God bless us and may the Virgin protect us. On this Sunday, 2 February 2025, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple of Jerusalem

*First Reading From the book of the prophet Malachi (3,1-4) 

We are in the presence of a mysterious prophetic fragment seen by many as a testimony of universalism, freedom and hope. However, it is not easy to understand how to accept this text. Why does the prophet Malachi insist so much on the Temple, on the Levites (or priests), on offerings and on everything related to worship? To understand this insistence, the historical context must be taken into account. Malachi writes around 450 BC, at a time when there was no longer a king in Israel descended from David, the country was under Persian rule, and the Jewish people were ruled by priests. This is why the author insists on God's covenant with the priests who were God's representatives to his people. Malachi recalls the privileged bond between God and the descendants of Levi, but witnesses a degeneration in the conduct of this priestly caste and it was therefore very important to recall the ideal and responsibility of the priesthood. The covenant with the priests was at the service of God's covenant with his people, and it is precisely this covenant that is spoken of here: 'Immediately shall the Lord whom you seek enter into his temple; and the angel of the covenant whom you long for, behold, he is coming'. Malachi addresses all those who wait, who desire, who seek, and announces to them that they have not waited, sought, desired in vain, and their desire, their expectation will be fulfilled. And this will soon come to pass.

"And immediately he will come", the Hebrew word pit'ôm indicates both swiftness and nearness, and is as strong as the expression that follows: "here he comes". The two synonymous expressions 'immediately he will enter' and 'here he comes' frame (include) the announcement of the Lord's coming. "Immediately shall he enter into his temple, the Lord whom you seek; and the angel of the covenant whom you long for, behold, he is coming". The angel of the covenant comes to re-establish the covenant: first of all with the sons of Levi, but above all, through them, with the whole people, and we understand that this angel of the covenant is God himself. In the Bible, in order not to name God directly out of respect, the expression 'the Angel of God' is often used. It is therefore about the very coming of God. In his small book of just four pages in our Bible, Malachi speaks several times of the day of his coming; he calls it the 'day of the Lord' and each time this day appears both desirable and disquieting. For example, in the verse that immediately follows the text of today's liturgy, God says: "I will come to you for judgment" (v. 5), that is, I will deliver you from evil. This is desirable for the righteous but fearsome for those who live in evil and work evil. God's intervention is a discernment that must take place within us on the day of judgement and a messenger must precede the coming of the Lord who will call all people to conversion. As Malachi writes: "I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me. Later, Jesus will quote precisely this prophecy referring to John the Baptist. Asking the people who they had gone to see, he will say that John the Baptist is "more than a prophet. He is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before you; he shall prepare your way before you" (Mt 11:7-10 and Lk 7:27).  With these words, Jesus identified himself as the Angel of the covenant coming to his temple and we will understand this better by delving into St Luke's Gospel today, feast of the Presentation of the Lord 

*Responsorial Psalm 23/24 (7, 8, 9, 10)

"Lift up, O ye gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory come in". This expression is solemn and somewhat surprising since it is difficult to imagine that the gates would rise. We are in a poetic context and the hyperbole serves to express the majesty of this King of glory who solemnly enters the Temple of Jerusalem. The expression 'king of glory' refers to God himself, the Lord of the universe. Our thoughts go back to the great feast of the Dedication of the first Temple, performed by King Solomon around 950 BC. In our imagination we see again the huge procession, the steps packed with worshippers... As we read in Psalm 67/68: "Your procession appears, God, the procession of my God, of my king, in the sanctuary. Singers precede, zither-players follow, along with maidens playing tambourines" (Ps 67:25-26). The Dedication of the first Temple by Solomon is described in the first book of Kings. On that occasion Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, and the princes of the families of the children of Israel in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Lord from the city of David, that is, from Zion in the month of Etanim, the seventh month, during the Feast of Tabernacles. When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests brought up the Ark, the tent of meeting, and all the sacred objects that were in the tent, and so many small and large cattle were sacrificed that they could not be counted nor enumerated. The priests placed the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord in its place, in the inner chamber of the House, the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim, in the Bible, do not resemble the little angels of our imagination, but are winged animals with human faces, more like large Egyptian sphinxes. In Mesopotamia, they were the guardians of temples. In the Temple of Jerusalem, above the Ark of the Covenant stood two gilded wooden statues depicting these beings. Their outstretched wings above the Ark symbolised the throne of God. In this context, we can imagine the crowd and a choir singing: 'Lift up, O gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the king of glory enter'. And another choir replies: 'Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and valiant, the Lord valiant in battle'. Behind the terms recalling war, which may surprise us today, we must read the memory of all the battles Israel needed to win a living space. Ever since the giving of the Law on Sinai, the Ark accompanied the people of Israel in every battle, a sign of God's presence in the midst of his people. The most common assumption is that this psalm is very old, since all trace of the Ark has been lost since the Babylonian exile. No biblical text clearly mentions it either during or after the exile, but it is known that it ended up as part of the booty taken away by Nebuchadnezzar during the taking of Jerusalem. Was it later hidden by Jeremiah on Mount Nebo, as some relate? No one knows. Yet this psalm was sung regularly in the ceremonies of the Temple of Jerusalem even long after the Babylonian exile, at a time when there was no longer any procession around the Ark. This is precisely why it acquired greater importance: having definitively lost the Ark of the Covenant, the tangible sign of God's presence, the psalm represented all that remained of the past splendour. It taught the people the necessary detachment: God's presence is not bound to an object, however loaded with memory. Moreover, with the passing of the centuries, this psalm took on a new meaning: "Let the King of glory come in" became the cry of impatience for the coming of the Messiah. Come at last the eternal King who will reign over renewed humanity at the end of time! He will indeed be the "Lord valiant in battle" the one who finally vanquishes Evil and the powers of death; he will indeed be the Lord, God of the universe and all mankind will share in his victory. This was the expectation of Israel, which grew from century to century.  It is not surprising, then, that the Christian liturgy sings Psalm 23/24 on the day it celebrates the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem: a way of affirming that this child is the King of glory, that is, God himself.

* Second Reading From the letter to the Hebrews ( 2:14-18)

 The theme of Christ's mediation is fundamental in the Letter to the Hebrews. It is undoubtedly useful to remember that it was written in a context of not a few controversies, and it is precisely from this letter that we can intuit the kind of objections that the first Christians of Jewish origin had to face. They were constantly being told: Your Jesus is not the Messiah; we need a priest, and he is not. It was therefore crucial for a first-century Christian to know that Christ is indeed a priest, the institution of the priesthood being central in the Old Testament, as we also noted in the first reading from the book of Malachi, which is the last of the Old Testament. Now, such an important institution in the history of the Jewish people and for its survival, could not be ignored in the New Testament. Jesus, however, according to Jewish law, was not a priest and could not aspire to be one, much less consider himself a high priest. He was descended from David, thus from the tribe of Judah and not at all from the tribe of Levi, and the author of the Epistle knows this and states it clearly (cf. Heb 7:14).  The Letter to the Hebrews answers: Jesus is not a high priest descended from Aaron, but he is in the likeness of Melchizedek.  This character mentioned in Genesis chapter 14 lived long before Moses and Aaron and is related to Abraham. Yet he is called "priest of the Most High God" (cf. Gen 14:18-20). So Jesus is indeed high priest, in his own way, in continuity with the Old Testament. This is precisely the purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews: to show us how Jesus realises the institution of the priesthood and to realise in biblical language does not mean to reproduce the Old Testament model, but to bring it to its full perfection. So let us see the three aspects of the ancient priesthood and what its essential elements were: The priest was a mediator, a member of the people who was allowed to commune with God's holiness and, in return, passed on God's gifts and blessings to the people. In today's passage, it is emphasised that Jesus is indeed a member of the people: 'Since the sons have flesh and blood in common, Christ in the same way became a partaker of them... therefore he had to make himself in all things like the brethren...' (Heb 2:14-17). To be "like" means to share the same weaknesses: temptations, trials, suffering and death. Jesus shared our poor human condition and in order to bring God closer to man, he made himself one of us, thus cancelling the distance between God and man. Moreover, the priest had to be allowed to communicate with the holiness of God who is the Holy One, that is, the totally Other (Kadosh, El Elyon, HaKadosh HaMufla), as the Bible often reminds us. To get closer to the Holy God, priests underwent rites of separation: ritual bathing, anointing, dressing and sacrifice. Even the sacred places where the priests officiated were separated from the common living spaces of the people. With Jesus, all this is turned upside down: he never separated himself from the life of his people, rather he mingled with the little ones, the marginalised, the unclean. And yet, says the Letter to the Hebrews, we have certain proof that Jesus is the Righteous One par excellence, the Son of God, the Holy One: his resurrection by defeating death has re-established the Covenant with God, which was the very goal of the priests. We are now free, and the greatest enemy of freedom is fear. But, thanks to Jesus, we no longer have anything to fear because we know God's love. The one who made us doubt this love was Satan, but through death, Jesus reduced him to powerlessness (cf. 2:14-15). Jesus' suffering shows how far God's love for us goes. Finally a question: Why does this Letter speak of the "children of Abraham" and not the "children of Adam"? It states in fact. "He cares not for the angels, but for the seed of Abraham". The answer is because Abraham, in biblical meditation, represents faith, understood as trust, and we are left with the freedom not to be children of Abraham, that is, believers. It is up to us to decide whether or not to enter into God's plan.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (2:22 - 40)

In the account of the evangelist Luke a double insistence emerges: first on the Law, then on the Spirit. In the first verses (vv. 22-24), he mentions the Law three times to emphasise that the child's life begins under the sign of the Law. It should be made clear, however, that Luke mentions the Law of Israel not as a series of written commandments and indeed one could replace the word 'Law' with 'Faith of Israel'. The life of the Family of Nazareth is all imbued with faith, and when they come to the Temple in Jerusalem to fulfil the Jewish customs, they do so with an attitude of fervour. Luke's first message is this: the salvation of all mankind took shape within the framework of the Law of Israel, of the faith of Israel: in a word, the Word of God became incarnate in this context and thus God's merciful plan for mankind was fulfilled. Then Simeon enters the scene, prompted by the Spirit, also mentioned three times. It is therefore the Spirit who inspires Simeon with the words that reveal the mystery of this child: 'My eyes have seen your salvation'. It is good to take up these words of Simeon one by one: 'My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples'. The Old Testament is the story of this long and patient preparation by God for the salvation of mankind. And it is precisely the salvation of mankind, not just the people of Israel. This is exactly what Simeon points out: 'Light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. Israel's glory, in fact, lies in having been chosen not for itself, but for all mankind. As history progressed, throughout the events of the Old Testament, God's chosen people discovered more and more clearly that God's plan of salvation concerns the whole of humanity. furthermore, all this takes place in the Temple.  For Luke, the message is fundamental and he communicates it to us: we already witness the glorious entry of Jesus, Lord and Saviour, into the temple of Jerusalem, as the prophet Malachi had announced. This is precisely the opening of the first reading: 'Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and straightway the Lord whom you seek shall enter into his temple; and the angel of the covenant, whom you long for, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts'.

Luke recognises in Jesus the Angel of the Covenant who enters his temple. Simeon's words about glory and light fit perfectly in this line: 'My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples: light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. Another echo of today's gospel in the Old Testament is found in the Psalm: "Who is this king of glory? Lift up, O gates, your foreheads". The psalm awaited a Messiah-king descendant of David; we know that the king of glory is this child. Luke describes a majestic scene of glory: the whole long wait of Israel is represented by two characters, Simeon and Anna. "Simeon, a righteous and godly man waited for the consolation of Israel". As for Anna, it can be assumed that if she spoke of the child to those who were waiting for the liberation of Jerusalem, it was because she too was eagerly awaiting the Messiah. When Simeon proclaims: 'Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples: a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel', he clearly states that this child is the Messiah, the reflection of God's glory. With Jesus, it is the Glory of God that enters the Sanctuary; which is tantamount to saying that Jesus is the Glory, that he is God himself. From this moment, the time of the Law is fulfilled. The Angel of the Covenant has entered his temple to spread the Spirit over all mankind of every race and culture. 

P.S. For further study, since we also find this Gospel page on the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, I will add a few additional notes.

The expectation of the Messiah was alive in the Jewish people at the time of Jesus' birth, but not everyone spoke of it in the same way, even though the impatience was shared by all. Some spoke of the 'consolation of Israel', like Simeon, others of the 'deliverance of Jerusalem', like the prophetess Anna. Some were waiting for a king, a descendant of David, who would drive out the occupiers, representatives of the Roman power. Others awaited a completely different Messiah: Isaiah had described him at length and called him 'the Servant of God'.

To those who waited for a king, the narratives of the Annunciation and the Nativity showed that Jesus was precisely the one they were waiting for. For example, the angel at the Annunciation had told Mary: 'The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end'. Certainly the young girl from Nazareth was surprised, yet the message was clear.  Yet in the account of Jesus' presentation in the Temple, there is no mention of this aspect of the newborn child's personality. And besides, the child who enters the Temple in the arms of his parents was not born in a royal palace, but in a modest family in precarious conditions. Rather, it seems that St Luke invites us to recognise in the child presented in the Temple, the servant announced by Isaiah in chapters 42, 49, 50 and 52-53: 'This is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one whom I rejoice in (42:1)...The Lord has called me from my mother's womb, from my mother's womb he has spoken my name (I49:1)...Every morning he listens to me, so that I may hear like the disciples; the Lord God has opened my ear' (50:4-5).  Such an expression declares that this servant was very docile to the word of God; and he had received the mission to bring salvation to the whole world. Isaiah said: "I have set you as a covenant for the peoples, as the light of the nations" (42:6)... "I will make you the light of the nations, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth" (49:6). Which shows that already at the time of Isaiah it was understood that God's plan of love and salvation concerns all mankind and not only the people of Israel. Finally, Isaiah did not conceal the terrible fate that awaited this saviour: he would fulfil his mission of salvation for all, but his word, deemed too inconvenient, would arouse persecution and contempt. Let us recall this passage: 'I presented my back to the scourgers, my cheeks to those who plucked their beards' (50:6). Probably under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and thanks to his knowledge of Isaiah's prophecies, Simeon immediately understood that the child was the Servant announced by the prophet. He guessed the painful fate of Jesus, whose inspired word would be rejected by the majority of his contemporaries. He said to Mary: "Behold, he is here for the fall and resurrection of many in Israel and as a sign of contradiction - and to you also a sword will pierce your soul - so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed". Simeon understood that the hour of salvation for all mankind had come: "Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, prepared before all peoples: light to reveal you to the nations and glory to your people Israel". Yes, Jesus is the Servant Messiah, described in Isaiah's "Songs of the Servant of the Lord" (42,49,50,52-53) the one who brings salvation: "Through him shall the will of the Lord be done" (53:10).

+Giovanni D'Ercole

I also offer at someone's request a short summary that can be circulated among the faithful. Next Sunday, 2 February 2025, we celebrate the Presentation of the Lord and

let us prepare ourselves by taking a quick look at the word of God that we will hear in Holy Mass

*First Reading From the book of the prophet Malachi (3,1-4) 

We are in the presence of a mysterious prophetic fragment seen by many as a testimony of universalism, freedom and hope. However, it is not easy to understand how to accept this text. The prophet Malachi insists so much on the Temple, the Levites (or priests), the offerings, and everything related to worship because Israel was under Persian rule and the Jewish people were ruled by the priests who were God's representatives to his people. The covenant with the priests was at the service of God's covenant with his people and it is this covenant that is at issue here. Malachi addresses all those who wait, desire, seek and announces to them that they have not waited, sought, desired in vain and their desire, their expectation will be fulfilled because soon the Angel of the Covenant will come, that is, God himself. As Malachi writes: "I will send my messenger to prepare the way before me. Later, Jesus will quote precisely this prophecy referring to John the Baptist. Asking the people who they had gone to see, he will say that John the Baptist is "more than a prophet. He is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my messenger before you; he shall prepare your way before you" (Mt 11:7-10 and Lk 7:27).  With these words, Jesus identified himself as the Angel of the covenant coming to his temple and we will understand this better by delving into St Luke's Gospel today, feast of the Presentation of the Lord 

*Responsorial Psalm 23/24 (7, 8, 9, 10)

"Lift up, O ye gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory come in". This expression is solemn and somewhat surprising since it is difficult to imagine that the gates would rise. We are in a poetic context and the hyperbole serves to express the majesty of this King of glory who solemnly enters the Temple of Jerusalem. The expression 'king of glory' refers to God himself, the Lord of the universe. We can imagine the crowd and a choir singing: 'Lift up, O gates, your foreheads, lift up ancient thresholds, and let the King of glory enter'. And another choir responds: 'Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and valiant, the Lord valiant in battle'. This psalm was sung in the ceremonies of the Temple of Jerusalem even long after the Babylonian exile, at a time when there was no longer any procession around the Ark. This is precisely why it acquired greater importance: having definitively lost the Ark of the Covenant, the tangible sign of God's presence, the psalm represented all that remained of the past splendour. It taught the people the necessary detachment: God's presence is not bound to an object, however loaded with memory. Moreover, with the passing of the centuries, this psalm took on a new meaning: "Let the King of glory come in" became the cry of impatience for the coming of the Messiah. Come at last the eternal King who will reign over renewed humanity at the end of time! This was the expectation of Israel, growing from century to century.  No wonder, then, that the Christian liturgy sings Psalm 23/24 on the day it celebrates the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem: a way of affirming that this child is the King of glory, that is, God himself.

* Second Reading From the letter to the Hebrews ( 2:14-18)

 The theme of Christ's mediation is fundamental in the Letter to the Hebrews. It is undoubtedly useful to remember that it was written in a context of not a few controversies, and it is precisely from this letter that we can intuit the kind of objections that the first Christians of Jewish origin had to face. They were constantly being told: Your Jesus is not the Messiah; we need a priest, and he is not. It was therefore crucial for a first-century Christian to know that Christ is indeed a priest. Jesus, however, according to Jewish law, was not a priest and could not aspire to be one, much less consider himself a high priest. The Letter to the Hebrews answers: Jesus is not a high priest descended from Aaron, but he is in the likeness of Melchizedek, a character who appears in Genesis chapter 14 and lived long before Moses and Aaron and is related to Abraham. Yet he is called "priest of the Most High God" (cf. Gen 14:18-20). So Jesus is indeed high priest, in his own way, in continuity with the Old Testament. This is precisely the purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews: to show us how Jesus realises the institution of the priesthood, and to realise in biblical language does not mean to reproduce the Old Testament model, but to bring it to its full perfection. Finally a question: Why does this Letter speak of the "sons of Abraham" and not the "sons of Adam"? Indeed, it says. "He cares not for the angels, but for the seed of Abraham". The answer is because Abraham, in biblical meditation, represents faith, understood as trust, and we are left with the freedom not to be children of Abraham, that is, believers. It is up to us to decide whether or not to enter into God's plan.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (2:22 - 40)

In the account of the evangelist Luke a double insistence emerges: first on the Law, then on the Spirit. In the first verses (vv. 22-24), he mentions the Law three times to emphasise that the child's life begins under the sign of the Law. It should be made clear, however, that Luke mentions the Law of Israel not as a series of written commandments and indeed one could replace the word "Law" with "Faith of Israel" and the life of the Family of Nazareth is all imbued with this faith. Luke's first message is this: the salvation of all humanity took shape within the framework of the Law of Israel, of the faith of Israel: in a word, the Word of God became incarnate in this context and thus God's merciful plan for humanity was fulfilled. Then Simeon enters the scene, prompted by the Spirit, also mentioned three times. It is therefore the Spirit who inspires Simeon with the words that reveal the mystery of this child: "My eyes have seen your salvation, prepared by you before all peoples". The Old Testament is the story of this long and patient preparation by God for the salvation of mankind. And it is precisely the salvation of mankind, not just the people of Israel. This is exactly what Simeon points out: 'Light to reveal you to the Gentiles and glory to your people Israel'. The glory of Israel, in fact, lies in having been chosen not for itself, but for all mankind. For Luke, the message is fundamental and he communicates it to us: we already witness the glorious entry of Jesus, Lord and Saviour, into the temple of Jerusalem, as the prophet Malachi had announced. Luke recognises in Jesus the Angel of the Covenant entering his temple. The psalm awaited a Messiah-king descendant of David; we know that the king of glory is this child. Luke describes a majestic scene of glory: the whole long wait of Israel is represented by two characters, Simeon and Anna. "Simeon, a righteous and godly man waited for the consolation of Israel". As for Anna, it can be assumed that if she spoke of the child to those who were waiting for the liberation of Jerusalem, it was because she too was eagerly awaiting the Messiah. When Simeon proclaims: 'Now you may let your servant go in peace, O Lord, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation', he clearly states that this child is the Messiah. With Jesus, the Glory of God enters the Sanctuary; which is equivalent to saying that Jesus is the Glory, God himself entered his temple to spread the Spirit over all mankind.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C) [26 January 2025]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! This Sunday, 26 January 2025, marks the 6th Sunday of the Word of God. In St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis will preside over it in the context of the Jubilee Year. The chosen motto is taken from the Book of Psalms: "I hope in your Word" (Ps 119:74).

III Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)

*First Reading from the Book of Nehemiah (8: 2-4a. 5-6. 8-10)

For those of us who begin to complain when liturgies last longer than an hour, we would surely be well served by all standing together from dawn until noon, as one man: men, women and children. And during such a long time to listen to readings in Hebrew, a language that was no longer understood, although the scribe, the reader, would interrupt from time to time to make way for the translator, who would translate the text into Aramaic, a language commonly used in Jerusalem. Those taking part did not seem tired, nor did they find the time too long: on the contrary, they all wept with emotion, sang and continually cheered together with their hands raised: Amen! Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the governor, can be satisfied because they have succeeded in restoring confidence to the people who, after the Babylonian exile, continue to go through a complicated and difficult period. 

We have here a beautiful testimony of the reconstruction of Israel's 'national home' after the Babylonian deportation.  We are in Jerusalem around 450 B.C.: the exile in Babylon was over and after much controversy, the Temple in Jerusalem was finally rebuilt, even if it was not quite like Solomon's, and community life was also resumed. We could say that everything was going well, but it was not, and morale was low because the people seemed to have lost hope, which they had always retained even in the most painful parts of their existence. The truth is that the scars of the previous century's dramas remained because it was not easy to resume life after the invasion and looting of the city. Indeed, the scars remained for generations: scars of the exile itself, but also those of the return to the homeland since everything had been lost with the deportation to Babylon. The long-awaited return was not a triumph, but an occasion for confrontation between those who had remained in Jerusalem and by now had begun a life of their own, even introducing pagan rites, and the 'community of the return' who, after more than fifty years, thought they would find what their ancestors had left behind, something that was impossible and created serious clashes between them.  The miracle is that that period, although terrible, was very fruitful because the faith of Israel survived the test. Not only did this people keep their faith intact during the exile, amidst all the dangers of idolatry, but they remained united and even grew in fervour. This was all thanks to the priests and prophets, who did tireless pastoral work. It was, for example, a period of intense re-reading and meditation of the Scriptures, since one of the main purposes during the fifty years of exile was to direct all hopes towards the return to the promised land. However, the much hoped-for return turned out to be a cold shower because, as experience teaches us, there is almost always a gulf between dream and reality. On closer inspection, the great problem of the return, as we have seen in Isaiah's texts for the Epiphany and the second Sunday of Ordinary Time (last Sunday), was the difficulty of living together between those who had returned from Babylon full of ideals and plans, the so-called "community of return", and those who had meanwhile settled in Jerusalem. Between them there was not a ditch, but a real chasm: some were pagans who had occupied the land and brought idol worship with them, and their concerns were light years removed from the manifold demands of Jewish law. Their priorities were incompatible with the demands of the Torah. The rebuilding of the Temple met with their hostility, and the less fervent members of the Jewish community were often tempted by the prevailing laxity. The authorities were particularly concerned about this religious laxity, which continued to worsen due to the numerous marriages between Jews and pagans, and it became virtually impossible to preserve the purity and demands of the faith under such conditions. It was at this point that Ezra, the priest, and Nehemiah, the secular governor, joined forces and succeeded in obtaining together from the king of Persia, Artaxerxes, a mission to rebuild the city walls and full powers to reorganise these people. It must be remembered that they were still under Persian rule. Ezra and Nehemiah did their utmost to raise the situation and to restore strength and awaken the morale of the people. The Jewish community was all the more in need of cohesion as it was now living in daily contact with paganism and religious indifference. In the history of Israel, the unity of the people has always been built in the name of the Covenant with God, and the pillars of the Covenant remain the same: they are the Land, the Holy City, the Temple and the Word of God. Since they had returned home, the Land was there; Nehemiah, the governor devoted himself to reorganising the Holy City, Jerusalem, and the Temple was rebuilt. That left the Word, which was proclaimed during a gigantic open-air celebration.

It was important to take care of every detail for the staging of the celebration mentioned here: even the date was carefully chosen and an ancient tradition was revived, a great feast on what was then the date of the New Year: 'the first day of the seventh month'. For the occasion, a wooden platform was built overlooking the people and from that high platform the priest and translators proclaimed the Word. The homily then was an invitation to feast: eat, drink, for it is a day of joy, a day of your gathering around the Word of God. It is no longer a time for tears, nor for sadness and emotion. There is a lesson here that may be useful: to strengthen the community, Ezra and Nehemiah do not lecture the people, but propose a feast around the Word of God. To revive the sense of family, there is no better way than to organise and share moments of joyful celebration on a regular basis.

*Responsorial Psalm (18 (19), 8. 9. 10. 15)

We encounter this psalm several times, and we have therefore already had the opportunity to emphasise the importance for Israel of the Law, which is an extremely positive value, just as important is the fear of God, an attitude that is also profoundly positive and filial. There are several passages in the Old Testament in which the Law is presented as a path: if a son of Israel wants to be happy, he must be careful not to deviate either to the right or to the left. Today, to better understand this psalm, I propose to reread the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is relatively late, written at a time when the southern kingdom of Judah was drifting dangerously away from the practice of the Law. This book therefore resounded as a cry of alarm: If you do not want the same catastrophe to happen to you that has befallen the northern kingdom, you would do well to change your ways. It is thus a reference to all the commandments of Moses and his warnings. Deuteronomy also contains a meditation on the role of the Law whose sole purpose is to educate the people and keep them on the right path. If God cares so much that his people remain on the right path, it is because this is the only way they can live happily and fulfil their calling to be a chosen people among the nations. The king of Jerusalem, Josiah, undertook a profound religious reform around 620 B.C., relying precisely on the book of Deuteronomy. While we would be inclined to see the law as a burden, it is clear in the Bible that it is an instrument of freedom. To help understand this, the image of the eagle teaching its young to fly is interesting in the biblical tradition. Ornithologists who have observed eagles in the Sinai desert tell us that when the young eagles soar, their parents stay nearby and glide above them, tracing wide circles; when the young are tired, they can at any time rest (in the double sense of catching their breath and resting on their parents' wings) and then soar once they have regained their strength. The ultimate goal, of course, is that the little ones soon become capable of fending for themselves. The biblical author took this image to explain that God gives his Law to men to teach them to fly with their own wings. There is no shadow of domination in this, far from it; by freeing his people from slavery in Egypt, the Lord has demonstrated once and for all that his only goal is to free his people. Here is what the book of Deuteronomy says: "The Lord found his people in a desert land, in a heath of lonely howls. He surrounded him, raised him up, guarded him as over the pupil of his eye. Like an eagle that watches over his brood, that flies above his born, he spread his wings" (Deut 32:9-11). A God who wants man to be free! This is the message that is faithfully transmitted from generation to generation: "Tomorrow, when your son asks you: why these prescriptions, these laws and customs that the Lord our God has commanded you?" then you will answer your son: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but with a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt... The Lord commanded us to practice all these laws and to fear the Lord our God, that we might always be happy and that he might keep us alive as we are today" (Deut 6:20-24). When King Josiah tried to get his people back on the right path, he realised how important it was for him to make known this book, which repeats this message in every way: the shortest way to be a free and happy people is to live according to the commands of the God of Israel. Understand, if your brothers in the north ended up so badly, it is because they forgot this elementary truth (always keep in mind the division between the southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, and the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, and how the northern kingdom due to alliances with foreign peoples ended up being occupied and practically destroyed). And now, Josiah reminds us, it is not only the salvation of the southern kingdom that is at stake - which of course was his first concern - but the salvation of all mankind. And how will the chosen people be able to be witnesses of the liberating God before all nations if they do not themselves behave as a free people and instead fall into the constant temptations of humanity: idolatry, social injustice, power struggles?

Throughout history, the biblical authors have gradually become aware of this responsibility that God entrusted to his people by offering them his Covenant: "To the Lord our God belong the hidden things, while those things that are revealed are for us and for our children for ever, that all the words of this Law may be put into practice" (Deut 29:28). This inspires in Israel a great pride that never becomes presumption; if necessary, Deuteronomy calls the people back to humility: "If the Lord has taken a liking to you and chosen you, it is not because you are more numerous than all the other peoples, for you are the least of all" (Deut 7:7); and again: "Recognise that it is not because you are righteous that the Lord your God gives you possession of this good land, for you are a hard-necked people" (Deut 9:6).

Our psalm today takes up this lesson of humility: "The precepts of the Lord are upright, they make the heart rejoice; the commandment of the Lord is clear, it enlightens the eyes" (v.9). "The precepts of the Lord are upright": here is a nice way of saying that only God is wise. There is no need, then, to think oneself wise, but rather to let oneself be guided by him with simplicity. King Josiah would gladly have repeated this admonition to encourage his subjects: 'Yea, this commandment which I command thee today is not too hard for thee, nor beyond thy reach. It is not in heaven, for you to say: Who shall ascend for us into heaven to take it for us, that we may hear it and be able to put it into practice? Nor is it beyond the sea, for you to say: Who will cross the sea for us to take it, that he may make us hear it and we may put it into practice? Yes, the word is very near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart, that you may put it into practice'. The humble, daily practice of the Law can gradually transform an entire people; as the psalm goes on to say: "The command of the Lord is clear, it enlightens the eyes" Deut 30:11).

One last remark: The book of Deuteronomy, which we know today, is later than Josiah; however, the foundations were already well laid in a manuscript found by Josiah's workers during the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem (cf. Second Book of Kings 22:8-13 and Second Book of Chronicles 34:14-19). It is an interesting manuscript probably brought by refugees from the northern kingdom after the fall of Samaria in 721 and was a solid exhortation for true conversion and an invitation to return to the practice of the commandments. Scholars believe it to be part of chapters 12-26 of the book of Deuteronomy.

* Second Reading from the First Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (12:12-30)

St Paul simply and directly states that everyone in the Christian and civil community has a task to perform and a place to occupy while being attentive to one another: we should not despise one another, and indeed we should remember that everyone needs everyone. Paul's lengthy reasoning is evidence of a concrete situation: the community in Corinth faced exactly the same problems as we do today.

To teach his believers a lesson, Paul resorts to a method that works better than any discourse: he gives them an example with a parable that he did not actually invent at all because he uses a fable that everyone knew and adapts it to his objective. This is an allegorical narrative better known as the apologue "the belly and the limbs" by Menenius Agrippa, a Roman consul and diplomat of the 5th century BC. In truth, this narration is already present in Aesop, a storyteller and fable teller of ancient Greece (6th century B.C.) as well as in Phaedrus (a contemporary of Jesus 20 B.C. - 50 A.D.) both of whom were well known at the time of St Paul. This parable is found in the Roman History of Titus Livius and Jean Fontaine (1621-1695) took it up and transformed it into verse in the 9th book of his fables. Like all fables, it begins with: Once upon a time there was a man like all the others... except that, in him, all the limbs talked and argued with each other, but not all of them showed a good character, apparently, probably because some had the impression that they were less considered or somewhat exploited. One day, during a discussion, his feet and hands rebelled against his stomach: why did his stomach, he, only eat and drink what the other limbs gave him and all the pleasure was for him?  It was certainly not the stomach that got tired working, tilling the vineyard, shopping, cutting meat, chewing, and so on. Then they decided all the limbs would simply go on strike and from that moment on, no one would move: the stomach would see what would happen to it. That way, if the stomach died, the satisfaction would belong to those who had stopped working. However, they had forgotten one very simple thing: if the stomach dies of hunger, it will not be the only one to suffer. That body, like all others, was one, and everyone needed everyone!

St Paul thus took from the cultural heritage of his time a parable that was very easy to understand. And, if anyone had not understood it, he took the trouble to explain the meaning of the parable of the body and members himself by illustrating its teaching. For Paul, the moral is clear: our differences are an asset, provided we use them as instruments for unity. One of the salient points of Paul's discourse is that, not for a moment, he speaks in terms of hierarchy or superiority: Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free men since all our human distinctions no longer count. Only one thing matters now: our baptism into the same Spirit, our participation in one body, the body of Christ.

God's perspectives are completely different as Jesus clearly taught his apostles: "Among you it will not be so" (Matthew 20: 25-28).  However, Paul knows that this way of seeing things, of no longer thinking in terms of superiority, hierarchy, advancement or honours, is very difficult and so he insists on the respect that must be given to all: simply because the highest dignity, the only one that counts, is to be all members of the one body of Christ.

Respect, in the etymological sense of the term, is a question of gaze: sometimes, people who seem or seem unimportant to us we do not even see, our gaze does not linger on them. It can happen to all of us to feel ignored in the eyes of someone: their gaze slides over us as if we did not exist. Is that not so? 

In short, Paul offers us a great lesson in respect: respect for diversity, on the one hand, and respect for the dignity of each person, whatever their function or social role. I know it is not easy, but it is necessary to have a less selfish outlook to discover what each of us can bring to the life of our families, our communities and society. There are those who have a thinking mind, those who are researchers, inventors, organisers... There are those who have flair, those who can be patient, those who are clairvoyant, those who have the gift of speech and those who are better at writing, and there are those who suffer from illness or are very poor materially and spiritually, but all can offer something to others. One could go on enumerating the many charisms to be discovered and enhanced: one only needs to direct one's gaze well. If last Sunday, the second Sunday of Ordinary Time, reading the beginning of chapter 12 of the first letter to the Corinthians, seemed to be a hymn to diversity, today's development is a call to unity through respect for differences.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (1:1-4;4:14-21)

In the Sundays of ordinary time of liturgical year C, the evangelist Luke accompanies us, and we have already been able to meditate on his account of the birth and childhood of Jesus at Christmas time. We know very little about how the gospels were written and, in particular, about their dates of composition. However, from today's gospels we can deduce a few things. There was certainly oral preaching before the gospels were put into writing, for Luke tells Theophilus that he wanted to allow him to verify 'the soundness of the teachings he had received'. Luke also acknowledges that he was not an eyewitness to the events; he could only inform himself through eyewitnesses, which implies that they were still alive when he wrote. We can therefore assume that preaching about Christ's resurrection began already from Pentecost and that Luke's gospel was written later, but before the death of the last eyewitnesses, thus setting a cut-off date around 80-90 AD.

What we read today is placed after the baptism of Jesus and the account of his temptations in the desert. Apparently, everything seemed to be going well for Jesus who began his mission publicly after the death of John the Baptist. The evangelist writes: "Jesus returned to Galilee with the power of the Spirit and his fame spread throughout the region. He taught in the synagogues of the Jews, and they gave him praise". That Saturday morning Jesus, as a good Jew returning from a journey, went to worship in the synagogue. It is not surprising that he was given a reading, since every believer had the right to read the Scriptures. The celebration in the synagogue proceeded normally, until Jesus read the text of the day, which was a famous passage from the prophet Isaiah. In the great silence that followed the reading, Jesus quietly affirmed something extraordinary: "Today this Scripture that you have heard has been fulfilled". A few minutes of awkward silence followed, the time needed to interpret the meaning of his words. Indeed, those present expected Jesus to make a comment, as was customary, but not one that would surprise everyone. It is difficult for us today to imagine the audacity of that calm statement by Jesus, but for his contemporaries, that venerable text from the prophet Isaiah referred to the Messiah. Only the Messiah-King, when he would come, could have afforded to affirm: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore he has anointed me..." From the beginning of the monarchy, in fact, the rite of consecration of kings included an anointing with oil. This gesture was a sign that God himself was permanently inspiring the king to enable him to fulfil his mission of saving the people. It was then said that the king was 'mashiach', which in Hebrew simply means 'anointed' and which in Italian is translated as Messiah while in Greek as Christos and in Latin as Christus.

At the time of Jesus, there were no more kings on the throne of Jerusalem, but it was expected that God would finally send the ideal king, who would bring freedom, justice and peace to his people. In particular, in Roman-occupied Palestine, the one who would deliver the people from Roman occupation was awaited. Clearly, Jesus of Nazareth, the carpenter's son, could not claim to be that expected Messiah-King. How could they recognise the Messiah they were waiting for in Jesus the humble carpenter in the land of Galilee? Yet he was indeed the Messiah. It must be acknowledged that Jesus did not cease to surprise his contemporaries.  St Luke emphasises, introducing this passage, that Jesus was accompanied by the power of the Spirit, an essential characteristic of the Messiah. But this is Luke's affirmation, the Christian; the people of Nazareth, on the other hand, did not know that, really, the Spirit of the Lord rested on Jesus. There is also this observation about the Gospel passage we have just heard. Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah and attributes the quotation to himself, he makes it his own as a true programmatic discourse: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord. Of Isaiah's prophecy (61:1-2) he does not read and indeed skips the last part of verse 2 altogether, which says: "...and a day of vengeance for our God." This is a significant omission because he focuses on the proclamation of grace and deliverance, leaving aside the idea of vengeance, and his entire ministry is centred on mercy, salvation and God's love, rather than immediate judgement or punishment. This omission of Isaiah's last sentence and the application of the passage to himself upset his listeners for several reasons. First, the people of Nazareth expected a Messiah who would deliver Israel from its oppressors, especially the Romans, and bring justice and vengeance against the enemies of the Jewish people. The omission of the 'day of vengeance of our God' seemed to dismiss the idea of a political and executioner Messiah. By proclaiming a message of universal grace and salvation, Jesus was challenging their nationalistic expectations. Regarding his declaration that Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in him, many of those present considered it scandalous and presumptuous because they knew him as the "carpenter's son" (Luke 4:22) who lived among them, and could not reconcile his humble origin with the idea of an envoy of God. Moreover, Jesus, when later mentioning the episodes of Elijah and Elisha (Luke 4:25-27), went on to emphasise the fact that God often intervened for the good of pagans such as the widow of Sarepta in Sidon or Naaman the Syrian, and this showed that God's salvation and grace were not exclusively for Israel, but also for pagans. Proclaiming this universalism, however, offended the national and religious pride of its listeners. Finally, many Jews of the time hoped for immediate judgement against Israel's enemies. The fact that Jesus only emphasised the time of grace without mentioning vengeance could be perceived as a denial of divine justice against the wicked, and this offended those who desired a swift and final deliverance. The combination of so many elements gives insight into the violent reaction of his fellow citizens who attempted to drive him out of the synagogue and even to kill him by throwing him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). Finally, the rejection of Jesus by his countrymen becomes a symbol of the wider rejection that he will encounter in his ministry.

An informative note. During the first Sundays of Ordinary Time in the liturgical cycles A, B, C, the liturgy makes us reread the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians. It is a semi-continuous reading, beginning on the first Sunday of Ordinary Time and ending on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

Year A. The readings focus mainly on the first four chapters of the letter.

Main theme: the unity of the Church and the centrality of Christ.

*Sunday I: 1Cor 1:1-3 - Initial greeting and call to holiness.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 1:10-13.17 - Exhortation to unity in the Christian community.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 1:26-31 - The wisdom of God versus human wisdom.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 2,1-5 - Preaching based on the power of the Spirit.

Year B. The readings continue in chapters 6-9 of the letter. Main theme: moral life and personal and community responsibilities.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 6:13c-15a.17-20 - The body as temple of the Holy Spirit.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 7,29-31 - The urgency of living for the Kingdom of God.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 8,1b-7.10-13 - The responsibility towards weaker brothers and sisters in faith.

*Sunday V: 1Cor 9,16-19.22-23 - St Paul as an apostle who does everything for everyone.

Year C The readings focus on chapters 12-15 of the letter. Main theme: charisms, Christian love and the resurrection.

*Sunday II: 1Cor 12:4-11 - Diversity of charisms, one Spirit.

*Sunday III: 1Cor 12:12-30 - The Church as the body of Christ.

*Sunday IV: 1Cor 13:4-13 - The hymn to charity.

*Sunday V: 1Cor 15,12. 16- 20 - The resurrection of the dead as the foundation of faith.

Each liturgical year uses a different section of the letter to reflect on the different needs and themes of the Christian life. Key themes such as unity, charity, moral life and hope in the resurrection are highlighted. This semi-continuous scheme allows the faithful to progressively deepen their understanding of the Apostle Paul's teaching.

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) [19 January 2025].

*First Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (62,1-5)

How much tenderness God shows to the people of Israel who could truly feel abandoned, especially in the context of their return from exile! In fact, although they returned from Babylon in 538 B.C., the Temple was not rebuilt until 521, and a sense of abandonment crept in during this waiting period. To counter this despair, Isaiah, inspired by God, writes this splendid text to proclaim that God has not forgotten his people nor his beloved city. And soon all will know! "Yes, as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your children marry you; as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you". The prophet Isaiah certainly does not lack audacity! Twice in these few verses, loving desire appears as an expression of God's feelings towards his people. Divine love emerges in these courageous expressions: "They will no longer call you 'forsaken', nor will your land be called 'ravaged', but they will call you 'my desired' (literally: my desire is in you), and your land will be called 'married i.e. my bride', for the Lord finds in you his delight (rather his desire for love) and your land will have a bridegroom." Here is a real declaration of love! Not even a bridegroom would say more to his beloved: you shall be my bride... You shall be as beautiful as a crown, as a golden diadem in my hands... you shall be my delight. How can we not be struck by the beauty of the vocabulary and the poetry that transpires from this text? We find in it the parallelism of phrases, so characteristic of the Psalms: 'For Zion's sake I will not be silent, / for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest... You shall be a shining crown in the hand of the Lord / a royal diadem in the fingers of your God... You shall be called 'My Favourite', and your land shall be called 'Married'. For the Lord has chosen you,/ and your land shall have a bridegroom'.

This text could be called God's 'love poem' and the prophet Isaiah exercised prophetic ministry between 740 BC and 701 BC during the reign of various kings of Judah including Ozias, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah at a time of great political changes and threats mainly due to the expansion of the 'empire of the Assyrians. Isaiah was the first to have the audacity to use such language. Although God loves mankind with such great love, this was true from the beginning, yet mankind was not ready to understand him. The revelation of God as bridegroom, as well as that of God-the-Father, was only possible after several centuries of biblical history. At the beginning of the Covenant between God and his people, this notion would have been ambiguous. Other peoples too easily conceived their gods in the image of men and their family affairs. Rather, at an early stage of revelation, it was necessary to discover the One God who was totally Other than man and to accept his Covenant. It was therefore the prophet Hosea, the first to compare the people of Israel to a bride. He defined as "adulteries" the infidelities of the people, that is, their relapses into idolatry. After him, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Second Isaiah and the Third Isaiah (author of the text we are reading today) developed the theme of the wedding between God and his people; in their writings we find the whole vocabulary of the nuptial: the affectionate names, the wedding garment, the bride's crown, fidelity, but also jealousy, adultery.

Here are a few examples: Hosea writes: "You shall call me 'my husband'... I will make you my bride forever... in righteousness and in law, in faithfulness and in tenderness" (2:18.21). In the second Isaiah we read: 'Your bridegroom is the one who created you... Can you reject the woman of your youth? In my eternal fidelity I show you my tenderness." (Is 54:5...8). The most impressive text on this theme is surely the Song of Songs: it is presented as a long love dialogue, composed of seven poems. Actually, at no point are the two lovers identified, but Jewish tradition interprets it as a parable of God's love for humanity. The proof is that this text is proclaimed during the celebration of Passover, the great feast of God's covenant with his people and, through them, with all humanity. In today's passage, one of the bridegroom's favourite pastimes seems to be giving new names to his beloved. You know how important naming is in human relationships: what I cannot or do not know how to name does not exist for me.  Naming someone means already knowing them; and when the relationship with a person deepens, it is not uncommon to feel the need to give them a nickname. In couple or family life, diminutives and nicknames play an important role. Even the Bible reflects this fundamental experience of human life; the name has enormous importance, because it reveals the mystery of the person, his or her profound essence, vocation and mission. The meaning of the name of the main characters is often explained: for instance, the angel announces that Jesus' name means 'God saves', indicating that this child will save humanity in the name of God. Sometimes God changes someone's name when he entrusts him with a new mission: Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, Jacob becomes Israel and Simon becomes Peter. In today's text, therefore, it is God who gives new names to Jerusalem: from "forsaken" it becomes "my joy", from "ravaged land" it becomes "married". 

*Responsorial Psalm (from Ps 95/96, 1-2a, 2b-3. 7-8a, 9a-10)

This psalm invites us to contemplate the glory of God: his salvation, his wonders, his power. 'Sing to the Lord a new song... sing to the Lord, bless his name'". There is nothing surprising about this: in Israel, in fact, it is a constant habit to recall God's work throughout the centuries to deliver his people from all that hinders their happiness. From day to day Israel proclaims its salvation... from day to day Israel remembers God's works, his wonders, that is, his ceaseless work of deliverance... from day to day Israel testifies that God has delivered it first from Egypt and then from all forms of slavery. And the most terrible of all slaveries is to mistake who God is, to put one's trust in false values, in false gods that can only disappoint, in idols. Israel has the immense privilege, the extraordinary honour, the joy of knowing and proclaiming that "the Lord is our God, the Lord is One" (as stated in the Jewish profession of faith, the Shema Israel). And faith in Him is man's only way to happiness. This is the message Israel conveys to the world: "Say among the nations: The Lord reigns!" 

Let us take up the expression: "Say among the nations". In biblical language, the nations or the Gentiles indicate all peoples other than Israel, the so-called goyîm, i.e. the rest of humanity, the uncircumcised, as St Paul says. In the biblical texts, the term goyîm takes on different, sometimes even contradictory meanings. Sometimes it has a decidedly negative meaning: for example, the book of Deuteronomy speaks of the "abominations of the Gentiles" and this condemnation refers to their polytheism, their religious practices in general and, in particular, human sacrifices. The chosen people must remain faithful to God without compromise, discovering the true face of the one God. For this reason, in the first phase of revelation, it is necessary to avoid any contact with the nations or peoples, perceived as a risk of idolatrous contagion. The history of Israel shows how real this risk was several times! Moreover, in the mentality of the time, where deities were seen as allies in conflicts, it was inconceivable to imagine a God who sided with all peoples at once. In this psalm, however, note that the term 'peoples' is no longer negative: the 'peoples' are all those who do not belong to the people of Israel, but who are nevertheless recipients of God's salvation, just like the chosen people. This psalm, therefore, was composed relatively late, probably after the exile in Babylon, when Israel was beginning to realise that the one God is the God of the whole universe and of all mankind, and that his salvation is not reserved for Israel.

"Announce ... to all peoples tell of his wonders". To arrive at this understanding, God led the chosen people through a long and patient pedagogical journey. Israel gradually opened its heart, accepting that its God was also the God of all people, committed to seeking the happiness of all, not just its own. The chosen people has understood that it is the elder brother, not the only son: its vocation is to pave the way for other peoples in the long march of humanity towards God. And the day will come when all peoples, without exception, will recognise God as the one God. Then, all mankind will place its trust in Him alone. The psalm expresses this universal hope: "Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and power, give to the Lord the glory of his name". 

The last verses of the psalm, which we do not read this Sunday, offer a kind of anticipation of the end of time because the day will come when all creation will celebrate the glory of God: "Let heaven rejoice! Let the earth rejoice! Let the waves of the sea quiver, / let the fields be rejoicing, and the trees of the forest dance for joy before the Lord". On that day we shall see even the trees dance! The present, however, is not easy. One must persevere in faith and testify to one's faith before the peoples/ nations, and the fight against idolatry, against false gods, is never completely won. How timely is this psalm! 

*Second Reading from the First Letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (1Cor 12:4-1)

This letter to the Corinthians is twenty centuries old but surprisingly relevant today. How to remain a Christian in a world that has completely different values? How to discern, among the ideas circulating, those that are compatible with the Christian faith? How to coexist with non-Christians without failing in charity, but also without losing our identity? The world around us talks about sex and money... How can we evangelise it? These were the questions of the Christians of Corinth, newly converted in a predominantly pagan world. They are in truth the same questions we ask ourselves today, we Christians in a society that no longer emphasises the values of the gospel, and Paul's answers concern us all. He addresses divisions in the community, the problems of married life especially when spouses do not share the same faith, as well as the urgency of remaining steadfast in the face of the proliferation of new ideas and emerging new religious cults. Within each of these topics, Paul puts things in their proper place. However, as always, when dealing with concrete topics, Paul reminds us first of all where to lay the foundation, namely in Baptism. John the Baptist had already well predicted this when he spoke of the Baptism inaugurated by Christ by which we are immersed in the fire of the Spirit (Matt 3:11), and it is the Spirit who now acts in us according to our differences. Paul reiterates it: 'all these things the one and the same Spirit works, distributing them to each one as he wills'.  In Corinth, as in the rest of the Hellenistic world, people idolised intelligence and aspired to wisdom often through philosophy. To those who sought to attain wisdom through rigorous reasoning, Paul replies that true wisdom, which is the only knowledge that counts, is not attained through discourse, but is a gift of God given through the Spirit. There is therefore no reason to boast about it: everything is a gift. The word 'gift' (or the verb 'to give') appears no less than seven times in this text! Although such a concept exists in the Bible, Paul however takes up what Israel had already understood - namely that only God knows and reveals true wisdom - and his novelty consists in speaking of the Spirit as a Person. He thus totally detaches himself from the philosophical speculations of the time: he does not propose a new school of philosophy, but announces Someone, and the gifts distributed to the members of the Christian community are not about power or knowledge, but a new inner existence. In this passage, where the name of the Spirit recurs seven times, although addressed to the Corinthians, he does not speak of them, but exclusively of the Spirit at work in the Christian community, who with patience and constancy orients everyone towards the Father (he inspires us to say 'Abba' - Father) and towards our brothers. Paul makes it clear that everyone is given a particular manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. The Corinthians, attracted by extraordinary spiritual phenomena, are thus brought back to the essential: the goal is the good of all, because the Spirit is Love in person. There are diversities of charisms, but only one is the Spirit; there are diversities of ministries, but only one is the Lord; there are diversities of operations, but only one is God, who works all things in all. And so our diversity makes us capable, each in our own way, of manifesting the one Love of God. One of the lessons of this text of Paul is to learn to rejoice in the differences that represent the many facets of what Love enables us to achieve, while respecting the uniqueness of each one. So consider the variety of races, languages, gifts, arts, inventions... such diversity is the richness of the Church and the world, provided it is lived in love. God wants humanity to be like an orchestra: one and the same inspiration, different and complementary expressions, different instruments that create a symphony as long as they all play in the same key; otherwise, you have a cacophony! The symphony Paul speaks of is the song of love that the Church is called upon to intone to the world. We could call it a 'hymn to love', just as there is the hymn to joy or the hymn to life by famous musicians. Complementarity in the Church is therefore not a matter of roles or functions to structure it with a well-defined organisation chart. It is something much more important and sublime: the mission entrusted to the Church to reveal Love. How timely is this text from St Paul in this week of prayer for Christian unity!

*From the Gospel according to John (Jn 2:1-11)

St John uses a different language from the other evangelists and one must learn to discover that important things are often said between the lines. For him, this first "sign" (as he calls it) of Jesus at Cana is of enormous relevance: it alone evokes the great mystery of God's plan for humanity, the mystery of the new creation, the mystery of the Covenant and Wedding between God and his people. The Prologue, that is, the beginning of the first chapter of his gospel, is a great meditation on this mystery, and the account of the miracle at Cana is basically the same meditation expressed, however, in the form of a narrative. These two texts, placed at the beginning of the gospel and reread in symmetrical contemplation, help us to introduce ourselves to the understanding of all that will follow. We shall therefore try to read the Wedding at Cana narrative with the Prologue in mind and in our hearts. These two texts "embrace" the "inaugural week" of Jesus' public life. A week that begins with John the Baptist on the banks of the Jordan being questioned by the Pharisees about his mission while already announcing the coming of Jesus. The next day, he sees him approaching and recognises him as "the Son of God, the one who baptises in the Holy Spirit" (Jn 1:33-34). The next day (note John's precision that seems to recall the first chapter of Genesis where the sacred author each time notes: "it was evening and it was morning"), two other disciples of John the Baptist leave his group to follow Jesus, who invites them to spend the evening with him. The following day, Jesus leaves for Galilee with some disciples. In Galilee, three days later, the miracle of Cana takes place and the evangelist begins the account by saying: "On the third day there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. If we count the days from the beginning we have arrived at the "seventh day" and the reference to a week or a "seventh day" cannot be accidental because the "seventh day" always recalls the fulfilment of creation. "This was the beginning of the signs performed by Jesus": we are at the end of the passage and John notes that it was the beginning; also in the Prologue he states: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Everything was made through him and without him nothing was made of what exists'. We are here in the context of the seven days of creation, while in the wedding feast of Cana the hour of the wedding between God and humanity is noted, showing that this event takes place on the seventh day of the new creation. At Cana Jesus does not merely multiply the wine, but creates it. Just as at the beginning of all things, the Word, facing God, had created the world, now he inaugurates a new creation. And it is a wedding! The parallelism then continues: on the sixth day of Creation, God had completed his work by creating the human couple in his image; on the seventh day of the new creation, Jesus participates in a wedding feast and is a way of saying that God's creative project is ultimately a covenant project, a wedding project. (Most probably the first reading - Isaiah 62, which speaks of Israel as the "joy of God" and of God as the bridegroom of his people - was placed precisely in relation to this Gospel page).  The Church Fathers saw in the miracle of Cana the fulfilment of the divine promise: here God's wedding with humanity begins.  But what does the term 'the hour' mean?  For John it is a symbolic term of crucial value because it refers to the Hour in which God's plan is fulfilled in Christ. When Jesus says to Mary: "Woman, what do you want of me? My hour has not yet come' he is thinking of his greatest mission: to bring about the wedding between God and humanity. The phrase (Woman, what do you want of me?) is surprising and has generated much discussion. In Greek, the phrase means "What is between you and me?", i.e. "you cannot understand". Here Jesus is confronted with the mystery of his mission: should he perform a miracle, create wine, and thus reveal his divine nature? In this scene one might catch an echo of the temptations in the synoptic Gospels: in the desert, Jesus had refused to turn stones into bread, because that would have been a miracle for himself. At Cana, however, he creates wine for the joy of others. The Son of God performs miracles only for the good of humanity. Then there is the reference to the "third day" which is certainly not accidental. It refers to the resurrection and links Cana to Easter. It is there, in the death and resurrection of Christ, that the Covenant will be definitively sealed. When John says: "And he manifested his glory", he alludes to the definitive glory of the Resurrection. In this perspective, Cana becomes the first visible sign of Christ's glory, a prelude to the full glory of the Risen One. 

A few final notes on a text that would merit much longer reflection

1 - "On the third day": by itself, this precision is certainly a message; again, it is not a simple anecdotal entry to fill a diary, but a theological meditation: the memory of the disciples is forever marked by a certain third day, that of the Resurrection. It thus refers us to the other end, so to speak, of Jesus' public life: to the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ. It is a way for John to tell us that there, and only there, God's Covenant with humanity will be definitively sealed and his wedding with humanity will be celebrated. Moreover, the last phrase, "He manifested his glory", is also an allusion to the Resurrection. In the Prologue John said: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory"... . It was precisely at Cana that the disciples first saw the glory of Jesus, in anticipation of the final manifestation of the glory of God in the face of the Christ, dead and risen.

2. The evangelist John specifies that Cana is in Galilee, which broadens the perspective considerably: Galilee, traditionally, is considered the land of the pagans, a crossroads of peoples; Isaiah called it "the land of the shadow, the Galilee of the Gentiles". God therefore marries the whole of humanity, not just a privileged few.

3. "Woman, what do you want of me?"  Let us not try to minimise the obvious vividness of this reaction of the Son towards his mother. In Hebrew, this phrase generally expresses a difference of opinion, sometimes even hostility (Jdc 11:12; Mk 1:24; 2 Sam 16:10; 2 Sam 19:23); however, let us recognise that these are extreme cases. Jesus' reflection might be more like that of the widow of Sarepta towards Elijah at the time of her son's death (1 Kings 17:18): she considers the prophet's presence as an inappropriate intervention. Nevertheless, the difficulty remains: does Jesus, meek and humble of heart, lack respect for his mother? Indeed, perhaps there is here an implicit admission of a genuine inner conflict on the part of the Son concerning his mission. He who did not allow himself to perform miracles for his own benefit (such as turning stones into bread) should here turn water into wine? Here we touch upon the depths of Christ's mystery, a mystery that he himself gradually discovered: being fully human, he had to grow little by little, like each of us, in the understanding of his mission.

4. The water jars at Cana are made of stone, and John intentionally emphasises this: the earthenware jugs were used for drinking water, while the stone jars were intended for water for ritual ablutions. It is precisely this water, symbol of the covenant, that was transformed into the wedding wine.

5. The disciples will only discover the miracle later, because the only ones who are really aware of the fact, as St John points out, are the servants (verse 9): they knew it, so to speak, "in their flesh", because it was they who drew the water, who carried it, and all this in blind obedience, without perhaps understanding what the water would be used for. Of course, it should not surprise us too much that the poor, in this case the last - the servants - are the first to be aware of God's plan!

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Here are the comments on this Sunday's readings  

Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus Year C [12 January 2025].

*Reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah (40, 1-5.9-11)

This is the beginning of one of the most beautiful passages in the Book of Isaiah, called the "Booklet of the Consolation of Israel" because the first words are: "Console, console my people, says your God". This sentence alone is already surprising, almost unexpected good news for those who know how to listen to it.  The expressions "my people" and "your God" recall the Covenant and express the awareness that even if the relationship between God and his people is in crisis, love is not finished. Indeed, this was precisely the concern of the exiles. During the exile in Babylon, that is, between 587 and 538 BC, one could ask: has God abandoned his people? Has he renounced his covenant? Has he grown weary of our repeated infidelities at all levels? The main objective of Isaiah's Book of Consolation is to affirm that this is not the case, and God reiterates again: 'You shall be my people and I will be your God'.

I will just follow the text with a few comments: 

+"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her tribulation is fulfilled," says Isaiah. This means that slavery in Babylon is over; it is therefore a proclamation of deliverance and return to Jerusalem.

+"His guilt is discounted, for he has received from the hand of the Lord double for all his sins". According to the law of Israel, a thief had to return double the amount of stolen goods (e.g. two animals for one). Speaking in the past tense of this double punishment was a figurative way of saying that deliverance was near, as the punishment had been served. The 'sins' of Jerusalem and its 'crime', mentioned by the prophet, were all the breaches of the Covenant: idol worship, violations of the Sabbath and other prescriptions of the Law, but above all the numerous failures of justice and, most serious of all, contempt for the poor. The Jewish people always considered exile to be the consequence of all these infidelities, since at the time it was still believed that God punished the guilty.

+"A voice cries out" (v. 3): the author of this booklet does not tell us who he is and presents himself as the voice crying out from God; traditionally he is called the second Isaiah. "A voice cries out: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord".  Once, in the history of Israel, God prepared in the wilderness the road that led the people from slavery to freedom, from Egypt to the Promised Land; well, says the prophet, just as the Lord delivered his people from Egyptian oppression, today he will deliver them from Babylonian oppression.

+The road to freedom. "Clear in the steppe the way for our God. Let every valley be raised, every mountain and hill be lowered; let the rough ground be turned into a plain, and the steep into a valley'. It was the custom of the victors to force the vanquished to do enormous levelling work in order to prepare a triumphal way for the return of the victorious king. Worse still: once a year, in Babylon, during the feast of the god Marduk, the Jewish slaves had to perform this levelling work to prepare the passage of the procession with the king and the statues of the idol at its head. For the believing Jews, it was a deep humiliation and pain. Now Isaiah, charged with announcing the end of slavery and the return home, says: this time, it will be in the wilderness between Babylon and Jerusalem that you will draw a path. And it will not be for a pagan idol, but for you and your God who will guide you. 

+"Then shall the glory of the Lord be revealed, and all men together shall see it, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken." One could translate: God will finally be recognised as God and all will see that He has kept His promises.

+"Rise up on a high mountain, you who announce glad tidings to Zion". "Lift up your voice, fear not, proclaim to the city of Judah". Note the parallelism of these two phrases: a perfect parallelism, intended to emphasise this Good News addressed to Zion or Jerusalem, i.e. to the people, not to the city. The content of the Good News immediately follows: 'Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes with power; his arm exercises dominion. Behold, he has his reward with him, and his reward goes before him". 

+"Like a shepherd he shepherds his flock and with his arm he gathers; he carries the lambs on his breast and gently leads the mother sheep". Here we find in Isaiah the image dear to another contemporary prophet, Ezekiel. The juxtaposition of these two images (a triumphant king, a shepherd) may come as a surprise, but the ideal of the king in Israel encompassed both aspects: a good king was a shepherd full of care for his people, but also a king triumphant over his enemies, precisely to protect his people. This text resonated as extraordinary news to Isaiah's contemporaries in the 6th century BC. Five or six centuries later, when John the Baptist saw Jesus of Nazareth approaching the Jordan to receive Baptism, these words of Isaiah resounded in him, and he was seized with a dazzling clarity: Here is the one who will definitively gather the Father's flock... Here is the one who will turn the crooked paths of men into paths of light... Here is the one who will restore the dignity of God's people... Here is the one in whom the glory (i.e. the presence) of the Lord is revealed. The time of the prophets is over, now God himself is in our midst

*Responsorial Psalm (103 (104),1c-3a.3bc-4.24-25.27-28.29-30)

Psalm 103/104, from which we read extracts today, can be compared with the hymn of Pharaoh Akhenaton. It is a prayer from Egypt: a hymn addressed to the sun by King Amenhotep IV, Nefertiti's husband. It is known that this pharaoh devoted a significant part of his energies to the establishment of a new religion: he replaced the cult of Amun (whose clergy seemed too powerful to him) with that of the God Aton, i.e. the sun. On this occasion, he took the new name Akhenaten. His prayer was found engraved on a tomb in Tell El-Amarna, Egypt (on the banks of the Nile). The text is worth reading: 

"You rise splendidly on the horizon of heaven, Living Sun who lives from the origin. You shine on the horizon of the east, you have filled every land with your beauty. You are splendid, great, brilliant, You rise above all the earth. How many are your works, mysterious to our eyes! Unique God, you have no equal, you created the earth according to your heart. Beings are formed under your hand as you willed them. You shine and they live; you set and they die. You have the duration of life in yourself; they live by you. Eyes turn to your beauty until you hide, and all work ends when you set in the west."

It is evident that this hymn, addressed in Egypt to the sun-god, closely resembles Psalm 103/104, composed in Israel. However, the Egyptian text is older: it dates back to the 14th century BC, a time when the Jews were slaves in Egypt. It can therefore be assumed that they heard this poem addressed to the sun-god, and adapted it by transforming it in the light of their new religion, that of the God who had liberated them from Egypt. Although the two texts resemble each other, they still differ greatly and especially on two fundamental points:

1. The God of Israel is personal and unique, who offered his people a covenant relationship. He is a God with a plan for humanity, a God who wants man to be free. For example, the psalm begins and ends with the acclamation: "Bless the Lord, my soul," a typical expression of the covenant between the people of Israel and their God. Furthermore, the name used to designate God is the famous covenant name, represented by the four letters YHVH, which are not pronounced but recall God's eternal presence with his people. This name is translated in the text as 'Lord'.

2. God is the creator, the sun is a creature. In the biblical view, in contrast to the prayer of Pharaoh Akhenaton, God alone is God and the sun is no more than a creature without a will of its own. In other verses of the psalm, it is stated: 'You made the moon to mark the times and the sun to know the hour of setting. Spread the darkness and the night comes' (v.v. 19-20).

In other words, if the sun has any power, it is God, and God alone, who has given it to it. Similarly, in the book of Genesis, to emphasise the subordinate role of the sun and the moon, the author of the first chapter of Genesis does not even mention them, but simply calls them: "The two great luminaries: the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night" (Genesis 1:16). In essence, they are instruments of creation.

In Israel, Psalm 103/104 was sung to praise God the creator, king of all creation. It is particularly evident in the phrase: "You send forth your breath: they are created; you renew the face of the earth", which recalls the text from Genesis: "The Lord God fashioned man from the dust of the ground; he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).

To express that God is king, court language is used: "You are clothed in majesty and splendour, wrapped in light as in a cloak!" As if God were wearing a royal cloak! Elsewhere, the psalmist exclaims:

"You are so great, Lord, my God!" a traditional royal acclamation in Israel.

One must then consider this psalm in connection with the Baptism of Jesus that we celebrate today. When the liturgy proposes this psalm for the feast of the Baptism of Christ, at first sight it may seem a surprising juxtaposition. However, the connection emerges in two aspects: 1.Proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God: During the Baptism, a voice from heaven declares: "You are the beloved Son; in you I have put my pleasure."

2. New creation: The episode of Baptism recalls the breath of God that hovered over the waters in Genesis (Genesis 1:2). When Jesus is baptised, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, marking the beginning of the new creation. 

*Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to Titus (2:11-14 ; 3:4-7)

I repeat here what I have already published commenting on this same letter at Christmas in both the night and dawn masses. St Paul entrusted his disciple Titus with the responsibility for the Christian communities in Crete. The task was not easy, as the Cretans had a very bad reputation at the time; a local poet, Epimenides of Knossos, in the 6th century B.C., called them 'Cretans, always liars, ugly beasts, idlers'. Paul, quoting him, confirms: "This testimony is true" (Titus 1:12-13). Despite this, Paul and Titus tried to turn these flawed Cretans into Christians. The letter to Titus contains advice from the founder of the community to the one who is now in charge of it. It includes very concrete recommendations for the members of the community: old and young, men and women, masters and slaves. Even those in charge are not neglected; Paul insists on the seriousness of the life required of them, making it clear that this was not to be taken for granted (Titus 1:7-8). And the series of advice the postulator gives highlights the progress still to be made. For Paul, Christian morality is rooted in the event that marks the turning point in world history: the birth of Christ. When Paul states 'the grace of God was manifested', he means 'God became man'. From then on, our way of being human is transformed: "He saved us, not by any righteous works we had done, but by his mercy, by a washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The transformation of the whole of humanity is on the agenda, for God's plan, foreseen from all eternity, is to gather us all around Jesus Christ, overcoming divisions, rivalries and hatreds, to become one man. Paul says: "While waiting for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). 'In expectation' implies that, sooner or later, this will come to pass.

This certainty and expectation are the driving force behind the entire liturgy: during the celebration, Christians are not looking back, but are already one man standing, facing the future. When the end of the world comes, they will be able to say: "And they stood up as one man. And this man's name was Jesus Christ'. 

A historical note: On the birth of a Christian community in Crete, some scholars speculate the following: according to the Acts of the Apostles, the ship carrying Paul as a prisoner awaiting trial in Rome stopped at a place called 'Bei Porti' (Kaloi Limenes) in the south of the island. However, Luke does not mention the emergence of a community there, and Titus was not part of the voyage. It is known that, after many vicissitudes, this journey ended as planned in Rome, where Paul was imprisoned for two years in conditions akin to a 'guarded residence'. It is assumed that this Roman imprisonment ended with a release. Paul would then embark on a fourth missionary journey, during which he evangelised Crete. For reasons of style, vocabulary, and even chronological verisimilitude, many experts on the Pauline letters believe that this letter to Titus (as well as the two letters to Timothy) was only written at the end of the first century, some thirty years after Paul's death, but in fidelity to his thought and to support his work. Regardless of when this letter was written, it is clear that the difficulties of the Cretans persisted.

*Gospel according to Saint Luke (3:15-22)

 All three synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) narrate the event of the Baptism of Christ, each in their own way. John, on the other hand, does not narrate it directly, but makes reference to it. Luke has a particular approach, which I will try to highlight here. For example, his text begins with 'While all the people were being baptised': Luke is the only one to mention that the people were being baptised; he is also the only one to mention Jesus' prayer: 'While all the people were being baptised and, having also received baptism, he stood praying'; this juxtaposition is typical of Luke: man among men, Jesus does not cease to be at the same time united with the Father. Luke wants to emphasise Jesus' humanity so much that, only in his Gospel, curiously enough, is the account of the baptism immediately followed by a genealogy. Unlike the genealogy placed at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, which starts from Abraham and descends to Jesus via David and Joseph, the genealogy of Jesus in Luke starts from him and goes back to his ancestors; he was (as was thought, Luke says) son of Joseph, son of David, son of Abraham... But Luke goes even further back: he tells us that Jesus is 'son of Adam, son of God'. This clearly indicates that, by the time his Gospel was written, the early Christians had understood this privileged relationship of Jesus of Nazareth with God: he was the Son of God in the true sense of the term. "You are my Son, the beloved," says the voice from heaven. The following is not exclusive to Luke: Matthew and Mark use similar terms. While Jesus was praying, 'heaven was opened': in three words, a decisive event! Communication between heaven and earth is re-established; the prayer of the believing people has been heard; for centuries, this was the expectation of the Jewish people. "Oh, if thou wouldest rend the heavens and descend, before thee the mountains would shake, as fire burns up the stubble, as fire makes the waters boil," said Isaiah (Is 63:19-64:1). The waters are present, for this takes place at the Jordan; fire is evoked: 'He will baptise you in the Holy Spirit and fire', said John the Baptist. And Luke continues: 'And the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, like a dove'. Here the Spirit is not associated with the violence of fire, but with the dove, a symbol of gentleness and fragility. This is not a contradiction: strength and violence... gentleness and fragility, such is love, such is the Spirit.

The four evangelists mention this manifestation of the Spirit in the form of a dove: in the three synoptic Gospels, the expressions are very similar: Matthew and Mark say that the Spirit descends "like a dove", while in Luke "the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in bodily form, like a dove". In the Gospel of John, it is John the Baptist who later recounts the scene: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptise with water had told me: 'He on whom you will see the Spirit descend and remain, it is he who baptises in the Holy Spirit'. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God' (Jn 1:32-34).

This representation of the dove is certainly very significant, since all four evangelists reported it. What could it evoke for them? In the Old Testament, it evokes first of all the Creation: the Genesis text does not mention the dove, it simply says "the spirit of God hovered over the waters" (Gen 1:2). But in Jewish meditation, it was learned to recognise in this breath the Spirit of God himself; and a rabbinic commentary on Genesis states: "The Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters like a dove hovering over its young, but not touching them" (Talmud of Babylon). Moreover, the dove evoked the Covenant between God and mankind, renewed after the Flood; one is reminded of Noah's release of the dove: it was she who indicated to Noah that the Flood was over and that life could resume. Even more significantly, the beloved of the Song of Songs calls his beloved "my dove, in the clefts of the rock... my sister, my friend, my dove, my all pure" (Ct 2:14; 5:2). Now, the Jewish people read the Song of Songs as God's declaration of love to humanity. We are thus at the dawn of a new era: new Creation, new Covenant.

At that moment, says Luke, "a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son the beloved, in you I have put my pleasure'". There is no doubt that this voice is that of God himself: for a long time, the people of Israel no longer had prophets, but the rabbis affirmed that nothing prevents God from revealing himself directly and that his voice, coming from the heavens, groans like a dove. Now, this phrase "there came a voice from heaven: 'You are my Son the Beloved: in you I have set my delight'" was not new to Jewish ears: it was all the more solemn because they were the words with which the prophets spoke of the Messiah. At that moment, John the Baptist understood: the dove of the Spirit designated the Messiah. A question arises: why did Jesus, who had not sinned, ask to be baptised? One might answer that the opposite would have been surprising. How could he have dissociated himself from the great movement of the eager conversion crowds that flocked around the Baptist? Moreover, Luke certainly had in mind the Servant Songs from the second book of Isaiah: "He was numbered among the evildoers" (Is 53:12). Luke himself mentions this in the heart of the Passion (Lk 22:37).

Jesus' baptism has a profound meaning: although He is without sin, He undergoes this rite to identify Himself with sinful humanity and to fulfil all justice. This gesture prefigures His mission as Redeemer, which He will bring to fulfilment through His passion, death and resurrection. Moreover, Jesus' baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry and is a manifestation of the Trinity, with the voice of the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove upon Jesus, the beloved son of the Father.

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

With fresh wishes for this New Year, here is the commentary on the readings for the Solemnity of the Epiphany 

Epiphany of the Lord [6 January 2025]

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (60:1-6)

The reference to the symbols of gold, frankincense and myrrh, present in this text of the prophet Isaiah, made it chosen for today's feast of the Epiphany of the Lord with obvious connection to the gifts of the Magi, but there is much more. Notice all the expressions of light that are in this passage: 'Clothe thyself with light, for thy light cometh, the glory of the Lord shineth upon thee' ... (as the sun rises) upon thee shineth the Lord, his glory shineth upon thee ... the nations shall walk in thy light, kings in the brightness of thy rising. In short, your light, the splendour of your dawn will make you radiant. Contrary to what one might imagine, as is often the case with prophets who cultivate hope, we must immediately deduce that the general mood at the time was rather gloomy. Why was the general mood gloomy, and what did the prophet suggest to invite the people to hope? As for the mood, let us look at the context: this text is part of the last chapters of the book of Isaiah; we are in the years 525-520 BC, that is, about fifteen or twenty years after the return from exile in Babylon. The deportees had returned to their homeland, and it was believed that happiness would be established, but this long-awaited return did not fulfil all expectations. There were those who, having remained in the country, had experienced the period of war and occupation; the exiles who had returned from exile hoped to regain their place and their possessions. Since the exile lasted fifty years, those who had left had died there and the survivors who returned home were their children or grandchildren. This should not have made reunions any easier, especially since those who returned could not claim their parents' inheritance because, precisely because of the long period of fifty years, the property of the absentees and exiles had been occupied and others had taken possession of it. Moreover, many foreigners had settled in the city of Jerusalem and throughout the country and had introduced other customs, other religions. It was evident that this mass of such different people was not an ideal climate for living together. The first cause of disagreement was the rebuilding of the Temple. Since their return from exile, authorised in 538 by King Cyrus, the first returnees, who formed the so-called 'community of return', had re-established the ancient altar of the Temple in Jerusalem and had resumed worship as in the past. At the same time, they wanted to start rebuilding the Temple, but some people considered heretical wanted to intervene. They were a mixture of Jews who had remained in the country and foreign pagan peoples settled there by the occupier mixed together even through marriages who had taken up customs judged heretical by the Jews returning from Exile, and for this reason the 'community of return' refused that the Temple of the One God should be built by people who would later celebrate other cults there. This refusal was badly received and those who had been rejected opposed it by all means: the result was the halting of work and the waning of the dream of rebuilding the Temple. As the years passed, discouragement grew and spread.  Sadness and discouragement, however, are not worthy of the people who are bearers of God's promises, and that is why Isaiah together with the prophet Haggai decided to awaken their compatriots by inviting them not to feel sorry for themselves and to set to work to rebuild the Temple.  Knowing this context, Isaiah's almost triumphant language surprises us, but it is the usual language in prophets. If they promise all this light, it is because the people are morally down and it is in the darkest night. Yet it is precisely during the night that the signs of the dawning of the day are scrutinised, and the role of the prophet is to restore courage by announcing the dawn of the new day. It is clear: the more the prophet insists on the theme of light, the more it means that the people are oppressed by the darkness of discouragement. To lift their spirits, Isaiah and Haggai insist on a single argument that is fundamental for the Jews: Jerusalem is the Holy City, chosen by God to make the sign of his presence dwell there. God himself made a commitment to King Solomon, deciding that "here shall be my Name".  We can thus summarise and actualise Isaiah's message: "You are in a tunnel, in the deepest darkness, but at the end of the tunnel light awaits you. Remember the promise: the Day is coming when all will recognise in Jerusalem the Holy City'.  So do not let yourselves be discouraged and get to work, devote all your strength to rebuilding the Temple as you have promised. In all times when one feels discouraged by difficulties and is groping in the darkness of uncertainty, prophets are needed to awaken the courage of hope. Isaiah makes this clear with determination and this is his reasoning: when one is a believer, even the darkest darkness cannot stifle hope. And here it is not a matter of a promise linked to a political triumph, but of God's promise: one day the whole of humanity will finally be reunited in perfect harmony in the Holy City. 

*Responsorial Psalm (71/72) 

This psalm makes us witness the coronation of a new king, when the priests pronounce prayers over him that collect the wishes and dreams of the people at the beginning of each new reign. They wish for political power for the king, peace and justice, happiness, wealth and prosperity for all, and the chosen people have the advantage of knowing that these dreams of men coincide with God's own plan. However, the last verse of the psalm, which is not part of today's liturgy, changes its tone: it no longer speaks of the earthly king, but of God: 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, he alone performs wonders! Blessed be his glorious name forever, may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen! Amen!" And it is precisely this last verse that offers the key to understanding the entire psalm composed and sung after the exile in Babylon (thus between 500 and 100 BC), at a time when there was no longer a king in Israel. The vows and prayers are therefore not about a king in the flesh, but about the future king promised by God, the Messiah-King. And since this is a promise from God, one can be sure that it will come true. The entire Bible is shot through with this indestructible hope: human history has a purpose, a meaning where the term 'meaning' means two things: both 'significance' and 'direction'. God has a single plan that inspires all the events of the Bible and takes on different names according to the different authors: it is the "Day of God" for the prophets, the "kingdom of heaven" for the evangelist Matthew, the "design of his benevolence (eudokia)" for St Paul (Eph 1:9-10). God loves humanity and tirelessly re-proposes his project of happiness. A project that will be realised by the messiah who is invoked whenever the psalms are sung in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Psalm 71 is the description of the ideal king, whom Israel has been waiting for for centuries: when Jesus is born, about 1000 years have passed since the prophet Nathan went to King David on God's side and made him the promise of which our psalm speaks. (cf. 2 Sam 7:12-16). From century to century, the promise has been reiterated and better specified. The certainty of God's faithfulness to his promises made it possible to discover little by little all its richness and consequences; if this king really deserved the title of son of God, then he would be in the image of God, king of justice and peace. At every coronation of a new king, the promise was repeated about him and one would dream again, but the Jewish people still wait, and it must be acknowledged that the ideal kingdom has not yet seen the light of day on earth. One would almost end up believing that it is only a utopia. Believers, however, know that it is not a utopia but a promise from God, hence a certainty. And the entire Bible is shot through with this certainty, this invincible hope that God's plan will be realised. It is the miracle of faith: faced with this promise, each time disappointed, two different reactions are possible: the non-believer says 'I told you so, it will never happen'; the believer resolutely affirms 'patience, for God has promised it, he cannot deny himself', as St Paul recalls (2 Tim 2:13).  Today, the Jewish people sing this psalm in the expectation of the Messiah-King, and in certain synagogues, Jews express their impatience to see the messiah by reciting this profession of faith by Moses Maimonides, a Jewish philosopher, physician and jurist (1135-1204) from Toledo in Spain: 'I believe with sure faith that the messiah will come, and even if he is late in coming, in spite of everything, I will wait until the day of his coming'.  We, Christians, apply this to Jesus Christ and it seems to us that the Magi who came from the East have begun to realise the promise: 'The kings of Tarsis and the islands will bring gifts, the kings of Sheba and Seba will offer tribute... All kings will bow down before him, all nations will serve him. And the day is not far off when all mankind will welcome Christ and the kingdom of his love will be realised.

*Second Reading, from the letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (3:2-6)

This text is taken from the third chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, and in the first chapter Paul used the famous expression "the loving design of his will" (v.5), "making known to us the mystery of his will" (v 9). We find here the word "mystery" which for St Paul is not a secret that God jealously guards; on the contrary, it is his intimacy, into which he lets us enter. Paul explains further by saying: "By revelation the mystery has been made known to me": the mystery is the plan of love that God progressively reveals. The whole of biblical history is a long, slow and patient pedagogy that God uses to introduce his people into this mystery of his, into his intimacy. Experience shows that a child cannot be taught everything at once; it must be educated patiently, day by day and according to circumstances. One cannot give theoretical lessons in advance about life, death, marriage or family. The child discovers the family by living with parents, grandparents and siblings: when the family celebrates a marriage or a birth, when it faces bereavement, the child experiences these events with relatives who, little by little, accompany it in its discovery of life. God used the same pedagogy with his people, revealing himself progressively. This revelation with Christ took a decisive step so that history is divided into two periods, before Christ and after Christ, and the apostle explains that this mystery "was not manifested to men of previous generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" and makes it even clearer that the mystery he is talking about is Christ himself, the centre of the world and history, and the whole universe will one day be united in him, as the members are united to the head. In the phrase "to bring all things back to Christ, the one head" (1:10), the Greek word we translate as head means precisely the head. It is also really about the whole universe, and Paul specifies that "the nations are called in Christ Jesus, to share the same inheritance, to form the same body, and to be partakers of the same promise through the gospel". In other words we can say that the inheritance is Christ, the Promise is Christ, the Body is Christ, God's plan of love is for Christ to be the centre of the world and for the whole universe to be gathered in him. When we say in the Lord's Prayer, 'Thy will be done', we are speaking of this divine plan and, by repeating this invocation, we are impregnating ourselves more and more with the desire for the Day when this plan will be fully realised. Paul explains that this project concerns the whole of humanity, not just the Jewish people: it is the universalism of God's plan, a universal dimension progressively discovered in the Bible and well rooted in the people of Israel, since the promise of the blessing of all humanity is traced back to Abraham: "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen 12:3). The passage from Isaiah that we read in the first reading of the Feast of the Epiphany is exactly along these lines. Obviously, if a prophet like Isaiah saw fit to insist on it, it is because people tended to forget it. Similarly, at the time of Christ, if Paul specifies that 'the nations are called in Christ Jesus to share in the same inheritance, to form the same body, and to be partakers of the same promise through the gospel', it is because this was not taken for granted. We have to make an imaginative effort: we are by no means in the same situation as Paul's contemporaries; for us, in the twenty-first century, this is self-evident: most of us are not of Jewish origin and find it normal that we all share in the salvation brought by the Messiah. After two thousand years of Christianity, we know that Israel remains the chosen people because, as St Paul says elsewhere, 'God cannot deny himself', but we believe that we too are in this plan called to witness to the gospel in the world. At the time of Christ, however, the situation was different. Jesus was born within the Jewish people: this was the logic of God's plan and the election of Israel. The Jews were the chosen people, chosen by God to be apostles, witnesses and instruments of salvation for all mankind. The Jews who became Christians sometimes had difficulty accepting the admission of former pagans into their communities, and St Paul reminds them that even pagans can now be apostles and witnesses of salvation. Moreover, the episode of the Magi, narrated by Matthew in the Gospel of the Epiphany, tells us exactly the same thing. The last words of this second reading resound like an invitation: "the nations are called in Christ Jesus to share in the same inheritance, to form the same body and to be sharers in the same promise through the gospel". Certainly God awaits our collaboration in his plan of love: the Magi then saw a star and set out. For so many of our contemporaries, there may not be a star in the sky, but we are the witnesses of Christ and therefore in need of becoming full of light and joy. 

*From the Gospel according to Matthew ( 2:1-12)

First of all a historical observation: the episode of the Magi narrated by the evangelist Matthew gives us one of the rare clues as to the exact date of Jesus' birth. The date of Herod the Great's death is certain: 4 BC (he lived from 73 to 4 BC), and since he had all children under the age of two killed, these were children born between 6 and 4 BC. Therefore, Jesus was probably born between 6 and 5 BC. The miscalculation occurred in the 6th century, when a monk, Dionysius the Lesser, rightly decided to count the years from the birth of Jesus, and no longer from the foundation of Rome. At that time, as can also be deduced from other historical sources, 

the expectation of the Messiah was very much alive and was spoken of everywhere. Everyone prayed to God to hasten his coming, and some Jews thought that he would be a king: a descendant of David who would reign on the throne of Jerusalem, after having driven out the Romans and definitively established peace, justice and fraternity in Israel. Others more optimistically even hoped that this happiness would extend to the whole world. In this sense, several converging Old Testament prophecies were cited: first of all, that of Balaam in the Book of Numbers. I remember it: when the tribes of Israel were approaching the Promised Land under the leadership of Moses, crossing the plains of Moab (today in Jordan), the king of Moab, Balak, had summoned Balaam (a pagan prophet and soothsayer) to curse these invaders. But, inspired by God, Balaam, instead of cursing, had pronounced prophecies of happiness and glory for Israel, saying in particular: "I see it, I contemplate it: from Jacob a star rises, from Israel a sceptre rises" (Num 24:17). The king of Moab was furious, because he had interpreted this prophecy as the announcement of his future defeat against Israel. But in Israel, in the following centuries, this beautiful promise had been carefully conveyed, going so far as to think that the Messiah's reign would be announced by the appearance of a star. This is why King Herod, consulted by the Magi about a star, took the matter very seriously. Another prophecy concerning the Messiah is that of Micah: 'And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Judah, art not indeed the least among the chief towns of Judah: for out of thee shall come forth a leader who shall be the shepherd of my people Israel'. A prophecy perfectly in line with God's promise to David, according to which his dynasty would never die out and would bring the country the long-awaited happiness.

The Magi probably did not know all these things: they were astrologers and had set out simply because they had seen a new star rise. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they inquired with the local authorities. And it is here that we encounter the first surprise of Matthew's account: on the one hand, the Magi, pagans who have no preconceptions, are looking for the Messiah and will eventually find him by looking at the star visible to all. On the other hand, there are those who know the Scriptures, the scribes of Israel, who can quote them without error and can reveal their meaning... provided, however, that they themselves allow themselves to be guided by the Scriptures, but unfortunately they do not move a finger; they will not even go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and thus will not meet the Child in the manger. It is indeed a provocation: those who waited for the Messiah like the scribes fail to see and therefore do not meet the Messiah, while the magi who are strangers to the scriptures allow themselves to be guided by the star, which they all saw, and arrive at the meeting with Jesus.  As for Herod, it is a different story. Let us put ourselves in his shoes: he is the king of the Jews, recognised as such by the Roman power. He is very proud of his title and fiercely jealous of anyone who might tarnish it. Let us not forget that he had several members of his family murdered, including his own sons. Whenever someone became a little too popular, Herod had him eliminated out of jealousy. And now a rumour spreads through the city: foreign astrologers have made a long journey and say: 'We have seen a quite exceptional star rise; we know that it heralds the birth of a child-king... just as exceptional. Surely the true king of the Jews has been born!". We can imagine Herod's fury and anguish. Thus, when St Matthew says: 'Herod was distraught and with him all Jerusalem', this is surely a very delicate way of expressing himself. Obviously, Herod could not show his anger; he had to know how to manoeuvre: his goal was to get some information about this child, a potential rival to be eliminated. So he first inquired about the location.  Matthew writes that he summoned the chief priests and scribes to ask them where the Messiah would be born. And this is where Micah's prophecy intervenes: the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Herod also inquired about the age of the child, because he already had a plan in mind to eliminate him. He summoned the Magi to ask them the precise moment when the star had appeared. We do not know their answer, but subsequent events allow us to deduce it: Herod ordered all children under the age of two to be killed, thus taking a wide margin. Most probably, in the account of the visit of the Magi, Matthew already gives us a summary of the whole life of Jesus: from the very beginning, in Bethlehem, he encountered the hostility and anger of the political and religious authorities. They did not recognise him as the Messiah, treated him as an impostor and eventually eliminated him by crucifying him as an evildoer. Yet, he was indeed the Messiah. A great lesson in faith for all! It is really true: only those who seek God sincerely and without preconceptions arrive, like the Magi, to meet Him and enter into the plan of His infinite Mercy

N.B. I attach this prayer taken from the prayer booklet of the Holy Trinity Mercy Sanctuary in Maccio - Como

PRAYER TO THE HOLY TRINITY FOR THE GIFT OF FAITH

Lord, sustain my Faith!

O My Lord, O My God

with deepest faith I am prostrate here to Thee.

Thou art Hope Certain in whom I am made safe!

Thou art Mercy, in Thee all things draw me!

Thou art Charity, Thou all-given to me!

Thou art Eternal Love in whom my heart is quenched!

For this immense Gift

Thou who art All and to me Thou givest me All,

Of the darkness of my night the Light pierces the veil,

And I sing and pray and cry, with as much faith as I can:

I believe, I believe

In thee One and Triune God, my One Lord!

Thou, Father, Thou, Beginning, who art the Source of it;

Thou, Son, Eternal Word, by Whom it grows;

Thou, Divine Spirit, Who confirmest me in it.

Thou, Most Holy Trinity, Impenetrable Mystery of Thee Only God,

in the Holy Sacrifice of the God who becomes Son,

grant that I may always find Food, Comfort and Strength

and Water that purifies,

to make me steadfast and holy,

In Thee who art the Way, the Truth and the Life,

By the sure hand of Virgo Purissima

Who to Thee, and by Thee for me, Thou Amor, Mother didst make,

Firm and secure in abiding

In the bosom of thy Holy and Beloved Bride,

the Faith that, in the Son, unites me and makes a gift to Thee!

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

1 January 2025 on the eighths of Christmas, Most Holy Mary Mother of God 

First Reading from the Book of Numbers (6,22-27)

*The Lord bless you

To open the new calendar year that follows the Gregorian civil calendar, in use almost all over the world, the beautiful blessing was chosen, which in Israel the priests, starting with Aaron and his sons, used to bless the people during liturgical ceremonies in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is a formula that is now also part of the Christian heritage: taken from the Book of Numbers, it is in fact included among the solemn blessings proposed for the conclusion of the Mass. Notice how this blessing closes: "So they shall put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them" (v.27). On closer inspection, this is a way of expressing oneself, since, in reality, God's name is never pronounced out of respect for him. The name represents the person himself and pronouncing his name is a legal act that implies a taking of possession, but also a commitment to protection. For instance, when a warrior conquers a city, he is said to pronounce his name on it; similarly, on the Jewish wedding day, the husband's name is pronounced on the wife even if she does not bear her husband's name, and this implies ownership and a promise of vigilance.  When God reveals his name, he makes himself accessible to the prayer of his people, and invoking God's name normally constitutes a guarantee of blessing. There is such a strong bond between God and his people that offences directed against God's people constitute blasphemy against his name, they are a personal insult. This is why we better understand Jesus' words: 'As often as you did these things to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me' (Mt 25:40). With this blessing, then, we want to say today that on all the people we will meet throughout the year that is beginning, God has placed his name on them and, because of this blessing, we are invited to look at them with new eyes. 

With regard then to the blessing of the Book of Numbers, here are some points for reflection: 

1. This formula of blessing is in the singular: "May the Lord bless you" and not "May the Lord bless you". In reality, it refers to the entire people of Israel and is therefore a collective singular, and in time, Israel realised that this protection of God was not reserved for him alone, but for the whole of humanity.

2. "The Lord bless you" (v. 24) is in the subjunctive as well as "the Lord make his face to shine upon you ... The Lord turn his countenance upon you" (v.25,26)). We wish to be blessed, but we may ask ourselves: is it possible that the Lord does not bless us, he who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, that is, on all men, and who asks us to love even our enemies...? Of course, we know that God blesses us continually, that he accompanies us and is with us in all circumstances. Yet, this subjunctive, like all subjunctives, expresses a desire that concerns us and not him. God blesses us continually, but we are free not to receive his blessing... like the sun that shines even when we seek the shadow and we are free to seek the shadow... In the same way, we are free to remove ourselves from God's beneficial action... Those who shelter themselves from the sun lose all possibility of benefiting from its light and warmth, and not because of the sun! Thus, the formula 'God bless you' is a wish that invites us to place ourselves under his blessing. In other words, God offers us his blessing, but it is up to us to accept it, and this subjunctive serves to manifest our free adherence.

3.In what does God's blessing consist? Benedire is a Latin term meaning to say well, so God says well of us. We should not be surprised that God says well of us because he loves us and therefore thinks and says well of us. Indeed, he only stops to see in us what is good. His Word, however, is also action: "He said and all things were" (Gen 1). Therefore, when God says good of us, he acts in us with his word, he transforms us, he does good to us.And so, when we ask for his blessing, we offer ourselves to God's transforming action

4. Beware! This blessing is not something magical.  Being blessed means choosing to live in God's grace, in harmony with Him and in His covenant, without this sparing us difficulties and trials. Whoever lives in God's blessing will go through the hardship of life always hearing God say to me, as Isaiah writes, "I hold thee with my victorious right hand"... "I hold thee by the right hand, and say unto thee, Fear not, I will come to thy help" (Isaiah 41:10-13).  

5. Moses promises the people: "You shall be blessed more than all peoples" (Deut 7:14).  Israel therefore is blessed, but this has not prevented it from going through terrible times; Nevertheless, in the midst of trials, the believer knows that God does not abandon him and indeed accompanies him with persevering patience. On today's feast of Mary, Mother of God, all this takes on a special significance. The angel Gabriel, sent to announce the birth of Jesus, said to her: "I greet you, full of grace" (Lk 1:28). Mary is par excellence the one on whom the name of God has been pronounced and she remains under his sweet protection. Elizabeth will rightly proclaim: 'Blessed art thou amongst women' (Lk 1:42).

5. Unfortunately, the Italian text fails to render all the richness of the original Hebrew formula for two reasons. Firstly, the name of God, YHWH, transcribed here as "the Lord", is the name that God revealed to Moses and in itself represents a promise of protective presence, the same that has always accompanied the children of Israel since their exit from Egypt. Secondly, translating Hebrew verbs with a subjunctive into Italian is an inevitable impoverishment. Since the Hebrew verbal system is very different from the Italian one, for greater precision experts suggest translating it as follows: "The Lord blesses you and keeps you". that is, God blesses you and keeps you now and will bless you and keep you forever." after all, this is our faith!

Responsorial Psalm 66 (67)

*Our God blesses us 

Psalm 66 resonates like an echo of the first reading, where the Book of Numbers offered us the well-known and splendid formula of blessing: 'May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! May the Lord turn his countenance upon thee, and grant thee peace!". Here, too, are just a few considerations:

1 Let us begin with the very meaning of the term blessing. The prophet Zechariah says: "In those days, ten men of every tongue and nation shall seize a Jew by the hem of his cloak and say to him, 'We wish to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'" (Zech 8:23). This is an interesting definition of blessing: to say that God blesses us is to say that God is with us, that he is with us. This, moreover, is the meaning of the very Name of God revealed at Sinai: YHWH, an unpronounceable Name that we translate as Lord. Although it is not translatable literally, the Jews understand it as a promise of God's constant presence alongside his people.

2. Here it is the people who invoke God's blessing upon themselves: 'God have mercy on us and bless us'. Regarding the priestly formula in the Book of Numbers, we are constantly assured of God's blessing, but we are free not to receive it. When the priest says 'The Lord bless you', he is not expressing the wish that God chooses to bless us because he could not but bless us, but he is wishing that we open our hearts to his blessing, so that he can transform us and act in us. The Psalm makes this clear: 'God have mercy on us and bless us... God, our God, blesses us'. These two phrases are not contradictory: God blesses us constantly, this is a certainty ("God, our God, blesses us", v. 7), but in order to welcome his action, we only need to desire it ("God have mercy on us and bless us", v. 2).

3. The certainty of being granted even before making a request is characteristic of prayer in Israel. The believer knows that he lives constantly immersed in the blessing, in the beneficent presence of God. Jesus himself says: "I knew that you always listen to me" (Jn 11:42).

4. The people of Israel do not ask this blessing only for themselves, and the blessing pronounced on Israel is poured out on the other peoples: "In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" God said to Abraham (Gen 12:3). In this Psalm we find, intertwined as always, the two great themes: on the one hand the election of Israel, on the other the universality of God's plan. The work of salvation of humanity is accomplished through the election of Israel. The election of Israel is evident in the expression 'God, our God', which recalls the Covenant God made with the people he chose. But the universalism of the divine plan is equally clear: 'On earth let your way be known, your salvation among all nations', or: 'Let the nations rejoice with joy'. Moreover, in this Psalm, the refrain that is repeated twice foreshadows the day when all peoples will welcome God's blessing: "Let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all peoples praise thee". Israel knows that he is chosen to be the witnessing people: the light that shines on him is a reflection of the One whom Israel is to make known to the world. This understanding of Israel's election as a vocation was not immediate for the men of the Bible and is understandable: at the beginning of biblical history, each people imagined that deities ruled over specific territories: there were the deities of Babylon, those of Egypt, and those of every other country. It was not until around the 6th century that the people of Israel realised that the God with whom they had made the Covenant at Sinai was the God of the whole universe; Israel's election was not annulled, but took on a new meaning as the prophet Zechariah, quoted above (Zech 8:23), well shows. We too are a witnessing people: when we receive God's blessing, we are called to become a reflection of the divine light in the world, and this is the wish we can wish each other at the beginning of this new year: to be bearers of God's light for all those we meet

5. "The earth has yielded its fruit; God, our God, blesses us". Because the Word of God is action, it produces fruit. God promised a fertile land flowing with milk and honey, and He kept His promise by bringing Israel to the promised land. All the more reason for Christians to read this psalm with the birth of the Saviour in mind: when the fullness of time came, the land bore its fruit. St John of the Cross writes: "Since he (God) has given us his Son, who is his one and final Word, in this Word he has said everything and has nothing more to reveal" (Ascent of Mount Carmel. Book II, ch.22, par.3)

Second Reading from the letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Galatians ( 4, 4-7)

*"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son". 

In this short text we find a theme very dear to St Paul: the fulfilment of God's plan. For believers, both Jews and Christians, this is a fundamental element of faith: history is not an eternal beginning, but a progressive journey of humanity towards its fulfilment, towards the realisation of God's project of merciful love. This theme is central to St Paul's letters and is a key not only to understanding them, but also to reading the entire Bible, starting with the Old Testament.  In the New Testament, it is continually emphasised that the life, passion, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth fulfil the Scriptures. Paul states before his judges: "I have said nothing apart from what Moses and the prophets foretold" (Acts 26:22). And the evangelist Matthew likes to repeat: "All this came to pass that what was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled". Should one then think that everything was already written in advance? To better understand, it should be noted that "so that" in Italian is a final subordinating conjunction with two different meanings: one of finality and one of consequence. If we mean finality, then events would have occurred according to a predefined plan, predetermined from eternity. But if we understand it as consequence, it means that events unfold in a certain way and, in retrospect, we recognise how, through them, God fulfilled his plan. God's plan, then, is not a rigid programme in which everyone's role is predetermined. God takes the risk of our freedom and, throughout the ages, men have often obstructed his plan. That is why the prophets complained, but never lost hope. On the contrary, they continually promised that God would not grow weary. Isaiah, for example, announces from God: "I say, my plan shall be fulfilled, and I will accomplish all that I desire" (Isaiah 46:10). And Jeremiah adds: "I know the plans I have made for you, O oracle of the Lord: plans of peace and not of misfortune, to grant you a future full of hope" (Jer 29:11).

In the New Testament, the fulfilment of God's promises is always contemplated in Jesus. "God sent forth his Son: born of a woman, born under the Law". In a few words, Paul encapsulates the whole mystery of the person of Jesus: Son of God, man like other men, Jew like other Jews. The expression 'born of woman', first of all, is common in the Bible and simply means 'a man like other men'. For example, to avoid repetitions of the term man in the same sentence, the expression "son of the woman" is used (cf. Sir 10:18; Job 15:14; Job 25:4). Jesus himself uses this expression when speaking of John the Baptist: "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matt 11:11).

The statement "born under the Law" indicates that Jesus accepted the condition of the men of his people. Paul continues: "To redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive adoption as sons". One often encounters the term "redeem" in the Bible, which means to free, to enfranchise. In the Old Testament, the redeemer was the one who freed the slave. Being under the Law, therefore, is not the same as being in the condition of sons: there is therefore a transition to be made. The one who lives under the Law acts as a servant, submitting to orders. The son, on the other hand, lives in love and trust: he can obey his father - that is, listen to his word - because he trusts him and knows that his every word is dictated by love. This means moving from the dominion of the Law to the obedience of children. The transition to a filial and trusting attitude is possible because "God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, who cries out, 'Abba, Father'. This cry, which calls out to the Father, is the only one that saves us in all circumstances because it is like the desperate, trusting cry of the child who trusts his father. Whatever happens, we know that God is our Father and that he has only loving tenderness towards us. This is the filial attitude that Christ came to live among us, on our behalf. Paul concludes: "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, you are also an heir". The term heir is to be understood in the full sense: what belongs to God is promised to us, but we must have the courage to believe it. And that is precisely our problem. When Jesus calls us "people of little faith", perhaps this is what he is referring to: we dare not believe that God's Spirit is in us, that his power belongs to us, that everything that is his is ours, including his ability to love. And all this is not because of us! If we are heirs, it is only by God's grace. That is why we can say, despite our human frailty, with St Therese of the Child Jesus: "Everything is grace, everything is gift: everything God does is for our good" (Manuscript C, 4r of The Story of a Soul)

Gospel according to Luke (2.16-21)

We are in the presence of an apparently secondary tale, yet it is in fact profoundly theological, which means that every detail has its weight, and for this reason it is worth going over it together:

1.The shepherds, first of all: they were little considered, indeed marginal because of their work which prevented them from attending synagogues and observing the Sabbath. Yet, they were the first to be informed of the event that changed the history of humanity: the birth of the awaited Messiah. The shepherds thus become the first apostles and the first witnesses: they tell, they are heard, and they arouse wonder. They speak of the extraordinary announcement they received in the middle of the night from the angels and the miracle is that they are believed as the evangelist Luke recounts (Lk 2:8-14). They tell all that they have seen and heard in their own words and this brings to mind an expression of Jesus that is often quoted: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to the little ones" (Lk 10:21; Mt 11:25). It is not the learned and the wise whom God chooses as his messengers. 

2. The whole event that Luke relates takes place in Bethlehem. It was known at the time that the Messiah would be born in the line of David right there, yet people's interest was for other events and for the arrival of the Messiah, awaited for thousands of years, no one had prepared a home. Joseph and Mary found shelter outside the town and it was in a poor cave or stable: the only detail on this that the gospel specifies is this: "While they (Joseph and Mary) were in that place...Mary gave birth to her first-born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the lodging" (Lk 2:6-7) . Bethlehem literally means 'the house of bread' and the newborn lying in a manger is an evocative image of the one who will give himself as nourishment to mankind. The link between Christmas and the Eucharist is obvious.

3. 'Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart ... she kept these things and pondered them in her heart' (Lk 2:19). While the shepherds, made loquacious by the event, recount, Mary contemplates and ponders in her heart. Luke here might want to recall a passage from the vision of the Son of Man in Daniel, where we read: 'I kept these thoughts in my heart' (Dan 7:28). For Luke, this would be a way of already outlining the grandiose destiny of that child.

4. "The name Jesus was given to him" (Lk 2:21).  The name "Jesus" reveals the mystery: it means "God saves". Although Luke does not specify its etymology like Matthew, a few verses earlier he reports the announcement of the angel: "Today a Saviour is born to you" (Lk 2:11). At the same time, Jesus lives in full solidarity with his people: like every Jewish child, he is circumcised on the eighth day. Paul will say to the Galatians: "Born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law" (Gal 4:4). The other Gospels do not mention circumcision, but it was such a common act that there was no need to emphasise it. However, Luke insists on showing how Mary and Joseph fully respected the Mosaic Law. Not only that, he also recounts the presentation in the Temple. "When the days of their ritual purification were completed, according to the Law of Moses, they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord" (Lk 2:22). Here the whole solidarity of Jesus with his people emerges: a theme that culminates in his own words at the Last Supper: "This word of Scripture must be fulfilled in me: 'He was numbered among the ungodly'" (Lk 22:37).

5.One last remark: the discretion of the figure of Mary is striking, despite the fact that this liturgical feast is dedicated to her as "Mary, Mother of God". Luke merely says: "Mary, for her part, kept all these things, pondering them in her heart".  Perhaps, her silence is already a message for us: Mary's glory lies in having accepted to be the mother of God, humbly putting herself at the service of the project of salvation. She is not the centre of the project, but Jesus, the one whose name means 'God saves'.

+Giovanni D'Ercole