"Cooperating in the coming of the Kingdom of God in the world" (Mt 13:31-33)

All are called to build God's kingdom

1. In this Great Jubilee year, the basic theme of our catecheses has been the glory of the Trinity as revealed to us in salvation history. We have reflected on the Eucharist, the greatest celebration of Christ under the humble signs of bread and wine. Now we want to devote several catecheses to what we must do to ensure that the glory of the Trinity shines forth more fully in the world.

Our reflection begins with Mark's Gospel, where we read:  "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel'" (Mk 1: 14-15). These are the first words Jesus spoke to the crowd:  they contain the heart of his Gospel of hope and salvation, the proclamation of God's kingdom. From that moment on, as the Evangelists note, Jesus "went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people" (Mt 4: 23; cf. Lk 8: 1). The Apostles followed in his footsteps and with them Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, called to "preach the kingdom of God" among the nations even to the capital of the Roman Empire (cf. Acts 20: 25; 28: 23, 31).

2. The Gospel of the kingdom links Christ with the Sacred Scriptures that, using a royal image, celebrate God's lordship over the cosmos and history. Thus we read in the Psalter:  "Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns! Yea, the world is established, it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples'" (Ps 96: 10). The kingdom is thus God's effective but mysterious action in the universe and in the tangle of human events. He overcomes the resistance of evil with patience, not with arrogance and outcry.

For this reason Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds, but destined to become a leafy tree (cf. Mt 13: 31-32), or to the seed a man scatters on the ground:  "he sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how" (Mk 4: 27). The kingdom is grace, God's love for the world, the source of our serenity and trust:  "Fear not, little flock", Jesus says, "for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Lk 12: 32). Fears, worries and nightmares fade away, because in the person of Christ the kingdom of God is in our midst (cf. Lk 17: 21).

3. But man is not a passive witness to God's entrance into history. Jesus asks us "to seek" actively "the kingdom of God and his righteousness" and to make this search our primary concern (Mt 6& ;33). To those who "supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately" (Lk 19: 11), he prescribed an active attitude instead of passive waiting, telling them the parable of the 10 pounds to be used productively (cf. Lk 19: 12-27). For his part, the Apostle Paul states that "the kingdom of God does not mean food and drink but righteousness" (Rom 14: 17) above all, and urges the faithul to put their members at the service of righteousness for sanctification (cf. Rom 6: 13, 19).

The human person is thus called to work with his hands, mind and heart for the coming of God's kingdom into the world. This is especially true of those who are called to the apostolate and are, as St Paul says, "fellow workers for the kingdom of God" (Col 4: 11), but it is also true of every human person.

4. Those who have chosen the way of the Gospel Beatitudes and live as "the poor in spirit", detached from material goods, in order to raise up the lowly of the earth from the dust of their humiliation, will enter the kingdom of God. "Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world", James asks in his Letter, "to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?" (Jas 2: 5). Those who lovingly bear the sufferings of life will enter the kingdom:  "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14: 22; cf. 2 Thes1: 4-5), where God himself "will wipe away every tear ... and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore" (Rv 21: 4). The pure of heart who choose the way of righteousness, that is, conformity to the will of God, will enter the kingdom, as St Paul warns:  "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, ... nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6: 9-10; cf. 15: 50; Eph 5: 5).

5. All the just of the earth, including those who do not know Christ and his Church, who, under the influence of grace, seek God with a sincere heart (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 16), are thus called to build the kingdom of God by working with the Lord, who is its first and decisive builder. Therefore, we must entrust ourselves to his hands, to his Word, to his guidance, like inexperienced children who find security only in the Father:  "Whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child", Jesus said, "shall not enter it" (Lk 18: 17).

With this thought we must make our own the petition:  "Thy kingdom come!". A petition which has risen to heaven many times in human history like a great breath of hope:  "May the peace of your kingdom come to us", Dante exclaimed in his paraphrase of the Our Father (Purgatorio, XI, 7). A petition which turns our gaze to Christ's return and nourishes the desire for the final coming of God's kingdom. This desire however does not distract the Church from her mission in this world, but commits her to it more strongly (cf. CCC, n. 2818), in waiting to be able to cross the threshold of the kingdom, whose seed and beginning is the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 5), when it comes to the world in its fullness. Then, Peter assures us in his Second Letter, "there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pt 1: 11).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 6 December 2000]

“Jesus began to preach” (Mt 4:17). With these words, the evangelist Matthew introduces the ministry of Jesus. The One who is the Word of God has come to speak with us, in his own words and by his own life. On this first Sunday of the Word of God, let us go to the roots of his preaching, to the very source of the word of life. Today’s Gospel (Mt 4:12-23) helps us to know how, where and to whom Jesus began to preach.

1. How did he begin? With a very simple phrase: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 17). This is the main message of all Jesus’ sermons: to tell us that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does this mean? The kingdom of heaven means the reign of God, that is, the way in which God reigns through his relationship with us. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, that God is near. Here is the novelty, the first message: God is not far from us. The One who dwells in heaven has come down to earth; he became man. He has torn down walls and shortened distances. We ourselves did not deserve this: he came down to meet us. Now this nearness of God to his people is one of the ways he has done things since the beginning, even of the Old Testament. He said to his people: “Imagine: what nation has its gods so near to it as I am near to you?” (cf. Dt 4:7). And this nearness became flesh in Jesus. 

This is a joyful message: God came to visit us in person, by becoming man. He did not embrace our human condition out of duty, no, but out of love. For love, he took on our human nature, for one embraces what one loves. God took our human nature because he loves us and desires freely to give us the salvation that, alone and unaided, we cannot hope to attain. He wants to stay with us and give us the beauty of life, peace of heart, the joy of being forgiven and feeling loved.

We can now understand the direct demand that Jesus makes: “Repent”, in other words, “Change your life”. Change your life, for a new way of living has begun. The time when you lived for yourself is over; now is the time for living with and for God, with and for others, with and for love. Today Jesus speaks those same words to you: “Take heart, I am here with you, allow me to enter and your life will change”. Jesus knocks at the door. That is why the Lord gives you his word, so that you can receive it like a love letter he has written to you, to help you realize that he is at your side. His word consoles and encourages us. At the same time it challenges us, frees us from the bondage of our selfishness and summons us to conversion. Because his word has the power to change our lives and to lead us out of darkness into the light. This is the power of his word. 

2. If we consider where Jesus started his preaching, we see that he began from the very places that were then thought to be “in darkness”. Both the first reading and the Gospel speak to us of people who “sat in the region and shadow of death”. They are the inhabitants of “the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, on the road by the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations” (Mt 4:15-16; cf. Is 8:23-9:1). Galilee of the nations, this region where Jesus began his preaching ministry, had been given this name because it was made up of people of different races and was home to a variety of peoples, languages and cultures. It was truly “on the road by the sea”, a crossroads. Fishermen, businessmen and foreigners all dwelt there. It was definitely not the place to find the religious purity of the chosen people. Yet Jesus started from there: not from the forecourt of the temple of Jerusalem, but from the opposite side of the country, from Galilee of the nations, from the border region. He started from a periphery. 

Here there is a message for us: the word of salvation does not go looking for untouched, clean and safe places. Instead, it enters the complex and obscure places in our lives. Now, as then, God wants to visit the very places we think he will never go. Yet how often we are the ones who close the door, preferring to keep our confusion, our dark side and our duplicity hidden. We keep it locked up within, approaching the Lord with some rote prayers, wary lest his truth stir our hearts. And this is concealed hypocrisy. But as today’s Gospel tells us: “Jesus went about all Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity” (v. 23). He passed through all of that varied and complex region. In the same way, he is not afraid to explore the terrain of our hearts and to enter the roughest and most difficult corners of our lives. He knows that his mercy alone can heal us, his presence alone can transform us and his word alone can renew us. So let us open the winding paths of our hearts – those paths we have inside us that we do not wish to see or that we hide – to him, who walked “the road by the sea”; let us welcome into our hearts his word, which is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword… and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12).

3. Finally, to whom did Jesus begin to speak? The Gospel says that, “as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’” (Mt 4:18-19). The first people to be called were fishermen: not people carefully chosen for their abilities or devout people at prayer in the temple, but ordinary working people. 

Let us think about what Jesus said to them: I will make you fishers of men. He was speaking to fishermen, using the language they understood. Their lives changed on the spot. He called them where they were and as they were, in order to make them sharers in his mission. “Immediately they left their nets and followed him” (v. 20). Why immediately? Simply because they felt drawn. They did not hurry off because they had received an order, but because they were drawn by love. To follow Jesus, mere good works are not enough; we have to listen daily to his call. He, who alone knows us and who loves us fully, leads us to put out into the deep of life. Just as he did with the disciples who heard him.

That is why we need his word: so that we can hear, amid the thousands of other words in our daily lives, that one word that speaks to us not about things, but about life.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us make room inside ourselves for the word of God! Each day, let us read a verse or two of the Bible. Let us begin with the Gospel: let us keep it open on our table, carry it in our pocket or bag, read it on our cell phones, and allow it to inspire us daily. We will discover that God is close to us, that he dispels our darkness and, with great love, leads our lives into deep waters.

[Pope Francis, homily 26 January 2020]

Childbirth and Manifestation

(Mt 2:1-12)

Mt writes in the 80s for the third generation worshippers. It is a time when he sees that in the first communities the pagans entered in droves, while precisely those who for centuries had been waiting for the Light to which they seemed so fond were disdainfully rejecting it.

The narrative of the Epiphany draws inspiration from what was happening before the eyes of believers at the end of the first century.

People who have always had the habit of waiting, by now they did not wait or see anything. They had become so accustomed to ancient expectations that they no longer imagined that they could have a real Encounter with the Newness of God.

The impact of those who honestly were looking for the Star was quite different: a distinct approach, albeit in precarious balance, which nevertheless allowed indeed the distant ones on the way to ask the right questions.

Without interests to defend, the new seekers of God were still on the march, they were moved away from all the ancient shackles and from their own ideas. Without respite they walked a long and new Way.

They were not just looking for quietist reassurances. They understood that the Treasure of God is in a Journey, for a not mediocre wonder; all of Origin.

While addressing religious authorities and experts in the ancient Scriptures (vv.1-2), authentic pilgrims continued to head forward.

In this way, flying over the habitual fences of respect for roles, social prominence, conformist interpretation.

But if the throne feared for its power, the temple was afraid of losing the exclusivity on God, then hegemony over consciences.

[In the Gospels, thrones and altars are under the banner of supremacy, strength, dowry, deception: here vv.3-4].

However, the Explorers did not submit to ceremonies of established verticism, nor to the influence of a fake uniformity.

Thus receiving the Radiance of Christmas Revelation: God is not a ruler, but unarmed. Tender and Small, among defenseless.

By tradition, the people of Messianic promises were considered to be awarded a regal, priestly and sponsal dignity.

These Gifts [gold and incense and myrrh: v.11] are now passed on to people of any cultural background.

Those who are endowed with a «freewheeling intuitions» - remote, «effective» treasures, so precious for the synodal path (and equally neglected) [Speech September 18, 2021].

In short, the seekers of God are called and drawn from an unthinkable geography and history, because they remain the only ones who have the liver to constantly embark on a different route: «other Way» (v.12).

Because the normality of the dictated courses kills life - annihilating the spirit of adventure and surprise that bothers to dive into the present.

And those born from wave to wave produce healthy opportunities.

The Lord knows to what potentialities of good the even more embarrassing creatures can be converted, and chaises them.

At some point in our journey - then from time to time - we will understand that the discomfort of exploration had the function of bringing to light the Child in us, hidden and misjudged.

In short, some "religious" defects make us Unique, Special. They guide us to venerate that Frugolus present, who is complicit in us.

They bring us Home, our very own.

[Epiphany of the Lord, January 6]

Birth and Manifestation

Mt 2:1-12 (1-18)

The Epiphany narrative takes its cue from what was happening before the eyes of believers at the end of the first century.

Mt writes in the 1980s for the third generation of believers.

It was a time when even in the earliest communities it was noticeable that pagans had entered in droves - while those who had been waiting for centuries for the Light they seemed so fond of were disdainfully rejecting it.

The self-confident people, all pious, chosen, always installed, who had been in the habit of waiting ... were now waiting for nothing.

They saw every happening the same as before; nothing new.

They had become so accustomed to their old hopes or their certainties, that they no longer imagined that they could make a personal, real encounter with the Newness of God.

They took refuge in their own little world of habit, known and safe; without remedy - some even out of opportunism of position.

Thus they avoided the hassle of having to rethink a fundamental thought.

They were the experts in religious practice; how to contradict the role-minded, veteran Judaizers, top of the class?

It was not the young life, the face-to-face, nor the reality, that engaged them. Only perhaps the regrets of the glorious past; imperial, even.

No earthquake had to claim space, within the convictions and image of the chosen people.

After all, those who conceive according to common ranks have nothing to think about but their own illusory clichés - losing touch with events.

Ultimately floundering in the attempt to cling to the usual motifs, always repeated; without present incisiveness, nor future trajectory.

The veterans at the head of the same fraternities of the origins found it difficult to abandon themselves to the new tide of people and impulses coming at them - yielding to the stimuli with confidence, enjoying new breath.

Mt notes that the already secure and titled felt bound by 'cultural' and religious merits that did not admit of fractures, variations, other basic ideas.

In particular, because they did not trust in the power of concrete life, they did not allow themselves to be saved or sustained by Providence, which was renewing the face of the earth.

Rather, devout people seemed bound to the habit of the usual external scaffolding of worship, and ways of understanding and doing.

So in this pericope the evangelist encourages the believing brethren of his communities, to shift their gaze, to open their vision.

For a Faith that could know more, and grasp-beyond what was stagnating in the mechanical identity world of established religiosity, now almost useless.

Quite different was the impact of those who honestly sought Salvation, the Light, the Star; even from an intimate sense of emptiness, rather than from certainties.

The option of Faith is also for us a different approach, all precariously balanced, which nevertheless allows even those far away to ask the right questions.

Deprived of interests to defend, the wayfarers of the truly sacred abandon their conceptions. They set out, freed from all the fetters of (particular, inherited) custom or of the dominant à la page thinking.

Undeterred, the pilgrims of the divine Spirit walk their long Way; without falsehood.

They do not seek only quietist assurances; they are not content with what is in their pockets, nor with the easy external consensus.

They understand that God's Treasure is hidden in a mysterious Path, but one that flanks and is worth more than comfort or approval.

Presence [nothing clamorous, but] on which one can paradoxically lean, for a wonder that is not mediocre; all of Origin.

While addressing religious authorities and experts in the ancient Scriptures (vv.1-2) the travellers continue to move forward.

They fly over the habitual fences of role-respect, social prominence, conformist interpretation.

Meanwhile, if the throne fears for power, the temple fears losing exclusivity over God, hence hegemony over consciences.

[In the Gospels, thrones and altars stand for supremacy, power, dowry, deception: here vv.3-4].

However, the Explorers do not submit to ceremonials of established verticality, nor to the influence of a feigned uniformity.

Thus they receive the radiance of the Revelation of Christmas: God is not a ruler, but defenceless. Tender and Small, among the helpless.

Traditionally, the people of the messianic promises considered themselves endowed with royal, priestly and spousal dignity.

These Gifts [gold and frankincense and myrrh: v.11] are now passed on to people of all backgrounds.

To add to the dose, Mt sets the stage not only for distant pagans, but for the worst that the ethical target audience of the time could imagine: magicians!

Remarkable people at that time, if they acted as astrologers: a kind of scrutinisers of the heavens and intellectuals of the sacred places - thus eminent representatives of different cultures. 

But the Greek term "màgoi" - literally: "magicians" - also indicated charlatans, corrupters, even deviators of biblical spirituality.

An activity severely condemned by the Scriptures, and in the Didaché put on the index among the most degrading activities: between the prohibition of abortion and that of stealing.

God welcomes and recognises first not the powerful (or the religious) drunkards and addicts of appearance; rather, the distant ones.

And among them, those precisely those who are strangers to any label or usual criterion of discernment.

Pope Francis would perhaps mention those who are endowed with a "flair without citizenship" - a remote, "effective" treasure, so precious for the synodal path (and equally neglected) [Address 18 September 2021].

The Christmas of Lk introduces the shepherds, the prairie dogs who led an impure and wild life, like the beasts they tended.

In Mt we find the magicians: even the deceivers!

In short, the seekers of God are called and drawn from an unthinkable geography and history, because they are the only ones who have the guts to constantly take a different path: "another Way" (v.12).

The critical witnesses do not stop at the melancholy of the third wheel: they want the risk of direct love.

The normality of comfort zones, of reasoning, procedures, dictated paths, kills life - annihilating the spirit of adventure and surprise that bristles at diving into the present.

The waters of the new energy that feeds on astonishment are contaminated by commonplaces, by the usual nests that do not evolve and only prop up roles or positions - making the astonishment of the vital quest pale.

But when we gloss over banal judgements, conformisms, mental cages, local customs, glamorous fantasies - our Uniqueness dares to give birth to an unknown Person.

And he who is born from wave to wave produces healthy opportunities.

At some point along our path - then from time to time - we will realise that the discomfort of exploration had the function of giving birth to the Child within us, concealed and misjudged.

The Lord knows to what potential for good precisely the most awkward creatures can be converted, and He tampers with them.

But one can risk it all not out of habit: only out of Faith, that is, trusting Friendship and Hope, in action.

In short, certain 'religious' faults make us Unique, Special. They make us venerate that present Frugolo, who is our accomplice.

They make us return Home, the one that is truly ours.

Revelation, support, new Way and new People

The energy of sadness

(Mt 2:13-18)

The cruelty of Herod - an exasperated egomaniac - became proverbial even in Rome.

In his last years, absurdly withdrawn into a restless adherence to himself, he caused three of his sons to perish and issued a decree [not executed due to his death] by which he ordered the most influential among the Jews to be eliminated - both the (supposed) pretenders to the throne and the dissenters on the land.

In the Gospel passage the king is an icon of the will to power that kills those who recall the spirit of Christ's childhood: the Son of God placed his being in the Father's Mission.

[Such decentralised humility not only saves us in the order of grace, but also in that of human equilibrium].

Mt wrote his Gospel in response to the situation the Church was experiencing at a very critical time.

After the year 70, the only groups that survived the destruction of Judaism were the Messianic Christians and the Pharisees - both convinced that the armed struggle against the Roman Empire had nothing to do with the fulfilment of the Promises.

Not many years after the disaster in Jerusalem, it was precisely the sect of the Pharisees, now deprived of their place of worship - the centre of national identity - that began to organise themselves to centralise the governance of the synagogues.

Accused of betraying their particular culture and customs, the Judaizers who recognised Jesus as the Son of God were eventually driven out of the synagogues themselves.

Growing opposition and then explicit separation from the covenant people made the bewilderment of the faithful and the problem of the very identity of the early Assemblies of Faith acute; groups in obvious distress.

Mt encouraged them to avoid defections, supporting those who had received the sharp excommunication from the leaders of popular religiosity - hitherto admired for their strong devotion, and held in high regard.

To help overcome the trauma, the Glad Tidings addressed to the Judaizing converts set out to reveal Jesus as the true fulfilment of the Prophecies and the authentic Messiah - in the figure of the new Moses who fulfils the promises of liberation.

Like him, a persecuted man who had to relentlessly move and flee (cf. Ex 4:19).

According to a generalised belief in Judaism, the time of the Lord's Anointed One would re-actualise the time of Moses. 

But the ancient leader of "the Mount" had imposed a relationship between God and the people based on banal obedience to a Law.

The genuine and transparent Son, on the other hand, now proposes to the brethren of Faith a creative relationship of blessedness and communion based on Likeness.

A relationship called to overcome the old righteousness of the Pharisees (Mt 5:20).

No fear then - even for us - of harassment, which must simply be taken into account.

On the contrary, taken as opportunities to witness love and strong involvement, in the Master's own story - reinterpreted in the first person.

Here is also indicated a new Path of seeking the Light or Star that guides our steps.

All like the Magi - strangers, yet authentic worshippers of the Lord.

They were able to avoid the vigilance of the ruler - thus they found their own dwelling place, deviating from the path already planned.

Like God's Envoy par excellence who experienced the same fate as his people, the churches of all times can experience in him an identical Exodus story.

An unprecedented journey, a forge of exploration and change of mentality; of consolation and more vivid hope - with inexorable contrasts.

Christ is the hidden and persecuted Messiah, founder of a new People, resigned and fraternal. Germ of an alternative society to the ruthless one in the field.

Crowning of the hopes of all men.

Denial of the Lord's way itself projects a dark atmosphere: it becomes preservation of the belligerent.

Rejection of humanisation... whose therapy lies in the trust of the 'little ones', in the youthful and 'childlike' audacity that does not know the impossible.

The innocent children of that extermination are the figure of the children of God of every century, as the 'peers' of Jesus, able to re-actualise the spontaneous time - contrary to violence and death.

They are the persecuted and taken out because of the paradoxical subversive force of their tender, outspoken faith.

The opposite of the servile and flattering, devoured by calculation; always ready for deference to the fierce holders of power. Intimidated by the possibility that a soft and puny life-form might destabilise their positions.

But in the event of severe anguish, even the energy of sadness that runs through painful events (vv.17-18) will rediscover what really matters.

This will allow for rebirth (in weeping, in darkness) separating us too from that kind of character.

To internalise and live the message:

In the realisation of yourself in Christ, how have you tenderly broken down the prison of common thought, power and its fears?

Let us set out

to change our minds, to find ourselves

Dear young people!

On our pilgrimage with the mysterious Magi of the East, we have reached that moment which St Matthew in his Gospel describes to us as follows: "When they entered the house (on which the star had stopped), they saw the child with Mary his mother, and prostrating themselves they adored him" (Mt 2:11). The outward journey of those men was over. They had reached the goal. But at this point a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage that changed their whole life. For surely they had imagined this newborn King differently. They had indeed stopped in Jerusalem to gather news from the local king about the promised king who had been born. They knew that the world was in disarray, and therefore their hearts were restless. They were certain that God existed and that he was a just and benign God. And perhaps they had also heard of the great prophecies in which the prophets of Israel announced a King who would be in intimate harmony with God, and who in His name and on His behalf would restore the world to order. To seek this King they had set out: from the depths of their innermost being they were in search of the right, of the righteousness that was to come from God, and they wished to serve that King, to prostrate themselves at his feet and thus to serve themselves in the renewal of the world. They belonged to that kind of people "who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Mt 5:6). This hunger and thirst had followed them on their pilgrimage - they had made themselves pilgrims in search of the righteousness they were waiting for from God, in order to serve it.

Although the other men, those who stayed at home, may have thought them utopians and dreamers - they were instead people with their feet on the ground, and they knew that to change the world one must have power. That is why they could not look for the child of promise except in the palace of the king. Now, however, they bowed before a child of poor people, and soon learned that Herod - that King to whom they had gone - intended to undermine them with his power, so that the family would be left with nothing but flight and exile. The new king, before whom they had prostrated themselves in adoration, differed greatly from their expectation. So they had to learn that God is different from how we usually imagine him. Here began their inner journey. It began at the very moment when they prostrated themselves before this child and recognised him as the promised King. But these joyful gestures they still had to achieve inwardly.

They had to change their ideas about power, about God and man, and in doing so, they also had to change themselves. Now they saw: God's power is different from the power of the world's powerful. God's way of acting is different from how we imagine it and how we would like to impose it on Him. God in this world does not compete with earthly forms of power. He does not pit His divisions against other divisions. To Jesus, in the Garden of Olives, God does not send twelve legions of angels to help him (cf. Matthew 26:53). He contrasts the noisy and overbearing power of this world with the defenceless power of love, which on the Cross - and then again and again throughout history - succumbs, and yet constitutes the new, divine thing that then opposes injustice and establishes the Kingdom of God. God is different - that is what they now recognise. And that means that they themselves must now become different, they must learn God's way.

They had come to put themselves at the service of this King, to model their kingship on his. This was the meaning of their gesture of homage, of their worship. Also part of it were the gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh - gifts that they offered to a King they considered divine. Worship has a content and also involves a gift. Wanting by the gesture of adoration to recognise this child as their King at whose service they intended to put their power and possibilities, the men from the East were certainly following the right track. By serving and following Him, they wished together with Him to serve the cause of justice and goodness in the world. And in this they were right. But now they learn that this cannot be achieved simply by commands and from the top of a throne. Now they learn that they must give themselves - a gift less than this is not enough for this King. Now they learn that their lives must conform to this divine way of exercising power, to this way of being of God himself. They must become men of truth, of right, of goodness, of forgiveness, of mercy. They will no longer ask: What is this for? They must instead ask: With what do I serve God's presence in the world? They must learn to lose themselves and in this way find themselves. As they leave Jerusalem, they must remain in the footsteps of the true King, following Jesus.

Dear friends, we wonder what all this means for us. For what we have just said about the different nature of God, which must guide our lives, sounds beautiful, but remains rather nuanced and vague. That is why God has given us examples. The Magi from the East are only the first in a long procession of men and women who in their lives have constantly looked for the star of God, who have sought that God who is close to us, human beings, and shows us the way. This is the great host of saints - known or unknown - through whom the Lord, throughout history, has opened the Gospel before us and turned its pages; this, He is still doing today. In their lives, as in a large picture book, the richness of the Gospel is revealed. They are the luminous wake of God that He Himself throughout history has traced and still traces. My venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II, who is with us at this moment, beatified and canonised a great host of people from ages far and near. In these figures, he wanted to show us how to be a Christian; how to conduct one's life rightly - to live according to God's way. The blessed and the saints were people who did not stubbornly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give of themselves, because they were reached by the light of Christ. They thus show us the way to become happy, they show us how to be truly human persons. In the vicissitudes of history, they have been the true reformers who have so many times raised it from the dark valleys into which it is always in danger of sinking again; they have always enlightened it again as much as was necessary to make it possible to accept - perhaps in pain - the word spoken by God at the end of the work of creation: 'It is good'. It is enough to think of figures such as St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, St Charles Borromeo, the founders of the Religious Orders of the 19th century who animated and directed the social movement, or the saints of our time - Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. By contemplating these figures we learn what it means to 'worship', and what it means to live according to the measure of the child of Bethlehem, according to the measure of Jesus Christ and God himself.

The saints, we have said, are the true reformers. Now I would like to express it even more radically: only from the saints, only from God comes the true revolution, the decisive change in the world. In the century just gone by we experienced revolutions whose common programme was to no longer wait for God's intervention, but to take the fate of the world totally into their own hands. And we saw that, with that, always a human and partial point of view was taken as the absolute measure of orientation. The absolutization of what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not free man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him. It is not ideologies that save the world, but only turning to the living God, who is our creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is truly good and true. The true revolution consists solely in turning unreservedly to God who is the measure of what is right and at the same time is eternal love. And what could save us if not love?

Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts. There are many who speak of God; in the name of God, hatred is also preached and violence is practised. That is why it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi of the East found it, when they prostrated themselves before the child of Bethlehem. "He who has seen me has seen the Father", Jesus said to Philip (Jn 14:9). In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God appeared in Him. We will follow him together with the great host of those who have gone before us. Then we shall walk on the right path.

This means that we do not construct for ourselves a private God, we do not construct for ourselves a private Jesus, but that we believe in and prostrate ourselves before that Jesus who is shown to us in the Holy Scriptures and who in the great procession of the faithful called the Church is revealed as living, always with us and at the same time always before us. One can criticise the Church a great deal. We know it, and the Lord himself has told us so: she is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel. Pope John Paul II, who in the many blesseds and saints has shown us the true face of the Church, has also asked forgiveness for what evil has happened in the course of history through the actions and speech of men of the Church. In this way he also showed us our true image and urged us to enter with all our faults and weaknesses into the procession of the saints, which began with the Magi from the East. After all, it is consoling that there is discord in the Church. Thus, with all our faults we can nevertheless hope to find ourselves still in the following of Jesus, who called precisely sinners. The Church is like a human family, but it is also at the same time the great family of God, through which He forms a space of communion and unity across all continents, cultures and nations. That is why we are happy to belong to this big family that we see here; we are happy to have brothers and friends all over the world. We experience right here in Cologne how beautiful it is to belong to a family as large as the world, which includes heaven and earth, past, present and future, and all parts of the earth. In this great group of pilgrims we walk together with Christ, we walk with the star that illuminates history.

"When they entered the house, they saw the child and Mary his mother, and bowing down they adored him" (Mt 2:11). Dear friends, this is not a distant story that happened long ago. This is presence. Here in the sacred Host He is before us and in our midst. Just as then, He mysteriously veils Himself in holy silence, and just as then, He reveals the true face of God. He became for us a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies and bears fruit until the end of the world (cf. Jn 12:24). He is present as then in Bethlehem. He invites us to that inner pilgrimage called adoration. Let us now set out on this pilgrimage and ask Him to guide us. Amen.

[Pope Benedict, WYD Cologne Vigil 20 August 2005].

Dear young friends,

In our pilgrimage with the mysterious Magi from the East, we have arrived at the moment which St Matthew describes in his Gospel with these words: "Going into the house (over which the star had halted), they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him" (Mt 2: 11). Outwardly, their journey was now over. They had reached their goal.

But at this point a new journey began for them, an inner pilgrimage which changed their whole lives. Their mental picture of the infant King they were expecting to find must have been very different. They had stopped at Jerusalem specifically in order to ask the King who lived there for news of the promised King who had been born. They knew that the world was in disorder, and for that reason their hearts were troubled.

They were sure that God existed and that he was a just and gentle God. And perhaps they also knew of the great prophecies of Israel foretelling a King who would be intimately united with God, a King who would restore order to the world, acting for God and in his Name.

It was in order to seek this King that they had set off on their journey:  deep within themselves they felt prompted to go in search of the true justice that can only come from God, and they wanted to serve this King, to fall prostrate at his feet and so play their part in the renewal of the world. They were among those "who hunger and thirst for justice" (Mt 5: 6). This hunger and thirst had spurred them on in their pilgrimage - they had become pilgrims in search of the justice that they expected from God, intending to devote themselves to its service.

Even if those who had stayed at home may have considered them Utopian dreamers, they were actually people with their feet on the ground, and they knew that in order to change the world it is necessary to have power. Hence, they were hardly likely to seek the promised child anywhere but in the King's palace. Yet now they were bowing down before the child of poor people, and they soon came to realize that Herod, the King they had consulted, intended to use his power to lay a trap for him, forcing the family to flee into exile.

The new King, to whom they now paid homage, was quite unlike what they were expecting. In this way they had to learn that God is not as we usually imagine him to be. This was where their inner journey began. It started at the very moment when they knelt down before this child and recognized him as the promised King. But they still had to assimilate these joyful gestures internally.

They had to change their ideas about power, about God and about man, and in so doing, they also had to change themselves. Now they were able to see that God's power is not like that of the powerful of this world. God's ways are not as we imagine them or as we might wish them to be.

God does not enter into competition with earthly powers in this world. He does not marshal his divisions alongside other divisions. God did not send 12 legions of angels to assist Jesus in the Garden of Olives (cf. Mt 26: 53). He contrasts the noisy and ostentatious power of this world with the defenceless power of love, which succumbs to death on the Cross and dies ever anew throughout history; yet it is this same love which constitutes the new divine intervention that opposes injustice and ushers in the Kingdom of God.

God is different - this is what they now come to realize. And it means that they themselves must now become different, they must learn God's ways.

They had come to place themselves at the service of this King, to model their own kingship on his. That was the meaning of their act of homage, their adoration. Included in this were their gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh - gifts offered to a King held to be divine. Adoration has a content and it involves giving. Through this act of adoration, these men from the East wished to recognize the child as their King and to place their own power and potential at his disposal, and in this they were certainly on the right path.

By serving and following him, they wanted, together with him, to serve the cause of good and the cause of justice in the world. In this they were right.

Now, though, they have to learn that this cannot be achieved simply through issuing commands from a throne on high. Now they have to learn to give themselves - no lesser gift would be sufficient for this King. Now they have to learn that their lives must be conformed to this divine way of exercising power, to God's own way of being.

They must become men of truth, of justice, of goodness, of forgiveness, of mercy. They will no longer ask:  how can this serve me? Instead, they will have to ask:  How can I serve God's presence in the world? They must learn to lose their life and in this way to find it. Having left Jerusalem behind, they must not deviate from the path marked out by the true King, as they follow Jesus.

Dear friends, what does all this mean for us?

What we have just been saying about the nature of God being different, and about the way our lives must be shaped accordingly, sounds very fine, but remains rather vague and unfocused. That is why God has given us examples. The Magi from the East are just the first in a long procession of men and women who have constantly tried to gaze upon God's star in their lives, going in search of the God who has drawn close to us and shows us the way.

It is the great multitude of the saints - both known and unknown - in whose lives the Lord has opened up the Gospel before us and turned over the pages; he has done this throughout history and he still does so today. In their lives, as if in a great picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the shining path which God himself has traced throughout history and is still tracing today.

My venerable Predecessor Pope John Paul II, who is with us at this moment, beatified and canonized a great many people from both the distant and the recent past. Through these individuals he wanted to show us how to be Christian:  how to live life as it should be lived - according to God's way. The saints and the blesseds did not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give themselves, because the light of Christ had shone upon them.

They show us the way to attain happiness, they show us how to be truly human. Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers who constantly rescued it from plunging into the valley of darkness; it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense - even in the midst of suffering - of God's words spoken at the end of the work of creation:  "It is very good".

One need only think of such figures as St Benedict, St Francis of Assisi, St Teresa of Avila, St Ignatius of Loyola, St Charles Borromeo, the founders of 19-century religious orders who inspired and guided the social movement, or the saints of our own day - Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio. In contemplating these figures we learn what it means "to adore" and what it means to live according to the measure of the Child of Bethlehem, by the measure of Jesus Christ and of God himself.

The saints, as we said, are the true reformers. Now I want to express this in an even more radical way:  only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world.

In the last century we experienced revolutions with a common programme - expecting nothing more from God, they assumed total responsibility for the cause of the world in order to change it. And this, as we saw, meant that a human and partial point of view was always taken as an absolute guiding principle. Absolutizing what is not absolute but relative is called totalitarianism. It does not liberate man, but takes away his dignity and enslaves him.

It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true. True revolution consists in simply turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?

Dear friends! Allow me to add just two brief thoughts.

There are many who speak of God; some even preach hatred and perpetrate violence in God's Name. So it is important to discover the true face of God. The Magi from the East found it when they knelt down before the Child of Bethlehem. "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father", said Jesus to Philip (Jn 14: 9). In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen. We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who went before us. Then we will be travelling along the right path.

This means that we are not constructing a private God, we are not constructing a private Jesus, but that we believe and worship the Jesus who is manifested to us by the Sacred Scriptures and who reveals himself to be alive in the great procession of the faithful called the Church, always alongside us and always before us.

There is much that could be criticized in the Church. We know this and the Lord himself told us so:  it is a net with good fish and bad fish, a field with wheat and darnel.

Pope John Paul II, as well as revealing the true face of the Church in the many saints that he canonized, also asked pardon for the wrong that was done in the course of history through the words and deeds of members of the Church. In this way he showed us our own true image and urged us to take our place, with all our faults and weaknesses, in the procession of the saints that began with the Magi from the East.

It is actually consoling to realize that there is darnel in the Church. In this way, despite all our defects, we can still hope to be counted among the disciples of Jesus, who came to call sinners.

The Church is like a human family, but at the same time it is also the great family of God, through which he establishes an overarching communion and unity that embraces every continent, culture and nation. So we are glad to belong to this great family that we see here; we are glad to have brothers and friends all over the world.

Here in Cologne we discover the joy of belonging to a family as vast as the world, including Heaven and earth, the past, the present, the future and every part of the earth. In this great band of pilgrims we walk side by side with Christ, we walk with the star that enlightens our history.

"Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him" (Mt 2: 11). Dear friends, this is not a distant story that took place long ago. It is with us now. Here in the Sacred Host he is present before us and in our midst. As at that time, so now he is mysteriously veiled in a sacred silence; as at that time, it is here that the true face of God is revealed. For us he became a grain of wheat that falls on the ground and dies and bears fruit until the end of the world (cf. Jn 12: 24).

He is present now as he was then in Bethlehem. He invites us to that inner pilgrimage which is called adoration. Let us set off on this pilgrimage of the spirit and let us ask him to be our guide. Amen.

[Pope Benedict, World Youth Day Vigil Cologne 20 August 2005]

1. "Arise, shine out Jerusalem, for your light has come. The glory of the Lord is rising on you" (Is 60: 1).

The prophet Isaiah turns his gaze to the future. He is not looking so much at the secular future, but, enlightened by the Spirit, he directs his gaze to the fullness of time, to the fulfilment of God's plan in the messianic age.

The prediction uttered by the prophet concerns the Holy City, which he sees brightly shining:  "Though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears" (Is 60: 2). This is exactly what happened with the incarnation of the Word of God. With him "the true light that enlightens every man came into the world" (Jn 1: 9). From now on everyone's destiny will be decided by whether he accepts or rejects this light:  for the life of men is found in him (cf. Jn 1: 4).

2. Today the light that appeared on Christmas extends its rays:  it is the light of God's epiphany. It is no longer only the shepherds of Bethlehem who see and follow it; it is also the Magi Kings, who came to Jerusalem from the East to adore the newborn King (cf. Mt 2: 1-12). With the Magi came the nations, which begin their journey to the divine Light.

Today the Church celebrates this saving Epiphany by listening to the description of it in Matthew's Gospel. The well-known account of the Magi, who came from the East in search of the One who was to be born, has always inspired popular piety as well, becoming a traditional part of the crib.
Epiphany is both an event and a symbol. The event is described in detail by the Evangelist. The symbolic meaning, however, was gradually discovered as the Church reflected more and more on the event and celebrated it liturgically […]

5. Today's liturgy urges us to be joyful. There is a reason for this:  the light that shone from the Christmas star to lead the Magi from the East to Bethlehem continues to guide all the peoples and nations of the world on the same journey.

Let us give thanks for the men and women who have made this journey during the past 2,000 years. Let us praise Christ, Lumen gentium, who guided them and continues to guide the nations down the path of history!

To him, the Lord of time, God from God, Light from Light, we confidently address our prayer.

May his star, the Epiphany star, continually shine in our hearts, showing to individuals and nations the way of truth, love and peace in the third millennium. Amen.

[Pope John Paul II, homily for the ordination of bishops 6 January 2000]

“Lumen requirunt lumine”. These evocative words from a liturgical hymn for the Epiphany speak of the experience of the Magi: following a light, they were searching for the Light. The star appearing in the sky kindled in their minds and in their hearts a light that moved them to seek the great Light of Christ. The Magi followed faithfully that light which filled their hearts, and they encountered the Lord.

The destiny of every person is symbolized in this journey of the Magi of the East: our life is a journey, illuminated by the lights which brighten our way, to find the fullness of truth and love which we Christians recognize in Jesus, the Light of the World. Like the Magi, every person has two great “books” which provide the signs to guide this pilgrimage: the book of creation and the book of sacred Scripture. What is important is that we be attentive, alert, and listen to God who speaks to us, who always speaks to us. As the Psalm says in referring to the Law of the Lord: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105). Listening to the Gospel, reading it, meditating on it and making it our spiritual nourishment especially allows us to encounter the living Jesus, to experience him and his love.

The first reading echoes, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, the call of God to Jerusalem: “Arise, shine!” (Is 60:1). Jerusalem is called to be the city of light which reflects God’s light to the world and helps humanity to walk in his ways. This is the vocation and the mission of the People of God in the world. But Jerusalem can fail to respond to this call of the Lord. The Gospel tells us that the Magi, when they arrived in Jerusalem, lost sight of the star for a time. They no longer saw it. Its light was particularly absent from the palace of King Herod: his dwelling was gloomy, filled with darkness, suspicion, fear, envy. Herod, in fact, proved himself distrustful and preoccupied with the birth of a frail Child whom he thought of as a rival. In realty Jesus came not to overthrow him, a wretched puppet, but to overthrow the Prince of this world! Nonetheless, the king and his counsellors sensed that the foundations of their power were crumbling. They feared that the rules of the game were being turned upside down, that appearances were being unmasked. A whole world built on power, on success, possessions and corruption was being thrown into crisis by a child! Herod went so far as to kill the children. As Saint Quodvultdeus writes, “You destroy those who are tiny in body because fear is destroying your heart” (Sermo 2 de Symbolo: PL 40, 655). This was in fact the case: Herod was fearful and on account of this fear, he became insane.

The Magi were able to overcome that dangerous moment of darkness before Herod, because they believed the Scriptures, the words of the prophets which indicated that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. And so they fled the darkness and dreariness of the night of the world. They resumed their journey towards Bethlehem and there they once more saw the star, and the gospel tells us that they experienced “a great joy” (Mt 2:10). The very star which could not be seen in that dark, worldly palace.

One aspect of the light which guides us on the journey of faith is holy “cunning”. This holy “cunning” is also a virtue. It consists of a spiritual shrewdness which enables us to recognize danger and avoid it. The Magi used this light of “cunning” when, on the way back, they decided not to pass by the gloomy palace of Herod, but to take another route. These wise men from the East teach us how not to fall into the snares of darkness and how to defend ourselves from the shadows which seek to envelop our life. By this holy “cunning”, the Magi guarded the faith. We too need to guard the faith, guard it from darkness. Many times, however, it is a darkness under the guise of light. This is because the devil, as saint Paul, says, disguises himself at times as an angel of light. And this is where a holy “cunning” is necessary in order to protect the faith, guarding it from those alarmist voices that exclaim: “Listen, today we must do this, or that...”. Faith though, is a grace, it is a gift. We are entrusted with the task of guarding it, by means of this holy “cunning” and by prayer, love, charity. We need to welcome the light of God into our hearts and, at the same time, to cultivate that spiritual cunning which is able to combine simplicity with astuteness, as Jesus told his disciples: “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16).

On the feast of the Epiphany, as we recall Jesus’ manifestation to humanity in the face of a Child, may we sense the Magi at our side, as wise companions on the way. Their example helps us to lift our gaze towards the star and to follow the great desires of our heart. They teach us not to be content with a life of mediocrity, of “playing it safe”, but to let ourselves be attracted always by what is good, true and beautiful… by God, who is all of this, and so much more! And they teach us not to be deceived by appearances, by what the world considers great, wise and powerful. We must not stop at that. It is necessary to guard the faith. Today this is of vital importance: to keep the faith. We must press on further, beyond the darkness, beyond the voices that raise alarm, beyond worldliness, beyond so many forms of modernity that exist today. We must press on towards Bethlehem, where, in the simplicity of a dwelling on the outskirts, beside a mother and father full of love and of faith, there shines forth the Sun from on high, the King of the universe. By the example of the Magi, with our little lights, may we seek the Light and keep the faith. May it be so.

[Pope Francis, Epiphany 2014]

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph (Year A)  [28 December 2025]

May God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Here is a commentary on this Sunday's readings with a wish for every family that they may see themselves reflected in the real daily life of Nazareth, which the Bible shows us to have been truly tested by many difficulties and problems, just like any other family.

*First Reading from the Book of Sirach (3:2-6, 12-14)  

Ben Sira insists on the respect due to parents because, in the 2nd century BC (around 180), family authority was weakening. In Jerusalem, under Greek rule, despite religious freedom, new mentalities were slowly spreading: contact with the pagan world threatened to change the way Jews thought and lived. For this reason, Ben Sira, teacher of Wisdom, defends the foundations of faith starting from the family, the primary place of transmission of faith, values and religious practices. The text is therefore a strong appeal in favour of the family and is also a profound meditation on the fourth commandment: 'Honour your father and your mother', formulated in Exodus as a promise of long life and in Deuteronomy also of happiness. About fifty years later, Ben Sira's grandson, translating the work into Greek, adds a decisive motivation: parents are instruments of God because they give life; for this reason, they deserve honour, remembrance and gratitude. This commandment also responds to human common sense: a balanced society is born of solid families, while their breakdown generates serious psychological and social consequences. However, at the deepest level, family harmony belongs to God's own plan. Some of Ben Sira's expressions seem to suggest a 'calculation' ('whoever honours his father obtains forgiveness of sins...'), but in reality it is not a mechanical reward: God's Law is always a path to grace and happiness. As Deuteronomy teaches, the commandments are given for the good and freedom of man. When Ben Sira states that honouring one's parents obtains forgiveness, we see a progress in revelation: true reconciliation with God comes through reconciliation with one's neighbour, in harmony with the prophets ("I desire mercy, not sacrifice"). Being respectful children to our parents means being faithful children to God as well. It is no coincidence that, among the Ten Commandments, only two are formulated in positive terms: the Sabbath and honouring our parents. They find their fulfilment in the great commandment of love of neighbour, which begins precisely with our parents, our first 'neighbours'. This is why Ben Sira's text is particularly appropriate during the festive season, when family ties are strengthened or rediscovered.

*Most important elements: +Historical context: 2nd century BC, Hellenistic influence. +Family as the primary place of transmission of faith. +Defence of the fourth commandment. +Parents as instruments of God in the gift of life. +God's law as the way to happiness, not calculation. +Reconciliation with God through one's neighbour. +Honouring one's parents as the first act of love for one's neighbour.                               

*Responsorial Psalm (127/128)

 This psalm is called the 'Song of Ascents' because it was intended to be sung during the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, probably in the final moments, climbing the steps of the Temple. The text seems to be structured like a liturgical celebration: at the entrance to the Temple, the priests welcome the pilgrims and offer a final catechesis, proclaiming the blessedness of the man who fears the Lord and walks in his ways. The blessing concerns work, family, fertility and domestic peace: the fruit of one's hands, one's wife as a fruitful vine, one's children as olive shoots around the table. The assembly of pilgrims responds by confirming that those who fear the Lord are blessed. This is followed by the solemn formula of priestly blessing: from Mount Zion, the Lord grants his blessing, allowing us to contemplate the good of Jerusalem and the continuity of generations throughout our lives. The emphasis on work, prosperity and happiness may seem too 'earthly', but the Bible strongly affirms that God created man for happiness. The human desire for success and family harmony coincides with God's plan; this is why Scripture often speaks of 'happiness' and 'blessing', without irony, even in the face of the sufferings of history. The biblical term 'happy' does not indicate an automatic guarantee of success, but the true good, which is closeness to God. It is both recognition and encouragement. André Chouraqui translates 'happy, blessed' as 'on the way', to say: you are on the right path, continue. Israel quickly understood that God accompanies his people in their desire for happiness and opens up a path of hope before them (cf. Jer 29:11). The entire Bible affirms God's merciful plan for humanity, as St Paul reminds us in his letter to the Ephesians. Biblical happiness therefore has two dimensions: it is first and foremost God's plan, but it is also a choice made by human beings. The path is clear and straight: fidelity to the Law, which is summed up in love of God and humanity. Jesus walked this path to the end and invites his disciples to follow him, promising true blessedness to those who put his word into practice. What remains is the seemingly paradoxical expression: "Blessed are those who fear the Lord." This is not about fear, but reverent awe. Chouraqui renders it as: 'on the way, you who would tremble before God'. It is the emotion of those who feel small before a great love. Having discovered that God is love, Israel no longer fears as a slave, but as a child before the strength and tenderness of the father. It is no coincidence that Scripture uses the same verb for the respect due to God and to parents (Lev 19:3). Faith is therefore the certainty that God wants what is good for man; for this reason, "fearing the Lord" is equivalent to "walking in his ways". When Jerusalem lives this fidelity, it will fulfil its vocation as a city of peace; the psalm anticipates this by proclaiming: "May you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life".

*Most important elements: +The psalm, as a Song of Ascents and pilgrimage song, has a liturgical structure: priests, assembly, blessing. +Blessing on work, family and fertility. +God creates man for happiness and "blessed" are those who are close to God, and Chouraqui translates "blessed" = on the way. +God's benevolent plan for humanity, which sees happiness as a gift from God and a choice of man. +Jesus as the fulfilment of the journey of love. +'Fear of God' as a filial attitude, not fear. +Jerusalem called to be a city of peace.

*Second Reading from St Paul's Letter to the Colossians (3:12-21)          

 Today's liturgy invites us to contemplate the Holy Family: Joseph, Mary and Jesus. It is a simple family, and it is called "holy" because God himself is at its centre. However, it is not an idealised or unreal family: the Gospels clearly show that it went through real trials and difficulties. Joseph is troubled by Mary's mysterious pregnancy, Jesus is born in poor conditions, the family experiences exile in Egypt and later the anguish of Jesus being lost and found in the Temple, without fully understanding the meaning of it all. Precisely for this reason, the Holy Family appears as a real family, marked by struggles and questions similar to those of any other family. This reality reassures us and gives meaning to St Paul's recommendations in his letter to the Colossians, where he calls for patience and forgiveness, virtues that are necessary in daily life. Colossae, a city in present-day Turkey, was not visited directly by Paul: the Christian community was founded thanks to Epaphras, his disciple. Paul writes from prison, concerned about certain deviations that threaten the purity of the Christian faith. The tone of the letter alternates between contemplative enthusiasm for God's plan and very strong warnings against misleading doctrines. At the centre of his message is always Jesus Christ, the heart of history and of the world. Paul invites Christians to model their lives on Him: to clothe themselves with tenderness, goodness, peace and gratitude, doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. The baptised, in fact, form the Body of Christ. Taking up and deepening an image already used with the Corinthians, Paul affirms that Christ is the head and believers are the members, called to support one another in building up the edifice of the Church. The text also addresses family relationships, with expressions that may be difficult, such as the invitation to wives to submit. In the biblical context, however, this submission is not equivalent to servitude, but is part of a vision based on love and responsibility. Paul, after referring to language common at the time, addresses an even stronger requirement to husbands: to love their wives with respect and without harshness. Christian obedience arises from trust in God's love and is expressed in relationships marked by tenderness, respect and mutual giving.

*Important elements: +The Holy Family as a real family, not idealised, with the concrete trials experienced by Joseph, Mary and Jesus, and an invitation to patience and forgiveness in family life. +Context of the letter to the Colossians and the role of Epaphras with Paul's concern for the fidelity of the Christian faith. +Centrality of Jesus Christ in the lives of believers as the Body of Christ, called to support one another. +Family relationships based on love and respect where biblical submission is understood as trust and gift, not slavery. +Christian obedience rooted in the certainty that God is Love.

*From the Gospel according to Matthew (2:13-15, 19-239    

The episode of the Holy Family's flight to Egypt deliberately recalls another great biblical story: that of Moses and the people of Israel, twelve centuries earlier, enslaved in Egypt. Just as the pharaoh ordered the killing of male newborns and Moses was saved to become the liberator of his people, so Jesus escapes Herod's massacre and becomes the saviour of humanity. Matthew invites us to recognise in Jesus the new Moses, the fulfilment of the promise of Deuteronomy 18:18: a prophet raised up by God like Moses himself. A second sign of the fulfilment of the Scriptures is the quotation from Hosea 11:1: "Out of Egypt I called my son." Originally referring to the people of Israel, Matthew applies it to Jesus, presenting him as the New Israel, the one who fully realises the Covenant. The title Son of God, already attributed to kings and the Messiah, acquires its full meaning in Jesus: in the light of the resurrection and the gift of the Spirit, believers recognise that Jesus is truly the Son of God, God from God, as the Christian faith confesses. A third sign is the statement: "He will be called a Nazarene". Although the Old Testament does not mention Nazareth, Matthew plays on linguistic and symbolic resonances: netser (messianic 'shoot' of the line of David), nazir (consecrated to God), and natsar ('to guard'). Nazareth thus becomes the sign of God's choice of the humble and insignificant. Furthermore, when Christians are despised as 'Nazarenes', Matthew encourages them by reminding them that Jesus also bore that title: what appears despicable to men is precious in the eyes of God. In the story, Matthew constructs two parallel scenes: the flight into Egypt and the return from Egypt. In both there is a historical context, the appearance of the angel to Joseph in a dream, immediate obedience and the conclusion: thus was fulfilled "what had been said through the prophets". The parallelism relates the titles Son of God and Nazarene, showing an unexpected Messiah: glorious and humble at the same time. This is why the text is proclaimed on the feast of the Holy Family: Jesus is the Son of God, but he grows up in a simple family and in an insignificant village. It is the great Christian paradox: divine history is fulfilled in the most ordinary everyday life of human families. Ancient commentators such as Pseudo-Dionysius and Pseudo-Chrysostom reflect on the flight into Egypt, not only as a historical fact but as a manifestation of the plan of salvation: Christ, though he is God, submits himself to the law of the flesh and to divine guidance, demonstrating the true humanity and obedience of the Messiah. St Jerome, on the other hand, emphasises that not only Herod, but also the high priests and scribes sought the Lord's death from the very first moments of his coming into the world, showing the spiritual hostility that Jesus would encounter throughout his mission. Another interpretation by some ancient Fathers sees in the stay in Egypt a salvific dimension not only for Jesus himself, but symbolically for the world: He goes to that land historically associated with oppression and paganism not to stay, but to bring light and salvation, confirming that the coming of Christ is for everyone, even for peoples far from God.  Thus, for the ancient commentators, the story is not mere narration: it is a theological revelation of the mystery of Christ, who enters human history as free obedience for our salvation and the fulfilment of prophetic promises.

*St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies) writes: "Jesus is the recapitulation of all history: what was lost in Adam is found again in Christ." This is often applied by the Fathers to the flight into Egypt: Christ retraces the history of Israel to bring it to fulfilment.

*Important elements: +Parallelism between Jesus and Moses, Jesus as the new Moses and the new Israel. +Fulfillment of the Scriptures according to Matthew: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' (Hos 11:1). +Title of Son of God in the full Christological sense. +Symbolic meaning of Nazareth / Nazarene. +Divine choice of the humble and despised, and unexpected Messiah: divine glory and concrete humility. +Parallel narrative structure: flight and return from Egypt. +Holy Family: the divine experienced in everyday life

+Giovanni D'Ercole

(Mt 2:13-15, 19-23)

Matthew 2:13 As soon as they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is seeking the child to kill him."

Matthew 2:14 Joseph woke up, took the child and his mother during the night, and fled to Egypt,

Matthew 2:15 where he remained until the death of Herod, so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled:

"Out of Egypt I called my son."

First, let us understand how power works: it does not want to pay homage to the newborn King, but wants to kill him. He is the Rival, the one who can take away his power and throne. Power, in order to eliminate the Rival, in order to maintain its dominion, is ready to sacrifice the lives of its subjects. It is something aberrant; power should have the task of defending the lives of its subjects, but Herod applies his strategy without scruples and kills all the children in order to retain power.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. There are many dreams that accompany Jesus' childhood: they indicate divine initiative and providence that thwart Herod's plans. The angel's announcement tells us of God's intervention in history. We note how these dreams are given to Joseph and not to Mary. Joseph is responsible before God and men for the Mother and Child.

The Lord addresses him in the dream and gives him a peremptory order to be carried out immediately: "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you." Joseph is guided in every detail. He must go to Egypt and stay there until the Lord again tells him that he can return. For salvation to be accomplished, it is necessary that the order be carried out to the letter. The Lord is perfect in his ways. If man responds to the Lord's perfection with obedience, salvation is accomplished. All the evils of the world arise when the foolishness of creatures, who dare to think they are wiser than they are, is introduced into God's perfection.

In this circumstance, Egypt is a place of protection. At that time, the Holy Family could easily find a place to live among the many Jewish colonies, the largest of which was in Alexandria. But Egypt is also the place where the history of Israel as God's people began. The child Jesus will have to leave Egypt to enter his land. Matthew thus theologically re-presents the exodus that Jesus, the liberating Messiah, will accomplish, leading the people to a new land of freedom, to true liberation. They left 'at night' (v. 14). This is a reminder of the liberation that the people of Israel experienced on Passover night, described in the book of Exodus. Just as the people fled from the threat of Pharaoh, so now Joseph brings Jesus to safety from the threat of Herod.

However, salvation always comes at a cost in suffering, sacrifice and pain. Without wanting to apologise for pain, pain serves to give a person ever greater holiness. Pain and suffering are the crucible that purifies our spirit of all encrustations and brings us closer to the holiness of God.

Without sacrifice, there is no true obedience, because true obedience always generates a purifying sacrifice of life. It is the living, holy sacrifice pleasing to God of which the Apostle Paul speaks. The evil of today's world lies precisely in Satan's desire to abolish all self-denial and renunciation from our lives. We want everything, right now, immediately. They want to indulge the body in every vice, the soul in every sin, and the spirit in every evil thought. They want to live in a world without sacrifice, without suffering (which is why euthanasia and the killing of those considered a dead weight on society will become increasingly common). 

People want to live in a world without any deprivation. Once upon a time, people were born and died at home, and the family shared in the greatest joy and the greatest sadness, but at least the sick person died with the comfort of their loved ones. People want to live in a world that hides the mystery of death and pain by removing it from their homes, ignoring the fact that the very sight of pain is a powerful moment of openness to faith.

Joseph and his family remained in Egypt until after Herod's death. Matthew says that this happened in fulfilment of the prophecy of Hosea 11:1 - 'Out of Egypt I called my son' - which speaks of something else entirely, namely the historical experience of the nation of Israel: the exodus from Egypt. What does this have to do with the Messiah? The evangelist creates a sort of parallel link between the events of ancient Israel and those of Jesus, as if to say that in Jesus, in some way, the whole history of the people of Israel converges, relived by him in obedience and full submission to the Father. In other words, in the analogous experience of Israel, the son of God, and the Messiah, the son of God, both in Egypt out of necessity and both freed by divine providence, Matthew sees Jesus recapitulating the history of Israel, whose experience he relives in his own person.

Indeed, Jesus recapitulates in himself and brings to fulfilment the whole history of salvation. Just as the exodus from Egypt was the dawn of redemption, so the childhood of Jesus is the dawn of the messianic age, and Matthew demonstrates the fulfilment of the Scriptures in Jesus. It will be from him that a new Israel will emerge, regenerated by the Spirit.

Everything that came before Christ is only an image of what the Lord would accomplish through Jesus Christ. The events of the people of Israel were a preparation for the coming of the Messiah, who represents the point of convergence of all Scripture. The true Son of God is Jesus Christ. Israel is only a sign of what the Lord was about to do for the salvation of humanity. This is why Matthew applies to Jesus Christ everything in the Old Testament that referred to Israel.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, true God and true Man in the mystery of the Trinity

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants in comparison – In defence of the faith

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)