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

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

[Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia]

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

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

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

[Pope Benedict, Ash Wednesday homily 9 March 2011]

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

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

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

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

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

Faith and religious sense

(Lk 11:37-41)

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

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

The severe spirit, from "dry cleaning" - as Pope Francis would say - still today gives a white lime hand to the reality of the Father.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Observances themselves often create spiritual competition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We experience this in the global crisis.

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

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

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

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

To internalize and live the message:

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

[Tuesday 28th wk. in O.T.  October 15, 2024]

The interior and the society of the exterior

(Lk 11:37-41)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make-up does not capture the core.

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

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

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

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

Not infrequently, the observances themselves create spiritual competition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why is Christ's victory His people?

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

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

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

We experience Him, in the global crisis.

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

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

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

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

To internalise and live the message:

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

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

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

Hypocritical traditions and ideal order: purity of advantage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Purity laws indicated the conditions necessary to stand before God.

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

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

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

There is no sacred and profane in itself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pope Benedict, Message for Lent 2008]

Hearing the word "alms", your sensibility as young lovers of justice, eager for an equal distribution of riches, might feel wounded and offended. It seems to me I can feel it. On the other hand, do not think you are alone in having such an interior reaction; it is in harmony with the innate hunger and thirst for justice that everyone brings with him. Also the prophets of the Old Testament, when they call the People of Israel to conversion and to the true religion, indicate the redress of injustices, suffered by the weak and defenceless, as the main way for the restoration of a genuine relationship with God (cf. Is 58:6-7). 

Yet the practice of almsdeeds is recommended in the whole sacred Text, both in the Old and in the New Testament: from the Pentateuch to the Sapiential Books, from the book of Acts to the Apostolic Letters. Well, through a study of the semantic evolution of the word, on which less genuine incrustations have been formed, we must find again the real meaning of alms and, above all, the determination and the joy of almsdeeds. 

A Greek word, alms etymologically means compassion and mercy. Various circumstances and influences of a reductive mentality have distorted and deconsecrated its original meaning sometimes reducing it to that of a spiritless and loveless act. 

But alms, in itself, must be understood essentially as the attitude of a man who perceives the need of others, who wishes to share his own property with others. Who will say that there will not always be another, in need of help—spiritual in the first place—support, comfort, brotherhood and love? The world is always too poor in love. 

Thus defined, to give alms is an act of very high positive value, the goodness of which must not bei doubted, and which must find in us a fundamental readiness of heart and spirit, without which there is no real conversion to God. 

Even if we do not have at our disposal riches and concrete capacities to meet the needs of our neighbour, we cannot feel dispensed from opening our heart to his necessities and relieving them as far as possible. Remember the widow's mite; she threw into the treasury of the temple only two small coins but with them all her great love: "for she out of her poverty had put in all the living that she had" (Lk 21:4).

[Pope John Paul II, Address to the young people 28 March 1979]

"Religion of make-up" or "path of humility"? In the homily of the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Tuesday 11 October, Pope Francis pointed out a decisive choice for the life of every Christian: even in "doing good", in fact, one can run into a dangerous misunderstanding, which is that of putting ourselves forward and not "the redemption that Jesus gave us". The objective is to affirm "our inner freedom" by showing the world how we really are in our hearts, without easy or cunning operations of external "make-up".

The Pontiff's reflection started precisely from the concept of freedom. The starting point came from the first reading of the day (Galatians, 5, 1-6), in which the Apostle Paul invites us to "stand firm and not allow the yoke of slavery to be imposed on us again, that is, to be free: free in religion, free in the worship of God". Here is the first teaching: "never lose your freedom". But what freedom? "Christian freedom," the Pope explained, "only comes from the grace of Jesus Christ, not from our works, not from our so-called 'righteousness', but from the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ has given us and with which he has recreated us". A righteousness, he added, "that comes precisely from the Cross".

The Gospel passage proposed by the liturgy (Luke, 11, 37-41) also insists on this subject. Here we read of Jesus rebuking a Pharisee, a doctor of the law. He rebukes him because, the Pope recalled, "this Pharisee invites Jesus to lunch and Jesus does not do ablutions, that is, he does not wash his hands": he therefore does not perform those practices "that were customary in the ancient law". Faced with certain remonstrances, the Lord says: "You Pharisees clean the outside of the glass and the plate but your inside is full of greed and wickedness". A concept, Francis noted, that Jesus "repeats many times in the Gospel" warning certain people with clear words: "Your inside is wicked, it is not right, it is not free. You are slaves because you have not accepted the justice that comes from God". Which is then 'the righteousness that Jesus gave us'.

In another passage we read that Jesus, after exhorting prayer, also teaches how it should be done: "In your room, let no one see you, so only your Father sees you". The invitation, therefore, is "not to pray in order to appear", in order to be seen, as did that Pharisee who - the Gospel goes on to say - before the altar in the temple said: "God, thank you, Lord, for I am not a sinner". Those who acted in this way, the Pontiff commented, were really "stubborn faces" and "had no shame".

Against certain attitudes, there is the suggestion given by Jesus himself and which the Pope summarised as follows: 'When you do good and give alms, do not do it to be admired. Let your right hand not know what your left hand is doing. Do it secretly. And when you do penance, fast, please beware of melancholy, do not be melancholic so that the whole world knows you are doing penance'. In essence: what matters "is the freedom that gave us redemption, that gave us love, that gave us the re-creation of the Father. It is an inner freedom, which leads one to do 'good in secret, without blowing the trumpet': in fact, 'the path of true religion is the same as the path of Jesus: humility, humiliation'. So much so that Jesus - recalled the Pontiff quoting Paul's letter to the Philippians - "humbled himself, emptied himself". He added: "It is the only way to remove from us selfishness, greed, pride, vanity, worldliness".

Faced with this model we find instead the attitude of those whom Jesus rebukes: "people who follow the religion of make-up: appearance, appearing, pretending to appear, but inside...". For them, the Pope stressed, Jesus uses "a very strong image: 'You are whitened sepulchres, beautiful on the outside but inside full of dead bones and rot'". On the contrary, "Jesus calls us, invites us to do good with humility", because otherwise we fall into a dangerous misunderstanding: "You can do all the good that you want, but if you do not do it humbly, as Jesus teaches us, this good is of no use, because a good that comes from yourself, from your security, not from the redemption that Jesus has given us". A redemption that, Francis said, comes through "the path of humility and humiliations": in fact "one never arrives at humility without humiliations". So much so that "we see Jesus humiliated on the cross".

Here then is the exhortation that concluded the homily: "We ask the Lord not to make us tired of going down this road, not to make us tired of rejecting this religion of appearing, of seeming, of pretending to...". The commitment must instead be to proceed "silently, doing good, gratuitously as we gratuitously received our inner freedom."

[Pope Francis, s. Marta, in L'Osservatore Romano 12/10/2016]

2) The book of Jonah announces to us the event of Jesus Christ - Jonah is a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus. The Lord himself tells us this in the Gospel quite clearly. 

Asked by the Jews to give them a sign that would openly reveal him as the Messiah, he replies, according to Matthew: "No sign will be given to this generation except the sign of Jonah the prophet. For as Jonah remained three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man remain three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:39f). 

Luke's version of Jesus' words is simpler: "This generation [...] seeks a sign but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to those of Nineveh, so also the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation' (Lk 11:29f). We see two elements in both texts: the Son of Man himself, Christ, God's envoy, is the sign. The paschal mystery points to Jesus as the Son of man, he is the sign in and through the paschal mystery.

In the Old Testament account this very mystery of Jesus shines through quite clearly. 

The first chapter of the book of Jonah speaks of a threefold descent of the prophet: he goes down to the port of Jaffa; he goes down into the ship; and in the ship he puts himself in the innermost place. In his case, however, this threefold descent is an attempted escape before God. Jesus is the one who descends out of love, not in order to flee, but to reach the Nineveh of the world: he descends from his divinity into the poverty of the flesh, of being a creature with all its miseries and sufferings; he descends into the simplicity of the carpenter's son, and he descends into the night of the cross, and finally even into the night of the Sheòl, the world of the dead. In doing so, he precedes us on the way of descent, away from our false kingly glory; the way of penitence, which is the way to our own truth: the way of conversion, the way that leads us away from Adam's pride, from wanting to be God, towards the humility of Jesus who is God and for us strips himself of his glory (Phil 2:1-10). Like Jonah, Jesus sleeps in the boat while the storm rages. In a way, in the experience of the cross he allows himself to be thrown into the sea and thus calms the storm. The rabbis have interpreted Jonah's word "Throw me into the sea" as a self-offering of the prophet who wanted to save Israel with this: he was afraid of the conversion of the pagans and of Israel's rejection of the faith, and for this reason - so they say - he wanted to let himself be thrown into the sea. The prophet saves in that he puts himself in the place of others. The sacrifice saves. This rabbinic exegesis became truth in Jesus.

[Pope Benedict Card. Ratzinger, Lectio in st Maria in Traspontina, 24 January 2003; in "30Days" February 2003]