God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) [19 January 2025].

*First Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (62,1-5)

How much tenderness God shows to the people of Israel who could truly feel abandoned, especially in the context of their return from exile! In fact, although they returned from Babylon in 538 B.C., the Temple was not rebuilt until 521, and a sense of abandonment crept in during this waiting period. To counter this despair, Isaiah, inspired by God, writes this splendid text to proclaim that God has not forgotten his people nor his beloved city. And soon all will know! "Yes, as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your children marry you; as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you". The prophet Isaiah certainly does not lack audacity! Twice in these few verses, loving desire appears as an expression of God's feelings towards his people. Divine love emerges in these courageous expressions: "They will no longer call you 'forsaken', nor will your land be called 'ravaged', but they will call you 'my desired' (literally: my desire is in you), and your land will be called 'married i.e. my bride', for the Lord finds in you his delight (rather his desire for love) and your land will have a bridegroom." Here is a real declaration of love! Not even a bridegroom would say more to his beloved: you shall be my bride... You shall be as beautiful as a crown, as a golden diadem in my hands... you shall be my delight. How can we not be struck by the beauty of the vocabulary and the poetry that transpires from this text? We find in it the parallelism of phrases, so characteristic of the Psalms: 'For Zion's sake I will not be silent, / for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest... You shall be a shining crown in the hand of the Lord / a royal diadem in the fingers of your God... You shall be called 'My Favourite', and your land shall be called 'Married'. For the Lord has chosen you,/ and your land shall have a bridegroom'.

This text could be called God's 'love poem' and the prophet Isaiah exercised prophetic ministry between 740 BC and 701 BC during the reign of various kings of Judah including Ozias, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah at a time of great political changes and threats mainly due to the expansion of the 'empire of the Assyrians. Isaiah was the first to have the audacity to use such language. Although God loves mankind with such great love, this was true from the beginning, yet mankind was not ready to understand him. The revelation of God as bridegroom, as well as that of God-the-Father, was only possible after several centuries of biblical history. At the beginning of the Covenant between God and his people, this notion would have been ambiguous. Other peoples too easily conceived their gods in the image of men and their family affairs. Rather, at an early stage of revelation, it was necessary to discover the One God who was totally Other than man and to accept his Covenant. It was therefore the prophet Hosea, the first to compare the people of Israel to a bride. He defined as "adulteries" the infidelities of the people, that is, their relapses into idolatry. After him, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Second Isaiah and the Third Isaiah (author of the text we are reading today) developed the theme of the wedding between God and his people; in their writings we find the whole vocabulary of the nuptial: the affectionate names, the wedding garment, the bride's crown, fidelity, but also jealousy, adultery.

Here are a few examples: Hosea writes: "You shall call me 'my husband'... I will make you my bride forever... in righteousness and in law, in faithfulness and in tenderness" (2:18.21). In the second Isaiah we read: 'Your bridegroom is the one who created you... Can you reject the woman of your youth? In my eternal fidelity I show you my tenderness." (Is 54:5...8). The most impressive text on this theme is surely the Song of Songs: it is presented as a long love dialogue, composed of seven poems. Actually, at no point are the two lovers identified, but Jewish tradition interprets it as a parable of God's love for humanity. The proof is that this text is proclaimed during the celebration of Passover, the great feast of God's covenant with his people and, through them, with all humanity. In today's passage, one of the bridegroom's favourite pastimes seems to be giving new names to his beloved. You know how important naming is in human relationships: what I cannot or do not know how to name does not exist for me.  Naming someone means already knowing them; and when the relationship with a person deepens, it is not uncommon to feel the need to give them a nickname. In couple or family life, diminutives and nicknames play an important role. Even the Bible reflects this fundamental experience of human life; the name has enormous importance, because it reveals the mystery of the person, his or her profound essence, vocation and mission. The meaning of the name of the main characters is often explained: for instance, the angel announces that Jesus' name means 'God saves', indicating that this child will save humanity in the name of God. Sometimes God changes someone's name when he entrusts him with a new mission: Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel and Simon becomes Peter. In today's text, therefore, it is God who gives new names to Jerusalem: from "forsaken" it becomes "my joy", from "ravaged land" it becomes "married". 

*Responsorial Psalm (from Ps 95/96, 1-2a, 2b-3. 7-8a, 9a-10)

This psalm invites us to contemplate the glory of God: his salvation, his wonders, his power. 'Sing to the Lord a new song... sing to the Lord, bless his name'". There is nothing surprising about this: in Israel, in fact, it is a constant habit to recall God's work throughout the centuries to deliver his people from all that hinders their happiness. From day to day Israel proclaims its salvation... from day to day Israel remembers God's works, his wonders, that is, his ceaseless work of deliverance... from day to day Israel testifies that God has delivered it first from Egypt and then from all forms of slavery. And the most terrible of all slaveries is to mistake who God is, to put one's trust in false values, in false gods that can only disappoint, in idols. Israel has the immense privilege, the extraordinary honour, the joy of knowing and proclaiming that "the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (as stated in the Jewish profession of faith, the Shema Israel). And faith in Him is man's only way to happiness. This is the message Israel conveys to the world: "Say among the nations: The Lord reigns!" 

Let us take up the expression: "Say among the nations". In biblical language, the nations or the Gentiles indicate all peoples other than Israel, the so-called goyîm, i.e. the rest of humanity, the uncircumcised, as St Paul says. In the biblical texts, the term goyîm takes on different, sometimes even contradictory meanings. Sometimes it has a decidedly negative meaning: for example, the book of Deuteronomy speaks of the "abominations of the Gentiles" and this condemnation refers to their polytheism, their religious practices in general and, in particular, human sacrifices. The chosen people must remain faithful to God without compromise, discovering the true face of the one God. For this reason, in the first phase of revelation, it is necessary to avoid any contact with the nations or peoples, perceived as a risk of idolatrous contagion. The history of Israel shows how real this risk was several times! Moreover, in the mentality of the time, where deities were seen as allies in conflicts, it was inconceivable to imagine a God who sided with all peoples at once. In this psalm, however, note that the term 'peoples' is no longer negative: the 'peoples' are all those who do not belong to the people of Israel, but who are nevertheless recipients of God's salvation, just like the chosen people. This psalm, therefore, was composed relatively late, probably after the exile in Babylon, when Israel was beginning to realise that the one God is the God of the whole universe and of all mankind, and that his salvation is not reserved for Israel.

"Announce ... to all peoples tell of his wonders". To arrive at this understanding, God led the chosen people through a long and patient pedagogical journey. Israel gradually opened its heart, accepting that its God was also the God of all people, committed to seeking the happiness of all, not just its own. The chosen people has understood that it is the elder brother, not the only son: its vocation is to pave the way for other peoples in the long march of humanity towards God. And the day will come when all peoples, without exception, will recognise God as the one God. Then, all mankind will place its trust in Him alone. The psalm expresses this universal hope: "Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and power, give to the Lord the glory of his name". 

The last verses of the psalm, which we do not read this Sunday, offer a kind of anticipation of the end of time because the day will come when all creation will celebrate the glory of God: "Let heaven rejoice! Let the earth rejoice! Let the waves of the sea quiver, / let the fields be rejoicing, and the trees of the forest dance for joy before the Lord". On that day we shall see even the trees dance! The present, however, is not easy. One must persevere in faith and testify to one's faith before the peoples/ nations, and the fight against idolatry, against false gods, is never completely won. How timely is this psalm! 

*Second Reading from the First Letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1Cor 12:4-1)

This letter to the Corinthians is twenty centuries old but surprisingly relevant today. How to remain a Christian in a world that has completely different values? How to discern, among the ideas circulating, those that are compatible with the Christian faith? How to coexist with non-Christians without failing in charity, but also without losing our identity? The world around us talks about sex and money... How can we evangelise it? These were the questions of the Christians of Corinth, newly converted in a predominantly pagan world. They are in truth the same questions we ask ourselves today, we Christians in a society that no longer emphasises the values of the gospel, and Paul's answers concern us all. He addresses divisions in the community, the problems of married life especially when spouses do not share the same faith, as well as the urgency of remaining steadfast in the face of the proliferation of new ideas and emerging new religious cults. Within each of these topics, Paul puts things in their proper place. However, as always, when dealing with concrete topics, Paul reminds us first of all where to lay the foundation, namely in Baptism. John the Baptist had already well predicted this when he spoke of the Baptism inaugurated by Christ by which we are immersed in the fire of the Spirit (Matt 3:11), and it is the Spirit who now acts in us according to our differences. Paul reiterates it: 'all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing them to each one as he wills'.  In Corinth, as in the rest of the Hellenistic world, people idolised intelligence and aspired to wisdom often through philosophy. To those who sought to attain wisdom through rigorous reasoning, Paul replies that true wisdom, which is the only knowledge that counts, is not attained through discourse, but is a gift of God given through the Spirit. There is therefore no reason to boast about it: everything is a gift. The word 'gift' (or the verb 'to give') appears no less than seven times in this text! Although such a concept exists in the Bible, Paul however takes up what Israel had already understood - namely that only God knows and reveals true wisdom - and his novelty consists in speaking of the Spirit as a Person. He thus totally detaches himself from the philosophical speculations of the time: he does not propose a new school of philosophy, but announces Someone, and the gifts distributed to the members of the Christian community are not about power or knowledge, but a new inner existence. In this passage, where the name of the Spirit recurs seven times, although addressed to the Corinthians, he does not speak of them, but exclusively of the Spirit at work in the Christian community, who with patience and constancy orients everyone towards the Father (he inspires us to say 'Abba' - Father) and towards our brothers. Paul makes it clear that everyone is given a particular manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The Corinthians, attracted by extraordinary spiritual phenomena, are thus brought back to the essential: the goal is the good of all, because the Spirit is Love in person. There are diversities of charisms, but only one is the Spirit; there are diversities of ministries, but only one is the Lord; there are diversities of operations, but only one is God, who works all things in all. And so our diversity makes us capable, each in our own way, of manifesting the one Love of God. One of the lessons of this text of Paul is to learn to rejoice in the differences that represent the many facets of what Love enables us to achieve, while respecting the uniqueness of each one. So consider the variety of races, languages, gifts, arts, inventions... such diversity is the richness of the Church and the world, provided it is lived in love. God wants humanity to be like an orchestra: one and the same inspiration, different and complementary expressions, different instruments that create a symphony as long as they all play in the same key; otherwise, you have a cacophony! The symphony Paul speaks of is the song of love that the Church is called upon to intone to the world. We could call it a 'hymn to love', just as there is the hymn to joy or the hymn to life by famous musicians. Complementarity in the Church is therefore not a matter of roles or functions to structure it with a well-defined organisation chart. It is something much more important and sublime: the mission entrusted to the Church to reveal Love. How timely is this text from St Paul in this week of prayer for Christian unity!

*From the Gospel according to John (Jn 2:1-11)

St John uses a different language from the other evangelists and one must learn to discover that important things are often said between the lines. For him, this first "sign" (as he calls it) of Jesus at Cana is of enormous relevance: it alone evokes the great mystery of God's plan for humanity, the mystery of the new creation, the mystery of the Covenant and Wedding between God and his people. The Prologue, that is, the beginning of the first chapter of his gospel, is a great meditation on this mystery, and the account of the miracle at Cana is basically the same meditation expressed, however, in the form of a narrative. These two texts, placed at the beginning of the gospel and reread in symmetrical contemplation, help us to introduce ourselves to the understanding of all that will follow. We shall therefore try to read the Wedding at Cana narrative with the Prologue in mind and in our hearts. These two texts "embrace" the "inaugural week" of Jesus' public life. A week that begins with John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan being questioned by the Pharisees about his mission while already announcing the coming of Jesus. The next day, he sees him approaching and recognises him as "the Son of God, the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit" (Jn 1:33-34). The next day (note John's precision that seems to recall the first chapter of Genesis where the sacred author each time notes: "it was evening and it was morning"), two other disciples of John the Baptist leave his group to follow Jesus, who invites them to spend the evening with him. The following day, Jesus leaves for Galilee with some disciples. In Galilee, three days later, the miracle of Cana takes place and the evangelist begins the account by saying: "On the third day there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. If we count the days from the beginning we have arrived at the "seventh day" and the reference to a week or a "seventh day" cannot be accidental because the "seventh day" always recalls the fulfilment of creation. "This was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus": we are at the end of the passage and John notes that it was the beginning; also in the Prologue he states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything was made through him and without him nothing was made of what exists'. We are here in the context of the seven days of creation, while in the wedding feast of Cana the hour of the wedding between God and humanity is noted, showing that this event takes place on the seventh day of the new creation. At Cana Jesus does not merely multiply the wine, but creates it. Just as at the beginning of all things, the Word, facing God, had created the world, now he inaugurates a new creation. And it is a wedding! The parallelism then continues: on the sixth day of Creation, God had completed his work by creating the human couple in his image; on the seventh day of the new creation, Jesus participates in a wedding feast and is a way of saying that God's creative project is ultimately a covenant project, a wedding project. (Most probably the first reading - Isaiah 62, which speaks of Israel as the "joy of God" and of God as the bridegroom of his people - was placed precisely in relation to this Gospel page).  The Church Fathers saw in the miracle of Cana the fulfilment of the divine promise: here God's wedding with humanity begins.  But what does the term 'the hour' mean?  For John it is a symbolic term of crucial value because it refers to the Hour in which God's plan is fulfilled in Christ. When Jesus says to Mary: "Woman, what do you want of me? My hour has not yet come' he is thinking of his greatest mission: to bring about the wedding between God and humanity. The phrase (Woman, what do you want of me?) is surprising and has generated much discussion. In Greek, the phrase means "What is between you and me?", i.e. "you cannot understand". Here Jesus is confronted with the mystery of his mission: should he perform a miracle, create wine, and thus reveal his divine nature? In this scene one might catch an echo of the temptations in the synoptic Gospels: in the desert, Jesus had refused to turn stones into bread, because that would have been a miracle for himself. At Cana, however, he creates wine for the joy of others. The Son of God performs miracles only for the good of humanity. Then there is the reference to the "third day" which is certainly not accidental. It refers to the resurrection and links Cana to Easter. It is there, in the death and resurrection of Christ, that the Covenant will be definitively sealed. When John says: "And he manifested his glory", he alludes to the definitive glory of the Resurrection. In this perspective, Cana becomes the first visible sign of Christ's glory, a prelude to the full glory of the Risen One. 

A few final notes on a text that would merit much longer reflection

1 - "On the third day": by itself, this precision is certainly a message; again, it is not a simple anecdotal entry to fill a diary, but a theological meditation: the memory of the disciples is forever marked by a certain third day, that of the Resurrection. It thus refers us to the other end, so to speak, of Jesus' public life: to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. It is a way for John to tell us that there, and only there, God's Covenant with humanity will be definitively sealed and his wedding with humanity will be celebrated. Moreover, the last phrase, "He manifested his glory", is also an allusion to the Resurrection. In the Prologue John said: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory"... . It was precisely at Cana that the disciples first saw the glory of Jesus, in anticipation of the final manifestation of the glory of God in the face of the Christ, dead and risen.

2. The evangelist John specifies that Cana is in Galilee, which broadens the perspective considerably: Galilee, traditionally, is considered the land of the pagans, a crossroads of peoples; Isaiah called it "the land of the shadow, the Galilee of the Gentiles". God therefore marries the whole of humanity, not just a privileged few.

3. "Woman, what do you want of me?"  Let us not try to minimise the obvious vividness of this reaction of the Son towards his mother. In Hebrew, this phrase generally expresses a difference of opinion, sometimes even hostility (Jdc 11:12; Mk 1:24; 2 Sam 16:10; 2 Sam 19:23); however, let us recognise that these are extreme cases. Jesus' reflection might be more like that of the widow of Sarepta towards Elijah at the time of her son's death (1 Kings 17:18): she considers the prophet's presence as an inappropriate intervention. Nevertheless, the difficulty remains: does Jesus, meek and humble of heart, lack respect for his mother? Indeed, perhaps there is here an implicit admission of a genuine inner conflict on the part of the Son concerning his mission. He who did not allow himself to perform miracles for his own benefit (such as turning stones into bread) should here turn water into wine? Here we touch upon the depths of Christ's mystery, a mystery that he himself gradually discovered: being fully human, he had to grow little by little, like each of us, in the understanding of his mission.

4. The water jars at Cana are made of stone, and John intentionally emphasises this: the earthenware jugs were used for drinking water, while the stone jars were intended for water for ritual ablutions. It is precisely this water, symbol of the covenant, that was transformed into the wedding wine.

5. The disciples will only discover the miracle later, because the only ones who are really aware of the fact, as St John points out, are the servants (verse 9): they knew it, so to speak, "in their flesh", because it was they who drew the water, who carried it, and all this in blind obedience, without perhaps understanding what the water would be used for. Of course, it should not surprise us too much that the poor, in this case the last - the servants - are the first to be aware of God's plan!

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Here are the comments on this Sunday's readings  

Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus Year C [12 January 2025].

*Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (40, 1-5.9-11)

This is the beginning of one of the most beautiful passages in the Book of Isaiah, called the "Booklet of the Consolation of Israel" because the first words are: "Console, console my people, says your God". This sentence alone is already surprising, almost unexpected good news for those who know how to listen to it.  The expressions "my people" and "your God" recall the Covenant and express the awareness that even if the relationship between God and his people is in crisis, love is not finished. Indeed, this was precisely the concern of the exiles. During the exile in Babylon, that is, between 587 and 538 BC, one could ask: has God abandoned his people? Has he renounced his covenant? Has he grown weary of our repeated infidelities at all levels? The main objective of Isaiah's Book of Consolation is to affirm that this is not the case, and God reiterates again: 'You shall be my people and I will be your God'.

I will just follow the text with a few comments: 

+"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her tribulation is fulfilled," says Isaiah. This means that slavery in Babylon is over; it is therefore a proclamation of deliverance and return to Jerusalem.

+"His guilt is discounted, for he has received from the hand of the Lord double for all his sins". According to the law of Israel, a thief had to return double the amount of stolen goods (e.g. two animals for one). Speaking in the past tense of this double punishment was a figurative way of saying that deliverance was near, as the punishment had been served. The 'sins' of Jerusalem and its 'crime', mentioned by the prophet, were all the breaches of the Covenant: idol worship, violations of the Sabbath and other prescriptions of the Law, but above all the numerous failures of justice and, most serious of all, contempt for the poor. The Jewish people always considered exile to be the consequence of all these infidelities, since at the time it was still believed that God punished the guilty.

+"A voice cries out" (v. 3): the author of this booklet does not tell us who he is and presents himself as the voice crying out from God; traditionally he is called the second Isaiah. "A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord".  Once, in the history of Israel, God prepared in the wilderness the road that led the people from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to the Promised Land; well, says the prophet, just as the Lord delivered his people from Egyptian oppression, today he will deliver them from Babylonian oppression.

+The road to freedom. "Clear in the steppe the way for our God. Let every valley be raised, every mountain and hill be lowered; let the rough ground be turned into a plain, and the steep into a valley'. It was the custom of the victors to force the vanquished to do enormous levelling work in order to prepare a triumphal way for the return of the victorious king. Worse still: once a year, in Babylon, during the feast of the god Marduk, the Jewish slaves had to perform this levelling work to prepare the passage of the procession with the king and the statues of the idol at its head. For the believing Jews, it was a deep humiliation and pain. Now Isaiah, charged with announcing the end of slavery and the return home, says: this time, it will be in the wilderness between Babylon and Jerusalem that you will draw a path. And it will not be for a pagan idol, but for you and your God who will guide you. 

+"Then shall the glory of the Lord be revealed, and all men together shall see it, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken." One could translate: God will finally be recognised as God and all will see that He has kept His promises.

+"Rise up on a high mountain, you who announce glad tidings to Zion". "Lift up your voice, fear not, proclaim to the city of Judah". Note the parallelism of these two phrases: a perfect parallelism, intended to emphasise this Good News addressed to Zion or Jerusalem, i.e. to the people, not to the city. The content of the Good News immediately follows: 'Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with power; his arm exercises dominion. Behold, he has his reward with him, and his reward goes before him". 

+"Like a shepherd he shepherds his flock and with his arm he gathers; he carries the lambs on his breast and gently leads the mother sheep". Here we find in Isaiah the image dear to another contemporary prophet, Ezekiel. The juxtaposition of these two images (a triumphant king, a shepherd) may come as a surprise, but the ideal of the king in Israel encompassed both aspects: a good king was a shepherd full of care for his people, but also a king triumphant over his enemies, precisely to protect his people. This text resonated as extraordinary news to Isaiah's contemporaries in the 6th century BC. Five or six centuries later, when John the Baptist saw Jesus of Nazareth approaching the Jordan to receive Baptism, these words of Isaiah resounded in him, and he was seized with a dazzling clarity: Here is the one who will definitively gather the Father's flock... Here is the one who will turn the crooked paths of men into paths of light... Here is the one who will restore the dignity of God's people... Here is the one in whom the glory (i.e. the presence) of the Lord is revealed. The time of the prophets is over, now God himself is in our midst

*Responsorial Psalm (103 (104),1c-3a.3bc-4.24-25.27-28.29-30)

Psalm 103/104, from which we read extracts today, can be compared with the hymn of Pharaoh Akhenaton. It is a prayer from Egypt: a hymn addressed to the sun by King Amenhotep IV, Nefertiti's husband. It is known that this pharaoh devoted a significant part of his energies to the establishment of a new religion: he replaced the cult of Amun (whose clergy seemed too powerful to him) with that of the God Aton, i.e. the sun. On this occasion, he took the new name Akhenaten. His prayer was found engraved on a tomb in Tell El-Amarna, Egypt (on the banks of the Nile). The text is worth reading: 

"You rise splendidly on the horizon of heaven, Living Sun who lives from the origin. You shine on the horizon of the east, you have filled every land with your beauty. You are splendid, great, brilliant, You rise above all the earth. How many are your works, mysterious to our eyes! Unique God, you have no equal, you created the earth according to your heart. Beings are formed under your hand as you willed them. You shine and they live; you set and they die. You have the duration of life in yourself; they live by you. Eyes turn to your beauty until you hide, and all work ends when you set in the west."

It is evident that this hymn, addressed in Egypt to the sun-god, closely resembles Psalm 103/104, composed in Israel. However, the Egyptian text is older: it dates back to the 14th century BC, a time when the Jews were slaves in Egypt. It can therefore be assumed that they heard this poem addressed to the sun-god, and adapted it by transforming it in the light of their new religion, that of the God who had liberated them from Egypt. Although the two texts resemble each other, they still differ greatly and especially on two fundamental points:

1. The God of Israel is personal and unique, who offered his people a covenant relationship. He is a God with a plan for humanity, a God who wants man to be free. For example, the psalm begins and ends with the acclamation: "Bless the Lord, my soul," a typical expression of the covenant between the people of Israel and their God. Furthermore, the name used to designate God is the famous covenant name, represented by the four letters YHVH, which are not pronounced but recall God's eternal presence with his people. This name is translated in the text as 'Lord'.

2. God is the creator, the sun is a creature. In the biblical view, in contrast to the prayer of Pharaoh Akhenaton, God alone is God and the sun is no more than a creature without a will of its own. In other verses of the psalm, it is stated: 'You made the moon to mark the times and the sun to know the hour of setting. Spread the darkness and the night comes' (v.v. 19-20).

In other words, if the sun has any power, it is God, and God alone, who has given it to it. Similarly, in the book of Genesis, to emphasise the subordinate role of the sun and the moon, the author of the first chapter of Genesis does not even mention them, but simply calls them: "The two great luminaries: the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night" (Genesis 1:16). In essence, they are instruments of creation.

In Israel, Psalm 103/104 was sung to praise God the creator, king of all creation. It is particularly evident in the phrase: "You send forth your breath: they are created; you renew the face of the earth", which recalls the text from Genesis: "The Lord God fashioned man from the dust of the ground; he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).

To express that God is king, court language is used: "You are clothed in majesty and splendour, wrapped in light as in a cloak!" As if God were wearing a royal cloak! Elsewhere, the psalmist exclaims:

"You are so great, Lord, my God!" a traditional royal acclamation in Israel.

One must then consider this psalm in connection with the Baptism of Jesus that we celebrate today. When the liturgy proposes this psalm for the feast of the Baptism of Christ, at first sight it may seem a surprising juxtaposition. However, the connection emerges in two aspects: 1.Proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God: During the Baptism, a voice from heaven declares: "You are the beloved Son; in you I have put my pleasure."

2. New creation: The episode of Baptism recalls the breath of God that hovered over the waters in Genesis (Genesis 1:2). When Jesus is baptised, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, marking the beginning of the new creation. 

*Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to Titus (2:11-14 ; 3:4-7)

I repeat here what I have already published commenting on this same letter at Christmas in both the night and dawn masses. St Paul entrusted his disciple Titus with the responsibility for the Christian communities in Crete. The task was not easy, as the Cretans had a very bad reputation at the time; a local poet, Epimenides of Knossos, in the 6th century B.C., called them 'Cretans, always liars, ugly beasts, idlers'. Paul, quoting him, confirms: "This testimony is true" (Titus 1:12-13). Despite this, Paul and Titus tried to turn these flawed Cretans into Christians. The letter to Titus contains advice from the founder of the community to the one who is now in charge of it. It includes very concrete recommendations for the members of the community: old and young, men and women, masters and slaves. Even those in charge are not neglected; Paul insists on the seriousness of the life required of them, making it clear that this was not to be taken for granted (Titus 1:7-8). And the series of advice the postulator gives highlights the progress still to be made. For Paul, Christian morality is rooted in the event that marks the turning point in world history: the birth of Christ. When Paul states 'the grace of God was manifested', he means 'God became man'. From then on, our way of being human is transformed: "He saved us, not by any righteous works we had done, but by his mercy, by a washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The transformation of the whole of humanity is on the agenda, for God's plan, foreseen from all eternity, is to gather us all around Jesus Christ, overcoming divisions, rivalries and hatreds, to become one man. Paul says: "While waiting for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). 'In expectation' implies that, sooner or later, this will come to pass.

This certainty and expectation are the driving force behind the entire liturgy: during the celebration, Christians are not looking back, but are already one man standing, facing the future. When the end of the world comes, they will be able to say: "And they stood up as one man. And this man's name was Jesus Christ'. 

A historical note: On the birth of a Christian community in Crete, some scholars speculate the following: according to the Acts of the Apostles, the ship carrying Paul as a prisoner awaiting trial in Rome stopped at a place called 'Bei Porti' (Kaloi Limenes) in the south of the island. However, Luke does not mention the emergence of a community there, and Titus was not part of the voyage. It is known that, after many vicissitudes, this journey ended as planned in Rome, where Paul was imprisoned for two years in conditions akin to a 'guarded residence'. It is assumed that this Roman imprisonment ended with a release. Paul would then embark on a fourth missionary journey, during which he evangelised Crete. For reasons of style, vocabulary, and even chronological verisimilitude, many experts on the Pauline letters believe that this letter to Titus (as well as the two letters to Timothy) was only written at the end of the first century, some thirty years after Paul's death, but in fidelity to his thought and to support his work. Regardless of when this letter was written, it is clear that the difficulties of the Cretans persisted.

*Gospel according to Saint Luke (3:15-22)

 All three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) narrate the event of the Baptism of Christ, each in their own way. John, on the other hand, does not narrate it directly, but makes reference to it. Luke has a particular approach, which I will try to highlight here. For example, his text begins with 'While all the people were being baptised': Luke is the only one to mention that the people were being baptised; he is also the only one to mention Jesus' prayer: 'While all the people were being baptised and, having also received baptism, he stood praying'; this juxtaposition is typical of Luke: man among men, Jesus does not cease to be at the same time united with the Father. Luke wants to emphasise Jesus' humanity so much that, only in his Gospel, curiously enough, is the account of the baptism immediately followed by a genealogy. Unlike the genealogy placed at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, which starts from Abraham and descends to Jesus via David and Joseph, the genealogy of Jesus in Luke starts from him and goes back to his ancestors; he was (as was thought, Luke says) son of Joseph, son of David, son of Abraham... But Luke goes even further back: he tells us that Jesus is 'son of Adam, son of God'. This clearly indicates that, by the time his Gospel was written, the early Christians had understood this privileged relationship of Jesus of Nazareth with God: he was the Son of God in the true sense of the term. "You are my Son, the beloved," says the voice from heaven. The following is not exclusive to Luke: Matthew and Mark use similar terms. While Jesus was praying, 'heaven was opened': in three words, a decisive event! Communication between heaven and earth is re-established; the prayer of the believing people has been heard; for centuries, this was the expectation of the Jewish people. "Oh, if thou wouldest rend the heavens and descend, before thee the mountains would shake, as fire burns up the stubble, as fire makes the waters boil," said Isaiah (Is 63:19-64:1). The waters are present, for this takes place at the Jordan; fire is evoked: 'He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire', said John the Baptist. And Luke continues: 'And the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove'. Here the Spirit is not associated with the violence of fire, but with the dove, a symbol of gentleness and fragility. This is not a contradiction: strength and violence... gentleness and fragility, such is love, such is the Spirit.

The four evangelists mention this manifestation of the Spirit in the form of a dove: in the three synoptic Gospels, the expressions are very similar: Matthew and Mark say that the Spirit descends "like a dove", while in Luke "the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form, like a dove". In the Gospel of John, it is John the Baptist who later recounts the scene: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptise with water had told me: 'He on whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, it is he who baptises in the Holy Spirit'. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God' (Jn 1:32-34).

This representation of the dove is certainly very significant, since all four evangelists reported it. What could it evoke for them? In the Old Testament, it evokes first of all the Creation: the Genesis text does not mention the dove, it simply says "the spirit of God hovered over the waters" (Gen 1:2). But in Jewish meditation, it was learned to recognise in this breath the Spirit of God himself; and a rabbinic commentary on Genesis states: "The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters like a dove hovering over its young, but not touching them" (Talmud of Babylon). Moreover, the dove evoked the Covenant between God and mankind, renewed after the Flood; one is reminded of Noah's release of the dove: it was she who indicated to Noah that the Flood was over and that life could resume. Even more significantly, the beloved of the Song of Songs calls his beloved "my dove, in the clefts of the rock... my sister, my friend, my dove, my all pure" (Ct 2:14; 5:2). Now, the Jewish people read the Song of Songs as God's declaration of love to humanity. We are thus at the dawn of a new era: new Creation, new Covenant.

At that moment, says Luke, "a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son the beloved, in you I have put my pleasure'". There is no doubt that this voice is that of God himself: for a long time, the people of Israel no longer had prophets, but the rabbis affirmed that nothing prevents God from revealing himself directly and that his voice, coming from the heavens, groans like a dove. Now, this phrase "there came a voice from heaven: 'You are my Son the Beloved: in you I have set my delight'" was not new to Jewish ears: it was all the more solemn because they were the words with which the prophets spoke of the Messiah. At that moment, John the Baptist understood: the dove of the Spirit designated the Messiah. A question arises: why did Jesus, who had not sinned, ask to be baptised? One might answer that the opposite would have been surprising. How could he have dissociated himself from the great movement of the eager conversion crowds that flocked around the Baptist? Moreover, Luke certainly had in mind the Servant Songs from the second book of Isaiah: "He was numbered among the evildoers" (Is 53:12). Luke himself mentions this in the heart of the Passion (Lk 22:37).

Jesus' baptism has a profound meaning: although He is without sin, He undergoes this rite to identify Himself with sinful humanity and to fulfil all justice. This gesture prefigures His mission as Redeemer, which He will bring to fulfilment through His passion, death and resurrection. Moreover, Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry and is a manifestation of the Trinity, with the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon Jesus, the beloved son of the Father.

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

With fresh wishes for this New Year, here is the commentary on the readings for the Solemnity of the Epiphany 

Epiphany of the Lord [6 January 2025]

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (60:1-6)

The reference to the symbols of gold, frankincense and myrrh, present in this text of the prophet Isaiah, made it chosen for today's feast of the Epiphany of the Lord with obvious connection to the gifts of the Magi, but there is much more. Notice all the expressions of light that are in this passage: 'Clothe thyself with light, for thy light cometh, the glory of the Lord shineth upon thee' ... (as the sun rises) upon thee shineth the Lord, his glory shineth upon thee ... the nations shall walk in thy light, kings in the brightness of thy rising. In short, your light, the splendour of your dawn will make you radiant. Contrary to what one might imagine, as is often the case with prophets who cultivate hope, we must immediately deduce that the general mood at the time was rather gloomy. Why was the general mood gloomy, and what did the prophet suggest to invite the people to hope? As for the mood, let us look at the context: this text is part of the last chapters of the book of Isaiah; we are in the years 525-520 BC, that is, about fifteen or twenty years after the return from exile in Babylon. The deportees had returned to their homeland, and it was believed that happiness would be established, but this long-awaited return did not fulfil all expectations. There were those who, having remained in the country, had experienced the period of war and occupation; the exiles who had returned from exile hoped to regain their place and their possessions. Since the exile lasted fifty years, those who had left had died there and the survivors who returned home were their children or grandchildren. This should not have made reunions any easier, especially since those who returned could not claim their parents' inheritance because, precisely because of the long period of fifty years, the property of the absentees and exiles had been occupied and others had taken possession of it. Moreover, many foreigners had settled in the city of Jerusalem and throughout the country and had introduced other customs, other religions. It was evident that this mass of such different people was not an ideal climate for living together. The first cause of disagreement was the rebuilding of the Temple. Since their return from exile, authorised in 538 by King Cyrus, the first returnees, who formed the so-called 'community of return', had re-established the ancient altar of the Temple in Jerusalem and had resumed worship as in the past. At the same time, they wanted to start rebuilding the Temple, but some people considered heretical wanted to intervene. They were a mixture of Jews who had remained in the country and foreign pagan peoples settled there by the occupier mixed together even through marriages who had taken up customs judged heretical by the Jews returning from Exile, and for this reason the 'community of return' refused that the Temple of the One God should be built by people who would later celebrate other cults there. This refusal was badly received and those who had been rejected opposed it by all means: the result was the halting of work and the waning of the dream of rebuilding the Temple. As the years passed, discouragement grew and spread.  Sadness and discouragement, however, are not worthy of the people who are bearers of God's promises, and that is why Isaiah together with the prophet Haggai decided to awaken their compatriots by inviting them not to feel sorry for themselves and to set to work to rebuild the Temple.  Knowing this context, Isaiah's almost triumphant language surprises us, but it is the usual language in prophets. If they promise all this light, it is because the people are morally down and it is in the darkest night. Yet it is precisely during the night that the signs of the dawning of the day are scrutinised, and the role of the prophet is to restore courage by announcing the dawn of the new day. It is clear: the more the prophet insists on the theme of light, the more it means that the people are oppressed by the darkness of discouragement. To lift their spirits, Isaiah and Haggai insist on a single argument that is fundamental for the Jews: Jerusalem is the Holy City, chosen by God to make the sign of his presence dwell there. God himself made a commitment to King Solomon, deciding that "here shall be my Name".  We can thus summarise and actualise Isaiah's message: "You are in a tunnel, in the deepest darkness, but at the end of the tunnel light awaits you. Remember the promise: the Day is coming when all will recognise in Jerusalem the Holy City'.  So do not let yourselves be discouraged and get to work, devote all your strength to rebuilding the Temple as you have promised. In all times when one feels discouraged by difficulties and is groping in the darkness of uncertainty, prophets are needed to awaken the courage of hope. Isaiah makes this clear with determination and this is his reasoning: when one is a believer, even the darkest darkness cannot stifle hope. And here it is not a matter of a promise linked to a political triumph, but of God's promise: one day the whole of humanity will finally be reunited in perfect harmony in the Holy City. 

*Responsorial Psalm (71/72) 

This psalm makes us witness the coronation of a new king, when the priests pronounce prayers over him that collect the wishes and dreams of the people at the beginning of each new reign. They wish for political power for the king, peace and justice, happiness, wealth and prosperity for all, and the chosen people have the advantage of knowing that these dreams of men coincide with God's own plan. However, the last verse of the psalm, which is not part of today's liturgy, changes its tone: it no longer speaks of the earthly king, but of God: 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, he alone performs wonders! Blessed be his glorious name forever, may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen! Amen!" And it is precisely this last verse that offers the key to understanding the entire psalm composed and sung after the exile in Babylon (thus between 500 and 100 BC), at a time when there was no longer a king in Israel. The vows and prayers are therefore not about a king in the flesh, but about the future king promised by God, the Messiah-King. And since this is a promise from God, one can be sure that it will come true. The entire Bible is shot through with this indestructible hope: human history has a purpose, a meaning where the term 'meaning' means two things: both 'significance' and 'direction'. God has a single plan that inspires all the events of the Bible and takes on different names according to the different authors: it is the "Day of God" for the prophets, the "kingdom of heaven" for the evangelist Matthew, the "design of his benevolence (eudokia)" for St Paul (Eph 1:9-10). God loves humanity and tirelessly re-proposes his project of happiness. A project that will be realised by the messiah who is invoked whenever the psalms are sung in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Psalm 71 is the description of the ideal king, whom Israel has been waiting for for centuries: when Jesus is born, about 1000 years have passed since the prophet Nathan went to King David on God's side and made him the promise of which our psalm speaks. (cf. 2 Sam 7:12-16). From century to century, the promise has been reiterated and better specified. The certainty of God's faithfulness to his promises made it possible to discover little by little all its richness and consequences; if this king really deserved the title of son of God, then he would be in the image of God, king of justice and peace. At every coronation of a new king, the promise was repeated about him and one would dream again, but the Jewish people still wait, and it must be acknowledged that the ideal kingdom has not yet seen the light of day on earth. One would almost end up believing that it is only a utopia. Believers, however, know that it is not a utopia but a promise from God, hence a certainty. And the entire Bible is shot through with this certainty, this invincible hope that God's plan will be realised. It is the miracle of faith: faced with this promise, each time disappointed, two different reactions are possible: the non-believer says 'I told you so, it will never happen'; the believer resolutely affirms 'patience, for God has promised it, he cannot deny himself', as St Paul recalls (2 Tim 2:13).  Today, the Jewish people sing this psalm in the expectation of the Messiah-King, and in certain synagogues, Jews express their impatience to see the messiah by reciting this profession of faith by Moses Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher, physician and jurist (1135-1204) from Toledo in Spain: 'I believe with sure faith that the messiah will come, and even if he is late in coming, in spite of everything, I will wait until the day of his coming'.  We, Christians, apply this to Jesus Christ and it seems to us that the Magi who came from the East have begun to realise the promise: 'The kings of Tarsis and the islands will bring gifts, the kings of Sheba and Seba will offer tribute... All kings will bow down before him, all nations will serve him. And the day is not far off when all mankind will welcome Christ and the kingdom of his love will be realised.

*Second Reading, from the letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (3:2-6)

This text is taken from the third chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, and in the first chapter Paul used the famous expression "the loving design of his will" (v.5), "making known to us the mystery of his will" (v 9). We find here the word "mystery" which for St Paul is not a secret that God jealously guards; on the contrary, it is his intimacy, into which he lets us enter. Paul explains further by saying: "By revelation the mystery has been made known to me": the mystery is the plan of love that God progressively reveals. The whole of biblical history is a long, slow and patient pedagogy that God uses to introduce his people into this mystery of his, into his intimacy. Experience shows that a child cannot be taught everything at once; it must be educated patiently, day by day and according to circumstances. One cannot give theoretical lessons in advance about life, death, marriage or family. The child discovers the family by living with parents, grandparents and siblings: when the family celebrates a marriage or a birth, when it faces bereavement, the child experiences these events with relatives who, little by little, accompany it in its discovery of life. God used the same pedagogy with his people, revealing himself progressively. This revelation with Christ took a decisive step so that history is divided into two periods, before Christ and after Christ, and the apostle explains that this mystery "was not manifested to men of previous generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" and makes it even clearer that the mystery he is talking about is Christ himself, the centre of the world and history, and the whole universe will one day be united in him, as the members are united to the head. In the phrase "to bring all things back to Christ, the one head" (1:10), the Greek word we translate as head means precisely the head. It is also really about the whole universe, and Paul specifies that "the nations are called in Christ Jesus, to share the same inheritance, to form the same body, and to be partakers of the same promise through the gospel". In other words we can say that the inheritance is Christ, the Promise is Christ, the Body is Christ, God's plan of love is for Christ to be the centre of the world and for the whole universe to be gathered in him. When we say in the Lord's Prayer, 'Thy will be done', we are speaking of this divine plan and, by repeating this invocation, we are impregnating ourselves more and more with the desire for the Day when this plan will be fully realised. Paul explains that this project concerns the whole of humanity, not just the Jewish people: it is the universalism of God's plan, a universal dimension progressively discovered in the Bible and well rooted in the people of Israel, since the promise of the blessing of all humanity is traced back to Abraham: "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen 12:3). The passage from Isaiah that we read in the first reading of the Feast of the Epiphany is exactly along these lines. Obviously, if a prophet like Isaiah saw fit to insist on it, it is because people tended to forget it. Similarly, at the time of Christ, if Paul specifies that 'the nations are called in Christ Jesus to share in the same inheritance, to form the same body, and to be partakers of the same promise through the gospel', it is because this was not taken for granted. We have to make an imaginative effort: we are by no means in the same situation as Paul's contemporaries; for us, in the twenty-first century, this is self-evident: most of us are not of Jewish origin and find it normal that we all share in the salvation brought by the Messiah. After two thousand years of Christianity, we know that Israel remains the chosen people because, as St Paul says elsewhere, 'God cannot deny himself', but we believe that we too are in this plan called to witness to the gospel in the world. At the time of Christ, however, the situation was different. Jesus was born within the Jewish people: this was the logic of God's plan and the election of Israel. The Jews were the chosen people, chosen by God to be apostles, witnesses and instruments of salvation for all mankind. The Jews who became Christians sometimes had difficulty accepting the admission of former pagans into their communities, and St Paul reminds them that even pagans can now be apostles and witnesses of salvation. Moreover, the episode of the Magi, narrated by Matthew in the Gospel of the Epiphany, tells us exactly the same thing. The last words of this second reading resound like an invitation: "the nations are called in Christ Jesus to share in the same inheritance, to form the same body and to be sharers in the same promise through the gospel". Certainly God awaits our collaboration in his plan of love: the Magi then saw a star and set out. For so many of our contemporaries, there may not be a star in the sky, but we are the witnesses of Christ and therefore in need of becoming full of light and joy. 

*From the Gospel according to Matthew ( 2:1-12)

First of all a historical observation: the episode of the Magi narrated by the evangelist Matthew gives us one of the rare clues as to the exact date of Jesus' birth. The date of Herod the Great's death is certain: 4 BC (he lived from 73 to 4 BC), and since he had all children under the age of two killed, these were children born between 6 and 4 BC. Therefore, Jesus was probably born between 6 and 5 BC. The miscalculation occurred in the 6th century, when a monk, Dionysius the Lesser, rightly decided to count the years from the birth of Jesus, and no longer from the foundation of Rome. At that time, as can also be deduced from other historical sources, 

the expectation of the Messiah was very much alive and was spoken of everywhere. Everyone prayed to God to hasten his coming, and some Jews thought that he would be a king: a descendant of David who would reign on the throne of Jerusalem, after having driven out the Romans and definitively established peace, justice and fraternity in Israel. Others more optimistically even hoped that this happiness would extend to the whole world. In this sense, several converging Old Testament prophecies were cited: first of all, that of Balaam in the Book of Numbers. I remember it: when the tribes of Israel were approaching the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, crossing the plains of Moab (today in Jordan), the king of Moab, Balak, had summoned Balaam (a pagan prophet and soothsayer) to curse these invaders. But, inspired by God, Balaam, instead of cursing, had pronounced prophecies of happiness and glory for Israel, saying in particular: "I see it, I contemplate it: from Jacob a star rises, from Israel a sceptre rises" (Num 24:17). The king of Moab was furious, because he had interpreted this prophecy as the announcement of his future defeat against Israel. But in Israel, in the following centuries, this beautiful promise had been carefully conveyed, going so far as to think that the Messiah's reign would be announced by the appearance of a star. This is why King Herod, consulted by the Magi about a star, took the matter very seriously. Another prophecy concerning the Messiah is that of Micah: 'And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, art not indeed the least among the chief towns of Judah: for out of thee shall come forth a leader who shall be the shepherd of my people Israel'. A prophecy perfectly in line with God's promise to David, according to which his dynasty would never die out and would bring the country the long-awaited happiness.

The Magi probably did not know all these things: they were astrologers and had set out simply because they had seen a new star rise. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they inquired with the local authorities. And it is here that we encounter the first surprise of Matthew's account: on the one hand, the Magi, pagans who have no preconceptions, are looking for the Messiah and will eventually find him by looking at the star visible to all. On the other hand, there are those who know the Scriptures, the scribes of Israel, who can quote them without error and can reveal their meaning... provided, however, that they themselves allow themselves to be guided by the Scriptures, but unfortunately they do not move a finger; they will not even go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and thus will not meet the Child in the manger. It is indeed a provocation: those who waited for the Messiah like the scribes fail to see and therefore do not meet the Messiah, while the magi who are strangers to the scriptures allow themselves to be guided by the star, which they all saw, and arrive at the meeting with Jesus.  As for Herod, it is a different story. Let us put ourselves in his shoes: he is the king of the Jews, recognised as such by the Roman power. He is very proud of his title and fiercely jealous of anyone who might tarnish it. Let us not forget that he had several members of his family murdered, including his own sons. Whenever someone became a little too popular, Herod had him eliminated out of jealousy. And now a rumour spreads through the city: foreign astrologers have made a long journey and say: 'We have seen a quite exceptional star rise; we know that it heralds the birth of a child-king... just as exceptional. Surely the true king of the Jews has been born!". We can imagine Herod's fury and anguish. Thus, when St Matthew says: 'Herod was distraught and with him all Jerusalem', this is surely a very delicate way of expressing himself. Obviously, Herod could not show his anger; he had to know how to manoeuvre: his goal was to get some information about this child, a potential rival to be eliminated. So he first inquired about the location.  Matthew writes that he summoned the chief priests and scribes to ask them where the Messiah would be born. And this is where Micah's prophecy intervenes: the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Herod also inquired about the age of the child, because he already had a plan in mind to eliminate him. He summoned the Magi to ask them the precise moment when the star had appeared. We do not know their answer, but subsequent events allow us to deduce it: Herod ordered all children under the age of two to be killed, thus taking a wide margin. Most probably, in the account of the visit of the Magi, Matthew already gives us a summary of the whole life of Jesus: from the very beginning, in Bethlehem, he encountered the hostility and anger of the political and religious authorities. They did not recognise him as the Messiah, treated him as an impostor and eventually eliminated him by crucifying him as an evildoer. Yet, he was indeed the Messiah. A great lesson in faith for all! It is really true: only those who seek God sincerely and without preconceptions arrive, like the Magi, to meet Him and enter into the plan of His infinite Mercy

N.B. I attach this prayer taken from the prayer booklet of the Holy Trinity Mercy Sanctuary in Maccio - Como

PRAYER TO THE HOLY TRINITY FOR THE GIFT OF FAITH

Lord, sustain my Faith!

O My Lord, O My God

with deepest faith I am prostrate here to Thee.

Thou art Hope Certain in whom I am made safe!

Thou art Mercy, in Thee all things draw me!

Thou art Charity, Thou all-given to me!

Thou art Eternal Love in whom my heart is quenched!

For this immense Gift

Thou who art All and to me Thou givest me All,

Of the darkness of my night the Light pierces the veil,

And I sing and pray and cry, with as much faith as I can:

I believe, I believe

In thee One and Triune God, my One Lord!

Thou, Father, Thou, Beginning, who art the Source of it;

Thou, Son, Eternal Word, by Whom it grows;

Thou, Divine Spirit, Who confirmest me in it.

Thou, Most Holy Trinity, Impenetrable Mystery of Thee Only God,

in the Holy Sacrifice of the God who becomes Son,

grant that I may always find Food, Comfort and Strength

and Water that purifies,

to make me steadfast and holy,

In Thee who art the Way, the Truth and the Life,

By the sure hand of Virgo Purissima

Who to Thee, and by Thee for me, Thou Amor, Mother didst make,

Firm and secure in abiding

In the bosom of thy Holy and Beloved Bride,

the Faith that, in the Son, unites me and makes a gift to Thee!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

1 January 2025 on the eighths of Christmas, Most Holy Mary Mother of God 

First Reading from the Book of Numbers (6,22-27)

*The Lord bless you

To open the new calendar year that follows the Gregorian civil calendar, in use almost all over the world, the beautiful blessing was chosen, which in Israel the priests, starting with Aaron and his sons, used to bless the people during liturgical ceremonies in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is a formula that is now also part of the Christian heritage: taken from the Book of Numbers, it is in fact included among the solemn blessings proposed for the conclusion of the Mass. Notice how this blessing closes: "So they shall put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them" (v.27). On closer inspection, this is a way of expressing oneself, since, in reality, God's name is never pronounced out of respect for him. The name represents the person himself and pronouncing his name is a legal act that implies a taking of possession, but also a commitment to protection. For instance, when a warrior conquers a city, he is said to pronounce his name on it; similarly, on the Jewish wedding day, the husband's name is pronounced on the wife even if she does not bear her husband's name, and this implies ownership and a promise of vigilance.  When God reveals his name, he makes himself accessible to the prayer of his people, and invoking God's name normally constitutes a guarantee of blessing. There is such a strong bond between God and his people that offences directed against God's people constitute blasphemy against his name, they are a personal insult. This is why we better understand Jesus' words: 'As often as you did these things to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me' (Mt 25:40). With this blessing, then, we want to say today that on all the people we will meet throughout the year that is beginning, God has placed his name on them and, because of this blessing, we are invited to look at them with new eyes. 

With regard then to the blessing of the Book of Numbers, here are some points for reflection: 

1. This formula of blessing is in the singular: "May the Lord bless you" and not "May the Lord bless you". In reality, it refers to the entire people of Israel and is therefore a collective singular, and in time, Israel realised that this protection of God was not reserved for him alone, but for the whole of humanity.

2. "The Lord bless you" (v. 24) is in the subjunctive as well as "the Lord make his face to shine upon you ... The Lord turn his countenance upon you" (v.25,26)). We wish to be blessed, but we may ask ourselves: is it possible that the Lord does not bless us, he who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, that is, on all men, and who asks us to love even our enemies...? Of course, we know that God blesses us continually, that he accompanies us and is with us in all circumstances. Yet, this subjunctive, like all subjunctives, expresses a desire that concerns us and not him. God blesses us continually, but we are free not to receive his blessing... like the sun that shines even when we seek the shadow and we are free to seek the shadow... In the same way, we are free to remove ourselves from God's beneficial action... Those who shelter themselves from the sun lose all possibility of benefiting from its light and warmth, and not because of the sun! Thus, the formula 'God bless you' is a wish that invites us to place ourselves under his blessing. In other words, God offers us his blessing, but it is up to us to accept it, and this subjunctive serves to manifest our free adherence.

3.In what does God's blessing consist? Benedire is a Latin term meaning to say well, so God says well of us. We should not be surprised that God says well of us because he loves us and therefore thinks and says well of us. Indeed, he only stops to see in us what is good. His Word, however, is also action: "He said and all things were" (Gen 1). Therefore, when God says good of us, he acts in us with his word, he transforms us, he does good to us.And so, when we ask for his blessing, we offer ourselves to God's transforming action

4. Beware! This blessing is not something magical.  Being blessed means choosing to live in God's grace, in harmony with Him and in His covenant, without this sparing us difficulties and trials. Whoever lives in God's blessing will go through the hardship of life always hearing God say to me, as Isaiah writes, "I hold thee with my victorious right hand"... "I hold thee by the right hand, and say unto thee, Fear not, I will come to thy help" (Isaiah 41:10-13).  

5. Moses promises the people: "You shall be blessed more than all peoples" (Deut 7:14).  Israel therefore is blessed, but this has not prevented it from going through terrible times; Nevertheless, in the midst of trials, the believer knows that God does not abandon him and indeed accompanies him with persevering patience. On today's feast of Mary, Mother of God, all this takes on a special significance. The angel Gabriel, sent to announce the birth of Jesus, said to her: "I greet you, full of grace" (Lk 1:28). Mary is par excellence the one on whom the name of God has been pronounced and she remains under his sweet protection. Elizabeth will rightly proclaim: 'Blessed art thou amongst women' (Lk 1:42).

5. Unfortunately, the Italian text fails to render all the richness of the original Hebrew formula for two reasons. Firstly, the name of God, YHWH, transcribed here as "the Lord", is the name that God revealed to Moses and in itself represents a promise of protective presence, the same that has always accompanied the children of Israel since their exit from Egypt. Secondly, translating Hebrew verbs with a subjunctive into Italian is an inevitable impoverishment. Since the Hebrew verbal system is very different from the Italian one, for greater precision experts suggest translating it as follows: "The Lord blesses you and keeps you". that is, God blesses you and keeps you now and will bless you and keep you forever." after all, this is our faith!

Responsorial Psalm 66 (67)

*Our God blesses us 

Psalm 66 resonates like an echo of the first reading, where the Book of Numbers offered us the well-known and splendid formula of blessing: 'May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! May the Lord turn his countenance upon thee, and grant thee peace!". Here, too, are just a few considerations:

1 Let us begin with the very meaning of the term blessing. The prophet Zechariah says: "In those days, ten men of every tongue and nation shall seize a Jew by the hem of his cloak and say to him, 'We wish to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'" (Zech 8:23). This is an interesting definition of blessing: to say that God blesses us is to say that God is with us, that he is with us. This, moreover, is the meaning of the very Name of God revealed at Sinai: YHWH, an unpronounceable Name that we translate as Lord. Although it is not translatable literally, the Jews understand it as a promise of God's constant presence alongside his people.

2. Here it is the people who invoke God's blessing upon themselves: 'God have mercy on us and bless us'. Regarding the priestly formula in the Book of Numbers, we are constantly assured of God's blessing, but we are free not to receive it. When the priest says 'The Lord bless you', he is not expressing the wish that God chooses to bless us because he could not but bless us, but he is wishing that we open our hearts to his blessing, so that he can transform us and act in us. The Psalm makes this clear: 'God have mercy on us and bless us... God, our God, blesses us'. These two phrases are not contradictory: God blesses us constantly, this is a certainty ("God, our God, blesses us", v. 7), but in order to welcome his action, we only need to desire it ("God have mercy on us and bless us", v. 2).

3. The certainty of being granted even before making a request is characteristic of prayer in Israel. The believer knows that he lives constantly immersed in the blessing, in the beneficent presence of God. Jesus himself says: "I knew that you always listen to me" (Jn 11:42).

4. The people of Israel do not ask this blessing only for themselves, and the blessing pronounced on Israel is poured out on the other peoples: "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" God said to Abraham (Gen 12:3). In this Psalm we find, intertwined as always, the two great themes: on the one hand the election of Israel, on the other the universality of God's plan. The work of salvation of humanity is accomplished through the election of Israel. The election of Israel is evident in the expression 'God, our God', which recalls the Covenant God made with the people he chose. But the universalism of the divine plan is equally clear: 'On earth let your way be known, your salvation among all nations', or: 'Let the nations rejoice with joy'. Moreover, in this Psalm, the refrain that is repeated twice foreshadows the day when all peoples will welcome God's blessing: "Let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all peoples praise thee". Israel knows that he is chosen to be the witnessing people: the light that shines on him is a reflection of the One whom Israel is to make known to the world. This understanding of Israel's election as a vocation was not immediate for the men of the Bible and is understandable: at the beginning of biblical history, each people imagined that deities ruled over specific territories: there were the deities of Babylon, those of Egypt, and those of every other country. It was not until around the 6th century that the people of Israel realised that the God with whom they had made the Covenant at Sinai was the God of the whole universe; Israel's election was not annulled, but took on a new meaning as the prophet Zechariah, quoted above (Zech 8:23), well shows. We too are a witnessing people: when we receive God's blessing, we are called to become a reflection of the divine light in the world, and this is the wish we can wish each other at the beginning of this new year: to be bearers of God's light for all those we meet

5. "The earth has yielded its fruit; God, our God, blesses us". Because the Word of God is action, it produces fruit. God promised a fertile land flowing with milk and honey, and He kept His promise by bringing Israel to the promised land. All the more reason for Christians to read this psalm with the birth of the Saviour in mind: when the fullness of time came, the land bore its fruit. St John of the Cross writes: "Since he (God) has given us his Son, who is his one and final Word, in this Word he has said everything and has nothing more to reveal" (Ascent of Mount Carmel. Book II, ch.22, par.3)

Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Galatians ( 4, 4-7)

*"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son". 

In this short text we find a theme very dear to St Paul: the fulfilment of God's plan. For believers, both Jews and Christians, this is a fundamental element of faith: history is not an eternal beginning, but a progressive journey of humanity towards its fulfilment, towards the realisation of God's project of merciful love. This theme is central to St Paul's letters and is a key not only to understanding them, but also to reading the entire Bible, starting with the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, it is continually emphasised that the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth fulfil the Scriptures. Paul states before his judges: "I have said nothing apart from what Moses and the prophets foretold" (Acts 26:22). And the evangelist Matthew likes to repeat: "All this came to pass that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled". Should one then think that everything was already written in advance? To better understand, it should be noted that "so that" in Italian is a final subordinating conjunction with two different meanings: one of finality and one of consequence. If we mean finality, then events would have occurred according to a predefined plan, predetermined from eternity. But if we understand it as consequence, it means that events unfold in a certain way and, in retrospect, we recognise how, through them, God fulfilled his plan. God's plan, then, is not a rigid programme in which everyone's role is predetermined. God takes the risk of our freedom and, throughout the ages, men have often obstructed his plan. That is why the prophets complained, but never lost hope. On the contrary, they continually promised that God would not grow weary. Isaiah, for example, announces from God: "I say, my plan shall be fulfilled, and I will accomplish all that I desire" (Isaiah 46:10). And Jeremiah adds: "I know the plans I have made for you, O oracle of the Lord: plans of peace and not of misfortune, to grant you a future full of hope" (Jer 29:11).

In the New Testament, the fulfilment of God's promises is always contemplated in Jesus. "God sent forth his Son: born of a woman, born under the Law". In a few words, Paul encapsulates the whole mystery of the person of Jesus: Son of God, man like other men, Jew like other Jews. The expression 'born of woman', first of all, is common in the Bible and simply means 'a man like other men'. For example, to avoid repetitions of the term man in the same sentence, the expression "son of the woman" is used (cf. Sir 10:18; Job 15:14; Job 25:4). Jesus himself uses this expression when speaking of John the Baptist: "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt 11:11).

The statement "born under the Law" indicates that Jesus accepted the condition of the men of his people. Paul continues: "To redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons". One often encounters the term "redeem" in the Bible, which means to free, to enfranchise. In the Old Testament, the redeemer was the one who freed the slave. Being under the Law, therefore, is not the same as being in the condition of sons: there is therefore a transition to be made. The one who lives under the Law acts as a servant, submitting to orders. The son, on the other hand, lives in love and trust: he can obey his father - that is, listen to his word - because he trusts him and knows that his every word is dictated by love. This means moving from the dominion of the Law to the obedience of children. The transition to a filial and trusting attitude is possible because "God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, who cries out, 'Abba, Father'. This cry, which calls out to the Father, is the only one that saves us in all circumstances because it is like the desperate, trusting cry of the child who trusts his father. Whatever happens, we know that God is our Father and that he has only loving tenderness towards us. This is the filial attitude that Christ came to live among us, on our behalf. Paul concludes: "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, you are also an heir". The term heir is to be understood in the full sense: what belongs to God is promised to us, but we must have the courage to believe it. And that is precisely our problem. When Jesus calls us "people of little faith", perhaps this is what he is referring to: we dare not believe that God's Spirit is in us, that his power belongs to us, that everything that is his is ours, including his ability to love. And all this is not because of us! If we are heirs, it is only by God's grace. That is why we can say, despite our human frailty, with St Therese of the Child Jesus: "Everything is grace, everything is gift: everything God does is for our good" (Manuscript C, 4r of The Story of a Soul)

Gospel according to Luke (2.16-21)

We are in the presence of an apparently secondary tale, yet it is in fact profoundly theological, which means that every detail has its weight, and for this reason it is worth going over it together:

1.The shepherds, first of all: they were little considered, indeed marginal because of their work which prevented them from attending synagogues and observing the Sabbath. Yet, they were the first to be informed of the event that changed the history of humanity: the birth of the awaited Messiah. The shepherds thus become the first apostles and the first witnesses: they tell, they are heard, and they arouse wonder. They speak of the extraordinary announcement they received in the middle of the night from the angels and the miracle is that they are believed as the evangelist Luke recounts (Lk 2:8-14). They tell all that they have seen and heard in their own words and this brings to mind an expression of Jesus that is often quoted: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to the little ones" (Lk 10:21; Mt 11:25). It is not the learned and the wise whom God chooses as his messengers. 

2. The whole event that Luke relates takes place in Bethlehem. It was known at the time that the Messiah would be born in the line of David right there, yet people's interest was for other events and for the arrival of the Messiah, awaited for thousands of years, no one had prepared a home. Joseph and Mary found shelter outside the town and it was in a poor cave or stable: the only detail on this that the gospel specifies is this: "While they (Joseph and Mary) were in that place...Mary gave birth to her first-born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the lodging" (Lk 2:6-7) . Bethlehem literally means 'the house of bread' and the newborn lying in a manger is an evocative image of the one who will give himself as nourishment to mankind. The link between Christmas and the Eucharist is obvious.

3. 'Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart ... she kept these things and pondered them in her heart' (Lk 2:19). While the shepherds, made loquacious by the event, recount, Mary contemplates and ponders in her heart. Luke here might want to recall a passage from the vision of the Son of Man in Daniel, where we read: 'I kept these thoughts in my heart' (Dan 7:28). For Luke, this would be a way of already outlining the grandiose destiny of that child.

4. "The name Jesus was given to him" (Lk 2:21).  The name "Jesus" reveals the mystery: it means "God saves". Although Luke does not specify its etymology like Matthew, a few verses earlier he reports the announcement of the angel: "Today a Saviour is born to you" (Lk 2:11). At the same time, Jesus lives in full solidarity with his people: like every Jewish child, he is circumcised on the eighth day. Paul will say to the Galatians: "Born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law" (Gal 4:4). The other Gospels do not mention circumcision, but it was such a common act that there was no need to emphasise it. However, Luke insists on showing how Mary and Joseph fully respected the Mosaic Law. Not only that, he also recounts the presentation in the Temple. "When the days of their ritual purification were completed, according to the Law of Moses, they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord" (Lk 2:22). Here the whole solidarity of Jesus with his people emerges: a theme that culminates in his own words at the Last Supper: "This word of Scripture must be fulfilled in me: 'He was numbered among the ungodly'" (Lk 22:37).

5.One last remark: the discretion of the figure of Mary is striking, despite the fact that this liturgical feast is dedicated to her as "Mary, Mother of God". Luke merely says: "Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart".  Perhaps, her silence is already a message for us: Mary's glory lies in having accepted to be the mother of God, humbly putting herself at the service of the project of salvation. She is not the centre of the project, but Jesus, the one whose name means 'God saves'.

+Giovanni D'Ercole 

The complexities of existence.
Life is not always easy and the complexities of existence have always existed; they accompany us along the path of our daily lives.
In times gone by, it was often the family doctor who listened to them and associated them as related to the health of his patients and gave them advice.
When, on the other hand, the difficulties were of an ethical nature, people turned to the priest who, through accompaniment and confession, gave suggestions on how to redeem themselves.
Later, with the discovery of psychology in its various forms, people became concerned with human problems. The figure of the psychologist in the broad sense or the psychiatrist joined the previous figures. As far as the field of the psychiatrist is concerned more specifically, the problems are not visible illnesses.
People who are afflicted by life complications are not patients in the usual sense. They can be normal, productive people - as normal as one can be in our community.
Generally, these daily contrarieties may concern interpersonal relationships, the way one works, performance issues... but also the issue of living honestly, in line with one's principles and personal beliefs. Then there are the contrarieties of practical life, which can often accentuate the others.
A lot also depends on our typical behaviours with which we defend ourselves or construct our way of life, and which were formed at an early period - unconsciously imitating people who had meaning in our lives (the so-called character, very succinctly).
Jung argues that the child's unconscious depends on the parental unconscious.
Almost always in my long professional practice I encountered this construct, and I had to struggle to make people understand that it was the parents who triggered the behaviour.
Often when I encountered parents who did not want to accept certain responsibilities, the latter would resort to excuses that did not hold up in any way.
In relationships between individuals, the most annoying issue concerns how we experience our affections.
There are aggressive people who seek people to dominate. There are those who exploit the other (the unwary); and so on.
In love relationships, one has to pay attention to how each one stands towards the other. Let us give some examples.
A woman who suffers because of her spouse who hinders her every development (or vice versa) must understand or be helped to understand that she has somehow sought this situation, and that it is only by finding confidence in her own possibilities and ability to manage herself that she will find relief from her pains.
Otherwise, i.e. if he does not discover his own potential, not even by separating will he solve his problems - because he will unconsciously seek the same kind of spouse.
Only people who are able to respect each other's needs and interests are capable of adult love. We often confuse our own desire with that of the other.
How many times in counselling with couples have I encountered this.
In job difficulties we often find people who move from one job to another because they are not satisfied with the lack of recognition. It may be, for example, an individual with grandiose ideas about his or her aptitudes who has to seek admiration in the work environment .
Then there are people who do creative work and feel that they do not produce as they would like. Here we are often faced with an unachievable perfectionism. Often such individuals are unable to admit that they have limits, and are confronted with their real capabilities.
It then happens that many people turn to an analyst because although they do not have a form of depression, they are not happy with themselves.
In his Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Society, Erich Fromm argues that consumerism leads us to an 'alienation from self'. By 'alienation' he means that which in principle belongs to man and then becomes foreign to him - eventually dominating us.
We must be as others want us to be.
Advertising and fashion itself also consciously influence us, and in this way if we do not conform we can feel backward.
We often get into conflict between our beliefs and the need to 'please' people.
Of course we do not have to be isolationists, but even here a proper balance 'saves' us, since repudiating certain fundamental tenets of our way of being does a lot of damage.
May the coming Christmas enlighten us, show us the way. Not infrequently, here too, we match current population trends, and often forget its true meaning.

Francesco Giovannozzi Psychologist-psychotherapist