XXVII Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) 6 October 2024

1. It often happens, as on this Sunday, that the Gospel and the first reading refer to each other as if to complete the message that God wants to communicate to us. In the first reading, taken from the book of Genesis, we read: "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for man to be alone: I want to make him a helper who will be a match for him'" (Gen 2:18- 24). It is best to clarify at once that Genesis is not a history book, but a wisdom text dating back to the 10th century B.C., when a theologian, probably in King Solomon's court, wanted to reflect on the existential anxieties of the human being, asking himself, for example, "Why death? Why suffering? Why so many problems and difficulties in our lives? And to seek an answer, he developed a symbolic tale analogous to the parables of Jesus. The author of the book of Genesis is therefore not a scientist who wants to explain to us the why and when of creation, but rather a believer who wants to help us understand God's plan regarding the human being, with symbolic elements to be well interpreted because we are not talking about a hypothetical first couple of mankind - Adam and Eve - but in general about the origin of mankind and in fact in Hebrew the word Adam is not the name of someone, it means instead 'earth' that is made of dusty soil (adamah). For the creation of woman, the author of the sacred text uses the image of sleep and the rib taken from man. What does the Word of God want to tell us? Firstly, woman is part of creation from the beginning, and while this is a completely obvious fact for us, in those times it was an absolute novelty. In Mesopotamia, Abraham's homeland, it was thought that woman had not been created from the beginning and that man had previously lived well on his own.  The Bible, on the other hand, places the creation of woman right at the beginning and above all introduces her as a gift from God; without her, man could not be happy and humanity would be incomplete. The divinities of the peoples of the time, often rivals among themselves, created men to keep them as slaves; on the contrary, in the Bible God is One and by creating man he places him in the garden of paradise to be happy together with him. The phrase "It is not good that man should be alone" shows that he cares a great deal about our happiness and this constitutes an absolute and important novelty: that is, human sexuality, understood as a love relationship, is beautiful and good, an integral part of the original design of creation, willed by God as an element united to relational enjoyment between man and woman.  The idea of the rib taken from Adam emphasises that the Creator's design is not the domination of man over woman, but their equality in dialogue, which implies both intimacy and distance in a climate of mutual gift. The Hebrew helps us to better perceive why man is called 'Ish' and woman 'isha', two close terms that indicate belonging to the same family, even though one is different from the other.

2. There is one detail on which we focus our attention. In the second chapter of Genesis we read that the Lord asked man to name all the cattle, all the birds of the air and all the wild animals, entrusting him with power over the whole of creation. Adam, however, "found no help to match him" (Gen 2:20); only in front of the woman is his cry full of emotion and gratitude in the sense that he recognises her as part of himself and therefore considers her his "alter ego". In the astonishment of this moment, Yahweh's words take on resonance: "I want to make him a helper who corresponds to him", so that she may be his "interface". And when he specifies that 'it is not good for man to be alone', it is not to be understood that it is bad for man to remain unmarried, but that humanity is complete in its duality of man and woman, in a relationship of dialogue that harmonises intimacy with respect for mutual otherness. Herein lies the vocation of the couple: to be the image of God One and Trinitarian Communion. Another wisdom book of the Old Testament, The Song of Songs, a poetic dialogue between two lovers, reveals the mystery of divine intimacy by resorting to the outbursts, tenderness and intimacy of a loving couple. In Jewish tradition it is proclaimed at Passover/Pesach, which always falls in spring, a time of renewal and flowering, which ties in well with the themes of love and fertility expressed in the Canticle. Even more interestingly, the Jews proclaim the Song of Songs in the Passover celebration, the feast of the Covenant between God and his people, thus taking on a deep spiritual meaning: it is not just a hymn to human love, but a celebration of salvation and spiritual rebirth. Just as the Jews were freed from physical slavery, so divine love gives human life a new beginning. It was original sin that wounded the enchantment of the relationship with God, and this is reflected in the conjugal relationship that has become tiring and difficult because, as St Augustine writes in this regard: "marriage is a good whose union cannot be broken without sin" (De bono conjugali,24)

3. In the gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus a provocative question about divorce, and he, as always, does not answer directly, instead helping them to seek the elements of the answer themselves.  Divorce existed in the Old Testament along with the act of repudiation, but was not codified systematically in the Torah, but only mentioned in Deuteronomy in a specific context without establishing detailed rules (Deut 24:1-4). By Jesus' time it had become a relatively widespread practice and there were different interpretations and practical applications. For Jesus, it is not casuistry that is important, but going back to the original plan of God who created human beings in his image - man and woman - so that the man detached from his family would be united with the woman to form one (Gen 2:24). If the couple reflects the image of God, its vocation can only be indivisibility, indissolubility, so that the conclusion becomes logical: 'So let no man put asunder what God has joined together'. Easy to say and complicated to realise as experience shows. This is because marriage is not a human invention, but God's plan, and it is only possible to bring it to full fruition with His support. That is, goodwill and human resources are not enough to preserve the unity of a couple and family. Only when one prays and lives united to God, with the help of his mercy does what is humanly impossible become a possible reality and the source of peaceful coexistence.  This is the heroism of couples who embrace the Gospel to the point of martyrdom of love in spite of everything: canonised married couples and many others hidden in the simplicity of daily fidelity. They courageously overcome obstacles and accept that the inevitable daily misunderstandings will never break their unity that the Lord has welded with matrimonial consecration. If this is the ideal that should never be hidden or reduced for fear of asking too much of those called to Christian marriage, a question often challenges our communities: what to do with couples who have lost their way or who prefer cohabitation to marriage? Every pastor has the duty to accompany everyone with patience and open-mindedness, especially when lacerating wounds mark their existence. However, while being aware of the existing problems, it would be a mistake to stop believing that only God's love can save the unity of the couple and the family from the shipwreck of divorce. In the gospel, Jesus adds: "because of the hardness of your heart" Moses allowed the writing of an act of repudiation, making it clear that the law is only a stage in divine pedagogy, while the goal always remains the supreme law of love. The risk is therefore 'hardening of the heart', that is, the pretence of being able to rely only on one's own strength. Referring to children, Jesus teaches that if unity in the family is to be preserved, the humble simplicity of the child full of trust in those who love him must be preserved. The secret then is to experience God's merciful love.

Happy Sunday to you all.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Scandal of division

1. Today's Gospel page is at the end of chapter 9 of Mark's gospel and closes the discourse that Jesus gives to the disciples inviting them to reflect well on their way of behaving towards the "little ones who believe in me" using very decisive tones. He says in fact that it is preferable to be without a hand or a foot or to pluck out an eye than to be a cause of scandal because "it is better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be cast into hell where their worm does not die and the fire does not extinguish it". This is where the text that the liturgy proposes for our meditation this Sunday stops; but if we continue reading, we find in the last two verses of the chapter this recommendation: 'Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another'.  It seems to me that this concluding invitation gives us an understanding of the meaning and value of the advice and precepts of Jesus that St Mark has collected and which he is keen to point out are addressed precisely to the Twelve.  But let us proceed with order.

2. Last Sunday we paused to contemplate Jesus, who, having arrived in Capernaum with the apostles, discusses the mission that he is about to entrust to them and, hearing them argue about who will be the greatest, he does not say that it is bad to aspire to be the first, but indicates the way to get there: to make himself the last and the servant of all. Unpleasant music to their ears as is immediately apparent from the reply of John, whom Jesus nicknames with his brother James "the sons of thunder": "Master, we saw one casting out demons in your name and we wanted to stop him because he did not follow us". In the third chapter of his gospel, Mark notes that "Jesus called to himself those whom he wanted... he made Twelve of them to be with him and also to send them out to preach and that they might have power to cast out demons" (3:13-19).  The group of apostles is therefore well aware of the authority granted to them and the power they received to cast out demons because of their connection with Jesus. Understandable then is the reaction to the claim of those who are not part of the group but dare to cast out devils even in his name. John reacts like the young Joshua we heard in the first reading. Having grown up from childhood with Moses, he was in good enough confidence to allow himself to point out to him that when he took away part of the spirit that was upon him and placed it over the seventy elders chosen as co-workers, in truth there were two missing, Eldad and Medad, who had remained in the camp and the problem, according to him, was that they too had begun to prophesy.  It was not right that those two, even though they had not responded to the leader's summons, should still act under the influence of the spirit. Moses on the other hand rejoiced and rebuked him for his envy. Jesus does the same thing when he forbids the apostles to cultivate the spirit of exclusion so that to John, who informs him that he had prevented a person who was not of the group from casting out demons, he replies firmly: "Do not prevent him". An extraordinary peace dwells in the heart of Christ: he does not pretend to have everything under control, and when he constitutes the good that is done, he admits that someone can perform miracles in his name even if they are not part of those he has chosen as disciples.  And it is as if he recognises that his own mission is somehow beyond his control because he shares it, without his knowledge, with people he does not even know. He thus invites the Twelve not to keep the door of the heart closed: 'He who is not against us is for us', a way of emphasising that there are people 'of ours' even if they are not on our list. We take here an invitation to broaden our vision as Christians in the world: we do not have exclusivity; God works as he wills far beyond ourselves and uses anyone for his plans of salvation.  I am reminded of the passage in Acts of the Apostles 18:9-11 that tells how in pagan and worldly Corinth, which was the heart of the Roman province of Achaia, St Paul experiences a dramatic break with the Jewish community that rejects his testimony about Jesus Christ. He is sad and discouraged, but during the night, appearing to him in a vision, the Lord says to him: "Do not be afraid; keep speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you and no one will try to harm you: in this city I have a numerous people". Do we not also sometimes feel the futility of our ministry when we see the number of believers dwindling and notice that some come out of our fold and achieve a success that we pretend should only be of our community? Or does it bother us to notice that there are people or groups within the community who think and do things differently from us? Jesus keeps telling us not to torment ourselves with too many mental crises because he - he assures us - has a 'numerous people' everywhere. Paul's Corinth is well the image of today's pluralist, secularised, libertarian, cosmopolitan, opulent and often desperate society because it struggles to find an answer to life's many 'whys'. 'Corinthian living' at the time meant cultivating full freedom of customs, and today it is no less so. The temptation to become discouraged or the risk of cultivating a certain ill-concealed envy and jealousy that creates divisions in the community could then grow. Jesus does not cease to encourage us: 'Keep talking. God has his people everywhere, not often visible to the human eye, and as the Father of all he spreads the fruitful action of the Spirit in all directions. We are not asked to be in control of the situation, but simply to proclaim/witness the Gospel always. However, the need for sound discernment remains. 

3. In Matthew's gospel Jesus states that one recognises the tree by its fruit: the good tree bears good fruit, while the sick tree bears bad fruit (12:33) and concludes: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. This example is missing from Mark's gospel, even though today's text means exactly the same thing. The link, sometimes not immediately perceptible, between all the statements in Jesus' discourse then becomes clear. He means in the first place that there is good fruit also beyond our communities, which means that there are good trees everywhere and we do not have the copyright of goodness and God, but it is Jesus who is at the heart of the proclamation of Christians.  Mark expresses it with this example: 'whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name because you are Christ's will not lose his reward.  On the contrary, there can also be bad fruit within our community and Jesus draws this conclusion: if the diseased tree that produces bad fruit is to be eliminated, everything in the community that sows the scandal of division must be resolutely suppressed. And he offers this deliberately exaggerated comparison: "If your hand is a cause of scandal to you, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life with one hand, rather than with both hands going into Gehenna", equal treatment for the foot, and the eye. Geenna, which Jesus evokes, is the well-known chasm surrounding Jerusalem from south to west where rubbish was burnt and in the time of kings Ahaz and Manasseh children were sacrificed, a practice so harshly stigmatised by the prophets to the point that Geenna became the symbol of the greatest possible horror and the sign of the punishment of the wicked on the day of universal judgement.  It is understood that Jesus does not recommend physical mutilation despite using emphatically violent expressions. If he resorts to this, it is so that no one underestimates the gravity of what is at stake, namely the community. Let us remember that the discourse at Capernaum starts precisely from the ambition of the apostles in the discussion on who was to be the greatest (9:34) and in the end it becomes clear that in every Christian community the only concern of its members must be to let themselves be consumed by passion for him and his gospel: nothing else! In this light it becomes easy to understand the recommendation that closes the chapter: 'Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another'.

Happy Sunday! +Giovanni D'Ercole

(Mk 10:2-16)

Legalistic conception and hardness of heart

(Mk 10:1-12)

The controversy with the fanatics of the law highlights the need for a new messianic community, which goes beyond the exclusively legalistic moral conception.

The theme chosen by the Pharisees lent itself to putting Jesus in difficulty regarding the ideal of love.

The marriage law required the wife to become the property of her husband.

So in any case the divorce redounded to the detriment of the woman, always seen as an inferior being.

In the society of the time, male domination and marginalization of the weak were established situations.

To protect the freedom of women (Dt 24:1-4), the law required that the tired husband [even for a nonsense or whim] still wrote a divorce "letter" that sanctioned her free.

Unlike Roman society, the wife didn’t have the same right: a social plague, which obscured her dignity.

In practice she was like an object, and a slave even in her own home.

But in creating the human being, this was not the intent of the Creator. Thus Jesus takes away the privileges - even domestic ones - asking for maximum equality of rights and duties.

He knew that the apostles themselves preferred not to marry than to renounce the exclusivity of command (Mt 19:10: «If the situation of a man with a woman is like this, it’s not worth getting married»).

The Master does not allow the dominion of the strong over the weak, therefore the man must lose hegemony over the woman.

The new law is love, and love doesn’t allow possessions, emotional exploitation, fixed chains of command.

Both marriage and celibacy are choices that recognize the value of the Person.

Awe-inspiring options for God's Kingdom - not in the service of any compromise, supremacy, or other pretentious interests.

The divine plan for humanity is transparent, broad and generous. The marriage union itself is called to express the goal of a Fullness.

The stronger does not buy the weaker in ownership, but both enrich each other - with loyalty and even in differences, seen as advanced points of a proposal for growth and expansion.

Christ demands a new approach to ethics. This goes beyond the regulations, which they try to adapt to the order.

Therefore, the Lord's teaching here appeals to the divine creative Act which has engraved a capacity for gift and growth in person's nature - and it can’t be regulated by contract clauses, nor subjected to conditioning and subjection.

The step of the Faith builds people and communities, completing them without too many accelerations, or forced restrictions. For a Love that originates us without rest.

The Family thus becomes a ‘small domestic Church’ because it’s both autonomous and comprehensive; no more nomenclatures, compromises, masks, gags or straitjackets.

Then the complementarity experienced in an authentic way - without exteriority - can go beyond the case studies of the legal systems.

In this way it has good personal and social outcomes, evoking the very Presence of God in the world.

Let the freewheeling excluded come to Me

The renunciation of pride - and the ‘nose’ without citizenship

(Mk 10:13-16)

«Because in the synodal process, 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 for that reason. The Holy Spirit in his freedom knows no boundaries or tests of admission. If the parish is to be a home to everyone in the neighbourhood, and not a kind of exclusive club, please, let’s keep the doors and windows open […] Don’t be disheartened; be prepared for surprises» (Pope Francis).

Jesus identifies with the weak (v.16). And in certain terms He even intends to propose them to veteran followers!

This is precisely to indicate the type of believer he dreams they will become (v.15): persons who recognize the desires of others as legitimate, and doesn’t make too many fuss if see themself diminished in social consideration.

Not infrequently church leaders felt expert and self-sufficient from the very beginning...

Conversely, they must be ready in Christ Jesus to be ‘born’ again and again, otherwise their eye will remain in a caricatured and blocked vision of the Kingdom.

The "little one", on the other hand, has not mental reserves - as well as fewer ballast: he throws himself in a genuine and enthusiastic way toward the exploits of the Faith’s adventure.

The Lord doesn’t refuse to «touch» directly (v.13) those who are considered impure, women, little ones or their mothers: a disgrace according to the ritual norms of the time.

Women and children - together with pagans - were considered unreliable and impure by nature, indeed contaminants.

The Master has no fear of transgressing ancient religious law, or of being evaluated as infected himself!

Christ embraces, blesses, puts his hand on the small servants - as if to recognize and truly consecrate them: He is reflected in them as if were one of them.

It means that the concern of the disciples mustn’t be that of “re-education” common to all various more or less mystery creeds of the time.

Indeed, the most eloquent sign of the Kingdom of God on earth is precisely the welcoming spirit of the marginalized: those who do not even know what it means to claim rights only for themselves.

The quality of Life in the Spirit is measured by the ability to recover the opposite sides in each believer who has the desire to walk towards his own completeness.

Thus, in the Community this dynamic of recovery increases and overtakes thanks to the ‘integration’ that becomes a fruitful conviviality of differences.

Welcoming, hosting the weak, distant, small and excluded is personal and common enrichment - an eloquent sign of the same life and divine character in us and in the Church.

Not a winning institution, but servant of humanity in need of everything.

And it’s precisely the ‘little’ ones in Christ who become teachers of adults.

This the angelic modesty and evangelical ‘littleness’ that makes us emancipated and immediately up to par; but above all Blessed, happy to be «minors» even ill-considered.

[27th Sunday in O.T.  (B)   October 6, 2024]

Mt 19:3-12 (cf. Gen 2:18-24)

We are familiar with the fluctuations of our emotionality: the person who now makes me lose my head, in a week's time will perhaps strike a nerve. Every morning we get up in a different mood; after a while the psyche gives opposite signals, then returns to its previous positions.

Obviously the invisible thread of the relationship cannot succeed happily and firmly if the assumptions are only seductive: it will end in an escalation of apathy or arguments.

The Word of God proposes a very wise discernment for engaged couples: the new birth.

A girl will leave her father if in the flamboyant relationship she discovers a prospect of improved security, and even greater fatherhood or protection possibilities; a young man will leave his mother if in the torch of the new relationship he sees a principle of welcome, listening and understanding unknown or superior to his own mother.

New Genesis: this is the unrenounceable vocational perspective, the only one capable of integrating the fatigue of putting oneself on the line and welcoming the idea in two of being able to also step out of one's own positions - even those at the beginning of the relationship.

In falling in love we allow ourselves to be activated and traversed by a mysterious Force that [even beyond the charm of the partner] wants to lead us to a sort of unleashing of hidden energies, in the incessant search for identity-character.

Love originates us, it leads us along a path not without interruptions, which incessantly force us back to the Beginning; to re-choose the values on which we have gambled. Hence, to be born and to begin anew, unexpectedly becoming more and more 'young'.

That flaming torch will make us make extraordinary encounters, first of all in the meaningful direction of the regenerated intimate; thus there will be no more need to capture the spouse, to keep him or her still or close to him or her.

It is the sacred desire that creates us; then - at Two - it becomes even more effectively the substance of what each one is called to be - through steps of happiness that prepare a new origination, a distinct outline and destiny.

All this so that from wave to wave, from birth to birth, and under the stimulus of continuous Dialogue, our essence is fulfilled, allowing the profound Calling by Name to flourish.

Natural complementarity can wear away with age, fatigue, frustrations. On the other hand, a reflection of absolute Love, which postpones and gives vertigo [because it places us in plots outside of time] is a spectacle that shakes, moves and conquers.

Irradiating God who creates (within us and in relationship), reflecting a great unceasing Origin within human unity, makes us be together - in two but with ourselves present, and be-With our Root.

An innate Source that does not express itself in straitjackets or in an identification: it gives meaning and breath even to the secondary, the repetitive and everyday that undermines - and seems to want us to fade into disenchantment.

If the idea of the Principle is always at home, it will no longer be necessary for the bark of everyday life to change, nor for too many situations to change: it is that glimpse of Eternity that makes one re-born into the (personal but complete) human project of Genesis.

It is a Presence... and a Source that generates, and the Life Horizon of the One who puts Himself into things... that changes so much of our little things.

The Action of the One who gives birth to the ancient and new radiance of the soul makes us grow and be born again, to be both with ourselves and more firmly together.

The Family becomes a small 'domestic church' from which 'the new citizens of human society are born' (Lumen Gentium no.11).

It thus manifests and unfolds the icon of a God who does not express Himself rigidly, but in creating.

Thanks to Parents who are able to second the "vocation proper to each one", in the new beginnings and in the rush of successive sprouts and buds each sapling "will leave his father and mother".

To internalise and live the message:

What more has the church experience given you in understanding the man-woman relationship? What about communion and autonomy?

Legalistic conception and hardness of heart

(Mt 19:3-12)

The polemic with the fanatics of the law emphasises the need for a new messianic community, which overcomes the exclusively legalistic moral conception.

The theme chosen by the Pharisees lent itself to challenging Jesus on the ideal of love.

The marriage law of the time required the wife to make herself the husband's property.

So in any case, divorce reverberated against the woman, always seen as an inferior being.

In the society of the time, macho domination and marginalisation of the weak were established situations.

In order to protect the woman's own freedom (Deut 24:1-4), the law required that the fed-up husband [even for a trifle or whim] should write a divorce 'letter' anyway, sanctioning her freedom.Unlike Roman society, the wife did not have the same right: a social plague, which obscured her dignity. In practice, she was like an object and a slave even in her own home.

But in creating the human being, this was not the Creator's intent. So Jesus removed privileges - even domestic privileges - demanding maximum equality of rights and duties.

He knew that the apostles themselves preferred not to marry than to renounce the exclusivity of leadership, even if only to scapegoat: "If the man's situation with the woman is like this, it is not good to marry" (Mt 19:10).

The Master does not allow the dominion of the strong over the weak; therefore man must lose his hegemony over woman.

The new law is love, and love does not allow possessions, emotional exploitation, fixed chains of command.

Both marriage and celibacy are choices that recognise the value of the Person. Awe-inspiring options for the sake of the Kingdom of God - not in the service of any compromise, supremacy, or other vested interests.

The divine plan for humanity is transparent, broad and generous. The marriage union itself - without being bound by domination or sector - is called to express the goal of fullness.

The stronger does not buy the weaker in property, but [shading from those rigid positions, without hypocrisy and field compromises] both enrich each other - with fairness and even in the divergences, taken as advanced points of a proposal of growth and expansion.

Christ demands a new approach to ethics [once 'jurisdiction-based'], now marked by primary values. This is beyond regulations, which seek to adapt to order... perhaps curbing our parodies, or mediocrity.

Thus, Christ's teaching here appeals to the divine creative Act, which in the nature of a person has engrained a capacity for gift and growth - and which cannot be regulated by contract clauses, nor subjected to conditioning and subjection.

The seed of love must be entrusted to the earth, even muddy soil; aware of one's own weakness and the power of other providential forces.

Even with steep or uncertain ground, if one does not rush into artificial prejudices (or lamentations of ingratitude) the very interweaving of the roots will genuinely produce its flowering.

In such a spontaneous, non-subordinate energetic current, a different self-denial will be built - where the given fact from being regular becomes an overcoming that unleashes other virtues or views.

Here, the step of Faith builds persons and communities, completing them (without too much acceleration, or imperial restrictions). For a Love that unceasingly originates us.

The Family thus becomes a 'little domestic Church' because it is both autonomous and inclusive; without nomenclature, compromises, masks, gags or straitjackets.

Then complementarity lived authentically - without externalities - can go beyond the casuistry of ordinances: it has good personal and social outcomes, evoking the very Presence of God in the world.

Let the excluded come to Me

The Renunciation of Pride and Fear without Citizenship

(Mk 10:13-16)

After the surprising advice on equality in the relationship between man and woman, Jesus ups the ante by proclaiming not only the dignity of relationships between adults and children, but also between community veterans and incipients.

For the incipients, the Kingdom of God was their thing and their work. It did not come to humanity as a Gift - first and foremost to be received - but (according to the pattern) it had to be attained by corresponding observances and merits.

In the Gospel passage Christ does not speak of irresponsible childishness - a criterion unfortunately abused in asceticism (and one that makes one lacking)

No one can occupy the Lord's role on earth, simply because He remains Present and Coming; not manipulative.

If we become simple and childlike, we are so only before God: no institution can be a substitute for Jesus.

In the past, a humanly evasive Christology has unfortunately matched triumphalist ecclesiology.

In front of it - especially in provincial or mission territories - people considered puerile could sometimes fulfil it with uncritical fideism. At most, utter a few babblings (mystical or formulaic).

At the time of Jesus, failure to observe the rules of purity excluded from worship and social life both infants and those considered unfaithful or mixed, despite the fact that they gave clear evidence of solid charity.

The Greek term used - paidìon-paidìa diminutive of pàis - indicated an age between 8-12 years, typical of shop assistants and servants who in the home had to take orders from others (even strangers).

The Master took these children as an example of helpfulness, primarily for his zealous Apostles.

The latter in fact did not immediately and spontaneously enter into the way of God's family... as a true believer would into that of the Father.Only those who have the openness of children can welcome salvation, because they feel small, remain receptive, humbly know how to start again and even from below.

Jesus identifies Himself with the infirm (v.16). And in no uncertain terms he even intends to propose them to the veteran followers!

This is precisely to indicate the kind of believer he dreams of them becoming (v.15): the person who recognises the legitimate desires of others, and does not make too much fuss if he sees himself diminished in social consideration.

Church leaders not infrequently already in the early days felt themselves to be experts and self-sufficient....

Conversely, they must be ready in Christ Jesus to be born again and again, otherwise their eye will remain diseased with a caricatured and blocked vision of the Kingdom.

Those who do not trust the Father's plan will not proceed with spontaneity and generosity: they will only move forward if reassured upstream, playing a stagnant character, or a well-reciprocated task.

The small and insufficient one, on the other hand, has far fewer mental reservations - as well as fewer practical ballasts: he throws himself genuinely and enthusiastically into the enterprises of the adventure of Faith.

All this while for the 'chosen ones' (even of the official Church) the 'uncertain ones' do not count or represent anything - if not a frame sometimes useful to make numbers, but often also annoying.

Before the far-flung could approach actual inward acceptance (or mere consideration), the Judaizers wanted to subject those who approached the threshold of the churches to a lengthy and artificial verification.

This involved a kind of discipline of the arcane (typical of the various devotions) and a nerve-wracking rigmarole of code and casuistry corrections - all to be verified over time.

Jesus, on the other hand, has no qualms about directly 'touching' (v.13) those considered unclean, women, little boys or their mothers: an obscenity according to the ritual norms of the time.

Women and children - along with pagans - were considered untrustworthy and impure beings by nature, indeed defiling.

The Master has no fear of transgressing the religious law, or of being evaluated as infected Himself!

The Kingdom does not belong to the sterilised who haunt the lives of others with precepts of legal impurity; futile, external, hypocritical, senseless minutiae.

Christ embraces, blesses, lays his hand on the servants - as if to recognise them and truly consecrate them - taking into himself the unpromoted of the 'synagogues' of the time: he mirrors himself in them as if he were one of them.

It means that the disciples' concern must not be that of traditional re-education, common to all the various more or less mysterious creeds of the time.

On the contrary, the most eloquent sign of the Kingdom of God on earth is precisely the welcoming spirit of the marginalised: those who do not even know what it means to claim rights only for themselves.

Incidentally - as we well experience simply by observing our own realities - the discarded are not infrequently better introduced into the practice of even summary charity than those in roles of disembodied prestige.

Pretensions and mere sophistry degrade the concreteness of discipleship. They exclude the specific value of the new Kingdom, to the point of transforming and corrupting it - turning it upside down into caricature.

The quality of Life in the Spirit is measured by the capacity to recover the opposite sides in each believer who has the desire to walk towards his or her own completeness.

Thus, in Community this dynamic of recovery increases and recovers thanks to the integration that becomes fruitful conviviality of differences.

Welcoming, accommodating the weak, the distant, the small and the excluded is personal and communal enrichment - an eloquent sign of the same life and divine character in us and in the Church. Not a winning institution, but a servant of humanity in need of everything.

And it is precisely the little ones - totally deprived of the spirit of self-sufficiency - who in Christ become professors of the adults, that is to say, of the life-long leaders, chiefs, veterans and super-Apostles.

This is the angelic modesty and evangelical littleness that makes us emancipated and immediately equal; but above all happy, content to be minors (even misunderstood).

In short, the Kingdom is not an environment for self-sufficient adults.

To internalise and live the message:

What have you learnt from the distant ones and their call? And is your community ready for welcome, for hospitality?

Or does it consider itself self-sufficient, and is it only a big player in alms-giving - turning others into objects of paternalism?

The Feeling without citizenship

In the synodal journey, listening must take into account the sensus fidei, but it must not overlook all those 'presentiments' embodied where we would not expect it: there may be a 'sniff without citizenship', but it is no less effective. The Holy Spirit in his freedom knows no boundaries, nor does he allow himself to be limited by affiliations. If the parish is the home of everyone in the neighbourhood, not an exclusive club, I recommend: leave the doors and windows open, do not limit yourself to considering only those who attend or think like you - that will be 3, 4 or 5%, no more. Allow everyone to come in... Allow yourself to go out and let yourself be questioned, let their questions be your questions, allow yourself to walk together: the Spirit will lead you, trust the Spirit. Do not be afraid to enter into dialogue and allow yourselves to be moved by the dialogue: it is the dialogue of salvation.

Do not be disenchanted, be prepared for surprises. There is an episode in the book of Numbers (ch. 22) that tells of a donkey who will become a prophetess of God. The Jews are concluding the long journey that will lead them to the promised land. Their passage frightens King Balak of Moab, who relies on the powers of the magician Balaam to stop the people, hoping to avoid a war. The magician, in his believing way, asks God what to do. God tells him not to humour the king, but he insists, so he relents and mounts a donkey to fulfil the command he has received. But the donkey changes course because it sees an angel with an unsheathed sword standing there to represent God's opposition. Balaam pulls her, beating her, without succeeding in getting her back on the path. Until the donkey starts talking, initiating a dialogue that will open the magician's eyes, transforming his mission of curse and death into a mission of blessing and life.

This story teaches us to trust that the Spirit will always make its voice heard. Even a donkey can become the voice of God, opening our eyes and converting our wrong directions. If a donkey can do it, how much more so can a baptised person, a priest, a bishop, a pope. It is enough to entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit who uses all creatures to speak to us: he only asks us to clean our ears to hear properly.

(Pope Francis, Speech 18 September 2021)

Cf 19(s) ok; 27 B (2)

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

This Sunday, the Gospel presents to us Jesus' words on marriage. He answered those who asked him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife, as provided by a decree in Mosaic law (cf. Dt 24: 1), that this was a concession made to Moses because of man's "hardness of heart", whereas the truth about marriage dated back to "the beginning of creation" when, as is written of God in the Book of Genesis, "male and female he created them; for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one" (Mk 10: 6-7; cf. Gn 1: 27; 2: 24). 

And Jesus added: "So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Mk 10: 8-9). This is God's original plan, as the Second Vatican Council also recalled in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes: "The intimate partnership of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws:  it is rooted in the contract of its partners... God himself is the author of marriage" (n. 48). 

My thoughts now go to all Christian spouses: I thank the Lord with them for the gift of the Sacrament of Marriage, and I urge them to remain faithful to their vocation in every season of life, "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health", as they promised in the sacramental rite. 

Conscious of the grace they have received, may Christian husbands and wives build a family open to life and capable of facing united the many complex challenges of our time. 

Today, there is a special need for their witness. There is a need for families that do not let themselves be swept away by modern cultural currents inspired by hedonism and relativism, and which are ready instead to carry out their mission in the Church and in society with generous dedication. 

In the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, the Servant of God John Paul II wrote that "the sacrament of marriage makes Christian couples and parents witnesses of Christ "to the end of the earth', missionaries, in the true and proper sense, of love and life" (cf. n. 54). Their mission is directed both to inside the family - especially in reciprocal service and the education of the children - and to outside it. Indeed, the domestic community is called to be a sign of God's love for all. 

The Christian family can only fulfil this mission if it is supported by divine grace. It is therefore necessary for Christian couples to pray tirelessly and to persevere in their daily efforts to maintain the commitments they assumed on their wedding day. 

I invoke upon all families, especially those in difficulty, the motherly protection of Our Lady and of her husband Joseph. Mary, Queen of the family, pray for us!

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 October 2006]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. Today, too, I would like to continue my reflection on marriage, the family and natural law. At the basis of the family is the love between a man and a woman: a love understood as a gift of self, mutual and profound, expressed also in sexual, conjugal union.

The Church is sometimes reproached for making sex a 'taboo'. The truth is quite different! Throughout history, in contrast to Manichaean tendencies, Christian thought has developed a harmonious and positive vision of the human being, recognising the significant and valuable role that masculinity and femininity play in human life.

After all, the biblical message is unequivocal: 'God created man in his own image . Male and female he created them' (Gen 1:27). Carved into this statement is the dignity of every man and woman, in their equality of nature, but also in their sexual diversity. It is a fact that profoundly touches the constitution of the human being. "From sex, in fact, the human person derives the characteristics that on a biological, psychological and spiritual level make him or her man or woman" (Congr. pro Doctrina Fidei, Persona humana, 1).

I reiterated this recently in my Letter to Families: "Man is created 'from the beginning' as male and female: the life of the human community - of small communities as well as of the whole of society - bears the mark of this original duality. From it derive the 'masculinity' and 'femininity' of individuals, just as from it every community draws its own characteristic richness in the mutual completion of persons" (John Paul II, Letter to Families, n. 6).

2. Sexuality thus belongs to the Creator's original design, and the Church cannot help but hold it in high esteem. At the same time, neither can she fail to ask everyone to respect it in its profound nature.

As a dimension inscribed in the totality of the person, sexuality constitutes a 'language' at the service of love, and therefore cannot be experienced as pure instinctuality. It must be governed by man as an intelligent and free being.

This does not mean, however, that it can be manipulated at will. In fact, it possesses its own typical psychological and biological structure, aimed both at communion between man and woman and at the birth of new persons. Respecting this structure and this inseparable connection is not 'biologism' or 'moralism', it is attention to the truth of being a man, of being a person. It is by virtue of this truth, perceptible even in the light of reason, that so-called 'free love', homosexuality and contraception are morally unacceptable. These are behaviours that distort the profound meaning of sexuality, preventing it from being at the service of the person, communion and life.

3. May the Blessed Virgin, model of femininity, tenderness and self-mastery, help the men and women of our time not to trivialise sex, in the name of a false modernity. May young people, women and families look to her. May Mary, most chaste Mother, enlighten the representatives of nations so that at the next meeting in Cairo they may take decisions inspired by authentic human values, which are the basis of the desired civilisation of love.

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus 26 June 1994]

This Sunday’s Gospel reading (cf. Mk 10:2-16) offers us Jesus’ words on marriage. The passage opens with the provocation of the Pharisees who ask Jesus if it is “lawful for a man to divorce his wife”, as the Law of Moses provides (cf. vv. 2-4). Jesus firstly, with the wisdom and authority that come to him from the Father, puts the Mosaic prescription into perspective, saying: “For your hardness of heart he” — that is, the ancient legislator — “wrote you this commandment” (v. 5). Thus it is a concession that is needed to mend the flaws created by our selfishness, but it does not correspond to the Creator’s original intention.

And here, Jesus again takes up the Book of Genesis: “from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’” (vv. 6-8). And he concludes: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (v. 9). In the Creator’s original plan, it is not that a man marries a woman and, if things do not go well, he repudiates her. No. Rather, the man and the woman are called to recognize each other, to complete each other, to help each other in marriage.

This teaching of Jesus is very clear and defends the dignity of marriage as a union of love which implies fidelity. What allows the spouses to remain united in marriage is a love of mutual giving supported by Christ’s grace. However, if in the spouses, individual interests, one’s own satisfaction prevails, then their union cannot endure.

And the Gospel passage itself reminds us, with great realism, that man and woman, called to experience a relationship of love, may regretfully behave in a way that places it in crisis. Jesus does not admit all that can lead to the failure of the relationship. He does so in order to confirm God’s plan, in which the power and beauty of the human relationship emerge. The Church, on the one hand, does not tire of confirming the beauty of the family as it was consigned to us by Scripture and by Tradition; at the same time, she strives to make her maternal closeness tangibly felt by those who experience relationships that are broken or that continue in a difficult and trying way. 

God’s way of acting with his unfaithful people — that is, with us — teaches us that wounded love can be healed by God through mercy and forgiveness. For this reason in these situations, the Church is not asked to express immediately and only condemnation. On the contrary, before so many painful marital failures, she feels called to show love, charity and mercy, in order to lead wounded and lost hearts back to God.

Let us invoke the Virgin Mary, that she help married couples to always live and renew their union, beginning with God’s original Gift.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 7 October 2018]

Scientists and Lowlies: abstract world and incarnation

(Lk 10:17-24)

Unlike the fruitless action of the Apostles [Lk 9 passim], the return of the new evangelizers is full of joy and results (vv. 17-20). Why?

The leaders looked at religiosity with purposes of interest. Theology professors were used to evaluating every comma starting from their own knowledge, ridiculous but opinionated - unrelated to events.

What remains tied to customs and usual protagonists doesn’t make us dream, it’s not amazing appearance and testimony of Elsewhere; takes away expressive richness from the Announcement and life.

The Lord rejoices in his own experience, which brings a non-epidermal joy and a teaching from the Spirit - about those who are well disposed, and able to understand the depths of the Kingdom, in common things.

In short, after a first moment of enthusiastic crowds, the Christ deepens the issues and finds himself all against, except God and the leasts: the weightlesses, but with a great desire to start from scratch.

Glimpse of the Mystery that lifts history - without making it a possession.

At first even Jesus was amazed by the refusal of those who considered themselves already satisfied and no longer expected anything that could overcome habits.

Then He understands, praises and blesses the Father's plan: the authentic Person is born from below, and possesses «the sense of neighborhood» (FT n.152).

The Creator is Relationship simple: He demystifies the idol of greatness.

The Eternal is not the master of creation: He is Refreshment that reassures us, because makes us feel complete and lovable; He looks for us, pays attention to the language of the heart.

He’s the Tutor of the world, even of the uneducated - of the «infants»  (v.21) spontaneously empty of arrogant spirit, that is, of those who do not remain closed in their sufficient belonging.

Thus the Father-Son relationship is communicated to the poor of God: those who are endowed with the attitude of Family members (v.22).

Insignificant and invisible without great external capacities, but who abandon themselves to the proposals of the provident life that Comes, like babies in the arms of their parents.

With a pietas’ Spirit that favors those who allow themselves to be filled with innate wisdom. The only reality that corresponds to us and doesn’t present the "account": it doesn’t proceed along the paths of functional thinking, of calculating initiative.

Sapience that transmits freshness in the willingness to personally receive welcome restore the Truth as a Gift, and the spontaneous enthusiasm itself, capable of realizing it.

A simple blessing prayer, for the simple - this one from Jesus (v.21) - which makes us grow in esteem, fits perfectly with our experience, and gets along well with ourselves.

It does not presuppose the energy of 'models', nor the aggressive power of “bigwigs”.

In the perspective of the Peace-Happiness [Shalom] to be announced, what had always seemed imperfections and defects become preparatory energies, which complete and fulfill us also spiritually.

And instead of only living with the “big” and external, one must live in communion even with the 'small' of oneself, or there is no amiability, no authentic life.

To internalize and live the message:

How do you feel when you hear yourself say: «You don't count»?  Does it remain a humiliating contempt or do you consider it a great received Light, as Jesus did?

[Saturday 26th wk. in O.T.  October 5, 2024]