Behold the Lamb, in the lambs

(Jn 1:29-34)

In the fourth Gospel, the Baptist is not 'the precursor', but a 'witness' to the Light Lamb who raises fundamental questions.

Alarmed, the authorities investigate him.

But it is not he who sweeps away 'sin', that is, the humiliation of unbridgeable distances - and the inability to respond to one's personal Vocation, to Life without limits.

This hindrance is even emphasised by the logic 'of the world': by false teaching, by the very structure of the ancient official institution, so closely linked to the intertwining of religion and power.

Condemned at 'midday' [the height and full light] of Easter Eve, Jesus' earthly journey coincides with the hour when the priests of the Temple began to sacrifice the lambs of propitiation [originally an apotropaic sacrifice that preceded transhumance].

As with the Lamb of the fathers in a foreign land, who had spared them from slaughter, his Blood gives impetus to cross the land of arid slavery.

The 'Egypt' of the pharaohs, devoid of warmth and intimate harmony (which lead us to premature death).

As is well known, the image of the Lamb belongs to the sacrificial theological tradition, which originated in the famous text of Isaiah 53 and in all the sacred imagery of the ancient East [which had developed a literature and widespread belief in the Messiah King].

According to the biblical conception, the sovereign united and represented the entire people. The Anointed One would have had the ideal task of carrying away and atoning for human iniquities.

But Jesus does not 'atone' but 'uproots'. Nor does he 'propitiate': the Father does not reject the precarious condition of his creatures, nor does he establish a protectorate favourable to a circle (like the God of archaic religions).

In Christ, who 'supports and removes' all our shame and weaknesses, the Father's action becomes intimate - and therefore decisive.

He does not destroy transgressions with a kind of amnesty, even vicarious: it would not be authentic salvation to touch only the peripheries and not the Core, in order to reactivate us.

An external habit does not belong to us and will never be ours; it is not assimilated, nor does it become real life. Amnesties do not educate, quite the contrary.

It is true that a little lamb in a world of cunning wolves has no chance of escape. To present it means to see it perish, but not as a designated victim: it was the only way for the beasts who believe themselves to be people to understand that they are still only beasts.

Being considered strong, capable of commanding, excellent, untainted, magnificent, high-performing, extraordinary, glorious... damages people.

It puts a mask on us, makes us one-sided; it takes away understanding. It makes the character we are sitting in, float above reality.

The Risen One introduces a new force into the world, a different dynamism, a way of instructing the soul that becomes a conscious process.

Only by educating us does the Most High-near destroy and overcome the instinct of beasts that devour each other, believing themselves to be true human beings - even spiritual ones.

A third allusion to the figure of the Lamb insists on the votive icon and archetypal category associated with Abraham's sacrifice, where God himself provides the victim (Genesis 22).

Of course he provides: he did not create us angelic, but rather unstable, transitory. Yet every divine Gift passes through our shaky condition - which is not sin, nor fault, but rather a given; nourishment and resource.

We are Perfect in the multiplicity of our creaturely aspects, even in our limitations: blasphemy for the religious man of old... a reality for the man of Faith.

The authentic Lamb is not just a (moral) reference: it is the meekness of those who are called to give everything of themselves, even their skin.

It is an image of the obvious limitation of those who would never be able to make life brilliant, so they allow themselves to be found and carried on the shoulders of others.

In this way, there is no delusional decision-making.

It will be the Friend of our vocational core who will transmit strength and devise the way to return us to the House that is truly ours: the Tent that stitches together scattered events.

A dwelling that reconnects all the being that we should have - and perhaps even could have - brought to fruition.

The different paths that lead to the founding Eros that belongs to us, intimate and superior, are authentic and at the same time unique to each person.

The Perfection that will emerge along the Way already corresponds to us.

Then the desire to improve according to an ancient or other person's paradigm will no longer be a torment that unnerves the soul, attenuating its completeness.

Incarnation here means that the Lamb is the representation of an unusual, accepted totality of the divine Face in men.

A totality that is finally solid – paradoxical, reconciled – which recovers its innocent, natural, spontaneous opposite, incapable of miracles.

The difference between religiosity and Faith.

The Lamb is not an ego that already has its own path; equipped, self-confident and able to find its way in the world. Perhaps to be accepted, to be on a par with others, to always be in the foreground.

It is the passive virtues and weaknesses - not the artificial ones put on display - that activate the best, most fruitful parts of ourselves, enabling us to look within.

All this, in order to journey through ourselves and our brothers and sisters, overcoming our secret sides and anxieties; transmitting life.

Lamb: not wanting to be there at all costs and as protagonists, always at ease, with certainties on display; too exposed to projections, to other desires for protagonism - and not losing positions.

When we put ourselves on display, we remain completely external and shift our faculties, the other capacities of the heart - such as the need to yield, to let things flow in order to prepare for something else that we do not know. And to turn our gaze, discover new directions, or symbiosis with the different.

This is why we speak of a 'revolution of tenderness' [see below] - which cannot be a guided cultural mask or an expropriating conditioning.

In the end, we realise that people are artificial: they act out holiness - some only to gain spiritual superiority over the naive and innocent who are caught up in an authentically interior and fraternal gaze.

The Lamb is an image of stability in goodness, first and foremost received as a gift and perhaps not even invoked, but recognisable - which therefore reveals both the innate silence and the unexpected colours of the soul and of events.

Step by step, it becomes a deep knowledge of ourselves, a figure of orientation and solid dialogue to rely on, activating that singular hope full of intensity that tears us away from infatuations.

We hang on his universal and simple words.

They open our consciousness - overcoming both our demons and the shrill resonances of those who stand beside us to feel important (and govern relationships).

Incorporated into the Lamb, we enter into the right spirit of the inner journey. Then we continue willingly - never alone and orphaned; as Together - in the search for our own unique way of completing ourselves and becoming Food.

The Tao Te Ching (xv) asks:

'Who is capable of being restless in order to gradually clarify by resting? Who is capable of being placid in order to gradually live, removing over time?'.

Master Wang Pi comments:

'The man of supreme virtue is like this: his omens are not scrutinisable, the direction of his virtue is not manifest. If he perfects creatures by remaining obscure, he illuminates them; if he makes creatures rest by being restless, he clarifies them; if he removes creatures by remaining placid, he brings them to life'.

Christ the Lamb is definitely the beneficial therapeutic image of the soul seeking nourishment - and of our energetic destiny, even during normal occupations.

Then they will seem almost like a song, vibrating around us.

To internalise and live the message:

What does the expression 'the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world' mean to you?

Healthy tenderness: selfishness without reduction

The saint is the one who, following his own path in the wake of the Risen One, has learned to 'identify with the other, without paying attention to where [or] where from [...] ultimately experiencing that others are his own flesh' (cf. FT 84).

No plant lives only in the light: it would die. No animal: it would perish - if it did not have its den in the shade.

The man who denies his dark side is lying. And he would never enjoy Joy, the fruit of the Alliance between our multifaceted aspects.

Biblical spirituality is not empty; on the contrary, it is very sober and linked to concrete and multifaceted life, sometimes opposed - not at all inclined to sentimental consolation or unilateral retreats.

In Deuteronomy 6:4-5 [Hebrew text], the love owed to the Lord involves 'all your heart', that is, all your decisions, 'all your life', that is, every moment of your existence, and 'all your very being'. That is, the sharing of goods, which the Son of God understands in a universal sense.

Jesus' proposal evolves decisively towards overcoming barriers, freedom, and awareness.

It tends to recover the entire creaturely being - and is not inclined towards the liturgy of fulfilment, nor towards valuing performances.

The Son of God defines the coordinates of true Love towards the Father in terms that surprise us, because to the ancient criterion he adds questioning oneself in the understanding of the things of man, God and the Church.

Realising, trying to understand, dialoguing to enrich oneself, updating oneself, examining everything... these are not cerebral and individual trappings, but decisive steps towards communion with others and with the Father [Mt 22:37; Mk 12:30; Lk 10:27].

In pagan religions, it made no sense to speak of love for the gods.

They lived a capricious life and decided by lottery who among men should be favoured and who should endure a life of hardship and insignificance.

The fortunate (materially blessed) gave thanks by fulfilling prescriptions, e.g. obligations of worship; the others did the same - at least to keep the heavenly hosts happy and not be the object of retaliation from above.

Fear creates hierarchical pyramids. Love puts everyone on an equal footing.

Obviously, with the burden of many duties to observe (in order to win their favour), it was impossible to have much passion for the inhabitants of Olympus, or demigods, nymphs, heroes - in short, for anyone who towered above them.

The invisible and landless were obviously subject to personal and social contempt - sanctified by the indisputable will of the gods, identified with their destination in the slums; in this case, punitive. In any case, swampy.

[Far from the 'bowels of mercy': a maternal expression, common since the First Testament!].

Then the archaic idea of punishment or blessing (even endless) for merits accumulated in life has formed the fabric of religious mentality throughout the ages.

This was the case until recently, even in the civitas christiana in which we live.

Thus, the 'theology of retribution' has effectively destroyed all personal passion, with the hypocritical idea of exchange. As well as meritocracy projected even to the rank of Paradise - worse than selfishness.

Levelling us all to the point of 'ticking boxes'.

The complex procedures of 'weighing the heart' and 'divine judgement' on the souls of the dead are well known, even in the sarcophagi and the Book of the Dead of ancient Egypt.

Forensic-style concatenations that have humiliated the idea of divine justice, which establishes fair conditions and relationships where they do not exist. But these opinions and procedures have become common to all beliefs in the Mediterranean basin and the ancient Middle East.

Now detached from the invasion of obsessive catechesis about the terrible final judgement populated by acolytes armed with pitchforks, we finally feel understood in a personal way, with an exclusively vocational, non-massified criterion.

By virtue of our creaturely nature, we are souls called and activated to a path that can bear unique fruit - a decisive and non-homogeneous contribution to the entire history of salvation. Each one of us.

In the Vision-proposal of Jesus the Lamb, our being is not omnipotent in good; this does not bring any condemnation, not even to the incapable.

We are shaped by the need to receive love - as if we were children in front of parents who raise their children to be healthy with an abundance of initiatives that lead them to surpass themselves.

This is despite their whims; indeed, because of them: a magma of opposing yet malleable energies that see beyond easy identifications and are preparing for subsequent developments.

The experience of evangelical Tenderness does not come from good character and social meekness. It comes from having experienced first-hand the value of eccentricities - and having developed an understanding of one's own dark sides, or reworked and brought into play deviations that at a certain point in life have become amazing resources.

In fact, we can see the same evolution and transmutation in the aspects of ourselves that we do not like and would like to correct... then, as the days go by, they surprise us, and we discover that they are the best part of ourselves: our true inclination and the reason why we were born.

The deviant and unbalanced character of each person contains an essential secret of the Calling by Name and of one's destiny.

From this we start to recognise the specific weight of the differences and the very dissonances of our sisters and brothers, which are equally enriching.

The Lambs' approach is not one of do-goodism (which fluctuates according to the situation and is linked to artificial ways, subtle interests or partisanship): quite the opposite!

As Pope Francis said: 'Lambs, not stupid; but lambs'.

In personal and communal life, evangelical tenderness is real understanding and authentic inclusion of the 'different' - starting not from an erratic, momentary and (volatile) ideology, but from one's own experience of intimate and relational life.

It will lead us to experience a Father who provides well for us, just as we rejoice in the lives of others - enriching our own! - in the confluence and reharmonisation of our many faces.

All-round tenderness, truly convinced; without the standardised masks of the usual 'fixed points' of banal (recited) 'tenderness', perhaps obligatory and activated by a weakened conformist identity.

This is the wise contagion that will make us reborn from the great global crisis: indulgence that does not become hysterical indolence.

And that does not remain sectorial - because it does not start from manners or external knots, but from being oneself and recognising the You here.

Thus, the Dove, an icon of modest, non-aggressive energy; an example of attachment to one's «own» Nest.

Healthy Tenderness, which starts with self-knowledge.

Lamb and Dove: the peaceful differences - between strong-willed, improper, irritable religiosity, and personal Faith.

Together, brothers all, seeds of the Logos.

For a Tenderness of Dialogue without neurosis.

But why did Jesus, in whom there is no shadow of sin, go to be baptized by John? Why did he perform that gesture of penitence and conversion, beside all those people who in this way were trying to prepare for the coming of the Messiah? That gesture — which marks the start of Christ’s public life — comes in continuity with the Incarnation, the descent of God from the highest heaven into the abyss of hell. The meaning of this movement of divine lowering is expressed in a single word: love, the very name of God. The Apostle John writes: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him”, and he sent him “to be the expiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:9-10). That is why the first public act of Jesus was to receive baptism from John, who, seeing him approaching, said: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29).

Luke the Evangelist recounts that while Jesus, having received baptism, “was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased’” (3:21-22). This Jesus is the Son of God who is totally immersed in the will of the Father’s love. This Jesus is the One who will die on the cross and rise again through the power of the same Spirit who now descends upon him and consecrates him. This Jesus is the new man who wills to live as the son of God, that is, in love; the man who in the face of the evil of the world, by choosing the path of humility and responsibility he chooses not to save himself but to offer his own life for truth and justice. Being Christian means living like this, but this kind of life involves a rebirth: to be reborn from on high, from God, from Grace. This rebirth is the Baptism, which Christ gives to the Church in order to regenerate men and women to new life. An ancient text attributed to St Hippolytus states: “Whoever goes down into these waters of rebirth with faith renounces the devil and pledges himself to Christ. He repudiates the enemy and confesses that Christ is God, throws off his servitude, and is raised to filial status” Discourse on the Epiphany, 10: PG 10, 862).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus, 13 January 2013]

“Heart of Jesus, victim of sins, have mercy on us”.
1. Dear brothers and sisters, this invocation from the Litany of the Sacred Heart reminds us that Jesus, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, “was put to death for our sins” (Rom 4:25); although he had committed no sin, “God treated him as sin on our behalf” (2 Cor 5:21). The immense weight of the sin of the world rested on the Heart of Christ.
In him, the figure of the "Paschal Lamb" was perfectly fulfilled, a victim offered to God so that the firstborn of the Hebrews might be spared by the sign of his blood (cf. Ex 12:21-27). Rightly, therefore, John the Baptist recognised in him the true "Lamb of God" (Jn 1:29): - an innocent lamb, who had taken upon himself the sin of the world to immerse it in the healing waters of the Jordan (cf. Mt 3:3-16 et par.); - a meek lamb, "led like a sheep to the slaughter, as a sheep before its shearers is silent" (Is 53:7), so that his divine silence might confound the proud words of wicked men.
Jesus is a willing victim, because he offered himself "freely to his passion" (Missale Romanum, Prex euchar. II), as a victim of expiation for the sins of men (cf. Lev 1:4; Heb 10:5-10). which he consumed in the fire of his love.
2. Jesus is the eternal victim. Risen from the dead and glorified at the right hand of the Father, he preserves in his immortal body the marks of the wounds in his hands and feet, and his pierced side (cf. Jn 20:27; Lk 24:39-40) and presents them to the Father in his unceasing prayer of intercession on our behalf (cf. Heb 7:25; Rom 8:34).
The wonderful sequence of the Easter Mass, recalling this fact of our faith, exhorts us:
"To the Paschal victim, / let the sacrifice of praise be offered today. / The Lamb has redeemed his flock. / The innocent one has reconciled us sinners with the Father" (Sequentia "Victimae Paschali", str. 1).
And the preface of this solemnity proclaims:
Christ is "the true Lamb who took away the sins of the world; / it is he who, by dying, destroyed death, / and by rising, restored life to us".
3. Brothers and sisters, in this hour of Marian prayer we have contemplated the Heart of Jesus, victim of our sins; but first of all and most deeply of all, his sorrowful Mother contemplated it, of whom the liturgy sings: "For the sins of her people / she saw Jesus in the torments / of the harsh punishment" (Sequentia "Stabat Mater", str 7).
As we approach the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Sorrows, we remember this intrepid and intercessory presence of Our Lady beneath the Cross of Calvary, and we think with immense gratitude that, at that moment, the dying Christ, victim of the sins of the world, entrusted her to us as our Mother: "Behold your Mother" (Jn 19:27).
We entrust our prayer to Mary, as we say to her Son Jesus:
Heart of Jesus, victim of our sins, accept our praise, our eternal gratitude, our sincere repentance. Have mercy on us, today and always. Amen.
[Pope John Paul II, Angelus, 10 September 1989]

This second Sunday of Ordinary Time is in continuity with the Epiphany and the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. The Gospel passage (cf. Jn 1: 29-34) again speaks to us of the manifestation of Jesus. Indeed, after being baptized in the River Jordan, He was consecrated by the Holy Spirit Who came upon Him, and was proclaimed Son of God by the voice of the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 3: 16-17 et seq.). The Evangelist John, unlike the other three, does not describe the event, but proposes to us the witness of John the Baptist. He was the first witness of Christ. God had called him and prepared him for this.

The Baptist cannot hold back the urgent desire to bear witness to Jesus and declares: “I have seen and have borne witness” (v. 34). John saw something shocking, that is, the beloved Son of God in solidarity with sinners; and the Holy Spirit made him understand this unheard-of novelty, a true reversal. In fact, while in all religions it is man who offers and sacrifices something to God, in the event Jesus is God Who offers His Son for the salvation of humanity. John manifests his astonishment and his consent to this newness brought by Jesus, through a meaningful expression that we repeat each time in the Mass: “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29).

The testimony of John the Baptist invites us to start out again and again on our journey of faith: to start afresh from Jesus Christ, the Lamb full of mercy that the Father gave for us. Let us be surprised once again by God’s choice to be on our side, to show solidarity with us sinners, and to save the world from evil by taking it on fully.

Let us learn from John the Baptist not to assume that we already know Jesus, that we already know everything about Him (cf. v. 31). This is not so. Let us pause with the Gospel, perhaps even contemplating an icon of Christ, a “Holy face”. Let us contemplate with our eyes and yet more with our hearts; and let us allow ourselves to be instructed by the Holy Spirit, Who tells us inside: It is He! He is the Son of God made lamb, immolated out of love. He alone has brought, He alone has suffered, He alone has atoned for sin, the sin of each one of us, the sin of the world, and also my sins. All of them. He brought them all upon Himself and took them away from us, so that we would finally be free, no longer slaves to evil. Yes, we are still poor sinners, but not slaves, no, not slaves: children, children of God!

May the Virgin Mary obtain for us the strength to bear witness to her Son Jesus; to proclaim Him with joy with a life freed from evil and a word full of astonished and grateful faith.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 19 January 2020]

Sitting and keeping eyes on the accounting records, only then rich - nay, ‘sir’

(Mk 2:13-17)

At the time when Mk drafted his Gospel, in the communities of Rome a friction arose over the kind of eligible participation in meetings, and on Breaking the Bread.

Opinions conflict that confronted one against the other the group of converts from paganism and the Judaizers.

Mk narrates the episode of Levi [avoiding explicitly calling him Matthew] to accentuate his derivation - and in this way describing how Jesus himself had faced the same conflict: without any ritual or sacred attention, except to man.

The evangelist thus intended to help the faithful to understand the leap from common religiosity to Faith in the Person of Christ, and trust in the brethren, without distinction.

To this end, the Gospel passage emphasizes that the apostles themselves (v.15) had not been called by the Lord at all to the rigourous segregation practice typical of ethnic-purist beliefs.

Mk’s Good News is that life of Communion is neither a gratification, nor a recognition.

The Eucharist is not a reward for merits, nor a discrimination in favor of sacral marginalization.

Prohibition must be replaced by friendship. Intransigence must be supplanted by indulgence, hardness by condescension.

The disciples of the Lord must share existence with anyone - even public sinners like the son of Alpheus.

This without first demanding any license, nor long disciplines of the arcane - or practices that celebrate distances [such as ablutions that preceded the meal].

In the parallel text of Mt 9,9-13 the tax collector is explicitly called by name: Matthew, in order to emphasize the identical appeal to the community.

Matathiah means «man of God», «given by God»; precisely «Gift of God» [Matath-Yah].

According to the direct teaching of Jesus himself - even towards one of the apostles - the only impurity is that of not giving space to those who ask for it because they have none.

The Lord wants to share with transgressors, not because of an ideological banality: it is the invitation to recognize themselves. Not to subject ourselves to some demeaning paternalism, but because allowing ourselves to be transformed from poor or rich into 'lords' is an asset.

«And it happens that He lies [at canteen] in His House and many tax collectors and sinners were lying down with Jesus and his disciples, because they were multitudes and they followed him» (v.15).

«They were lying down at canteen»: according to the way of celebrating solemn banquets by ‘free’ men - now all free.

How wonderful, such a ‘monstrance’! A living Body of Christ that smells of concrete Union, conviviality of differences - not of rejections for transgression!

It is such all empathetic and regal the beautiful awareness that paves the way and makes credible the content of the Announcement (v.17) - although it impacts the susceptibility of the official teachers.

But Jesus inaugurates a new kind of relationship, and a New Covenant, of fruitful divergences - even within us.

It is not ‘perfection’ that makes us love the Exodus.

[Saturday 1st wk. in O.T.  January 17, 2026]

But can he participate in the rite?

(Mk 2:13-17)

Jesus does not exclude anyone from his friendship. The good proclamation of the Gospel consists precisely in this: in the offer of God's grace to the sinner! In the figure of Matthew, therefore, the Gospels propose to us a real paradox: the one who is apparently furthest from holiness can even become a model of welcoming God's mercy and allow us to glimpse its wonderful effects in his own existence.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 30 August 2006].

At the time when Mk wrote his Gospel (civil war in the year of the four Caesars) friction arose in the communities of Rome over the kind of permissible participation in meetings, and the Breaking of Bread.

Conflict of opinion pitted the group of converts from paganism and the Judaizing group against each other: the latter did not like habitual contact with those far from their mentality, but rather distinction.

Friction arose both in the assemblies and in the quality of everyday fraternal life. E.g. those from Judaism did not like to enter the homes of pagans - much less did they like to share the table with the (supposedly) defiled.

These church brethren were accustomed to still sacredly consider it profane to have any contiguity with anyone, or even to accept the judged infected.

The devout conception of moral subdivisions led them to believe that it was necessary to keep newcomers at a distance, under the simple suspicion that they had perhaps not adapted to the (as yet undemythologised) identity weight of Semitic traditions.

The evangelist narrates the episode of Levi [avoiding explicitly calling it Matthew] to accentuate its paradoxically cultic and Semitic derivation.

Thus Mk wants to describe how Jesus himself faced the same conflict as above: without any ritual or sacral attention, except to man.

In short, according to the Master, in the journey of Faith, the relationship with the distant and different, and our own hardships or hidden abysses, have something to tell us.

Mk intended to help the Judeo-Christian faithful to understand the leap of Faith in itinere - compared with common religiosity, full of absurd beliefs, separations, squeamish attitudes.

The discriminating opening is hope in life itself, which comes and calls to surrender artificial positions, so here is the possibility of inserting the teaching, the story, the Person of Christ.

He leads to existential reliance, to global trust; to believing the story of the public sinner, who is everyone, to be his own.

To proceed on such a Path one starts from the unexpressed energies of one's own primordial states, recognised, assumed, made personally fruitful and dilated in one's brothers and sisters; without distinction.

To this end, the Gospel passage emphasises that in its time the apostles (v.15) had by no means been called by the Lord to the same rigorous practice of segregation typical of ethno-purist beliefs, which nevertheless prevailed around them.

Therefore, the believers of the late 60s did not have to keep themselves apart: rather, they needed to learn how to break the isolation of the norms of social and cultic conformity.

The Father is Friendly Presence.

The Glad Tidings of that pericope is that the life of fraternity and coexistence is not gratification or recognition.

The Eucharist is therefore not a reward for merit, nor a discriminator in favour of sacred marginalisation - or adult casuistry.

God does not complicate our existence, burdening it with too many obligations and duties that weigh down our days and our whole life; on the contrary, He sweeps them away.

For this reason, the figure of the new Rabbi touched people's hearts, without borders.

In short, for us too, prohibition must be replaced by friendship. Intransigence must be supplanted by indulgence; harshness by condescension.

In such an adventure we are not called to forms of disassociation: we start with ourselves.

Thus one arrives without hysteria at micro-relationships, and without ideological charges, at the current even devout mentality.

No more bogus goals, superficial objectives, obsessions and useless reasoning, nor mechanical habits, ancient or others' [never reworked in themselves].

With such an experience of inner excavation and identification, women and men of Faith must share life with anyone - even with known transgressors like the son of Alphaeus; seeing themselves in them, laying down artifices.

Without first demanding any license, nor long disciplines of the arcane or pious practices that celebrate detachment, such as the ablutions that preceded the meal.

In the parallel text of Matthew 9:9-13, the tax collector is explicitly called by name: Matthew. This is to emphasise the same content - the identical call to community. 

Matathiah in fact means 'man of God', 'given by God'; precisely 'Gift of God' (Matath-Yah) [despite the anger of the official authorities].

According to the direct teaching of Jesus himself - even with regard to one of the apostles - the only impurity the Father does not tolerate is that of not giving space to those who ask for it because they have none.

The Lord wants full communion with transgressors, not because of an ideological banality: it is the invitation to acknowledge, confess, agree, share.

Not to subject his intimates to some form of humiliating paternalism: knowing oneself to be incomplete and allowing oneself to be transformed from poor or rich into 'lords' is a resource.

"And it came to pass that He reclined at Canteen in His House, and many publicans and sinners were reclining with Jesus and His disciples, for they were multitudes and followed Him" (v.15 Greek text).

"They were stretched out [at table]": in keeping with the way solemn banquets were celebrated by 'free' men - now all free.

How wonderful, such a 'monstrance'! A living Body of Christ that smells of concrete union, conviviality of differences - not rejection by transgression!

It is this empathetic and regal beautiful awareness that smoothes out and makes credible the content of the proclamation (v.17) - even though it strikes the susceptibility of the official teachers.

From now on, the division between believers and non-believers will be far more humanising than between "born again" and not, or pure and impure.

A whole other carat - the principle of a saved life that unfolds and overflows beyond the clubs.

Christ also calls, welcomes and redeems the Levi in us, that is, the more rubric - or worn-out - side of our personality.

Even our unbearable or rightly hated character: the rigid one and the - equally our - rubricist one.

By reintegrating opposites, it will even make them flourish: they will become inclusive, indispensable, allied and intimately winning aspects of the future testimony, empowered with genuine love.

Being considered strong, capable of leading, observant, excellent, pristine, magnificent, performing, extraordinary, glorious, unfailing... damages people.

It puts a mask on us, makes us one-sided; it takes away understanding. It floats the character we are sitting in, above reality.

For one's growth and blossoming, more important than always winning is to learn to accept, to surrender to the point of capitulation; to make oneself considered deficient, inadequate.

Says the Tao Tê Ching [XLV]: 'Great uprightness is like sinuousness, great skill is like ineptitude, great eloquence is like stammering'.

The artificial norm (unfortunately, sometimes also the unwise leadership) makes one live according to success and external glory, obtained through compartmentalisation.

Jesus inaugurates a new kind of relationship, and 'covenants' of fruitful divergence - a New Covenant, even within ourselves.

Here, the Word alone 'Follow Me' (v.14) [not 'others'] creates everything.

The Master's Wisdom and the multifaceted art of Nature [exemplified in the crystalline wisdom of the Tao] lead all to be incisive and human.

It is not 'perfection' that makes us love Exodus.

To internalise and live the message:

What is your spiritual and human strength? How was it generated?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Continuing the series of portraits of the Twelve Apostles that we began a few weeks ago, let us reflect today on Matthew. To tell the truth, it is almost impossible to paint a complete picture of him because the information we have of him is scarce and fragmentary. What we can do, however, is to outline not so much his biography as, rather, the profile of him that the Gospel conveys.

In the meantime, he always appears in the lists of the Twelve chosen by Jesus (cf. Mt 10: 3; Mk 3: 18; Lk 6: 15; Acts 1: 13).

His name in Hebrew means "gift of God". The first canonical Gospel, which goes under his name, presents him to us in the list of the Twelve, labelled very precisely: "the tax collector" (Mt 10: 3).

Thus, Matthew is identified with the man sitting at the tax office whom Jesus calls to follow him: "As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, "Follow me'. And he rose and followed him" (Mt 9: 9). Mark (cf. 2: 13-17) and Luke (cf. 5: 27-30), also tell of the calling of the man sitting at the tax office, but they call him "Levi".

To imagine the scene described in Mt 9: 9, it suffices to recall Caravaggio's magnificent canvas, kept here in Rome at the Church of St Louis of the French.

A further biographical detail emerges from the Gospels: in the passage that immediately precedes the account of the call, a miracle that Jesus worked at Capernaum is mentioned (cf. Mt 9: 1-8; Mk 2: 1-12) and the proximity to the Sea of Galilee, that is, the Lake of Tiberias (cf. Mk 2: 13-14).

It is possible to deduce from this that Matthew exercised the function of tax collector at Capernaum, which was exactly located "by the sea" (Mt 4: 13), where Jesus was a permanent guest at Peter's house.

On the basis of these simple observations that result from the Gospel, we can advance a pair of thoughts.

The first is that Jesus welcomes into the group of his close friends a man who, according to the concepts in vogue in Israel at that time, was regarded as a public sinner.

Matthew, in fact, not only handled money deemed impure because of its provenance from people foreign to the People of God, but he also collaborated with an alien and despicably greedy authority whose tributes moreover, could be arbitrarily determined.

This is why the Gospels several times link "tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 9: 10; Lk 15: 1), as well as "tax collectors and prostitutes" (Mt 21: 31).

Furthermore, they see publicans as an example of miserliness (cf. Mt 5: 46: they only like those who like them), and mention one of them, Zacchaeus, as "a chief tax collector, and rich" (Lk 19: 2), whereas popular opinion associated them with "extortioners, the unjust, adulterers" (Lk 18: 11).

A first fact strikes one based on these references: Jesus does not exclude anyone from his friendship. Indeed, precisely while he is at table in the home of Matthew-Levi, in response to those who expressed shock at the fact that he associated with people who had so little to recommend them, he made the important statement: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mk 2: 17).

The good news of the Gospel consists precisely in this: offering God's grace to the sinner!

Elsewhere, with the famous words of the Pharisee and the publican who went up to the Temple to pray, Jesus actually indicates an anonymous tax collector as an appreciated example of humble trust in divine mercy: while the Pharisee is boasting of his own moral perfection, the "tax collector... would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!'".

And Jesus comments: "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Lk 18: 13-14).

Thus, in the figure of Matthew, the Gospels present to us a true and proper paradox: those who seem to be the farthest from holiness can even become a model of the acceptance of God's mercy and offer a glimpse of its marvellous effects in their own lives.

St John Chrysostom makes an important point in this regard: he notes that only in the account of certain calls is the work of those concerned mentioned. Peter, Andrew, James and John are called while they are fishing, while Matthew, while he is collecting tithes.

These are unimportant jobs, Chrysostom comments, "because there is nothing more despicable than the tax collector, and nothing more common than fishing" (In Matth. Hom.: PL 57, 363). Jesus' call, therefore, also reaches people of a low social class while they go about their ordinary work.

Another reflection prompted by the Gospel narrative is that Matthew responds instantly to Jesus' call: "he rose and followed him". The brevity of the sentence clearly highlights Matthew's readiness in responding to the call. For him it meant leaving everything, especially what guaranteed him a reliable source of income, even if it was often unfair and dishonourable. Evidently, Matthew understood that familiarity with Jesus did not permit him to pursue activities of which God disapproved.

The application to the present day is easy to see: it is not permissible today either to be attached to things that are incompatible with the following of Jesus, as is the case with riches dishonestly achieved.

Jesus once said, mincing no words: "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Mt 19: 21).

This is exactly what Matthew did: he rose and followed him! In this "he rose", it is legitimate to read detachment from a sinful situation and at the same time, a conscious attachment to a new, upright life in communion with Jesus.

Lastly, let us remember that the tradition of the ancient Church agrees in attributing to Matthew the paternity of the First Gospel. This had already begun with Bishop Papias of Hierapolis in Frisia, in about the year 130.

He writes: "Matthew set down the words (of the Lord) in the Hebrew tongue and everyone interpreted them as best he could" (in Eusebius of Cesarea, Hist. Eccl. III, 39, 16).

Eusebius, the historian, adds this piece of information: "When Matthew, who had first preached among the Jews, decided also to reach out to other peoples, he wrote down the Gospel he preached in his mother tongue; thus, he sought to put in writing, for those whom he was leaving, what they would be losing with his departure" (ibid., III, 24, 6).

The Gospel of Matthew written in Hebrew or Aramaic is no longer extant, but in the Greek Gospel that we possess we still continue to hear, in a certain way, the persuasive voice of the publican Matthew, who, having become an Apostle, continues to proclaim God's saving mercy to us. And let us listen to St Matthew's message, meditating upon it ever anew also to learn to stand up and follow Jesus with determination.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 30 August 2006]

5. Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Help the Pope and all those who wish to serve Christ and with Christ's power to serve the human person and the whole of mankind. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows "what is in man". He alone knows it.

So often today man does not know what is within him, in the depths of his mind and heart. So often he is uncertain about the meaning of his life on this earth. He is assailed by doubt, a doubt which turns into despair. We ask you therefore, we beg you with humility and trust, let Christ speak to man. He alone has words of life, yes, of eternal life.

[Pope John Paul II, homily at the beginning of his pontificate 22 October 1978]

With his mercy Jesus also chooses apostles 'from the worst', from among sinners and the corrupt. But it is up to them to preserve "the memory of this mercy", remembering "from where one has been chosen", without getting head over heels or thinking of making a career as officials, pastoral planners and businessmen. It is the concrete testimony of Matthew's conversion that Pope Francis re-proposed while celebrating Mass at Santa Marta on Friday 21 September, on the feast day of the apostle and evangelist.

"In the Collect Prayer we prayed to the Lord and said that in his plan of mercy he chose Matthew, the publican, to constitute him an apostle," the Pontiff immediately recalled, who indicated as a key to reading "three words: plan of mercy, choose-choose, constitute".

"As he was leaving," Francis explained, referring precisely to the Gospel passage from Matthew (9:9-13), "Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, 'Follow me. And he got up and followed him. He was a publican, that is, a corrupt man, because for money he betrayed his country. A traitor to his people: the worst".

In fact, the Pope pointed out, some might object that 'Jesus has no common sense in choosing people': 'why did he choose out of so many others' this person 'from the worst, from nothing, from the most despised place'? Moreover, the Pontiff explained, in the same way the Lord "chose the Samaritan woman to go and announce that he was the messiah: a woman rejected by the people because she was not really a saint; and he chose many other sinners and made them apostles". And then, he added, 'in the life of the Church, so many Christians, so many saints who were chosen from the lowest'.

Francis recalled that 'this consciousness that we Christians should have - from where I was chosen, from where I was chosen to be a Christian - must remain throughout life, remain there and have the memory of our sins, the memory that the Lord had mercy on my sins and chose me to be a Christian, to be an apostle'.

So 'the Lord chooses'. The Collect prayer is clear: 'Lord, you chose the publican Matthew and made him an apostle': that is, he insisted, 'from the worst to the highest place'. In response to this call, the Pope noted, 'what did Matthew do? Did he dress up? Did he begin to say 'I am the prince of the apostles, with you', with the apostles? Am I in charge here? No! He worked all his life for the Gospel, how patiently he wrote the Gospel in Aramaic'. Matthew, the Pontiff explained, 'always had in mind where he was chosen from: from the lowest'.

The fact is, the Pope reiterated, that "when the apostle forgets his origins and begins to make a career, he distances himself from the Lord and becomes an official; who does a lot of good, perhaps, but is not an apostle". And so "he will be incapable of transmitting Jesus; he will be a fixer of pastoral plans, of many things; but in the end, a businessman, a businessman of the kingdom of God, because he has forgotten from where he was chosen".

For this reason, Francis said, it is important to have 'the memory, always, of our origins, of the place where the Lord has looked at me; that fascination of the Lord's gaze that called me to be a Christian, to be an apostle. This memory must accompany the life of the apostle and of every Christian".

"In fact, we are always used to looking at the sins of others: look at this, look at that, look at that other," the Pope continued. Instead, "Jesus told us: 'please do not look at the mote in other people's eyes; look at what you have in your heart'". But, the Pontiff insisted, "it is more fun to speak ill of others: it is a beautiful thing, it seems". So much so that "to speak ill of others" seems a bit "like honey candy, which is very good: you take one, it's good; you take two, it's good; three... you take half a kilo and your stomach hurts and you're sick".

Instead, Francis suggested, 'speak ill of yourself, accuse yourself, remembering your sins, remembering where the Lord has chosen you from. You were chosen, you were chosen. He took you by the hand and brought you here. When the Lord chose you, he did not do things by halves: he chose you for something great, always'.

'Being a Christian,' he said, 'is a great, beautiful thing. We are the ones who stray and want to stay in the middle, because that is very difficult; and to negotiate with the Lord' saying: 'Lord, no, only up to here'. But "the Lord is patient, the Lord can tolerate things: he is patient, he waits for us. But we lack generosity: he does not. He always takes you from the lowest to the highest. So he did with Matthew and he did with all of us and he will continue to do". 

Referring to the apostle, the Pontiff explained how he 'felt something strong, so strong, that he left the love of his life on the table: money'. Matthew "left the corruption of his heart to follow Jesus. Jesus' gaze, strong: "Follow me!". And he left", despite being "so attached" to money. "And surely - there was no telephone at that time - he must have sent someone to say to his friends, to those of the clique, of the group of publicans: 'come and have lunch with me, for I will make feast for the master'".

So, as the Gospel passage tells us, 'they were all at table, these: the worst of the worst in the society of that time. And Jesus with them. Jesus did not go to lunch with the righteous, with those who felt righteous, with the doctors of the law, at that time. Once, twice he also went with the latter, but at that moment he went with them, with that syndicate of publicans'.

And, Francis continued, 'the doctors of the law were scandalised. They called the disciples and said, 'how is it that your master does this, with these people? He becomes impure!": eating with an impure person infects you, you are no longer pure". Hearing this, it is Jesus himself who "says this third word: 'Go and learn what it means: 'mercy I want and not sacrifices'". For "God's mercy seeks all, forgives all. Only, he asks you to say: 'Yes, help me'. Only that".

"When the apostles went among sinners, think of Paul, in the community of Corinth, some were scandalised," the Pope explained. They would say, "But why do you go to those people who are pagans, they are sinful people, why do you go there?" Jesus' answer is clear: "Because it is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick: 'Mercy I want and not sacrifices'".

"Matthew chose! He always chooses Jesus," the Pontiff relaunched. The Lord chooses "through people, through situations or directly". Matthew is "constituted apostle: he who constitutes in the Church and gives the mission is Jesus. The Apostle Matthew and many others recalled their origins: sinners, corrupt. Why? Because of mercy. For the design of mercy".

Francis recognised that 'understanding the Lord's mercy is a mystery; but the greatest, most beautiful mystery is the heart of God. If you want to get right to the heart of God, take the path of mercy and allow yourself to be treated with mercy'. This is exactly the story of "Matthew, chosen from the money-changer's desk where taxes were paid. Chosen from below. Established in the highest place. Why? For mercy'. In this perspective, the Pope concluded, "we learn what 'mercy I want, and not sacrifice' means".

[Pope Francis, at St. Martha's, Osservatore Romano, 22.09.2018]

Religiosity and Faith: unusual crossroads of Tenderness

(Mk 2:1-12)

Jesus teaches and heals. He does not announce the Sovereign of religions, but a Father - attractive figure, who neither threatens nor punishes, but welcomes, dialogues, forgives and makes us grow.

The opposite of what the official guides conveyed, linked to the idea of an archaic, suspicious and prejudiced deity, which discriminated between friends and enemies.

God expresses himself not in oppressive forms, but in the way of the family and interhuman Covenant: He doesn’t enjoy the perfect, sterilized and pure, but offers to all his Love without requirements.

In fact, imperfection is not an expression of sin, and in any case sin is not an absolute force (v.7).

The Lord’s co-workers bring to Him all the paralytics, that is, those who are stuck and continue to stay in their stretchers - where perhaps those of the common opinion have laid them down.

They are people who in life do not seem to proceed either in the direction of the Eternal, nor go to others. They cannot even meet themselves.

Only personal contact with Christ can untie these vegetating corpses from their depressing pond.

God’s friends «come bringing to him a paralytic supported by four» (Mk 2:3): they come from everywhere, from the four cardinal points; from very different origins, even opposite - that you do not expect.

They do everything to lead the needy to the Master, but sometimes they find themselves in front of a waterproof crowd, which does not allow a direct personal relationship (vv.3-4).

What to do? A dismantling action. Work pleasing to the Father - and which the Son evaluates as an expression of Faith (v.5)!

Faith that thinks and believes «an open world that makes room for everyone» [FT n.155].

The "synagogues" unbearable, on the contrary, promote a “binary division” [FT n.156] that attempts to «classify».

In short, there are refractory clubs that claim to appropriate poor Jesus. Therefore their "headquarters" must be uncovered and opened wide (v.4) - with extreme decision, in order not to make life pale.

We note that not the right stages, but only the unusual initiative overcomes the pond of the structures taken hostage - where you should just line up, wait for the turn, settle satisfied... and doze off.

The impetus for the demands of full, insightful life can and must overcome every sense of false collective compactness.

No sign of joy from the authorities (vv.7-8) who only draw negative diagnoses - instead people are enthusiastic (v.12).

Mk’s passage makes us understand that the ‘paralytic’ problem is not his discomfort, the sense of oppression, the apparent misfortune.

These are not the ruptures in the relationship with life and with God.

On the contrary, the impediment becomes a paradoxical reason for seeking therapy, and research of ‘vis-à-vis’.

The eccentric configurations - considered miserable - in fact contain secret doors, immense virtues, and the cure itself.

Even, they drive towards a new existence. They urge us, and oblige us to a personal relationship with our Lord. Almost looking for the Resemblance.

In short, we are called to choose in a very unusual way, compared to clichés.

And according to the Gospels the initiative of personal Faith is the decisive fork in the way - road of the impelling and universal desire to live completely.

Unusual crossroads of the Tenderness and Faith.

[Friday 1st wk. in O.T.  January 16, 2026]