Stephen does not curse his persecutors but prays for them: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). We are called to learn from him how to forgive, to always forgive, and it is not easy to do so, as we all know. Forgiveness expands the heart, creates sharing, gives serenity and peace. The Proto-martyr Stephen shows us the path to take with interpersonal relationships in the family, at school, in the workplace, in the parish and in the various communities. Always open to forgiveness. The logic of forgiveness and mercy is always successful and opens horizons of hope. But forgiveness is cultivated with prayer, which allows one to keep one’s gaze fixed on Jesus. Stephen was able to forgive his killers because, full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and opened his eyes to God (cf. Acts 7:55). He received from prayer the power to endure martyrdom. We must persevere in prayer to the Holy Spirit, that he pour out on us the gift of strength which heals our fears, our weaknesses, our pettiness, and expands our heart to forgive. Always to forgive! Let us invoke the intercession of Our Lady and of Saint Stephen: may their prayers help us always to entrust ourselves to God, especially in difficult times, and may they sustain us in the aim to be men and women capable of forgiveness!

[Pope Francis, Angelus 26 December 2018]

XXXI Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (3 November 2024)

[* First Reading]

From the book of Deuteronomy Deut 6:2-6

SHEMA ISRAEL! Listen to Israel! In the first reading we find one of the most important texts of the Old Testament, a reminder of the preaching of Moses, which still today holds a prominent place in the religion and prayer of Israel. The book of Deuteronomy is late, even though we find it among the first five books of the Bible, and it is the result of all the reflection of God's people over many centuries after their exit from Egypt. Moses left nothing but the Tablets of the Law in stone, but his teachings were transmitted orally from generation to generation. From time to time, however, feeling the need to translate them into something written according to the places and needs of the moment, the books of the Bible were compiled almost to accompany the tumultuous events of Israel.  Thus were born the sapiential texts of King Solomon, then those of the prophets narrating the events of the people and the action of the prophets up to the exile in Babylon and the devastation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Once the exile was over, the Jews felt the need to return to what God had promised that the Land he had promised must be earned. It is at this point that the book of Deuteronomy (meaning the second law) was born. It appears as a second collection of Moses' teachings where the invitation "listen" resounds insistently, almost like a cry of alarm. Deuteronomy is therefore a reinterpretation of the history, exodus and teachings of Moses, many years after his death, to recall the urgency of conversion to return to the listening/obedience of the Mosaic Law. Listen, Israel: the Lord is our God, the only one is the Lord. The whole destiny of Israel is encapsulated in these two words: Shema, listen Israel! Israel, the chosen people, named after Jacob's memorable fight with God (Gen 32:29) in the Yabbok river tributary of the Jordan, is always tempted to fight against God - Moses called them a hard-nosed people. Instead, the book of Deuteronomy reminds them of the need to listen to/obey God in order to find happiness and freedom, and so even today, from the age of three or four, every Jew recites this prayer every day; indeed, he writes the Shema everywhere and even wears it on his forehead and in his arm at heart level; he stamps it on the door of his house and town. Shema Israel is to Jews what the Our Father is to Christians.

[*Responsorial Psalm]

Ps.17/18

"The Lord shows himself faithful to his anointed, that is, to his Messiah". Here, in the Responsorial Psalm, the term messiah simply means king, and the psalmist makes King David speak to the Lord while he is in trial.  We are before the year one thousand B.C. and the legitimate king was Saul, the first king of Israel, who however did not fulfil his mission well and in fact his reign began well and ended very badly because he did not want to listen to the prophet Samuel. At that point, God chose David as his successor who remained in the court of Saul who considered David as his rival and even tried to kill him on several occasions. 

In the second book of Samuel (ch.22) we read that David sang this psalm to thank God for having delivered him from his enemies, primarily Saul. Even though the psalm (17/18) was sung by David, the subject is not David alone, nor any particular character, but the entire people of God who, when they want to thank the Lord, borrow David's words while defending themselves from Saul, and so the people call God 'my rock, my fortress, my deliverer'. He invokes God my rock, in whom I take refuge because in those days caves were places of refuge and if every people had a protector god the one of Israel was far firmer than any other. In Deuteronomy (32:31) we read for example: 'For their rock is not like ours, and our enemies are witnesses'. When he speaks like this, Moses imbues the rock with a different meaning, echoing the deliverance from Egypt: "the Lord has delivered me because he loves me". And when the people sing this psalm, they recall the faithful presence of the One whose name is "I am with you" and this constant reminder is a source of hope. Like David, Israel awaits the fulfilment of the promises of the faithful God, that is, the coming of the Messiah who will definitively liberate humanity. And this is why they sing: 'Long live the Lord and blessed is my rock, exalted be the God of my salvation. He grants his king great victories, he shows himself faithful to his Messiah".

[Second Reading].

From the letter to the Hebrews (Heb 7:23-28)

The letter to the Hebrews is always surprising: written by a Jewish convert to Christ for other Jewish converts, it uses language that is comprehensible to Jews but certainly less immediately comprehensible to us. The text proceeds by contrasts that ultimately boil down to a single and fundamental one: that is, the difference between the Old and the New Covenant. In today's text, this comparison, although not explicitly declared, is present in every sentence: in the first Covenant, that is, in the Old Testament, many "became priests because death prevented them from lasting long" (v.23) and "the Law in fact constitutes high priests men subject to frailty", for this reason needing "to offer sacrifices every day, first for their own sins and then for those of the people"(27).  The priests of the Old Testament were mortal, while Jesus is immortal having immolated himself "once for all, offering himself". In the Old Testament, the priest was timeless while Christ is a priest forever; he was separated from other men according to the rite of consecration while he himself remained a sinner full of frailty, while Christ is full of power and capable of saving; the other priests were appointed according to the Mosaic law, Jesus is called directly by God as his Son. From the incomplete and imperfect first Covenant, Jesus moves believers to the perfect and final new and fulfilled Covenant. In the text, the most important themes of the Christian faith are evoked: the resurrection of Christ, risen he lives forever (v. 24-25), and the Eucharist evoked by the reference to Christ's sacrifice that he offered himself once and for all (v. 27). Christ's whole life, not just his death, was the free gift of his love for the Father to its full fulfilment, and his death on the cross is the supreme sacrifice, anticipated in the Passover supper and now renewed in every Eucharist. When Jesus says: 'this is the cup of the new covenant of my blood shed for you', the disciples knew well that 'shedding the blood' meant accepting the sacrifice of his life.  Jesus Christ is therefore the only priest for eternity. It remains useful to make reference to the last verse where it speaks of the consecration by "oath" that constitutes the Son a priest, "made perfect for ever". There is here an allusion to Psalm 109/110 important for both Jews and Christians, many times quoted in the New Testament and in particular in the letter to the Hebrews: "The Lord has sworn and does not repent: "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melkiisedek". For the first Christians who came from the Jewish world, Jesus was the promised Messiah and at the same time king and priest, consecrated to be pontiff, i.e. bridge between God and men, obedient until death to the will of the Father and consecrated forever to the mission entrusted to him according to the eternal divine plan. The evangelist Luke also presents Jesus on the cross interceding until the end for us: "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" (Lk23:34), while Matthew notes that the sheet with which Joseph of Arimathea wrapped his body is like the high priest's robe (Mt 27:59). The author of the letter to the Hebrews therefore draws his conclusion: Jesus saves us forever and always intercedes on our behalf so that "we advance with full confidence to the throne of grace" (4:16).

[Gospel].

Mk 12:28-34

What is the first of all commandments? 

The Sages of the Talmud speak of 613 mitzvòt, i.e. 613 biblical commandments. These are divided into 248 positive commandments, mitzvòt assè, and 365 negative or prohibitive commandments, mitzvòt lo tàassè. The scribe asking the question knows that the most important commandment for the Jews was the observance of the Sabbath, the transgression of which was tantamount to transgressing the entire law and was therefore punished with death. Jesus, however, had broken it several times by healing on the Sabbath and so now a scribe attempts to test him, since Jesus had silenced both the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  The scribes were the official theologians of the time who had already decided to eliminate Jesus and were looking for a way and an opportunity, but feared the crowd. The question is therefore not to learn but to mislead Jesus. As always, Jesus answers surprisingly because he says that the first is... and then he does not quote either the Decalogue or any of the 613 commandments, but refers to the Scriptures and compares two texts that are well known to all. He quotes the creed of Israel, Shemà Israel, Hear Israel, the prayer that Jews recite twice a day, morning and evening, found in the book of Deuteronomy (6:4). "The first is: Hear Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord; you shall therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart, and the Hebrew text adds the possessive to emphasise the immediacy, the force of this command, with all your soul, which is life, the psyche in Greek, with all your mind and with all your strength'. However, love for God must be translated into love for one's neighbour: this is why he adds to this prayer the second precept found in the book of Leviticus: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev 19:18) And he notes that there is no other commandment greater than these. The first, the famous Shema Israel, which we read today in the first reading, is joined by the second, which is a passage from the book of Leviticus often quoted by religious authorities. The Shema Israel prescribed to love God and him alone in the sense of attaching oneself to him to the exclusion of all other gods, a clear rejection of idolatry. This love of God was nothing other than a response to the love of God who had chosen Israel as his people. But can love be commanded? The initial impulse certainly cannot, but the faithfulness of love can be commanded, and that is precisely what we are talking about here: to make love an absolute law is to make every other norm of any kind relative to the love of God so that no law can take its place.  The second commandment appears in the book of Leviticus and it is the so-called law of holiness which begins: "Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy" (Lev 19:2). So already in the Old Testament, in the ideal of Israel, the love of God and neighbour merged into a single love and the Tablets of the Law translated this requirement by closely linking the relationship with God and that with one's neighbour.  This scribe is encouraged by Jesus who concludes with a formula that resembles a beatitude: 'You are not far from the kingdom of God'. It is interesting to note that Jesus' teaching is not of the type: You must, you must, you must do...but rather it is a revelation of what we already live and, in this perspective, he seems to say: "since you have understood that loving is the most important thing blessed are you because you are already very close to the kingdom of God". And it is even more interesting to note that Jesus ends the series of disputes with the Pharisees and scribes that we have seen throughout Mark's gospel in this way, with a positive note that we find only in this gospel: "You are not far from the kingdom of God".  In truth, one question still remains: "If everything was already written in the Mosaic law, what is the original contribution of Jesus"?  It is true that everything was in germ in the Mosaic Law, but Jesus announces and brings to fulfilment the final stage of revelation. And how? Firstly by extending the notion of neighbour to infinity - Mark shows in fact that he struggles against all exclusion - and secondly Jesus came to earth to live in himself these two inseparable loves: love of God and love of neighbour. Finally, Jesus came to make us capable of loving by giving us the gift of his Spirit: 'A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another' (Jn 13:35) and by this all will recognise you as my disciples.  He thus offers the scribe the most beautiful definition of the Kingdom: God reigns where love is king because the love of God nourishes the love of neighbour.

Happy Sunday to you all!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

Small coins and festival of the voracious God, in solemn appearances

(Mk 12:38-44)

Jesus faces the treasure of the Temple, the true ‘god’ of the whole sanctuary. The comparison is ruthless: one as opposed to the other (v.41).

Enigma that could not be solved with a simple ‘purification’ of the sacred place, or a replenishment of devotion.

It will be surprising, but the Gospel passage does not sing praises of individual humility which by faith deprives itself of everything: it’s rather a radical appeal to church leaders and to the sense of institution.

The Lord is saddened by every expropriation conditioned by awe. Indeed, fear takes life from those who do not enjoy fullness.

Christ weeps the subordinate condition of the poor and neglected: He does not make her take the chair. He does not credit the situation. He doesn’t want the woman already naked by two cents to undress all.

He seems distraught for that one silent figure; to underline the difference between the voracious demands of the ancient religions’ God and those of a completely different sign - in our favor - of the Father in the Faith.

While Jesus noticed and was mourning on the minuteous gesture of the little woman, the Apostles did not even notice the irrelevant poor creature, continuing to gape at the magnificence of the Temple.

Who knows what they were dreaming about... seduced by honor.

To divert them from the fever of reputation and considerations they desired to boast of, there was a need for an awareness; but to move them out of their place and yardstick the miracles would not have been enough.

Thus Jesus seeks to convey in conscience the Good News that the Father is the exact opposite of how he had been painted to them by the spiritual guides of the time.

The Eternal disconcerts: He does not take, does not appropriate, does not plunder, nor does absorb or debilitate us - but He is the One who gives.

He does not punish if you do not placate Him with both the little coins you have, without withholding a single one - even if only by doing in half (v.2).

The honour to God is not exclusive, but inclusive.

Paraphrasing the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, we could say that in authentic communities [as in families] «everyone contributes to the common purpose; everyone works for the common good, not denying each person’s individuality but encouraging and supporting it» (n.230).

The Son notes with bitterness that the beautiful protagonists themselves «devour the houses of widows» (v.40) as vampires. So convincing as to make the souls of the simple even their supporters and victims.

Christ is saddened by such unconscious complicity, induced by the lack of knowledge of the Father’s Face - preached as a leech God.

In fact, in the path of personal Faith true believers are not repeaters of external roles (vv.38-40).

We collaborate with the creative and deifying work of the Eternal in offering ourselves as a vital food for the humanity to which the Bridegroom has been taken away - here in the figure of the poor «widow» who bleed out.

In short, we must no longer macerate and wear ourselves out, because of the glory of the Almighty, but enrich ourselves with Him and pronounce fully!

A God all substance, of little epidermal appearance.

Yet the antithesis of the rich and poor was resurfacing in the early communities... to the detriment of the isolated.

Here, precisely the reversal of the fortunes had to become characteristic of the adoring Church, which is immersed in the same rhythm of the supreme vital Source.

It will therefore be the amiable institution that will remain naked and pilgrim, even in the space of the small and unsteady.

And the action of the assemblies of believers will be able to activate a new, convivial world, humanizing disharmonies.

A reality that beats ‘time’. For a ‘Kingdom’ really not neutral. But where does the soul counts, not the curriculum.

[32nd Sunday (B), November 10, 2024]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Liturgy of the Word this Sunday gives us two widows as models of faith. They are presented in parallel: one in the First Book of Kings (17:10-16) and the other in the Gospel of Mark (12:41-44). Both these women are very poor and it is precisely this condition that speaks of their great faith in God. The first appears in the series of narratives about the Prophet Elijah. In a time of famine, he receives an order from the Lord to go to pagan territory near Sidon, outside Israel. There he meets a widow and asks her for water to drink and a little bread. The woman replies that there is only a handful of flour and a drop of oil, but, since the Prophet insists and promises her that, if she listens to him, flour and oil will not be wanting; she listens and is rewarded.

The second widow in the Gospel is noticed by Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem, to be precise at the treasury, where men and women are giving alms. Jesus sees this woman throwing two coins into the treasury; he then calls his disciples and explains that her contribution is greater than that of the rich, because, while they gave of their plenty, the widow put in “everything she had, her whole living” (Mk 12:44). 

From these two biblical passages, wisely juxtaposed, one can learn a valuable lesson about the faith. It appears as an interior attitude of he who bases his life on God, on the Word, and trusts totally in him. Being a widow in antiquity was in itself a condition of grave need. This is why in the Bible widows and orphans were people whom God cared for in a special way: they have lost their earthly support but God remains their Spouse, their Parent. 

Yet, Scripture says that the objective state of need, in this case being a widow, does not suffice: God always asks for our free adherence to faith, that it is expressed in love for him and for our neighbour. No one is so poor that he cannot give something. And, in fact, both of these widows from today demonstrate their faith by carrying out an act of charity: one for the Prophet and the other by almsgiving. Thus they attest to the inseparable unity between faith and love, as between love of God and love of one’s neighbour — as the Gospel of last Sunday reminded us. Pope St Leo the Great, whose memory we celebrated yesterday, affirmed this: “On the scales of divine justice the quantity of gifts is not weighed, but the weight of hearts. The widow deposited in the Temple treasury two small coins and by doing so surpassed the gifts of all the rich. No gesture of goodness is meaningless before God, no mercy is left barren” (Sermo de jejunio dec. mens., 90, 3).

The Virgin Mary is the perfect example of someone who gives gives her whole self by trusting in God; with this faith she proclaims her fiat to the Angel and accepts the Will of Lord. May Mary help each one of us too, during this Year of Faith, to strengthen our faith in God and in his Word.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 11 November 2012]

2. Let us praise God together with the psalmist: he "is faithful for ever": the God of the covenant. He is the one who "brings justice to the oppressed", who "gives bread to the hungry" - as we ask him every day. God is the one who 'restores sight to the blind': he restores the sight of the spirit. He "raises up the fallen". He "upholds the orphan and the widow" . . . (Ps 146 [145]:6-9).

3. It is precisely the widow who is at the centre of today's liturgy of the Word. This is a well-known figure from the Gospel: the poor widow who threw into the treasury "two pennies, that is, one quintrin" (Mk 12:42) - (what is the approximate value of this coin?). Jesus observed "how the crowd threw coins into the treasury. And many rich people were throwing a lot of them" (Mk 12:41).

Seeing the widow and her offering he said to the disciples: "This widow has thrown more into the treasury than all the others . . . They all gave of their surplus; she, on the other hand, in her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on" (Mk 12:43-44).

4. The widow of the Gospel has her parallel in the old covenant. The first reading of the liturgy from the book of Kings, recalls another widow, that of Zarepta, who at the request of the prophet Elijah shared with him all that she had for herself and her son: bread and oil, even though what she had was only enough for the two of them.

And behold - according to Elijah's prediction - the miracle happened: the flour in the jar did not run out and the jar of oil was not emptied . . . and so it was for several days (cf. 1 Kings 17: 14-17).

5. A common characteristic unites both widows - the widow of the old covenant and the widow of the new covenant -. Both are poor and at the same time generous: they give all that is in their power. Everything they possess. Such generosity of heart is a manifestation of total reliance on God. And so today's liturgy rightly links these two figures with the first beatitude of Christ's Sermon on the Mount:

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:3). The 'poor in spirit' - like that widow of Zarepta in the time of Elijah, and that other in the temple of Jerusalem in the time of Christ - demonstrate in their poverty a great richness of spirit. For: the poor in spirit is rich in spirit. And only he who is rich in spirit can enrich others. Christ teaches that "theirs is the kingdom of heaven".

6. For us who participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice, this instruction is particularly important. Only when our presence here reveals that 'poverty in spirit' of which Christ's beatitude speaks, only then can we offer our offering to the great 'spiritual treasure' of the Church: can we bring this offering to the altar in that spirit which God, our creator, and Christ, our redeemer, expect from us.

The letter to the Hebrews speaks of Christ, the eternal priest, interceding on our behalf by presenting before God the Father the sacrifice of the cross on Golgotha. And this unique, most holy and indefinite value of Christ's sacrifice also embraces the offerings we bring to the altar. It is necessary that these offerings be similar to the offering of that widow in the Jerusalem temple, and also to the offering of the widow of Zarepta from the time of Elijah. It is necessary that these offerings of ours brought to the altar - our participation in the Eucharist - carry within them a sign of Christ's blessedness about the "poor in spirit".

7. The whole Church today meditates on the truth contained in these words of the liturgy. It is given me today, as Bishop of Rome, to meditate on them together with you, the faithful of the parish of St Louis Gonzaga, at Parioli. Your patron, St Louis, lived to the full the evangelical beatitude of poverty in spirit, that is, of stripping oneself of earthly honours and goods in order to conquer true wealth, which is the Kingdom of God. In fact, he said to his father, Marquis of Castiglione delle Stiviere: 'A marquisate is not enough for me, I aim for a kingdom'; he was evidently referring to the Kingdom of Heaven. To realise his wish, Louis renounced his father's title and inheritance to enter the Roman novitiate of the Society of Jesus. He made himself poor in order to become rich. He would later note in one of his writings: 'Even princes are ashes, like the poor'. Just like the 'poor widow', he gave everything to the Lord with generosity and zeal, which has something of the heroic about it. She chose the humblest tasks for herself, dedicating herself to serving the sick, especially during the plague epidemic that struck Rome in 1590, and giving her life for them.

[Pope John Paul II, homily at the parish s. Luigi Gonzaga, 6 November 1988]

Today’s Gospel episode (cf. Mk 12:38-44) concludes the series of Jesus’ teachings given in the Temple of Jerusalem and highlights two contrasting figures: the scribe and the widow. But why are they counterposed? The scribe represents important, wealthy, influential people; the other person — the widow — represents the least, the poor, the weak. In reality, Jesus’ resolute judgment of the scribes is not about the whole profession, but refers to those of them who flaunt their own social position, embellish themselves with the title of ‘rabbi’, that is, teacher, who love to be revered and take the best seats (cf. vv. 38-39).

What is worse is that their ostentation is, above all, of a religious nature, because they pray — Jesus says — and “for a pretense make long prayers” (v. 40), and use God in order to gain respect for themselves as the defenders of his law. This attitude of superiority and vanity causes them to have contempt for those who count for little or who find themselves in an unfavourable economic position, such as widows. 

Jesus exposes this perverse mechanism: he denounces the oppression of the weak carried out misleadingly on the basis of religious motivations, declaring clearly that God is on the side of the least. And to really impress this lesson on the minds of the disciples he offers them a living example: a poor widow, whose social position was irrelevant because she had no husband who could defend her rights, and therefore she became easy prey to unscrupulous creditors, because these creditors hounded the weak so they would pay them. This woman, who goes to the temple treasury to put in just two coins — all that she had left — and makes her offering by seeking to pass by unobserved, almost as if ashamed. But, in this very humility, she performs an act laden with great religious and spiritual significance. That gesture full of sacrifice does not escape the gaze of Jesus, who instead sees shining in it the total self-giving to which he wishes to educate his disciples.

The lesson that Jesus offers us today helps us to recover what is essential in our life and fosters a practical and daily relationship with God. Brothers and sisters, the Lord’s scales are different from ours. He weighs people and their actions differently: God does not measure quantity but quality; he examines the heart; he looks at the purity of intentions. This means that our “giving” to God in prayer and to others in charity should always steer clear of ritualism and formalism, as well as of the logic of calculation, and must be an expression of gratuity, as Jesus did with us: he saved us freely. And we must do things as an expression of gratuity. This is why Jesus points to that poor and generous widow as a model of Christian life to be imitated. We do not know her name; however, we know her heart — we will find her in Heaven and go to greet her, certainly; and that is what counts before God. When we are tempted by the desire to stand out and give an accounting of our altruistic gestures, when we are too interested in the gaze of others and — might I say — when we act like ‘peacocks’, let us think of this woman. It will do us good: it will help us to divest ourselves of the superfluous in order to go to what truly counts, and to remain humble.

May the Virgin Mary, a poor woman who gave herself totally to God, sustain us in the aim of giving to the Lord and to brothers and sisters not something of ours but ourselves, in a humble and generous offering.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 11 November 2018]

«Lateran/ to mortal things went upstairs»

(Jn 2:13-22)

Where to worship the Most High?

Already the cosmos is like a great cathedral, wich weaves divine praises; then surely both the heights and the temples have had a historical sense.

But now Christ is the place where woman and man meet God, the centre of irruption and deployment of the Father’s Love, in the cosmos.

The Lord willingly comes, to merge with the life of the believer and to expand his abilities, qualitative resources, world of relationships.

The Eternal lives and acts in the Friend who - even unconsciously - accepts his proposals.

Thus, even if the heavens do not contain Him, the Lord deigns and delights to be among us and in us.

The great ancient Sovereign was relegated to the Temple, and in the events of everyday life one forgot about Him. Now we are the real and living Sanctuaries.

So, even if the crowds of tourists wander around to admire the art, the Basilicas are a sign, not reality.

We are the ‘churches’ outside the churches, where the Source of being that ‘reveals itself’ dwells and we must make others encounter it.

Effective sign and anticipation of a more human cosmos. In each the Face of Christ.

Only in this sense «Lateran/ to mortal things went upstairs» [Dante, Paradise 31, 30-35].

«Easter was near»: time of liberation from slavery - from the merchants who had seized the God of Exodus.

The people believed that they were emancipated by the acquisition of the ‘promised land’, and that they practiced a welcome cult.

In reality it was still a slave to a pagan image of the Almighty.

In fact, the Temple complex consisted of a series of circuits that gradually selected visitors.

Jesus wants to dismantle the barriers that prevent us from approaching God; all prejudices and dividing walls.

The great Novelty is that in Him everyone has access to the Father.

He proposes communion as a conviviality of differences, not synergy with different purpose.

Then, the fear instilled by the old religiosity had transformed the great places of worship of the ancient East into banks.

And the mixture of prayer and money is really unbearable.

When economic interests take over, the consequences for weightless people [and civilisation itself] are devastating.

Thus, the Master knocks us out of the false image of God, to recover it within each of us.

In short, we must do away with the palisades - albeit "ideals" - in which gratuitousness and prayer have very little resembling the relationship of the Son with the Father.

All this also pushing us to understand elsewhere, sailing towards impossible territories.

Finally arriving more and more at the density of the Mystery that wants to travel with us.

We’re gonna make a whole different kind of takeovers.

By now the haggling is incompatible with our action of ‘living stones’.

[Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, November 9, 2024]

Living Stones and Liberation from Merchants:

Sign and Anticipation of a new cosmos, of a new humanity

(Jn 2:13-22)

Where to worship the Most High? Already the cosmos is like a great cathedral, weaving divine praise; then certainly both high places and temples made historical sense.

But now Christ is the place where woman and man meet God, the centre of irruption and unfolding of the Father's Love, in the cosmos.

The Lord comes willingly, to merge with the life of the believer and expand his capacities, qualitative resources, world of relationships.

The Eternal lives and acts in the friend who - albeit unconsciously - accepts his proposals. Thus, even if the heavens do not contain Him, He deigns and delights to be among us and in us.

The great ancient Sovereign was relegated to the Temple, and in the affairs of daily life we forgot Him. Now we are the shrines, true and living.

So, even if crowds of tourists wander around to admire the art, the basilicas are signs, not realities.

We are the churches outside the churches, where the Source of being dwells, which reveals itself and which we must make others encounter.

Effective sign and anticipation of a more human cosmos. In each one the Face of Christ.

Only in this sense "Lateran/ a le cose mortali andò di sopra" [Dante, Paradiso 31, 30-35].

"The Passover was near": a time of liberation from slavery - from the merchants who had seized the God of the Exodus.

The people believed that they were emancipated through the acquisition of the 'promised land', and that they worshipped in a pleasing manner.

In reality, they were still enslaved to a pagan image of the Almighty, and to a religiosity repeatedly patched up for the use of the professionals of the sacred.

The Temple in Jerusalem was the pride of the spiritualising elite, yet Jesus behaves in a way that disconcerts the established cultural system.

He does not mediate, he does not seek support, he does not intend to make a career, he does not mind throwing away the market so dear to the priestly class.

Every implication was based on a false teaching, which appealed to the sense of unworthiness inculcated in simple people. Hence on the fear of heavenly curses - under conditions, favourable only to the protagonists of the religious trade.

The Temple complex was made up of a series of circuits that gradually screened out visitors.

Into the esplanade could enter all sane people, even pagans; then began the walls of separation.

The first, under threat of death, blocked the non-Israelites. The second the women, the third also the circumcised.

Only the ritualists had access to the inner sanctuary: no layman could tread on the sacred stones.

Only the high priest entered the holy of holies, once a year (Yom Kippur day).

The most striking feature of the complex [logic of its closed precincts] was Separation: the exclusion of people.

Precisely those most in need were not allowed in: the sick, paralytics, sinners, publicans, shepherds - not even Israelites.

Jesus wants to dismantle the barriers that prevent people from approaching God; all prejudices and dividing walls.

The great novelty is that in Him everyone has access to the Father, without hindrance or imprimatur to be implored.

He proposes communion as conviviality of differences, not synergy with any purpose.

He values the unicum of personal resources, not proposing the usual totem - hammering any of our faculties.

Anyone who wishes may enter the sanctuary of the new Temple-Person, without hindrance [nor having to first obtain permission (as sometimes happens) from dangerous, opaque, and insulting people].

Then, the fear inculcated by the old religiosity had turned the great houses of worship of the ancient East into banks - as well as places of obsession.

The mixture of prayer and money is really unbearable. When economic interests take over, the consequences on civilisation and weightless people are devastating.

But the theatre of 'sanctifying' and respectable power is back (at times, almost imperturbable) even under the aegis of the poor Crucified.

So Jesus in his prophets came - even - to emphasise the incompatibility between commerce and a life of communion with the Father.

Which connotes the enormous difference between material building and personal sacred place.

Christ in us does not set out to mend the ancient pious practice, nor to purify the Temple, but to replace it, to supplant it. And even eliminate it - because it tends to legitimise illusions of perfection, which dehumanise hearts and assemblies.

The Master throws us out of the false image of God presented in the spaces of what appears inviolable and heavenly... to recover him within each one of us and in the community that we really meet.

In short, we must put an end to the palisades - even 'ideal' ones - in which gratuitousness and prayer bear little resemblance to the Son's relationship with the Father.Informal and unbalanced in love like the Eternal Himself, we too do not know how to 'be in the world' in a fixed, tranquil, reassuring way.

By Faith we are no longer the product of shrines of cold, hard stones.

Not infrequently, temples are images of abstract religious knowledge, and of a standard way of life that incapacitates, that cannot give answers to new questions, that does not solve real problems.

We would indeed like to learn to translate our leaps forward with the "nostalgia for the infinite", with the desire to return to the Source, to Beauty, to the origins - but which accompany the "pilgrim".

They in Christ do not create any "constant and obsessive bond" [cf. Brothers All, no. 44].

Nor do we expect to end up in the surrendering and disembodied ideology of the elites: a way of thinking so sophisticated that it totally blocks any challenging bet for an educational risk and pastoral action.

We are not qualunquists.

On the contrary, we yearn to go all the way, to discover the Roots, and to astound the unexpressed characters; in the life of love that reaches the shadowy, hidden, deep sides. Those sides to which we have not yet given space.

Without precisely silencing anxieties, nor denying dark sides, or the contradictions, unpleasant moments, fractures, discomforts that coexist in the essence. And they complete us.

We will learn how to return to the House that belongs to the founding Eros, without suppressing the intimate protrusions - appeals of the soul, often constricted.

Then we will know and teach how to recover the bitter, unpleasant or "impure" dimensions that the wall temple imagines can be neglected, removed, sterilised.

Instead, they configure the most fertile terrain of our evolution.

All this may not reassure, but it activates the Exodus - pushing us to understand elsewhere, navigating towards impossible territories.

Finally, landing more and more in the density of the Mystery that wants to travel with us.

And devotions or not, we will make a different kind of acquisition - not that of business partners with God - or of 'separates'.

"Today the liturgy commemorates the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, which is the cathedral of Rome and which tradition defines as "mother of all the churches of the Urbe and the Orbe". The term 'mother' refers not so much to the sacred building of the Basilica as to the work of the Holy Spirit that is manifested in this building" [Pope Francis, Angelus 9 November 2014].

We reiterate: only in this sense "Lateran/ a le cose mortali andò di sopra".

Sorry for the leaders of the "news" who want to tear us away from the infinite codes that inhabit us.

The eminent Friendly Self takes our step - he does not intend to relegate us to enlisted world-bearers.

Smuggling is now incompatible with our action as living stones.

The same is true in the relationship of Faith-Immediate Identity: no trading (cf. vv.23-25).

With those who approach Him as miracle-workers, material protectors, or banners for sacralising visions of the world all planted in the mire of the chronicle, Jesus has a detached attitude.

Credulity in the extraordinary of prodigies or thoughts is fragile, transient - subservient to the persistence of outward spectacles, flashy manners and fashions, or the useful.

It is not here that one accepts to become - like Him - critical witnesses of the new world. Fathers and mothers of a new humanity.

"If man pays attention to the objects of the senses, attachment to them eventually arises in him; from attachment arises desire, from desire arises anger; from anger arises bewilderment, from bewilderment confusion in memory, from loss of memory the ruin of the intellect: with the ruin of the intellect man is lost" (Bhagavad Gita, II, 62-63).

Liberation and Personalisation: Difference between Religiousness and Faith

Little House of God or place of business? No more haggling

(Lk 19:45-48)

Jesus notes that around the activity that took place within the perimeters of the Temple a whole ambiguous structure of sin had been articulated.

The Sanctuary's business eagerness was not even hidden - indeed, it even confronted it.

But the priestly perspectives of the holy tribute and the horizons of the people's full life conflicted.

Ditto for the aims of jurists and doctors, who willingly flocked especially under Solomon's porch [on the other side, towards the east] to 'grant' advice.

The exclusive function of fostering an encounter with the presence of God was totally mortified.

The sacred area had become a den of shrewd merchants, businessmen perpetually on the prowl, always intent on changing currency.

This was with the blessing of the sect of the ruling Sadducees, who could not resist the temptation to pull the strings of the lavish trade.In ousting the false friends of the succouring Father, the parasites of religiosity, the Lord does not so much aim to restore the purity of the Place, nor to restore the polish of the original sober worship - as the Prophets intended.

He renders a holy service not to the ancient God (as in the religions) but to the people - by that system [or tangle] rendered totally unaware of their own vocational dignity: only chained, milked, and sheared.

Indeed, the Zealots aimed to restore the purity of rituals. They imagined that they could somehow recover their coherence.

The Essenes, on the other hand, had abandoned the Temple altogether. They considered the shameful situation now compromised.

John the Baptist had made the same detachment.

Although of priestly lineage, he preached to the people the forgiveness of sins through a conversion of life, not through the sacrifices of the liturgy [only in Jerusalem].

Instead, the authentic Angel of the Covenant was definitely intransigent, far more radical than any of them!

In fact, according to the very first Christians, who frequented the Temple, the place of encounter with God, the land from which his Love radiated, was no longer linked to material aspects.

Nor was it in itself religious; much less imbued with doctrinal observances, moralistic codes, or one-sided worldviews.

Thus, for us too, the divine Presence and its Communion are not caught in mythical purity, ancient magnificence, perfectionist endeavours - or à la page adherence.

Service to God is honouring woman and man as and where they are: sacred respect starts from a Gift that already runs through our lives. Opinions are of no use.

The unknown Friend wants to dwell in us not to appropriate, but to merge and expand our relational and qualitative capacities. Our own, not others' or on the side.

In Christ, we move from obedience to more or less dated norms [even futuristic ones] to the style of personal likeness. That which builds living shrines.

Honour to the Father is realised not in the details or in the spirit of the body already dictated, but in the sons and daughters, however - if they live in fraternity.

This happens especially when they assimilate Jesus' Teaching [on Grace] (v.47).

Thus in time, they learn conviviality from Himself, and together they are encouraged to dialogue with their exceptional and unrepeatable Vocation, which captivates because it truly corresponds.

And intimate conviction is alone, incomparable and precious energy of transformative value - which leads one not to withdraw from oneself, one's own exceptionalism, nor to overlook the reality of one's brothers.

Rather, it induces one to make Exodus, to explore new conditions of being, to transfigure perception into blissful action.

Only from here does coexistence arise.

And Sin indeed remains deviation, but no longer transgression of the law - but inability to correspond to the Call that characterises, unleashes and empowers a surprising uniqueness of Relationship.

The first Tent of God is thus humanity itself, its beating heart - not a space of stones and bricks, fixed, delimited, or fanciful... to be adorned with overlays.

Having entered Jerusalem, the Master takes possession of the heavenly House - which is not the Temple, but the People.

That is why He casts out of the sacred imagery inculcated in the naive, precisely the most uneducational traits of the festival - and especially teaches the unhealthy, to feel already adequate!

Unbelievable: to each Christ changes the mental atmosphere.

The true Lord does not teach us to enter into habitual or abstract and formal armour, accepted in outline but distant from ourselves, from creatures.

Rather, he encourages us not to restrain our true nature with cloaks of habit [dated or not] according to which 'it is never enough'.

Behind our character essence lies a fruitful, unrepeatable, singular Calling; with visual and social implications that we do not know.

As we are - just so - we are fine.

There is no need to exorcise anything of our deepest being, which spontaneously manifests its compressed discomforts and joyful correspondences, even in outward eccentricities.

Rather, any conventional epidermal, adaptive, or cunning domestication stifles the core of the Calling by Name - authentic Guidance, impulse of Spirit.

Our inner world is not to be hysterically regarded as a dangerous outsider to be reconfigured.

Our innate roots and natural energy have the right to flourish and prevail over common ways or ideas: they are experimental traces of the Divine.

There is a Personal bond in them.

The Lord's claim is immediately countered by the hostility of the paludates, interested in the give-and-take of that mannerist theatre.

They make him out to be deranged, to be eliminated immediately: a very dangerous dreamer, because he activates and enhances souls, instead of the mediating structure.This is the condemnation handed down by the 'big boys' in society: the outcome of any truth operation.

This is how they try to tarnish any attempt at emancipation of the oppressed in spirit, in the core of the self - whether through fear of God or obsession with unworthiness.

But in today's reality, which heels us in, the Risen One continues to demythologise the excessive preoccupation with identified places, the "heights" of settled and material character.

With their implications that do not nourish in a full and stable way - on the contrary, they become a cankerworm.

In short, a change of approach is needed.

He himself is the essential point of worship of the Eternal.

In such a light of Person in His Person, each one can embrace proposals that are not others and intrusive; that will not prove to be ballast.

And the Church's authentic prestige will be to echo the proclamation that liberates and truly pleases.

Obviously provoking the same mercantile tensions; litmus test of our divine action.

Through the work of apostles frightened by the bluntness of the authorities, and perhaps themselves prone to compromise - the magnificent sanctuary that Jesus had explicitly described as a den of scoundrels will once again become the centre of the ecclesial assembly [Lk 24:53; Acts 5:12].

It will provide more effectively... not the burning conscience, but the tragic history of the holy city, to make its excess of importance fade away.

Even today: the ancient phantasmagorical culmination is becoming periphery, decay. And to find ourselves, we make it difficult.

An opportunity not to be missed to move forward in a lively and singular way, in tune with an ever new teaching on Love, which takes our step.

It is the burning Call of "the Mount", which centres on passion: precisely on Desire.

No longer a stern call to the 'no' of great appearances - but finally Listening to the Voice in the soul, which amazes (v.48).

Authentic sacredness of the temple.

Jesus' teaching in the venerable place is presented by Lk 19:47 as enduring: "he was teaching every day" [Greek text].

Through the Word that does not remain on high but partakes of our humanity (finally opened wide) He also finds His Temple today. 

Dwelling place cleared of old and new hunters.

He only longs for his People - women and men freed from the cave of robbers [Jer 7:11; Lk 19:46] who still try to penetrate our quality of relationship.

Paraphrasing the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (No. 226) we gladly reiterate with Pope Francis: "there is no more room for empty diplomacies, for dissimulations, double talk, cover-ups, good manners that hide the reality" (irritating) of business partners with God.

The rubbish must be eliminated. The stakes are too high and personal.

With what does not correspond, even culturally, socially and spiritually, one no longer bargains.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you still need set times, carved-out places, gestures of atonement and propitiation, or do you feel a living relationship with God?

What is your House of Prayer?

Churches of service, not supermarkets.

The most important temple of God is our heart

"Churches of service, churches that are gratuitous, just as salvation was gratuitous, and not 'supermarket churches'": Pope Francis did not mince words in re-proposing the relevance of Jesus' gesture of driving the merchants out of the temple. And "vigilance, service and gratuitousness" are the three key words he relaunched in the mass celebrated on Friday 24 November at Santa Marta.

"Both readings of today's liturgy," the Pontiff explained, "speak to us of the temple, indeed of the purification of the temple. Taking his cue from the passage in the first book of Maccabees (4:36-37, 52-59), the Pope pointed out how "after the defeat of the people that Antiochus Epiphanes had sent to paganise the people, Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers wanted to purify the temple, that temple where there had been pagan sacrifices, and restore the spiritual beauty of the temple, the sacredness of the temple". For this "the people were joyful". Indeed, we read in the biblical text that "great was the joy of the people, because the shame of the pagans had been wiped away". Therefore, the Pope added, "the people rediscovered their own law, they rediscovered their own being; the temple became, once again, the place of the encounter with God".

"Jesus does the same when he expels those who were selling in the temple: he purifies the temple," said Francis, referring to the Gospel passage from Luke (19:45-48). In doing so, the Lord makes the temple "as it should be: pure, only for God and for the people who go to pray". But, on our part, "how do we purify the temple of God?". The answer, said the Pope, lies in "three words that can help us understand. First: vigilance; second: service; third: gratuitousness'.

"Vigilance", therefore, is the first word suggested by the Pontiff: "Not only the physical temple, the palaces, the temples are the temples of God: the most important temple of God is our heart, our soul". So much so that, the Pope pointed out, St Paul tells us: 'You are the temple of the Holy Spirit'. Therefore, Francis reiterated, 'within us dwells the Holy Spirit'.

And this is precisely 'why the first word' proposed by Francis is 'vigilance'. Hence some questions for an examination of conscience: "What is happening in my heart? What is happening within me? How do I deal with the Holy Spirit? Is the Holy Spirit one more of the many idols I have within me or do I care for the Holy Spirit? Have I learnt to be vigilant within myself, so that the temple in my heart is only for the Holy Spirit?"

Here, then, is the importance of "purifying the temple, the inner temple, and keeping watch," said the Pope. With an explicit invitation: "Be careful, be vigilant: what happens in your heart? Who is coming, who is going... What are your feelings, your ideas? Do you speak with the Holy Spirit? Do you listen to the Holy Spirit?" It is, therefore, a matter of "watchfulness: be attentive to what is happening in our temple, within us".

The "second word is service," continued the Pontiff. "Jesus," he recalled, "makes us understand that he is present in a special way in the temple of those in need". And "he says it clearly: he is present in the sick, those who suffer, the hungry, the imprisoned, he is present there". For the word "service" Francis also suggested some questions to ask oneself: "Do I care for that temple? Do I take care of the temple with my service? Do I approach it to help, to clothe, to console those in need?"

"St John Chrysostom," Francis noted, "rebuked those who made so many offerings to adorn, to beautify the physical temple and did not take care of those in need: he rebuked and said: 'No, this is not good, first the service then the ornaments'". In short, we are called to "purify the temple that is others". And to do this well, we must ask ourselves: "How do I help to purify that temple?". The answer is simple: "With service, with service to the needy. Jesus himself says that he is present there". And 'he is present there,' the Pope explained, 'and when we approach to give service, to help, we resemble Jesus who is there'.

In this regard, Francis confided that he had 'seen such a beautiful icon of Cyrene helping Jesus carry the cross: looking closely at that icon, the Cyrene had the same face as Jesus'. Therefore, 'if you guard that temple which is the sick, the imprisoned, the needy and the hungry, your heart will also be more like that of Jesus'. Precisely "that is why guarding the temple means service".

"The first word, vigilance," the Pontiff summarised, expresses something that "happens within us". While "the second word" leads us towards "service to the needy: that is purifying the temple". And "the third word that comes to mind," he continued, "reading the Gospel is gratuitousness. In the Gospel passage, Jesus says: "My house shall be a house of prayer. You, on the other hand, have made it a den of thieves'. Precisely with these words of the Lord in mind, said the Pope, "how many times with sadness do we enter a temple - think of a parish, a bishopric - and we do not know whether we are in the house of God or in a supermarket: there are businesses there, even the price list for the sacraments" and "gratuitousness is missing".

But 'God saved us gratuitously, he did not make us pay for anything,' the Pontiff insisted, inviting us to be of help 'so that our churches, our parishes are not a supermarket: that they are a house of prayer, that they are not a den of thieves, but that they are free service'. Of course, the Pope added, someone could object that 'we must have money to maintain the structure and also we must have money to feed the priests, the catechists'. The Pontiff's answer is clear: "You give freely and God will do the rest, God will do what is lacking".

"Guarding the temple," Francis affirmed, "means this: vigilance, service and gratuitousness". First of all "vigilance in the temple of our heart: what happens there, be careful because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit". Then "service to the needy" he repeated, also suggesting reading chapter 25 of Matthew's gospel. Service also "to the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, those in need because Christ is there", always with the certainty that "the needy is the temple of Christ".

Finally, the Pope concluded, the 'third' point is the 'gratuitousness in the service that is given in our churches: churches of service, churches that are gratuitous, just as salvation was gratuitous, and not 'supermarket churches'."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 25/11/2017]

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

The liturgy today has us celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called the "mother and head of all the Churches of the Urbe and Orbe". Actually, this Basilica was the first to be built after the Edict of the Emperor Constantine who, in 313, conceded to Christians the freedom to practice their religion. The same Emperor gave Pope Miltiades the ancient estate of the Laterani family and had the Basilica, the Baptistery and the Patriarchate built for him, the latter being the Bishop of Rome's residence, where Popes resided until the Avignon era. The dedication of the Basilica was celebrated by Pope Silvester in about 324 and the temple was dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour; only after the 6th century were the names of Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist added, from which came its common name. This occasion initially only involved the city of Rome; then, from 1565 onwards, it extended to the entire Church of the Roman rite. Hence, honouring the holy building is meant as an expression of love and veneration for the Roman Church "which", as St Ignatius of Antioch affirms, "presides in charity" over the entire Catholic communion (cf. Epistula ad Romanos, 1, 1). 

The Word of God during this Solemnity recalls an essential truth: the stone temple is the symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, that the Apostles Peter and Paul had, in their Letters, already understood as a "spiritual building", constructed by God with the "living stones" that are the Christians, upon the one foundation that is Jesus Christ, who is in turn compared to the "cornerstone" cf. 1 Cor 3: 9-11, 16-17; 1 Pt 2: 4-8; Eph 2: 20-22). "Brethren,... you are God's building", St Paul writes, and he adds, "God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3: 9c, 17). The beauty and the harmony of churches, destined to render praise to God, invites us human beings too, though limited and sinful, to convert ourselves to form a "cosmos", a well-ordered construction, in close communion with Jesus, who is the true Holy of Holies. This reaches its culmination in the Eucharistic liturgy, in which the "ecclesia" that is, the community of baptized finds itself again united to listen to the Word of God and nourish itself on the Body and Blood of Christ. Gathered around this twofold table, the Church of living stones builds herself up in truth and in love and is moulded interiorly by the Holy Spirit, transforming herself into what she receives, conforming herself ever more to her Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she lives in sincere and fraternal unity, thus becomes a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God. 

Dear friends, today's feast celebrates an ever current mystery: that God desires to build himself a spiritual temple in the world, a community that adores him in spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4: 23-24). But this occasion reminds us also of the importance of the concrete buildings in which the community gathers together to celebrate God's praises. Every community therefore has the duty to carefully guard their holy structures, which constitute a precious religious and historical patrimony. For this we invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, so that she might help us to become, like her, a "house of God", living temple of his love. 

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 9 November 2008]

1. "The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple" (I Cor 3: 17). We listen once again to these words of the apostle Paul in today's solemn liturgy of the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, Cathedral of Rome, Mother of all the churches. 

Every place set aside for divine worship is a sign of that spiritual temple, which is the Church, made up of living stones:  of the faithful united by the one faith, of the participation in the Sacraments and of the bond of charity. The Saints, in particular, are precious stones of that spiritual temple. 

Holiness, fruit of the unceasing work of God's Spirit, shines in the new Blesseds: Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí y Moreno, priest; Valentin Paquay, priest; Luigi Maria Monti, religious; Bonifacia Rodríguez Castro, virgin; Rosalie Rendu, virgin. 

2. The vision of the Sanctuary presented to us in today's liturgy by the prophet Ezechiel describes a stream that flows from the temple carrying life, vigour and hope: "Everything will live where the river goes" (Ez 47: 9). This image expresses God's infinite goodness and his design of salvation which scales the walls of the sacred enclosure and thus becomes the blessing of the entire earth. 

Juan Nepomuceno Zegrí y Moreno, an upright priest of deep Eucharistic piety, understood well how the proclamation of the Gospel needed to become a dynamic reality, able to transform the apostle's life. As a parish priest, he was committed to "visibly providing for all those who, suffering from abandonment, must drink from the bitter chalice and receive nourishment from the bread of tears" (19 June 1859). 

He developed his redemptive spirituality with this purpose, born from intimacy with Christ and directed towards charity for the neediest. He was inspired, through invocation to the Virgin of Mercy, Mother of the Redeemer, to found the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, with the aim of making God's love ever-present where there was "just one suffering to heal, one misfortune to console, one single hope to instil in hearts". Today this Institute, following in the footsteps of its Founder, continues its dedication to witness and promote redemptive charity. 

3. Fr Valentin Paquay is truly a disciple of Christ and a priest according to the heart of God. As an apostle of mercy, he spent long hours in the confessional, with a special gift to place sinners anew on the right path, reminding men and women of the greatness of divine forgiveness. Placing the celebration of the Eucharistic mystery at the centre of his priestly life, he invited the faithful to come frequently to communion with the Bread of Life. 

Like many saints, at a young age Fr Valentin was entrusted to the protection of Our Lady, who was invoked under the title of Cause of our Joy in the Church where he grew up, in Tongres. Following his example, may you be able to serve your brothers and sisters to give them the joy of meeting Christ in truth! 

4. "I saw water flowing out from beneath the threshold of the temple... everything will live where the water goes" (Ez 47: 1, 9). The image of water, which brings everything back to life, illuminates well the life of Bl. Luigi Maria Monti, entirely dedicated to healing the physical and spiritual wounds of the sick and the orphaned. He loved to call them "Christ's poor ones", and he served them, enlivened by a living faith and sustained by intense and continual prayer. In his evangelical commitment, he was constantly inspired by the example of the Holy Virgin and placed the Congregation he founded under the sign of Mary Immaculate. 

How relevant is the message of this new Blessed! For his spiritual sons and for all believers, he is an example of faithfulness to God's call and to the proclamation of the Gospel of charity. He is a model of solidarity towards the needy and of affectionate entrustment to the Immaculate Virgin. 

5. The words of Jesus proclaimed in today's Gospel: "Stop turning my Father's house into a marketplace" (Jn 2: 16), question today's society, often tempted to turn everything into commodity and profit, putting aside values and dignity which do not have a price. Since the human person is the likeness and dwelling place of God, a purification is necessary, so as to protect the person beginning with his or her social condition or work. 

Bl. Bonifacia Rodríguez Castro was dedicated entirely to this activity; she herself was a worker who understood the risks of the social condition of her age. In the simple and protected life of the Holy Family of Nazareth, she discovered a model of the spirituality of work that gives the human person dignity and makes every activity, however little it may seem, an offering to God and a means of sanctification. 

This is the spirit that she wished to instil in working women, starting with the Josephine Association and then with the foundation of the Servants of St Joseph, who continue their work in the world with simplicity, joy and renunciation. 

6. In an era troubled by social conflicts, Rosalie Rendu joyfully became a servant to the poorest, restoring dignity to each one by means of material help, education and the teaching of the Christian mystery, inducing Frédéric Ozanam to place himself at the service of the poor. 

Her charity was inventive. Where did she draw the strength to carry out so many things? From her intense prayer life and the continuous praying of the Rosary, which she never abandoned. Her secret was simple: to see the face of Christ in every man and woman, as a true daughter of St Vincent de Paul and like another Sister of her epoch, St Catherine Labouré. Let us give thanks for the witness of charity that the Vincentian family gives unceasingly to the world! 

7. "He spoke of the temple of his body" (Jn 2: 21). These works evoke the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ. All of the Church's members must be conformed to Jesus crucified and risen. 

Mary, Mother of Christ and our Mother, is our strength and guide in this commitment. May the new Blesseds, whom we contemplate today in the glory of Heaven, intercede for us. May it also be granted to us all that we one day find ourselves in Paradise, to experience together the joy of everlasting life. Amen!

[Pope John Paul II, homily 9 November 2003]