(Lk 12:32-48)

Lamps lit, start now

(Lk 12:32-38)

In order to make it clear what it means to be prepared to leave immediately, Jesus urges our readiness to notice, our ability to perceive.

He does not extinguish the aptitude for unprecedented judgement, and gains amazement.

Because the roles are suddenly reversed - so one has to be open to trust: the seemingly small becomes suddenly “big”.

Old religion drags the problems, and makes one sick, inculcating the spirit of submission and toil, for wages. And the slave remains a slave.

Servant and master are conversely in a reciprocal relationship and incessantly reverse roles.

As Lk says, the Lord himself “will gird himself and make them lie [the position of the lords of the time at solemn banquets] and pass by serving them” as if he were a “deacon” (v.37 Greek text).

This activates a total vigilance, ready to move the whole person, the territories (Fratelli Tutti, n.1: «beyond the place of the world»), the hierarchies.

He who felt “employee” becomes “manager” and protagonist: he acquires an attitude to fullness.

In the Kingdom of God, forms of life change.

In religions without the step of Faith - vice versa - nomenclatures consolidate.

In the Church there is no hoarding up, because our hearts do not live on worldliness and competition: goods are transformed into relationships and possibilities for encounter.

Christ has shown the Way to true enrichment. Thus he has transformed us into perhaps restless, but brisk beings.

We cannot even rest quietly: we have a step that flies by.

Indeed, it seems very strange that this Master does not arrive at the appointed time. Instead, Christ wants to be reinterpreted.

This condition is a source of growth for us: it accentuates our vigilance over events, the folds of history; over the meaning of encounters, the motions of the soul; and so on.

Thus, life in the Spirit challenges and enriches the exuberant side of the personality, accentuating the most singular opportunities for the unprecedented.

The «butler» placed at the service of the House of God and the brethren has the role of helping dynamic discernment, and the task of supporting it.

His service on behalf of others will be all-rounded, so that each one may correspond to the Call and proceed on his or her own feet.

'Blessed' then shall we be (v.38) without condition, but with the belt at our sides, that is, with the attitude of one who leaves a land of bondage.

«This was well known to the primitive Christian community, which considered itself "alien" here below and called its populated nucleuses in the cities "parishes", which means, precisely, colonies of foreigners [in Greek, pároikoi] (cf. I Pt 2: 11). In this way, the first Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely the tension of living in this life in light of Heaven» [Pope Benedict, Angelus August 12, 2007]

«Return» vs Presence (and Coming)

Without intimate contentions

(Lk 12:39-48)

Jesus reproaches his intimates [those of the House]: it’s neither love nor freedom not to be able to understand in which direction to go, not to have a goal that transmits meaning to our pilgrimage.

Already in the communities of the first centuries was alive the idea of the end of the world and of the immediately subsequent «return» of the Risen One - to fix things, like any other Messiah. So someone didn’t commit himself anymore. Others was remaining with their noses up, to peer into the sky.

But the Coming of Christ is always imminent, and the Judgment on the things of the world has already been pronounced on the Cross.

In his Spirit who makes all events new, and in his disciples, the Lord has never moved elsewhere (nor above) [cf. Mt 28,20].

The final phase of history begins precisely from this germ of Faith not alienated, of Person not repressed, and of an alternative society; but the history to be written is the task of the Church.

The new heaven and new earth of the divinising Presence is already throbbing. In this way, He is next to us when we fight for realization and the full existence of everyone.

In no passage of the Gospels it’s written that Jesus «will return»: although not perceptible to the senses, He never went away.

He enjoys a full Life, not conditioned by space-time coordinates like ours.

He is the One Coming [Greek text, passim]: the One who incessantly makes Himself Present, and becomes a travelling companion - not only in exceptional figure.

The attention of the impressionable people already in the 80s shifted (unfortunately) to the Return instead of the «unceasing Coming» [that is, perception of his Friendship in even common things, in the Appeal of the needy; in the Call of intuitions, of the Word, of the companions of our journey; in the genius of time, and even in everyday facts].

His «Coming» is: in the goals that smile, but even and perhaps more in the obstacles to be lived, shifting our gaze - in the disappointments, wich lead us to seek a less outward joy.

Thus, according to the Lord’s desire, the good guide of the Christian community will become a servant of the lost, will not appropriate the goods of the Church, will also become vigilant in favour of others.

It’s essential that the first of the class do not let themselves be carried away by the adolescent desire to self-support and affirm themselves, with greedy for privileges and hoarding of relevant tasks.

Fidelity is an attitude required especially of those who in assemblies have a particular and precise mission of guidance: forbidden to abuse it!

The only desire from which they must feel caught up is to hasten the hour of Communion and introduce a regenerative energy, also in the roles.

But Peter is conditioned by the false traditional teaching, totally antithetical, and he cannot conceive it.

According to the Master, however, the leaders of communities are not exclusive privileged or elected, but those who are asked to do more and better.

Free people.

The only plausible objective of the particular path in the power of the Risen One is of a maternal and universal character: «to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters» [FT n.278].

[19th Sunday in O.T. (year C), August 10, 2025]

Without mechanisms, nor obligations that do not concern us

(Mt 17:22-27)

Even the Jews dispersed in the Roman world paid an annual tax for the maintenance of the Temple, which in reality did not figure among the obligatory contributions provided for in the Torah (Ex 30,11-16).

Converts to the new Faith in Christ of Galilee and Syria wondered if they still had the obligation to continue paying the sum for the place of worship and the priestly class.

The amount due was accessible [equal to a couple of days' work].

Jesus expresses his opinion through an analogy.

Rome had granted the administration of Palestine to monarchs, princes and tetrarchs. Subjects were obliged to pay taxes, excluding Roman citizens.

The young Rabbi states: just as those who possessed the legal citizenship of Rome were exempt from the tributes imposed on the Jews by their rulers, so the sons [in the communities of Mt, Christians Jews] had to be exempt from the taxes relating to the Temple.

But it was perhaps appropriate to express an attitude of respect about a legal obligation.

From the tone and composition of the text, however, it seems that this criterion of loyalty to institutions has been grafted onto a previous saying of Jesus, concerning total freedom towards the Sanctuary.

He intended to replace it in vital terms: with his Person and that of his own intimates. By wiping out his artificial and external mannerisms.

With regard to the specific Christology of the passage, it is known: the Lord provides and "pays" for His friends (v.27).

In fact, the acronym for «fish» in Greek [«ichthys»: Iēsous Christos Theou Yios Sōtēr] has the meaning of Jesus Messiah Son of God the Savior. Symbol of the Faith.

In this way, the authentic commitment of the sons will be to manifest a Face of God absolutely different from that widespread in the mentality of the ancient and Mesopotamian East.

In fact, the Father doesn’t sit in a Cloud crossed by lightnings; He doesn’t crave the title of «Great» which recalls an idea of tremendous strength, terrifying power, disruptive speed.

No, this is not the ‘precedence’ of the divine man and of the Most High. He offers redemption and pays tribute for everyone.

Of course, Salvation is not an extrinsic mechanism, only vicarious. Redemption is Heart, not a “dress”.

The «Son of Man» does not take standard actions; he educates us: he sharpens our personal awareness, and that of our condition.

He does not do this out of paternalism, nor to cover us with moralistic accusations: he allows us to love, bypassing formalism in our relationship with the Father.

His Presence as a Lamb who offers all of himself - even his skin - challenges humanity and guides it to reflect on its reality, precarious even in the heart.

Conscience of incompleteness that can activate what matters: the path of Exodus, convinced, involving - starting from the Center of oneself, rather than from legal externalities.

Without fulfillments that do not concern us.

[Monday 19th wk. in O.T.  August 11, 2025]

The Lord Jesus entered the passion, he decisively embarked upon the road to the cross; he spoke openly to his disciples of what was to happen to him in Jerusalem, and the words of the Prophet Hosea echoed in his words: “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days, he will rise” (Mk 9:31).

The Evangelist notes that the disciples “did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him” (v. 32). We too, in the face of death, cannot fail to experience the sentiments and thoughts dictated by our human condition. And we are always surprised and overcome by a God indeed, who draws so close to us that he does not even stop before the abyss of death, who rather passes through it, remaining in the tomb for two days. However, exactly here the mystery of the “third day” occurs. Christ takes on our mortal flesh completely that it may be invested with the glorious power of God, by the breath of the life-giving Spirit who transforms and regenerates it. This is the baptism of the passion (cf. Lk 12:50), which Jesus received for us and about which St Paul writes in the Letter to the Romans. The expression used by the Apostle — “baptized into his death” (Rom 6:3) — never ceases to surprise us, such is the precision with which he summarizes the breathtaking mystery. Christ’s death is the source of life, for into it God poured all of his love, as in an immense cascade, which makes us think of the image of Psalm 42[41]: “Deep calls to deep / at the thunder of your cataracts / all your waves and all your billows have gone over me” (v. 8). The abyss of death is filled by another abyss that is greater still, namely, the love of God, which is such that death no longer has power over Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:9), nor over those who are associated with him through faith and baptism: “If we have died with Christ”, says St Paul, “we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom 6:8). This “living with Jesus” is the fulfilment of the hope prophesied by Hosea: “… and we will live in his presence” (6:2).

[Pope Benedict, homily 3 November 2011]

8. Redemption as a new creation

The Redeemer of the world! In him has been revealed in a new and more wonderful way the fundamental truth concerning creation to which the Book of Genesis gives witness when it repeats several times: "God saw that it was good"38. The good has its source in Wisdom and Love. In Jesus Christ the visible world which God created for man - the world that, when sin entered, "was subjected to futility" - recovers again its original link with the divine source of Wisdom and Love. Indeed, "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son". As this link was broken in the man Adam, so in the Man Christ it was reforged. Are we of the twentieth century not convinced of the over poweringly eloquent words of the Apostle of the Gentiles concerning the "creation (that) has been groaning in travail together until now" and "waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God", the creation that "was subjected to futility"? Does not the previously unknown immense progress-which has taken place especially in the course of this century-in the field of man's dominion over the world itself reveal-to a previously unknown degree-that manifold subjection "to futility"? It is enough to recall certain phenomena, such as the threat of pollution of the natural environment in areas of rapid industrialization, or the armed conflicts continually breaking out over and over again, or the prospectives of self-destruction through the use of atomic, hydrogen, neutron and similar weapons, or the lack of respect for the life of the unborn. The world of the new age, the world of space flights, the world of the previously unattained conquests of science and technology-is it not also the world "groaning in travail" that "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God"?

In its penetrating analysis of "the modern world", the Second Vatican Council reached that most important point of the visible world that is man, by penetrating like Christ the depth of human consciousness and by making contact with the inward mystery of man, which in Biblical and non-Biblical language is expressed by the word "heart". Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is the one who penetrated in a unique unrepeatable way into the mystery of man and entered his "heart". Rightly therefore does the Second Vatican Council teach: "The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come (Rom 5:14), Christ the Lord. Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling". And the Council continues: "He who is the 'image of the invisible God' (Col 1:15), is himself the perfect man who has restored in the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been disfigured ever since the first sin. Human nature, by the very fact that is was assumed, not absorbed, in him, has been raised in us also to a dignity beyond compare. For, by his Incarnation, he, the son of God, in a certain way united himself with each man. He worked with human hands, he thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin", he, the Redeemer of man!

[Pope John Paul II, Redemptor Hominis]

"Triumphalism in the Church," the Pope continued, "stops the Church. Triumphalism in us Christians stops Christians. A triumphalist Church is a Church half way there'. A Church that is content to be "well settled, with all the offices, everything in place, everything beautiful, efficient", but that denies the martyrs would be "a Church that only thinks of triumphs, of successes; that does not have that rule of Jesus: the rule of triumph through failure. Human failure, the failure of the cross. And this is a temptation that we all have'.

And in this regard, the Pope recalled an episode from his own life: "Once, I was in a dark moment of my spiritual life, and I was asking for a grace from the Lord. I went to preach the exercises to the nuns and on the last day they went to confession. An old nun came to confession, over eighty years old, but with clear eyes, really bright. She was a woman of God. Then at the end I saw her so much a woman of God that I said to her: 'Sister, as a penance pray for me, because I need a grace, eh? If you ask the Lord, He will surely give it to me'. She paused for a moment, as if praying, and told me this: 'Sure, the Lord will give you the grace, but make no mistake: in His divine way'. This did me so much good: to feel that the Lord always gives us what we ask for but He does it with His divine way". This way, the Pope explained, "involves the cross. Not out of masochism, no: out of love, out of love to the end".

[Pope Francis, homily st Martha 29 May 2013;

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/cotidie/2013/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20130529_trionfalismo-cristiano.pdf]

(Lk 12:32-48)

Lamps lit, start now

(Lk 12:32-38)

In order to make it clear what it means to be prepared to leave immediately, Jesus urges our readiness to notice, our ability to perceive.

He does not extinguish the aptitude for unprecedented judgement, and gains amazement.

Because the roles are suddenly reversed - so one has to be open to trust: the seemingly small becomes suddenly “big”.

Old religion drags the problems, and makes one sick, inculcating the spirit of submission and toil, for wages. And the slave remains a slave.

Servant and master are conversely in a reciprocal relationship and incessantly reverse roles.

As Lk says, the Lord himself “will gird himself and make them lie [the position of the lords of the time at solemn banquets] and pass by serving them” as if he were a “deacon” (v.37 Greek text).

This activates a total vigilance, ready to move the whole person, the territories (Fratelli Tutti, n.1: «beyond the place of the world»), the hierarchies.

He who felt “employee” becomes “manager” and protagonist: he acquires an attitude to fullness.

In the Kingdom of God, forms of life change.

In religions without the step of Faith - vice versa - nomenclatures consolidate.

In the Church there is no hoarding up, because our hearts do not live on worldliness and competition: goods are transformed into relationships and possibilities for encounter.

Christ has shown the Way to true enrichment. Thus he has transformed us into perhaps restless, but brisk beings.

We cannot even rest quietly: we have a step that flies by.

Indeed, it seems very strange that this Master does not arrive at the appointed time. Instead, Christ wants to be reinterpreted.

This condition is a source of growth for us: it accentuates our vigilance over events, the folds of history; over the meaning of encounters, the motions of the soul; and so on.

Thus, life in the Spirit challenges and enriches the exuberant side of the personality, accentuating the most singular opportunities for the unprecedented.

The «butler» placed at the service of the House of God and the brethren has the role of helping dynamic discernment, and the task of supporting it.

His service on behalf of others will be all-rounded, so that each one may correspond to the Call and proceed on his or her own feet.

'Blessed' then shall we be (v.38) without condition, but with the belt at our sides, that is, with the attitude of one who leaves a land of bondage.

«This was well known to the primitive Christian community, which considered itself "alien" here below and called its populated nucleuses in the cities "parishes", which means, precisely, colonies of foreigners [in Greek, pároikoi] (cf. I Pt 2: 11). In this way, the first Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely the tension of living in this life in light of Heaven» [Pope Benedict, Angelus August 12, 2007]

«Return» vs Presence (and Coming)

Without intimate contentions

(Lk 12:39-48)

Jesus reproaches his intimates [those of the House]: it’s neither love nor freedom not to be able to understand in which direction to go, not to have a goal that transmits meaning to our pilgrimage.

Already in the communities of the first centuries was alive the idea of the end of the world and of the immediately subsequent «return» of the Risen One - to fix things, like any other Messiah. So someone didn’t commit himself anymore. Others was remaining with their noses up, to peer into the sky.

But the Coming of Christ is always imminent, and the Judgment on the things of the world has already been pronounced on the Cross.

In his Spirit who makes all events new, and in his disciples, the Lord has never moved elsewhere (nor above) [cf. Mt 28,20].

The final phase of history begins precisely from this germ of Faith not alienated, of Person not repressed, and of an alternative society; but the history to be written is the task of the Church.

The new heaven and new earth of the divinising Presence is already throbbing. In this way, He is next to us when we fight for realization and the full existence of everyone.

In no passage of the Gospels it’s written that Jesus «will return»: although not perceptible to the senses, He never went away.

He enjoys a full Life, not conditioned by space-time coordinates like ours.

He is the One Coming [Greek text, passim]: the One who incessantly makes Himself Present, and becomes a travelling companion - not only in exceptional figure.

The attention of the impressionable people already in the 80s shifted (unfortunately) to the Return instead of the «unceasing Coming» [that is, perception of his Friendship in even common things, in the Appeal of the needy; in the Call of intuitions, of the Word, of the companions of our journey; in the genius of time, and even in everyday facts].

His «Coming» is: in the goals that smile, but even and perhaps more in the obstacles to be lived, shifting our gaze - in the disappointments, wich lead us to seek a less outward joy.

Thus, according to the Lord’s desire, the good guide of the Christian community will become a servant of the lost, will not appropriate the goods of the Church, will also become vigilant in favour of others.

It’s essential that the first of the class do not let themselves be carried away by the adolescent desire to self-support and affirm themselves, with greedy for privileges and hoarding of relevant tasks.

Fidelity is an attitude required especially of those who in assemblies have a particular and precise mission of guidance: forbidden to abuse it!

The only desire from which they must feel caught up is to hasten the hour of Communion and introduce a regenerative energy, also in the roles.

But Peter is conditioned by the false traditional teaching, totally antithetical, and he cannot conceive it.

According to the Master, however, the leaders of communities are not exclusive privileged or elected, but those who are asked to do more and better.

Free people.

The only plausible objective of the particular path in the power of the Risen One is of a maternal and universal character: «to give birth to a new world, where all of us are brothers and sisters» [FT n.278].

[19th Sunday in O.T. (year C), August 10, 2025]

Where is the heart of the Church?

(Lk 12:32-48)

    "Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be" (v. 34). This is not a personal or institutional problem that has been abused, rendered insipid, or treated with facile irony.

To ignore it is to give it further breathing space, allowing it to grow out of all proportion making it even more out of step with the times and difficult to understand (and to identify remedies).

All this, however, must be done by putting aside hasty conclusions... in a spirit of broader understanding. It remains clear that in order to understand itself and activate different resources, every community must go through moments of severe testing.

Even for denominational churches with a long and prestigious tradition, the awareness of being losers in this respect today is essential in order to find themselves again. Overcoming the impasse... moving forward, 'going out'.

We read in the Encyclical 'Spe Salvi' n.2 ('Faith is Hope'):

'Hope is a central word of biblical faith - to the point that in several passages the words 'faith' and 'hope' seem interchangeable [...]

How decisive it was for the awareness of the first Christians to have received the gift of a reliable hope is also evident when Christian existence is compared with life before faith or with the situation of followers of other religions [...]

Their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emanated from their contradictory myths. Despite their gods, they were 'godless' and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing an obscure future. 'In nihil ab nihilo quam cito recidimus' (From nothing we quickly fall back into nothing), says an epitaph from that time [...]

A distinctive feature of Christians is that they have a future: it is not that they know in detail what awaits them, but they know in general that their life does not end in emptiness.

Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does the present become livable. So we can now say: Christianity was not just "good news" – a communication of previously unknown content.

In our language, we would say: the Christian message was not only 'informative', but 'performative'. This means that the Gospel is not only a communication of things that can be known, but a communication that produces facts and changes life.

The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. Those who have hope live differently; they have been given a new life.

In the form of the Relationship, everything opens up to an intense life – one that integrates and transcends self-love and the thirst for domination.

This frees us from the 'old', that is, it closes a cycle of paths already set out – to make us return as newborns.

Hope that has weight dismantles the non-essential; it expels the noise of thoughts that are no longer in tune with our growth and introduces dreamy energies, a wealth of possibilities.

There will be initial resistance, but development is on the cards.

Hope sacrifices ballast and activates us according to the 'inner divine'. It throws open the doors to a new, brighter and more appropriate phase.

The treasures of the earth quickly blind us; in the same way, they pass: suddenly. The age of global crisis throws this in our faces.

Yet it is a necessary pain.

We understand: new paths are not traced by possessions, nor by devout memories, but by the Emptiness that acts as a gap between common, predictable, reassuring superficialities.

Religiousness that is good for all seasons gives way to the new life of Faith.

This is where the Art of discernment and pastoral care comes in: it should be able to introduce new competitive energies, different - cosmic and personal - that prepare new, open, free syntheses.

We know this, yet in some circles (prestigious and already extremely wealthy) the desire to possess under the guise of necessity prevents us from seeing clearly.

This also happens to long-standing consecrated persons - it is not clear why such greedy, summary duplicity exists.

Do we still want to emerge, causing further confusion? Deep down, we are dissatisfied with our mediocre choices.

At the beginning of our vocation, we felt the need for a relationship that would give meaning and a centre to our daily lives...

Then we strayed, perhaps out of dissatisfaction or for reasons of calculation and convenience - and the dulling of our eyes, sick with greed, prevailed. First here and there, gradually taking over our souls.

Even among some leaders and prominent members of the Church, the basis of existence has become a bank account with many zeros.

Thus... the vain scene, the bag of commerce, the thrill of climbing the ladder, in various realities have supplanted true hearts - and the eyes themselves.

It is as if there is another, cheap experience of the 'divine': between one psalm and another, feeling powerful, secure and respected by those around you becomes better than love.

(Do God and accumulation give different orders? No problem: let's pretend that it is done for 'His' glory).

And so much for the common good.

Quite a few are realising that counting is the most popular sport in various pious multi-plant companies, fantastically embellished with events and initiatives (to cover up what is really going on).

And the litmus test is precisely that petty scrutiny (vv. 22-23) which, behind thick curtains, holds back, judges and even keeps others at a distance. With a gaze that closes the horizon of existence: what counts is what is immediately at hand and convenient.

An apparently excessive belief - coincidentally without the importance of Hope - is condemning us to the worst birth rate in the world.

The panorama of our devout little villages and towns is disheartening. But we revel in our own little niche and our petty situation.

The important thing is that everything is superficially adorned.

Under the distinctive bell tower that sets the rhythm for the usual things, many people keep 'their' (too much) for themselves, content to sanctify their selfishness with the display of beautiful statues, customs, banners, colourful costumes and mannerisms.

Instead, according to the Gospels, in attempts and journeys of faith that are not satisfied with empty spirituality, life becomes luminous with creative love that blossoms again and puts everyone at ease.

Even the old man can re-emerge in this new spirit, this time perennial. Because there are other heights. Because what makes us intimate with God is nothing external.

The authentic Church, inspired by clear 'visions' - without papier-mâché and duplicity - always reveals something portentous: fruitfulness from nothingness, life from the outpouring of life, birth from apparent sterility.

A river of unexpected harmonies will reconnect the reading of events and the actions of believers to the work of the Spirit, without barriers.

Because when someone gives up normalised thinking and settles down, the new advances.

The choice is now inexorable: between death and life; between greed, ageing and darkness (v. 23), or Happiness.

The first step is to admit that we have a journey to make.

To internalise and live the message:

Where is your treasure? Are your heart and your eyes simple?

Have you ever experienced aspects of yourself that others judge inconclusive (from a material point of view) but which have instead prepared you for new paths?

Lamps lit, leave immediately

Parishes: striving towards Heaven, without weighing down or hindering

(Lk 12:35-38)

To help us understand what it means to be ready to leave immediately, Jesus urges us to be aware, to use our powers of perception.

He does not extinguish our capacity for new judgements, and he amazes us.

Because roles are suddenly reversed - so we must be open to trust: those who seem small become 'great' in an instant.

Ancient religion drags problems along with it and makes people sick, instilling a spirit of submission and toil in exchange for wages. The slave remains a slave, even if he pursues who knows what.

In the adventure of faith, we do not commit ourselves to goals that do not correspond to us. In addition, servant and master are in a relationship of reciprocity and constantly reverse roles.

As Luke says, the Lord himself 'will gird himself and have them recline at table [the position of the lords of the time during solemn banquets] and will come and serve them' as if he were a 'deacon' (v. 37 Greek text).

This activates a total vigilance, ready to move the whole person, territories (Fratelli Tutti, n. 1: 'beyond the place of the world'), hierarchies.

Those who felt like 'employees' become 'directors' and protagonists: they acquire an attitude of fullness.

In the Kingdom of God, forms of life change. In religions, on the other hand, nomenclatures are consolidated, and the very symptoms of errors are even sacralised.

Many devotional forms have a different foundation, a very different idea of how to enrich existence, compared to the experience of Faith.

In the Church, we do not hoard, because our hearts do not live on worldliness and competition: goods are transformed into relationships and opportunities for encounter.

The particular task and entire existence of each person becomes a source of joy for those in despair, nourishment for those seeking understanding, listening, acceptance, and 'true recognition' (Fratelli Tutti, 221).

The Tao Te Ching (LXVI) says "The saint stands above and the people are not burdened; he stands before and the people are not hindered."

Christ showed us the Way of authentic enrichment. Thus, he transformed us into beings who are perhaps restless, but eager.

We cannot sleep even at night, take holidays, or rest in a peaceful, relaxed, normal way, but we have a step that skims over things.

We sigh constantly, not for material fortune, but because the opportunity of life might not find us ready to recognise it.

Augustine said: "Timeo Dominum transeuntem".

In religions, everything seems clear and predetermined - and in reality everything is left in doubt and to a strange hypothesis of a longed-for future.

And indeed, it is very strange that this Master does not arrive at the appointed time.

Instead, Christ wants to be reinterpreted.

He is alive in us, our kin and co-heirs - Incarnate, all real. If so, he will also spread among the rebels, changing their outlook.

This condition is a source of growth for us: it accentuates our vigilance over events, the folds of history; on the meaning of encounters, the movements of the soul, and so on.

Therefore, life in the Spirit challenges and enriches the exuberant side of the personality, accentuating the most unique opportunities for something new.

The Lord even allows wandering: sometimes we need to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves - and to coincide with what we are in essence and what we are becoming.

The 'steward' placed at the service of the House of God and of his brothers and sisters has the task of helping dynamic discernment and the duty to support it.

His service to others will be all-encompassing, so that each person can respond to the Call and proceed on their own two feet.

And we will do so willingly, without any effort, because of the excess of Grace that meets us: despite and because of the uncertainty, because we are richly endowed by God.

Blessed (v. 38) without condition, but with a belt around their waists, that is, with the attitude of those who leave a land of slavery.

"The early Christian community was well aware of this. It considered itself a 'stranger' here on earth and called its urban communities 'parishes', which means colonies of foreigners [in Greek pàroikoi] (cf. 1 Peter 2:11). In this way, the early Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely its tension towards heaven."

(Pope Benedict, Angelus, 12 August 2007)

To internalise and live the message:

Does the Christian community accentuate your personal perception or dampen it? Does it make you live in a stagnant and predictable state, where all solutions are ready, complete and already tried and tested, or does it make you start again with readiness, immediately and independently?

Presence and Coming without contention, not "return"

(Lk 12:39-48)

Jesus pulls the ears of those at home, not out of self-harm: it is not love or freedom to be unable to understand which direction to go in, to have no goal that gives meaning to our pilgrimage in search.

Already in the communities of the first centuries, the idea of the end of the world and the immediate "return" of the Risen One to set things right (like any Messiah) was alive.

So some people no longer committed themselves. Others remained with their noses in the air, scanning the sky.

But the coming of Christ is always imminent, and the judgment on the things of the world has already been pronounced on the Cross.

The final phase of history begins with this seed of faith, of alternative persons and societies, but the history to be written is the task of the Church.

The new heaven and the new earth of the divinising Presence are pulsating. He is already beside us as we struggle for the fulfilment and full life of all.

For this reason, the epigraph of the encyclical Fratelli Tutti features the practical and eloquent figure of St. Francis, 'who felt himself to be the brother of the sun, the sea and the wind, and knew that he was even more united with those who were of his own flesh. Everywhere he sowed peace and walked alongside the poor, the abandoned, the sick, the rejected, the least" (n. 2).

The Gospels and recent Magisterium - no longer neutral - sing the de profundis to the intimate and empty spirituality that has marked mass Catholicism in the West.

The reason why nowhere in the Gospels is it written that Jesus 'will return' is clear: although imperceptible to the senses, he has never left us.

He enjoys a full Life, unconditioned by space and time.

He is the Coming One (Greek text, passim): the one who comes without ceasing and becomes a travelling companion - not only in exceptional figures such as the Saint of Assisi.

However, already in the 80s of the first century, the attention of impressionable people was shifting - unfortunately - to the Return instead of the providential Coming - the cornerstone of positive Faith in life itself, which reveals the Face of God-With-Us.

'Unceasing coming' is the perception of his Friendship in things, even ordinary things, in the Appeal of those in need, in the Call of intuitions, of the Word and of those who accompany us on our journey...

'Coming' is: in the goals that smile at us, but even and perhaps even more so in the obstacles we have to face - or get around, by shifting our gaze; in the disappointments that lead us to seek a less external joy.

The "Advent" of Christ is the vocational instinct that activates us, the sense of living fraternity, the tangible friendship of all those who know how to understand, introduce and coordinate - as well as a preference for quality relationships; trust in the genius of the times, even in everyday events.

Thus, according to the Lord's desire, the good leader of the Christian community will become a servant of the lost, will not appropriate the goods of the Church, and will become vigilant also in favour of others.

It is essential that those at the top of the class do not allow themselves to be carried away by the adolescent desire for self-affirmation, with greed for privileges and the hoarding of important tasks.

Fidelity is an attitude required especially of those who have a particular and precise task in assemblies: it is forbidden to abuse it!

The only desire they should feel is to hasten the hour of Communion and introduce a regenerating energy (even in roles).

Peter, however, is conditioned by false traditional teaching, which is completely antithetical, and he cannot conceive of it.

According to the Master, however, community leaders and those in charge are not privileged or elected, exclusive individuals, but rather those who are asked to do more and better - not for their own benefit!

The world and the Church need fewer false masters - rather, diligent and convinced servants who attract others by their direct witness.

The only plausible goal of the particular journey in the power of the Spirit is maternal and universal in character: 'to bring forth a new world, where we are all brothers and sisters' (FT, 278).

The Tao says (LXVI): 'The reason why rivers and seas can be sovereign over a hundred valleys is that they keep themselves below them: therefore they can be sovereign over a hundred valleys. So whoever wants to be above the people with words puts himself below them, whoever wants to be in front of the people with his person puts himself behind them'.

And Master Ho Shang-Kung comments: "The world is not satisfied with the saint, because he does not contend with others for first or last place."

To internalise and live the message:

Have you met servants or masters in your community?

Do your guides help you to seek the leap, authentic fulfilment, inner joy?

The Eucharistic breath of service-rest

Freedom and strengths, even in the early stages

(Lk 12:32-48)

The light must remain on. I remember that in the seminary we were not allowed to put a sign on our door saying "do not disturb" or "I am resting". It was forbidden to lock the door, because we had to remain completely available for any request.

The entire educational period was conceived in terms of a profound personal interiorisation to discover one's own unique, unrepeatable vocation - instead of always looking at one's suitcase.

Our superiors wanted to educate us to be images of a Servant God, not indifferent, who knows how to welcome and wipe away every tear - even the most extravagant. Not to chase whims, but to help us dig deep within ourselves, bring our Core to the fore and look ourselves in the face.

It was impossible to face our imbalances with a compartmentalised mindset, which was already reassuring: we experienced life that went beyond our concerns, as if skilfully guided. 

In this way, we learned to reconsider everything we had mistaken for a winning weapon. The knowledge we considered acquired, the opinions of others and conventional wisdom... Baggage that would not allow any ray of light to shine through.

Returning to ourselves under a thousand different stimuli, we became more capable of perceiving the path that corresponded to us personally, repeatedly practising listening and entrusting events to the infallible instinct of the Call, which opened up the path of choices.

The baggage of previous experiences, skills and memories was recovered, absorbed and reinvested in a way that seemed mysteriously tailored to each of us.

Unfortunately, there were examples of very bright and hopeful young people who collapsed as soon as they were hit by the reality of parish life in Rome. For us from the provinces, it seemed very strange.

We would understand later. In the spiritual and pastoral trench warfare that was already looming, it would be the effort of compromise and circumstantial performance (to be staged) that would make us sad, insecure and clumsy - both with ourselves and with others.

The Gospel refers to material riches, which come and go. Even in reference to them, the fundamental question remains. How should we relate to possessions? And where is the community treasure?

Even in our personal nest egg.

An environment or an assembly (even one still in its infancy) can convey to each person a fullness of fortune - patrimonial (if lacking) and above all existential - where exceptional multifaceted resources are transformed into relationships.

Even in a vital and capitalising context, the threshold of Happiness remains in the global experience of one's own intimate Hidden Pearl, which some may judge inconclusive. But it will become global. Distinctive of the Lord.

In a living Church, this Ruby will have the opportunity to manifest itself and grow - so that even in times of crisis we feel free and welcomed; adequate. An indispensable condition for Love and for all energy well spent.

For this reason, Jesus insists on awareness and personalisation, without which it is impossible - in recognising one's own contribution - to have a complete experience of both gifts and virtues.

In a family where we breathe a spirit of openness, we are much more relaxed in harmonising our charisma, able to know ourselves fully.

The community of children is one of effortlessly rolled-up sleeves, because the conviviality of differences is also the ideal nest for discovering and sifting through our unique talents, the identity and character of our Roots.

Therein lies our Unpublished, which in times of excessive busyness can fade, yet also draws us into dampening situations.

Only by not dissolving into the indistinctness of conformity can we make our contribution clearer and avoid dead time in relationships, building Friendship in continuity, without confused jumble that buries the gratuitousness of inclinations.

Only by respecting the uniqueness of both women and men can we avoid the alternation of seasons of communion with seasons of selfishness. And when they do occur, we make them healthy and meaningful.

Only by examining our own Gift can we accept the gift of others and become Blessed (vv. 37-38, 43), that is, enjoy a fulfilled existence.

In the world within our reach, nothing seems lasting, everything is very uncertain, illusory and changeable. How can we know that Abundance that remains (vv. 33-34)?

Strategies for social success or self-knowledge often reflect the sensibilities of others or are copied from roles; they then crack the deep self and make us even more insecure.

Convictions and beliefs absorbed from outside cause us to cling to fixed behaviours; then we become saddened by the inevitable failure.

The world we represent is temporary and lives with a clock in its hand, but our eternal side does not have the flavour of the surface: it belongs to the deep era of intimate roots, it has a different age.

We are not made of deforming mentalities and learned customs, nor of hasty decisions. The seed of personal and community essence is more creative, present and stronger than all conformist expectations.

It will break through our walls, even if common thinking does not want it to, and it will surprise us (otherwise it will leave a terrible legacy).

We must therefore create the conditions so that the relational impetus of our time does not generate brainwashing subjugation: this flattens conscious exchange and the renewal of participation.

In this way, the Way of the new Eucharistic Wisdom of the Church will flow spontaneously through the support (and advice) of mutual perception, allowing each person to bring out and develop the inestimable strangeness of their own timelessness.

A higher call for an inclination towards listening, hospitality and discernment, which chisel away at the different polarities - supportive and subjective - so that they come into play and are; doing what they must.

Marginalising others and one's own eccentricity - where the often-held ruby of the Call by Name lurks - would be an early death.

In every polyphonic orchestra, every instrument must have time and space that are not different from the expression of its unique physiognomy.

This enriches the consonance and appeal of perceptions, without allowing oneself to be steamrolled by moralism [counting faults] or the din of bass drums that humiliate the non-conformist ability to notice (vv. 35-40, 45-46).

Authentic agreement of Alliance is what makes the character of qualities shine. Harmony does not stop at some pseudo-fashionable wink.

Deviations from what is advocated by the sirens - evaluated as flaws - are, on the contrary, energies that fulfil us, because they allow our Core to take the field: it is the guardian of our uniqueness.

The programme of the Gospels: to become poor in order to enrich, generous in order to give, humble in order to welcome, but profound so as not to fall into self-punishment. Thus, having transformed the way we look at ourselves, we wake up and start again.

This is how He will come to serve (v. 37): if we are ourselves.

Here is the Treasure, the torch that does not smoke, the strength and the uneven balance of the Mission; thanks also to our possible sense of madness, which belongs deeply to us.

Together with fraternity and the sharing of goods [cf. last Sunday], the lamp that is lit is taking care to let ourselves be recognised as lords in the Lord (vv. 37, 42, 44). So that we may become freer.

Eucharistic breath. For a service-rest in being.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

The Liturgy on this 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time prepares us in a certain way for the Solemnity of Mary's Assumption into Heaven, which we will be celebrating on 15 August. Indeed, it is fully oriented to the future, to Heaven, where the Blessed Virgin Mary has preceded us in the joy of Paradise. 

In particular, the Gospel passage, continuing last Sunday's message, asks Christians to detach themselves from material goods, which are for the most part illusory, and to do their duty faithfully, constantly aspiring to Heaven. May the believer remain alert and watchful to be ready to welcome Jesus when he comes in his glory. 

By means of examples taken from everyday life, the Lord exhorts his disciples, that is, us, to live with this inner disposition, like those servants in the parable who were waiting for their master's return. "Blessed are those servants", he said, "whom the master finds awake when he comes" (Lk 12: 37). We must therefore watch, praying and doing good. 

It is true, we are all travellers on earth, as the Second Reading of today's liturgy from the Letter to the Hebrews appropriately reminds us. It presents Abraham to us in the clothes of a pilgrim, as a nomad who lives in a tent and sojourns in a foreign land. He has faith to guide him. 

"By faith", the sacred author wrote, "Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go" (Heb 11: 8). 

Indeed, Abraham's true destination was "the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (11: 10). The city to which he was alluding is not in this world but is the heavenly Jerusalem, Paradise. 

This was well known to the primitive Christian community, which considered itself "alien" here below and called its populated nucleuses in the cities "parishes", which means, precisely, colonies of foreigners [in Greek, pároikoi] (cf. I Pt 2: 11). In this way, the first Christians expressed the most important characteristic of the Church, which is precisely the tension of living in this life in light of Heaven. 

Today's Liturgy of the Word, therefore, desires to invite us to think of "the life of the world to come", as we repeat every time we make our profession of faith with the Creed. It is an invitation to spend our life wisely and with foresight, to consider attentively our destiny, in other words, those realities which we call final: death, the last judgement, eternity, hell and Heaven. And it is exactly in this way that we assume responsibility for the world and build a better world. 

May the Virgin Mary, who watches over us from Heaven, help us not to forget that here on earth we are only passing through, and may she teach us to prepare ourselves to encounter Jesus, who is "seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead".

45. Receiving the Bread of Life, the disciples of Christ ready themselves to undertake with the strength of the Risen Lord and his Spirit the tasks which await them in their ordinary life. For the faithful who have understood the meaning of what they have done, the Eucharistic celebration does not stop at the church door. Like the first witnesses of the Resurrection, Christians who gather each Sunday to experience and proclaim the presence of the Risen Lord are called to evangelize and bear witness in their daily lives. Given this, the Prayer after Communion and the Concluding Rite — the Final Blessing and the Dismissal — need to be better valued and appreciated, so that all who have shared in the Eucharist may come to a deeper sense of the responsibility which is entrusted to them. Once the assembly disperses, Christ's disciples return to their everyday surroundings with the commitment to make their whole life a gift, a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God (cf. Rom 12:1). They feel indebted to their brothers and sisters because of what they have received in the celebration, not unlike the disciples of Emmaus who, once they had recognized the Risen Christ "in the breaking of the bread" (cf. Lk 24:30-32), felt the need to return immediately to share with their brothers and sisters the joy of meeting the Lord (cf. Lk 24:33-35).

[Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini]

In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 12:32-48), Jesus calls his disciples to be continually vigilant. Why? In order to understand God’s transition in one’s life because God continually passes through life. And he indicates the manners in which to live this vigilance properly: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning” (v. 35) This is the way. First and foremost, “the loins girded”, an image that evokes the attitude of the pilgrim, ready to set out on a journey. It is a case of not putting down roots in comfortable and reassuring dwellings but rather to surrender oneself, to be open with simplicity and trust to God’s passage in our lives, to the will of God who guides us towards the next destination. The Lord always walks with us and often he takes us by the hand, to guide us so that we do not err on this journey that is so difficult. Indeed, those who trust in God know well that the life of faith is not something static, but rather dynamic! The life of faith is a continuous journey towards ever new phases that the Lord himself points out to us day by day. Because he is the Lord of surprises, the Lord of novelty, indeed of true newness.

And then — the first manner was “the loins girded” — next there is the request to keep the “lamps burning” in order to be able to light up the darkness of the night. Thus, we are invited to live an authentic and mature faith capable of illuminating the many “nights” of our lives. We know, we have all had some days which were real spiritual nights. The lamp of faith requires being continuously nourished by the heart-to-heart encounter with Jesus in prayer and in listening to his Word. I return to something I have said to you many times: always carry a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to read. It is an encounter with Jesus, with Jesus’ Word. This lamp of encounter with Jesus in prayer and in his Word is entrusted to us for the good of all: thus nobody can pull back in an intimist way in the certainty of one’s salvation, not interested in others. It is a fantasy to believe that one can illuminate oneself within, on one’s own. No, it is a fantasy. Real faith opens the heart to our neighbour and urges us towards concrete communion with our brothers, especially with those in need.

And in order to help us understand this attitude, Jesus recounts the parable of the servants who await the return of their master from the marriage feast (v. 36-40), thus presenting another aspect of vigilance: being ready for the last and definitive encounter with the Lord. Each of us will encounter, will find him/herself in that day of encounter. Each of us has their own date for the definitive encounter. The Lord says: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; ... If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!” (v. 37-38). With these words the Lord reminds us that life is a journey towards eternity; therefore, we are called to employ all the talents that we have, without ever forgetting that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14). In this perspective, every instant becomes precious, and thus we must live and act on this earth, while longing for Heaven: our feet on the ground, walking on the ground, working on the ground, doing good on the ground and the heart longing for Heaven.

We cannot truly understand in what this supreme joy consists. However, Jesus lets us sense it with the analogy of the master who, finding his servants still awake on his return: “will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them” (v. 37). The eternal joy in heaven is manifested this way: the situation will be reversed and it will no longer be the servants, that is, we who will serve God, but God himself will place himself at our service. And Jesus does this as of now: Jesus prays for us, Jesus looks at us and prays to the Father for us. Jesus serves us now. He is our servant. And this will be the definitive joy. The thought of the final encounter with the Father, abundant in mercy, fills us with hope and stirs us to constant commitment, for our sanctification and for the building of a more just and fraternal world.

May the Virgin Mary support this commitment of ours through her maternal intercession.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 11 August 2019]