One can never close the door in the face of parents who ask for baptism for their child, even if they are not married in church: the Christian, and especially the pastor, should never forget the gratuitousness of salvation, the closeness of God and the concreteness of works of mercy, whether material or spiritual. This is the strong invitation to always open the door to others, and also to oneself, suggested by Pope Francis in the mass celebrated on Thursday morning, 19 October, at Santa Marta.

"This passage from the Gospel," the Pope immediately pointed out, referring to the passage from Luke (11:47-54), "enters into that style of the evangelist" that is proper to "both Luke and Matthew". It is "we could say" a "style" that indicates "trouble: Woe to you, teachers of the law: woe to you, Pharisees". In fact, Francis explained, 'the Lord is very strong, very strong: he strikes with such force'. In particular, "in today's passage there is an expression that makes one think: 'Woe to you teachers of the Law, who have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter, and those who wanted to enter you prevented'".

In reality, the Pontiff acknowledged, "this verse is a bit obscure: what does it mean to 'take away the key of knowledge', with the consequence of not entering the Kingdom and not even letting others in?" And so, said the Pope, "this taking away of the ability to understand God's revelation, to understand God's heart, to understand God's salvation - the key to knowledge - we can say that it is a serious forgetfulness". Because "one forgets the gratuitousness of salvation, one forgets God's closeness and one forgets God's mercy". And precisely 'those who forget the gratuitousness of salvation, God's closeness and God's mercy have taken away the key to knowledge'. So much so that, the Pope insisted, "one cannot understand the Gospel without these three things".

"They have forgotten gratuitousness," therefore. And "Paul speaks of this in the first reading," Francis said again, referring to the passage in the letter to the Romans (3:21-30): "You are justified freely by his grace." But, the Pontiff warned, "these people forget that everything is free, that it was God's initiative to save us, and they take the side of the law and try to cling to it, and the more detailed, the better: salvation is there for them". And "thus," he continued, "they are so clinging to the law that they do not receive the power of God's righteousness: there is a deception behind justifying oneself with the law: "I do this, this, this and I am happy, I am justified" - "But how am I to do this?" - "No, you have to do it like this, like this, like this" - "But this "like this" how should I do it?" - "Like this, like this, like this"'.

Here, said the Pope, they "arrive at a pile of prescriptions and for them this is salvation: they have lost the key to intelligence which, in this case, is the gratuitousness of salvation". In reality, "the law is a response to God's gratuitous love: it is He who has taken the initiative to save us, and because you have loved me so much, I try to go your way, the way you have shown me", in a word "I fulfil the law". But 'it is a response' because 'the law, always, is a response and when one forgets the gratuitousness of salvation one falls, one loses the key to the intelligence of salvation history'.

And, again, the Pontiff relaunched, those people "have lost the key to intelligence because they have lost the sense of God's closeness: for them God is the one who made the law" but "this is not the God of revelation". In reality "the God of revelation is God who began to walk with us from Abraham to Jesus Christ: God who walks with his people". Therefore "when we lose this close relationship with the Lord, we fall into this obtuse mentality that believes in the self-sufficiency of salvation through the fulfilment of the law".

Here, then, is "the closeness of God", remarked Francis, referring to "such a beautiful passage, almost at the end of Deuteronomy, in chapter 31; when Moses finishes writing the law, he hands it over to the Levites, those who guarded the ark, and tells them 'take this book of the law and put it beside the ark, close to God, because I know your rebellion - he is speaking to the people - and the hardness of your neck'".

"Instead, close to the Lord," the Pope pointed out, "the law is a revelation of the Lord, but it becomes detached, the law becomes autonomous and becomes dictatorial, when God's closeness is lacking". Moreover, he suggested, "we think in prayer: when prayer is lacking, one cannot teach doctrine, not even do theology or moral theology". Moreover, he relaunched, 'theology is done on one's knees, always close to God: these people had lost that sense of closeness, they had forgotten the closeness of God'.Moreover, the Pontiff explained, in doing so those people had also 'lost the memory of God's mercy'. In fact, "in the word of God, the Lord repeats much, much and much 'mercy I want, not sacrifices'". And "this closeness of God, of which we have spoken, reaches the highest point in Jesus Christ crucified". The same "Paul reminds us that we have been justified by the blood of Christ, the flesh of Christ, the blood of Christ". Instead, those people end up forgetting precisely "the flesh of Christ: they forget mercy and therefore end up not knowing the core of the law, which is mercy, always". So much so that, Francis explained, "the works of mercy are the touchstone of the fulfilment of the law, because" they allow us to "touch the flesh of Christ, to touch Christ suffering in a person, both corporally and spiritually".

In this regard, the Pope invited us to think of "the rich man Epulone who in hell asked Abraham to send one of the dead to his brothers to preach, so they could be saved". But "what does Abraham say: 'No, this will not do, for if they are not able to listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen to one who rises from the dead'". In fact, "if they do not have mercy as he did - Epulon had none - nothing is worthwhile!" Francis therefore presented 'these three forgetfulnesses' that 'are the root: forgetfulness of the gratuitousness of salvation, forgetfulness of God's closeness, and forgetfulness of mercy'. And so the turning away from salvation is also at the root of "taking away the key to knowledge: one does not know salvation this way". Hence the Pontiff's exhortation to ask: "What are the consequences?".

Precisely "today's Gospel passage points to two," was the reply. "First of all the closure: 'You did not enter, and those who wanted to enter, you prevented'". Yes, 'these people closed the door to the faithful and the faithful did not understand: they, all their moral theology, made intellectual mannerism, but it did not reach the people and, with that, they drove people away. No, this is not the religion I wanted: this is not the truth of salvation in Jesus Christ'. And, the Pontiff pointed out, "here I think of the responsibility we pastors have: when we pastors lose or take away the key to intelligence, we close the door to ourselves and to others".

"I am reminded", he confided, "and I say this for our edification" of the fact that "in my country I have heard many times of pastors who did not baptise the children of single mothers, because they were not born in canonical marriage: they closed the door, they scandalised the people of God because the heart of these pastors had lost the key to knowledge". More: 'Without going so far back in time and space, three months ago, in a town, a mother wanted to baptise her newborn son, but she was civilly married to a divorced man. The parish priest said 'yes, yes, I will baptise the child but your husband is divorced, stay out, he cannot be present at the ceremony'". And 'this happens today', he said, because 'the Pharisees, the doctors of the law are not things of those times: even today there are many of them'.

For this reason, the Pope said, "it is necessary to pray for us pastors, so that we do not lose the key to knowledge and do not close the door to us and to the people who want to enter".

"And the second consequence," he continued, "is also what the Gospel says: 'When he had gone out from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to treat him in a hostile manner and to make him speak on many subjects, laying snares for him in order to surprise him with a few words that came out of his own mouth'". This is "a corrupt attitude" and "this is the second consequence: when one loses the key to knowledge, whether in the gratuitousness of salvation or in the nearness of God or in works of mercy, one arrives at corruption". And "how do the pastors of those times end up? By laying snares for the Lord to make him fall into the trap and then be able to accuse and condemn him, as they did". In conclusion, the Pontiff suggested asking "the Lord for the grace of the memory of our salvation, of the gratuitousness of salvation, of the closeness of God - and this let us pray - and for the concreteness of the works of mercy that the Lord wants from us, whether material or spiritual, but concrete". With the hope that the Lord "gives us this grace" so that "we can become people who help open the door and to ourselves and to others."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 20/10/2017]

XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  [12 October 2025]

May God bless us and may the Virgin Mary protect us! Reflecting on the gratitude that is easier to see in those who are far away is an invitation to review our personal relationship with God.

First Reading from the Second Book of Kings (5:14-17)

This Sunday's reading begins at the moment when General Naaman, apparently as docile as a lamb, immerses himself in the waters of the Jordan, on the orders of the prophet Elisha; but we are missing the beginning of the story: let me tell it to you. Naaman is a Syrian general highly esteemed by the king of Aram (present-day Damascus). Obviously, for the people of Israel, he is a foreigner and at times even an enemy, and above all, being a pagan, he does not belong to the chosen people. Even more serious: he is a leper, which means that soon everyone will avoid him, and for him it is a real curse. Fortunately for him, his wife has an Israelite slave girl who tells her mistress, 'There is a great prophet in Samaria who could surely heal Naaman'. The mistress tells her husband Naaman, who tells the king of Aram: the prophet of Samaria can heal me. And since Naaman is in great favour, the king writes a letter of introduction to the king of Samaria recommending Naaman, who is afflicted with leprosy, to go to the prophet Elisha. The king of Israel does not know that the prophet Elisha can heal him; on the contrary, he is in a panic because he thinks that the king of Syria is looking for a pretext to wage war on him. Elisha hears about this and asks Naaman to come. Naaman arrives with his entire entourage and luggage full of gifts for the healer. In reality, only a servant opens the door slightly and simply tells him that his master orders him to immerse himself seven times in the Jordan to be purified.  Naaman finds this offensive and wonders what is the point of immersing himself in the Jordan when there are rivers in Syria that are much more beautiful than the Jordan. Enraged, he sets off again for Damascus, but fortunately his servants say to him: 'Did you expect the prophet to ask you to do extraordinary things to heal you, and you would have done them? Now he is asking you to do something ordinary, so why can't you do it? Naaman allows himself to be persuaded, and this is where today's reading begins. Naaman obeys a simple order by immersing himself seven times in the Jordan and is healed. It seems simple to us, but for a great general of a foreign army, this obedience is not simple at all! The rest of the text demonstrates this. Naaman is healed and returns to Elisha to tell him two things. The first: 'Now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel', and he adds that when he returns to his country, he will offer sacrifices to him. The author of this passage takes the opportunity to say to the Jews: you have had the protection of the one God for centuries, and now you see that God is also for foreigners, while you continue to be tempted by idolatry. This foreigner, on the other hand, quickly understood where his healing came from. Naaman also tells Elisha that he wants to give him a gift to thank him, but the prophet refuses emphatically: God's gifts cannot be bought. Finally, why does Naaman want to take some soil from Israel with him? He explains that he does not want to offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to other gods, but only to the God of Israel. This shows that, at the time of the prophet Elisha, all the peoples neighbouring Israel believed that the gods reigned over specific territories and, in order to offer sacrifices to the God of Israel, Naaman believed he had to take with him some soil from the land over which this God reigned.

Responsorial Psalm (97/98, 1-4)

In the first reading, Naaman, a Syrian general and therefore a pagan, is healed by the prophet Elisha and, thanks to this, discovers the God of Israel. Naaman is therefore perfectly suited to sing this psalm, which speaks of God's love both for the pagans, whom the Bible calls the nations (or peoples), and for Israel. 'The Lord has made known his salvation, he has revealed his justice in the sight of the nations' (v. 2) and immediately afterwards (v. 3): 'He has remembered his love, his faithfulness to the house of Israel', which is the consecrated expression to remember the election of Israel, the completely privileged relationship that binds this small people to the God of the universe. The simple words "his faithfulness" and "his love" are a reference to the Covenant: it is through these words that, in the desert, God made himself known to the people he chose. The phrase "God of love and faithfulness" indicates that Israel is the chosen people, but the previous phrase reminds us that if Israel has been chosen, it is not to enjoy the privilege selfishly, not to consider itself the only child, but to behave as an older brother, and its role is to proclaim God's love for all people, so as to gradually integrate all humanity into the Covenant. In this psalm, this certainty even marks the composition of the text; if you look more closely, you will notice the inclusion of verses 2 and 3. I would remind you that inclusion is a literary device often found in the Bible. It is a bit like a box in a newspaper or magazine; obviously, the purpose is to highlight the text written inside the box. In the Bible, it works the same way: the central text is highlighted, framed by two identical phrases, one before and one after. Here, the central phrase speaks of Israel, the chosen people, and is framed by two phrases that speak of the nations: the first phrase, 'The Lord has made known his salvation, he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations', and the second concerns Israel: "He has remembered his love, his faithfulness to the house of Israel" and the third: "All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God". Here the term "the nations" does not appear but is replaced by the expression "all the ends of the earth". This means that the election of Israel is central, but we must not forget that it must radiate to all humanity. A second emphasis of this psalm is the very marked proclamation of God's kingship. For example, in the Temple of Jerusalem they sing: "Acclaim the Lord, all the earth, acclaim your king." This psalm is a cry of victory, the cry that rises on the battlefield after triumph, the teru'ah in honour of the victor. The victory of God, referred to here, is twofold: first, it is the victory of liberation from Egypt, and second, it is the victory expected at the end of time, God's definitive victory over all the forces of evil. Even then, God was acclaimed as the new king was once acclaimed on the day of his coronation, with cries of victory to the sound of trumpets, horns and the applause of the crowd. But while with the kings of the earth there was always disappointment, this time we know that we will not be disappointed; that is why this time the teru'ah must be particularly vibrant! Christians acclaim God with even greater force, because they have seen the king of the world with their own eyes: since the Incarnation of the Son, they know and affirm, against all apparent evidence to the contrary, that the Kingdom of God, that is, of love, has already begun.

Second Reading from the Second Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to Timothy (2:8-13)

The hymn "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead; he is our salvation, our eternal glory" is found in its original context in the Second Letter to Timothy, where Paul writes: "Remember Jesus Christ, descendant of David". In the Jewish milieu, it was essential to affirm that Jesus was truly of the lineage of David in order to be recognised as the Messiah. Paul adds: 'He was raised from the dead: this is my Gospel'. The question is radical: either Jesus rose from the dead, or he did not. Paul, initially convinced that it was an invention, had tried to prevent the spread of this proclamation. But after his experience on the road to Damascus, he saw the Risen One and became his witness. Jesus is the conqueror of death and evil, and with him a new world is born, in which believers must participate with their whole lives. For this reason, Paul consecrates himself to proclaiming the Gospel and invites Timothy to do the same, preparing him for opposition and encouraging him to fight the good fight with courage, gentleness and trust in the Spirit he has received. The resurrection is the heart of the Christian faith. While for many Jews the resurrection of the flesh was credible, for the Greeks it was difficult to accept, as shown by the failure of Paul's preaching in Athens. Precisely because of his proclamation of the resurrection, Paul was imprisoned several times: "Christ has been raised from the dead; this is my Gospel. For his sake I suffer, even to the point of being chained like a criminal." Timothy, too, Paul warns, will have to suffer for the Gospel. Paul's chains do not stop the truth: 'I am in chains, but the Word of God is not in chains'. Jesus himself had said that if they remain silent, the stones will cry out, because nothing can stop the truth. Paul adds that he endures everything for the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Here the opening hymn echoes and probably follows an ancient baptismal hymn introduced with the formula: "Here is a word worthy of faith: If we died with him, we will live with him; if we persevere, we will reign with him." It is the mystery of Baptism, already explained in Romans 6: with it we are immersed in the death and resurrection of Christ, united with him in an inseparable way. Passion, death and resurrection constitute a single event that inaugurated a new era for humanity. The last sentences highlight the tension between human freedom and God's faithfulness because if we deny him, he too will deny us: God respects our conscious rejection. If we lack faith, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself, since God always remains faithful even in the face of our frailty.

From the Gospel according to Luke (17:11-19)

Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, where his passion, death and resurrection await him. Luke emphasises the itinerary because what he narrates is linked to the mystery of salvation. During the journey, he meets ten lepers who, forced to remain at a distance according to the Law, cry out to him, calling him 'Master': this is a sign both of their weakness and of the trust they place in him. Unlike another episode (Lk 5:12), this time Jesus does not touch them, but only orders them to go and present themselves to the priests, a necessary step for official recognition of their healing. The order is already a promise of salvation. The story recalls the episode of Naaman and the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 5) in the first reading because as the ten set out on their journey, their leprosy disappears: their trust saves them. The disease had united them, but the healing reveals the difference in their hearts: nine Jews go to the priests, only one, a Samaritan, considered a heretic, returns. He recognises that life and healing come from God, glorifies God aloud, prostrates himself at Jesus' feet and gives him thanks: an attitude reserved for God. Thus he recognises the Messiah and understands that the true place to give glory to God is no longer the Temple in Jerusalem, but Jesus himself. His return is conversion, and Jesus proclaims it: "Get up and go; your faith has saved you." Jesus asks the other nine to account for themselves: they met the Messiah but did not recognise him, choosing to run immediately to the Temple to fulfil the Law without stopping to give thanks. The Gospel thus emphasises a recurring theme: salvation is for everyone, but often it is not those closest to God who welcome it: "He came among his own, and his own did not recognise him." Already the Old Testament affirmed the universality of salvation (cf. Ps 97/98). The first reading recalls the conversion of Naaman, a foreigner, and Jesus had rebuked Nazareth, citing the example of the Syrian who was healed while many lepers in Israel were not (Lk 4:27), arousing the anger of the synagogue. In Acts, Luke will again show the contrast between the rejection of part of Israel and the acceptance of the pagans. This question was alive in the early Christian communities: did one have to be Jewish to receive baptism, or could pagans also be accepted? The story of the converted Samaritan recalls three truths: the salvation brought by Christ through his passion, death and resurrection is for everyone; thanksgiving is often best performed by foreigners or heretics; the poor are the most open to encountering God. In conclusion, on the road to Jerusalem, that is, to salvation, Jesus leads all men who are willing to convert, whatever their origin or religion.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

Serving oneself and "the audience"

(Lk 11:42-46)

The conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities takes on violent features.

Ideological or devout choice can be lost in the formalism of those who endlessly discuss minutiae and forget the goals of inner commitment, in favor of a sort of circus show (v.43).

When the notables disdain service and choose honors, the simple passing by them causes to contract the same impurity of the soul: average and normal life, internal corruption.

In short, the Divine Law has been so burdened as to make devout practice suffocating, worried about quibbles.

For those who can bear the procedures, then, perfection in outward things can nourish pride even in interhuman relationships. And the Grace that enriches will no longer dictate the conduct.

The willingness to build up the Church in Christ requires us to be authentic and simple, not dehumanized; a sign of the Covenant, not hateful.

There is a counter-witness that stifles the growth of life and crushes the freedom of those who are animated by Spirit of God.

Among other things, leaders and “jurists” willingly leave their privacy outside the provisions they impose on others (v.46).

In short, the care for details is good and propulsive (v.42) only if it joins the intimate discovery of one’s Mission and Call, character that promotes growth and our future.

While Mt 23:27 speaks of whitewashed tombs, Lk speaks of hidden sepulchers, which are not seen (v.44).

Simple, naïve, pure people who approach it, do not realize that they are insisting on dead idols.

In the Semitic mentality, touching or trampling on a tomb meant contracting impurities.

Jesus means that we must be very careful of these dangerous people, who seize and plagiarize souls, turning them away from God in the name of God.

Manipulative guides, who distract from the sense of the Good News in our favor, inoculating a mentality that annihilates growth.

At all times the recitation of disembodied, schematic, off-scale or confusing and empty holiness retains deviant appearances.

But the proponents of the soul’s death are immediately recognized: they are those who insist on sophisticated worldviews, on abstract ideas; on the trifles of habits, or disciplinary appearances - and forget the goals of the Kingdom.

The topic is crucial:

«We want to be a Church that serves, that leaves home and goes forth from its places of worship, goes forth from its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be the sign of unity […] to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation» (FT n.276).

Resolutive work, obtained in a laborious, «craftsmanship» way (n.217).

As with fashions, attention to the too great or to the unincarnated modes brings people closer to skeletons.

Let us therefore help ourselves to bring the Word back inside, so that it becomes our active face, without duplicity, with broad hope, separated from the present scene and from any narcissistic workshop.

[Wednesday 28th wk. in O.T.  October 15, 2025]

Serving oneself and "the public”

(Lk 11:42-46)

The conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities takes on violent overtones, as the poltronists get hung up on the details and neglect the essentials.

In particular, the experts disdain the experience of Communion - which is indeed a project, but on the contrary a life insurance [with power and privileges].

According to the young Rabbi, the religious choice itself can be burdensome and intolerable.

Unfortunately, the devout option is not infrequently lost in the formalism of those who endlessly discuss petty precepts and forget the goals of inner commitment, in favour of a sort of circus show (v.43).

Indeed, there is no shortage of official notables who disdain service and choose honours, so that simply passing by them causes them to contract the same impurity of soul: average and normal life, internal corruption.

In short, the divine Law has been so burdened as to make sacred practice all artificial, asphyxiating, out of scale or preoccupied with minutiae.

For those who can stand the rigmarole, then, perfection in external things can feed pride even in inter-human relations.

The ancient spiritual fathers used to say that pride is a thief, because in the case of good deeds, self-love steals gratuitousness and feeds arrogance. Thus the Grace that enriches us no longer dictates our conduct.

Our readiness to build the Church in Christ demands that we be authentic and simple, not dehumanised; a sign of the Covenant, not hateful.

There is a counter-witness that stifles the growth of life and curtails the freedom of those who are animated by the Spirit of God: that of the popular leaders [Pharisees] and the hard-line jurists [scribes].

Not for nothing do they willingly leave privacy out of the arrangements they impose on others (v.46).

The experience of Love is 'law', not for the sake of a body, a pack, a group of interests, but for a rich conviviality of differences.

This is the 'norm', the 'canon' - if you like - but not to construct the impersonal good of the pressure group, and to be protected by it.

Although it would guarantee prestige in society - even ecclesial - it would become a sprawling, intrusive imposition.

The abstract, overly cerebral, ideological or fanciful gaze, and bigoted mummies, make the environment arid, dissipate energy, and make the experience of faith vacuous.

They insist on fulfilments, models, designs and penances, or conversely dissipations that drive love away, and discourage attempts to read oneself and dispositions from within.

Perhaps in every religion, observances - or 'big ideas' - have created that 'ancient' hypnotism of habitual mechanisms and enveloping atmospheres that make God a reassuring totem, a sacraliser of established positions.

He is a corrosive, punishing worm of passion, ruining people and the destiny of the whole people.

It is a matter, then, of running the utmost risk united with Christ - not to give in to the always lurking temptation to feel better: in favour of a long inner adventure; to touch those spaces where the Call by Name resembles no other.

It is in the intimate and in the candid relationship that we encounter our profound Calling, the unexpressed talents, the divine Author's signature.

In the uniqueness of character, from the Core, the Seed that does not lie guides the vocation; the Risen One who is present reveals himself to be understanding, gentle, attentive, absolutely genuine, personal.

Attention to details and trifles is only good and propulsive (v.42) if it is united with the intimate discovery of one's own singular Mission and Calling, a character that promotes growth, and our future.

Here the call to values that do not grow old, substantial - attentive to situations - does not imply contempt and disregard for what may seem secondary (but is unrepeatable): recognising the concrete woman and man.

Otherwise, the motive for our actions would remain the concern for our own fictitious fame. This would render petty and discredited the experience of Faith that activates us to explore, to make Exodus.

When the Law does not evolve within us and with us, in our inwardness and personality without measure, it will find a way to impose itself, torment us and slow down our experience of life, or contaminate and devastate it.

While Mt 23:27 speaks of whitewashed tombs, Lk speaks of hidden tombs, which cannot be seen (v.44).

The simple, naive, pure people who approach it do not realise that they are insisting on dead idols.

Even false teachers codify everything, and would like to normalise even belief and its expressions.

In the Semitic mentality, touching or treading on a tomb meant contracting impurity.

Jesus means that one must be very very careful of these very dangerous people.

Even in the primitive Christian communities, they gherminated and plagued souls, leading them away from God in the name of God.Manipulative guides, they diverted people away from the sense of the Good News in our favour, inoculating drop by drop a mentality that annihilated growth.

The recitation of disembodied, confusing, narrow and empty holiness (folklore and undergrowth) still retains deviant appearances.

But the proponents of the death of the soul are immediately recognisable: they are the ones who insist on sophisticated worldviews, on abstract ideas; on the quirks of idle pleasures, or of disciplinary appearances - and forget the objectives of the Kingdom.

The issue is crucial.

As Pope Francis reiterated in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, quoting one of his homilies (in Santiago de Cuba):

"We want to be a Church that serves, that leaves home, that leaves its temples, its sacristies, to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity [...] to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow reconciliation" (no.276).

Decisive work, achieved in a laborious and "artisanal" manner (no.217).

Even among his own people today, the Risen One does not mince his words, and he speaks out decisively against certain insuppressible diseases - abstract [too big] worldviews or attention to the unimportant - that bring people closer to the skeletons.

The living Christ strikes out in invective at the formalism of doctrines and outward practices, which delude themselves into extracting and chiselling lofty earthly situations, obsessively attending only to themselves.

The only thing that Jesus condemns without appeal here is the vain ambition in the exercise of pretended authority - by pomp - considering it a narcissistic workshop (by washed-up histrions).

Let us therefore help ourselves to bring the Word back inside, so that it becomes our factual face, without duplicity, with a broad hope, separated from the present scene.

To internalise and live the message:

Have you renounced the law of death, of manner and quiddity, preferring the law of life?

Or do you serve yourself and 'the public'?

“Beware of practising your piety before men in order to be seen by them” (Mt 6:1). In today’s Gospel Jesus reinterprets the three fundamental pious practices prescribed by Mosaic law. Almsgiving, prayer and fasting characterize the Jew who observes the law. In the course of time these prescriptions were corroded by the rust of external formalism or even transformed into a sign of superiority. 

In these three practices Jesus highlights a common temptation. Doing a good deed almost instinctively gives rise to the desire to be esteemed and admired for the good action, in other words to gain a reward. And on the one hand this closes us in on ourselves and on the other, it brings us out of ourselves because we live oriented to what others think of us or admire in us. 

In proposing these prescriptions anew the Lord Jesus does not ask for formal respect of a law that is alien to the human being, imposed by a severe legislator as a heavy burden, but invites us to rediscover these three pious practices by living them more deeply, not out of self-love but out of love of God, as a means on the journey of conversion to him. Alms-giving, prayer and fasting: these are the path of the divine pedagogy that accompanies us not only in Lent, towards the encounter with the Risen Lord; a course to take without ostentation, in the certainty that the heavenly Father can read and also see into our heart in secret.

[Pope Benedict, Ash Wednesday homily 9 March 2011]

2. The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.

15. Let us offer up our petitions, directed by the faith, by the hope, and by the charity which Christ has planted in our hearts. This attitude is likewise love of God, whom modern man has sometimes separated far from himself, made extraneous to himself, proclaiming in various ways that God is "superfluous." This is, therefore, love of God, the insulting rejection of whom by modern man we feel profoundly, and we are ready to cry out with Christ on the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."137 At the same time it is love of people, of all men and women without any exception or division: without difference of race, culture, language, or world outlook, without distinction between friends and enemies. This is love for people-it desires every true good for each individual and for every human community, every family, every nation, every social group, for young people, adults, parents, the elderly-a love for everyone, without exception. This is love, or rather an anxious solicitude to ensure for each individual every true good and to remove and drive away every sort of evil.

[Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia]

When it is said of someone that they are a person with a double life, it is not to pay them a compliment. On the contrary. It is those people who irritate, cause outrage, or often even cause disgust with behaviour that contradicts the things that they are paying lip service to. Whether it is a politician or a neighbour makes little difference: discovering, so to speak, a 'double life', is something that always hurts. And let us not mention the disillusionment it can generate, especially in young people.

But if preaching well and braying badly is always an irritating thing, when it is a priest doing it, it is even more intolerable. Because there is something more at stake. Pope Francis said it very clearly, and as always in a very direct and effective style, a few days ago. When, in the homily of the morning Mass at Santa Marta, he stressed how "it is ugly to see pastors of double life", indeed it is a real "wound in the Church". For the Pope, they are "sick pastors, who have lost their authority and go on in this double life"; and, he added, "there are many ways of carrying on the double life: but it is double ... And Jesus is very strong with them. Not only does he tell people not to listen to them but not to do what they do, but what does he say to them? "You are whited sepulchres": beautiful in doctrine, from the outside. But inside, rottenness. This is the end of the pastor who has no closeness with God in prayer and with people in compassion'.

For it is this that makes the difference. Francis reiterates it firmly: 'What gives a pastor authority, or awakens the authority that is given by the Father, is closeness: closeness to God in prayer and closeness to people. The pastor detached from the people does not reach the people with the message. Closeness, this double closeness. This is the anointing of the pastor who is moved by God's gift in prayer, and can be moved by people's sins, problems, illnesses: let the pastor be moved. The scribes ... had lost the 'ability' to be moved precisely because 'they were not close either to the people or to God'". And without this closeness, or when for whatever reason it is lost, 'the shepherd ends up in inconsistency of life'.

It seems like re-reading the words that John Paul II, in his Holy Thursday letter addressed to priests around the world in 1986, dedicated to the Holy Curate of Ars, pointing to him, on the second centenary of his birth, as an example for all priests. 'It is certainly not a matter of forgetting,' wrote Benedict XVI, again on St John Mary Vianney, in his letter of indiction for the 2009 Year for Priests, 'that the substantial effectiveness of the ministry remains independent of the holiness of the minister; but neither can we overlook the extraordinary fruitfulness generated by the encounter between the objective holiness of the ministry and the subjective holiness of the minister. The Curé d'Ars immediately began this humble and patient work of harmonisation between his life as a minister and the holiness of the ministry entrusted to him, deciding even to 'inhabit' his parish church materially: 'As soon as he arrived, he chose the church as his dwelling... He would enter the church before dawn and only leave it after the evening Angelus. There one had to look for him when one needed him,' reads the first biography'. Consistency, then. Not duplicity. Because God's people need everything except whitewashed sepulchres.

[Pope Francis, St. Martha; Salvatore Mazza in Avvenire 13 January 2018]

Faith and religious sense

(Lk 11:37-41)

Ablutions before the meal (v.38) were an imposed religious obligation.

But the Eucharistic banquet [read in filigree] doesn’t celebrate detachments, nor is it affected by purist idolatry.

The severe spirit - "dry cleaning" type - still today gives a white lime hand to the reality of the Father.

Indeed, impurity does not proceed from lack of form (as in the façade religiosity), but from the behaviour that reveals a substantial void.

What stains is all inside, and hatches despite the beautiful petitions of principle, or good manners - which cover bad habits.

In short, what is offered is pure; what is kept, impure (v.41).

From a spiritual point of view, only those who give themselves are without blemish; impure those who think only of themselves in a trivial way, or turn to their neighbour to manipulate him.

Thus, often the external norms or ideas of men do not go to the root: they fossilize us.

They don’t tear or integrate from within the malicious contents, the unfair desires - the real goals.

Observances themselves often create spiritual competition.

In this way they annihilate the spirit of charity and hospitality - compendium of the Law - from which those same ancient signs were born, in the first assemblies of faith. 

Of course, Justice plays a decisive role, but it’s an existential commitment. The ’right position’ is for life, not to putting things “right” [dead things, or sophisticated and abstract that they are].

According to the Gospels, God must not be confused with the precepts, nor ideologies of the future, if schematic and disembodied.

The Lord wants to enter our concrete existence - and the excess of minutiae or fantasies can make us lose the fundamental orientation of his Call, corrupting sensitivity to the signals in which He reveals himself.

Legalism, habits, or abstruse and imported fashions, can make us incapable of corresponding to the missionary vocation.

They become hoods that prevent us from serving the individual freedoms of the shaky.

They make us awkward in accompanying people so that they increase their capacity for life and character.

Here Jesus invites the “Pharisees” [those in his Church] to understand the freedom of God and not to transform the Faith into any devout, cunning, or abstract (no backbone) creed.

It is not the supposed uncontaminatedness or ‘right-just thinking’ that enables us in His Presence and makes us proceed along endless paths.

We experience this in the global crisis.

It’s meeting Him that consecrates and makes adequate, pure, realized, already complete.

‘Perfects’ - for the type of Seed we are called to plant in the world.

Enough worries on top of that, wich leave everyone in the lurch, in torment, and with no way out.

As if even in the People of Sons it was permissible to impose and see cages, lanes, forced worldviews, and padlocks everywhere.

To internalize and live the message:

What was the key moment when you felt forgiven and pure? By copying someone?

[Tuesday 28th wk. in O.T.  October 14, 2025]

The interior and the society of the exterior

(Lk 11:37-41)

"Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and tray, but your inside is full of robbery and wickedness" (Lk 11:39).

The ablutions before the meal (v.38) were an imposed religious obligation.

But the Eucharistic banquet [which we read in the watermark] does not celebrate detachment, nor does it suffer from purist idolatries.

The stern, 'dyeing' spirit - as Pope Francis would say - still gives a coat of whitewash to the Father's reality [at that time, it also served to protect the spirit of robbery of the veterans: v.39].

Indeed, the impurity does not proceed from shortcomings of form (as in façade religiosity), but from behaviour that denounces a substantial void.

That which stains is all within, and broods despite fine petitions of principle, or good manners - which cover up bad habits.

In short, what is offered is pure; what is withheld is impure (v.41).

From a spiritual point of view, only those who give themselves are without blemish; impure are those who think only of themselves in a trivial way, or who turn to their neighbour to manipulate him.

Thus, often the external norms or ideas of men do not go to the root: they fossilise.

They do not tear out or integrate from within the malign contents, the unrighteous desires - the true goals.

Dispositions devoid of inner conviction build at best seemingly impeccable people and a ritualistic world that (as it happens) turns to the most degrading corruption.

It is denoted in all the centres of power - again - all well covered by fatuous theatrical forms, and exaggerated catwalks.

In short, in order not to interrupt our thread of life, we can no longer stand there on studied and well-thought-out rules, believing that we have solved it.

Make-up does not capture the core.

In fact, even impeccable jurisdiction, or reason and intelligence, do not preserve from disheartenment, humiliation, loneliness - from what is authentic and continually surfacing.

Those forms of contract - so devious or conspicuous - do not restore a healthy balance, nor do they reach the lives of ordinary people.

It seemed to be pedagogy, but it is not: we see it.

Common religion itself sometimes lives by outward signs - often almost indecipherable or meaningless in themselves, when they flaunt, masking pyramids, and now increasingly blatant hypocrisies.

Not infrequently, the observances themselves create spiritual competition.

In doing so, they annihilate the spirit of charity and hospitality - the compendium of the Law - from which those same ancient signs were born, in the first assemblies of faith. 

Certainly, Justice plays a decisive role, but it is an existential commitment, not a cultic or scenographic one.

The 'righteous position' is for life, not for setting things right [dead things, or sophisticated and abstract things that are].

For the Gospels, one must not confuse God with precepts or ideologies of the future, if schematic and disembodied.

The Lord wants to enter into our concrete existence - and the excess of minutiae or fantasies can make us lose the fundamental orientation of his Calling, corrupting our sensitivity to the signs in which he reveals himself.

Legalism, habit, or abstruse and imported fashions can make us unable to correspond to the missionary Vocation.

They become shrouds that prevent us from serving the individual freedoms of the sick.

They make us clumsy in accompanying people so that they increase their capacity for life and character.

Why is Christ's victory His people?

Only the spirit of hospitality of the Sons in a relationship of mutual care, sensitive, able to perceive, creates the living environment that enables us to better connect our souls with the Mystery of the Hidden King, the great Meaning of our desires and His "intentions".

Here Jesus invites the Pharisees back to His Church to understand God's freedom and not to turn the Faith into just any pious, cunning, or abstract (spineless) creed.

It is not the supposed untaintedness or 'right' thinking that empowers us in his presence and makes us proceed on endless paths.

We experience Him, in the global crisis.

It is meeting Him that consecrates and makes us adequate, pure, fulfilled, already complete.

"Perfect" - for the kind of Seed we are called to plant in the world.

No more added worries that leave everyone in the worm, in torment, and with no way out.

As if even in the People of the Sons it is permissible to impose and see cages, lanes, obligatory worldviews, and padlocks everywhere.

To internalise and live the message:

What was the key moment when you felt forgiven and pure? Copying someone?

On an occasion when you experienced total gratuitousness, or deserved it?

On an occasion when you were true to yourself, or all outwardly projected?Misrepresented holiness: there is no sacred and profane in itself

Hypocritical traditions and ideal order: purity of advantage

(Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23)

Under the Herod dynasty, the sense of clan and community was crumbling.

Because of survival problems, families were forced to close in on themselves, loosen their bonds, think of their own needs.

This closure was reinforced by the religion of the time in every respect. In vv.10-12 we see an incredible example of this: those who dedicated their inheritance to the Temple could leave their parents without help!

Offence and offering: injustice and normative behaviour - a strange connection, in the apparent form of an exemplary accent.

The observance of purity norms was a factor of ordinary marginalisation for many people.

The wretched, in particular, were considered ignorant and cursed, because they were unable to comply; consequently, they lacked the consoling blessing promised to Abraham.

A daily drip that undermined the profound meaning of existing together.

In particular, ablutions were a kind of ritual during which a satisfying divarication between the sacred and the profane was celebrated - in the detachment from people and situations considered impure.

By staying away from the supposed filthiness, never could any of the unwashed be uplifted.

So the rules were not a source of peace, but of bondage. To extend a charitable hand would even have been sacrilegious.

In short, inhuman trifles were placed before the Law itself, thwarting its inclusive spirit (fraternity would have benefited the enthusiasm to exist).

Jesus could not tolerate the closed world of conformist religiosity being bent and used to ascertain the existence of others with judgement, to divide and discriminate - to annihilate relationships.

This is why the control of the Pharisees is opposed by the freedom of the disciples (v.2), who refuse to obey that which does not make sense for concrete life - where visible love feeds ideal love.

In ancient cultures, the religious and mythical view of the world led people to appreciate any reality from the category of holiness as detachment and separateness, even inaccessibility.

Purity laws indicated the conditions necessary to stand before God.

At the time of Mk some Jewish converts believed they could abandon their ancient customs and approach the pagans; others were of the opposite opinion: indeed, it would be like rejecting substantial parts of the Torah (e.g. Lev 11-16 and 17ff).

In fact, the Gospel emphasises that the problem is "in the house" (v.17 Greek text: "within the house") i.e. in the Church and among its members.

Christ must insist on teaching, now not addressed to strangers, but precisely to the habitués, incapable - unlike the crowds - of "understanding" (v.14) the abc of spiritual things.

There is no sacred and profane in itself.

In order to educate the stubborn ones still "devoid of intellect" (v.18) who consider themselves masters, the Lord does not go to just any dwelling place - but to the place where, unfortunately, expectations far removed from the people are cultivated (vv.14.17).

In short, only Jesus in Person frees the crowd of the voiceless and lost from the obsession of torments and fears, from always being on the defensive.

And even if some leaders accuse, let us learn not to feel dismay that we are not religiously 'successful' - but Firstfruits!

4. In inviting us to consider almsgiving with a more profound gaze that transcends the purely material dimension, Scripture teaches us that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20,35). When we do things out of love, we express the truth of our being; indeed, we have been created not for ourselves but for God and our brothers and sisters (cf. 2 Cor 5,15). Every time when, for love of God, we share our goods with our neighbor in need, we discover that the fullness of life comes from love and all is returned to us as a blessing in the form of peace, inner satisfaction and joy. Our Father in heaven rewards our almsgiving with His joy. What is more: Saint Peter includes among the spiritual fruits of almsgiving the forgiveness of sins: “Charity,” he writes, “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4,8). As the Lenten liturgy frequently repeats, God offers to us sinners the possibility of being forgiven. The fact of sharing with the poor what we possess disposes us to receive such a gift. In this moment, my thought turns to those who realize the weight of the evil they have committed and, precisely for this reason, feel far from God, fearful and almost incapable of turning to Him. By drawing close to others through almsgiving, we draw close to God; it can become an instrument for authentic conversion and reconciliation with Him and our brothers.

5. Almsgiving teaches us the generosity of love. Saint Joseph Benedict Cottolengo forthrightly recommends: “Never keep an account of the coins you give, since this is what I always say: if, in giving alms, the left hand is not to know what the right hand is doing, then the right hand, too, should not know what it does itself” (Detti e pensieri, Edilibri, n. 201). In this regard, all the more significant is the Gospel story of the widow who, out of her poverty, cast into the Temple treasury “all she had to live on” (Mk 12,44). Her tiny and insignificant coin becomes an eloquent symbol: this widow gives to God not out of her abundance, not so much what she has, but what she is. Her entire self.

We find this moving passage inserted in the description of the days that immediately precede Jesus’ passion and death, who, as Saint Paul writes, made Himself poor to enrich us out of His poverty (cf. 2 Cor 8,9); He gave His entire self for us. Lent, also through the practice of almsgiving, inspires us to follow His example. In His school, we can learn to make of our lives a total gift; imitating Him, we are able to make ourselves available, not so much in giving a part of what we possess, but our very selves. Cannot the entire Gospel be summarized perhaps in the one commandment of love? The Lenten practice of almsgiving thus becomes a means to deepen our Christian vocation. In gratuitously offering himself, the Christian bears witness that it is love and not material richness that determines the laws of his existence. Love, then, gives almsgiving its value; it inspires various forms of giving, according to the possibilities and conditions of each person.

[Pope Benedict, Message for Lent 2008]