Religion turned into obsession - for "held back"

(Mt 11:28-30)

The rabbis chose disciples from among those who had greater intellectual and ascetic abilities. Jesus, on the other hand, goes looking for the outcasts, the "infants" (v.25) who did not even have self-esteem.

Even for the rebirth that lies ahead today, Christ has no need of false phenomena; on the contrary, it is He who frees from external constraints; He releases inner strength [and also heals the brain].

Into the intimacy of the Mystery of divine life enters he who knows how to receive everything and lets go - but remains himself.

God is not distant, but very close; he is not great, but small: the effective itinerary for becoming intimate with the Father is not to make oneself subordinate with effort, but to know how to be dissolved family members.

Only here can we grasp him in the centre of his unveiling: wise power, succouring, united; for us, as we are.

The pundits of official religion - overflowing with self-love and a sense of election - preached a God to be persuaded with confident attitudes and contrived, edgy, imperious actions.

They allowed neither being nor becoming. Their intransigence was a sign that they did not know the Father.

The Eternal One transformed into the Controller had become a source of discrimination and obsession for the intimate lives of minute people, harassed by the insecurity of distinguish-avoid-observe, and by doubts of conscience.

Discouraged from living personally (and as a class) the conversion they preached to others, the professors did not realise that they had to empty themselves of absurd presumptions and become - they - pupils of ordinary people.

In short, as children we are incessantly invited to build a multifaceted Family, where we are not always on the alert.

We are not the subordinates of a frowning and all-distant - but manipulative - Lord.

Rather, we are called to a paradoxical, personal and class choice: and without forcing it, to recognise ourselves - to stand alongside the humiliated and harassed.

This while provincial false piety continues to drag burdens - precisely those of the thwarted and weary, of existence made more hesitant rather than free; obsessed and heavy, rather than light.

Why? Without mincing words, the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti would answer:

"The best way to dominate and advance without limits is to sow hopelessness and arouse constant distrust, albeit masked by the defence of certain values" (no.15).

As if to say: when the authorities and the leaders have little credibility, only the sowing of fear produces significant conditioning in the people, and puts them on a leash.

In the widespread Church, only in the last few decades have we overcome the cliché of moralistic and terroristic preaching [e.g. even at Advent time] divorced from a meridian sense of humanisation.

The excluded, dejected and exhausted by meaningless fulfilments have nevertheless continued to meet the Saviour frankly, finding rest of soul, conviction, peace, balance, hope.

Instinctively, they were able to carve out what no pyramid religion had ever been able to provide and deploy.

In this way, the new, the voiceless, the inadequate and invisible, never know how to calculate in terms of doctrine and laws, norm and code - ancient 'yoke' (vv.29-30) unbearable, crushing people and concrete vocations; particular autonomies or communionalities.

In short, no 'patriarch' is empowered by God to pack our souls, force directions, and keep a maniacal, perfectionist, meticulous eye on us.

Exaggerating failures, across the board.

Everyone has an innate way of being in the world, all their own - even if it is habitual. It is an opportunity of impulse and richness for everyone.

We ourselves do not want to exacerbate events by regulating every detail, even 'spiritual' ones, from irritating patterns of vigilance that do not belong to us.

We prefer to let personal ways of dealing with reality flow; thus tracing its essential and spontaneous energies.

We reason according to codes of life and humanisation: temperament, unrepeatable history, cultural influences, broad friendships. We do not live to prevent.

Only in this way can we enrich the fundamental experience: Love - which does not come from judgements, cuts and separations, but from the Father-Son relationship. The only one that does not stigmatise.

The root of the transformation of being in the Unpredictable of God is precisely concealment, 'tapinōsis' [(tapeínōsis, 'lowering'), from ταπεινός (tapeinós, 'low') [v.29 Greek text; Lk 1:48].

Only those who love strength start from the too far from themselves.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you find yourself more or less free and serene in community?

Does your Calling gain breath or do you feel the burden of others' doubts, judgements, prohibitions and prescriptions?

Do you suffer from some guide or from yourself a kind of controller complex?

Man needs to be liberated from material oppressions, but more profoundly, he must be saved from the evils that afflict the spirit. And who can save him if not God, who is Love and has revealed his face as almighty and merciful Father in Jesus Christ? Our firm hope is therefore Christ: in him, God has loved us to the utmost and has given us life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10), the life that every person, even if unknowingly, longs to possess.

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” These words of Jesus, written in large letters above the entrance to your Cathedral in Brno, he now addresses to each of us, and he adds: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29-30). Can we remain indifferent in the face of his love? Here, as elsewhere, many people suffered in past centuries for remaining faithful to the Gospel, and they did not lose hope; many people sacrificed themselves in order to restore dignity to man and freedom to peoples, finding in their generous adherence to Christ the strength to build a new humanity. In present-day society, many forms of poverty are born from isolation, from being unloved, from the rejection of God and from a deep-seated tragic closure in man who believes himself to be self-sufficient, or else merely an insignificant and transient datum; in this world of ours which is alienated “when too much trust is placed in merely human projects” (Caritas in Veritate, 53), only Christ can be our certain hope. This is the message that we Christians are called to spread every day, through our witness.

[Pope Benedict, homily at Tuřany Airport in Brno 27 September 2009]

Bless you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for you have kept these things hidden from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little ones...". (Mt 11:25).

This phrase from the Gospel of today's Sunday in July comes to mind, dear brothers and sisters, as we have gathered for the recitation of the Angelus.

Mary is the one to whom the most was revealed, at the moment when the Angel of the Lord appeared before her, announcing: "Behold, you will conceive a son, you will give birth to him and you will call his name Jesus" (Lk 1:31).

She was the first to receive this Truth that transforms the world..., a Truth so often hidden "from the wise and intelligent" of this world... And She, Mary of Nazareth, accepts it with the greatest simplicity of spirit and, therefore, in the most authentic fullness.

As we gather for the Angelus prayer, let us continually open our hearts to the same Divine Truth with such simplicity! May it come to us again and again, in the different places and circumstances of life, whether at work or at rest, as now at holiday time.

May this Divine Truth allow us to build everywhere and daily the life to which we have been called in Christ...: may we repeat with Christ: "I bless you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth". Such fruit of the Angelus prayer I invoke both for you, dear brothers and sisters, and for me.

2. Then I pray for you, for each one of you, and for me, that the words that Jesus addresses in today's liturgy to all those who are "weary and oppressed", let us say: suffering, may be fulfilled upon us.

Behold, he says: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, who am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is soft and my burden light" (Mt 11:29-30).

For the fulfilment of these sacred words upon myself, particularly in the present period of my life, and also upon many, many of my brothers and sisters who are perhaps feeling their "sweet yoke" even more, I pray to Mary, Health of the Sick, / Mary, Refuge of Sinners / Comfort of the Afflicted, / Mary, Help of Christians / and I pray to all the saints.

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus 5 July 1981]

Learn from me (cf Mt 11:28-30)

During this Jubilee we have reflected many times on the fact that Jesus expresses himself with unique tenderness, a sign of God’s presence and goodness. Today we shall pause on a moving Gospel passage (cf. Mt 11:28-30), in which Jesus says: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ... learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (vv. 28-29). The Lord’s invitation is surprising: He calls to follow Him people who are lowly and burdened by a difficult life; He calls to follow Him people who have many needs, and He promises them that in Him they will find rest and relief. The invitation is extended in the imperative form: “Come to me”, “take my yoke” and “learn from me”. If only all the world’s leaders could say this! Let us try to understand the meaning of these expressions.

The first imperative is “Come to me”. Addressing those who are weary and oppressed, Jesus presents himself as the Servant of the Lord described in the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. The passage of Isaiah states: “The Lord has given me a disciple’s tongue, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word” (cf. 50:4). Among those who are weary of life, the Gospel also often includes the poor (cf. Mt 11:5) and the little ones (cf. Mt 18:6). This means those who cannot rely on their own means, nor on important friendships. They can only trust in God. Conscious of their humble and wretched condition, they know that they depend on the Lord’s mercy, awaiting from Him the only help possible. At last, in Jesus’ invitation they find the response they have been waiting for. Becoming his disciples they receive the promise of finding rest for all their life. It is a promise that at the end of the Gospel is extended to all peoples: “Go therefore”, Jesus says to the Apostles, “and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19). Accepting the invitation to celebrate this year of grace of the Jubilee, throughout the world pilgrims are passing through the Door of Mercy open in cathedrals and shrines, in so many churches of the world, in hospitals, in prisons. Why do they pass through this Door of Mercy? To find Jesus, to find Jesus’ friendship, to find the rest that Jesus alone gives.

This journey expresses the conversion of each disciple who follows Jesus. Conversion always consists in discovering the Lord’s mercy. It is infinite and inexhaustible: the Lord’s mercy is immense! Thus, passing through the Holy Door, we profess “that love is present in the world and that this love is more powerful than any kind of evil in which individuals, humanity, or the world are involved” (John Paul II, Encyclical Dives in Misericordia, n. 7). 

The second imperative states: “Take my yoke”. In the context of the Covenant, biblical tradition uses the image of the yoke to indicate the close bond that links the people to God and, as a result, the submission to his will expressed in the Law. Debating with the scribes and the doctors of the Law, Jesus places upon his disciples his yoke, in which the Law is fulfilled. He wants to teach them that they will discover God’s will through Him personally: through Jesus, not through the cold laws and prescriptions that Jesus himself condemns. Just read Chapter 23 of Matthew! He is at the centre of their relationship with God, He is at the heart of the relations among the disciples and sets himself as the fulcrum of each one’s life. Thus, receiving “Jesus’ yoke”, each disciple enters into communion with Him and participates in the mystery of his Cross and in his destiny of salvation.

The third imperative follows: “Learn from me”. Jesus proposes to his disciples a journey of knowledge and of imitation. Jesus is not a severe master who imposes upon others burdens which He does not bear: this was the accusation He directed at the doctors of the Law. He addresses the humble, the little ones, the poor, the needy, for He made himself little and humble. He understands the poor and the suffering because He himself is poor and tried by pain. In order to save humanity Jesus did not undertake an easy path; on the contrary, his journey was painful and difficult. As the Letter to the Philippians recalls: “he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (2:8). The yoke which the poor and the oppressed bear is the same yoke that He bore before them: for this reason the yoke is light. He took upon his shoulders the pain and the sins of the whole of humanity. For a disciple, therefore, receiving Jesus’ yoke means receiving his revelation and accepting it: in Him God’s mercy takes on mankind’s poverty, thus giving the possibility of salvation to everyone. Why is Jesus able to say these things? Because He became all things to everyone, close to all, to the poorest! He was a shepherd among the people, among the poor. He worked every day with them. Jesus was not a prince. It is bad for the Church when pastors become princes, separated from the people, far from the poorest: that is not the spirit of Jesus. Jesus rebuked these pastors, and Jesus spoke about them to the people: “do as they say, not as they do”.

Dear brothers and sisters, for us too there are moments of weariness and disillusion. Thus let us remember these words of the Lord, which give us so much consolation and allow us to understand whether we are placing our energy at the service of the good. Indeed, at times our weariness is caused by placing trust in things that are not essential, because we have distanced ourselves from what really matters in life. The Lord teaches us not to be afraid to follow Him, because the hope that we place in Him will never disappoint. Thus, we are called to learn from Him what it means to live on mercy so as to be instruments of mercy. Live on mercy so as to be instruments of mercy: live on mercy and feel needful of Jesus’ mercy, and when we feel in need of forgiveness, of consolation, let us learn to be merciful to others. Keeping our gaze fixed on the Son of God allows us to understand how far we still have to go; but at the same time it instills us with the joy of knowing that we are walking with Him and we are never alone. Have courage, therefore, have courage! Let us not be robbed of the joy of being the Lord’s disciples. “But, Father, I am a sinner, what can I do?” — “Let yourself be gazed upon by the Lord, open your heart, feel his gaze upon you, his mercy, and your heart will be filled with joy, with the joy of forgiveness, if you draw near to ask for forgiveness”. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the hope of living this life together with Him and with the strength of his consolation. Thank you.

[Pope Francis, General Audience 14 September 2016]

alue of imperfect uniqueness

(Mt 18:12-14)

Jesus is careful not to propose a dictated or planned universalism, as if His were an ideal model, «to make everyone uniform» [FT n.100].

The kind of Communion that the Lord proposes to us doesn’t aim at «one-dimensional uniformity that seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial quest for unity».

Because «the future is not monochrome; if we are courageous, we can contemplate it in all the variety and diversity of what each individual person has to offer. How much our human family needs to learn to live together in harmony and peace, without all of us having to be the same!».

In the Son, God is revealed no longer as exclusive property, but the Power of a Love that forgives the marginalized and lost: Force that saves and creates, liberating.

It seems an impossible utopia to realize concretely (today of the global crisis) but it’s the meaning of the handover to the Church, called to become an incessant goad of Infinity and leaven of an alternative world, for integral human development.

As the encyclical Fratelli Tutti [Brothers All] emphasizes: Jesus - our Engine and Motive - «had an open heart, sensitive to the difficulties of others» [n.84].

In this way, through an absurd question (rhetorically formulated), Jesus wants to arouse the conscience of the "righteous": there is a side of us that supposes of ourselves, very dangerous because it leads to exclusion and abandonment.

Instead, inexhaustible Love seeks. And finds the imperfect and restless.

The swamp of stagnant energy that is generated by accentuating borders does not make anyone grow: it freezes us in the usual positions and lets everyone arrange or get lost. For an interested disinterest - that impoverishes everyone.

All this brings the creative virtues fall into despair.

Instead, God is in search of the one who wanders unsteadily, easily disoriented, loses his way. 

Sinner and yet true, therefore more disposed to genuine Love. For this reason the Father is looking for the insufficient.

The person so clear and spontaneous - albeit weak - hides his best part and vocation richness right behind the apparently detestable sides. Maybe those he himself does not appreciate.

This is the principle of Redemption that astounds and makes interesting our paths often distracted, led with a snuff, as "to attempt and error" - in the Faith generating however self-esteem, credit, fullness and joy.

Jesus, in short, does not come to point the finger at the 'bad moments', but to make up for those very 'moments not', by leveraging intimate involvement.

This is the style of a Church with a Heart sacred, amiable, elevated and blessed.

[Tuesday 2nd wk. in Advent, December 9, 2025]

Value of imperfect uniqueness

(Mt 18:12-14)

The change of course and destiny of the Kingdom. A God in search of the lost and unequal, to expand our life. Christology of the Pallium, power of caresses, joyful energy (in dissociation).

Says the Tao Tê Ching (x): "Preserve the One by dwelling in the two souls: are you able to keep them apart?"

Even in the spiritual journey, Jesus is careful not to propose a dictated or planned universalism, as if his were an ideal model, "for the purpose of homogenisation" [Fratelli Tutti n.100].

The type of Communion that the Lord proposes to us does not aim at "a one-dimensional uniformity that seeks to eliminate all differences and traditions in a superficial search for unity".

Because "the future is not 'monochromatic' but if we have the courage it is possible to look at it in the variety and diversity of the contributions that each one can make. How much our human family needs to learn to live together in harmony and peace without us all being equal!" [from an Address to Young People in Tokyo, November 2019].

Although the piety and hope of the representatives of official religiosity was founded on a structure of human, ethnic, cultural securities and a vision of the Mystery consolidated by a great tradition, Jesus crumbles all predictability.

In the Son, God is revealed no longer as exclusive property, but as the Power of Love that forgives the marginalised and lost: saving and creating, liberating. And through the disciples, he unfolds his Face that recovers, breaks down the usual barriers, calls out to miserable multitudes.

It seems an impossible utopia to realise in the concrete (today of the health and global crisis) but it is the sense of the handover to the Church, called to become an incessant prod of the Infinite and ferment of an alternative world, for integral human development:

"Let us dream as one humanity, as wayfarers made of the same human flesh, as children of this same earth that hosts us all, each with the richness of his faith or convictions, each with his own voice, all brothers!" [FT No.8].

Through an absurd question (rhetorically formulated) Jesus wants to awaken the conscience of the 'just': there is a counterpart of us that supposes of itself, very dangerous, because it leads to exclusion, to abandonment.

Instead, inexhaustible Love seeks. And it finds the imperfect and restless.

The swamp of stagnant energy that is generated by accentuating boundaries does not make anyone grow: it locks in the usual positions and leaves everyone to make do or lose themselves. Out of self-interested disinterest - that impoverishes everyone.

This causes the creative virtues to fall into despair.

It plunges those outside the circle of the elect - those who had nothing superior - into despair. Indeed, the evangelists portray them as utterly incapable of beaming with human joy at the progress of others.

Calculating, acting and conforming - the fundamentalist or overly sophisticated and disembodied leaders use religion as a weapon.

Instead, God is at the antipodes of the fake sterilised - or disembodied thinking - and seeking one who wanders shakily, easily becomes disoriented, loses his way. 

Sinful yet true, therefore more disposed to genuine Love. This is why the Father is searching for the insufficient.

The person who is so limpid and spontaneous - even if weak - hides his best side and vocational richness precisely behind the apparently detestable sides. Perhaps that he himself does not appreciate.

This is the principle of Redemption that astounds and makes interesting our often distracted paths, conducted by trial and error - in Faith, however, generating self-esteem, credit, fullness and joy.

The commitment of the purifier and the impetus of the reformer are 'trades' that seemingly oppose each other, but are easy... and typical of those who think that the things to be challenged and changed are always outside themselves.

For example, in mechanisms, in general rules, in the legal framework, in worldviews, in formal (or histrionic) aspects instead of the craft of the concrete particular good; and so on.

They seem to be excuses not to look inside oneself and get involved, not to meet one's deepest states in all aspects and not only in the guidelines. And to recover or cheer up individuals who are concretely lost, sad, in all dark and difficult sides.

But God is at the antipodes of sterilised mannerists or fake idealists, and in search of the insufficient: the one who wanders and loses his way. Sinful yet true, therefore more disposed to genuine Love.

The transparent and spontaneous person - even if weak - hides his or her best side and vocational richness precisely behind the apparently detestable aspects (perhaps which he or she does not appreciate).So let us ask for solutions to the mysterious, unpredictable interpersonal energies that come into play; from within things.

Without interfering with or opposing ideas of the past or future that we do not see. Rather by possessing its soul, its spontaneous drug.

This is the principle of Salvation that astounds and makes interesting our paths [often distracted, led by trial and error] - ultimately generating self-esteem, credit and joy.

The idea that the Most High is a notary or prince of a forum, and makes a clear distinction between righteous and transgressors, is caricature.

After all, a life of the saved is not one's own making, nor is it exclusive possession or private ownership - which turns into duplicity.

It is not the squeamish attitude, nor the cerebral attitude, that unites one to Him. The Father does not blandish suppliant friendships, nor does He have outside interests.

He rejoices with everyone, and it is need that draws Him to us. So let us not be afraid to let Him find us and bring us back (cf. Lk 15:5) to His house, which is our house.

If there is a loss, there will be a finding, and this is not a loss for anyone - except for the envious enemies of freedom (v.10).

For the LORD is not pleased with marginalisation, nor does he intend to extinguish the smoking lamp.

Jesus does not come to point the finger at the bad times, but to make up for them, by leveraging intimate involvement. Invincible force of faithfulness.

This is the style of a Church with a Sacred Heart, lovable, elevated and blessed.

[What attracts one to participate and express oneself is to feel understood, restored to full dignity - not condemned].

Carlo Carretto said: 'It is by feeling loved, not criticised, that man begins his journey of transformation'.

As the encyclical Fratelli Tutti emphasises again:

Jesus - our Engine and Motive - "had an open heart, which made the dramas of others its own" (n.84).

And he adds as an example of our great Tradition:

"People can develop certain attitudes that they present as moral values: fortitude, sobriety, industriousness and other virtues. But in order to properly direct the acts [...] we must also consider to what extent they realise a dynamism of openness and union [...] Otherwise we will only have appearances'.

"St Bonaventure explained that the other virtues, without charity, strictly speaking do not fulfil the commandments as God intends them" (n.91).

In sects or one-sidedly inspired groups, human and spiritual riches are deposited in a secluded place, so they grow old and debased.

In the assemblies of the sons, on the other hand, they are shared: they grow and communicate; by multiplying, they green up, for universal benefit.

To internalise and live the message:

What attracts you to the Church? In comparisons with the top of the class, do you feel judged or adequate?

Do you feel the Love that saves, even if you remain uncertain?

Christology of the Pallio: we are all carried by Christ

Humanity - all of us - is the lost sheep who, in the wilderness, can no longer find the way. The Son of God does not tolerate this; He cannot abandon humanity in such a miserable condition. He leaps up, abandons the glory of heaven, to find the sheep and chase it to the cross. He carries it on his shoulders, he carries our humanity, he carries ourselves - he is the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep. The pallium first of all says that we are all carried by Christ. But at the same time it invites us to carry one another. Thus the pallium becomes the symbol of the shepherd's mission, of which the second reading and the Gospel speak. The holy restlessness of Christ must animate the pastor: for him it is not indifferent that so many people live in the desert. And there are many forms of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, there is the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of the obscurity of God, of the emptying of souls with no more consciousness of man's dignity and journey. The outer deserts are multiplying in the world because the inner deserts have become so vast. Therefore the treasures of the earth are no longer at the service of building God's garden, in which all can live, but are enslaved to the powers of exploitation and destruction. The Church as a whole, and the Pastors in it, like Christ must set out, to lead men out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, life in its fullness.

[Pope Benedict, homily at the beginning of the Petrine ministry 24 April 2005].

Power of caresses. One is unique

The "joyful announcement of Christmas" is that "the Lord comes with his power", but above all that that power "is his caresses", his "tenderness". A tenderness that, like the good shepherd with the sheep, is for each one of us: God never forgets any one of us, not even if we were tragically 'lost' as happened to Judas who, lost in his 'inner darkness', is in some way the prototype, the 'icon' of the sheep in the Gospel parable.

In the homily of the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Tuesday, 6 December, Pope Francis went to the heart of this "joyful announcement" before which, the liturgy of the day reads, we are called to "sincere exultation". And "before Christmas," the Pontiff said, "let us ask for this grace of receiving this glad tidings with sincere exultation and of rejoicing," but also "of allowing the Lord to console us". Why, he asked, does the liturgy also speak of consolation? Because, was his answer, 'the Lord comes and when the Lord comes he touches the soul with these feelings'. For 'he comes as a judge, yes, but a judge who caresses, a judge who is full of tenderness' and 'does everything to save us'. God, he continued, 'judges with love, so much so that he sent his son, and John emphasises: not to judge but to save, not to condemn but to save'. Therefore "always God's judgement leads us to this hope of being saved".

Going deeper into his meditation, the Pope took as a reference the gospel of the day, in which Matthew (18:12-14) speaks of the good shepherd. This judge "who caresses" and who comes "to save", Francis said, has "the attitude of the shepherd: 'What do you think? If one of his sheep goes astray, will he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go and look for the one that has gone astray?"'. Even the Lord, when he comes, "does not say, 'But, I do the math and I lose one, 99.... Is reasonable...'. No, no. One is unique'. For the shepherd does not simply possess 99 sheep, but 'has one, one, one, one...': that is, 'each one is different'. And he "loves each one personally. He does not love the indistinct mass. No! He loves us by name, he loves us as we are'.

Following the thread of the analogy, the Pontiff explained that that lost sheep the shepherd "knew her well", she was not lost, she "knew the way well": she was lost "because her heart was lost, her heart was sick. She was blinded by something inside and, moved by that inner dissociation, she fled into the dark to let off steam'. But 'it was not a girlish act that she did.... She ran away: an escape precisely to get away from the Lord, to satiate that inner darkness that led her to the double life', to 'being in the flock and running away from the dark, in the dark'. And here is the consoling message: 'The Lord knows these things and he goes to look for her'.

It was at this point that Pope Francis introduced another element into his meditation: 'For me, the figure that most makes me understand the Lord's attitude with the lost sheep is the Lord's attitude with Judas. The most perfect lost sheep in the Gospel is Judas'. In fact, the Pontiff recalled, he is 'a man who always, always had something bitter in his heart, something to criticise about others, always in detachment': a man who did not know 'the sweetness of gratuitousness of living with all others'. And since this 'sheep' 'was not satisfied', he 'ran away'.

Judas, said the Pope, 'ran away because he was a thief', others 'are lustful' and likewise 'run away because there is that darkness in the heart that separates them from the flock'. We are faced with "that double life" that is "of so many Christians" and also - he added "with pain" - of "priests" and "bishops". After all, even 'Judas was a bishop, he was one of the first bishops...'.

So even Judas is a "lost sheep", Francis concluded, adding: "Poor guy! Poor this brother Judas as Don Mazzolari called him, in that very beautiful sermon: "Brother Judas, what is going on in your heart?"".

This is a reality to which even today's Christians are no strangers. Therefore 'we too must understand the lost sheep'. Indeed, the Pope emphasised, 'we too always have something, little or not so little, of the lost sheep'. We must therefore understand that 'it is not a mistake that the lost sheep has made: it is a sickness, it is a sickness that he had in his heart' and of which the devil takes advantage. Resuming the comparison used earlier, the Pontiff retraced the last moments of Judas' life: "when he went to the temple to lead a double life", when he gave "the kiss to the Lord in the garden", and then "the coins he received from the priests...". And he commented: 'it's not a mistake. He did it... He was in the dark! His heart was divided, dissociated. "Judas, Judas...". Therefore it can be said that he 'is the icon of the lost sheep'.

Jesus, "the shepherd, goes to find him: 'Do what you have to do, man', and kisses him". But Judas "does not understand". And in the end, when he realises "what his own double life has done in the community, the evil he has sown, with his inner darkness, which led him to always run away, looking for lights that were not the light of the Lord" but "artificial lights", like those of the "Christmas decorations", when he understands all this, in the end "he became desperate". And this is what happens 'if the lost sheep do not accept the Lord's caresses'.

But there is yet another level of depth to which the Pope's reflection descended. Pointing out that 'the Lord is good, even for these sheep' and 'never stops looking for them', he highlighted a word that we find in the Bible, 'a word that says that Judas hanged himself, hanged himself and "repented"'. And he commented: 'I believe that the Lord will take that word and bring it with him, I don't know, maybe, but that word makes us doubt'. Above all, he emphasised: "But what does that word mean? That until the end God's love was working in that soul, until the moment of despair'. And it is precisely this, he said, closing the circle of his reflection, 'the attitude of the good shepherd with the lost sheep'.

Here then is 'the proclamation' spoken of at the beginning of the homily, 'the happy proclamation that Christmas brings us and that asks us for this sincere rejoicing that changes the heart, that leads us to allow ourselves to be consoled by the Lord and not by the consolations that we go in search of to let off steam, to escape from reality, to escape from inner torture, from inner division'. The "glad tidings", the "sincere rejoicing", the "consolation", the "rejoicing in the Lord" spring from the fact that "the Lord comes with his power. And what is the power of the Lord? The caresses of the Lord!" It is like the good shepherd who "when he found the lost sheep, he did not insult it, no", on the contrary, he must have said to it: "But have you done so much wrong? Come, come...'. And similarly, "in the garden of olives" what did he say to the "lost sheep", Judas? He called him "friend. Always the caresses'.

Faced with all this, the Pope said at this point: 'Whoever does not know the caresses of the Lord does not know Christian doctrine. Whoever does not allow himself to be caressed by the Lord is lost'. And it is precisely "this is the glad tidings, this is the sincere exultation that we want today. This is the joy, this is the consolation we seek: that the Lord comes with his power, which are caresses, to find us, to save us, like the lost sheep, and to bring us into the flock of his Church'.

The conclusion was, as usual, a prayer: "May the Lord give us this grace, to wait for Christmas with our wounds, with our sins, sincerely acknowledged, to wait for the power of this God who comes to console us, who comes with power, but his power is tenderness, the caresses that are born from his heart, his heart so good that he gave his life for us."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 07/12/2016]

The human race – every one of us – is the sheep lost in the desert which no longer knows the way. The Son of God will not let this happen; he cannot abandon humanity in so wretched a condition. He leaps to his feet and abandons the glory of heaven, in order to go in search of the sheep and pursue it, all the way to the Cross. He takes it upon his shoulders and carries our humanity; he carries us all – he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. What the Pallium indicates first and foremost is that we are all carried by Christ. But at the same time it invites us to carry one another. Hence the Pallium becomes a symbol of the shepherd’s mission, of which the Second Reading and the Gospel speak. The pastor must be inspired by Christ’s holy zeal: for him it is not a matter of indifference that so many people are living in the desert. And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. Therefore the earth’s treasures no longer serve to build God’s garden for all to live in, but they have been made to serve the powers of exploitation and destruction. The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.

[Pope Benedict, homily at the beginning of the Petrine ministry 24 April 2005]

The Old Testament already usually speaks of God as the Shepherd of Israel, the people of the covenant, chosen by him to carry out the plan of salvation. Psalm 22 is a marvellous hymn to the Lord, the Shepherd of our soul:

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; / he makes me lie down in green pastures, / he leads me beside still waters, / he restores my soul. / He leads me in paths of righteousness... / Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, / I fear no evil; / for thou art with me..." (Ps 22:1-3).

The prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel often return to the subject of the people as "the Lord's flock": "Behold your God!... He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms..." (Is 40:11). Above all, they announce the Messiah as a Shepherd who will really feed his sheep and not let them go astray any more: "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd..." (Ez 34: 23).

This sweet and moving figure of the shepherd is a familiar one in the Gospel. Even if times have changed owing to industrialization and urbanism, it always keeps its fascination and effectiveness; and we all remember the touching and poetic parable of the Good Shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep (Lk 15:3-7).

In the early times of the Church, Christian iconography used a great deal and developed this subject of the Good Shepherd, whose image often appears, painted or sculpted, in the catacombs, sarcophagi and baptismal fonts. This iconography, so interesting and reverent, testifies to us that, right from the early times of the Church, Jesus "the Good Shepherd" struck and moved the hearts of believers and non-believers, and was a cause of conversion, spiritual commitment and comfort. Well, Jesus "the Good Shepherd" is still alive and true today in our midst, in the midst of the whole of mankind, and he wants to let each of us hear his voice and feel his love.

1) What does it mean to be the Good Shepherd?

Jesus explains it to us with convincing clearness.

— The shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know him. How wonderful and consoling it is to know that Jesus knows us one by one; that for him we are not anonymous persons; that our name—that name which is agreed upon by loving parents and friends—is known to him! For Jesus we are not a "mass", a "multitude"! We are individual "persons" with an eternal value, both as creatures and as re-deemed persons! He knows us! He knows me, and loves me and gave himself for me! (Gal 2:20).

[...]

(Pope John Paul II, homily 6 May 1979)

We are all familiar with the image of the Good Shepherd with the little lost lamb on his shoulders. This icon has always been an expression of Jesus’ care for sinners and of the mercy of God who never resigns himself to the loss of anyone. The parable is told by Jesus to make us understand that his closeness to sinners should not scandalize us, but on the contrary it should call us all to serious reflection on how we live our faith. The narrative sees, on the one hand, the sinners who approach Jesus in order to listen to him and, on the other, the suspicious doctors of the law and scribes who move away from him because of his behaviour. They move away because Jesus approaches the sinners. These men were proud, arrogant, believed themselves to be just. 

Our parable unfolds around three characters: the shepherd, the lost sheep and the rest of the flock. The one who acts, however, is only the shepherd not the sheep. The Shepherd, then, is the only real protagonist and everything depends on him. The parable opens with a question: “"What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?” (Lk 15:4). It is a paradox that arouses doubt about the action of the Shepherd: is it wise to abandon the ninety-nine for one single sheep? And what’s more, not in the safety of a pen but in the desert? According to biblical tradition, the desert is a place of death where it is hard to find food and water, shelterless and where one is at the mercy of wild beasts and thieves. What are the ninety-nine defenseless sheep supposed to do? The paradox continues, in any case, saying that the shepherd, having found the sheep, “lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me’” (15:5-6). It seems then that the shepherd didn’t go back to the desert to recover the rest of the flock! Reaching out to that single sheep he seems to forget the other ninety-nine. But it’s not like that really. The lesson that Jesus wants us to learn is, rather, that not a single one of us can be lost. The Lord cannot accept the fact that a single person can be lost. God’s action is that of one who goes out seeking his lost children and then rejoices and celebrates with everyone at their recovery. It is a burning desire: not even ninety-nine sheep could stop the shepherd and keep him enclosed in the fold. He might reason like this: “Let me do the sum: If I have ninety-nine of them, I have lost one, but that’s no great loss”. Nevertheless, he goes looking for that one, because every one is very important to him and that one is in the most need, is the most abandoned, most discarded; and he goes to look for it. We are all warned: mercy to sinners is the style with which God acts and to this mercy he is absolutely faithful: nothing and no one can distract him from his saving will. God does not share our current throw-away culture; it doesn’t count to God. God throws no one away; God loves everyone, looks for everyone: one by one! He doesn’t know what “throwing people away” means, because he is entirely love, entirely mercy. 

The Lord’s flock is always on the move: it does not possess the Lord, it cannot hope to imprison him in its structures and strategies. The Shepherd will be found wherever the lost sheep is. The Lord, then, should be sought precisely where he wants to find us, not where we presume to find him! There is no other way to reassemble the flock except by following the path outlined by the mercy of the shepherd. While he is looking for the lost sheep, he challenges the ninety-nine to participate in the reunification of the flock. Then, not only the lamb on his shoulders, but the whole flock will follow the shepherd to his home to celebrate with “friends and neighbours”.

We should reflect on this parable often, for in the Christian community there is always someone who is missing and if that person is gone, a place is left empty. Sometimes this is daunting and leads us to believe that a loss is inevitable, like an incurable disease. That is how we run the risk of shutting ourselves in the pen, where there won’t be the odour of the sheep but the stench of enclosure! And Christians? We must not be closed in or we will smell like stale things. Never! We need to go forth, not close in on ourselves, in our little communities, in the parish, holding ourselves to be “righteous”. This happens when there is a lack of the missionary zeal that leads us to encounter others. In Jesus’ vision there are no sheep that are definitively lost, but only sheep that must be found again. We need to understand this well: to God no one is definitively lost. Never! To the last moment, God is searching for us. Think of the good thief; only in the eyes of Jesus no one is definitively lost. For his perspective if entirely dynamic, open, challenging and creative. It urges us to go forth in search of a path to brotherhood. No distance can keep the shepherd away; and no flock can renounce a brother. To find the one who is lost is the joy of the shepherd and of God, but it is also the joy of the flock as a whole! We are all sheep who have been retrieved and brought back by the mercy of the Lord, and we are called to gather the whole flock to the Lord! 

[Pope Francis, General Audience 4 May 2016]

In the Annunciation

(Gen 3:9-15.20; Lk 1:26-38)

A great theologian of the Mystical Body wrote: «At dawn there is a wonderful moment: the one that immediately precedes the sunrise [...] the light has been growing, slowly at the beginning, then faster» (É. Mersch).

The ecclesial Faith announces and transmits in Mary ‘Most Holy’ a specific style, a Faith and Hope well denoted in Scripture.

She prorupting and freed, not alienated; independent of “night”, not embarrassed.

Capable of passing from the God of fathers to the Father. Son’s God.

Dawn after dawn, story after story, genesis after genesis, moving house after moving, she lived decisively a kind of ‘spirituality of the rising dawn’. And confidence over time.

When a question mark was coming, she realized it was time to ask herself and give answers.

She sensed the Opportunity to rise again: all Fruitful and without losing motivation, thanks to a paradoxical Alliance, with the limits and emotional burdens.

When a labor broke in, she understood that those waves invaded life not to destroy, but to move a sea of reflows, perhaps still too calm.

She didn’t dream of stemting or blocking that tide. She internalized the restlessness of doubts as a great moment of life.

A Happiness that came from innovation. Like a Presence.

Instead of feeling constrained, she paused on every case, to ask herself: «What do I still have to learn, from this?».

Perhaps she understood that inside her usual figure there was a woman capable of transgression - in the sense of feeling called to overturn all the ancient and artificial that didn’t correspond to her.

This is how she began, by accepting the Invitation: by housing in herself and give space to an unnameable Eternal, believed to be absolutely transcendent and never to be mixed with the flesh!

Not just a sacrilege, but heresy. Yet in the Mother of God the paradoxical heterodoxy comes as it were swept beyond.

His spirituality was cleared of the real great "stain": the inability to correspond to the personal Announcement.

«Too bad! Such a pity» «Sin! What a shame!» - it is precisely said of a lost opportunity: it’s the decrease of Uniqueness that we are in.

Pearl that every day could yield its uniqueness to the normalizing and sliced outline of common opinion, narrowing the space, the vital wave.

The divine call of every moment directed elsewhere Mary’s dreams and her innate knowledge - antechamber of trust.

In the Covenant of Root and Seed, decisions were not and did not remain poor: without brain burdens the Mother of God went directly to new possibilities, and to the end.

In this form she lived and weaved a sort of «spirituality of the rising sun». Recall of every moment, in the joy of changing herself and things; or in the happiness of living them like this - even by leaving everything.

While growing up, she did not age of uncertainties, because she tuned her destiny forward - saying Yes to what it faced - and instinctively even today we consider her Young.

She knew how to be with the contradictions of the environment subject to the ancient devotion, and with the unexpected waves, as with the eccentricity of the Son.

Mary cared for Him by being ‘present’, in simple everyday gestures. She relied only on the happy energy that surfaced all moments, and inhabited her.

She immersed herself in the minimal expressions of gestures with her gaze on the now, for a clear action.

Inadequate to the miracle but herself, while working thoroughly, she did not squeeze to the bone, like a torn-up person on her last legs - because she was able to get back into play. This is why she knew the dialogue with the most feared and suffered feeling: loneliness.

But even in the dark she regenerated, welcoming and coming out of it by strengthening the germs of change - feeding in the soul a sort of magical garden.

Always off track, the Immaculate has overcome all prejudices.

[Immaculate Conception, December 8]