December 2024]

First Reading (1 Sam 1:20... 28)

 *Life is a gift from God 

Samuel is a child of a miracle! We are around 1200 BC, a period in Israel's history that is rarely spoken of. It is the end of the time of the Judges and there was still no king to rule over all the people. When Moses died and the people entered the Promised Land, the tribes settled in the territory, which they conquered progressively during about one hundred and fifty years. There was still no centralised administration and the tribes were led by chiefs called Judges, in the sense of 'governors', a kind of military, political and religious leaders capable of settling all disputes. This was before the time of the monarchy so that neither Jerusalem nor the Temple existed and the Ark of the Covenant, which had accompanied the people throughout the Exodus, stood in a sanctuary at Silo, in the centre of the country, some thirty kilometres north of present-day Jerusalem. Because Silo housed the Ark, the town had become a centre of annual pilgrimage and the custodian of that sanctuary was a priest named Eli. Near Silo lived a man named Elkanah, who had two wives: Anna and Peninna. Anna was Elkanah's favourite wife, but she was barren while Peninna had children of whom she was very proud and lost no opportunity to insinuate that Anna's barrenness was a curse from God. The most difficult time of the year for Anna was the pilgrimage to Silo: Elkanah went there with both wives, and everyone could see Anna's sadness, which contrasted with Peninna's joy as she felt like an accomplished mother. In those moments, Anna felt the weight of her infertility even more acutely. In her grief and humiliation, she could do nothing but weep and whisper with trembling lips her prayer, always the same: Please Lord, give me the gift of a son, so much so that the priest Eli, thinking she was drunk, one day rebuked her: Go somewhere else to dispose of the wine!

And it was here that the miracle took place. God, who knows people's hearts, saw Anne's tears and heard her prayer. A few months later a child was born, whom Anna named Samuel - one of the meanings of this name is God hears, God hears. In her grief, Anne had made a vow: "Almighty Lord, if you deign to look upon the humiliation of your servant and give me a son, I will consecrate him to you all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). When the child was weaned, at the age of about three years, Anna took him to the sanctuary in Shiloh and entrusted him to the priest Eli, saying to him: 'I am that woman who stood here next to you praying to the Lord. It was to obtain this child that I prayed, and the Lord gave him to me in response to my request. Now, in my turn, I give him to the Lord: he will remain consecrated to the Lord all the days of his life'. Samuel grew up in Shiloh, and there he heard God's call and later became a great servant of Israel. Why is this text proposed on the occasion of the feast of the Holy Family, and what links the two children, Jesus and Samuel, the two mothers, Mary and Anna, and the two fathers, Joseph and Elkanah? We can make a few observations about these two families separated from each other by more than a thousand years. First of all, God listens. Samuel means God listens, God hears, and this is the fundamental religious experience of Israel: God hears the cry of the poor and humble. Anne, at the moment of her deepest humiliation, cried out to the Lord and He heard her. The Canticle of Anna, after the birth of Samuel, is very reminiscent of Mary's Magnificat, which flowed from the lips of a humble young woman from Nazareth. Secondly, God acts through human families. God's project is fulfilled through human events, through normal and imperfect families, and the mystery of the Incarnation goes so far: God has the patience to accompany our maturation and our journey. Moreover, these are two miraculous, extraordinary births. Jesus was born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, Samuel of a barren mother. In the Bible there is a long series of miraculous births: Isaac from Sarah, Abraham's wife, barren and continually humiliated by her rival Hagar, Ishmael's mother. God took pity on Sarah, and Isaac was born; Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist and Jesus.  These miraculous births are a reminder that every child is a miracle, a gift from God, and parenthood means transmitting life, but without being able to say 'giving life' because it is only God who can give it.  Whether physical or spiritual parenthood, we can all lend our bodies and lives to the divine plan and we are instruments of this divine gift

Responsorial Psalm 83 (84), 3. 4. 5-6. 9-10

*Blessed is he who dwells in your house

When the pilgrim is on his way to Jerusalem, from the depths of his devotion and toil he can exclaim: "My soul yearns and longs for the atria of the Lord, my heart and my flesh exult in the living God".  Pilgrimage is indispensable for a life of faith, because when we are on our way to God, we can experience that we are a people journeying towards a goal, and in the difficulties of the journey experience physical weariness and the demands of the heart, discovering in this often tiring experience the wonders of faith. It is only when we recognise that our own strength is not enough that a new strength can take possession of us, enabling us to continue our journey to the goal. But for this to happen, the pilgrim, having reached the limit of his strength, must recognise himself as fragile and helpless as a bird. Then he will be given new wings: "Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to lay her young, by your altars, Lord of hosts, my King and my God! (v.4)

In our life, which is also a pilgrimage towards the heavenly Jerusalem, how often one is tempted to abandon everything, discouraged by small efforts that seem futile. It is enough, however, to invoke help, to recognise our powerlessness, and we receive a new strength, which is not our own: "Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you" (v.6). And once the pilgrimage has been completed, it is necessary to set out again, facing the fatigue of returning to daily life, with its difficulties and the impossibility of fully sharing the spiritual experience just lived with those who remained behind. And here the pilgrim dreams of never having to leave again: "Blessed is he who dwells in your house: without end he sings your praises" (v.5). The reference is to the Levites, whose life is entirely consecrated to the service of the Temple in Jerusalem and even before the Temple was built, as we saw in the first reading, there were sanctuaries where priests had the privilege of dwelling, such as the priest Eli and the young Samuel.

In a broader sense, the 'inhabitants of the house of God' are the members of the chosen people, and pilgrimages are always marked by gratitude and wonder for this gratuitous choice of God on behalf of his people. The Jews know that, eventually, with the arrival of the Messiah, all men will be called to be inhabitants of the house of God and this messianic dimension is present in the psalm: "Look, O God, on him who is our shield, look on the face of the anointed one" (v.10). One glimpses here the dream of the final ascent to Jerusalem, announced by the prophets, when the whole of humanity will be gathered in joy on the holy mountain, around the Messiah. The verses read on this Sunday express above all the pilgrim's toil and prayer. In other verses, however, the love for the Temple, the love for Jerusalem, is sung, together with the deep joy and confidence that dwell in the believer. Twice God is called our 'shield', the one who protects us. There are also two "beatitudes": "Blessed is he who dwells in your house: without end he sings your praises" (v.5) and "Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you and has your ways in his heart" (v.6). And the last verse of the psalm is again a "beatitude" that we do not read today: "Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you" (v.13). It is the fortune of the poor and humble, of the 'bent' (in Hebrew anawim), to discover the only thing that really counts: our only true good is in God.

Jesus repeated it this way: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little ones" (Mt 11:25). It is really worthwhile, if you have time, to reread this psalm in its entirety:

2 How lovely are your dwellings, Lord of hosts!

3 My soul yearns and desires the atria of the Lord, my heart and my flesh

exult in the living God.

4 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest to lay her young:

At thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

5 Blessed is he who dwells in your house: Endlessly he sings your praises.

6 Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you, and has your ways in his heart.

7 Passing through the valley of weeping He changes it into a spring; Even the first rain

clothes it with blessings.

8 It grows in strength along the way, until it appears before God in Zion.

9 Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, God of Jacob.

10 Behold, O God, he who is our shield, behold the face of your anointed one.

11 Yea, it is better one day in thy atria than a thousand in my house; To stand upon the threshold of the house of my God, It is better than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

12 For sun and shield is the Lord God; The Lord giveth grace and glory, He refuseth not good to him that walketh in integrity.13 Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who in you 

Second Reading: from the First Letter of St John the Apostle (1, 3,1-2.21-24)

 * To know how to contemplate 

"Beloved, see ...": John invites to contemplation, because the key to the life of faith of every believer is knowing how to look, that is, the whole of human history is an education of man's gaze. "They have eyes but they do not see": how many times does this exclamation recur in the Bible! But what is there to see? St Paul would answer that it is necessary to contemplate God's love for mankind, his plan of infinite merciful love, and St John basically speaks of this alone in today's second reading. Let us pause to reflect on the theme of the gaze and God's plan that the Apostle John contemplates. learning to see means discovering the face of God who is love, while the opposite can happen when the gaze becomes distorted as it did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Well known is the story that begins by describing the garden with many trees: "The Lord God caused to spring up out of the ground all kinds of trees that were pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9). The tree of life is in the middle of the garden, but the position of the tree of knowledge is not specified and God allows the fruits of all trees, including the tree of life, to be eaten except the tree of knowledge. The serpent, with an apparently innocent question, changes Eve's perception: "Is it true that God said, "You must not eat of any tree in the garden?" (Gen 3:1) and Eve answers, but by then her gaze has already changed: it was enough to listen to the serpent to become confused so that she sees the forbidden tree in the centre of the garden, instead of the tree of life. From that moment on, his gaze is drawn to the forbidden. The serpent continues: "You will not die at all. On the contrary, God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil' (3:5)". Eve sees that the tree is good to eat, beautiful to look at and desirable to acquire wisdom. Her gaze is now transformed and leads her to disobey. Once Eve and Adam ate the fruit they "realised they were naked", they did not become like God, but discovered their own vulnerability. What connection can this account have with John's text? The story of Adam and Eve explains the drama of humanity: a distorted image of God. John, on the contrary, invites us to see: 'See', that is, learn to look because God is not man's rival, but pure love. This is John's central theme: 'God is love' and the true life of man consists in never doubting this. Jesus says to the apostles in the Upper Room: "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ" (John 17: 3) 

"See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and truly are so": we read this in today's text from John. Baptism has grafted us into Christ, making us children of God, as the evangelist writes in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel: "To all those who received him, however, he gave power to become children of God" (1:12), placing them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who teaches them to call him "Abba, Father!". If for believers this is clear, for non-believers it is incomprehensible, unbelievable or even scandalous, as St John points out. Indeed, he writes that the world does not recognise us because it has not come to know God. That is, the world has not yet opened its eyes and it is up to us to reveal God through our words and our testimony. When the Son of God manifests himself, all mankind will be transformed into his image. Then we understand why Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: "If you knew the gift of God!" (Jn 4:10), while here St John invites: "Beloved, see". John invites us to contemplation, because it is the key to the life of faith: knowing how to look; he invites us to rectify our gaze on God, recognising him as a Father full of tenderness and mercy, and it is up to us to reveal him with our lives to those who do not yet know him.

Gospel ( Lk 2:41-52)

* Like Mary and Joseph, called to grow in faith

"He came among his own, and his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:11): this phrase from the prologue of John's gospel seems to find an illustration in today's account of Luke's gospel. An episode from Jesus' childhood that shows us both the manifestation of the mystery of Christ and the incomprehension on the part of his family. That his family had travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover is not surprising, nor is the fact that they stayed there for eight days, since the two feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, now combined, lasted precisely eight days. It is surprising that the twelve-year-old son stays at the Temple without notifying his parents, who set off from Jerusalem with their caravan, as they do every year, without checking whether he was with them. This separation lasts three days, a number that Luke intentionally indicates. When they finally reunite, the three are not on the same wavelength: Mary's affectionate rebuke, still shaken by the anguish of those days, clashes with her son's sincere astonishment: 'Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"(Lk 2:49). 

Let us now see in what the manifestation of the mystery of Jesus resides: first of all, in the admiration of all, especially the doctors of the Law, before the light that dwells in him. It also resides in the mention of the three days, which in the Bible represent the time needed to meet God: three days will also be those between the burial and the Resurrection, the definitive victory of life. Finally, it resides in Jesus' extraordinary statement: 'I must be about my Father's business'.  With this statement, he clearly reveals himself as the Son of God. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel had already presented him as 'Son of the Most High', a title that could be understood as that of the Messiah; but now the revelation goes further: the title of Son, referring to Jesus, is not only royal, but expresses his divine filiation. It is not surprising that this was not immediately understood! Even his parents find it difficult to understand: and Jesus dares to ask them: "Did you not know?"  Even deep and fervent believers like Joseph and Mary are bewildered by the mysteries of God. This should reassure us: we should not be surprised if we too struggle to understand! We must never forget the words of Isaiah: 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, your ways are not my ways - oracle of the Lord. As much as heaven overhangs the earth, so much my ways overhang your ways, my thoughts overhang your thoughts" (Is 55:8-9). The gospel makes it clear that Mary did not understand everything immediately either: she kept everything in her heart and tried to understand it by meditating on it. After the shepherds' visit to the Bethlehem grotto, we already read: 'Mary kept all these things by pondering them in her heart' (Lk 2:19). Luke proposes an example for us to follow here: accepting not to understand everything right away and letting meditation dig into us. Mary's faith, like ours, is a journey not without difficulties. All this takes place in the Temple of Jerusalem, which for the Jews was the sign of God's presence among his people. For Christians, on the other hand, the true Temple of God is now the body of Christ himself, the place par excellence of his presence. Today's account is one of the stages of this revelation. Luke is probably thinking of the prophecy of Malachi: "And immediately the Lord whom you seek, the angel of the covenant whom you long for, will enter his temple; behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts" (Ml 3:1).

The last sentence of Luke's account is significant: "Jesus grew in wisdom, age, and grace before God and man" . This indicates that Jesus, like every child, needed to grow. The mystery of the Incarnation goes so far: Jesus is fully man, and God is patient with our spiritual growth. For Him, a thousand years are like a day (Ps 89/90). Finally, an apparent contradiction may come as a surprise: Jesus tells his parents "I must attend to the things of my Father", but immediately afterwards he returns with them to Nazareth. He does not remain in the stone Temple, just as Samuel did not remain there, consecrated to the Lord but then called to serve the people outside the Temple. This too is a teaching: "To be occupied with the things of the Father means to dedicate one's life to the service of others, not necessarily within the walls of a temple. To be with the Father means, first of all, to be in the service of his children. Finally, it should be noted that Luke's gospel begins and ends in the Temple of Jerusalem: it is there that the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist (which means 'God has done grace') takes place. It is in the Temple that Simeon, on the day of the Presentation of Jesus, proclaims the arrival of God's salvation. And it is also in the Temple that the disciples return after Christ's ascension, at the end of Luke's Gospel. A concrete lesson for us to cherish. We are called, like Mary and Joseph, to know how to meditate and grow in faith in order to be able to occupy ourselves unceasingly with the things of our heavenly Father. And this translates in practice into the commitment to serve men without always remaining in the temple. Basically, this is the message that Luke will reveal in the course of his gospel and that is to know how to combine contemplation with apostolic action, a harmonious synthesis of faith and life.

+ Giovanni D’Ercole