God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

On 24 December 2024 at 7 p.m. the Jubilee 2025 will officially begin, with the rite of the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Papal Basilica by the Holy Father.  Following this, Francis will preside the celebration of Holy Mass on the night of the Lord's Christmas inside the Basilica.  And here is the commentary on the biblical texts of the Christmas Mass: the Midnight Mass and the Day Mass with our best and heartfelt wishes for a holy Christmas of Christ.

Christmas of Christ 2024 Midnight Mass 

First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah 9,1-6

*An announcement of salvation

It is a splendid messianic hymn dedicated to the Emanuel, the long hoped-for Messiah-King, which is illuminated with two images: the harvest and the military victory. As often happens, in order to understand the message of the biblical text that the liturgy proposes to us, it is necessary to consider it in context, and here it is good to read the verse that precedes this passage from Isaiah: "At first, the Lord covered the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with shame; but afterwards, he covered the way of the sea, the land beyond Jordan and Galilee of the Gentiles with glory" (Is 8:23). We can thus date the prophet's words and understand whether they date from the very time of the events narrated, or, on the contrary, whether they were written later, and thus know with certainty to which political context he is referring (even in the case that the text dates much later). Secondly, like every prophetic word, this too is a message that God addresses to revive the hope of the people. Let us see the historical context: after David and Solomon had ruled over the whole of Israel, upon Solomon's death in 933 B.C., the so-called schism of Israel gave rise to two often conflicting kingdoms: to the north, the kingdom of Israel with capital Samaria, and to the south, the kingdom of Judah, with capital Jerusalem, a direct descendant of David and considered the rightful bearer of the divine promises. Isaiah preached in the southern kingdom, but Zebulun, Naphtali, the sea route, the land beyond the Jordan and Galilee are all places in the northern kingdom, all regions conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglat-Pileser III in 732 BC. In 721 BC, the capital Samaria was also annexed and Assyrian and then Babylonian rule began. It is in this context that Isaiah foresees a radical change, announcing that the humbled lands will see glory: 'The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who dwelt in the land of darkness, a light shone. The people who dwelt in the land of darkness brings to mind the many deported to Babylon often blinded by the rulers. The southern kingdom, with its capital Jerusalem, was not indifferent to events in the north, both because it feared occupation and above all because there was a great desire for reunification to bring Israel back to unity under the Davidic throne. This is why the arrival of a new king was regarded as the dawn of a new day: 'A child has been born to us, a son has been given to us ... he will be called the Prince of Peace'. These expressions are part of the ritual of consecration of the new king and Isaiah states with certainty that God will not abandon his people to slavery, because his faithfulness is unwavering and he cannot deny himself.  He adds: 'For you have broken the yoke that oppressed him, the bar on his shoulders, and the rod of his tormentor as in the day of Midian'. Midian and the Midianites: the prophet assures that God will intervene to liberate his people, and cites as an example Gideon's victory over the Midianites when in the middle of the night with 300 men armed only with trumpets, torches and earthen pitchers, and above all faith in God, he defeated an immensely larger army (Judges 7). Thus the prophet's message is clear: Do not be afraid little flock, for it is in the darkness that you must believe the light. Despite the difficulties that continue to mark these times, Isaiah invited to keep hope alive, based on the certainty that the Lord, as in the past, never fails in his plan of love for all mankind. And just then, when Isaiah was formulating this promise, the young king Achaz of Jerusalem had sacrificed his son, the heir to the throne, to an idol out of fear of war. The Davidic descendants seemed doomed to extinction and it is at such a moment that Isaiah reawakens confidence by saying that a new heir will be given since nothing can deter the faithfulness of God who fulfils all his promises. This certainty rests on the memory of what God has done for his people. In this regard, it is sufficient to recall that Moses often renewed to Israel the invitation to "not forget" the wonders of the Lord because when our trust fails, it is we who lose.  And Isaiah also told King Ahaz: "If you do not believe, you cannot endure" (Is 7:9). Every time has its share of trials and sufferings, of darkness and misfortune, but to be convinced that God does not fail in his word is always a prophecy of victory, and no matter how great the difficulties in our families and communities, the challenge is to keep hope alive: God does not give up or abandon his plan of love for all. 

Responsorial Psalm 95/96)

*Proclaiming the good news from the rooftops 

It is a pity that today's liturgy provides only seven verses of this wonderful psalm 95/96, which should be read in its entirety because it invites enthusiasm and joy, and because in a time of great difficulty it is sung in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is a psalm that communicates the vigour of faith, indeed of hope; in other words, the joy that is born of faith and the hope that makes one believe certain even that which one does not possess. We are thus already projected to the end of the world, when all humanity will recognise God as the one true God and place its trust in Him alone. It is necessary to imagine with imagination the scene that the psalm describes: in Jerusalem, or rather in the Temple, the nations, the races of the world throng, the esplanade is packed with cheering heads that even invade the steps of the Temple courtyard. By now Jerusalem is no longer enough and everywhere you look you see people from all over the planet continuing to arrive. It is a symphony of voices singing: "The Lord reigns!", an incredible ovation similar to the joy at the coronation of a new king. Now, however, it is not the people of Israel that acclaims its king, but the whole of humanity that rejoices for its true king: the earth quivers with joy, the seas join in the symphony and the trees dance with the countryside all in celebration. It will then become clear that men have allowed themselves to be deceived for a long time, have abandoned the true God to resort to idols, and that the prophets' struggle has always been against idolatry. It will then seem incredible that it has taken men so long to recognise their Creator, their Father, despite the fact that a hundred times the cry has resounded: the Lord is "terrible above all gods", it is He, the Lord, and no one else has made the heavens. At last the time of celebration will come: in Jerusalem people will flock to acclaim God having heard the good news proclaimed for centuries: "day after day Israel has proclaimed its salvation". day after day it has told of God's work, of his wonders, that is, of his unceasing work of deliverance; day after day it has testified that God has delivered it from Egypt and from all forms of slavery: the most terrible of slavers is putting one's trust in false values, in false gods, in idols that can only disappoint. To Israel falls 

 the fate and the extraordinary honour of proclaiming that the Lord our God, the Eternal, is the only God, as the Shema Israel recites: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is the only Lord'. The psalm refers to Israel's vocation, already evoked in the book of Deuteronomy: "You have witnessed these things, so that you may recognise that the Lord is God: there is none other than he" (Deut 4:35), and the time comes when this astonishing news is heard to the ends of the earth... and all flock to enter the House of the Father of all. We are here in full anticipation! While waiting for this dream to be realised, the people of Israel resound this psalm to renew their faith and their hope, and to draw the necessary strength to make the good news of which they are the depositary heard.

Second Reading from the Letter of St Paul the Apostle to Titus (2:11-14). This reading is also present in the Dawn Mass (3, 4-7 ).

 *Baptism immerses us in the Grace of God 

The letter to Titus contains the advice that Paul, the founder of the community, dispenses to Titus, who assumes responsibility for it. For reasons of style and even chronology, many experts on the Pauline letters believe that the letter to Titus, like the two to Timothy, were only written at the end of the first century, some thirty years after the apostle's death, following his thought and to support his work. In the absence of certainty, we continue to speak of St Paul as the author of the letter to whom it is addressed: they are the inhabitants of Crete, the Cretans, who had a very bad reputation in Paul's time, as Epimenides of Knossos, a local poet already in the 6th century BC, described them: 'Cretans, perennial liars, wicked beasts, idle bellies'. And Paul, quoting him, confirms: "This testimony is true!". However, it was precisely to the flawed Cretans that Paul proclaimed the gospel and this was not easy. He then left it to Titus, who remained on the spot, to organise the young Christian community.  Regardless of when the letter was written, it is clear that the difficulties of the Cretans persisted. The letter to Titus is very short, only three pages of which we read in the Night Mass the end of chapter 2, while the beginning of chapter 3 is proposed for the Dawn Mass and the whole passage for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, year C. All that precedes and follows this passage consists of practical recommendations directed to the members of the community: old and young, men and women, masters and slaves including those in charge, to whom he recommends that they be blameless: "The bishop must be blameless as a steward of God: not arrogant, not violent, not stingy with illicit gains. He must be hospitable, a lover of good, thoughtful, just, holy, self-possessed, firm in the Word'. In short, it is not difficult to understand that there is a lot of work to be done and as a good pedagogue, St Paul does not venture to give superfluous advice. One must keep in mind the link between the moral advice he dispenses and the passage that interests us today, which is a theological exposition on the mystery of faith. The message is clear: for Paul, it is Baptism that makes us new men, and all the advice he dispenses is justified on the sole grounds that 'the goodness of God our Saviour and his love for mankind appeared'.  Indeed, the biblical text actually begins with 'when' and some editions place 'why'. So: 'when the goodness of God, our saviour, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not because of any righteous works we had done, but because of his mercy'. In other words, behave well, because God's grace has been manifested for the salvation of all men. This means that Christian morality is rooted in the central event of world history: the birth of Christ. When Paul writes: 'the grace of God has appeared to bring salvation to all men', he means that God became man. And from that moment, our way of being men is transformed "with water that regenerates and renews in the Holy Spirit" (3:5). Since that moment, everything has changed and consequently our behaviour must also change and we must allow ourselves to be transformed because the world awaits our testimony. It is not a matter of gaining merits (he saved us not because of righteous works performed by us, but because of his mercy), but of testifying with our lives that God wants the salvation of all mankind also through us: "the goodness of God, our Saviour, and his love for mankind appeared". God's plan, foreseen from eternity, envisages the uniting of all around Jesus Christ so as to become one with Him, overcoming divisions, rivalries, hatred, making us all one in Him. Certainly there is still a long way to go and for many it is a utopia, but as believers we know that every promise of God is a certainty. Paul says it clearly: "looking forward to the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ". and the use of the verb wait indicates the conviction that sooner or later it will happen.  In the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest repeats this after the Lord's Prayer: 'While waiting for the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ'. It is a true act of faith that becomes hope: we dare to affirm that Christ's love will have the last word in every situation. This certainty and this expectation are the beating heart of the entire liturgy: during the celebration, we Christians do not have our eyes turned to the past, but are already in Christ 'one man' who peers into the future, and when the end of time comes, those who look at us will be able to write: 'behold, they are all like one man, and this man is Jesus Christ', what we call the total Christ.  

Gospel according to Luke ( 2:1-14)

*In the poverty of the manger lies the secret of the Incarnation

The night of Bethlehem echoes with a marvellous proclamation: 'Peace be to men who are loved by the Lord', to be well understood because there are no people whom God does not love. After all, it is God's plan, expressed once again: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16) and there is nothing to fear. "Do not be afraid", the angels say to the shepherds, and after all, why should one be afraid when a child is born? Let us try to believe that God has probably chosen to make himself a newborn child to awaken love for him in our hearts, abandoning all fear and shame. Like Isaiah with Achaz, the angel also announces the birth of a king: 'Today, in the city of David, a Saviour has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord. Behold, the one who had been awaited for many centuries was born at last, and at that time the prophecy of Nathan to King David was on everyone's mind: 'The Lord announces to you that he will make you a house. When thy days are fulfilled, and thou restest with thy fathers, I will raise up a descendant of thee out of thy womb, and will make his kingdom established' (2 Sam 7:11-12).

This is why Luke specifies the origins of Joseph, the father of the child: 'Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem: for he belonged to the house and family of David'. Moreover, according to Micah's prophecy, the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem: "And you, Bethlehem of Ephratah, so small to be among the villages of Judah, out of you shall come forth for me the one who is to be ruler in Israel... He shall rise and feed with the power of the LORD, with the majesty of the name of the LORD his God... and he himself shall be peace" (Mi 5:1, 4). 

So the angels announce good news, great joy to the shepherds, and one can understand why the heavenly hosts sing the glory of God. What is always surprising, however, is the contrast between the greatness of the destiny promised to the Messiah and the littleness of a child, born in the most humble and precarious circumstances. "the strength of God's arm", which liberates his people, of which Psalm 88/89 speaks, lies mysteriously in the small hands of a child born into one poor family among many others. How extraordinary is the poverty of a manger! Yet it is precisely there that the sign of God is manifested: we encounter Jesus in the simplest everyday life, even in poverty, and this is the mystery, indeed the secret of the Incarnation.

"The heir of all things", as we read in the letter to the Hebrews (1:2), is born among the poor; he whom St John calls "the light of the world" finds his cradle in the manger of an obscure stable; he who is the Word of God, who created the world, came into the world like every other creature and, like everyone else, will in time have to learn to speak. One can then understand and not be surprised that "his own did not welcome and recognise him" and we are not surprised that it was precisely the poor and the little ones who most readily accepted his message. He is the God of Mercy who goes out to meet all kinds of poverty and has compassion on our misery. This holy night invites us not to be afraid to turn our gaze on a poor manger, for it is here that we discover the truest way to resemble Jesus and thus receive as a gift the power to "become children of God" (Jn 1:12).

The great joy of Christmas that the angels bring to the shepherds, the outcasts of society, has resounded in every corner of the world for over two millennia now. Faced with such joy and such a great mystery of renewed life, many questions arise in the heart: why is it that in some parts of the world where this proclamation has resounded, division and war persist? Why is it that so many communities seem tired of waiting and fall back on other interests that often lead away from waiting for the Saviour? Why is the amazement at the birth of a child no longer for some the sign of a love that opens up to life? So many whys for a Christmas of Christ that risks being suffocated by the noisy cry of a society preoccupied with a thousand different issues and threatened by sadness if not sometimes even despair. The story of Christ's birth then found many heedless because they were busy with everyday matters. A few shepherds, excluded and impure in society, were the first and only ones to rush in. A sign and a message: the triumph of a God who out of love becomes a small child is a comfort and support for those who continue to await his return and know that, beyond all human expectations, this humble king of glory wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger is our saviour, Christ the Lord. It is therefore "good news, great joy" that the angels announce to the shepherds, but it can only be transformed into peace in the heart of those who go out and meet him in the humble stable in Bethlehem. 

25 December Mass of the Day 

Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah 52:7-10

*The Lord consoles his people 

"Break forth together in songs of joy, ye ruins of Jerusalem". The reference to the ruins of Jerusalem allows the text of Isaiah to be precisely placed. Jerusalem was devastated by Nebuchadnezzar's troops in 587 BC who did everything: looting, destruction, violence, desecration. Valuable men and women were deported to Babylon while leaving peasants to feed the occupiers, and the exile lasted fifty years, enough time to become discouraged and lose hope of ever seeing their land again. In this bleak picture, the prophet announces the return, he who had begun to preach as follows: "Console, console my people, says your God" (Is 40:1) and here, imagining the messenger announcing the great news in Jerusalem and the sentinel who, from the hills of the city, sees the deportees arriving, he uses the same verb console: "the Lord has consoled his people", meaning that the Lord has already acted and that the return is now imminent. He speaks of a foot-messenger and a sentinel, two figures that have disappeared in the age of telecommunications and fibre optics, but in those days a runner was entrusted with the task of transmitting news. The most famous example is that of the marathon: in 490 B.C., after the victory of the Athenians over the Persians at Marathon, a runner ran the 42 km to Athens to announce the victory, exclaimed Victory! and then collapsed. As the athletes/messengers ran, sentries posted on the city walls scanned the horizon. Here Isaiah imagines a sentry lurking on the walls of Jerusalem who sees the messenger approaching from hill to hill and announces: 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who proclaims peace, the messenger of good news, who proclaims salvation', and when the messenger arrives he cries out to Zion, the holy city: 'Your God reigns'. The people are finally saved and the city is rebuilt by those who return: that is why the ruins of Jerusalem are invited to exult with joy. In Israel, the defeats of the people were considered defeats of their God, but now the people are delivered and their God has shown his power, as the prophet says: 'The Lord has unfurled his holy arm. He has delivered his people as from Egypt, "with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm" (Deut 4:34). And this is not the end of the prophet's vision because behind the messenger, the sentinel sees the triumphal procession and "the return of the Lord to Zion", who walks in the midst of his people and will be present again in Jerusalem. Isaiah states that the Lord 'redeemed Jerusalem', a very strong term to describe God's action. In the Bible, to redeem, to redeem means to set free.  In the tradition of the Hebrew people, the Go'el is the next of kin who redeems a family member who has fallen into slavery or who has sold their house to pay debts, and the prophet applies this role to God, a way of emphasising that the Lord is the next of kin of his people and sets them free, redeems them. "The Lord has stretched out his holy arm before all nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God". Something very important must also be emphasised here: during the Babylonian exile there was an important evolution in Jewish theology because Israel understood that God loves all mankind and not just the people he has chosen. Indeed, his people now know that their own election is a mission to serve the salvation of all. We hear this text at Christmas and the words of the prophet "The Lord has stretched out his holy arm before all nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God" take on new meaning for us. We too have the mission to proclaim and bear witness to peace; we are messengers of the gospel that is for all, and on this day we cry out to the whole world: 'Your God is king, your God reigns'.

Responsorial Psalm 97 (98),1-6

 *The People of the Covenant

"All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God". Singing is Israel, which claims the privileged relationship of a small people with the God of the universe, but has understood, little by little, that its mission is not to jealously guard this special relationship, but to proclaim God's love for all, so that the whole of humanity may gradually enter into the Covenant. It is a psalm that shows the two loves of God: his love for the chosen people, Israel, and his love for all mankind, whom the psalmist calls the nations. "The Lord has made his salvation known, in the eyes of the Gentiles he has revealed his righteousness" (v.2) and immediately afterwards, recalling Israel's election, "He has remembered his love, his faithfulness to the house of Israel" (v.3). The words love (chesed) and faithfulness (emet) recall the Covenant and are the same words with which the Lord made himself known in the desert to the people he chose: "The Lord, the merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, preserving his love for a thousand generations" (Ex 34:6-7). Here, God is defined by fundamental characters that are worth remembering: merciful (rachum); pitiful (chanun), rich in love (chesed) and faithfulness (emet). This description of God as 'love and faithfulness' becomes a pivotal point in Israel's faith, which is often found in the psalms and prophets to highlight the faithful and love-filled bond between God and his people along the desert journey. Israel is therefore truly the chosen people, but its election is not for selfish enjoyment, but to become the elder brother of humanity. As André Chouraqui said, 'the people of the Covenant is destined to become the instrument of the Covenant between peoples'. One of the great teachings of the Bible is that God loves all people of every race and culture, not just Israel, and this psalm - which we often find in the liturgy - demonstrates this also in its structure: verses 2 and 3 are constructed according to the pattern of inclusion, which is a literary technique used in the Bible. It is done as a frame to highlight the central text which is the verse concerning Israel: "He remembered his love, his faithfulness to the house of Israel", and the phrases that enclose it speak of the nations: "The Lord has made known his salvation, in the eyes of the Gentiles he has revealed his righteousness", all the ends of the earth - replacing the Gentiles - have seen the victory of our God". The election of Israel is central, set in a frame that emphasises Israel's universal mission: to be a light to all the peoples of the world. When the people of Israel, during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, acclaim God as king, they already know they are doing so on behalf of all humanity. As they sing, they imagine the day when God will be recognised as king by the whole earth.

Some further notes. This psalm highlights two themes: the first is the insistence on God's two loves: for Israel, the chosen people, and for all humanity; the second is the proclamation of God's kingship. In the Temple of Jerusalem, they sang: "Acclaim the Lord all the earth, shout, exult, sing hymns", even if the verb to sing is reductive: in Hebrew, the psalm uses language that recalls a cry of victory (teru'ah), like the one raised on the battlefield after a victory, and the term "victory" appears three times in the first verses: "His right hand and his holy arm gave him victory" (v.1); "The Lord has made his victory known, in the eyes of the nations he has revealed his righteousness"(v 2); "All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God"(v 3).

A twofold victory is emphasised: 1.the deliverance from Egypt: "he gave victory his right hand and his holy arm" recalls the divine enterprise of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea. In Deuteronomy we read: "The Lord brought thee out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm" (5:15), a symbol of salvation, and the expression in the psalm "he did wonders" (v 1) is also a reference to the wonders of deliverance from Egypt.  2.The final victory over evil: The psalm also looks to the future final victory, when God will triumph over all the forces of evil and on that day he will be acclaimed king, not in the manner of earthly kings who disappoint, because his victory will be final and will never disappoint. We Christians can acclaim God with even greater vigour, because our eyes contemplate at Christmas the King of the world, the Incarnation of the Son, and we know that the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of love, has already begun. And contemplating the helpless Child in the crib, we cannot help but think that at this moment the saving power of God's arm is in the two tiny hands of a newborn baby. 

Reading from the letter to the Hebrews (1:1-6)

*God spoke to the fathers through the prophets 

"God spoke to the fathers through the prophets": thanks to this sentence, we can guess that the recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews are Jews who have become Christians because a characteristic feature of Israel is precisely the conviction that God has revealed himself progressively to the people he has chosen. Since God is not within man's grasp, it is necessary for him to take the initiative to reveal himself, as we also perceive from the Letter to the Ephesians: "God has made known to us the mystery of his will" (Eph 1:9) because on our own we could never have discovered and thus encountered him. And this happened in a progressive manner equal to the upbringing of a child to whom parents communicate according to his development and in a gradual manner how to understand reality, himself and the society around him. Moses similarly explains God's pedagogy in the book of Deuteronomy: "As a man educates his son, so the Lord your God educates you" (Deut 8:5). God entrusted this gradual education of his people in every age to the prophets who spoke on his behalf and used a manner comprehensible to the mentality of the people and the time because God used a very gradual pedagogy with his people by speaking to them "many times and in various ways" (Heb 1:1). The prophets were thus considered the "mouth of God", as we hear in the celebration of the Mass: "Many times you have offered men your covenant, and through the prophets you have taught them to hope for salvation" (Eucharistic Prayer IV). The author of the Letter to the Hebrews knows that salvation has already been accomplished and for this reason he divides human history into two periods: before Christ is all that he calls the past; after Christ are the days that we are living, the time of fulfilment, since in Jesus the new world has already begun and Christ is the fulfilment of God's plan, which we call the design of divine benevolence. Beginning with Christ's resurrection, which astonished the hearts of the first believers, the conviction of the Christians of the primitive communities gradually formed to the point of realising that Jesus of Nazareth is truly the Messiah awaited by the Jewish people, even if in a very different way from the idea they had had in the past. The entire New Testament hinges on this surprising discovery: there were those who awaited a Messiah-King, others a Messiah-Prophet, still others a Messiah-Priest, and in the Letter to the Hebrews, as we read in today's passage, it is said that Jesus Christ is all of this.

Christ is therefore truly Priest, Prophet and King

1. Jesus, the Messiah-Prophet. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews states: "God has spoken to us through his Son". Jesus is the prophet par excellence: if the prophets of the Old Testament were considered to be the "mouth of God", he is the very Word of God, the creative Word "through whom also the world was made" (Heb 1:2); indeed he is "the radiance of his glory", that is, of God (Heb 1:3) as it happened in the episode of the Transfiguration. Jesus said to the disciples in the Upper Room: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9), thus the perfect expression of God's being.

2. Jesus, the Messiah-Priest. The High Priest had the role of intermediary between God and the sinful people and Jesus, in total and perfect filial relationship of love with the Father, re-establishes the Covenant between God and humanity. He is therefore the high priest par excellence, who accomplishes the 'cleansing of sins', a cleansing that Jesus accomplished, as the author will explain later in his letter, by living his entire life in a perfect dialogue of love and obedience with the Father.

3. Jesus, the Messiah-King. In the Letter to the Hebrews, titles and prophecies are attributed to Jesus here that related to the Messiah: the image of the royal throne, "he sat at the right hand of the majesty in the highest heaven", and above all "You are my Son, today I have begotten you", the title of Son of God was bestowed on the new king on the day of his consecration, an expression that we also find in Psalm number 2. The prophet Nathan had announced: "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son" (2 Sam 7:14). Unlike the kings of the earth, Jesus is king over all creation, even over the angels: "He became so much greater than the angels that the name he inherited was more excellent than theirs" (Heb 1:4), and "When he introduced the firstborn into the world, he said, Let all the angels of God worship him" (Heb 1:6). The author affirms that Christ is God Himself, since only God is entitled to the adoration of angels.

This biblical text not only reveals Christ's greatness, but also our vocation: through baptism we have become priests called to live in communion with God and to intercede for the world; prophets whose mission is to witness the gospel to all with our lives; kings committed to reign over sin and to contribute to the coming of God's Kingdom. Meditating on this biblical page on Christ's Christmas Day is an invitation to contemplate the mystery of Christ's birth and to become aware that the child lying in the manger is the eternal Word, who came to make us sons and daughters of God, priests, prophets and kings, called to share in the glory of the Father for all eternity. 

Gospel according to John (1:1-18)

 *Creation is the fruit of love 

"In the beginning". The evangelist John purposely takes up the first word of Genesis Bereshit and it is necessary to perceive its depth because it is not a mere chronological reference because "what began" is "what guides" all human history, that is, it is the origin and foundation of all things. "In the beginning was the Word": everything is placed under the sign of the Word, the Word of Love indeed, and the meaning of life: therein lies the origin and beginning of all things. "And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God" (v. 2-3): in Greek it is "pros ton Theon" which literally means "turned towards God", the Word was turned towards God: it is the attitude of dialogue. If I say: 'I love you' I am really dialoguing with someone, I am face to face with you, facing the one I am talking to; if instead I turn my back the dialogue is interrupted and it is necessary to go back to re-establish it. St John states something essential: since nothing was made without the Word, all creation is the fruit of the dialogue of love between the Father and the Son. Each of us was created in this dialogue and for this dialogue: we are the fruit of a dialogue of love. Generated by love, we can say that we are the fruit of God's love and the vocation of humanity, of Adam, to use the Genesis term, is to live a perfect dialogue of love with the Father. However, human history proves otherwise as we read in the account of the fall of Adam and Eve. The second chapter of Genesis clearly shows that the dialogue was broken; the man and woman did not trust God, indeed they suspected that God did not have good intentions towards them: this is the opposite of the dialogue of love. We know from experience that when suspicion invades our relationships, the dialogue becomes poisoned. The whole story of each of us' personal relationship with God could be represented like this: sometimes we are turned towards Him, sometimes we turn away, and then we have to return so that He can re-establish the dialogue. This is exactly the meaning in the Bible of the word conversion 'shùv', which means to return, to turn back, to go home.

Jesus lives this dialogue in a perfect way on a daily basis and takes it upon Himself to guide humanity: one could say that He is the 'yes' of the whole of humanity and it is precisely through Him that we are restored to the primordial dialogue with God: 'To all who received Him, however, He gave power to become children of God: to those who believe in His name'. "To 'become children of God' means to rediscover the filial, trusting, shadowless relationship with him, and Christ's sole purpose is to enable all mankind to enter into this dialogue of love; 'those who believe in his name' are those who entrust themselves to Christ and confidently place themselves in his footsteps. The thought goes to the Upper Room where Jesus expresses his ardent desire: "That all may be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you. May they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17:21) and I am reminded of what Kierkegaard writes: "The opposite of sin is not virtue, the opposite of sin is faith". "Believing" is trusting the Father; it is knowing in all circumstances, whatever happens, that God loves me; it is never suspecting Him and never doubting His love for us and for the world, and consequently being able to look at the world with God's gaze. This is the message that comes to us from the Christmas of the Word made flesh: to look at the world with God's eyes. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us": if He came to be here with us, it is not necessary to flee from the world to encounter God, indeed it is in the "flesh", that is, in everyday reality that we can read and experience His presence. Like John the Baptist, each of us is sent to be a witness to this presence. Each Christmas reminds us of this gift and encourages us to share it with as many people as we can.

+ Govanni 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

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

 From today, 17 to 23 December, the "major Advent holidays", "privileged Advent holidays", begin, characterised by a distinctive element which are the "O antiphons" recited or sung during Vespers. They all begin with the invocation "O" followed by a messianic title taken from the prophecies of the Old Testament to express the expectation of the Saviour: Today the 17th proclaims "O Wisdom", on the 18th "O Adonai" and so on each day culminating on 23 December with "O Emmanuel". On these days the liturgy is more solemn with specific readings and prayers that orient the faithful towards the birth of Christ. Happy preparation for the Holy Christmas of. Christ!

For this period I have prepared the commentaries for the Fourth Sunday of Advent 22 December, for the Christmas Masses (night and day), for the Feast of the Holy Family Sunday 29 December, for the Feast of the Mother of God, 1 January, for the Epiphany, 6 January, and for the conclusion of Christmas time on the Sunday of the Baptism of Jesus 12 January. Today I send the commentaries for 22 December 2024 IV Sunday of Advent.

First Reading from the book of the prophet Micah 5, 1-4a

 *In certain moments it becomes difficult to hope 

The prophets in the Old Testament always have recourse to two types of language: that of rebukes and warnings for those who forget the Covenant with God and its demands, because with their own hands they prepare for ruin; that of support for those who remain faithful to the Covenant so that they do not lose heart in the face of adversity. The first reading today clearly recalls the language of encouragement, and one senses that the people are going through a critical period, almost on the verge of throwing in the towel because they have the impression that they have been abandoned by God.  He even goes so far as to say that all the promises of happiness renewed over the centuries were just fine words, since the ideal king foretold and promised was never born and perhaps never will be. It is unclear whether the author of this text is the prophet Micah because it is not clear exactly in which historical period we are in. If it is Micah, a peasant prophet like Amos and a disciple of Isaiah, we are in the 8th century B.C. in the region of Jerusalem, at a time when the Assyrian empire posed a great threat and the kings of Israel bore little resemblance to the Messiah-king they were expecting: it was therefore easy to fall into the temptation of feeling abandoned. For reasons of language, style and vocabulary, one is inclined to believe that this is a much later text and inserted later in the book of Micah. In this case, the discouragement is motivated by the fact that, after the Babylonian exile and uninterrupted foreign domination, the throne of Jerusalem no longer existed and therefore there was no descendant of David. The prophet takes up the promise that a king will be born from David's descendants who will be a shepherd, will reign with justice and will bring peace; a peace that will cover the whole of humanity in time: 'His origins are from ancient times, from the remotest days' and in space: 'They will dwell securely, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth'. This emphasis on universalism (v. 3) suggests that this preaching (included in the book of Micah) does not belong to the prophet Micah, but to one of his later disciples, since the universalism of God's plan and the strict monotheism that characterises it were only understood during the exile in Babylon. All the more reason to remember the promises concerning the Messiah, and the prophet (whether it is Micah or another does not change the meaning) encourages God's people by saying that even if you feel forsaken, you must be certain that God's project will be fulfilled; 'the day will surely come when she who is to give birth will come' because God is faithful to his promises. Speaking of 'she who is to give birth', he insisted that that moment was only a time of apparent abandonment in the course of human history. Furthermore, by proclaiming: 'And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, so small to be among the villages of Judah, out of you shall come forth the one who is to rule Israel', the prophet recalled that the promised Messiah - prophecy from Nathan to David (2Sam.7) - would be a true descendant of David, because in Bethlehem the prophet Samuel, on God's command, went to choose a king from among the eight sons of Jesse (1Sam.16). For Jews accustomed to the sacred scriptures, Bethlehem immediately evoked the promise of the Messiah, and the prophet joins Bethlehem with the term 'Ephratah' meaning 'fruitful', the name of one of the clans in the Bethlehem region.  Later the whole of Bethlehem is identified with Ephratah and even so the prophet is keen to bring out the contrast between the great and proud Jerusalem and the humble hamlet of Bethlehem, 'the smallest among the clans of Judah' because it is in littleness and frailty that the power of God is manifested, who chooses the small to realise great projects. This prophecy of Micah about the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem was well known to the Jewish people, as is evident in the episode of the Magi visiting Jesus (Mt 2:6): the evangelist Matthew recounts that the scribes quoted Micah's passage to King Herod to direct them to Bethlehem.  At the time, Jesus' contemporaries knew that he was the Nazarene and it was inconceivable that a Galilean was the Messiah. The fourth evangelist also notes that when discussions began about the identity of Jesus, some said: 'Perhaps he is the Christ', but others replied: 'the Christ cannot come from Galilee, Micah said it clearly' (Jn 7:40-43). The short text of the first reading closes as follows: "He himself will be peace": shalom is the peace that only the Messiah can give to humanity

Responsorial psalm 79 (80) 2ac. 3bc, 15-16, 18-19

 *God takes care of his vineyard  

The mention of the cherubim, in Hebrew Kéroubim (Two cherubim towered over the ark of the covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem), statues of winged animals with the head of a man and the body and legs of a lion, symbolise the throne of God.  "From thee nevermore shall we depart, make us live again and we shall call upon thy name": we are in a penitential celebration and "nevermore" constitutes a resolution: "From thee nevermore shall we depart" means that the people recognise their unfaithfulness and consider their evils as a consequence. The rest of the psalm will detail these misfortunes, but already here it says: "Awaken your power and come and save us", which indicates a deep need to be saved. In difficulties the people turn to their God who has never forsaken them and plead with him, invoking him with two titles: the shepherd of Israel and the vinedresser, images that evoke solicitude, constant attention, inspired by daily life in Palestine, where shepherds and vinedressers were central figures in economic life. The first metaphor is that of the Shepherd of Israel. In the court language of the countries of the ancient Middle East, the title of shepherd was attributed to kings; in the Bible, however, it is first and foremost attributed to God, and they called the kings of Israel 'shepherds of the people' only by proxy since the true shepherd of Israel is God. In Psalm 22/23 we read: "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. In the book of Genesis, when Jacob blesses his son Joseph, he invokes "the God in whose presence my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my shepherd from the time I existed until now" (Gen 48:15). And when he blesses his twelve sons, he does so "in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel" (Gen 49:24). Isaiah also uses this image: "Behold your God!... Like a shepherd, he shepherds his flock, with his arm he gathers the lambs, he carries them on his breast, he gently leads the mother sheep" (Isaiah 40:9-11). And the people of Israel are God's flock as we read in Psalm 94/95: 'Yes, he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock he leads with his hand'. It is a psalm that is a meditation on the Exodus where Israel first experienced God's solicitude because, without him, they would not have survived. For God gathered his people as a shepherd gathers his flock, enabling them to overcome every obstacle. And today in the responsorial psalm when it says: 'You, shepherd of Israel, listen', it is to the fundamental experience of the Exodus and the liberation from Egypt that we refer.

In the second metaphor, the psalm calls God the vinedresser: "God of hosts return! Look down from heaven and see: visit this vineyard, protect what your right hand has planted'. The psalm is inspired by Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard: "I want to sing for my beloved the song of my beloved for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill. He had spaded it, cleared it of stones, and planted fine vines in it. In the midst of it he had built a tower and he had also dug a vat' (Is 5:1-2). This is probably a popular song, which was sung at weddings as a symbol of the young bridegroom's care for his beloved, and this psalm takes up the image to describe God's solicitude as we read in verses (9-12) not taken up in the responsorial psalm: "You uprooted a vineyard from Egypt, you drove out the nations to plant it. You prepared the ground for it, you rooted it so that it filled the land. Its shadow covered the mountains, its branches the highest cedars; it extended its shoots as far as the sea and its buds as far as the River".  The Exodus, the entry into the Promised Land, the Covenant with God, the conquest of the land and the expansion under David's reign, in all these glories Israel recognises the work of God, of his continuous presence and care. The growth of Israel was so extraordinary that we can speak of an age of glory: "His shadow covered the mountains, his branches the highest cedars", thinking of David's conquests that extended the borders of the kingdom to unprecedented heights. 

The honeymoon did not last long because already in Isaiah the song recounted a happy love at the beginning, which ended badly because of the unfaithfulness of the beloved (cf. Is 5:2-4). And in the end, the vinedresser abandons his vineyard (cf. Is 5:5-6). In today's psalm we find the same adventure of a betrayed love: Israel is spoken of and its infidelities are idolatry with all kinds of transgressions of God's Law that bring consequences as one can well understand when reading the whole psalm.  I limit myself only to a few verses not found in the responsorial psalm. "Why have you cut down its hedge? Everyone who passes by plunders it; the boar of the forest devastates it, and the animals of the fields graze it' (Ps 80:13-14). And shortly afterwards:

"It is destroyed, set on fire" (v. 17). And again: "You have made us the mockery of our neighbours, our enemies laugh at us" (v. 7). In other words, we are in a period of foreign occupation and who the enemies are, the story does not say; they are, however, compared to the animals that ravage the vineyard - such as wild boars, considered unclean animals. Israel acknowledges the guilt for which it was punished by God and the psalm pleads for forgiveness, saying: 'How long wilt thou remain angry against the prayers of thy people? You have made us eat bread of tears, you have given us tears in abundance to drink' (v. 5-6). The psalm reflects the state of theology at the time when it was believed that everything, happiness as well as misfortune, was the work of God.  Certainly today, thanks to patient divine pedagogy, there has been progress in the understanding of revelation and we have understood that God respects human freedom and certainly does not control every detail of history. However, this psalm offers a magnificent lesson in faith and humility: the people recognise their infidelities and make a firm resolution never to repeat them again:

"From you never again shall we depart" and turns to God imploring the power of conversion:

"Let us live and we will call upon your name".

Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews 10, 5-10

 *Availability is worth more than all sacrifices

In these few lines, this expression occurs twice: "Behold, I come... to do your will, O God", taken from Psalm 39/40, a psalm of thanksgiving. A brief commentary on this psalm begins by describing the mortal danger from which Israel was delivered: "With patience I hoped in the Lord: he stooped over me, he heard my cry. He brought me out of the pit of death, out of the mud and mire; he established my feet on the rock, he made my steps sure'. After giving thanks for the deliverance from Egypt, he continues: "On my lips he has placed a new song, a praise to our God"; then: "You wanted neither sacrifice nor offering, but you gave me a body. You did not like either holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said: 'Behold, I come, my God, to do your will'". The message is clear: the best way to give thanks is to offer God not sacrifices, but the willingness to do his will. The response that God expects is: 'Here I am', typical of God's great servants. Abraham, called by God at the time of Isaac's sacrifice, answered simply: 'Here I am' and his willingness is an example for the children of Israel (Gen 22): although Isaac was not immolated, willingness is worth more than all sacrifices. Moses answers 'Here I am' before the burning bush and his willingness transformed a simple shepherd even clumsy in speech into the great leader of Israel. Samuel, centuries later, in the time of the Judges, with his 'Here I am' became Israel's great prophet (1 Sam 3:1-9) who as an adult had the courage to say to King Saul: 'Does the Lord like holocausts and sacrifices as much as obedience to his word? No! Obedience is worth more than sacrifice, listening more than the fat of rams" (1 Sam 15:22).

In the Bible, the title 'servant' of God is the greatest compliment for a believer, just as in the first centuries of the Christian era, in Greek-speaking countries, it was common to give children the name 'Christodule' (Christodoulos), meaning servant of Christ. The insistence on availability becomes for everyone first of all encouraging because God only asks for our availability and all of us, despite our human limitations, can become useful for the Kingdom of God. At the same time, this insistence is demanding because if God calls us to serve Him, we cannot make excuses such as incompetence, ignorance, unworthiness, weariness, etc.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews applies Psalm 39/40 to Jesus Christ, who says: "You wanted neither sacrifice nor offering, but a body you have prepared for me. Thou hast pleased neither burnt offerings nor sacrifices for sin. Then I said: 'Behold, I come to do, O God, your will.  Total availability that did not begin on the evening of Holy Thursday, but embraces the whole of life, day after day, from the very beginning because "entering the world, Christ says ... a body you have prepared for me ... behold, I am coming" (vv5-7). 

To say that willingness is worth more than all sacrifices does not mean that sacrifices are abolished, but they lose their value when they are not accompanied by total willingness to serve God and man. Moreover, in Israel, in the context of the struggle against idolatries, the prophets insisted on the 'sacrifice of the lips', a prayer and praise to be addressed exclusively to the God of Israel, since it happened that, while offering costly sacrifices in the temple of Jerusalem, some continued to turn to other gods. Offering to God the "sacrifice of the lips" indicates the decision to belong to Him unreservedly, and this, as we read in Hosea, was worth more than all animal sacrifices: "Instead of bulls, we will offer you as a sacrifice the words of our lips" (Hos 14:3). Psalm 49/50 also reiterates this: 'Offer to God as a sacrifice your praise and make your vows to the Most High... He who offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me' (Ps 49/50.14.23).

Jacob is regarded as an example of absolute availability to God, despite his wrongdoings, because his life bears witness to a profound inner transformation and an intense search for God. Jacob's journey represents the spiritual journey of every believer: from a life characterised by deceit and strife to a life of faith, of encounter with God and adherence to His plan. These are Jacob's misdeeds: from his youth, he commits several questionable actions: he deceives his brother Esau in order to obtain the birthright in exchange for a plate of lentils (Gen 25:29-34); he cheats his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing due to the first-born son, with the help of his mother Rebecca (Gen 27), he manipulates his uncle Laban to enrich himself during the time he works for him (Gen 30:25-43). This is his openness to God: despite these behaviours, Jacob is open to the encounter with God and shows an increasing readiness to allow himself to be transformed. His story is punctuated by episodes that show the change of his heart: the dream of Bethel (Gen 28:10-22): after deceiving his brother and fleeing, Jacob has a vision of a ladder connecting earth to heaven. In this dream, God renews to him the promises made to Abraham and Isaac. Here he promises: 'If God will be with me and protect me on this journey ... then the Lord will be my God' (Gen 28:20-21).

Then at Peniel (Gen 32:23-32) he wrestles all night with a mysterious man, who turns out to be God himself or one of his messengers and receives a new name, Israel, which means 'He who wrestles with God'. It is the symbol of a profound transformation: "I will not let you go unless you bless me!" (Gen 32:27). Here emerges his total willingness to depend on God, to recognise his need to be blessed and guided. Reconciliation with Esau follows (Gen 33) and this shows that inner change produces concrete fruits in human relationships. The thirst for God: what distinguishes Jacob is not his moral perfection, but his thirst for God: he always sought Him even when his actions were dictated by personal ambition and this constant search for God makes him an example of helpfulness because he appears to be a man who, despite his weaknesses and mistakes, always desired God's blessing and presence in his life. His story teaches that: God does not choose the perfect, but those who are willing to allow themselves to be transformed; our imperfections are not an obstacle to God's call, as long as we are willing to walk with Him; availability to God is more important than outward sacrifices or works, because God looks at the heart and the desire for conversion. In summary, Jacob is an example of absolute availability to God because, despite his misdeeds, he accepted the divine call, fought for God's blessing, and allowed himself to be transformed by that encounter, becoming one of the fundamental patriarchs of Israel's faith.Gospel according to Luke 1:39-45

*You are blessed among all women  

In Luke's gospel, after the two accounts of the Annunciation: to Zechariah for the birth of John the Baptist, and to Mary for the birth of Jesus, there follows the account of the "Visitation", which at first glance appears to be a simple family scene, but we must not be deceived: Luke writes a profoundly theological work, and to better understand it we must give due value to the central phrase: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she cried out with a loud voice" (Lk 1:41-42). It is therefore the Holy Spirit who speaks and announces from the very beginning the great news of the whole of Luke's Gospel: the one who has just been conceived is the 'Lord'. The Spirit inspires Elizabeth: 'Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb': this means that God acts in you and through you, God acts in your Son and through your Son. As always, the Holy Spirit is the one who enables us to discover, in our lives and in the lives of others, the signs of God's work. Luke is not unaware that this phrase from Elizabeth partly echoes one we find in the book of Judith (Jdt 13:18-19): when after beheading the general Holofernes, Judith returns from the enemy camp, she is greeted by Ozia who says to her: 'You are blessed among all women, and blessed is the Lord God'. Mary is here compared to Judith, a parallelism that suggests two things: the expression 'Blessed art thou among all women' makes it clear that Mary is the woman who guarantees mankind ultimate victory over evil. As for the conclusion of the sentence (for Judith 'blessed is the Lord God', while for Mary 'blessed is the fruit of thy womb'), it announces that the Lord himself is the fruit of her womb: this is why Luke's account is not just a picture of family joy, but something much deeper. In the face of Zechariah's muteness, who had become mute because he had doubted the angel's words announcing the birth of John the Baptist, the power of Elizabeth's word full of the Holy Spirit appears in full contrast. John the Baptist, still in his mother's womb, already full of the Holy Spirit manifests his joy: Elizabeth says that he "leapt for joy in my womb" when he heard Mary's voice. The angel had foretold this to Zechariah: 'Fear not, Zechariah, your prayer has been answered. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. You will be in joy and exultation, and many will rejoice at his birth ... he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb" (Lk 1:13-15).

We recall the words of Elizabeth: "To what do I owe that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Lk 1:43). This sentence also recalls an episode from the Old Testament, namely the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:2-11). When David became king in Jerusalem and built a worthy palace, he decided to transfer the Ark of the Covenant to the new capital. Filled with fervour and awe, he organised a festive procession with all the best men of Israel, about thirty thousand, and with all the people he set out to bring up the Ark of God... They carried it in a new chariot... David and all the house of Israel danced before the Lord to the sound of harps, harps, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals (cf. 2 Sam 6:5). On the way, however, a man who had touched the Ark without being authorised to do so died immediately and, seized with fear, David exclaimed: "How can the Ark of the Lord come to me?" (2 Sam 6:9). He then decided to leave the Ark in the house of Obed-Edom, where it remained for three months and then, as word spread that the presence of the Ark brought blessing to that house, David decided to complete the journey and so David and all the house of Israel brought up the Ark of the Lord amidst songs of joy and to the sound of the horn (cf. 2 Sam 6:15) and full of joy, David also danced before the Ark "with all his might" (cf. 2 Sam 6:14).

Many details unite the account of the Visitation with the journey of the Ark of the Covenant: Both journeys, that of the Ark and that of Mary, take place in the same region, the hills of Judea; the Ark enters the house of Obed-Edom and brings blessing; Mary enters the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth and brings joy; the Ark stays three months in the house of Obed-Edom; Mary stays three months with Elizabeth; David dances before the Ark; John the Baptist "exults with joy" before Mary who carries the Lord in her. Since all this is not accidental, the evangelist invites us to contemplate Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was the place of God's Presence, and Mary carries within her, in a mysterious way, the divine Presence, and from that moment God dwells forever in our humanity: "The Word became flesh and came to dwell among us" (Jn 1:14).

(Lk 1:67-79)

The anthem is a prayer of praise from the first communities, and it gives us an idea of how the life of faith and liturgy were lived: both celebration of the mystery, profession, animation of hope and catechesis.

The Canticle of Zechariah is maintained at a Judaizing theological level that expresses the fulfilment of the Covenant, and sparks joy at the awareness of having been visited by God.

In the Son, the Eternal Father ‘comes’ to crown the Promises.

The poem responds to the same scheme of Mary’s hymn (vv.46-55) that praises God because he reveals his power in a convergent and crucial way, giving us the pace of a life freed from oppression.

In the birth of John the Christ is announced: the expectation of Israel - here still vaguely confused with a dominant (Davidic) Sprout with cultural veins bound, particular.

Now, however, the hearts’ expectation is made alive in a reality of human union - unpredictable for target, unilateral cultures: in different way than one would expect.

A whole people is priestly.

Finally comes the world of truth and fulness in living: of divine presence not plastered, but ‘in the midst’.

Certainty specified in the traditional forms of the "chosen nation", on which, however, the confidence generated by the experience of a new fraternal order is raised.

The intervention of John and Jesus substantiates the invoking fullness of times. Thus «the God of Israel visited and made the redemption for his people, and aroused for us a horn of salvation» (vv.68-69).

In this passage from the First to the New Alliance, the communities of Lk express a desire to witness to convictions of Faith now «without fear» (v.74), with a sense of Presence: «in front» (vv.75.76).

This is due to the awareness of unconditional «forgiveness», and «knowledge»: «Way of Peace» (vv.77.79).

An experience that evolves by harmonizing the ancient Scriptures, letting a new Liberation advance.

“Ransom” for intrinsic, not accessory work: action of the Light that avoids condemnations; only conciliates.

The unity of salvation history produces the release of its spiritual, social and criterion needs, no more with conventional disputes - in the Dawn of the expected Messiah.

[Weekday Liturgy, December 24]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

The celebration of the Holy Birth is at hand. Today's vigil prepares us to live intensely the mystery that tonight's Liturgy will invite us to contemplate with the eyes of faith. 

In the Divine Newborn, whom we will place in the manger, our Salvation is made manifest. In the God who makes himself man for us, we all feel loved and welcomed, we discover that we are precious and unique in the eyes of the Creator. 

The birth of Christ helps us to become aware of the value of human life, the life of every human being, from the first instant to natural death. 

To those who open their heart to this "baby wrapped in swaddling clothes" and lying "in a manger" (cf. Lk 2: 12), he offers the possibility of seeing with new eyes the realities of every day. He can taste the power of the interior fascination of God's love and is able to transform even sorrow into joy. 

Let us prepare ourselves, dear friends, to meet Jesus, the Emmanuel, God with us. Born in the poverty of Bethlehem, he wants to be the travelling companion of each one of us on our life's journey. In this world, from the very moment when he decided to pitch his "tent", no one is a stranger. 

It is true, we are all here in passing, but it is precisely Jesus who makes us feel at home on this earth, sanctified by his presence. He asks us, however, to make it a home in which all are welcome.
The surprising gift of Christmas is exactly this: Jesus came for each one of us and in him we have become brothers. 

The corresponding duty is to increasingly overcome preconceptions and prejudices, to break down barriers and eliminate the differences that divide us, or worse, that set individuals and peoples against one another, in order to build together a world of justice and peace. 

With these sentiments, dear brothers and sisters, let us live the last hours that separate us from Christmas, preparing ourselves spiritually to welcome the Child Jesus. In the heart of the night he will come for us. It is his desire, however, also to come in us, to dwell in the heart of every one of us. 

So that this may occur, it is indispensable that we are open and that we prepare ourselves to receive him, ready to make room for him within ourselves, in our families, in our cities. 

May his birth not find us unprepared to celebrate Christmas, forgetting that the protagonist of the celebration is precisely him! 

May Mary help us to maintain the interior recollection so necessary to taste the profound joy that the Redeemer's birth brings. To her we address our prayer, thinking particularly of those who are prepared to celebrate Christmas in sadness and solitude, in sickness and in suffering: to all may the Virgin bring comfort and consolation.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 24 December 2006]

(Reading: Lk 1:68-69.76.78-79)

Benedictus

1. Having reached the end of our long journey through the Psalms and Canticles of the Liturgy of Lauds, let us pause to consider the prayer that marks the Office of Lauds every morning. It is the Benedictus, the Canticle intoned by Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, when the birth of that son changed his life, wiping away the doubt that caused him to go mute, a serious punishment for his lack of faith and praise. 

Now, instead, Zechariah can celebrate God who saves him, and he does so with this hymn, set down by Luke the Evangelist in a form that undoubtedly reflects the liturgical usage current in the original Christian community (cf. Lk 1: 68-79). 

The Evangelist himself describes it as a prophetic hymn, inspired by the breath of the Holy Spirit (cf. 1: 67). Indeed, we have before us a benediction proclaiming the saving actions and liberation offered by the Lord to his people. Thus, it is a "prophetic" interpretation of history, the discovery of the intimate, profound meaning of all human events that are guided by the hidden but active hand of the Lord which clasps the more feeble and hesitant hands of men and women. 

2. The text is solemn and, in the original Greek, is composed of only two sentences (cf. 68-75; 76-79). After the introduction, marked by the benediction of praise, we can identify in the body of the Canticle, as it were, three strophes that exalt the same number of themes, destined to mark the whole history of salvation:  the covenant with David (cf. vv. 68-71), the covenant with Abraham (cf. vv. 72-75) and the Baptist who brings us into the new Covenant in Christ (cf. vv. 76-79). Indeed, the tension of the whole prayer is a yearning for the goal that David and Abraham indicate with their presence. 

It culminates in one of the last lines: "The day shall dawn upon us from on high..." (v. 78). This phrase, which at first sight seems paradoxical with its association of "dawn" and "on high", is actually full of meaning. 

3. Indeed, in the original Greek, the "rising sun" is anatolè, a word which in itself means both the light of the sun that shines on our planet and a new shoot that sprouts. Both these images have messianic value in the biblical tradition. 

On the one hand, Isaiah reminds us, speaking of the Emmanuel, that "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined" (Is 9: 1). On the other, referring once again to the king-Emmanuel, he describes him as the "shoot from the stump of Jesse", that is, from the house of David, a shoot upon which the Spirit of the Lord was to rest (cf. Is 11: 1-2). 

With Christ, therefore, appears the light that enlightens every creature (cf. Jn 1: 9) and makes life flourish, as John the Evangelist was to say, combining the two realities: "in him was life, and the life was the light of men" (1: 4). 

4. Humanity that was engulfed "in darkness and in the shadow of death" is illumined by this dazzling revelation (cf. Lk 1: 79). As the Prophet Malachi had announced: "For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays" (3: 20). This sun "guides our feet into the way of peace" (Lk 1: 79). 

So let us move on, taking that light as our reference point; and may our faltering steps which, during the day, often stray to dark and slippery paths, be sustained by the light of the truth that Christ spreads in the world and in history. 

At this point, let us listen to a teacher of the Church, one of her Doctors, the Englishman Venerable Bede (seventh-eighth centuries). In his Homily for the Birth of St John the Baptist he commented on the Canticle of Zechariah as follows: "The Lord... has visited us as a doctor visits the sick, because to heal the deep-rooted sickness of our pride, he gave us the new example of his humility; he redeemed his people, for at the price of his blood he set us free when we had become servants of sin and slaves of the ancient enemy.... Christ found us lying "in darkness and in the shadow of death', that is, oppressed by the long-lasting blindness of sin and ignorance.... He brought to us the true light of his knowledge, and banishing the darkness of error, he has shown us the sure way to the heavenly homeland. He has directed the steps of our actions to make us walk on the path of truth, which he has pointed out to us, and to enable us to enter the home of eternal peace, which he has promised us". 

5. Lastly, drawing from other biblical texts, the Venerable Bede concluded, giving thanks for the gifts received:  "Given that we are in possession of these gifts of eternal bounty, dear brethren... let us also praise the Lord at all times (cf. Ps 34[33]: 2), for "he has visited and redeemed his people'.

May praise be always on our lips, let us cherish his memory and in turn, proclaim the virtue of the One who has "called you [us] out of darkness into his marvellous light' (I Pt 2: 9). Let us ceaselessly ask his help, so that he may preserve in us the light of the knowledge that he brought to us, and lead us onwards to the day of perfection" (Omelie sul Vangelo, Rome, 1990, pp. 464-465).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 1 October 2003]

The Gospel passage that was just proclaimed is the prelude to two great canticles: that of Mary, known as the “Magnificat”, and that of Zechariah, the “Benedictus”, which I like to call “the canticle of Elizabeth or of fruitfulness”. Thousands of Christians throughout the world begin the day by singing: “Blessed be the Lord” and end it by proclaiming “the greatness of the Lord, for he has looked with favour on his lowly servant”. In this way believers of different peoples, day by day, try to remember; to remember that, from generation to generation, God’s mercy spreads over all people as he had promised our fathers. And from this context of grateful remembrance bursts forth Elizabeth’s song in the form of a question: “And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”. We find Elizabeth, the woman marked by the sign of barrenness, who sings under the sign of fruitfulness and astonishment. 

I would like to emphasize precisely these two aspects. Elizabeth, marked by barrenness and marked by fruitfulness. 

1. Elizabeth the barren woman, with all that this implied for the religious mentality of that era, which considered barrenness a divine punishment as a result of her sin or that of her spouse. A mark of shame imprinted on her flesh, either because she felt guilty of a sin that she had not committed or because she felt inadequate, not living up to what was expected of her. Let us imagine for a moment the glances of her family members, of her neighbours, of her own ... a barrenness which thoroughly penetrates and ends up paralyzing one’s entire life. A barrenness that can assume many names and forms each time a person physically feels shame in seeing herself stigmatized or feeling inadequate (...)

2. And, let us contemplate Elizabeth, the barren woman, together with Elizabeth, the fruitful-astonished woman. She herself is the first to recognize and bless Mary. It is she who in old age experienced in her own life, in her flesh, the fulfillment of the promise God had made. She who could not have children carried in her womb the Precursor of Salvation. In her we understand that God’s dream is neither barrenness nor to stigmatize or shame his children, but to make flow in them and from them a song of blessing. Likewise we see it in Juan Diego. It was precisely he, and not another, who carried imprinted on his mantle, the tilma, the image of the Virgin: the Virgin with a dark complexion and face of mixed race, supported by an angel with the wings of quetzal, pelican and macaw; the mother able to assume the features of her children to make them feel part of her blessing. It would seem that God unceasingly persists in showing us that “the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (Ps 118[117]:22).

[Pope Francis, homily 12 December 2017]

Prophetic ardour, Salvation that doesn’t repeat

(Lk 1:57-66.80)

Salvation - the cue for a full existence - runs through increasingly vast spaces and breaks into in a peremptory way, without ever repeating itself.

It doesn’t ask for authoritative permits, nor does it wait for a beautiful swept and adorned dwelling.

It even enters the House (Israel) in which nothing was done but to commemorate, with no possibility of renewal and progress.

It transforms it, though scented with incense and pureness.

In that context, unfortunately, the Waiting had become a habit [to wait] that no longer expected anything.

The announcement of the new times, conversely, arouses contagious joys, a desire to make and affect the ancient habitual enclosure - in all aspects of mentality, suddenly no longer compliant.

Change ushers in an era of redemption: concretely, a life as people saved.

Trajectory now able to open loop holes on the great wall of conventions that bridle the freedom to be and to do.

Zechariah [«God makes memory»: the usual God and the usual memory] generates a Promise that is being fulfilled before the eyes.

Word-event that really visits the people - here and now, every dawn - imposing the «none of your kinship» (v.61) ie of the custom: here is Johanan [«God has made Grace»].

The Merciful Living One is no longer exactly that of the bloody and propitiatory cults at the Temple - but of the perspectives, of the deployed horizons. 

You find lightness. No conditioning blockage, no guilt sense for having diverted. In His proposals for dilated life, He is and remains «Favourable».

The Name to be imposed by ancient tradition conveyed a culture and a role (even) with sacred accents, reassuring.

By changing it, destiny is modified. Thus we doesn’t fall into a garment, in a part to be recited; we grasp the essence of the expected Face.

The Eternal is not the One who invites to a series of identified roles to trace without respite: his unconditional initiatives offer every day a decisive field’s opening.

The Most High creates, and calls for development, for the better and further: the categories of possibilities are overflown!

The ancient barriers between Heaven and Earth, between Tradition and Manifestation, are about to fall in favor of a world prone to life.

Redemption begins to make sparks with textbook choices: they can't stand each other anymore.

Even in our journey, accepting different horizons from the expected we allow the divine soul of salvation history to visit us.

This is so that the essence of our deep states detaches itself from the common judgment, and re-tunses on how much is still Unknown but we feel it belongs to us.

In each shift of gaze we will find another cosmos, a discreet, reserved Beauty - in which the Secret for each is nestled, a stage of complete realization for all.

Fulfilment is now «fortified in Spirit and in deserts» instead of according to manners and measure - in special places (v.80) from which one can push oneself out, even irregularly.

[Weekday Liturgy of December 2023]