The "ghost of hypocrisy" makes us forget how to caress a sick person, a child or an elderly person. And it does not make us look into the eyes of the person to whom we hastily give alms, immediately withdrawing our hand so as not to soil ourselves. It is a warning to "never be ashamed" of "our brother's flesh" that Pope Francis addressed during the mass celebrated on the morning of 7 March in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta.

On the Friday after Ash Wednesday, the Church, the Pontiff explained, proposes a meditation on the true meaning of fasting. And it does so through two incisive readings, taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah (58:1-9a) and the Gospel of Matthew (9:14-15). "Behind today's readings," said the Pontiff, "there is the ghost of hypocrisy, of formality in fulfilling the commandments, in this case fasting". So "Jesus returns to the theme of hypocrisy many times when he sees that the doctors of the law think they are perfect: they fulfil everything in the commandments as if it were a formality".

And here, the Pope warned, there is "a problem of memory", which concerns "this double face in going on the road of life". The hypocrites in fact 'have forgotten that they were elected by God in a people, not by themselves. They have forgotten the history of their people, that history of salvation, of election, of covenant, of promise' that comes directly from the Lord.

And in so doing, he continued, 'they have reduced this history to an ethic. Religious life for them was an ethic'. Thus "it is explained that at the time of Jesus, theologians say, there were three hundred commandments more or less" to be observed. But 'receiving from the Lord the love of a father, receiving from the Lord the identity of a people and then turning it into an ethic' means 'rejecting that gift of love'. After all, he pointed out, hypocrites 'are good people, they do whatever has to be done, they look good'. But "they are ethicists, ethicists without goodness, because they have lost their sense of belonging to a people".

"Salvation," the Pontiff explained, "the Lord gives it within a people, in belonging to a people". And "this is how one understands how the prophet Isaiah speaks to us today about fasting, about penance: what is the fast that the Lord wants? The fast that has a relationship with the people, the people to which we belong: our people, in which we are called, in which we are inserted".

Pope Francis reread, in particular, this passage from the book of Isaiah: "Is not this rather the fasting that I want: to loosen iniquitous chains, to remove the bonds of the yoke, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to break every yoke? Is it not to divide bread with the hungry, to bring in the wretched, the homeless, to clothe one whom you see naked, and not to neglect your kinsmen?"

Here, then, is the meaning of true "fasting that," reiterated the Bishop of Rome, "is concerned with the life of one's brother, that is not ashamed of the flesh of one's brother, as Isaiah himself says". In fact, 'our perfection, our holiness goes on with our people, in whom we are elected and inserted'. And 'our greatest act of holiness is precisely in the flesh of our brother and in the flesh of Jesus Christ'.

Thus, he emphasised, even 'today's act of holiness - we here at the altar - is not hypocritical fasting. It is not being ashamed of the flesh of Christ that comes here today: it is the mystery of the body and blood of Christ. It is going to share bread with the hungry, to care for the sick, the elderly, those who cannot give us anything in return: that is not being ashamed of the flesh".

"God's salvation," the Pontiff reiterated, "is in a people. A people that goes forward, a people of brothers who are not ashamed of one another'. But this, he warned, 'is the most difficult fast: the fast of goodness. Goodness leads us to this'. And 'perhaps,' he explained, quoting the Gospel, 'the priest who passed by that wounded man thought' referring to the commandments of the time: 'But if I touch that blood, that wounded flesh, I remain unclean and cannot keep the Sabbath! And he was ashamed of that man's flesh. This is hypocrisy!" Instead, the Holy Father noted, 'that sinner passed by and saw him: he saw the flesh of his brother, the flesh of a man of his people, a son of God like himself. And he was not ashamed'.

"The proposal of the Church today" therefore suggests a real examination of conscience through a series of questions that the Pope posed to those present: "Am I ashamed of the flesh of my brother, of my sister? When I give alms, do I drop the coin without touching the hand? And if by chance I touch it, do I do so immediately?" he asked, mimicking the gesture of someone wiping his hand. And again: 'When I give alms, do I look into the eyes of my brother, my sister? When I know that someone is ill, do I go to see them? Do I greet them with tenderness?"

To complete this examination of conscience, the Pope pointed out, "there is a sign that will perhaps help us". It is "a question: do I know how to caress the sick, the elderly, the children? Or have I lost the sense of caressing?" The hypocrites, he continued, no longer know how to caress, they have forgotten how. Here then is the recommendation to 'not be ashamed of our brother's flesh: it is our flesh'. And "we will be judged", the Pontiff concluded, precisely on our behaviour towards "this brother, this sister" and certainly not "on hypocritical fasting".

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 08/03/2014]

But can he participate in the ritual? Sitting and with his eye on the ledgers, only then rich - nay, 'sir'

(Mt 9:9-13)

Friction arose in some assemblies of believers, because some church members still considered profane to have contact or accept foreigners, not yet adapted to the mentality of customs.

Even the Judeo-Christians of Galilee and Syria to whom Mt addresses needed to learn to break the isolation of the norms of ancient purity. They didn’t have to stand aside.

The friction of opinions was particularly acute in the [typical third-generation] debate on the kind of eligible participation in meetings and at Breaking the Bread.

Prohibition must be replaced by friendship.

The Father is a friendly Presence. His life-saving initiative is for everyone, even for those who don't know how to do anything but look after their own gain.

The faithful in Christ share the holy Banquet with pagans and sinners, without first demanding a discipline of the arcane, nor practices that celebrate distances (such as ablutions that at the time were preceding the meal).

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

In short, according to Jesus’ teaching, the only impurity is that of not giving space to those who ask because they have none.

The observant sects of Judaism treated tax collectors as unclean beings, to be kept at a distance.

The germ of alternative society of believers in Christ accepts them and seizes their resources, the good for the community.

The anxiety of contamination arose from a false, preconceived and exclusivist idea of what not only in Palestine but even in the Diaspora was identified (by total squint) with «the Will of Yahweh» - factor of separation among other peoples.

An illusion that had not stimulated an attitude of sympathy towards diverse reality, nor of friendliness towards others outside the circle consortia.

Lord wants to share with transgressors, not because of an ideological banality: it’s the invitation to recognize oneself in another.

Not to submit ourselves to some form of humiliating paternalism, but because knowing oneself incomplete is a resource.

«And it happened that while He was lying at lunch in the House, behold, many tax collectors and sinners who had come to the feast with Jesus and his disciples» [v.10].

«Lying on the triclinia»: according to the way of celebrating solemn banquets, by free men - now all free ‘sirs’. How wonderful, such a monstrance!

A living Body of Christ that smells of Sharing: authentic Worship!

This is, all empathic and regal, the beautiful awareness that opens wide and makes credible the content of the Announcement [vv.12-13].

Christ calls, welcomes and redeems also “the Matthew in us”, that is, the most worn-out side of our personality. He will even make it flourish: and it will become an indispensable and winning aspect of the future testimony.

Tao Tê Ching [XLV] says: «Great straightness is like sinuosity, great ability is like ineptitude, great eloquence is like stuttering».

Among the disciples, it is likely that there were quite a few members of the Palestinian resistance: guerrillas fighting against the Roman occupiers.

On the other hand, here Jesus calls a collaborator of the Romans who let himself be guided by the advantage.

As if to say: the new community of sons and brothers doesn’t cultivate privileges, separations, oppressions, hatreds.

The Master always stood above the political clashes, ideological distinctions and external disputes of time.

In his Church there is a strong sign of discontinuity.

He does not invite the best or the worst to follow, but opposites - even of our own personality. He wants to dispose us «to conversion» (Lk 5:32): to make us change our point of view, mentality, principles, way of being.

In this adventure we are not called to forms of dissociation. We start from ourselves.

Thus Jesus inaugurates a new kind of relationships, even within us. A New Covenant, of fruitful differences.

It's not ‘perfection’ or narcissism that makes us love the Exodus.

To internalize and live the message:

What is your spiritual strength? How did it generate?

[Friday 13th wk. in O.T.  July 5, 2024]

But can he participate in the ritual? Sitting and with his eye on the ledgers, only then rich - indeed, 'lord'

(Mt 9:9-13)

"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 allowing us to glimpse its wonderful effects in his own existence" [Pope Benedict, General Audience 30 August 2006].

Friction arose in some assemblies of believers, because some church members still considered it profane to have contact with or accept foreigners, who had not yet adapted to the identity mentality of customs.

Even the Judeo-Christians from Galilee and Syria whom Matthew addressed needed to learn to break the isolation of ancient purity norms. They did not have to keep themselves apart.

The friction of opinions became particularly acute in the [typical third-generation] debate over the kind of permissible participation in meetings and the Breaking of Bread.

Conflict pitted against each other the group of converts from paganism (increasingly conspicuous) and the Judaizing group.

The latter did not like habitual contact with those far from their mentality, but rather distinction.

Both in the assemblies and in the quality of everyday fraternal life, unpleasant situations and doubts of conscience arose [about whether or not to welcome pagans who had converted to Jesus the Messiah, let alone share the table with the (supposedly) defiled].

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

The devout conception of moral subdivisions led to the belief that it was necessary to keep the new at a distance, for not having adapted to the not-yet-demythologised mentality of Semitic traditions.

Thus the evangelist wants to describe how Jesus himself faced the same conflict: without any ritual or sacred attention, except to man.

Why? According to the Master's teachings, the relationship with the distant and different, and our own hardships or hidden abysses have something to tell us.

Mt intended to help the Judeo-Christian faithful to understand a discriminating opening: the leap from common religiosity - made up of absurd beliefs, separations and squeamish attitudes - to the Faith in progress.

A discriminating opening is the hope in life itself that comes, and calls for the surrender of artificial positions; hence the possibility of social and ritual insertion.

Such is the teaching, the story, the Person of Christ.

He guides us to existential entrustment, to global trust; to believing the story of the public sinner, who is each one, to be our own.

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

In fact, the Gospel passage emphasises that in its time the apostles (v.10) had by no means been called by the Lord to the same and rigorous practice of segregation, typical of the ethno-purist beliefs, which was nevertheless in force around them.

Therefore, the believers of the 70s and 80s 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 Matthew are this: the life of Communion is not gratification, nor is it recognition.

The Eucharist is not a reward for merit, nor is it 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 lives; rather, He sweeps them away.

For this reason, the figure of the new Rabbi touched the hearts of the people, without boundaries.

Prohibition must be replaced by friendship. Intransigence 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 false goals, superficial objectives, obsessions and useless reasoning, nor mechanical habits, ancient or modern; 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 notorious transgressors like the son of Alphaeus; seeing themselves in them.

And by laying down the artifices: without first claiming any licence.

The faithful in Christ are called to share the breaking of bread with pagans and sinners.In this way, without first demanding a discipline of the arcane, and practices that celebrate distances, such as the ablutions that preceded the meal. 

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

The observant sects of Judaism treated publicans as unclean beings, to be kept at a distance.

The seed of alternative society of believers in Christ accepted them and grasped their resources, the good for the community.

The anxiety of contamination stemmed from a false, preconceived and exclusivist idea of what not only in Palestine but even in the Diaspora was identified by total squinting with 'Yahweh's Will' - a factor of separation in the midst of other peoples.

Illusion that had not stimulated an attitude of sympathy towards the diverse reality, nor of friendliness towards the neighbour outside the 'circle'.

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

Sometimes we are in fact like 'comari'; souls imprisoned in a world closed within fences that transfix our gaze [even on grand accounts and club records: tiny certainties]. And a devout life of small-mindedness.

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

Thus allowing the soul forced into anguish to breathe.

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 a lord, is a resource.

"And it came to pass that while he was reclining at table in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners who had come were reclining at table with Jesus and his disciples" (v.10 Greek text).

"They were reclining": according to the manner of celebrating solemn banquets, by free men - now all free.

How marvellous, such a monstrance!

A living Body of Christ that smells of Sharing: authentic Worship!

It is this all empathic and royal awareness that smoothes out, makes credible, the content of the Announcement (vv.12-13). Although it shocks 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.

It is a different karat - the principle of a life of the saved, which unfolds and overflows beyond the club ropes.

Among the disciples, it is likely that there were quite a few members of the Palestinian resistance, who opposed the Roman occupiers.

By contrast, here Jesus calls a collaborator, and one who allowed himself to be led by advantage.

As if to say: the New Community of sons and brothers does not cultivate privileges, separation, oppression, hatred.

The Master always kept himself above the political shocks, ideological distinctions and corrupt disputes of his time.

In his Church there is a strong sign of discontinuity with religions: prohibition must be replaced by friendship.

The apostles themselves were not called to the same strict practice of segregation and division typical of ethno-purist beliefs, which prevailed around them [and was believed to reflect God's established order on earth].

Even today, the Lord does not invite the best or the worst to follow, but the opposites. A principle that also applies to the intimate life.

The recovery of opposing sides also of our personality, disposes us "to conversion" (Lk 5:32): not to rearrange the world of the Temple, but to make us change our point of view, mentality, principles, way of being.

Christ also calls, welcomes and redeems the publican in us, that is, the more rubricistic - 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 precisely the 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... 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 yield to the point of capitulation; to make oneself considered wanting, inadequate.

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

The contrived norm (unfortunately, sometimes even unwise leadership) makes us live according to success and external glory, obtained through compartmentalisation.Jesus inaugurates a new kind of relationships, and 'covenants' of fruitful divergence - even within ourselves.

And He makes everything the Word alone 'Follow Me' (v.9) [not others].

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

It is not 'perfection' or narcissism that make us love Exodus.

To internalise and live the message:

What is your spiritual and human strength? How did you generate it?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

At the centre of the liturgy of the Word for this Sunday there is a saying of the Prophet Hosea to which Jesus refers in the Gospel: "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings" (Hos 6: 6). It is a key word, one of those that bring us into the heart of Sacred Scripture. The context in which Jesus makes it his own is the calling of Matthew, a "publican" by profession, in other words a tax collector for the Roman imperial authority: for this reason the Jews considered him a public sinner. Having called Matthew precisely when he was sitting at his tax counter - this scene is vividly depicted in a very famous painting by Caravaggio -, Jesus took his disciples to Matthew's home and sat at the table together with other publicans. To the scandalized Pharisees he answered: "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.... For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt 9: 12-13). Here, the Evangelist Matthew, ever attentive to the link between the Old and New Testaments, puts Hosea's prophecy on Jesus' lips: "Go and learn what this means, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice'".

These words of the Prophet are so important that the Lord cited them again in another context, with regard to the observance of the Sabbath (cf. Mt 12: 1-8). In this case too he assumed responsibility for the interpretation of the precept, showing himself to be "Lord" of even the legal institutions. Addressing the Pharisees he added: "If you had known what this means, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice', you would not have condemned the guiltless" (Mt 12: 7). Thus in Hosea's oracle Jesus, the Word made man, fully "found himself", as it were; he wholeheartedly made these words his own and put them into practice with his behaviour, even at the cost of upsetting his People's leaders. God's words have come down to us, through the Gospels, as a synthesis of the entire Christian message: true religion consists in love of God and neighbour. This is what gives value to worship and to the practice of the precepts.

Addressing the Virgin Mary, let us now ask for her intercession in order to live in the joy of the Christian experience always. Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, awaken within us sentiments of filial abandonment to God who is infinite mercy; help us to make our own the prayer that St Augustine expresses in a well known passage of his Confessions: "Lord, have pity on me.... I hide not my wounds; you are the physician, I the sick; you merciful, I miserable.... and all my hope is no where but in your exceeding great mercy" (X, 28, 39; 29, 40).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 June 2008]

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].

Prayer for vocations

Jesus, Son of God, in whom dwells the fullness of divinity,

Thou callest all the baptised "to put out into the deep", treading the path of holiness.

Stir in the hearts of young people the desire to be in today's world

witnesses of the power of your love.

Fill them with your Spirit of fortitude and prudence to lead them into the depths of the human mystery so that they may be able to discover the full truth of themselves and their vocation.

Our Saviour, sent by the Father to reveal his merciful love, give your Church the gift of young people who are ready

to be among their brothers and sisters the manifestation of your presence that renews and saves.

[John Paul II]

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 the 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 reality, 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 start saying '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 will continue to do".Referring to the apostle, the Pontiff explained how he had "felt something strong, so strong, to the point of leaving 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 said, "But why do you go to those people who are pagan people, 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, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 22/09/2018]

(Mt 9:1-8)

The episode testifies to the hard clash between synagogue and the first fraternities of Faith, where without prior conditions of ritual or legal purity everyone was invited to share canteen and the breaking of Bread.

On the ideal proxy of the Lord, in the churches of Galilee and Syria there was already a fraternal practice [unknown to others] of mutual forgiveness and even cancellation of debts incurred, up to the communion of goods.

Reality able to get back on its feet and make any person proceed, even the miserable - starting from their conscience (v.2), suffocated by a religion that emphaized the sense of unworthiness.

According to popular belief, the conditions of scarcity or misfortune were a punishment.

Conversely, Jesus is the One who restores a horizon of authenticity to believing, new awareness and hope to the person suffering from paralysis - that is, unable to go towards God and towards men.

«Having risen, take your bed and go to your house» (v.6; cf. Mk 2:11; Lk 5:24).

Starting from what we are - already full of resources, beyond all appearances - we live by faith the state of the «Son of man»: that of the ‘risen’ sons, those who manifest person in fullness [in the divine condition].

In Christ we can free ourselves from the constraints that made us live horizontal and ankylosed.

Recovering dignity, we can now stand upright and promote life; then return to the House that’s truly ours (vv.6-7; cf. Mk 2:10-12; Lk 9:24-25).

The whole story of the people was conditioned by obsessions with impurity and sin.

Instead, the Master reveals that the divine propensity is only to forgive in order to value - and the attitude of the man of Faith, be reborn again and help to do so.

In fact, the gratuitousness of the Father can be seen from the action of expectation and understanding exercised by the men of God: those able to chisel healthy environments.

Not only by their own’s virtue, but because tolerance introduces new forces, unknown; different powers, which overturn situations.

They allow other creative energies to pass and regenerate the malfunctioning - vice versa deadly, unfortunately, where we do not promote each other.

Only Jesus is the One who makes visible and evident the healing that seemed impossible mission. And before physics, making us flourish again from the fears of false devotion, which imposes absurd embankments on autonomy.

His proposal doesn’t sink us under a heap of impersonal arrogances. The Lord heals the blocked, puts them back in the race.

Imperfection is not an expression of guilt, but a condition - and in any case sin is not an absolute force (v.3).

On the contrary, the impediment becomes a paradoxical reason to seek 'therapy', and vis-à-vis. Unthinkable, perhaps offensive, for the outline.

Eccentric configurations - thought to be miserable - do indeed contain secret doors, immense virtues, and the cure itself.

Indeed, they lead to a new existence. They urge, and “oblige” us to an immediate relationship with our Lord. Almost as if seeking His ‘likeness’.

Unusual crossroads of Tenderness and Faith.

[Thursday 13th wk. in O.T.  July 4, 2024]

(Mt 9:1-8)

The episode bears witness to the harsh clash between synagogue and early Faith fraternities, where without prior conditions of ritual or legal purity all were invited to share the table and the breaking of bread.

On the Lord's ideal delegation, in the churches of Galilee and Syria, a fraternal practice (unknown to others) of mutual forgiveness and even cancellation of contracted debts, up to the communion of goods, was already in force.

Realities capable of putting any person back on their feet and moving forward, even the wretched - starting with their conscience (v.2), stifled by a religion that accentuated the sense of unworthiness.

According to popular belief, conditions of penury or misfortune were a punishment.

Jesus, on the other hand, is the One who restores a horizon of authenticity to believing, new awareness and hope to the person suffering from paralysis - that is, unable to go towards God and towards men.

"Having risen, take up your bed and go to your house" (v.6; cf. Mk 2:11; Lk 5:24).

Starting from what we are - already resourceful, beyond all appearances - we live by Faith the state of the "Son of Man": that of the risen, those who manifest man in fullness (in the divine condition).

In Christ we can free ourselves from the constraints that made us live horizontal and ankylosed.

Recovering dignity, we can now stand upright and promote life; thus return to the House that is truly ours (vv.6-7; cf. Mk 2:10-12; Lk 9:24-25).

For the experts, the forgiveness announced by the Lord is not only an offence against their supposed prestige and spiritual rank, but a sacrilege and blasphemy.

After all, how to appeal to the masses - on the part of these destructive leaders - if not by intimidating them and making them feel inadequate, sterile, incapable, unempowered, with no way out?

The whole life of the people was conditioned by obsessions of impurity and sin.

Instead, the Master reveals that the divine propensity is only to forgive in order to enhance - and the attitude of - the man of Faith, to be born again and to help do so.

Indeed, the Father's gratuitousness is seen in the action of expectation and understanding exercised by the men of God: those capable of chiselling healthy environments.

Not only by their own virtue, but because tolerance introduces new, unknown forces; different powers, which overturn situations.

They allow other creative and regenerating energies to flow through the unhealthy - vice versa deadly, unfortunately, where one does not promote oneself.

Only Jesus is the One who makes visible and manifest the healing that seemed mission impossible. And before the physical, making us flourish again from the fears of false devotion, which imposes absurd curbs on autonomy.

His proposal does not drown us under a heap of impersonal arrogance. It heals the blocked, puts them back in the race.

"Jesus has the power not only to heal the sick body, but also to forgive sins; and indeed, physical healing is a sign of the spiritual healing that his forgiveness produces. Indeed, sin is a kind of paralysis of the spirit from which only the power of God's merciful love can free us, enabling us to get back up and get back on the path of good" [Pope Benedict, Angelus 22 February 2009].

The Lord's "brothers" (cf. parallel passages Mt 9:1-8 and Lk 5:17-26) do all they can to lead the needy to the Master.

Often, however, they find themselves before a crowd of hijackers of the Sacred that does not allow for a face-to-face, personal, immediate relationship.

The critical impetus and love for the needs of the needy for a full life must then overcome the sense of 'cultural', moral, doctrinal and ritual belonging - which only traces and reiterates.

No sign of joy from the authorities (Mt 9:3; Mk 2:6-8; Lk 5:21) - but the people are enthusiastic (Mt 9:8; Mk 2:12; Lk 5:26). Why?

Jesus teaches and heals. He does not proclaim the God of religions, but a Father - an attractive figure, who does not threaten, nor punish, but welcomes, dialogues, forgives, makes grow.

The opposite of what was conveyed by the official guides, linked to the idea of an archaic, suspicious and prejudiced divinity, which discriminated between friend and foe.

The Father expresses himself in non-oppressive forms, in the manner of the family and inter-human covenant: he does not enjoy the perfect, sterilised and pure - he offers his Love to all without requirements.

For imperfection is not an expression of guilt, but a condition - and in any case sin is not an absolute force (v.3).

It is this awareness that gives rise to liberated people and a new order: 'to forge bonds of unity, of common projects, of shared hopes' [Fratelli Tutti, n.287].

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

These are people whose lives seem to proceed neither in the direction of the true God nor to others. Nor can they meet themselves.

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

The friends of God "presented him a paralytic, lying on a bed" (Mt 9:2): they come from everywhere, from the four cardinal points (cf. Mk 2:3); from very different, even opposite origins - which you do not expect.

They expose themselves to lead the needy to the Master, but sometimes find themselves in front of an impermeable crowd (precisely, of kidnappers of the Sacred) that does not allow a direct, face-to-face personal relationship.

They do not let us in - instead we want to put ourselves before Him (v.4): sometimes we are like blackmailers and subjected to procedures, otherwise you do not pass; you are out.

Paraphrasing Pope Francis's third encyclical again, we could say that even in the selective or hierarchical access paths of the Faith "the lack of dialogue means that no one, in the individual sectors, is concerned with the common good, but rather with obtaining the advantages that power procures, or, at best, with imposing one's own way of thinking" [no.202].

The Faith thinks and believes in "an open world where there is room for everyone, which includes the weakest and respects different cultures" [FT no.155].

Some insufferable 'synagogues' conversely advocate 'a binary division' [FT No.156] that attempts to classify.

There are exclusive, refractory cliques and clubs which claim to appropriate poor Jesus... backwards.

Hence their 'synagogues' or 'houses of prayer' must be uncovered and thrown wide open (v.4) - with extreme decision.

Such 'seats' turn God's presence on earth upside down and disrupt the lives of the derelicts, who have real urgencies - not interest in cultivating unintelligible formulas, cultic purities or other sophistications.

No more proper compliments, and 'proper' customary procedures!

Only in this way does man regenerate and discover his own divine powers - which are then the humanising ones: to put himself and his brothers and sisters back on their feet.

With Christ, one advances without any more regulated authorisations to beg (sometimes to scandalous dummies) that make life pale.

So, let us note that there are no steps taken, but only the unusual initiative overcomes the pond of devout structures taken hostage by regulars or disembodied thinkers. Where one would only have to queue up, wait one's turn, be content... and doze off or disperse.

The critical impetus and love for the full, discerning life needs of all of us in need must overcome the sense of feigned collective compactness. 

It must outclass all 'cultural', moral, doctrinal and ritualistic affiliations - which it only makes up and reiterates.

Indeed, no sign of joy from the authorities (Mt 9:3; Mk 2:6-8; Lk 5:21) - but the people are enthusiastic (Mt 9:8; Mk 2:12; Lk 5:26).

It is obvious that the customary people judge Jesus a blasphemer: they have been educated "in this fear and distrust" [FT no.152].

They do not love humanity, but rather their doctrines, their codes, their milestones; a few beautiful rubrics - from purely ritualistic holiness. All papier-mâché.

They do not protect people, but only their self-interested connections, correct protocols, and acquired positions; possibly fashions of thought for their own benefit - that hinder our development.

In short, we are called to choose in a very unusual way, compared to the cliché of popular moralistic preaching - which has never been able to reconcile esteem... with imperfection, error, diversity.

According to the Gospels, there is another, decisive crossroads: the path of the defence of the privileges of a caste that gags God in the name of God, or the path of the impelling, universal desire to live to the full.

To this we are called, as opposed to conformist ways: to choose in an unusual, profound and decisive way, to reconcile uniqueness, truth, imperfection, our exceptionalism.

Otherwise, the soul rebels. It wants to be with Jesus in a frontal position, not behind the crowd, albeit of believers (whether démodé or à la page).

The passage from the Synoptics makes it clear that the problem of the 'paralytic' is not his discomfort, his sense of oppression, his apparent misfortune.

These are not the breaks in his relationship with life and with God.

On the contrary, the impediment becomes a paradoxical motive for seeking 'therapy', and vis-à-vis. Unthinkable, perhaps offensive, for the outline.

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

Indeed, they lead to a new existence. They urge, and 'oblige' us to an immediate relationship with our Lord. Almost as if seeking His likeness.

Breathing in the common thought and tracing the trajectories of others, even those considered "intimate to God", the stiffening would have remained.

No unpredictable Salvation would have broken through.In short, according to the Gospels there is only one non-negotiable, crossroads, decisive value: the desire to live fully, in a truly integrated way; in the first person.

Unusual crossroads of Tenderness and Faith.

To internalise and live the message:

What arouses your sense of admiration for the Power of God? Are you excited by physical or inner miracles?

Where do you most frequently hear: "My son, your sins are forgiven (...) Rise up and walk"? Do the others seem to you to be healthy spiritual civilisations?

What kind are your works of faith? In sectors?

Marked by successful milestones and negotiations with the wary installed (so that they are accepted and mistaken for Tenderness)?

Double Healing

The passage from the Gospel of St Matthew, which is read on the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, provides the Holy Father with a high topic for his Homily.

It is one of the many episodes from the life of the Lord, which prepare us to be fervently united with Him and to celebrate the Divine Mysteries well.

Each page of the Gospel has its own focal, dramatic point, around which the scene of the recalled episode and the faithful account revolve.

For the prodigious and instantaneous healing of the paralytic, the apostle St Matthew is more sober than the other synoptics, St Mark and St Luke. These add more extensive details, including that of the opening of the roof in the room where Jesus was, in order to lower the sick man with his bed, given the enormous crowd that was crowding the entrance.

The hope of the pitiful companions is evident: they almost want to force Jesus to take care of the unexpected guest and begin a dialogue with him.

THE TWOFOLD HEALING OF THE PARALYTIC

Here we immediately find ourselves at a peak of wonder and grace. The Lord, with a very sweet, beautiful, regenerative word, addresses the paralytic, saying: 'Trust, you thread . . .": Have confidence, my son. And then? Behold: "Remittuntur tibi peccata tua": Your sins are forgiven you. Amazement of all present. It was not for this that they had brought the sick man, but that he might be freed from his immobility. They did not expect Jesus to speak of the poor man's sins: were sins, then, an impediment to healing?

Jesus reads the hearts of those around him: his first concern is to remove the moral sickness, and he declares this. Hence, after the first surprise, other comments and criticisms, indeed the bitter and vehement rebuke. Who is it that forgives sins? Only God can forgive them; God alone can settle the accounts between Him and creatures. Why, then, the arbitrary, indeed, the reckless act, even a blasphemy? Then Jesus, seeing their thoughts, adds: "Why do you think evil in your hearts? What is easier to say: your sins are forgiven you, or to say: get up, and walk?". In the same instant he also performs the physical miracle, saying to the paralytic: 'Arise, take up your bed and return to your home'.

The most interesting point, in this episode, is that Jesus, in front of an immobilised and unhappy poor man, discovers an even greater unhappiness, an even more acute misery. He wants, first of all, to take care of his moral health; and, good and omnipotent in the highest degree, He performs the miracle of spiritual healing before the physical one.

He himself makes the comparison: Which of the two healings is the easier? Of the soul or of the body?: and concludes by showing that the well-being of the spirit is far more important than the physical.

This gives rise to some questions about one of the most interesting aspects of the Gospel.

What does Jesus see in men? Jesus entered the world and converses with us, the human race. Well, how does he judge us? What does his eye discern in us? As we examine ourselves, we see that before Jesus there is no secret. For Him everything is transparent. Indeed, if we want to understand something beautiful in the Gospel, we will always have to think that the scenes unfolding around Jesus have a crystal-clear, singular, inimitable clarity for Him, Jesus sees everything. St John, in one of the first chapters of his Gospel, states precisely that the Saviour sciebat quid esset in homine. Jesus knows what is in man. During His earthly life, men stand before Him in transparency. Jesus passes through them with his gaze and fully knows what they are, what they do, what they think: 'Deus intuetur cor': God discerns the heart.

GOD'S GAZE INTO THE HUMAN HEART

The permanent quest, so accentuated in modern man, to intuit the secret of man, to know everything about him, in Jesus is an infallible, divine endowment. He knows human reality in its entirety and in its deepest and most arcane individual notes. He opens wide all the secret doors of our inner hiding places; our thoughts are manifest to Him: nothing, nothing can be concealed from Him. To appear, therefore, before Him and be considered in every detail is an instantaneous fact, for He observes and judges everything in us.

And then we can ask ourselves: But, then, what does He see? The positive values and faults of man. In children Jesus sees an angelic innocence and rejoices in it, because they are the authentic citizens of the heavenly kingdom. In the little ones, the Son of God detects the harmonious nature that his creative hand has imprinted in these innocent creatures. He therefore immensely enjoys their companionship, vivacity and enchantment; in a word, the beauty of God reflected in the human face.

And again: what do you notice, for example, in the Samaritan woman? Even that poor creature is dismayed. Oh yes! - she exclaims - this Prophet has read my spirit: he knows who I am! And here she goes, crying out to her countrymen: a great Prophet has come; he has said everything about my life without knowing me! What, moreover, will the Divine Master see in the imploring Magdalene whom everyone would like to crush with contempt and ruthless public accusation? Poor humanity to be redeemed and saved. Deus dilexit mundum! God observes the depths of the human heart, which, even beneath the surface of sin and disorder, still possesses a wonderful wealth of love; Jesus with his gaze draws it out, makes it overflow from the oppressed soul. To Jesus, therefore, nothing escapes of what is in men, of their total reality, in which good and evil are.

INCONSISTENCIES AND DISTORTIONS IN HUMAN THINKING

The second question is: And what do men, with their modern education, see? They are also inconsistent here. First of all, you will no longer find in the language of decent people today, in books, in the things that speak of men, the dreadful word that, on the other hand, is so frequent in the religious world, in our world, especially in the world close to God: the word sin. Men, in today's judgements, are no longer considered sinners. They are catalogued as healthy, sick, good, strong, weak, rich, poor, wise, ignorant; but the word sin is never encountered. And it does not return because, having detached the human intellect from divine wisdom, the concept of sin has been lost. One of the most penetrating and serious words of the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII of v. m. is this: 'the modern world has lost the sense of sin'; that is, what the rupture of relations with God, caused precisely by sin, is. The world no longer intends to dwell on such relationships. And so contemporary philosophy of man starts from an aprioristic optimism. What, for example, does pedagogy say? Man is good; it is society that will make him bad; but, in itself, let him develop spontaneously and in a favourable environment, he will be, by nature, probable and virtuous. Thus is adopted as the norm, a very liberal, very easy indulgence, which paves the way for all sorts of experiences and caprices, since, admitting all rights in man, he must be allowed to express them in his individual faculties. Evil, therefore, does not exist. This famous original sin - which is the first truth about man - is no longer admitted and described in the diagnosis that the world today wants to draw of itself.

And here is the inconsistency. While the point of departure is so certain, the point of arrival, the terminal judgement that our world makes on man, what is it? We are not engaging in psychoanalysis here, we are merely adhering to literary documentation: and we are not mistaken in asserting that the judgement given, today, by man of himself, with his own richest and most persistent testimony, one might even say, the most monotonous, is that of despair: thus, looked at from within, man is a horrible thing. How often do those who present themselves before us with a sympathetic, good-natured, naive appearance, hide, on the contrary, the most putrid and deformed whitewashed sepulchre!

See if there is an optimistic film in the modern production; see if there is a single presentable book in the literary prizes, precisely in these exceedingly copious times, that declares that man is still good, that virtues still exist. On the contrary, the analysis of the mire, of human perversion, is rampant; and with it, the tacit, but inexorable sentence, given as definitive: man is incurable. Here is the dark consequence. One comes to regard man as an unhappy being. Following the direction of these eyes that become implacable and even discerning, one finds nothing but evil, always and desperately evil!

LET THE DIVINE IMAGE SHINE IN EVERY SOUL

Jesus also sees: and he looks at us, who are of the poor people with so many ills. To the paralytic who comes before him, he explains that there are paralyses even more serious and more severe than the physical one. You have many sins: I forgive you, I forgive you! Jesus is the absolute deliverer. He, having urged in us, with this light of his, an examination of conscience, through which guilt is felt but also redemption, enters the soul like a torrent of joy, goodness and love. If you want it,' he comforts us, 'I will give you back your integrity, your innocence, the grace to truly feel what you must be, restored to your stature, your original beauty, and as the Lord created you in his image and likeness.

Jesus is the divine author of the ineffable redemption: one understands, then, how the Gospel, as long as there is a world of men troubled by their own sins, misery, unhappiness, despair, the very Gospel among men will always stir an echo that can never fade. Why? Because not only is it a word of truth - and here men agree - but it is also a light of hope that men cannot give to themselves.

What shall we do, in order to grasp something useful and salutary from today's Gospel page? We will try to let the Lord look at us; to present ourselves to Him with sincere humility. It is the examination of conscience, let us say more: it is the approaching of that sacrament of penance, which truly scrutinises our innermost being and restores truth and justice to our souls. Everyone may say: with the groaning of pain I would not know how to heal myself; but if Thou wilt, O Lord, Thy word is enough.

"TRUST, THREADS"

That word will never fail us. God's mercy is an inexhaustible source that Christ brought into the world precisely with the desire, the eagerness to seek us out, to chase us and repeat to us: I loved you; I came for you, so that you might understand who you are and how crippled and wretched you are. But trust, O son, these your miseries are forgiven you. Indeed: with the moral miseries to a great extent the physical ones may also be healed. Think what would be the face of the world, if men's sins were removed, if moral faults were removed! It is not that they are two consequent things: on other pages of the Gospel, the Lord will say that physical misfortune is not, in itself, fatally linked to moral misfortune. Just remember the man born blind, just think of the many sufferings of the righteous. The fact remains, however, that if the many moral miseries were healed, our life would be much better, much healthier, and more hygienic even; it would be much happier. The unity of man is a reality: it involves interference between one world and the other: the moral and the material; the inner and the outer.

That is why today we will go to Jesus, offering the Divine Sacrifice: we too will present ourselves before Him like the paralytic. With all humility we will ask Him to renew trust in His omnipotence and goodness in our souls. Each one will plead: Lord, save me: You alone have words of eternal life.

(Pope Paul VI, homily 20 September 1964)

Jesus has the power not only to heal a sick body but also to forgive sins; indeed, the physical recovery is a sign of the spiritual healing that his forgiveness produces. Sin is effectively a sort of paralysis of the spirit from which only the power of God's merciful love can set us free, allowing us to rise again and continue on the path of goodness.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 22 February 2009]

1. A text by Saint Augustine offers us the key to interpreting Christ's miracles as signs of his saving power: "The fact that he became man for us has been of much greater benefit to our salvation than the miracles he performed among us; and it is more important than the fact that he healed the diseases of the body destined to die" (S. Augustini, In Io. Ev. Tr., 17, 1). In order to this health of the soul and the redemption of the whole world, Jesus also performed miracles of a corporal order. And so the theme of the present catechesis is as follows: through the "miracles, wonders and signs" he performed, Jesus Christ manifested his power to save man from the evil that threatens the immortal soul and his vocation to union with God.

2. This is what is revealed in a special way in the healing of the paralytic in Capernaum. The people who brought him, unable to enter through the door into the house where Jesus teaches, lower the sick man through an opening in the roof, so that the poor man comes to stand at the feet of the Master. "Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you'". These words arouse suspicion of blasphemy in some of those present: "This man blasphemes! Who can forgive sins but God alone?". Almost in response to those who had thought so, Jesus addresses those present with the words: "What is easier: to say to the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven, or to say: Get up, take up your bed, and walk? Now, so that you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins, I command you,' he said to the paralytic, 'Get up, take up your cot, and go to your house. He got up, took up his cot, and went out in the presence of all" (cf. Mk 2:1-12 and also Mt 9:1-8; Lk 5:18-26; Lk 5:25).

Jesus himself explains here that the miracle of healing the paralytic is a sign of the saving power by which he forgives sins. Jesus performs this sign to show that he has come as the Saviour of the world, whose main task is to free man from spiritual evil, the evil that separates man from God and prevents salvation in God, which is precisely sin.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 11 November 1987]