Faith and Word: God is not bound to an external expression

(Mt 8:5-11)

"The essential thing is to listen to what comes from within. Our actions are often nothing more than imitation, hypothetical duty or misrepresentation of what a human being should be. But the only true certainty that touches our lives and our actions can only come from the springs that gush deep within ourselves. One is at home under heaven one is at home anywhere on this earth if one carries everything within oneself. I have often felt, and still feel, like a ship that has taken on board a precious cargo: the ropes are cut and now the ship goes, free to sail everywhere".

[Etty Hillesum, Diary].

Says the Tao Tê Ching (LIII): 'The great Way is very flat, but people prefer the paths'.

Commenting on the passage, masters Wang Pi and Ho-shang Kung point out: "winding paths".

The incipient faith of a pagan convert is the example Jesus sets before that of the observant Israelites.

What heals is believing in the efficacy of his Word alone (vv.8-9.16), an event that possesses generating and recreating power.

The Lord shows care, usually by touching the sick or laying his hands on them, as if to absorb what was imagined to be impurity, an alteration from normality [a 'fever' or paralysis that was thought to render the needy unworthy in the eyes of God].

In the Judaizing communities of Galilee and Syria, the question was still being asked in the mid-1970s: does the new Law of God proclaimed on 'the Mount' of the Beatitudes create exclusions?

Or does it correspond to the hopes and deep feelings of the human heart, of every place and time (vv.10-12)?

Those far away possessed a keen intuition for the novelties of the Spirit, and discovered the experience of Faith from other positions - not installed, less tied to conformist concatenations; perhaps uncomfortable.

Not infrequently, it was precisely the newcomers who stood out for their freshness of substantive insight - and they saw clearly.

It was enough to communicate face to face with the Lord, in a sense of secure friendship (v.6).

There is no need to add to this secret, to be born again. God is Immediate Action (v.7).

The personal relationship between the ordinary man and the Father in Christ is sober and instantaneous.

Starting from his simple experience, the centurion understands the 'distant' value of the Word and the 'calamitous effect' of true Faith [which does not claim 'contacts' or material and local elements: vv.8-9].

In short, the cultural heritage and ancient religious conformity remained a burden.

Both the experience of the personal Christ the Saviour and the complete discovery of the power of full Life contained in the new total and creative proposal of "the Mount" were missing here and there.

Mt wrote his Gospel to encourage community members and stimulate mission to the Gentiles, which precisely the Judeo-Christians were not yet ready to make their own.

But to say "Faith" (vv.10.13) is to advocate a deeper adherence, and [at the same time] a less strong manifestation.

Expression of personal Faith is not to repeat or sweeten a learned doctrine, nor the conviction of others.

There is no need to fear: God has gone before us; the different and distant is not a stranger, but a brother.

Therefore, what saves is not belonging to a tradition or fashion of thought and worship.

Not demanding that the Lord comes in a certain form means not imagining him bound to an external expression.

One reaches and grasps Him only intimately, by certain vision - unencumbered by indispensable imagined convictions - whatever happens.

It will reveal itself time after time in the way that best suits our limitations.

Those distant from us are totally 'worthy' creatures, albeit faltering and fallible at times.

Not autonomous, insufficient, like everyone else - for they do not realise that God is in their flesh and hearth.

Thanks to such a clear awareness in the Son, they can finally understand the supreme Love of the Father, gratuitous, unreserved; that astounds, overcomes and launches them.

The pagan is conditioned by his pyramid world, but on encountering Christ he discovers himself to be a totally adequate and fulfilled person.

Not because he has merited or granted favours to the chosen people, or fulfilled a special kind of observances (reciting imprimatur formulas).

In the Lord, he himself is taught to expand the horizon of the usual religion - made up of external vertical relationships.

Although he recognises himself as lacking [v.8 Greek text] he realises that his relationship with God does not depend on an exchange of favours.

This immediate and spontaneous personal friendship does not become subordinate to works of law, nor does it spring from fulfilled norms of purity.

Nor does it subject itself to a religious relationship with a bowed head.

The 'distant' includes love. In this way, he is already emancipated from a conspicuous, epidermal, common mentality.

In the Lord, he himself is educated to expand the horizon of the usual religion.He believes precisely that the Word of the Lord - by Way, outside of synchronised or established places and times - produces what he affirms.

And it accomplishes it even at a distance; without even resounding, peremptory signs that make a racket.

Rather, by releasing the mysterious Energy [still captive] of the "Logos" (v.7).

Unconventional Word, which does not run amok.

This, despite the fact that this Power can be found mixed with sometimes contradictory convictions:

He is already far from a magical and carnal mentality.

But he still has to take the decisive step, which will make him grow further - and it concerns us closely.

Self-esteem must be the attitude of even remote children, no matter what.

Not by vague or emotional recondite sensation, but by Presence guaranteed regardless - even already operative, though sometimes unconscious.

Internalising it will be the work - and the "more" - of mature Faith, which sees, grasps, penetrates the preparatory energies at work.

And actualises them, anticipating the future.

"I am not worthy" is, together with "Have mercy on me" or "Son of David" - one of the most unfortunate expressions of spiritual and missionary life.

Formulas that Jesus abhors, although they have become customary in some expressions of the liturgy.

The prodigal son tries with the same rambling expression ["I am no longer worthy"] to move the Father, who precisely does not allow him to finish his absurd tirade.

Rather he prevents him from considering himself "one of his servants" and getting down on his knees before Him [Lk 15:21ff].

This would really be the only danger that endangers the whole of life; not just a small stretch of existence.

By Faith in Christ, from incomplete we become not only worthy, but we are so here and now Perfect to fulfil our Vocation.

Of course, some ideologues or white-mill purists might consider us unfashionable, or even paganising.

Our great and only risk is precisely that of absorbing such oppressive views from the environment, and allowing ourselves to be conditioned.

Every contour works not infrequently with the logic of hierarchies and power relations, whereby e.g. the inferior should not consider himself on the same level as the superior.

But at this rate, one can no longer perceive the divine Conspect.

The Face of the Eternal One is within us and in our homes; not in the chain of command with conditioning influences, but in our environment and in those who stand beside us - even across borders.

Family, friends, loved ones and others are on the same level. It is also true with God: we are face to face.

Not even the 'I and Thou' scheme with the Son counts any more: because - widely incarnated - he has planted his Heaven as well as his own therapeutic [even self-healing] capacity 'in' us.

Thanks to the Master, we are no longer within an ideology of the submissive - identical to that which prevailed in the empire - nor in a well-disciplined barracks, with distinct roles and confined areas.

External propriety does not belong in the Gospels.

In short, the Father no longer asks anyone to obey 'authorities', but to 'resemble' Him.

This is achieved simply by corresponding - each one of us - to this kind of superior Presence that dwells in us and loves us.

It is the end of the empty rigmarole: we are intimate and consanguineous with our own innermost Self, the super-eminent Face.

There is absolutely no need to "avert" God (v.5) as if we were "underlings" (v.9).

Our work is to unearth and acquire a new 'eye', not to submit to organisation charts.

The reborn eye is intuitive of other virtues - it does not submit to nomenclatures incapable of immediate fruitfulness.

Enough with the senses of shortcomings!

They end up introducing us into hoods and spire dynamics (v.9) typical of any stagnant feudalism.

Swamps that annihilate the new power of love - chronicling arrangements.

Configurations congealed by too many boring concatenations and local monarchies [such as we see in the provinces].

In natural listening to oneself and events, genuine esteem and divine Gratuity guide us wave upon wave towards a new way of living and exchanging gifts.

Impassable road for habit; for the obviousness that does not move thoughts, and does not perceive.

A path inaccessible to those who act out of duty - an enigmatic, opaque, devious and very 'tortuous' path.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you understand and cultivate the certain and free Coming of Jesus in your House?

Catholic

The Church is Catholic because Christ embraces all humanity in his mission of salvation. While Jesus' mission in his earthly life was limited to the Jewish people, "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt 15:24), it was nevertheless oriented from the beginning to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and to bring all nations into the Kingdom of God. Confronted with the faith of the Centurion in Capernaum, Jesus exclaims: "Now I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 8:11). This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from the presentation Jesus made of himself not only as "Son of David", but as "son of man" (Mk 10:33), as we also heard in the Gospel passage just proclaimed. The title "Son of Man", in the language of the Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), recalls the person who comes "with the clouds of heaven" (v. 13) and is an image that heralds an entirely new kingdom, a kingdom supported not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to Himself to manifest the true character of His messianism, as a mission destined for the whole man and every man, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters into this new kingdom, which the Church announces and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion.

[Pope Benedict, address Consistory 24 November 2012].

Specifically, what makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity. While during his earthly life Jesus’ mission was limited to the Jewish people, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24), from the beginning it was meant to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and lead all nations into the kingdom of God. When he saw the faith of the centurion at Capernaum, Jesus cried out: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11). This universalist perspective can be seen, among other things, from the way Jesus applied to himself not only the title “Son of David”, but also “Son of Man” (Mk10:33), as in the Gospel passage that we have just heard. The expression “Son of Man”, in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history found in the book of the prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), calls to mind the figure who appears “with the clouds of heaven” (v. 13). This is an image that prophesies a completely new kingdom, sustained not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus takes up this rich and complex expression and refers it to himself in order to manifest the true character of his Messianism: a mission directed to the whole man and to every man, transcending all ethnic, national and religious particularities. And it is actually by following Jesus, by allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and hence into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom proclaimed and anticipated by the Church, a kingdom that conquers fragmentation and dispersal.

[Pope Benedict, address Consistory 24 November 2012]

3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.

The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move [man] and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum, n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.

4. As a fruit of grace, faith exercises an influence on events. This is wonderfully seen in the exemplary case of the Blessed Virgin. Her faith-filled acceptance of the angel's message at the Annunciation is decisive for Jesus' very coming into the world. Mary is the Mother of Christ because she first believed in him.

At the wedding feast in Cana, Mary, obtains the miracle through her faith. Despite Jesus' reply, which does not seem very favourable, she keeps her trustful attitude, thus becoming a model of the bold and constant faith which overcomes obstacles.

The faith of the Caananite woman was also bold and insistent. Jesus countered this woman, who had come to seek the cure of her daughter, with the Father's plan which restricted his mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Caananite replied with the full force of her faith and obtained the miracle: "O woman! Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire" (Mt 15:28).

5. In many other cases the Gospel witnesses to the power of faith. Jesus expresses his admiration for the centurion's faith: "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith" (Mt 8:10). And to Bartimaeus: "Go your way your faith has made you well" (Mk 10:52). He says the same thing to the woman with a haemorrhage (cf. Mk 5:34). 

His words to the father of the epileptic who wanted his son to be cured are no less striking: "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mk 9:23).

The role of faith is to co-operate with this omnipotence. Jesus asks for this co-operation to the point that upon returning to Nazareth, he works almost no miracles because the inhabitants of his village did not believe in him (cf. Mk 6:5-6). For Jesus, faith has a decisive importance for the purposes of salvation.

St Paul will develop Christ's teaching when, in conflict with those who wished to base the hope of salvation on observance of the Jewish law, he forcefully affirms that faith in Christ is the only source of salvation: "We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law" (Rom 3:28). However, it must not be forgotten that St Paul was thinking of that authentic and full faith which "works through love" (Gal 5:6). True faith is animated by love of God, which is inseparable from love for our brothers and sisters.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 March 1998]

Let us allow ourselves to be met by Jesus "with our guard down, open", so that he can renew us from the depths of our souls. This is Pope Francis' invitation at the beginning of the Advent season. The Pontiff addressed it to the faithful during the Mass celebrated this morning, Monday 2 December, in the chapel of Santa Marta.

The journey we begin in these days, he began, is "a new journey of the Church, a journey of the people of God, towards Christmas. And we walk to the encounter with the Lord'. Christmas is indeed an encounter: not just 'a temporal recurrence or,' the Pontiff specified, 'a memory of something beautiful. Christmas is more. We go on this road to meet the Lord'. So in the Advent season "we walk to meet Him. To encounter him with the heart, with life; to encounter him living, as he is; to encounter him with faith".

In truth, it is "not easy to live with faith", noted the Bishop of Rome. And he recalled the episode of the centurion who, according to the account in Matthew's Gospel (8:5-11), prostrates himself before Jesus to ask him to heal his servant. "The Lord, in the word we have heard," the Pope explained, "marvelled at this centurion. He marvelled at the faith he had. He had made a journey to meet the Lord. But he had done it in faith. Therefore not only did he meet the Lord, but he felt the joy of being met by the Lord. And this is precisely the encounter we want, the encounter of faith. To meet the Lord, but to be met by him. This is very important!".

When we limit ourselves only to meeting the Lord, he pointed out, 'we are the "masters" of this encounter'. When instead "we allow ourselves to be encountered by him, it is he who enters into us" and completely renews us.

"This," the Holy Father reiterated, "is what it means when Christ comes: to remake everything anew, to remake the heart, the soul, the life, the hope, the path".

At this time of the liturgical year, therefore, we are on a journey to meet the Lord, but also and above all "to let ourselves be met by him". And we must do this with an open heart, "so that he can meet me, tell me what he wants to tell me, which is not always what I want him to tell me!" Let us not forget then that "he is the Lord and he will tell me what he has for me", for each one of us, because "the Lord," the Pontiff specified, "does not look at us all together, as a mass: no, no! He looks at us one by one, in the face, in the eyes, because love is not an abstract love but a concrete love. Person by person. The Lord, person, looks at me, person'. That is why letting the Lord meet us ultimately means 'letting the Lord love us'.

"In the prayer at the beginning of the Mass," the Pontiff recalled, "we asked for the grace to make this journey with certain attitudes that help us. Perseverance in prayer: pray more. Hard work in fraternal charity: getting a little closer to those in need. And joy in praising the Lord". So 'let us begin this journey with prayer, charity and praise, with an open heart, so that the Lord may meet us'. But, the Pope asked in conclusion, "please, may he meet us with our guard down, open!"

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 02-03/12/2013]

Mt 24:37-44 (24-51)

Key to the reading of the Gospel could be the famous expression of St. Augustine: «Timeo Dominum transeuntem».

Incarnation is a direct thread with reality and divine condition together.

Time of the person of faith is like a season of waiting, but not of provisionality: rather, of continuous capitalization and upheaval.

Nor does the moment of the Church take the form of an institutional season, a period of pause - on schedule, with an expiration date.

Certainly, it is not even an age of preparation starting from our ideas, but of acceptance of the Kingdom, which comes in its Appeal - today with very clear proposals (even in subtractions).

We are called to be ready at all times, and fast as a ‘thief at night’... 

Maybe “he” wants to take away something that we believe absolutely ours, to wich we are too attached.

From the earliest generations of believers there were groups of visionaries - unfortunately unwary - linked to an idea of imminent catastrophe.

The expectation of the sudden ‘return’ of a Messiah who was to put an end to injustice and to carry out the Final Judgment, was a common expectation of those who wished a new phase of history to be inaugurated.

However, nowhere in the Gospels is it written: Jesus "returns", as if he had strayed away.

He is arriving, of course: «He comes» - he does not "come back".

In the New Testament, the Risen is the One Coming [‘o Erchòmenos], that is, the One who breaks in, who ceaselessly makes himself Present.

The point of Life is to realize, to perceive the Presence of Someone inside something; in day-to-day things and in the events of liberation.

Even in the drama of rebirth from global crisis.

No form of alienation comes from the Gospels: Christ is «with us» at all times; in our commitment to nature, to cultures, to everyone’s existence.

The full, total experience of completeness is not given in particular time. 

But eg. the spirit of disinterest that spreads and already makes relationships and things new remains a guarantee of the Kingdom.

Seed and prelude to the alternative world that the Church is called to proclaim and build - including it with open arms.

With at the centre the «Son of Man» who «comes», step by step, we’ll not lose our understanding.

Every moment is good for sharpening perspicacity in the Spirit.

Flexibility of the heart will prevail over predictions, over the imperatives of the mind.

This is the realization and perception of opportunities; opening our eyes, deciphering events, shifting our gaze - in order to grasp the Coming of the Lord, smelling its Meaning, intuiting it as Source of Hope.

In the Eucharist we proclaim precisely the Coming of the Lord, because life in Christ is in every event anticipation and preparation for the spousal Encounter.

From the point of view of Faith, any critical moment cooperates in the good.

It is a Call and opportunity for response, not permanent fear.

[1st Advent Sunday (year A), November 30, 2025]

The reinterpretation of the liturgical colour purple

Mt 24:37-44 (24-51)

    "Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming" (v. 42).

The key to understanding this passage is St Augustine's famous expression: "Timeo Dominum transeuntem" (I fear the Lord passing by). Incarnation is a direct link between reality and the divine condition.

The time of the person of Faith is like a season of waiting, but not of impermanence: rather, it is one of continuous capitalisation and reversal.

Nor is the moment of the Church configured as an institutional period, a period of pause - with a schedule and an expiry date.

Of course, it is not even an age of preparation based on our ideas, but rather of welcoming the Kingdom, which comes in its Appeal - today with very clear proposals (even in its subtractions).

We are called to be ready at all times, like a thief in the night... who wants to take away something we believe is absolutely ours, but to which we have become too attached.

From the earliest generations of believers, groups of visionaries arose - unfortunately misguided - connected to an idea of imminent catastrophe.

But the expectation of the sudden return of a Messiah who was to put an end to injustice and bring about the Last Judgement was a common expectation of those who desired the inauguration of a new phase in history.

However, nowhere in the Gospels is it written that Jesus must 'return', as if he had gone away. He comes, he arrives; he does not 'return'.

In the New Testament, the Risen One is the Coming One [‘o Erchòmenos], that is, the One who bursts in, who incessantly makes himself Present.

The end of the world and the return of the Lord on a white cloud is a suggestion that is still used today to intimidate simple people and condition them to fanatical groups. Social networks are full of it.

The decisive point in life is to notice, to perceive the Presence of Someone within something: in the simple things of life, in events of liberation; even in the drama of rebirth from global crisis.

In this way, no form of alienation comes from the Gospels. Christ is 'with us' at all times, in our commitment to nature, to cultures, to the life of all.

The experience of completeness is not given in a particular time, but, for example, the spirit of selflessness that spreads and already renews relationships and things remains a guarantee of the Kingdom - that is, of the new world that the Church is called to proclaim and build - including it with open arms, step by step.

Every moment is a good moment to sharpen our vision: to notice and perceive opportunities; to open our eyes or shift our gaze in order to grasp the Coming of the Lord and intuit it as a source of Hope.

In the Eucharist, we proclaim the ever-new Presence of the Lord, because Life in Christ is anticipation and preparation for the Encounter [which already brings the bread that our soul and the world need].

Every moment, even the dark ones, is a penetrating Call and an opportunity for response, contact, and deep nourishment; not a source of permanent torment and terror.

Security is found in insecurity

What kind of Advent-Coming is this? Why is it associated with the idea of cataclysms? Talking about a 'flood' does not seem like good news.

In the observant tradition of all peoples, insecurity is perceived as a disadvantage, and teachers note the progress of spiritual life when a soul with a mixed and disordered existence overcomes its turmoil for an ideal of 'coherent calm', in favour of order and tranquillity.

Conditioned by pious indoctrination, homologated to knowing how to 'be in society' and to the idea of Victory preceding Peace, we wait to meet our Lord in dark moments, but so that he may restore our fortune.

We wait for him in times of economic hardship, so that he may give us an advantage with a win; in humiliating events, to help us get back on our feet.

In times of danger, we want Him at least to give us the strength to turn the situation around; in times of illness, we imagine He will restore our youthful vigour; in times of confusion, we want Him to communicate relaxation (or better still, triumph).

In the Gospels, Jesus tries to make his followers understand where and when to truly encounter God. But while waiting for his 'promises', we find it difficult to go beyond the superficial.

We project our ideas onto religion too - but Faith is detached from this. It evaluates with an opposite mentality.

Sometimes we fail to meet a friend because we get the time and place of the appointment wrong. The same thing happens with God.

The insecurity proclaimed by the Gospels is like a tsunami, but it is Good News!

Although we often tend to give a sense of permanence to everything we have experienced and believed ourselves to 'be', we repeatedly experience that our certainties change - just like the waves.

Jesus teaches that the doubt that truly destroys his Call arises from our identification [roles, characters, tasks] that attempts to balance the waves of life.

Instead, the essence of each of us springs from a lively Source, which does what it must every day.

Habits, external opinions, reassuring ways of being with people and dealing with situations cut off the richness of our precious nuances, a large part of our very faces.

And the births and rejuvenations that belong to us.

The inner impact of the many stimuli of the Source of being insinuates an inevitable and fruitful imbalance - which we risk interpreting negatively, precisely as a nuisance.

In the mind of the man who avoids oscillations, that kind of wave that comes to make us think about ancient things (taken for granted) is immediately identified as a danger to our identity.

Providence itself - the wave that sees ahead - is perhaps branded with unease, sometimes even by those who 'advise' us.

In the ideal man, as chiselled by the most normalising moralisms, the swampy water of impulses is what dirties and drags us down to earth; and Heaven would always be clear and pure above the earth.

Instead, it is often an upstream cultural identification that produces insecurity!

All this, much more than the objective reality that comes into play to refresh our soul and make it as light as sea foam (crudely embodied).

We must dive into the waves, we must know the waves of the tides, because our anchor is not in external things.

The shell of appearances condemns us to the worst fluctuation, to the least advantageous of insecurities: believing that by maintaining economic levels or prestige, by reaching that goal, by climbing the ladder of titles, we will avoid frustration, we will escape anxiety, we will finally be without conflict and even happy.

But in this way our soul loses its breath, it does not strengthen itself, nor does it fly towards unknown territories; it settles in the most conformist enclosure.

Instead, we are alive, and the youth that conquers the Kingdom comes from chaos.

Missionaries are animated by this certainty: the best stability is instability: that 'flood' where no two waves are alike.

In short, based on the Word of God, even the liturgical colour purple should perhaps be reinterpreted (in a lively and striking way) - much more deeply than is taken for granted.

To internalise and live the message:

Advent: why do you want the Lord to come and be present in your life?

Son of Man

'Son of Man' is therefore not a 'religious' or selective title, but an opportunity for all those who adhere to the Lord's proposal of life and reinterpret it creatively.

They overcome their fixed and natural boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from God the fullness of being, in his new, unrepeatable paths.

Feeling totally and undeservedly loved, they discover other facets, change the way they are with themselves, and can grow: they fulfil themselves, blossom and radiate the completeness they have received.

By moving away from the poor or static idea we have of ourselves - a serious problem in many sensitive and devoted souls - even the relational personality can begin to imagine.

And dream, discovering that they can no longer give weight to those who want to influence their personal journey (in the fullness of being and vocation).

Those who activate the idea that they can do it then transmit the power of the Spirit they have received and welcomed, and the world flourishes.

Emanating a different atmosphere, the person integrated in their even opposing sides feels awareness arise, creates projects, emits and attracts other energies; activates them.

God wants to extend the sphere in which he 'reigns' - relating in an interpersonal way - to all humanity... A Church without visible boundaries, which will begin with the 'Son of Man' (a figure not exclusive to Jesus).

This universalistic perspective emerges, among other things, from Jesus' presentation of himself not only as the 'Son of David' but as the 'Son of Man' (Mark 10:33). The title 'Son of Man', in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history in the Book of the Prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), refers to the figure who comes 'with the clouds of heaven' (v. 13) and is an image that heralds a completely new kingdom, a kingdom supported not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God. Jesus uses this rich and complex expression and refers it to himself to manifest the true character of his messianism, as a mission destined for the whole of humanity and for every human being, overcoming all ethnic, national and religious particularism. And it is precisely in following Jesus, in allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and thus into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom, which the Church proclaims and anticipates, and which overcomes fragmentation and dispersion.

[Pope Benedict, Consistory, 24 November 2012]

With the image of the Son of Man, the prophet Daniel already wanted to indicate a reversal of the criteria of authenticity (human and divine): a man or a people, a leader, finally with a heart of flesh instead of a beast.

In the icon of the 'Son of Man', the evangelists wish to reveal and trigger the triumph of the human over the inhuman, the gradual disappearance of everything that blocks the communication of full life.

The People who shine in a divine way are no longer entangled in fears or hysteria, but rather bring to the fore all their varied potential for love and the effusion of life.

The 'Son of Man' - a possible reality - is anyone who reaches fulfilment, the flowering of their capacity to be, in the extension of relationships... entering into harmony with the sphere of God the Creator, Lover of life.

They do so in their varied facets, and merge with Him - becoming One. Creating abundance.

The 'Son of Man' is the man who behaves on earth as God himself would, who makes the divine and its power present in history.

He can therefore afford to replace the sombre seriousness of being pious and submissive with the wise light-heartedness that makes everything light.

The 'Son of Man' represents the highest form of humanity, the Person par excellence - who becomes liberating rather than oppressive.

The consequences are unimaginable, because each of us in Christ (and for our brothers and sisters) no longer has dead ends to retrace.

'Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming' (Matthew 24:42). Jesus, who came among us at Christmas and will return in glory at the end of time, never tires of visiting us continually, in the events of every day. He asks us and warns us to wait for him by keeping watch, because his coming cannot be planned or predicted, but will be sudden and unpredictable. Only those who are awake will not be caught off guard. He warns us not to let what happened in Noah's time happen to us, when people were eating and drinking carefree and were caught unprepared by the flood (cf. Mt 24:37-38). What does the Lord want us to understand with this warning, if not that we must not allow ourselves to be absorbed by material realities and concerns to the point of becoming ensnared?

"Watch therefore..." Let us listen to Jesus' invitation in the Gospel and prepare ourselves to relive with faith the mystery of the birth of the Redeemer, who filled the universe with joy; let us prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord in his incessant coming to meet us in the events of life, in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness; let us prepare ourselves to meet him in his final and definitive coming. His passing is always a source of peace, and if suffering, the legacy of human nature, sometimes becomes almost unbearable, with the coming of the Saviour "suffering - without ceasing to be suffering - nevertheless becomes a song of praise" (Encyclical Spe salvi, 37).

[Pope Benedict, homily at the Roman hospital of St John the Baptist, 2 December 2007]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, the first Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new Liturgical Year, a new journey of faith that on the one hand commemorates the event of Jesus Christ and, on the other, opens to its ultimate fulfilment. It is precisely in this double perspective that she lives the Season of Advent, looking both to the first coming of the Son of God, when he was born of the Virgin Mary, and to his glorious return, when he will come “to judge the living and the dead”, as we say in the Creed. I would now like to focus briefly on this evocative theme of “waiting”, for it touches upon a profoundly human aspect in which the faith becomes, so to speak, completely one with our flesh and our heart.

Expectation or waiting is a dimension that flows through our whole personal, family and social existence. Expectation is present in thousands of situations, from the smallest and most banal to the most important that involve us completely and in our depths. Among these, let us think of waiting for a child, on the part of a husband and wife; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far away to visit us; let us think, for a young person, of waiting to know his results in a crucially important examination or of the outcome of a job interview; in emotional relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved, of waiting for the answer to a letter, or for the acceptance of forgiveness.... One could say that man is alive as long as he waits, as long as hope is alive in his heart. And from his expectations man recognizes himself: our moral and spiritual “stature” can be measured by what we wait for, by what we hope for. 

Every one of us, therefore, especially in this Season which prepares us for Christmas, can ask himself: What am I waiting for? What, at this moment of my life, does my heart long for? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of the community, of the nation. What are we waiting for together? What unites our aspirations, what brings them together? In the time before Jesus’ birth the expectation of the Messiah was very strong in Israel – that is, the expectation of an Anointed one, a descendent of King David, who would at last set the people free from every form of moral and political slavery and find the Kingdom of God. But no one would ever have imagined that the Messiah could be born of a humble girl like Mary, the betrothed of a righteous man, Joseph. Nor would she have ever thought of it, and yet in her heart the expectation of the Savior was so great, her faith and hope were so ardent, that he was able to find in her a worthy mother. Moreover, God himself had prepared her before time. There is a mysterious correspondence between the waiting of God and that of Mary, the creature “full of grace”, totally transparent to the loving plan of the Most High. Let us learn from her, the Woman of Advent, how to live our daily actions with a new spirit, with the feeling of profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfil.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus, 28 November 2010]

These are the words of the Responsorial Psalm for today’s liturgy of the First Sunday of Advent, a liturgical season which from year to year renews our expectation of Christ’s coming. Advent has taken on a new, unique aspect in these years as we look forward to the third millennium. Tertio millennio adveniente: 1998, which is coming to an end, and 1999, now close at hand, bring us to the threshold of a new century and a new millennium. 

Our celebration today also began “on the threshold”: on the threshold of the Vatican Basilica, in front of the Holy Door, with the presentation and reading of the Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. 

“Let us go joyfully to meet the Lord” is a refrain perfectly in tune with the Jubilee. It is, so to speak, a “jubilee refrain”,according to the etymology of the Latin word iubilare, which in itself contains a reference to joy. Let us go joyfully, then! Let us walk with joy and watchfulness, as we wait for the season that recalls God’s coming in human flesh, a time which reached its fullness when Christ was born in a stable in Bethlehem. It is then that the time of waiting was fulfilled. 

In Advent we await an event which occurs in history and at the same time transcends it. As it does every year, this event will take place on the night of the Lord’s Birth. The shepherds will hasten to the stable in Bethlehem; later the Magi will arrive from the East. Both the one and the other in a certain sense symbolize the entire human family. The exhortation that rings out in today’s liturgy: “Let us go joyfully to meet the Lord” spreads to all countries, to all continents, among every people and nation. The voice of the liturgy — that is, the voice of the Church — resounds everywhere and invites everyone to the Great Jubilee. 

2. The last three years preceding the Year 2000 form a very intense period of waiting, aimed at meditation on the meaning of the forthcoming spiritual event and on its necessary preparation. 

The content of this preparation is modeled on the Trinitarian formula which is repeated at the end of every liturgical prayer. Let us therefore go with joy to the Father, through the way which is our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with him in the unity of the Holy Spirit. 

That is why the first year was dedicated to the Son, the second to the Holy Spirit, and the one that begins today — the last year before the Great Jubilee — will be the year of the Father. Invited by the Father, we are going to him through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. This three-year period of immediate preparation for the new millennium, because of its Trinitarian character, speaks to us not only of God in himself, as an ineffable mystery of life and holiness, but also of God who comes to us. 

3. For this reason the refrain “Let us go joyfully to meet the Lord” sounds so appropriate. We can meet God, because he has reached out to us. He did so as the father in the parable of the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-32), because he is rich in mercy, dives in misericordia, and wants to meet us from wherever we come and wherever our journey is taking us. God comes to us whether we have sought him, ignored him and or even avoided him. He reaches out to us first, his arms open wide like a loving and merciful father. 

If God is moved to reach out to us, can we turn our backs on him? But we cannot go alone to meet the Father. We must join the company of all who are members of “God’s family”. To prepare for the Jubilee properly, we must be ready to accept everyone. They are all our brothers and sisters because they are all children of the same heavenly Father. 

We can interpret the Church’s 2,000year history in this perspective. It is comforting to note how, in this passage from the second to the third millennium, the Church is experiencing a fresh missionary impulse. This is one of the results of the continental Synods held in recent years, including the current one for Australia and Oceania. It can also be seen in the information received by the Committee for the Great Jubilee about activities planned by the local Churches in preparation for this historic event.  

I would like to offer a special greeting to the Cardinal President of the Committee, the General Secretary and their staff. I also extend my greeting to the Cardinals, Bishops and priests present, as well as to all of you, dear brothers and sisters who are taking part in this solemn liturgy. And I offer a particular greeting to the clergy, religious and committed lay people of Rome, who together with the Cardinal Vicar and the Auxiliary Bishops are here this morning to open the final phase of the City Mission, directed to various social contexts. 

It is an important phase that will see the entire Diocese focused on a vast work of evangelization in every context of life and work. At the end of this Holy Mass, I will give the missionaries their Mission Cross. We must proclaim and bear witness to Christ in every place and in every situation. I invite everyone to support this great undertaking with prayer. I am counting in particular on the contribution of cloistered religious, of the sick and the elderly who, although unable to take part directly in this great apostolic initiative, can contribute so much by their prayer and the offering of their suffering to preparing hearts to receive the Gospel message. 

May Mary, whom the season of Advent urges us to contemplate in eager expectation of the Redeemer, help you all to be generous apostles of her Son, Jesus. 

4. In today’s Gospel we heard the Lord’s invitation to be watchful: “Watch, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming”. And then immediately: “Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Mt 24:42, 44). The exhortation to be watchful resounds many times in the liturgy, especially in Advent, a season of preparation not only for Christmas, but also for Christ’s definitive and glorious coming at the end of time. It therefore has a distinctly eschatological meaning and invites the believer to spend every day and every moment in the presence of the One “who is and who was and who is come” (Rv 1:4), to whom the future of the world and of man belongs. This is Christian hope! Without this prospect, our existence would be reduced to living for death. 

Christ is our Redeemer: Redemptor mundi et Redemptor hominis, Redeemer of the world and of man. He came among us to help us cross the threshold that leads to the door of life, the “holy door” which is he himself. 

5. May this consoling truth always be clearly present before our eyes, as we advance on our pilgrimage towards the Great Jubilee. It is the ultimate reason for the joy which today’s liturgy urges us to have: “Let us go joyfully to meet the Lord”. By believing in the crucified and risen Christ, we also believe in the resurrection of the flesh and in eternal life. 

Tertio millennio adveniente. In this perspective the years, centuries and millenniums acquire that definitive meaning of life which the Jubilee of the Year 2000 is meant to reveal to us. 

Looking to Christ, we make our own the words of a popular old Polish hymn: 

“Salvation came through the Cross,
this is a great mystery.
All suffering has meaning: it leads
to fullness of life”. 

With this faith in our hearts, which is the Church’s faith, today, as Bishop of Rome, I open the third year of preparation for the Great Jubilee. I open it in the name of the heavenly Father, who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). Praised be Jesus Christ!

[Pope John Paul II, homily, 29 November 1998]

Today, the First Sunday of the Time of Advent, a new liturgical year begins. In these four weeks of Advent, the liturgy leads us to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus, while it reminds us that he comes into our lives every day, and will return gloriously at the end of time. This certainty enables us to look trustfully to the future, as we are invited to do by the prophet Isaiah, who with his inspired voice accompanies the entire Advent journey.

In today’s First Reading, Isaiah prophesies that “it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised  above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it” (Is 2:2). The temple of the Lord in Jerusalem is presented as the point of convergence and meeting of all peoples. After the Incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus revealed himself as the true temple. Therefore, the marvellous vision of Isaiah is a divine promise and impels us to assume an attitude of pilgrimage, of a journey towards Christ, the meaning and end of all history. Those who hunger and thirst for justice can only find it by following the ways of the Lord, while evil and sin come from the fact that individuals and social groups prefer to follow paths dictated by selfish interests, which cause conflict and war. Advent is the time to welcome the coming of Jesus, who comes as a messenger of peace to show us the ways of God.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to be ready for His coming: “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Mt 24:42). Keeping watch  does not mean to have one’s eyes physically open, but to have one’s heart free and facing the right direction, ready to give and to serve. This is keeping watch! The slumber from which we must awaken is constituted of indifference, of vanity, of the inability to establish genuine human relationships, of the inability to take charge of our brother and sister who is alone, abandoned or ill. The expectation of Jesus who is coming must therefore translate into a commitment to vigilance. It is above all a question of wonder before God’s action, at his surprises, and of according him primacy. Vigilance also means, in a concrete sense, being attentive to our neighbour in difficulty, allowing oneself to be called upon by his needs, without waiting for him or her to ask us for help, but learning to foresee, to anticipate, as God always does with us.

May Mary, the vigilant Virgin and Mother of hope, guide us on this journey, helping us to turn our gaze towards the “mountain of the Lord”, the image of Jesus Christ, that attracts all men and all peoples.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 1 December 2019]

Be careful not to burden, keep watch out «by praying at all times»

(Lk 21:34-36)

The new world comes upon us in an alternative way, and it imposes itself from moment to moment, without concatenated or too polite forewarning. 

Such a impetuous Wind seems to be crumbling everything, instead it acts to gather us.

Beyond discouragement, in the face of shocking flash-events there is the danger of loss of critical consciousness, and flight (even from ourselves).

Conversely, woman and man of Faith discover the Coming of Christ among the people and the many "joints" of the soul, all authentic companions ‘travelers’.

Believers exercise perception, they notice the first stirrings of new life; they are not discouraged.

They do not seek palliatives or brain ideas à la page, which disperse our energies and confuse us, or even more make us our guard down.

On the other hand, here is the danger of settling down in an institutional time - and the emergence of obscure compensations: bogus solutions that make us insensitive; good just to distract us.

And that produce breathlessness (vv.34-35). Escapes or loopholes that anesthetize the soul. Idols-trap [«snare» of v.35].

They are to be kept at a distance: they do not allow to grasp the Lord who’s Coming.

Prayer is done here therapy, Presence, Motive and Engine; source and culmination. Medicine and Bread for the journey of those who wish to stay awake, advance, activate future.

By assimilating the sacred point of view on the upheavals of the world, in prayer we will obtain good disposition, we will move the eye towards horizons in which not a single shape and one colour appears.

We will understand that Providence is right, that the Spirit works well: He’s bringing us closer to the full project of the Father.

Approaching us in this way also to the desire for life of the brothers, we will stand «upright on our feet» (v.36) that is, we’ll wait and welcome without fear the advent of the «Son of Man».

Authentic Presence of God - true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

Such a deep side was expected to be absolute, performing, and selective. Featured.

The Incarnation surprises. It even revalues our skeletal and deficient being.

It turns uniqueness into a precious Pearl, «because our listening must take into account the sensus fidei, but it must not neglect all those ‘intuitions’ found where we would least expect them, ‘freewheeling’, but no less important» [Audience, Rome, 18.9.21].

Events - even those that are opposite (and inseparable) - speak within us; they develop through inner energy.

They are the treasure chests of engaging facts; they contain a secret amazement, a surprising destination.

Vigilance and Prayer prepare us for this unexpected Encounter, which is the growth and humanization of the people: the peaceful, true and full overflowing of the Eternal project, transferred to wide meshes.

This without resigning... even in the daily - as well as for the vision and action of prophets who do not blame their own finitude. In fact, they consider it a turning point.

So let us not divide the view hysterically, between good and bad emotions: for the 'new' of where we are and will be, even perils or bitterness, stops or detours, will have made sense.

[Saturday 34th wk. in O.T.  November 29, 2025]