Second Sunday of Advent (year A) [7 December 2025]

May God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! From this Sunday onwards, in addition to the summary of the most important elements of each reading, I will add a brief commentary on the Gospel by a Father of the Church.

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (11:1-10)

Isaiah speaks of the root of Jesse and refers to the descendants of King David. Jesse had eight sons, but God chose Samuel not to choose the strongest or the eldest, but the youngest: David, the shepherd, who became the greatest king of Israel. From that moment on, Jesse became the progenitor of a dynasty often represented as a tree destined for a great future, which would never die. The prophet Nathan promised David that his descendants would reign forever and bring unity and peace to the people. But in history, the kings of his lineage did not fully keep these promises. However, it is precisely from disappointments that a stronger hope arises: if God has promised, then it will come to pass. How did the idea of the Messiah come about? The term 'messiah' (in Hebrew mashiach = 'anointed') originally referred to any king, because he was 'anointed' with oil on the day of his coronation. Over time, however, the word 'messiah' took on the meaning of 'ideal king', the one who brings justice, peace and happiness. When Isaiah says, 'A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse', it means that even if David's dynasty seems like a dead tree, God can bring forth a new shoot, an ideal king: the Messiah, who will be guided by the Spirit of the Lord. The seven gifts of the Spirit, symbols of fullness, will rest upon him: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord, which is not fear but trust and respect as a son. The Messiah will rule as God wills: with justice and faithfulness, and his task will be to wage war on injustice: He will judge the poor with justice... not according to appearances... he will put an end to wickedness with the breath of his lips. 'The wicked' does not refer to a person, but to wickedness itself, like saying 'waging war on war'. Isaiah describes a world where the wolf lives with the lamb, the child plays without fear, there is no more violence or conflict. It is not a return to paradise on earth, but the final fulfilment of God's plan, when the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth. The root of Jesse will be a sign for all peoples, and the Messiah concerns not only Israel but all nations. Jesus himself will take up this idea: "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself" (Jn 12:32). Isaiah preaches in the eighth century BC, at a time of political pressure and threats from neighbouring empires. The tree of David seems to be dead, but Isaiah urges us not to lose hope. The "animal fable" uses symbols to speak of human beings, as La Fontaine would do many centuries later, and constitutes a promise of peace, brotherhood and universal reconciliation. Martin Luther King, in his "I have a dream" speech, drew direct inspiration from these images used by Isaiah (cf. 11:2): a world where justice and brotherhood overcome violence.

The central theme can be summed up in one sentence: From the seemingly dead trunk of David's dynasty, God is so faithful that, when all seems lost, he revives his promise from a fragment, from a stump: hope is born precisely where man can no longer see anything. God will raise up a Messiah guided by the Spirit, who will fight injustice and bring universal peace to all peoples. God is faithful, and even from a dead trunk he can bring forth new life. It is messianic peace, the final reconciliation of creation. There are times when we too feel like a cut tree: failures, disappointments, repeated sins, broken relationships, projects that do not come to fruition, communities that seem to be losing strength. Isaiah announces: God is not finished with you either, and even where you see no future, He sees a sprout. Continue to hope, because God sees sprouts where we see only dry wood.

*Responsorial Psalm (71/72, 1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17)

Psalm 71/72 is a prayer that arose after the Babylonian exile, at a time when there was no longer a king in Israel. This means that the psalm no longer speaks of an earthly ruler, but of the king promised by God: the Messiah. Since it is God who promises him, his fulfilment is certain. The entire Bible is permeated with an indestructible hope: history has meaning and direction, and God has a plan of happiness for humanity. This plan takes on different names (the Day of the Lord, the Kingdom of Heaven, the benevolent plan), but it is always the same: like a lover who repeats words of love, God tirelessly proposes his plan of salvation.

This plan is announced from the beginning, in the vocation of Abraham (Gen 12:3): 'All the families of the earth shall be blessed in you'. The revelation is therefore universal from the outset. Israel is chosen not to manage a privilege, but to be a service and a sign for all peoples. The psalm takes up this promise: in the Messiah, all nations will be blessed and will call him blessed. It also takes up the other promise made to Abraham (Gen 15:18), namely the gift of the land "from the river of Egypt to the great river". Echoing this, the psalm says: "He shall rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth." The book of Sirach (Sir 44:21) confirms this reading, linking together universal blessing, multiplication of descendants and extended inheritance. Although today the idea of a universal ruler may seem far removed from democratic sensibilities, and indeed there is fear of the imposition of a hidden world authority that would dominate the whole of humanity, the Bible reminds us that every ruler is only an instrument in the hands of God, and what matters is the people, considering the whole of humanity as one vast people, and the psalm announces a pacified humanity: In those days, justice will flourish, great peace until the end of time, poverty and oppression defeated. The dream of justice and peace runs through the entire Scripture: Jerusalem means 'city of peace'; Deuteronomy 15 states that there will be no more poor people. The psalm fits into this line: the Messiah will help the poor who cry out, the weak without help, the miserable who have no defence. The prayer of the psalm does not serve to remind God of his promises, because God does not forget. Instead, it serves to help man learn to look at the world through God's eyes, remember his plan and find the strength to work towards its realisation. Justice, peace and the liberation of the poor will not come about magically: God invites believers to cooperate, allowing themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit with light, strength and grace.

Important points to remember: +Psalm 72 is messianic: written when there were no more kings, it announces the Messiah promised by God.+History has meaning: God has a plan of happiness for all humanity.+The promises to Abraham are the foundation: universal blessing and inheritance without borders.+The Messiah will be God's instrument, serving the people and not power.+The world to come will be marked by justice, peace and an end to poverty. +Prayer is not meant to convince God, but to educate us: it opens our eyes to God's plan. Peace and justice will also come through human commitment guided by the Spirit.

Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (15:4-9)

Saint Paul writes to the Romans: 'Everything that was written before us was written for our instruction... so that we may keep hope alive'. This sentence is the key to reading the entire Bible: Scripture exists to enlighten, liberate and give hope. If a text seems obscure or difficult, it simply means that we have not yet fully understood it: the Good News is always present and we must dig to find it, as if it were a hidden treasure. Scripture nourishes hope because it proclaims on every page a single plan of God: that "merciful design" which is the great love story of God with humanity. The entire Bible, from the Old to the New Testament, has only one subject: the plan of salvation and communion that God wants to realise in the Messiah. Paul then moves on to a concrete theme: the Christians in Rome were divided. There were two groups: Christians who came from Judaism and were still attached to Jewish religious and dietary practices, and Christians who came from paganism and considered such observances outdated. This diversity gave rise to discord, mutual judgement and suspicion. Liturgical and cultural differences became real conflicts. This situation is very similar to the tensions that exist even today in the Church between different sensibilities. Paul does not propose dividing the community into two separate groups. Instead, he proposes the path of cohabitation, the building of peace, patience and mutual tolerance, inviting everyone to seek what promotes peace and what builds up the community. Let each one seek the good of the other, and may 'the God of perseverance and consolation' grant you to live in harmony according to Christ. The fundamental principle is: 'Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you'. Paul recalls that Christ took upon himself the mission of the Servant of God announced by Isaiah: chosen and elected by God, formed every morning by the Word, giver of his own life, bringer of salvation to all nations. Christ, by dying and rising again, united the Jews, saved in continuity with their Covenant, and the pagans, saved by God's gratuitous mercy. For this reason, no one can claim superiority; rather, everything is grace, everything is a gift from Christ, and true worship is this: to overcome the past, to recognise the gift received, to welcome one another without distinction, to sing together of God's faithfulness and mercy.

Important elements to remember: +Scripture exists to give hope. Every page of the Bible is Good News. If we do not find liberation, we have not yet understood the text. + The Bible proclaims a single plan. God's "providential plan" is to bring humanity to communion and salvation through the Messiah. +Paul corrects a divided community: In Rome, there were tensions between Christians of Jewish and pagan origin. Practical and cultural differences created judgements and conflicts. The Christian solution is not to separate. Paul proposes cohabitation, patience, and mutual edification. The community is a 'building' that must be constructed with peace and tolerance. +The model is Christ the Servant who united everyone: Jews and pagans. No one can boast: everything is grace. +The watchword: welcome: Welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you. The Church is alive when it overcomes divisions and lives mercy.

*From the Gospel according to Matthew (3:1-12)

When John the Baptist begins his preaching, Judea has been under Roman rule for 90 years, Herod is in power but deeply hated; religious currents are divided and confused; there are collaborators, resisters, false prophets, messianic agitators. The people are tired and disoriented, and it is in this climate that the preaching of John, who lives in the desert of Judea (between Jerusalem and the Jordan), begins. Matthew insists on the spiritual meaning of the desert: he recalls the Exodus, the Covenant, purification, the loving relationship between God and Israel (Hosea) and sees the desert as the place of return to truth and decision. In John, everything recalls the great prophets: he wears camel's hair, eats locusts and honey, and lives an ascetic lifestyle. Many consider him the possible return of Elijah, awaited to prepare for the coming of God (Malachi 3:23). His preaching has a double prophetic tone: sweet and comforting for the humble; harsh and provocative for the proud. The expression "brood of vipers" is not a personal insult, but a way of saying, "you are following the logic of the tempting serpent," and is therefore an invitation to change one's attitude. John invites everyone to make a righteous discernment in their lives: what is healthy remains, what is corrupt is eliminated. And to be incisive, he uses strong images: fire burning straw (a reference to the prophet Malachi), a sieve separating wheat from chaff, a threshing floor where the choice is made - and this is the meaning: everything in us that is death will be purified; everything that is authentic will be saved and preserved. It is a liberating judgement, not a destructive one. John announces Jesus: 'I baptise you with water, but the one who comes after me... will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire'. Only God can give the Spirit, and so John implicitly affirms the divinity of Jesus. The images used: 'Stronger than me' is a typical attribute of God. "I am not worthy to carry his sandals or untie his sandals": with this he recognises Jesus' divine dignity. Although he is a teacher followed by disciples, John puts himself in the second row; he recognises Jesus' superiority and paves the way for the Messiah. His greatness consists precisely in making room. Matthew shows him as a "voice in the desert" with reference to Isaiah 40:3, also linked to Elijah (2 Kings 1:8; Malachi 3:23), in the line of prophets to introduce Jesus as God present and judge. Chapters 3-4 of Matthew are a hinge: here begins the preaching of the Kingdom.

Important elements to remember: +John appears in a context of oppression and moral confusion: his word brings light and discernment. +The desert is a place of new covenant, truth and conversion. +John presents himself with prophetic signs (clothing, food, style) reminiscent of Elijah. +His preaching is twofold: consolation for the little ones, provocation for those who are sure of themselves. +Judgement is internal, not against categories of people: it purifies the evil in each person. Fire does not destroy man, but what is dead in him: it is a fire of love and truth. +Jesus accomplishes purification by baptising in the Holy Spirit, something that only God can do, and John recognises the divinity of Jesus with gestures of great humility. +The greatness of the Precursor lies in stepping aside to make room for the Messiah, and Matthew places him as a bridge between the Old and New Covenants, inaugurating the preaching of the Kingdom.

St John Chrysostom – Commentary on Matthew 3:1-12

'John appears in the desert not by chance, but to recall the ancient path of Israel.

Israel was educated in the desert, and now conversion begins again in the desert. His rough clothing and simple food show that he is free from all vanity, like Elijah. For this reason, the people, tired of the leaders of the time, flock to him: they see in John a truthful man who does not seek glory but leads to the truth." Chrysostom then explains the prophetic and moral content of John's preaching: By calling them a 'brood of vipers', he is not insulting them, but shaking them up so that they realise the poison that corrupts them. He does not attack people, but the evil that possesses them.

The judgement he announces is not against men, but against their evil deeds: fire burns guilt, not human nature." And regarding the announcement of the Messiah: "By saying, 'One more powerful than I is coming after me,' John does not compare himself to another man, but to God. For only God is said to be the Strong One. And when he adds, 'He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit', he openly confesses that the One who is coming has divine power. For this reason, he declares that he is not even worthy to untie his sandals: not because he despises himself, but because he recognises the greatness of Christ." Finally, Chrysostom interprets the mission of the Precursor:

"His greatness consists in diminishing so that Christ may grow. He is the voice that prepares the Word; he is the bridge that connects the Old Covenant to the New. He shows that all that the prophets awaited is now fulfilled: the King is near, and the Kingdom begins."

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Obsession and Compulsion

A gentleman confides in me that for some time now he has felt the need to check whether he has locked the front door of his house. A lady, on the other hand, needs to be sure that she has turned off the gas in the kitchen.

After checking, both the gas and the front door were fine and in order.

Another middle-aged man feels the need to see if his car is okay, then he has to go and check it, walk around it, touch it in different places, and only after completing these behavioural sequences can he return home peacefully. Sometimes he feels the need to do this several times a day.

In the Treccani dictionary, the term 'obsession' is defined as: 'a mental representation that the will cannot eliminate, accompanied by anxiety'. 

The term 'compulsion' is defined as: 'compulsion, being driven by necessity to do something'.

Many people have thoughts that they have no interest in; these are often ideas that make no sense, but which require considerable mental effort.

Without wanting to, these ideas invade our minds and make our brains 'rack' as if they were fundamental issues.

These may be thoughts or images that cause concern, and are usually followed by compulsions that the person must perform to calm their anxiety. 

Between the 'fixed' idea and the need to perform some act or gesture to ensure that nothing bad happens, doubt often arises, undermining our most certain convictions.

This leads to increasing indecision, which limits our freedom of action: even simple choices take a long time to make.  

Sometimes it leads us to be unable to make a decision. The doubt may concern a thought, a memory, an action, etc., and may spill over from one content to another.

A person with these problems, when leaving the house, sometimes feels compelled to return to  make sure they have not left the light on, and to be sure, they sometimes have to do this several times.

In literature, there are examples of people who, after sending a letter, felt the need to reopen it to check what they had written.

In psychological contexts such as this, we also talk about 'rumination', which is always associated with doubt.

In biology, it refers to the digestive process of certain animals, such as cattle. Food that has been swallowed is brought back into the mouth to be chewed again, more thoroughly, and then swallowed again to complete digestion.

In psychology, 'rumination' describes repetitive and persistent thinking focused on past events, as opposed to 'brooding', which is more concerned with future events.

Ceremonials are also described. In these, the individual must perform a sequence of acts such as washing their hands frequently or cleaning everyday objects many times.

This is where an aspect of the psychological picture described comes into play: 'rupophobia' and contamination. Rupophobia is a morbid fear of dirt and of being infected. It can affect any aspect of our lives: objects, people or public places. It is an aspect that can also harm intimacy.

The Covid period has increased the fear of contagion, but this was a real event. Many years ago, around 1986, there was the Chernobyl phenomenon, and there we really had to be careful about what we ate because food, especially vegetables, could have been contaminated.

Anyone who has these ideas may count the cars in the car park while walking, or touch lampposts, or try to avoid cracks in the pavement, etc.

In severe cases, these people may feel that they are harming someone, so these thoughts make them 'back away'. They need to give themselves a 'shake' to try to dispel these terrifying ideas.

People with these characteristics are generally strict, concerned with details, and meticulous about rules and formalities. 

However, by focusing on details, they often overlook the essentials.      

How many people in their work environment feel the need to line up their objects in excessive order?      

Order and control are closely interlinked, because external order can be a way of achieving internal order, which can reduce stress. 

However, we are talking about excessive order. A minimum of order is necessary to avoid confusion and to be able to find our things.

Stuttering is also a speech disorder linked to this psychological condition.

The person who stutters struggles at the beginning, with the first letter or syllable, and repeats it until the word is finished. 

As we know, their speech is fluent when they are alone or when they recite or sing.

Otherwise, mortified by their defect, they will tend to isolate themselves and speak as little as possible. Or they will stubbornly insist on speaking with intense physical effort.

Stuttering 'is a conflict between the erotic urethral tendency to expel and the erotic-anal tendency to retain, shifted to the mouth' (Manual of Psychiatry, Arieti, vol. I, p. 353).

Dr Francesco Giovannozzi, Psychologist-Psychotherapist.

Illuminator of the blind: what healing, Waiting, definitiveness?

(Mt 9:27-31)

The encyclical Fratelli Tutti [Brothers All] invites us to a perspective look that inspires decision and action: a new “eye”, full of Hope [n.55].

Yet experts (self-confident) do not grasp the - reversed - dignity of the Mystery of God and of humanity.

They know the ambitions, the law, the dictates of others, the fashions, or their ideas; not the upheavals of the soul and life.

So they make us stay like in a cold forest and dedicated to the strong, sterilized or imaginative, but paradoxically wild.

Competition is not lacking, indeed it will be even more subtle consequence, as in the case of eminent ‘apostles couple’ ambitions (just so!).

These “blind men” are the two sons of Zebedee, who - like the others - aspire to primacy.

The healing of those who have sight defects was one of the assets brought by the expected Messiah (Is 29:18; 35:5).

Everything would be turned for the better.

But in his encounters, Jesus operates a spiritual healing, not partial or frivolous and external.

The divine work in woman and man is prodigious, but in the sense that it becomes much deeper than a physical restoration.

The action of awakening the Faith and a new acumen of the soul allow to grasp the Lord’s own project.

This makes us docile to let His design be realized in us, and implemented by God himself.

The allusion is to the House [Church] in which all the characters enter as if it were normal and in a non-polemic context (v.28).

Even the reference to the fact that those in need of ‘enlightenment’ gather there, leads to reading in filigree the echo of ancient baptismal liturgies.

Around Jesus, here is the global sense of Christ’s encounter with believers.

The teaching to which we too, who are always ‘defective of sight’ are introduced by contact with the Master in the reunited community, is expressed in the transition from the title of the son of David (v.27) to that of Lord (v.28).

The blind people to whom myopia is corrected are the leaders and the catechumens, now believers. 

In their experience of Faith they pass from the idea of the glorious Messiah - resembling a ruler - to that of the close Friend and Brother.

This is why his Person opens up to Perception a panorama that prorupts as a rebirth and reversal of the values on the basis of which practical life is invested.

The reason for the thick outer darkness is precisely the ideology of power. It must disappear into the consideration and universe of the disciples.

This is the reason for the so-called messianic silence (v.30). And everything flows «from» another gaze, penetrating.

Such is the definitive intervention of God who elevates vision, dreams, and spirit, and thus activates paths that we do not know.

A new maturity is coming.

[Friday 1st wk. in Advent, December 5, 2025]

Illuminator of the blind: what healing, Expectation, finality?

(Mt 9:27-31)

The encyclical Brothers All invites us to a perspective that provokes decision and action: a new eye, filled with Hope.

It "speaks to us of a reality that is rooted in the depths of the human being, regardless of the concrete circumstances and historical conditioning in which he lives. It speaks to us of a thirst, of an aspiration, of a yearning for fullness, for a fulfilled life, of a measuring oneself against what is great, against what fills the heart and lifts the spirit towards great things, such as truth, goodness and beauty, justice and love. [...] Hope is audacious, it knows how to look beyond personal comfort, the small securities and compensations that narrow the horizon, to open up to great ideals that make life more beautiful and dignified" [n.55; from a Greeting to young people in Havana, September 2015].

Yet the experts - self-confident - do not grasp the (inverted) dignity of the Mystery of God and humanity.

They know ambitions, the law, the dictates of others, fashions, or their own ideas; not the upheavals of the soul and life.

So they keep us as if in an icy forest dedicated to the strong, sterilised or imaginative but paradoxically wild.

Competition is not lacking, indeed it will be an even more insidious consequence, as in the case of the claims (really!) of a pair of eminent apostles.

These are the two sons of Zebedee, who - like the others - aspire to primacy [Mt 20:20-28; Mk 10:35-45 and parallels Lk 22:24-27; Jn 12:26; 13:3-17].

The healing of those with failing eyesight was one of the goods brought by the expected Messiah (Is 29:18; 35:5).

Everything would be transformed for the better.

But in his encounters, Jesus works spiritual healing, not partial or frivolous and external healing.

Fatal misunderstanding was to see him as the doer of amazing things (v.31).

The divine work in man is prodigious, but in the sense that it goes much deeper than a physical healing.

The action of arousing Faith and a new acumen of the soul enable one to grasp the Lord's plan itself.

This makes us docile to let God himself realise it in us.

The allusion is to the House [Church] into which all the characters enter as if it were normal and in a non-polemical context (v.28).

The reference to the fact that those in need of enlightenment gather there also leads one to read in the watermark the echo of ancient baptismal liturgies.

Around Jesus, the overall meaning of Christ's encounter with believers is illustrated.

The teaching to which we too, always defective in sight, are introduced by the contact with the Master in the gathered community is expressed in the passage from the title son of David (v.27) to that of Lord (v.28).

The blind whose myopia is corrected are the leaders and catechumens, now believers. 

In their experience of Faith they pass from the idea of the glorious Messiah - resembling a ruler - to that of the close Friend, Brother of each, Next and eminent in the same way [two blind men].

That is why his Person opens wide to perception an alternative panorama of the mind and heart.

In this way, Mt gives the personality traits of the successful man according to God, as well as the most intimate figure of the community.

The change of the normal viewpoint triggers another life.

It is not an accessory gift, but an essential one. Essential not only for personal fulfilment, but also for Communion [Mt 20:24; Mk 10:41; Lk 9:46. 22:24; Jn 13:12-17. 20:4. 21:20-22].

Here too, in order to extract pearls, it is appropriate to go beyond the conformist and 'proper' - Babelic, fashionable or herd - and banal perspective.

We must learn to better fathom our Calling and what it brings, for there is another balance of things - perhaps yet to be explored.

Higher harmony that lies within life... but beneath the facades: one must dig into every relationship, affair or feeling; examine it better.

And become aware of what is emerging.

Watch out: even and especially in the shaking of storms.

Sometimes it is necessary to take a leap into the dark, to contact one's vocational Seed; to heal the gaze of the soul, and recognise oneself; to blossom.

Discomforts come as a warning: we are moving away from ourselves.

Dark bitternesses here become opportunities to break away from conformist backgrounds and representations.

Commonplaces have been inoculated into us (drop by drop) from petty glimpses, into which perhaps we are already introduced. And perhaps we interpret with a sense of permanence.

Having acquired another angle, we will be glad to realise what we are freed from and what different configurations await the growth of our own innate resources.

The tormented existence is often as if intoxicated, but only when it neither investigates nor notices different solutions to the idea of e.g. of having to enrich oneself with material goods, make a career, having to assert oneself immediately and strike back blow after blow, be respected, appear at any cost - why not, using church life.

This will not be our fulfilment and tranquillity; far from it. Rather, the cravings, intimacies, and other situations we know, are but an escape from our own essence.

Our inner core takes breath and momentum - it is activated - paradoxically by traumas and shadow sides.

All this happens by following the signals of natural Providence.

This vital wave expresses itself in 'words' or glimpses (precisely) of the unconscious that expresses itself, challenging us.

The reason for the outer darkness is here the ideology of power that draws its social realisation from the real darkness.

It must disappear in the consideration and universe of the disciples.

This is the reason for the so-called messianic silence (v.30) imposed by Jesus - although not infrequently the followers of all times later fall back on this and announce the Son of God in reverse (v.31).

In the Message of the "enlightened" family members, the wisdom of the new heart bursts forth as regeneration, rebirth and overturning of the values on the basis of which practical life is invested.

Now, however, let us not proclaim Christ like madmen (v.27), for our "saying" is all "from" another, penetrating gaze.

The witnesses whose vision, reading of things, and dreams have been corrected, are not called upon to violently enter and re-proclaim the old little world of histrionic fashions, of procured mists, or ambiguous misappropriations, of unradiant aggressiveness, and devious anxieties.

Rather, they correct mistakes and try to open pertuosities to dispel the darkness, making breaches and widening fissures of light.

Not because we have a 'positive' attitude - as we say today - but because we understand ourselves: because we grasp the meaning of things in the furrows of history, and by Grace we are enabled to read the sign of the times.

Breaking out of conventional patterns and mechanisms will enable us to correct beliefs, to make an Exodus from surface bitterness.

Not by pretending nothing, but by regenerating together with them - from within.

That is why in the Faith we avoid getting carried away by useless, harmful tensions, because they deviate from our Vocation.

But we penetrate these eccentricities, so that from them other Dreams, different Expectations, unique Images (really close to us) may depart.

This is the Coming that reveals the essential, and overcomes the void.

Presence that helps us give an eccentricity of Ray - and space that is also disharmonious. Without the usual reservoir of conformist, idolatrous, personal, or club fixations [that make horizons pale].

Such is the definitive intervention of God in time, which elevates vision and spirit, and thereby activates paths we do not know.

A new maturity is coming.

To internalise and live the message:

During the Advent season, what do you expect from the divine Coming, and what 'definitive' intervention do you desire?

The Church itself always needs to be evangelised

MUTUAL LINKS BETWEEN THE CHURCH AND EVANGELISATION

15. Whoever rereads, in the New Testament, the origins of the Church, following its history step by step and considering it in its living and acting, sees that it is linked to evangelisation by what is most intimate to it: - The Church is born from the evangelising action of Jesus and the Twelve. It is its normal, desired, most immediate and most visible fruit: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations". Now, "those who accepted his word were baptised and about three thousand joined them . . . And the Lord daily added to the community those who were saved".

- Born, consequently, of mission, the Church is, in turn, sent by Jesus. The Church remains in the world while the Lord of glory returns to the Father. It remains as a sign at once opaque and luminous of a new presence of Jesus, of his departure and of his permanence. It prolongs and continues it. And it is precisely his mission and his condition as evangeliser that, above all, it is called to continue. In fact, the community of Christians is never closed in on itself. In it, the intimate life - the life of prayer, listening to the Word and the teaching of the Apostles, the fraternal charity lived, the broken bread - does not acquire all its meaning except when it becomes a testimony, provokes admiration and conversion, becomes preaching and proclamation of the Good News. Thus the whole Church receives the mission to evangelise, and the work of each is important to the whole.

- Evangelising, the Church begins by evangelising itself. A community of believers, a community of lived and shared hope, a community of fraternal love, she needs to hear again and again what she has to believe, the reasons for her hope, the new commandment of love. As the people of God immersed in the world, and often tempted by idols, it always needs to hear the proclamation of 'the great works of God', which have converted it to the Lord, and to be summoned and reunited again by him. This means, in a word, that it always needs to be evangelised if it is to retain freshness, momentum and strength to proclaim the Gospel. The Second Vatican Council recalled and the 1974 Synod strongly took up this theme of the Church evangelising itself through constant conversion and renewal, in order to evangelise the world with credibility.

- The Church is the repository of the Good News that must be proclaimed. The promises of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ, the teaching of the Lord and the Apostles, the Word of Life, the sources of God's grace and kindness, the path of salvation: all this has been entrusted to her. The content of the Gospel, and therefore of evangelisation, she keeps as a living and precious deposit, not to keep it hidden, but to communicate it.

Sent and evangelised, the Church, in turn, sends evangelisers. She puts into their mouths the Word that saves, she explains to them the message of which she herself is the depository, she gives them the mandate that she herself has received, and she sends them out to preach: but not to preach their own persons or their personal ideas, but a Gospel of which neither they nor she are absolute masters and owners to dispose of at their will, but ministers to transmit it with extreme fidelity.

[Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi].

Prophet Isaiah (35: 4-7) encourages those "who are of a fearful heart" and proclaims this marvellous newness which experience has confirmed: when the Lord is present the eyes of the blind are reopened, the ears of the deaf unstopped and the lame man leaps like a hart. All things are reborn and all things are revived, for beneficial waters irrigate the desert. The "desert", in Isaiah's symbolic language, can call to mind the tragic events, difficult situations and loneliness that often mark life; the deepest desert is the human heart when it loses the capacity for listening, speaking and communicating with God and with others. Eyes then become blind because they are incapable of seeing reality; ears are closed so as not to hear the cry of those who implore help; hearts are hardened in indifference and selfishness. But now, the Prophet proclaims, all is destined to change; the "dry land" of a closed heart will be watered by a new, divine sap. And when the Lord comes, to those who are fearful of heart in every epoch he says authoritatively: "Be strong, fear not!" (v. 4).

[Pope Benedict, Faul Valley homily Viterbo 6 September 2009]

5. Jesus emphasises more than once that the miracle he performed is linked to faith. "Your faith has healed you", he says to the woman who had been suffering from haemorrhaging for twelve years and who, when she came up behind him, touched the hem of his cloak and was healed (cf. Mt 9:20-22; Lk 8:48; Mk 5:34).

Similar words Jesus pronounced while healing blind Bartimaeus, who at the exit from Jericho insistently asked for his help, crying out: "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!" (cf. Mk 10, 46-52). According to Mark: "Go, your faith has saved you", Jesus answers him. And Luke specifies the answer: "Have sight again! Your faith has saved you" (Lk 18:42).

He makes an identical statement to the Samaritan healed of leprosy (Lk 17:19). While to two other blind men pleading to regain their sight, Jesus asks: "Do you believe that I can do this?" "Yes, O Lord!" . "Let it be done to you according to your faith" (Mt 9:28-29).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 16 December 1987]

Do not fall prey to the temptation to follow Jesus out of self-interest. In the customary morning Mass in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Martahe, Pope Francis highlights the temptation to follow Jesus out of self-interest, and that then from the temptation of power to hypocrisy the step is very short. He concludes: "May the Lord give us this grace of the wonder of encounter and also help us not to fall into the spirit of worldliness, that spirit that behind or under a veneer of Christianity will lead us to live like pagans."

The Gospel passage of the day speaks of the crowd that follows Jesus after he has multiplied the loaves and fishes, and "not out of religious amazement that leads you to worship God," but out of "material interest," and that this is an attitude repeated in the Gospels, where there are "many who follow Jesus out of interest."

The Pope recalls that even among his apostles there were the "sons of Zebedee who wanted to be prime minister and the other minister of economy, to have power. That anointing of bringing glad tidings to the poor, deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, and proclaiming a year of grace, as it becomes dark, is lost and transformed into something of power".

It is about the temptation, always present, to "pass from the religious amazement that Jesus gives us in his encounter with us, to profiting from it," the same temptation proposed in the devil's temptations to Jesus in the desert. "One on bread, precisely," the Pope recalls, "the other on the spectacle: 'But let us make a good show so that all the people will believe in you'. And the third, apostasy: that is, the worship of idols."

It is the temptation of worldly power, which is not the temptation of power itself, it is something that makes you fall into that "religious warmth to which worldliness leads you, that warmth that ends, when it grows, grows, in that attitude that Jesus calls hypocrisy."

There is, in short, the risk of becoming "a Christian in name, in outward attitude, but the heart is in interest", as Jesus says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye have seen signs, but because ye have eaten of the loaves, and were filled. It is a temptation that weakens "faith and mission," and in a word, weakens the Church.

The witness of the saints and martyrs helps us not to fall into that temptation, that "every day they announce to us that to go on the way of Jesus is the way of his mission: to announce the year of grace. The people understood Jesus' rebuke and said to him: 'But what must we do to do the works of God?' Jesus answered them: 'This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom he has sent', that is, faith in him, in him alone, trust in him and not in other things that will ultimately lead us away from him. This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom He has sent, in Him'.

Hence the Pope's plea not to fall into the spirit of worldliness that "behind or under a veneer of Christianity will lead us to live like pagans."

[From acistampa.com. https://www.acistampa.com/story/papa-francesco-non-usate-lincontro-con-gesu-per-il-potere-0305]

House on the Rock or practitioners of vain things

(Mt 7:21.24-27)

Pope Francis said: «In order to give Himself to us, God often chooses unthinkable paths, perhaps those of our limits, our tears, our defeats».

Hasty builders are content to build directly on the ground; paying attention only to what is seen and experienced (on the spot). They do not dig the house to the core - deep down, in the gold of themselves.

In the inner world everything is reversed: the primacy is of Grace, which displaces, because it takes into account only the essential, inexplicable reality - and our dignified autonomy.

«Too pure water has no fish» [Ts'ai Ken T'an]. Accepting ourselves will complete us: it will make us recover the co-present sides, opposite and shadowed. It’s the leap of the deep Faith.

With the entire Sermon on the Mount - which is coming to an end - Jesus aims to arouse in people a critical conscience about banal and external solutions, something common among the leaders of ancient religiosity.

To build a new Kingdom, the public liturgies abounding in beautiful signs and resounding social greetings are not enough - not even the most striking gifts.

False security is what makes you feel quiet. There is no sick or inmate worse than the one who thinks he’s healthy, arrived and not infected: only here there is no therapy, nor revival.

It will be seen in the moment of the storm, when it will be evident the need to translate the personal relationship with the Lord into life, starting from the ability to welcome gambling.

Merits not grounded in intimately firm beliefs will not hold the whirlwind of trial.

«Practitioner of vain things» that is inconsistent [it’s the meaning of the Greek text that introduces the Gospel passage (v.23)].

They are the standard-bearers of an empty spirituality, who despite the paint - with even spectacular sides - have nothing to do with God.

Are there foundations behind a front of butterflies? You understand it in the storm, and if you become «rock» even for the invisible - not tourists of the "spirit" who praise praise and do not risk.

Security doesn’t come from adapting to customs and obligations, nor from being admired (at least) like others, which makes the Common House unhealthy.

Our specific and hallmark of the Faith is not an identity drawn from protocols or manners - it plays on appearances and not on the only strong point: the attitude of pilgrims in Christ.

We are only firm in the prophetic royal priestly dignity, which is given to us in an unrepeatable Gift and will never be the fruit of deriving from consent.

We live to follow a deep Vocation: Root, Spring and Engine of our most intimate fibers; related to the dreams and naturalness of each one.

Only relying on the soul is an authentic platform, true salvation and medicine.

The Mission will reach the existential peripheries, starting from the Core.

It seems senseless, paradoxical, incredible, but for every Called the Rock on which he can and must build his way of taking the field... is Freedom.

[Thursday 1st wk. in Advent, December 4, 2025]