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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pope Francis, Epiphany 2014]

Skepticism, Faith, Character

(Jn 1:43-51)

People are convinced by meeting, seeing and experiencing, not by imposing. However, the Eternal’s plan baffles us.

Witness and sharing lead persons to Christ, but they are not enough - because his plan is not as people imagine or propose, as they await and desires it to be.

To the enthusiastic announcement, Nathanael responds with a preconceived skepticism that represents us: what good can come out of the most insignificant suburbs (v.46)?

Why doesn't the solution to our expectations come from predictable places [Judaea]?

Personal encounter with Jesus and listening to his Word go beyond every obstacle, up to an explicit and convinced profession of Faith.

And like Nathanael, whoever consecrates his life to the study of the Scriptures finds in them Christ himself (vv.45.48-49).

At first perhaps we too approached the Son of God imagining that he had the attributes of King of a chosen people (v.49).

Then the custom with the Person and the vital experience [«Come and see»: sense of the basic Semitic expression of v.46] showed us a much broader Relationship with Heaven (vv.50-51).

In walking the Way that the unexpected Messiah proposes, we perceive the convergence of God’s movement towards men and our longing for him.

It is the realization (and overcoming) of Jacob’s ancient dream.

Those who pursue preconceptions remain to take the cool under a fig tree (cf.v.48), ie he remains linked to the ancient religion [the rabbis taught the ancient Scriptures sitting under the trees; the fig tree was symbol of Israel].

«Israelite without deceit» (v.47): each one is so when, after sifting, he knows how to get rid of common opinions and teachings; when he realizes that they do not coincide with the Father’s plan.

Salvation history aims at «greater things» (v.50) than those already wanted; normal, expected, invoked, calculated, longed for.

From religiosity we will move on to Faith: the best of God’s Dream in us must come. «Greater things» than clichés.

Jesus is Jacob’s authentic Dream, which heralded to a vast lineage; further unfolded (Gen 28:10-22) and become reality.

But no one would have expected that the Messiah could identify himself with the «Son of Man» (v.51), the One who creates abundance where it’s not there, and that before did not seem licit it could expand.

The new bond between God and human beings is in the Brother who becomes ‘next of kin’: which creates an atmosphere of humanization with wide outlines - not at all discriminating.

‘True, successful Son’ is the one who, having reached the maximum of human fullness, comes to reflect the divine condition and radiates it in a widespread way - not selective as expected.

It’s the flowering and humanization of the people: the peaceful, true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

«Son of Man» is therefore not a stowed, cautious, controlled and reserved title, but an opportunity for all those who adhere to the Lord’s proposal, and reinterpret life in a creative personal way.

They go beyond the firm boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from the Grace fullness of being, in its new unrepeatable tracks.

[Weekday Liturgy of January 5]

Scepticism, Faith, Character

(Jn 1:43-51)

Today's liturgy proposes the first encounter with the Lord of Nathanael, whom some traditions identify as the apostle Bartholomew.

The purpose of the call is to follow Jesus; let us see the concatenation of events. First of all: people are convinced by encountering, seeing and experiencing, not by imposing.

But the plan of the Eternal displaces us. Witnessing and sharing lead to Christ, but they are not enough - because his plan is not what people imagine or propose, what they expect and desire it to be.

To the enthusiastic announcement of Philip [a name of Greek origin], Nathanael [from the Hebrew Netan'El: "God has given"] responds with a preconceived scepticism that represents us: what good can come out of the most insignificant peripheries (v.46)?

How is it that the solution to our expectations does not come from the palaces of power, from the exceptional magnificence of the Holy City, or from the established and selective doctrinal prestige of the observant territory (Judea)?

Nazareth was a negligible village of hotheads and troglodyte Galileans; Jesus a carpenter-carpenter, so he did not even have land.

The expectation of the Messiah was anchored to quite other manifestations of prestige, wealth, pomp and power (substitutes for the authentic experience of relationship and fullness of being).

The personal encounter with Jesus and listening to his Word conquered every obstacle, up to an explicit and convinced profession of Faith.

And like Nathanael, he who consecrates his life to the study of the Scriptures finds Christ in them (vv.45.48-49).

At first perhaps we too approached the Son of God imagining that he had the attributes of King of a chosen people (v.49).

Then the familiarity with the Person and the vital experience ["Come and see": sense of the basic Semitic expression of v.46] showed us a much wider Relationship with Heaven (vv.50-51).

In walking the Way that the unexpected Messiah proposes, we grasp the convergence of God's movement towards mankind and our yearning for Him. It is the realisation (and overcoming) of Jacob's ancient dream.

Those who pursue preconceptions remain to take the cool under the fig tree (cf. v.48), that is, they remain tied to the ancient religion [the rabbis taught the ancient Scriptures by sitting under the trees; the fig tree was a symbol of Israel].

By dwelling in expectations of magnificence and allowing ourselves to be carried away by standard intentions of expected glory, we do not enter into the movement that binds our earth to Love: we will find ourselves growing old, bogged down and sterile - unable to generate new creatures and be born again.

"Israelite without deceit" (v.47): each one is when - having sifted - he knows how to discard common opinions and teachings; when he realises that they do not agree with the Father's plan for us.

The history of salvation aims at "greater things" (v.50) than those already desired; normal, foreseen, invoked, calculated and hoped for (transmitted by doctrines and "teachers" such and such).

Even the Design of Providence is not as people imagine or wish it to be. Situations await us that no one has ever seen.

"God has given" [meaning of the proper name Nathanael], but each one must be born again.

From Nathanael each believer makes Exodus to transmigrate to the meaning of the name Bartholomew: "Son of the well-ploughed field and of the earth with plentiful furrows".

From religiosity we pass to Faith: the best of God's Dream in us is to come. "Greater things" than commonplaces.

Jesus is the authentic Dream of Jacob, which foreshadowed a vast descendants; further unfolded (Gen 28:10-22) and become reality.

But no one would have expected that the Messiah could be identified with the "Son of Man" (v.51), the One who creates abundance where there is none - and it did not seem permissible beforehand to expand.

The new bond between God and human beings is in the Brother who becomes the 'next of kin', who creates an atmosphere of humanisation with broad contours - not at all discriminating.

'Son of man' is the one who, having reached the height of human fullness, comes to reflect the divine condition and radiates it widely - not selectively as expected.

'Succeeded Son': the Person with the definitive step, who in us aspires to the most dilated fullness in events and relationships, to an indestructible carat within each one who approaches [and encounters divine marks].

It is growth and humanisation of the people: the quiet, true and full development of the divine plan on humanity.

"Son of Man" is therefore not a religious, guarded, controlled and reserved title, but an opportunity for all those who adhere to the Lord's proposal, and reinterpret life in a personal creative way.

They overcome the firm and proper summary boundaries, making room for the Gift; welcoming from Grace fullness of being and character, in its new unrepeatable tracks. 

By feeling totally and undeservedly loved, we discover other facets... we change the way we are with ourselves, and the way we read history.

In short, we can grow, realise ourselves, blossom, radiate the completeness we have received - without any more closures.

On this Path, every day we perceive the same impulse that brought Nathanael to Jesus: an unparalleled instinct of Presence [Michael: Who like God?], a liberation of the shrunken consciousness [Raphael: God healed - Rescuer], an awe-inspiring unveiling [Gabriel: Strength of God].

In short, on new adventures to be undertaken, the invisible world has a special relationship with humanity and creation.

In soul and in things, we are as it were guided on the right path (in an unceasing, growing, unexpected way) even through our anxieties, rebellions, crises and doubts.

From Son of David to Son of Man

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

(Pope Benedict, address to the Consistory 24 November 2012)

Nathanael:  a name that means "God has given". This Nathanael came from Cana (cf. Jn 21: 2) and he may therefore have witnessed the great "sign" that Jesus worked in that place (cf. Jn 2: 1-11) [...].

Philip told this Nathanael that he had found "him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (Jn 1: 45). As we know, Nathanael's retort was rather strongly prejudiced:  "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (Jn 1: 46). In its own way, this form of protestation  is  important  for  us.  Indeed, it makes us see that according to Judaic expectations the Messiah could not come from such an obscure village as, precisely, Nazareth (see also Jn 7: 42).

But at the same time Nathanael's protest highlights God's freedom, which baffles our expectations by causing him to be found in the very place where we least expect him. Moreover, we actually know that Jesus was not exclusively "from Nazareth" but was born in Bethlehem (cf. Mt 2: 1; Lk 2: 4) and came ultimately from Heaven, from the Father who is in Heaven.

Nathanael's reaction suggests another thought to us: in our relationship with Jesus we must not be satisfied with words  alone. In  his  answer,  Philip offers Nathanael a meaningful invitation:  "Come and see!" (Jn 1: 46). Our knowledge of Jesus needs above all a first-hand experience: someone else's testimony is of course important, for normally  the  whole  of  our  Christian life begins with the proclamation handed  down  to  us  by  one  or  more  witnesses.

However, we ourselves must then be personally involved in a close and deep relationship with Jesus; in a similar way, when the Samaritans had heard the testimony of their fellow citizen whom Jesus had met at Jacob's well, they wanted to talk to him directly, and after this conversation they told the woman:  "It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world" (Jn 4: 42).

Returning to the scene of Nathanael's vocation, the Evangelist tells us that when Jesus sees Nathanael approaching, he exclaims: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!" (Jn 1: 47). This is praise reminiscent of the text of a Psalm: "Blessed is the man... in whose spirit there is no deceit" (32[31]: 2), but provokes the curiosity of Nathanael who answers in amazement:  "How do you know me?" (Jn 1: 48).

Jesus' reply cannot immediately be understood. He says: "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig  tree,  I  saw  you" (Jn  1: 48).  We  do not know what had happened under this fig tree. It is obvious that it had to do with a decisive moment in Nathanael's life.

His heart is moved by Jesus' words, he feels understood and he understands: "This man knows everything about me, he knows and is familiar with the road of life; I can truly trust this man". And so he answers with a clear and beautiful confession of faith: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" (Jn 1: 49). In this confession is conveyed a first important step in the journey of attachment to Jesus.

Nathanael's words shed light on a twofold, complementary aspect of Jesus' identity: he is recognized both in his special relationship with God the Father, of whom he is the Only-begotten Son, and in his relationship with the People of Israel, of whom he is the declared King, precisely the description of the awaited Messiah. We must never lose sight of either of these two elements because if we only proclaim Jesus' heavenly dimension, we risk making him an ethereal and evanescent being; and if, on the contrary, we recognize only his concrete place in history, we end by neglecting the divine dimension that properly qualifies him.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 4 October 2006]

2. A vocation in the Church, from the human point of view, begins with a discovery, with finding the pearl of great price. You discover Jesus: his person, his message, his call. In the Gospel which we have heard today, we reflect on the call of Jesus to the first disciples. The first thing that Andrew did after meeting Jesus was to seek out his brother Simon and tell him: "We have found the Messiah!" Then Philip, in a similar way, sought out Nathanael and told him: "We have found the one Moses spoke of in the Law - the prophets too - Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth" (Cfr. Io. 1, 35-51).

After the initial discovery, a dialogue in prayer ensues, a dialogue between Jesus and the one called, a dialogue which goes beyond words and expresses itself in love.

Questions are an important part of this dialogue. For example, in the Gospel account of the call of the disciples, we are told that "when Jesus turned around and noticed them following him, he asked them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which means teacher), where do you stay?’ ‘Come and see’, he answered” (Ibid. 1, 38-39).

What begins as a discovery of Jesus moves to a greater understanding and commitment through a prayerful process of questions and discernment. In this process, our motives are purified. We come face to face with pointed questions such as "What are you looking for?" And we even find ourselves asking questions of Jesus, as Nathanael did: "How do you know me?" (Io. 1, 48). It is only when we have reflected candidly and honestly in the silence of our hearts that we begin to be convinced that the Lord is truly calling us.

Yet, even then, the process of discernment is not over. Jesus says to us as he said to Nathanael: "You will see much greater things than that" (Ibid. 1, 50). Throughout our lives, after we have made a sacred and permanent commitment and after our active service of the Lord has begun, we still need the dialogue of prayer that will continually deepen our knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Pope John Paul II, Address to American seminarians 13 September 1987]

Francis recalled the story of Nathanael who "goes to see him whom they tell him is the messiah, a little sceptical. To him Jesus says: "I saw you under the fig tree". Therefore, "always God loves first". This is also recalled in the parable of the prodigal son: "When the son, who had spent all the money of his father's inheritance on a life of vices, returns home, he finds that his father is waiting for him. God always waits for us first. Before us, always. And when the other son doesn't want to come to the party, because he doesn't understand daddy's attitude, daddy goes looking for him. And so God does with us: he loves us first, always'.

Thus, the Pope relaunched, "we can see in the Gospel how God loves: when we have something in our heart and we want to ask the Lord for forgiveness, it is he who is waiting for us to give forgiveness".

This year of mercy, Francis affirmed, "is also a bit of this: that we know that the Lord is waiting for us, each one of us" And he is waiting for us "to embrace us, nothing more, to say: 'Son, daughter, I love you. I let them crucify my Son for you; this is the price of my love; this is the gift of love'".

The Pope suggested always thinking about this truth: 'The Lord is waiting for me, the Lord wants me to open the door of my heart, because he is there waiting for me to enter. Without conditions.

Of course, someone might say: "But, Father, no, I would like to, but I have so many bad things inside!". In this regard, Francis' answer is clear: "It's better! Better! Because he waits for you, as you are, not as they tell you 'you must do'. You must be as you are. He loves you like this, to embrace you, kiss you, forgive you'.

Here, then, is the Pope's concluding exhortation to go without delay to the Lord and say: 'But you know Lord that I love you'. Or, if I really "do not feel up to it, to say: 'You know Lord that I would like to love you, but I am such a sinner, such a sinner'". With the certainty that he will do as the father did "with the prodigal son who spent all his money on vices. He will not let you finish your speech, with an embrace he will silence you: the embrace of God's love".

[Pope Francis, St Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 09/01/2016]

Incarnation: raw life is filled with powers

(Jn 1:1-18)

According to ancient cultures, Logos-Sarx is a bold and impossible juxtaposition. Yet it marks the difference between religiosity and Faith.

Incarnation: raw life is filled with energies.

Our eternal side - which has pitched a tent in us - sends things so that by perceiving, by accepting, by becoming aware, we can prepare the development of the soul, of our Home.

It would be impossible to take the path to full Happiness if we did not gather and take in every bit of our being scattered across the world and across time, making every expectation, every moment, every oscillation even broken, meaningful and divine.

The Logos has innumerable Seeds already planted in us: they are all mouldable, non-crystalline energy polarities: points of tension.

Many of them seemingly unsteady, but they restart at the destination of completeness.

[All conversion has its root in the perception of the defect of being: it is dissatisfaction that drives us on].

Provisionalities called to become fixed points - then shaky again, because only through processes of fluctuation are the dynamics triggered that will lead to total growth (with other moments of Exodus).

As a Zen aphorism [collected in Ts'ai Ken T'an] suggests: «Water that is too pure has no fish».

Already here and now we thrive on the earth of a precious seed of the Word. His authentic Tent is 'in-us' and in all motives.

Therefore the «Light of men» (v.4) will no longer be - according to the convictions of the time - the arid regulations of the Law, but the «Life» in its fullness. Spontaneous, real and unrefined: raw, therefore full of powers.

«And the ‘Light’ shines in the darkness» (v.5)!

Just like a plant, which neither takes root nor expands in a distilled environment.

In order to welcome the ever-new and bubbling, we must allow access to all our soul “guests” - who will make us meet ourselves; even the neuroses.

He who Lives proposes a profound Exodus, to become ever-born again. Man's going is not subservient to a one-sided Master.

No longer precisely named 'heights'; inaccessible and distant places to go - on pain of exclusion - but rather Images and Likeness of a God who comes to find us at Home, where we are.

It is the same marginality encountered within - now without hysteria - that infallibly points us to the existential peripheries of others, which we are called to frequent, regenerate, sublimate, move, let rise.

The new relationship with God is no longer founded on discrepant purity and obedience, lavished on rigid precepts and unquestionable traditions or fashions.

Rather, in personal vicissitudes and in the conviviality of differences, Similarity with the Word takes over.

It is the Dream of each and all - in Christ already introduced into the Breasts of the Eternal One convincing and lovable because He is 'inclusive' of Being; not in the way of paternalisms ultimately good-naturedly bestowed.

We have in common the 'Displacement'. An end «Word» on univocity.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you start the day? Do you welcome your guests (even emptiness)? Or do you approach them with excessive judgement?

[2nd Christmas Sunday, January 4, 2026]

Power of raw life

(Jn 1:1-18)

Gialal al-Din Rumi, a 13th century Persian mystic and lyricist (founder of the Sufi confraternity of dervishes) writes in his poem 'The Inn

The human being is an inn,

every morning someone new arrives.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

a moment of awareness arrives from time to time,

like an unexpected visitor.

Welcome them all, entertain them all!

Even if there is a crowd of sorrows

violently ravaging the house

stripping it of all furniture,

still, treat every guest with honour:

it may be that he is freeing you

in view of new pleasures.

To gloomy thoughts, to shame, to malice,

go to the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be thankful for everything that comes,

for everything has been sent

as a guide to the hereafter.

We recognise in this poem-emblem some keys to discernment, underlying the existential paradoxes of the theology of the Incarnation.

A Sufi mystic helps to understand the pillars of our Path, far better than many evasive one-way doctrines.

They are identical laws of the soul already expressed in the famous Prologue of the Fourth Gospel: raw life is filled with powers.

Synthesis of underlying themes that specify Life in the Spirit in comparison to common religious experience.

Incarnation: our innermost fulcrums distinguish the adventure of Faith from the believer's one-sided existence in God.

Waking up in the morning, there is a new arrival in our 'inn' - not always overtly uplifting.

But in the many-roomed inn reception there must be a welcome, so that the unplanned encounter can open us up, become an aspect, or motive and engine of the decisive encounter - perhaps also unexpected.

Happenings, situations, insights, advice, relationships, even strange emotions, new realisations, other projects that we had not previously imagined or were simply unexpressed, come to visit us and leave us amazed.

Guests are to be welcomed, they have their dignity and they all express sides of ourselves: we are bound to welcome each one of them; even the anger, the sadness, the fears.

Missionaries know well that doubts are more fruitful than certainties, and that insecurity is safer than all 'certainties'.

The crowd of guests can call into question what is in our dwelling or inn, and sweep away all or part of it - even the foundations.

By being patient enough to honour each tenant - be they ancient memories or scapegoating utopias - we prepare our souls for an experience of fullness of being, launched from our own slums (muck become sprout territory).

Beginning with respect for our different boundaries and because of them, each new or re-emerging presence focuses us on listening to all the chaos that we are - chaos that prepares the delights that belong to us, and only in this way engage.

Our eternal side - which has pitched a tent in us - sends things so that by perceiving, welcoming, becoming aware, we can prepare the development of the soul, of our Home.

Evolution whose principles [and opportunities to step forward towards the completion of our full and divine personality] we simply find innate, within, and not in extrinsic adhesions - typical of external civilisation and of not a few expressions of faith reduced to religion.

The Prologue of John only reiterates the eternal pillars of a Wisdom that is revealed but natural, within the reach of all because it narrates love, even in the inner journey; difficult to understand only for those who allow themselves to be influenced by opinions and coded, abbreviated catechisms.

The Gospel reassures: it is News in our favour, because it makes us aware that the "lords" who come along are Gifts that clean up the dwelling, and if they throw it away, it is only to strengthen our essence, chiselling an unrepeatable Vocation: the one capable of recovering every shred of our history and making it a masterpiece.

It would be impossible to take the road to full Happiness if we did not gather and assume every shred of our being scattered in the world and in time, making every expectation, every moment, every oscillation even broken, meaningful and divine.

The Logos has countless Seeds already planted in us: they are all mouldable energy polarities; not crystalline. Points of tension. Many of them seemingly unsteady, but restarting at the destination of completeness.

Provisionalities called to become fixed points - then wobbly again, because only through processes of fluctuation are the dynamics that will lead to total growth triggered - with other moments of Exodus.

As a Zen aphorism [collected in Ts'ai Ken T'an] suggests: "Water that is too pure has no fish".Jn does not write that the Logos became 'man', but 'flesh' in the Semitic sense of a being full of limits, unfinished; for this reason devoted to the incessant search for meaning, partial to the point of death.

The weakness of women and men is not redeemed by admiring a heroic model and imitating it off the scale, but in a process of recovery of the whole being and of our history.

There are no Gifts of the Spirit that do not pass through the human dimension.

Already here and now we thrive on the earth of a precious seed of the Word. His authentic Tent is in us and in all motives.

The more we can bring our creaturely and humanising reality to its fullest, the more we will be on the path to the divine condition. Rooted on the earth of the inestimable lineage generated by the Logos.

To make us conscious and dilate life, the Eternal asks that we host the proposals with which it bursts in, with the sole purpose not to condition us but to complete us, and increase the self-confidence with which we face the present and activate the future, face to face.

We will not do this by becoming winners, but by welcoming what comes from Providence, from people and emotions (even from discomforts) without prejudice - not even that of always seeming to be accompanied by many people, being seen on the outside as confident, strong, performing.

Scenarios that invade life and take away the essential Perception of being present to minimal acts and relationships, to looking in and out. Clear awareness of self, of the human, of the world that guides towards our direction and our true nature.

Not the Ten Words - a typical Semitic category - but the One inclusive Word, Dream and Meaning of Creation, are the foundation of the Father's Work.

The Logos that takes root is qualitative, not partial, nor centred on a single name: One because it is One.

The story of Jesus of Nazareth suggests that sin has been shattered, i.e.: imperfection is not an obstacle to communion with Heaven, but a spring.

Imperfections do not make us inadequate: they set us on our way.

The Lord has annihilated the sense of inadequacy of the carnal condition and the humiliation of unbridgeable distances.

The Creator's 'initial' project is to share his own Life with all humanity. In this way, the Lord enters the world with confidence, without fear of contamination, nor cuts and separations - prejudice typical of the archaic mentality.

The Plan of Salvation is realised and has its summit in the defence, promotion, expansion of our relational quality of life.

Therefore: "Light of men" (v.4) will no longer be - according to the convictions of the time - the arid regulations of the Law, but rather "Life" in its complete fullness. Spontaneous, real and unrefined: raw, therefore full of power.

The Tao Tê Ching (xix), which considers the most celebrated virtues to be external, writes: "Teach that there is something else to adhere to: show yourself simple and keep yourself raw".

Master Wang Pi comments: 'Formal qualities are totally insufficient'.

And Master Ho-shang Kung adds: "Forget the regularity and creation of the saints; return to what was at the Beginning".

Thus in the Paths of Faith, it is no longer outwardness or convention that dictates the path and wisdom in the discernment of spirits.

Each has its own innate desire for fulfilment and totality of expression: this will be the sole criterion of our path.

Such will remain the intimate Light that guides our steps; such the Word of the invisible Friend who leads us and acts as a canon.

"And the Light shines in the darkness" (v.5)!

Just like a plant, which neither takes root nor expands in a distilled environment.

So what does not have or limit life does not proceed from God, the Living One, the promoter of all that expresses and unfolds exuberance.

Our vocation is to stand alongside the integral life, with its opposite sides making a covenant.

Religions do not welcome all guests [they turn out to be far more fertile than we imagine] who knock on the inner hotel.

But it is not with the parameters of established thought that one can understand or discover what complete Life is, because Life is always expansive, lush and new, full of facets.

Hence the need for constant change, from the old.

In short, the single non-negotiable principle is the real good of the concrete man; the rest escapes our foresight.

The classic risk is that: in the name of a God of the past [doctrine, customs, disciplines, ways of thinking and doing] we fail to notice and recognise the invitation, the empathic energy; the divine virtue that protrudes Present.

In order to welcome the ever new and bubbling, we must allow access to all our soul 'guests' - who will allow us to meet ourselves; even the neuroses.

He who lives proposes a profound Exodus, to become ever-born again. Man's going is not subject to a Master, not even a heavenly one.

We do not exist 'for' God, as is believed and preached in ancient devotions. They clog us up with external or intimist forms; they block the development of personality.

They do not allow us to draw on "our" own strength.

The Father asks to be accepted, not obeyed. In this way we will live by Him, and with Him and like Him we will go out to meet our brothers and sisters, managing also to make ourselves Food for our neighbour - without restless constraints that depersonalise.

Here are at work the new Shrines of flesh and blood that have replaced, supplanted, that of stone.

Presences, meeting places between history, joy and vertigo; between human and divine nature. Centres of irradiation of Love without conditions - nor reductions.

No longer precisely named heights, inaccessible and distant places to go - on pain of exclusion - but images and likenesses of a God who comes to find us at home, where we are.

It is the same marginality encountered within - now without hysteria - that infallibly points us to the existential peripheries of others, which we are called to frequent, regenerate, sublimate, move, resurrect.

The new relationship with God is no longer founded on discrepant purity and obedience, lavished on rigid precepts and unquestioning conformity.

Rather, in personal vicissitudes and in the conviviality of differences, similarity to the Word will take over.

Patriarch Athenagoras confessed:

"We need Christ, without him we are nothing. But he needs us to act in history. The entire history of humanity from the resurrection onwards, and even from the origins onwards, constitutes a kind of pan-Christianity. The ancient covenant involves a whole series of covenants that still exist side by side today. And so the covenant of Adam, or rather of Noah, subsists in the archaic religions, those of India especially, with their cosmic symbolism [...].

We know that light radiates from a face. It took the covenant of Abraham, and it needed to be renewed in Islam. That of Moses subsists in Judaism [...].

But Christ recapitulated everything. The Logos who became flesh is he who creates the universe and manifests himself there, and he is also the Word who guides history through the prophets [...].

That is why I consider Christianity the religion of religions, and I happen to say that I belong to all religions'.

It is the Dream of each and all, in Christ already introduced into the bosom of the Eternal One who is convincing and lovable, because He is Comprehensive [not in the sense of paternalism eventually good-naturedly bestowed, but of Being].

As Pope Francis pointed out:

"In life bears fruit not he who has so many riches, but he who creates and keeps alive so many bonds, so many relationships, so many friendships through the different 'riches', that is, the different Gifts with which God has endowed him."

Only in this way will we - all of us in the Son - become special Events of the Word-flesh: small fish, but with full rights to the pre-eminence of the Logos... coryphaeans of impossible recoveries.

We have in common the displacement. Fine "Word" on univocity.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you start your days? Do you welcome your guests (even emptiness)? Or do you face them with excessive judgement?

Light and Treasure

Spark of beauty and humanism, or no future

(Jn 8:12-20)

In all religions the term Light is used as a metaphor for the forces of good.

On the lips of Jesus [present in his intimates] the same word stands for a fulfilment of humanity (even of the religious institution) according to the divine plan, recognisable in his own Person.

The distinction between light and darkness in Christ is somehow not comparable to the more conventional dualist binomial - about good and evil. The Creator's activity is multifaceted.

The evangelical term therefore does not designate any static fixed judgement on what is usually assessed as 'torch' or 'shadow', 'correct' or 'wrong' and so on.

There is room for new perceptions and reworkings. Nor are we always called upon to fight against everything else, and the passions.

Classical moral, pious or general religious evaluations must be overcome, because they remain on the surface and do not grasp the core of being and becoming humanising.

Not infrequently, the most valuable things arise precisely from what disturbs standardised thinking.

The same mind that believes it is only in the light is a one-sided, partial, sick mind; bound to an idea, therefore poor.

God knows that it is the incompletenesses that launch the Exodus, it can be the insecurities that keep us from crashing into the patterns... that make us lose who we are.

In fact, the energies that invest created reality have an entirely positive potential root.

Sunsets prepare other paths, ambivalences give the 'la' to impossible recoveries and growths.

"Light" was in Judaism the term that designated the righteous path of humanity according to the Law, without eccentricity or decline.But with Jesus, it is no longer the Torah that acts as a guide, but life itself [Jn 1:4: "Life was the Light of men"] that is characterised by its varying complexity.

Thus, even the "world" - that is, (in Jn) first and foremost the complex of the institution (so pious and devout) now installed and corrupted: it must return to a wiser Guide, one that illuminates real existence.

The appeal that Scripture addresses to us is very practical and concrete.

But in contexts with a strong structure of mediation between God and man, spirituality often tends towards the legalism of customary fulfilments.

Jesus is not for grand parades, nor for solutions that cloak people's lives in mysticism, escapism, rituals or abstinence.

All of this was perhaps also the fabric of much of medieval spirituality - and the assiduous, ritualistic, beghine spirituality of days gone by.

But in the Bible, God's servants do not have haloes. They are women and men normally inserted in society, people who know the problems of everyday life: work, family, bringing up children....

The professionals of the sacred, on the other hand, try to put a pretty dress on very ungodly things - sometimes cunning minds and perverse hearts. Cultivated behind the magnificent respectability of screens and incense.

To do this, Jesus understands that he must drive out both merchants and customers (Jn 2:13-25) and supplant the fatuous glow of the great sanctuary.

During the Feast of Tabernacles, huge street lamps were lit in the courtyards of the Temple in Jerusalem.

One of the main rituals consisted in staging an admirable night procession with lit fairies - and in making the great lamps shine (they rose above the walls and illuminated the whole of Jerusalem).

It was the appropriate context to proclaim the very Person of Christ as the authentic sacred and humanising Word, the place of encounter with God and the torch of life. There was nothing external and rhetorical about it.

But in that "holy world" marked by the intertwining of epic, religion, power and interest, the Master stands out - with contrary evidence - precisely in the place of the Treasury (the real centre of gravity of the Temple, v.20) as the true and only Extreme Point that pierces the darkness.

The Lord invites us to make our own his own sharply missionary path: from the shrine of stone to the heart of flesh, as free as that of the Father.

Clear call and intimate question that never goes out: we feel it burning alive without being consumed.

There is no need to fear: the Envoy is not alone. He does not testify to himself, nor to his own foibles or utopian derangements: his Calling by Name becomes divine Presence - Origin, Path, authentic "Return".

Do we look like pilgrims and exiles who do not know how to be in "the world"? But each of us is (in Faith) like Him-and-the-Father: overwhelming majority.

By Faith, in the authentic Light: Dawn, Support, Friendship and unequivocal, invincible leap, which rips through the haze.

It bursts from the core, assuming the same shadows and being reborn; bringing our dark sides alongside the roots.

Intimate place and time (outside of all ages) from which the outgoing Church springs forth: here it is from the jewels and sacristies, to the peripheries Spark of beauty and humanism, or without a future

And from the sacred society of the outside, to the hidden Pearl that genuinely connects the present with the 'timelessness' of the Free - even if here and there it undermines so much theology with its preceptistic, greedy and cunning meaning, neither plural nor transparent.

In the end, it is all simple: the full wellbeing and integrity of man is more important than the one-sided 'good' of doctrine and institution - which advocates it without even believing in it.

To internalise and live the message:

In what situations do I consider myself a "Witness"?

What is the torch in my steps? Who is my Present Light?

Mysticism of Coversion-Light: the unseen spaces of growth

Waiting and Receiving (the taste of God, in Rebirth)

(Jn 12:44-50)

"He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath he that judgeth him: the Word that I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day" (v.48).

"And I know that his Commandment is the Life of the LORD. The things therefore that I proclaim, as the Father has spoken to me, so I proclaim" (v.50).

We are at the end of the Book of Signs (Jn 2-12) which is followed by the so-called time of the Hour.

The particular Gospel passage of Jn 12 acts as an inclusion to the Prologue, and introduces the final drama of Christ - with all the weight of unbelief already perceived.

But it is a primordial imprint, also for us, generated to life by the animation in the Spirit of the Son, to be sent to the Annunciation (of likeness, not obedience).

Like Him we are in God, and together... for the women and men of every time and culture.

Therefore, Jesus' "cry" (v.44) is a privileged "clamour", of decisive self-presentation, as well as of unprecedented revelation of the very Life of the Eternal already present here (v.50) within ourselves.He who acts in the name of Risen Love, brings forth the glad tidings of resurrection and deliverance, and the definitive approval of the Father.

We are no longer in the world as a function of God (as in religions) but live with Him and of Him - for the Message and Mission: the complete humanisation, emancipation, redemption of mankind.

Father and Son are One. Jesus reflects God, brings Him closer to us; He reveals and communicates Him to us, without a gap.

So for us "Seeing" Christ means believing him, that is, grasping the glorious outcome of a life that seemed destined for insignificance.

The indispensable Light of the Lord not only dispels the darkness, but uncovers, encounters and transforms it from within. And unbelief becomes Faith - like a Womb of gestations, gifts of new Creation.

Our fate and quality of believing life is tightly decided in the confrontation between two motions: pious life, or Vision-Faith. The latter able to unleash dilations and ministerial imperatives.

This dilemma acts as a dividing line: between a life as saved now, and doubt about future destiny. A question typical of empty spirituality - or of romantic visions that after the first enthusiasms lead to groping in the dark, in dissatisfaction.

Original adherence to Christ is in the state of the Task, germinated in the bosom - not planned at the table nor prepared on the sidelines without the faces, the ways, and with only national or local history - or mannerisms.

In Christ we do not eagerly cling to ourselves, to the conforming environment, to ancient knowledge or to the most reassuring fashion. We are prepared for an itinerary of continuous beginnings, as if on the trail of guide-images (changing, but knowing where to go).

We will encounter the Action of God that saves... precisely in the unexpected territories that transcend the sanctuary of habits. And in the ways that gloss over our old intentions - though in themselves confessional, plausible, or even noble.

The Law chock-full of chiselled verdicts is outdated (v.47). Christ did not come to accuse us of inadequacy and punish us: on the contrary, to make us invent ways - and unheard-of torches.

Criterion of 'judgement' is the Word and his Person, transparency of the Father - absolute, genuine and free coincidence. He as the Eternal One comes for surpassing Life; and new Light.

Not to regard him as a seal of exception, a step and rhythm to be reinterpreted, and not to give him space as an intrinsic trait, motive and motor, is to dissipate in vain the best energies - which make us wander, yes, but to lead to fullness.

The world is not all there is: there is a clarity (v.46) that makes one feel at home and can dispel all disturbance, closure and darkness.

This is the great 'conversion', the mindset to be renewed, enjoying the Call to the full.

Life in Christ is not - as in various archaic religious forms - restricted against oneself and the world.

It is to assert the Action of the Father (vv.43-44.49-50) who has disposed that even eccentricities, hardships, discomforts may convey to us the idea, the taste, of a different fulfilment; open spaces of unexpressed growth.

The Inner Friend mysteriously leads to the crumbling of the proud self that rushes to adjust according to conventional and other people's opinions - so that we allow ourselves to radiate.

It is this eminent and intense Self of uniqueness that will make us grasp the astonishing (impossible) fruitfulness of victory in defeat, of triumph through loss, of life amidst signs of death.

By thinning out the Call of Darkness, we risk pushing away the new Light, a further genesis of ourselves, an evolution different from the usual expectations - which would really comfort and fulfil us.

By removing the perception of wounds we risk annihilating the healing and rebirth process of the soul.

This is the new decisive Conversion: the true emptying out of one's own plans, ideas and tastes, in order to be inspired by the unthinkable divine Work within us - which does not want to weaken the self but strengthen it with other capacities.

The fullness of extraordinary Light is in Christ a simple (but inverted) self-denial: granting space and time to that Totality that does not take over the Person.

As in Jesus, then it will allow for authenticity and much more than minimal wavering lights, products of a small brain (which does not evolve).

Struggling with symptoms would end up chronicising them - with the drug of ancient or immediately at hand remedies.

It would make us become external and extinguish the inner Genesis, which tinkles with the Coming Work.

In Christ we know the secret of welcoming conversion: the kingdom we do not see can take care of us and the world (vv.47-48).

It is this reference to the Mystery (which calls) that congenital Seed that realises the evolution of the cosmos and of each one, because it possesses the Sense of springing authenticity - and it will bear its Fruit.In the Faith "spark, / which expands into flame then lively / and like a star in heaven in me sparkles" (Dante, Paradise c.XXIV).

To internalise and live the message:

What light did you anticipate cured you and vice versa chronicled your situation? What external crutch has addicted you and made you lame?

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Today the liturgy proposes anew for our meditation the same Gospel as that proclaimed on Christmas Day: the Prologue of St John. After the commotion of the recent days with the race to purchase gifts, the Church invites us once again to contemplate the mystery of Christ's Nativity, to understand even better its profound meaning and importance to our lives. This is a wonderful text that offers an impressive synthesis of the whole of the Christian faith. It starts from on high: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (Jn 1: 1); and this is the unheard of and humanly inconceivable news: "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1: 14a). It is not a rhetorical figure but a lived experience! And it is John, an eyewitness, who tells of it. "We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father... full of grace and truth" (Jn 1: 14). These are not the learned words of a rabbi or doctor of law but rather the passionate witness of a humble fisherman. Attracted in his youth by Jesus of Nazareth, in the three years he spent living with him and with the other Apostles, John experienced his love, to the extent that he called himself "the disciple Jesus loved" saw him die on the Cross and appear Risen, and then with the others received his Spirit. From his heart's meditation on the whole of this experience, John drew a deep conviction: Jesus is the Wisdom of God incarnate, he is his eternal Word who became a mortal man. 

For a true Israelite who knows the Sacred Scriptures, this is not a contradiction; on the contrary, it is the fulfilment of the whole of the old Covenant. The mystery of a God who speaks to men and women as his friends, who reveals himself to Moses in the Law, to the wise and the prophets, reaches fulfilment in Christ. In knowing Jesus, in being with him, hearing his preaching and seeing the signs he performed, the disciples recognized that all the Scriptures were fulfilled in him. As a Christian author was later to affirm: "The whole of divine Scripture constitutes one book and this one book is Christ, it speaks of Christ and finds its fulfilment in Christ" (cf. Ugo di San Vittore, De arca Noe, 2, 8). Every man and every woman needs to find a profound meaning for their life. And this is why books do not suffice, not even the Sacred Scriptures. The Child of Bethlehem reveals and communicates to us the true "Face" of a good and faithful God, who loves us and even in death does not abandon us. "No one has ever seen God," concludes John's Prologue; "the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (Jn 1: 18). 

The first to open her heart and to contemplate "the Word who became flesh" was Mary, Mother of Jesus. A humble girl from Galilee, she thus became the "Seat of Wisdom"! Like the Apostle John, each one of us is invited to "[take] her to his own home" (Jn 19: 27), to know Jesus deeply and to experience his faithful and inexhaustible love. And this is my wish for each one of you, dear brothers and sisters, at the beginning of this new year.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 4 January 2009]