1. Fathers of the Church are rightly called those saints who, by the strength of their faith and the depth and richness of their teachings, regenerated and greatly increased it during the first centuries (cf. Gal 4:19; Vincentii Lirinensis "Commonitorium", I,3: PL 50, 641).

Truly "fathers" of the Church, because from them, through the Gospel, she received life (cf. 1 Cor 4:15). And also its builders, because from them - on the unique foundation laid by the apostles, which is Christ (cf. 1 Cor 3:11) - the Church of God was built in its load-bearing structures.

From the life drawn from her fathers the Church still lives today; and on the structures laid by her first builders she is still being built today, in the joy and sorrow of her daily journey and labour.

Fathers, then, were, and remain, fathers forever: they themselves, in fact, are a stable structure of the Church, and for the Church of all centuries they fulfil an everlasting function. So that every subsequent proclamation and magisterium, if it is to be authentic, must be compared with their proclamation and magisterium; every charism and every ministry must draw from the vital source of their paternity; and every new stone, added to the holy edifice that grows and expands every day (cf. Eph 2:21), must fit into the structures already laid by them, and weld and connect with them.

Guided by these certainties, the Church does not tire of returning to their writings - full of wisdom and incapable of growing old - and of continually renewing their memory. It is therefore with great joy that in the course of the liturgical year we meet our fathers again and again: and each time we are confirmed in our faith and encouraged in our hope.

And even greater is our joy when particular circumstances invite us to meet them in a more prolonged and profound way. Of such a nature is precisely the occasion of this year, which marks the sixteenth centenary since the transit of our father Basil, Bishop of Caesarea.

2. The life and ministry of St Basil

Among the Greek fathers called 'great', in Byzantine liturgical texts Basil is invoked as 'light of piety' and 'luminary of the Church'. Indeed, he enlightened her and still enlightens her: no less by 'the purity of his life' than by the excellence of his doctrine. For the first and greatest teaching of the saints is still their lives.

Born into a family of saints, Basil also had the privilege of an elite education from the most reputable teachers in Constantinople and Athens.

But it seemed to him that his life really began only when, in a fuller and more decisive way, he was given to know Christ as his Lord: that is, when, irresistibly attracted by him, he practised that radical detachment that he would later inculcate so much in his teaching (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 8: PG 31, 933c-941a), and became his disciple.

He then set out to follow Christ, wishing to be conformed to him alone: looking to him alone, listening to him alone (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,1: PG 31, 860bc), and in all things considering him his only "sovereign, king, physician, and teacher of truth" (S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I,1: PG 31, 1516b).

Without hesitation, therefore, he abandoned those studies that he had loved so much and from which he had drawn immense treasures of knowledge (cf. Gregorii Nazianzeni "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 525c-528c): having decided to serve God alone, he no longer wished to know anything apart from Christ (cf. 1 Cor 2:2), and he considered all wisdom other than that of the cross to be vanity. These are his own words, with which, already towards the end of his life, he recalled the event of his conversion: "I had wasted much time in vanity, losing almost all my youth in the vain work to which I applied myself in order to learn the teachings of that wisdom which God has made foolish (cf. 1 Cor 1:20); until one day, as if waking from a deep sleep, I looked upon the admirable light of the truth of the Gospel, and considered the futility of the wisdom of the princes of this world who are reduced to impotence (cf. 1 Cor 2:6). Then I wept much over my miserable life" (cf. St Basilii "Epistula" 223: PG 32, 824a).

He wept over his life, although even before - according to the testimony of Gregory of Nazianzen, his fellow student - it was humanly exemplary (cf. S.Gregorii Nazianzeni "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 521cd): it nevertheless seemed "miserable" to him, because it was not totally and exclusively consecrated to God, who is the only Lord.

With irrepressible impatience, he therefore interrupted the studies he had undertaken and, abandoning the masters of Hellenic wisdom, he "crossed many lands and many seas" (S.Basilii "Epistula" 204: PG 32, 753a) in search of other masters: those "fools" and the poor who in the deserts practised a very different wisdom.

He thus began to learn things that had never risen to the human heart (cf. 1 Cor 2:9), truths that rhetoricians and philosophers could never have taught him (cf. St Basilii "Epistula" 223": PG 32, 824bd). And in this new wisdom he then grew day by day, in a marvellous itinerary of grace: through prayer, mortification, the exercise of charity, continuous commerce with the holy Scriptures and the teachings of the Fathers (cf. praesertim S.Basilii "Epistula" 2 et 22).

He was soon called to the ministry.

But even in the service of souls, with wise balance he was able to combine tireless preaching with spaces of solitude and ample prayer. In fact, he considered this to be of imperative necessity for the 'purification of the soul' (St Basilii "Epistula" 2: PG 32, 228a; cf. "Epistula" 210: PG 32, 769a), and thus so that the proclamation of the word could always be confirmed by the 'evident example' of life (St Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 43: PG 31, 1028a-1029b; cf. "Moralia", LXX, 10: PG 31, 824d-825b).

Thus he became a pastor and was at the same time, in the most substantial sense of the term, a monk; indeed, he was certainly among the greatest of the Church's monk-shepherds: a singularly complete figure of a bishop, and a great promoter and legislator of monasticism.

In fact, on the strength of his own personal experience, Basil strongly contributed to the formation of communities of Christians totally consecrated to "divine service" (S.Benedicti "Regula", Prologus), and took on the commitment and effort to support them with frequent visits (cf. S.Gregorii Nazianzeni "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 536b): for his own and their edification he entertained admirable conversations with them, many of which, by the grace of God, have been transmitted to us in writing (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", Proemium: PG 31, 1080ab). Various legislators of monasticism drew on these writings, not least St Benedict himself, who considers Basil as his teacher (cf. S.Benedicti "Regula", LXXIII,5); from these writings - directly or indirectly known - most of those who, in the East as in the West, embraced monastic life were inspired.

This is why it is believed by many that the capital structure of the Church's life that is monasticism was laid down, throughout the centuries, mainly by St Basil; or at least that it was not defined in its proper nature without his decisive contribution.

Basil had much to suffer for the evils in which the People of God groaned in that difficult hour (cf. St Basil "De iudicio": PG 31, 653b). He denounced them frankly, and, with lucidity and love, identified their causes, in order to courageously set about a vast work of reform. That is to say, the work - to be pursued in every age, to be renewed in every generation - aimed at restoring the Church of the Lord, "for whom Christ died and on whom he poured out his Spirit abundantly" (cf. St Basilii "De iudicio": PG 31, 653b), to its primitive form: to that normative image, beautiful and pure, that the word of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles convey to us. How many times does Basil recall, with passion and constructive nostalgia, the time when "the multitude of believers were one heart and one soul"! (Acts 4:32; cf. St Basilii "De iudicio": PG 36, 660c; cf. "Regulae fusius tractatae", 7: PG 31, 933c; cf. "Homilia tempore famis": PG 31, 325ab).

His reform efforts turned together, with harmony and completeness, to practically all aspects and spheres of Christian life.

By the very nature of his ministry, the Bishop is first and foremost pontiff of his people - and the People of God are first and foremost priestly people.

He cannot therefore in any way neglect the liturgy - its strength and richness, its beauty, its 'truth' - a Bishop who is truly concerned for the good of the Church. In his pastoral work, indeed, commitment to the liturgy logically stands at the apex of everything and concretely on top of every other choice: the liturgy, in fact - as the Second Vatican Council recalls - is "the summit towards which the action of the Church tends, and at the same time the source from which all its virtue flows" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium", 10), so that "no other action of the Church equals its effectiveness" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium", 7).

Basil showed himself perfectly aware of this, and the "legislator of monks" (cf. S.Gregorii Nazianzenii "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 541c) was also a wise "liturgical reformer".

Of his work in this sphere remains, a most precious legacy for the Church of all times, the anaphora that legitimately bears his name: the great Eucharistic prayer that, recast and enriched by him, is beautiful among the most beautiful.

Not only: the same fundamental ordering of the psalmody prayer had in him one of its greatest inspirers and creators (cf. S.Basilii "Epistula" 2 et "Regula fusius tractatae", 37: PG 31, 1013b-1016c). Thus, above all because of the impetus given by him, psalmody - "spiritual incense", breath and comfort of the People of God (cf. S.Basilii "In Psalmum" 1: PG 29, 212a-213c) - was greatly loved by the faithful in his Church, and became known to the young and the old, the learned and the uncultured (cf.) As Basil himself reports: 'Among us the people get up at night to go to the house of prayer,... and spend the night alternating between psalms and prayers' (St Basil "Epistula" 207: PG 32, 764ab). The psalms, which rumbled like thunder in the churches (cf. S.Gregorii Nazianzeni "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 561cd), were also heard resounding in the houses and squares (cf. S.Basilii "In Psalmum" 1: PG 29, 212c).

Basil loved the Church with jealous love (cf. 2 Cor 11:2): and knowing his virginity and his own faith, of the purity of this faith he was a most vigilant guardian.

For this she had to and knew how to fight with courage: not against men, but against every adulteration of the word of God (cf. 2 Cor 2:17), every falsification of the truth, every tampering with the holy deposit (cf. 1 Tim 6:20) handed down by the Fathers. His impetus therefore had nothing of passion: it was strength of love; and his clarity nothing of punctiliousness: it was delicacy of love.

Thus, from the beginning to the end of his ministry he fought to preserve intact the meaning of the Nicaean formula regarding the divinity of Christ "consubstantial" to the Father (cf. St Basilii "Epistula" 9: PG 32, 72a; "Epistula" 52: PG 32, 392b-396a; "Adv. Eunomium", I: PG 29, 556c); and equally he fought so that the glory of the Spirit should not be diminished, who, "being part of the Trinity and being of the divine and blessed nature of it" (S.Basilii "Epistula" 243: PG 32, 909a), must be with the Father and the Son connumerated and conglorified (cf.)

With firmness, and personally exposing himself to grave dangers, he also watched over and fought for the freedom of the Church: as a true bishop, he did not hesitate to oppose the rulers in order to defend his right and the right of the People of God to profess the truth and obey the Gospel (cf. St Gregorii Nazianzen "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 557c-561c). The Nazianzen, who relates a salient episode of this struggle, makes it very clear that the secret of his strength lay only in the very simplicity of his proclamation, in the clarity of his witness, and in the defenceless majesty of his priestly dignity (cf. S.Gregorii Nazianzeni "In laudem Basilii": PG 36, 561c-564b).

No less severity than against heresies and tyrants, Basil showed against misunderstandings and abuses within the Church: particularly, against worldliness and attachment to possessions.

What moved him was, still and always, the same love for the truth and the Gospel; although in a different way, it was still the Gospel, in fact, that was denied and contradicted: both by the error of the heresiarchs and by the selfishness of the rich.

In this regard, the texts of some of his speeches are memorable and remain exemplary: "Sell what you have and give it to the poor (Mt 19:22); ... for even if you have not killed or committed adultery or stolen or borne false witness, it is of no use to you if you do not also do the rest: only in this way can you enter the kingdom of God" (St Basilii "Homilia in divites": PG 31, 280b-281a). For whoever, according to God's commandment, wants to love his neighbour as himself (cf. Lev 19:18; Mt 19:19), "must possess nothing more than what his neighbour possesses" (S.Basilii "Homilia in divites" PG 31, 281b).

And even more passionately, in times of famine, he exhorted "not to show oneself more cruel than beasts,... by putting in your bosom what is common, and possessing alone what is everyone's" (cf. St Basilii "Homilia tempore famis": PG 31, 325a).

A disconcerting and beautiful radicalism, and a strong appeal to the Church of all times to seriously confront the Gospel.

To the Gospel, which commands love and service of the poor, in addition to these words Basil bore witness with immense works of charity; such as the construction, at the gates of Caesarea, of a gigantic hospice for the needy (cf. S.Basilii "Epistula" 94: PG 32, 488bc): a true city of mercy that he named Basiliades (cf. Sozosemi "Historia Eccl." VI, 34: PG 67, 1397a), also an authentic moment of the unique Gospel proclamation.

It was the same love for Christ and his Gospel that made him suffer so much from the divisions of the Church and that with such perseverance, hoping contra spem, made him seek a more effective and manifest communion with all the Churches (cf. St Basilii "Epistulae" 70 et 243).

It is the very truth of the Gospel, in fact, that is obscured by the discord of Christians, and it is Christ Himself who is torn by it (cf. 1 Cor 1:13). The division of believers contradicts the power of the one baptism (cf. Eph 4:4), which in Christ makes us one, indeed one mystical person (cf. Gal 3:28); it contradicts the sovereignty of Christ, the only king to whom all must equally be subject; it contradicts the authority and unifying force of the word of God, the only law to which all believers must unanimously obey (cf. St Basilii "De iudicio": PG 31, 653a-656c).

The division of the Churches is thus a fact so clearly and directly anti-Christological and anti-Biblical that, according to Basil, the way to the restoration of unity can only be the re-conversion of all to Christ and his word (cf. S.Basilii "De iudicio": PG 31, 660b-661a).

In the multifaceted exercise of his ministry Basil thus became, as prescribed for all heralds of the word, "an apostle and minister of Christ, a dispenser of the mysteries of God, a herald of the kingdom, a model and rule of piety, the eye of the body of the Church, a shepherd of Christ's sheep, a compassionate physician, a father and nurse, a co-operator of God, a farmer of God, a builder of God's temple" (cf. St Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,12-21: PG 31, 864b-868b).

And in such work and such struggle - arduous, painful, breathless - Basil offered his life (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,18: PG 31, 865c) and consumed himself as a holocaust.

He died not yet fifty years old, consumed by fatigue and asceticism.

3. The Magisterium of St Basil

Having thus briefly recalled salient aspects of Basil's life and his commitment as a Christian and as a bishop, it seems right that we should attempt to draw at least some supreme indications from the extremely rich legacy of his writings. Relying on his school may provide light to better face the problems and difficulties of this very time, and thus help us for our present and our future.

It does not seem abstract to begin with what he taught about the Holy Trinity: it is certain, indeed, that there can be no better beginning, at least if one wants to conform to his own thinking.

On the other hand, what can impose itself more or be more normative for life than the mystery of God's life? Can there be a more significant and vital point of reference for man than this?

For the new man, who is conformed to this mystery in the intimate structure of his being and existence; and for every man, whether he knows it or not: for there is no one who has not been created for Christ, the eternal Word, and there is no one who is not called, by the Spirit and in the Spirit, to glorify the Father.

This is the primordial mystery, the holy Trinity: for it is nothing other than the very mystery of God, of the one living and true God.

Of this mystery, Basil firmly proclaims the reality: the triad of divine names, he says, certainly indicates three distinct hypostases (cf. S.Basilii "Adv. Eunomium", I: PG 29, 529a). But with no less firmness he confesses their absolute inaccessibility.

How lucid in him, the supreme theologian, was the awareness of the infirmity and inadequacy of all theologising!

No one, he said, is capable of doing it in a worthy manner, and the greatness of the mystery overcomes all discourse, so that not even the tongues of angels can grasp it (cf. St Basilii "Homilia de fide": PG 31, 464b-465a).

Abyssal and inscrutable reality, then, the living God! But nevertheless Basil knows that he 'must' speak of it, before and more than anything else. And so, believing, he speaks (cf. 2 Cor 4:13): out of an incoercible force of love, out of obedience to God's command, and for the edification of the Church, which "never gets tired of hearing such things" (St Basilii "Homilia de fide": PG 31, 464cd).

But perhaps it is more accurate to say that Basil, as a true "theologian", sings it rather than speaks of this mystery.

He sings of the Father: "The principle of everything, the cause of the being of what exists, the root of the living" (S.Basilii "Homilia de fide": PG 31, 465c), and above all "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" ("Anaphora S.Basilii"). And just as the Father is primarily in relation to the Son, so the Son - the Word who became flesh in Mary's womb - is primarily in relation to the Father.

This is how Basil contemplates and sings of Him: in the "inaccessible light", in the "ineffable power", in the "infinite greatness", in the "super-splendent glory" of the Trinitarian mystery, God near God (S.Basilii "Homilia de fide": PG 31, 465cd), "the image of the Father's goodness and the seal of form equal to Him" (cf.)

Only in this way, unambiguously confessing Christ as "one of the holy Trinity" ("Liturgia S.Ioannis Chrysostomi"), can Basil then see him with full realism in the annihilation of his humanity. And like few others does he know how to measure the infinite space he covered in our search; like few others does he know how to peer into the abyss of the humiliation of the one who "being in the form of God, emptied himself by taking the form of a servant" (Phil 2:6ff)

In Basil's teaching, the Christology of glory in no way attenuates the Christology of humiliation: on the contrary, it serves to proclaim with even greater force that central content of the Gospel which is the word of the cross (cf. 1 Cor 1:18) and the scandal of the cross (cf. Gal 5:11).

This is, in fact, a habitual pattern of his Christological discourse: it is the light of glory, which reveals the meaning of lowering.

Christ's obedience is the true "Gospel", that is, the paradoxical realisation of God's redemptive love, precisely because - and only if - the one who obeys is "the Only-Begotten Son of God, our Lord and God, the one through whom all things were made" (St Basilii "De iudicio": PG 31, 660b); and it is thus that it can bend our obstinate disobedience. The sufferings of Christ, the immaculate lamb who did not open his mouth against those who beat him (cf. Is 53:7), have infinite scope and eternal and universal value, precisely because he who thus suffered is "the creator and sovereign of heaven and earth, adorable beyond all intellectual and sensitive creatures, he who upholds everything with the word of his power" (cf. Heb 1:3; St Basilii "Homilia de ira": PG 31, 369b), and it is thus that Christ's passion dominates our violence and appeases our wrath.

The cross, finally, is truly our "only hope" ("Liturgia Horarum", "Hebdomada Sancta": Hymnus ad Vesperas) - not defeat, therefore, but a salvific event, "exaltation" (cf. Jn 8:32ff et alibi) and stupendous triumph - only because the one who was nailed to it and died there is "our Lord and Lord of all" (cf. Acts 10:36; S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II,12: PG 31, 1624b), "he through whom all things were made, the visible and the invisible, he who possesses life as the Father who gave it to him possesses it, he who from the Father has received all power" (S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II,13: PG 31, 1625c); and it is thus that the death of Christ frees us from that "fear of death" to which we were all enslaved (cf. Heb 2, 15).

"From him, the Christ, there shone forth the Holy Spirit: the Spirit of truth, the gift of filial adoption, the pledge of future inheritance, the firstfruits of eternal goods, the life-giving power, the source of sanctification, from whom every rational and intellectual creature receives power to worship the Father and to lift up to him the eternal doxology" (cf. "Anaphora S.Basilii").

This hymn of Basil's anaphora expresses well, in synthesis, the role of the Spirit in the salvific economy.

It is the Spirit who, given to every baptised person, works charisms in each one and reminds each one of the Lord's teachings (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1561a); it is the Spirit who animates the whole Church and orders and enlivens it with his gifts, making it all a "spiritual" and charismatic body (cf. S.Basilii "De Spiritu Sancto": PG 32, 181ab; "De iudicio": PG 31, 657c-660a).

Hence, Basil went back to the serene contemplation of the Spirit's "glory", which is mysterious and inaccessible: confessing him to be above every creature (cf. S.Basilii "De Spiritu Sancto", 22), sovereign and lord since by him we are deified (cf. S.Basilii "De Spiritu Sancto", 20 ff), and Holy by essence since by him we are sanctified (cf. S.Basilii "De Spiritu Sancto", 9 et 18). Having thus contributed to the formulation of the Church's Trinitarian faith, Basil still speaks to her heart and consoles her, particularly with the luminous confession of her Consoler.

The blazing light of the Trinitarian mystery certainly does not overshadow the glory of man: on the contrary, it exalts and reveals it most of all.

For man is not God's rival, madly opposed to him; nor is he without God, abandoned to the despair of his own loneliness. But he is a reflection of God and his image.

Therefore, the more God shines, the more his light reverberates from man; the more God is exalted, the more man's dignity is elevated.

And in this way, in fact, Basil celebrated man's dignity: seeing it all in relation to God, i.e. derived from him and aimed at him.

Essentially, to know God man has received intelligence, and to live in accordance with his law he has received freedom. And it is as an image that man transcends the whole order of nature and appears "more glorious than the heavens, more than the sun, more than the choirs of stars: for what heaven is called the image of the most high God?" (St Basilii "In Psalmum" 48: PG 29, 449c). 

Precisely for this reason, man's glory is radically conditioned to his relationship with God: man fully achieves his 'royal' dignity only by realising himself as an image, and only truly becomes himself by knowing and loving the One for whom he has reason and freedom.

Even before Basil, St Irenaeus admirably expressed it this way: "The glory of God is the living man; but the life of man is the vision of God" (St Irenaei "Adversus haereses", IV, 20, 7). The living man is in himself a glorification of God, as a ray of his beauty, but he has 'life' only by drawing it from God, in personal relationship with him. To fail in this task would be for man to betray his essential vocation, and thus deny and demean his own dignity (cf. St Basilii "In Psalmum" 48: PG 29, 449b-452a).

And what else is sin if not this? For did not Christ Himself come to restore and restore His glory to this image of God that is man, that is, to the image that man, through sin, had obscured (St Basilii "Homilia de malo": PG 31, 333a), corrupted (St Basilii "In Psalmum" 32: PG 29, 344b), broken? (St Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1537a).

Precisely for this reason - Basil affirms in the words of Scripture - "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14), and humbled himself so much that he became obedient unto death, and death on a cross" (cf. Phil 2:8; S.Basilii "In Psalmum" 48: PG 29, 452ab). Therefore, O man, "realise your greatness by considering the price paid for you: look at the price of your ransom, and understand your dignity!" (St Basilii "In Psalmum" 48: PG 29, 452b).

Man's dignity, then, is at once in the mystery of God, and in the mystery of the cross: this is Basil's "humanism", or - we might say more simply - Christian humanism.

The restoration of the image can therefore only be accomplished by virtue of Christ's cross: "It was his obedience unto death that became for us the redemption of sinners, freedom from the death that reigned through original guilt, reconciliation with God, the power to please God, the gift of justice, the communion of saints in eternal life, the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven" (St Basil "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1556b).

But this, for Basil, is tantamount to saying that all this is accomplished by virtue of baptism.

For what is baptism if not the salvific event of Christ's death, into which we are inserted through the celebration of the mystery? The sacramental mystery, the "imitation" of his death, immerses us in the reality of his death; as Paul writes: "Or do you not know that as many as have been baptised into Christ Jesus, we have been baptised into his death?" (Rom 6:3).

Basing himself precisely on the mysterious identity of baptism with the paschal event of Christ, following Paul, Basil also teaches that to be baptised is nothing other than to be truly crucified - that is, nailed with Christ to his unique cross - to truly die his death, to be buried with him in his burial, and consequently with him to rise from his resurrection (cf. S. Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2).

Consistently, therefore, he can refer to baptism the same titles of glory with which we have heard him extolling the cross: it too is "ransom for captives, remission of debts, death of sin, regeneration of the soul, garment of light, inviolable seal, vehicle for heaven, title for the kingdom, gift of filiation" (S.Basilii "In sanctum Baptisma": PG 31, 433ab). It is through it, in fact, that the union between man and Christ is welded, and that through Christ man is inserted into the very heart of the Trinitarian life: becoming spirit because he is born of the Spirit (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", XX,2: PG 31, 736d; "Moralia", LXXX,22: PG 31, 869a) and son because he is clothed with the Son, in a most lofty relationship with the Father of the Only-begotten who has now also become, truly, his Father (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1564c-1565b).

In the light of such a vigorous consideration of the baptismal mystery, the very meaning of the Christian life is revealed to Basil. Moreover, how else can one understand this mystery of the new man, if not by fixing one's gaze on the luminous point of his new birth, and on the divine power that in baptism has generated him?

"How does one define the Christian?", Basil asks; and he answers: "As one who is begotten of water and the Spirit in baptism" (St Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,22: PG 31, 868d).

Only in what we are is revealed, and what we are for.

As a new creature, the Christian, even when he is not fully aware of it, lives a new life; and in his deepest reality, even if by his actions he denies it, he is transferred to a new homeland, on earth already made heavenly (cf. St. Basili "Moralia", LXXX: PG 31, 868d). Basilii "De Spiritu Sancto": PG 32, 157c; "In sanctum Baptisma": PG 31, 429b): because the operation of God is infinitely and infallibly effective, and always remains to some extent beyond all denial and contradiction of man.

There remains, of course, the task - and it is, in essential relation to baptism, the very meaning of Christian life - of becoming what one is, adapting oneself to the new 'spiritual' and eschatological dimension of one's personal mystery. As St Basil expresses it, with his usual clarity: "The meaning and power of baptism is that the baptised person is transformed in thought, word and deed, and that he becomes - according to the power bestowed upon him - what he is from whom he was begotten" (St Basil "Moralia", XX, 2: PG 31, 736d).

The Eucharist, fulfilment of Christian initiation, is always considered by Basil to be closely related to baptism.

It is the only food suited to the new being of the baptised person and capable of sustaining his new life and nourishing his new energies (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo" I, 3: PG 31, 1573b); worship in spirit and truth, exercise of the new priesthood and perfect sacrifice of the new Israel (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II, 2 ff et 8: PG 31, 1601c; S.Basilii "Epistula" 93: PG 32, 485a), only the Eucharist fully realises and perfects the new baptismal creation.

Therefore, it is a mystery of immense joy - only by singing can one participate in it (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia",XXI,4: PG 31, 741a) - and of infinite, tremendous holiness. How could one, being in a state of sin, treat the body of the Lord? (cf. St Basilii "De Baptismo", II,3: PG 31, 1585ab). The Church that communicates, should indeed be "without spot or wrinkle, holy and undefiled" (Eph 5:27; St Basilii "Moralia", LXXX, 22: PG 31, 869b): that is, it should always, with vigilant awareness of the mystery it celebrates, examine itself well (cf. 1Cor 11,28; S.Basilii "Moralia", XXI, 2: PG 31, 740ab), in order to purify itself more and more "from all contamination and impurity" (S.Basilii "De Baptismo" II, 3: PG 31, 1585ab).

On the other hand, abstaining from communion is not possible: to the Eucharist in fact, which is necessary for eternal life (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", XXI, 1: PG 31, 737c), baptism itself is ordained, and the people of the baptised must be pure precisely to participate in the Eucharist (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX, 22: PG 31, 869b).

Only the Eucharist on the other hand, true memorial of the paschal mystery of Christ, is capable of keeping awake in us the memory of his love. It is therefore the secret of the Church's vigilance: it would be too easy for her, otherwise, without the divine efficacy of this continuous and sweet reminder, without the penetrating power of this gaze of her bridegroom fixed on her, to fall into oblivion, insensitivity, infidelity. For this purpose it was instituted, according to the words of the Lord: 'Do this in memory of me' (1 Cor 11:24 ff. et par.); and for this purpose, consequently, it must be celebrated.

Basil does not tire of repeating it: "To remember" (S.Basilii "Moralia", XXI, 3: PG 31, 740b); indeed, to remember always, "for the indelible remembrance" (S.Basilii "Moralia", XXI, 3: PG 31, 1576d), "to keep unceasingly the memory of him who died and rose again for us" (S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX, 22: PG 31, 1869b).

Only the Eucharist therefore, by God's design and gift, can truly keep in the heart "the seal" (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 5: PG 31, 921b) of that memory of Christ that, clasping as in a vice, prevents us from sinning. It is therefore particularly in relation to the Eucharist that Basil takes up Paul's text: "The love of Christ grips us, at the thought that one died for all and therefore all died. And he died for all, so that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again for them" (2 Cor 5:14 ff).

But what then is this living for Christ - or "living wholly for God" - if not the very content of the baptismal covenant? (cf. St Basilii "De Baptismo", II,1: PG 31, 1581a).

Also in this aspect, therefore, the Eucharist appears to be the fullness of baptism: it alone, in fact, allows one to live it faithfully and continually actualises it in its power of grace.

This is why Basil does not hesitate to recommend frequent, or even daily, communion: "Communing even daily by receiving the holy body and blood of Christ is a good and useful thing; for he himself says clearly: 'He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life' (Jn 6:54). Who then will doubt that to continually communicate life is not to live to the full?" (St Basilii "Epistula" 93: PG 32, 484b).

True "food of eternal life" capable of nourishing the new life of the baptised person is, like the Eucharist, also "every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3; S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 3: PG 31, 1573bc). 

It is Basil himself who strongly establishes this fundamental link between the table of the word of God and that of the body of Christ (cf. Dei Verbum, 21). Although in a different way, in fact, Scripture too, like the Eucharist, is divine, holy, and necessary.

Truly divine, Basil affirms with singular energy: that is, 'of God' in the most proper sense. God himself inspired it (cf. S.Basilii "De iudicio": PG 31, 664d; S.Basilii "De fide": PG 31, 677a; etc.), God validated it (cf. S.Basilii "De fide": PG 31, 680b), God pronounced it through the hagiographers (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 13: PG 31, 1092a; "Adv. Eunomium", II: PG 29, 597c; etc.). - Moses, the prophets, the evangelists, the apostles (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 1: PG 31, 1524d) - and above all through his Son (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1561c); he, the only Lord: both in the Old and the New Testament (cf.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 47: PG 31, 1113a), certainly with different degrees of intensity and different fullness of revelation (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 276: PG 31, 1276cd; "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1545b), but also without a shadow of contradiction (cf.)

Of divine substance although made up of human words, Scripture is therefore infinitely authoritative: the source of faith, according to the words of Paul (cf. Rom 10:17; S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,22: PG 31, 868c), it is the foundation of a full, undoubted, unwavering certainty (S.Basilii "Moralia", LXXX,22: PG 31, 868c). Since it is all of God, it is all, in every smallest part, infinitely important and worthy of extreme attention (cf. S.Basilii "In Hexaem.", VI: PG 29, 144c; "In Hexaem.", VIII: PG 29, 184c).

And for this reason, too, Scripture is rightly called holy: for just as it would be terrible sacrilege to profane the Eucharist, it would also be sacrilege to attack the integrity and purity of the word of God.

It cannot therefore be understood according to human categories, but in the light of his own teachings, almost "asking the Lord himself for the interpretation of the things he said" (S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II, 4: PG 31, 1589b); and one can neither "take away nor add anything" to those divine texts delivered to the Church for all time, to those holy words pronounced by God once and for all (cf. S.Basilii "De fide": PG 31, 680ab; "Moralia", LXXX, 22: PG 31, 868c).

It is of vital necessity, in fact, that the relationship with the word of God should always be adoring, faithful, and loving. Essentially, the Church must draw from it for her proclamation (cf. S.Basilii "In Psalmum" 115: PG 30, 105c 108a), allowing herself to be guided by the very words of her Lord (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1533c), so as not to risk "reducing the words of religion to human words" (S.Basilii "Epistula" 140: PG 32, 588b). And every Christian must refer to Scripture "always and everywhere" for all his choices (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 269: PG 31, 1268c), making himself before it "like a child" (cf. Mk 10, 15; S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 217: PG 31, 1225bc; S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1560ab), seeking in it the most effective remedy against all his various infirmities (cf. S.Basilii "In Psalmum" 1: PG 29, 209a), and not daring to take a step without being enlightened by the divine rays of those words (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 1: PG 31, 1081a).

Authentically Christian, all of Basil's magisterium is, as we have seen, 'gospel', the joyful proclamation of salvation.

Is not the confession of God's glory radiating on man in his image full of joy and a source of joy?

Is not the proclamation of the victory of the cross, in which, "through the greatness of God's mercy and the multitude of God's mercies" (S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 10: PG 31, 1088c), our sins were forgiven even before we committed them? (cf. St Basilii "Regulae bravius tractatae", 12: PG 31, 1089b). What more consoling proclamation is there than that of baptism that regenerates us, of the Eucharist that nourishes us, of the Word that enlightens us?

But for this very reason, so as not to have silenced or diminished the saving and transforming power of God's work and of the "energies of the future century" (cf. Heb 6:5), Basil can ask everyone, with great firmness, for total love for God, unreserved dedication, perfection of evangelical life (cf. St Basilii "Moralia", LXXX, 22: PG 31, 869c).

For if baptism is grace - and what grace! - those who have attained it have indeed received "the power and strength to please God" (S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 10: PG 31, 1088c), and are therefore "all equally bound to conform to that grace", that is to "live in conformity with the Gospel" (S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II,1: PG 31, 15980ac). 

"All equally": there are no second-class Christians, simply because there are no different baptisms, and because the meaning of the Christian life is all intrinsically contained in the one baptismal covenant (S.Basilii "De Baptismo", II,1: PG 31, 1580ac).

"To live in conformity with the Gospel": what does this mean, concretely, according to Basil?

It means tending, with all the longing of one's being (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae brevius tractatae", 157: PG 31, 1185a) and with all the new energies one has at one's disposal, to achieve "God's pleasure" (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", I, 5: PG 31, 704a et passim)

It means, for example, "not to be rich, but to be poor, according to the word of the Lord" (cf. S.Basilii "Moralia", XLVIII,3: PG 31, 769a), thus realising a fundamental condition to be able to follow Him (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 10: PG 31, 944d-945a) with freedom (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 8: PG 31, 940bc; "Regulae fusius tractatae", 237: PG 31, 1241b), and manifesting, in comparison to the prevailing norm of worldly living, the newness of the Gospel (cf. S.Basilii "De Baptismo", I, 2: PG 31, 1544d). It means submitting oneself totally to the word of God, renouncing "one's own will" (cf. S.Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 6 et 41: PG 31, 925c et 1021a) and becoming obedient, in imitation of Christ, "unto death" (cf. Phil 2:8; St Basilii "Regulae fusius tractatae", 28: PG 31, 989b; "Regulae brevius tractatae", 119: PG 31, 1161d et passim).

Truly, Basil did not blush for the Gospel: but, knowing that it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (cf. Rom 1:16) he proclaimed it with that integrity (cf. St Basil "Moralia", LXXX, 12: PG 31, 864b) that makes it fully the word of grace and the source of life.

Finally, we like to note that St Basil, although more soberly than his brother St Gregory of Nyssa and his friend St Gregory of Nazianzus, celebrates Mary's virginity (cf. S.Basilii "In sanctam Christi generationem", 5: PG 31, 1468b): he calls Mary "prophetess" (cf.Basilii "In Isaiam", 208: PG 30, 477b) and with a felicitous expression thus justifies Mary's betrothal to Joseph: "This was done in order that virginity might be honoured and marriage might not be despised" (cf. S.Basilii "In sanctam Christi generationem", 3: PG 31, 1464a).

St Basil's anaphora, quoted above, contains lofty praise of the "all holy, immaculate, ultra-blessed and glorious Lady Mother-of-God and ever-virgin Mary"; "Woman full of grace, exultation of all creation...".

4. Conclusion

Of this great saint and teacher all of us, in the Church, glory to be disciples and children: let us therefore reconsider his example, and listen with veneration to his teachings, with intimate readiness to let ourselves be admonished, comforted and exhorted.

We entrust this message in a special way to the numerous religious orders - male and female - that honour themselves with the name and tutelage of Saint Basil and follow his Rule, committing them on this happy anniversary to resolutions of new fervour in a life of asceticism and contemplation of divine things, which then overflow into holy works for the glory of God and the edification of holy Church. For the happy attainment of these ends, we also implore the maternal help of the Virgin Mary, as an augury of heavenly gifts and pledge of our benevolence, with great affection we impart to you our apostolic blessing.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 2 January, on the memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, Bishops and Doctors of the Church, in the year 1980, the second of my Pontificate.

JOHN PAUL II

[Patres Ecclesiae; Apostolic Letter for the XVI Centenary of the Death of St Basil]

This passage from the Gospel of John (cf. 12:44-50) shows us the intimacy there was between Jesus and the Father. Jesus did what the Father told Him to do. And therefore He says: “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in Him who sent me” (v. 44). He then explains His mission: “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (v. 46). He presents himself as light. Jesus’s mission is to enlighten: light. He himself said: “I am the light of the world” (Jn 8:12). The Prophet Isaiah prophesied this light: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (9:1). The promise of the light that will enlighten the people. And the mission of the Apostles too was to bring light. Paul said to King Agrippa: “I was chosen to enlighten, to bring this light – which is not mine, but another’s – but to bring light” (cf. Acts 26:18). It is Jesus’s mission: to bring light. And the mission of the Apostles was to bring the light of Jesus. To enlighten. Because the world was in darkness.

But the tragedy of Jesus’s light is that it was rejected. From the beginning of the Gospel, John said it clearly: “He came to His own home, and His own people did not welcome Him. They loved darkness more than light' (cf. Jn 1:9-11). Being accustomed to darkness, living in darkness: they did not know how to accept the light, they could not; they were slaves to darkness. And this would be Jesus’s continuous battle: to enlighten, to bring the light that shows things as they are, as they exist; it shows freedom, it shows truth, it shows the path on which to go with the light of Jesus.

Paul had this experience of the passage from darkness to light, when the Lord encountered him on the road to Damascus. He was blinded. Blind. The Lord’s light blinded him. And then, when a few days had passed, with baptism, he regained the light (cf. Acts 9:1-19). He had this experience of passing from darkness, in which he was, to the light. And our passage too, which we received sacramentally in Baptism: for this reason Baptism was called, in the first centuries, the Illumination (cf. Saint Justin, Apology I, 61, 12), because it gave you the light, it “let it enter” you. For this reason, in the ceremony of Baptism we give a lit blessed candle, a lit candle to the mother and father, because the little boy or the little girl is enlightened.

Jesus brings light. But the people, His people rejected it. They were so accustomed to the darkness that the light blinded them, they did not know where to go… (cf. Jn 1:1-11). And this is the tragedy of our sin: sin blinds us and we cannot tolerate the light. Our eyes are sick. And Jesus clearly states it in the Gospel of Matthew: “If your eye is not sound, your whole body will be unsound. If your eye sees only darkness, how great is the darkness within you!” (cf. Mt 6:22-23). Darkness… And conversion is passing from darkness to light.

But what are the things that sicken the eyes, the eyes of faith? Our eyes are ill: what are the things that “drag them down”, that blind them? Vices, the worldly spirit, pride. The vices that “drag you down” and also these three things – vices, pride, the worldly spirit – lead you to associate with others in order to remain secure in the darkness. We often speak of “mafias”: this is it. But there are “spiritual mafias”; there are “domestic mafias”, always, seeking someone else so as to cover yourself and remain in darkness. It is not easy to live in the light. The light shows many ugly things within us that we do not want to see: vices, sins… Let us think about our vices; let us think about our pride; let us think about our worldly spirit: These things blind us; they distance us from Jesus’s light.

But if we start to think about these things, we will not find a wall, no. We will find a way out, because Jesus Himself says that He is the light, and also: “I have come into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world” (cf. Jn 12:46-47). Jesus Himself, the light, says: “Take courage: let yourself be enlightened; let yourself see what you have within, because I have come to lead you forth, to save you. I do not condemn you. I save you” (cf. v. 47). The Lord saves us from the darkness we have within, from the darkness of daily life, of social life, of political life, of national, international life… There is so much darkness within. And the Lord saves us. But He asks us to see them, first; to have the courage to see our darkness so that the Lord's light may enter and save us.

Let us not fear the Lord: He is very good; He is meek; He is close to us. He has come to save us. Let us not be afraid of the light of Jesus.

[Pope Francis, homily st. Martha May 6, 2020]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Best wishes for these Christmas holidays and for the new year 2025. 

Feast of the Holy Family [29th December 2024]

 

First Reading (1 Sam 1:20... 28)

 *Life is a gift from God 

Samuel is a child of a miracle! We are around 1200 BC, a period in Israel's history that is rarely spoken of. It is the end of the time of the Judges and there was still no king to rule over all the people. When Moses died and the people entered the Promised Land, the tribes settled in the territory, which they conquered progressively during about one hundred and fifty years. There was still no centralised administration and the tribes were led by chiefs called Judges, in the sense of 'governors', a kind of military, political and religious leaders capable of settling all disputes. This was before the time of the monarchy so that neither Jerusalem nor the Temple existed and the Ark of the Covenant, which had accompanied the people throughout the Exodus, stood in a sanctuary at Silo, in the centre of the country, some thirty kilometres north of present-day Jerusalem. Because Silo housed the Ark, the town had become a centre of annual pilgrimage and the custodian of that sanctuary was a priest named Eli. Near Silo lived a man named Elkanah, who had two wives: Anna and Peninna. Anna was Elkanah's favourite wife, but she was barren while Peninna had children of whom she was very proud and lost no opportunity to insinuate that Anna's barrenness was a curse from God. The most difficult time of the year for Anna was the pilgrimage to Silo: Elkanah went there with both wives, and everyone could see Anna's sadness, which contrasted with Peninna's joy as she felt like an accomplished mother. In those moments, Anna felt the weight of her infertility even more acutely. In her grief and humiliation, she could do nothing but weep and whisper with trembling lips her prayer, always the same: Please Lord, give me the gift of a son, so much so that the priest Eli, thinking she was drunk, one day rebuked her: Go somewhere else to dispose of the wine!

And it was here that the miracle took place. God, who knows people's hearts, saw Anne's tears and heard her prayer. A few months later a child was born, whom Anna named Samuel - one of the meanings of this name is God hears, God hears. In her grief, Anne had made a vow: "Almighty Lord, if you deign to look upon the humiliation of your servant and give me a son, I will consecrate him to you all the days of his life" (1 Samuel 1:11). When the child was weaned, at the age of about three years, Anna took him to the sanctuary in Shiloh and entrusted him to the priest Eli, saying to him: 'I am that woman who stood here next to you praying to the Lord. It was to obtain this child that I prayed, and the Lord gave him to me in response to my request. Now, in my turn, I give him to the Lord: he will remain consecrated to the Lord all the days of his life'. Samuel grew up in Shiloh, and there he heard God's call and later became a great servant of Israel. Why is this text proposed on the occasion of the feast of the Holy Family, and what links the two children, Jesus and Samuel, the two mothers, Mary and Anna, and the two fathers, Joseph and Elkanah? We can make a few observations about these two families separated from each other by more than a thousand years. First of all, God listens. Samuel means God listens, God hears, and this is the fundamental religious experience of Israel: God hears the cry of the poor and humble. Anne, at the moment of her deepest humiliation, cried out to the Lord and He heard her. The Canticle of Anna, after the birth of Samuel, is very reminiscent of Mary's Magnificat, which flowed from the lips of a humble young woman from Nazareth. Secondly, God acts through human families. God's project is fulfilled through human events, through normal and imperfect families, and the mystery of the Incarnation goes so far: God has the patience to accompany our maturation and our journey. Moreover, these are two miraculous, extraordinary births. Jesus was born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, Samuel of a barren mother. In the Bible there is a long series of miraculous births: Isaac from Sarah, Abraham's wife, barren and continually humiliated by her rival Hagar, Ishmael's mother. God took pity on Sarah, and Isaac was born; Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist and Jesus.  These miraculous births are a reminder that every child is a miracle, a gift from God, and parenthood means transmitting life, but without being able to say 'giving life' because it is only God who can give it.  Whether physical or spiritual parenthood, we can all lend our bodies and lives to the divine plan and we are instruments of this divine gift

Responsorial Psalm 83 (84), 3. 4. 5-6. 9-10

*Blessed is he who dwells in your house

When the pilgrim is on his way to Jerusalem, from the depths of his devotion and toil he can exclaim: "My soul yearns and longs for the atria of the Lord, my heart and my flesh exult in the living God".  Pilgrimage is indispensable for a life of faith, because when we are on our way to God, we can experience that we are a people journeying towards a goal, and in the difficulties of the journey experience physical weariness and the demands of the heart, discovering in this often tiring experience the wonders of faith. It is only when we recognise that our own strength is not enough that a new strength can take possession of us, enabling us to continue our journey to the goal. But for this to happen, the pilgrim, having reached the limit of his strength, must recognise himself as fragile and helpless as a bird. Then he will be given new wings: "Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest to lay her young, by your altars, Lord of hosts, my King and my God! (v.4)

In our life, which is also a pilgrimage towards the heavenly Jerusalem, how often one is tempted to abandon everything, discouraged by small efforts that seem futile. It is enough, however, to invoke help, to recognise our powerlessness, and we receive a new strength, which is not our own: "Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you" (v.6). And once the pilgrimage has been completed, it is necessary to set out again, facing the fatigue of returning to daily life, with its difficulties and the impossibility of fully sharing the spiritual experience just lived with those who remained behind. And here the pilgrim dreams of never having to leave again: "Blessed is he who dwells in your house: without end he sings your praises" (v.5). The reference is to the Levites, whose life is entirely consecrated to the service of the Temple in Jerusalem and even before the Temple was built, as we saw in the first reading, there were sanctuaries where priests had the privilege of dwelling, such as the priest Eli and the young Samuel.

In a broader sense, the 'inhabitants of the house of God' are the members of the chosen people, and pilgrimages are always marked by gratitude and wonder for this gratuitous choice of God on behalf of his people. The Jews know that, eventually, with the arrival of the Messiah, all men will be called to be inhabitants of the house of God and this messianic dimension is present in the psalm: "Look, O God, on him who is our shield, look on the face of the anointed one" (v.10). One glimpses here the dream of the final ascent to Jerusalem, announced by the prophets, when the whole of humanity will be gathered in joy on the holy mountain, around the Messiah. The verses read on this Sunday express above all the pilgrim's toil and prayer. In other verses, however, the love for the Temple, the love for Jerusalem, is sung, together with the deep joy and confidence that dwell in the believer. Twice God is called our 'shield', the one who protects us. There are also two "beatitudes": "Blessed is he who dwells in your house: without end he sings your praises" (v.5) and "Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you and has your ways in his heart" (v.6). And the last verse of the psalm is again a "beatitude" that we do not read today: "Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you" (v.13). It is the fortune of the poor and humble, of the 'bent' (in Hebrew anawim), to discover the only thing that really counts: our only true good is in God.

Jesus repeated it this way: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and revealed them to the little ones" (Mt 11:25). It is really worthwhile, if you have time, to reread this psalm in its entirety:

2 How lovely are your dwellings, Lord of hosts!

3 My soul yearns and desires the atria of the Lord, my heart and my flesh

exult in the living God.

4 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest to lay her young:

At thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

5 Blessed is he who dwells in your house: Endlessly he sings your praises.

6 Blessed is the man who finds his refuge in you, and has your ways in his heart.

7 Passing through the valley of weeping He changes it into a spring; Even the first rain

clothes it with blessings.

8 It grows in strength along the way, until it appears before God in Zion.

9 Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer, give ear, God of Jacob.

10 Behold, O God, he who is our shield, behold the face of your anointed one.

11 Yea, it is better one day in thy atria than a thousand in my house; To stand upon the threshold of the house of my God, It is better than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

12 For sun and shield is the Lord God; The Lord giveth grace and glory, He refuseth not good to him that walketh in integrity.13 Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who in you 

Second Reading: from the First Letter of St John the Apostle (1, 3,1-2.21-24)

 * To know how to contemplate 

"Beloved, see ...": John invites to contemplation, because the key to the life of faith of every believer is knowing how to look, that is, the whole of human history is an education of man's gaze. "They have eyes but they do not see": how many times does this exclamation recur in the Bible! But what is there to see? St Paul would answer that it is necessary to contemplate God's love for mankind, his plan of infinite merciful love, and St John basically speaks of this alone in today's second reading. Let us pause to reflect on the theme of the gaze and God's plan that the Apostle John contemplates. learning to see means discovering the face of God who is love, while the opposite can happen when the gaze becomes distorted as it did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Well known is the story that begins by describing the garden with many trees: "The Lord God caused to spring up out of the ground all kinds of trees that were pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:9). The tree of life is in the middle of the garden, but the position of the tree of knowledge is not specified and God allows the fruits of all trees, including the tree of life, to be eaten except the tree of knowledge. The serpent, with an apparently innocent question, changes Eve's perception: "Is it true that God said, "You must not eat of any tree in the garden?" (Gen 3:1) and Eve answers, but by then her gaze has already changed: it was enough to listen to the serpent to become confused so that she sees the forbidden tree in the centre of the garden, instead of the tree of life. From that moment on, his gaze is drawn to the forbidden. The serpent continues: "You will not die at all. On the contrary, God knows that the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil' (3:5)". Eve sees that the tree is good to eat, beautiful to look at and desirable to acquire wisdom. Her gaze is now transformed and leads her to disobey. Once Eve and Adam ate the fruit they "realised they were naked", they did not become like God, but discovered their own vulnerability. What connection can this account have with John's text? The story of Adam and Eve explains the drama of humanity: a distorted image of God. John, on the contrary, invites us to see: 'See', that is, learn to look because God is not man's rival, but pure love. This is John's central theme: 'God is love' and the true life of man consists in never doubting this. Jesus says to the apostles in the Upper Room: "This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ" (John 17: 3) 

"See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and truly are so": we read this in today's text from John. Baptism has grafted us into Christ, making us children of God, as the evangelist writes in the prologue of the Fourth Gospel: "To all those who received him, however, he gave power to become children of God" (1:12), placing them under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who teaches them to call him "Abba, Father!". If for believers this is clear, for non-believers it is incomprehensible, unbelievable or even scandalous, as St John points out. Indeed, he writes that the world does not recognise us because it has not come to know God. That is, the world has not yet opened its eyes and it is up to us to reveal God through our words and our testimony. When the Son of God manifests himself, all mankind will be transformed into his image. Then we understand why Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: "If you knew the gift of God!" (Jn 4:10), while here St John invites: "Beloved, see". John invites us to contemplation, because it is the key to the life of faith: knowing how to look; he invites us to rectify our gaze on God, recognising him as a Father full of tenderness and mercy, and it is up to us to reveal him with our lives to those who do not yet know him.

 

Gospel ( Lk 2:41-52)

* Like Mary and Joseph, called to grow in faith

"He came among his own, and his own did not receive him" (Jn 1:11): this phrase from the prologue of John's gospel seems to find an illustration in today's account of Luke's gospel. An episode from Jesus' childhood that shows us both the manifestation of the mystery of Christ and the incomprehension on the part of his family. That his family had travelled to Jerusalem for the Passover is not surprising, nor is the fact that they stayed there for eight days, since the two feasts of Passover and Unleavened Bread, now combined, lasted precisely eight days. It is surprising that the twelve-year-old son stays at the Temple without notifying his parents, who set off from Jerusalem with their caravan, as they do every year, without checking whether he was with them. This separation lasts three days, a number that Luke intentionally indicates. When they finally reunite, the three are not on the same wavelength: Mary's affectionate rebuke, still shaken by the anguish of those days, clashes with her son's sincere astonishment: 'Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"(Lk 2:49). 

Let us now see in what the manifestation of the mystery of Jesus resides: first of all, in the admiration of all, especially the doctors of the Law, before the light that dwells in him. It also resides in the mention of the three days, which in the Bible represent the time needed to meet God: three days will also be those between the burial and the Resurrection, the definitive victory of life. Finally, it resides in Jesus' extraordinary statement: 'I must be about my Father's business'.  With this statement, he clearly reveals himself as the Son of God. At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel had already presented him as 'Son of the Most High', a title that could be understood as that of the Messiah; but now the revelation goes further: the title of Son, referring to Jesus, is not only royal, but expresses his divine filiation. It is not surprising that this was not immediately understood! Even his parents find it difficult to understand: and Jesus dares to ask them: "Did you not know?"  Even deep and fervent believers like Joseph and Mary are bewildered by the mysteries of God. This should reassure us: we should not be surprised if we too struggle to understand! We must never forget the words of Isaiah: 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, your ways are not my ways - oracle of the Lord. As much as heaven overhangs the earth, so much my ways overhang your ways, my thoughts overhang your thoughts" (Is 55:8-9). The gospel makes it clear that Mary did not understand everything immediately either: she kept everything in her heart and tried to understand it by meditating on it. After the shepherds' visit to the Bethlehem grotto, we already read: 'Mary kept all these things by pondering them in her heart' (Lk 2:19). Luke proposes an example for us to follow here: accepting not to understand everything right away and letting meditation dig into us. Mary's faith, like ours, is a journey not without difficulties. All this takes place in the Temple of Jerusalem, which for the Jews was the sign of God's presence among his people. For Christians, on the other hand, the true Temple of God is now the body of Christ himself, the place par excellence of his presence. Today's account is one of the stages of this revelation. Luke is probably thinking of the prophecy of Malachi: "And immediately the Lord whom you seek, the angel of the covenant whom you long for, will enter his temple; behold, he comes, says the Lord of hosts" (Ml 3:1).

The last sentence of Luke's account is significant: "Jesus grew in wisdom, age, and grace before God and man" . This indicates that Jesus, like every child, needed to grow. The mystery of the Incarnation goes so far: Jesus is fully man, and God is patient with our spiritual growth. For Him, a thousand years are like a day (Ps 89/90). Finally, an apparent contradiction may come as a surprise: Jesus tells his parents "I must attend to the things of my Father", but immediately afterwards he returns with them to Nazareth. He does not remain in the stone Temple, just as Samuel did not remain there, consecrated to the Lord but then called to serve the people outside the Temple. This too is a teaching: "To be occupied with the things of the Father means to dedicate one's life to the service of others, not necessarily within the walls of a temple. To be with the Father means, first of all, to be in the service of his children. Finally, it should be noted that Luke's gospel begins and ends in the Temple of Jerusalem: it is there that the announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist (which means 'God has done grace') takes place. It is in the Temple that Simeon, on the day of the Presentation of Jesus, proclaims the arrival of God's salvation. And it is also in the Temple that the disciples return after Christ's ascension, at the end of Luke's Gospel. A concrete lesson for us to cherish. We are called, like Mary and Joseph, to know how to meditate and grow in faith in order to be able to occupy ourselves unceasingly with the things of our heavenly Father. And this translates in practice into the commitment to serve men without always remaining in the temple. Basically, this is the message that Luke will reveal in the course of his gospel and that is to know how to combine contemplation with apostolic action, a harmonious synthesis of faith and life.

+ Giovanni D’Ercole

(Nm 6:22-27; Lk 2:16-21)

 

Blessing the people was an ancient prerogative of the sovereign who acted in the name of God and at first had priestly functions.

But in an attitude of encounter that makes God present ‘in the midst’ of the crowds - people of his Face - that of the ancient king also becomes an act of worship to be rediscovered.

We need to feel that we are blessed: not to extinguish ourselves, to regenerate the affective truth that dwells within us and brings us back to life, thus contemplating it and thus initiating any adventure.

Cursing does not strengthen, it indicates rejection; it separates us. Blessing is the way of sharing and Peace, that is to say, of attaining completeness.

In Israel, the divine blessing was (in fact) expected in material guise. But the formula of the Aaronnite priesthood attests to the original idea that human life does not have its secret in the most obvious configuration.

We too know that partial and comfort-only situations, irenicism, wellbeing and security, turn into their opposite - they do not increase the integrity of life [authentic biblical sense of Shalôm].

Those who do not follow innate intuition, a more radical call of the self, or stunning proclamations (Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15) do not develop their destiny, do not move, do not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

It is true that the shepherds find nothing extraordinary or prodigious, other than a family reduced to an ordinary condition that they know.

But it is that simple hearth that draws them into God's new plan, and into the proclamation of his scandalous unconditional Mercy - which did not electrocute them for impurity.

Religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable, remedyless beings.

Now they are free from identification. They have 'another eye' - like that of the “first time”: a gaze that will lead them one hundred per cent.

Exodated with an image of helpless God in front of them, they do not bother to engage in ethical discipline, which would crumble them.

They enjoy the wonder of a simply human reality - in a mysterious relationship of mutual recognition.

 

Strange that the modest sign - a baby in a manger, an unclean place where beasts linger - convinces them, makes them regain esteem, makes them proclaimers [perhaps not even assiduous evangelizers].

Like Calvary to which it refers, the resolving Manifestation of the Eternal is a paradox.

But the affective geography of this Bethlehem devoid of conformist circuits remains intact, because it is spontaneously rooted in us.

There is a sense of immediacy, without any particular entanglement or ceremony.

The Child is not even worshipped by the now “pure” gazes of the small, vilified prairie dogs and transhumance - as, conversely, will the Magi (Mt 2:11).

They did not even know what it meant, the reflecting of Eastern court ceremonials - such as the kissing of slippers.

The wretched of the earth [the distant of the flocks] are those who hear the Announcement, readily verify it, and establish the new divine 'lineage'.

People not tormented by static judgement, but now «in the midst» of all men and no longer at high altitude.

 

 

(Lk 2:16-21)

 

Mary sought the meaning of surprises (v.19). Thus She regenerated, for a new way of understanding and being together - to also give birth the inner world of the people.

She ‘put together’ facts and Word, in order to discover its main thread, to remain receptive and not to be conditioned by inflexible convictions, which would not give her escape.

The Mother, while caught by surprise, was preparing herself for the eccentricity of God, without straying from time and the real condition.

His figure and that of the shepherds challenge us, ask for the courage of an answer - but after letting the same kind of ‘inner presences’ flow, worthy visitors, which are allowed to express themselves.

Like us, she too had to go from the fathers’ beliefs to the Faith in the Father. From the idea of love as a reward to that of the ‘gift’. 

The Good News proclaims a reversal: what the religion of yesteryear had considered distant from the Most High, is very close to Him; indeed, it fully corresponds to Him.

The adventure of Faith is wide open. And the new Child has a Name that expresses the unprecedented essence of Saviour, not of executioner.

The plenitude of his story will be fully instructive also in terms of how to internalize uncertainties and hardships: these bad moments and precariousness teach us how to live.

In fact, we too, as Mary, «go recognizing» the presence of God in the riddles of Scripture, in the Little One ‘wrapped in bandages’ - even in the ancestral echo of our inner worlds.

And we let us go - we don’t quite know where. But just like this is the Infinity, in its folds.

The wise Dream that inhabits the human, tastes of ancient humus, but its echo is reborn every day, in the tide of being that orients to ‘look’ truly, without veils.

A conformist demeanor of coming across and ‘seeing’ things outwardly would not solve the problem.

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, it’s necessary to re-edifying oneself in silence, like the Virgin; building a sort of hermeneutic island wich opens up different doors, wich introduces other lights.

Within her sacred circuit also the Mother of God valued the innate transformative energies, precisely by rooting them on questions.

In this way, returning to its primordial being and the sense of the Newborn - ancient image, dear to many cultures.

She entered an Elsewhere and did not leave the reality field: inside his Centre, without haste.

By researching for the Sun drowned in his being and which came back, emerged, rose in her innermost depth, that made her exist beyond.

Thus she did not allow herself to be absorbed by traditional ideas or external situations, which also wanted to break the balance.

In her modest solitude - full of Grace - that higher self (hidden in the essence) came more and more to her, became a new Dawn and guide.

She didn’t want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around - no one capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of conventions‘ drugs dehumanizing the Enchantment.

The happy magic of that Frugulus of flesh brought his Peace.

Dreams supported and conveyed her Center - by flowing a new life from the Core of her Person. And the youthfulness of the world.

 

 

[Mary Most Holy Mother of God, January 1st]

 

 

 

Incredible of the Year

 

At the beginning of the New Year, a rich gentleman had an idea: only the person capable of doing the most incredible thing of the year should inherit all his possessions.

His friends engaged all their imagination.

Some old people - in pursuit of their own taste - had indigestion and risked dying from eating and drinking.

Some brats practised somersaults instead.

Then a whole exhibition of unbelievable tricks was set up. One person played the part of Moses on the Mount with the Tablets of the Law, but he found it difficult to reproduce lightning and thunder; the backdrop was static and antiquated.

A guy disguised as a crow was telling stories and old memories, next to an unlit stove.

Someone dressed up as an undertaker, but people did not appreciate his overly professorial air or his loden.

Others wanted to perform the Beatitudes, but forgot about the persecuted.

An artist defaced his own paintings; a sculptor hammered like a madman, but the noise of his grinding wheel was even more unbearable.

A carpenter was working very well on a chest, but in everyone's opinion he lifted too much chaff, leaving an excessive amount of shavings on the ground.

Suddenly a bouncer as tall as a gorilla and as strong as Maciste burst in: 'I am the man of the most incredible thing'.

With his fists he knocked out the onlookers and with an axe he smashed everything around, everything to shreds.

Every object was destroyed and everyone was left stunned to the ground. "This is what I am capable of!" - said the man - "my deed beat the whole universe! I have done the most incredible thing, and not just of the year!"

The judges of the contest were puzzled, but at that point it seemed they could not award the palm of victory to anyone else...

In the atmosphere of general annihilation, the last on the list popped up from who knows where; a certain Christopher. He proposed to go to the Levant by way of the Ponente. Everyone laughed loudly, but he asked for time.

Thus, at the end of his tale of miscalculations and - at times - favourable winds, he proved that he could land in a new territory, richer than anywhere and previously unimagined. (Often, however, passing through inaccurate news and seemingly destructive forces).

Everything changed, because of his visionary courage.

From that moment on, the continent from which the caravels set sail became 'the old world' in the common understanding, which in fact - satiated and desperate, stuck in its positions - also aged demographically and gradually irreparably; ruining itself.

That absurd adventure - a metaphor for the journey of each person who does not learn to hold back - then burst forth as a type of a new life proposal, open and creative, prone to wonder.

The variety of experiences and even the range of fantasies were no longer held in contempt of costumes, but became an added value.

Such a proposal model (visions that anticipated needs) gradually emerged in common pedagogy.

It was also adopted by the pilgrims of the Spirit as a positive icon of the New Covenant between God and man - now capable of enhancing the intricate mixture of values and criteria of our hearts; with its common and earthly interests, but enraptured in the most sublime dreams.

For a Christian life not of cosmetics, but of exploration and surprise; a programme for the whole year.

 

This is how Christopher changed history, by sailing backwards.

(Nm 6,22-27; Lk 2,16-21)

 

Blessing the people was an ancient prerogative of the ruler who acted in the name of God and at first had priestly functions.

But in an attitude of encounter that makes God present in the midst of the crowds - the people of his Face - that of the ancient king also becomes an act of worship to be rediscovered.

We need to feel that we are blessed: in order not to be extinguished, in order to regenerate the affective truth that dwells in us and brings us back to life, thus contemplating it and thus setting off on any adventure.

The curse does not strengthen, it indicates rejection; it separates us. Blessing is the way to sharing and Peace, that is to say, to achieving wholeness.

In Israel, the divine blessing was (finally) expected in material guise. But the formula of the Armonite priesthood attests to the original idea that human life does not have its secret in the most obvious configuration.

In fact, even we know that partial and comfort-only situations, irenicism, well-being and security, turn into their opposite - they do not increase the integrity of life [authentic biblical sense of Shalôm].

Those who do not follow innate intuition, a more radical call of the self, or stunning proclamations (Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15) do not develop their destiny, do not move, do not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

It is true that the shepherds find nothing extraordinary or prodigious except a family reduced to an ordinary condition that they know.

But it is that simple hearth that draws them into God's new project, and into the proclamation of his scandalous unconditional Mercy - which did not electrocute them for impurity.

Religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable, remorseless beings.

Now they are free from identification. They have 'another eye' - like that of the 'first time': an eye that will take them one hundred per cent.

Exodus with a helpless image of God in front of them, they do not bother to engage in ethical discipline, which would have crumbled them.

They enjoy the wonder of a simply human reality - in a mysterious relationship of mutual recognition.

 

It is strange that the modest sign - a baby in a manger, an unclean place where beasts used to play - convinces them, makes them regain esteem, makes them evangelisers (perhaps not even regular evangelisers).

Like Calvary to which it refers, the resolving Manifestation of the Eternal is a paradox. But the affective geography of this Bethlehem devoid of conformist circuits remains intact, because it is spontaneously rooted in us.

There is a sense of immediacy, without any particular entanglement or ceremony.

The Child is not even worshipped by the now 'pure' gazes of the little, vilified prairie dogs and transhumance - as the Magi, on the other hand, will do (Mt 2:11).

They did not even know what it meant, reflecting Eastern court ceremonials - like the kissing of red slippers.

[This is why Pope Francis rejected them, along with the ermine - after Paul VI had had the courage to lay down the pluridirigist sign of tiaras, with its three overlapping crowns; a little more intricate was the affair of the anachronistic gestatorial chair].

The wretched of the earth (those far from the flocks) are those who hear the Announcement, readily verify it, and found the new divine 'lineage'.

People not tormented by static judgement, but now 'in the midst' of all men and no longer at high altitude.

 

Meanwhile Mary 'sought the meaning' of surprises (v.19). Thus she regenerated, for a new way of understanding and being together - to bring to light also the inner world of all a different people of wholeness.

She would 'put together' facts and Word, to discover their common thread, to remain receptive and not to be conditioned by the convictions of the devout, targetted and inflexible enclosures, which would give her no escape.

The Mother herself, though taken by surprise, prepared herself for God's eccentricity, without departing from time and the real condition.

Her figure and that of the shepherds question us, demand the courage of an answer - but after having let flow the same kind of 'inner presences', worthy visitors, who are allowed to express themselves.

Like us, you too had to move from the beliefs of the fathers to faith in the Father. From the idea of love as reward to that of 'gift'.

From the practice of cults and closures that do not make one at all intimate with the Eternal, to the opening of the mind and of the exits.

He did not do this without effort, but by enduring the resistance of his arid environment....

Jesus was indeed circumcised - a useless rite that according to custom claimed to change the announced Son of God into the son of Abraham.

 

The Good News proclaims a reversal: what the religion of other times had considered distant from the Most High, is now very close to Him; indeed, it corresponds to Him fully.

Never before imagined.

The adventure of Faith is wide open. And the new Child has a Name that expresses his unprecedented essence as a Saviour, not as an executioner.

His whole story will also be fully instructive in terms of how to internalise uncertainties and hardships: these 'no' moments and precariousness teach us how to live.

Indeed, we too, like Mary, 'recognise' the presence of God in the enigmas of Scripture, in the Little One 'wrapped in bandages' - even in the ancestral echo of our inner worlds.

And we let ourselves go - we don't really know where. But so is the Infinite, in its folds.

The wise Dream that inhabits the human knows of ancient humus, but its echo is reborn every day, in the tide of being that directs one to truly 'look', without veils.

A conformist demeanour of coming across and 'seeing' things externally would not solve the problem.

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, it is necessary to re-establish oneself in silence, like the Virgin; to build a sort of hermeneutic island that opens different doors, that introduces other lights.

Within her sacred circuit, the Mother of God also valorised innate transformative energies, precisely by rooting them in questions.

In this way, she returned to her primordial being and to the sense of the Newborn Child - an ancient image, dear to many cultures.

He entered an Elsewhere and did not leave the field of reality: inside his Centre, without haste.

Searching for the Sun drowned in her being and which returned, emerged, resurrected in her innermost being, made her exist beyond.

Thus she did not allow herself to be absorbed by traditional ideas or external situations that wanted to break the balance.

In her veracious solitude - filled with Grace - that higher, concealed self in essence came more and more to her, became a new Dawn and guide.

She did not want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around - none capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of the drugs of conventions, dehumanising the Enchantment.

The happy magic of that Frugolo of flesh brought his Peace.

Dreams sustained and conveyed his Centre - making new life flow from the Core of his Person, and the youth of the world.

Mary, the Art of Perception that breaks the mould

(Lk 2:19) (Lk 1:26-38)

 

For a life from the authentic I to the unknown Culmination

 

"Now Mary kept and treasured all - really all - these event-words, putting them together and comparing them in her heart" [sense of the Greek text].

What about her, her Son, and all the others?

He wanted to understand the essential affinities - with the soul and elsewhere: the meaning of the strange and simple happenings. Golden rule for us too.

In the portrait of Jesus suckling, his silence did not linger - and he did not allow himself to be demotivated: he dug.

That is why he knew far more expressive things than many minds - sublime and yet incapable of breaking out of automatisms, already flooded with remarkable doctrines and traditions.

We are willingly there too, with Mary; in a culture that invades our senses and pollutes our souls with noisy opinions, with models that are apparently eloquent but which bring us to our knees: stressful and futile.

All emphatic, impactful reproductions - but external.

Yet they overflow into the inner, and despite glittering appearances, lock the personality into a confined space of unhealthy habits, only to be exhibited.

In fact, we force ourselves to run from one side to the other, often acting out prototypes. Precisely, forcibly intrigued by plans, organigrams and thoughts, even devout ones, which however become forms of personal and social trivialisation.

We are becoming accustomed to the fear of our discreet, reserved, non-gossipy, secluded, hidden side, all our own and close to the Source: in a word, guardian of the Calling by Name - which wants to pause to return to the ancient Listening of the new.

A side we do not yet know: it never has the same tone as always. It is all our own, but it alludes to real encounters.

By sharpening our inner vision, we grasp our source and the meaning of history; and its folds - so we can still give birth to the precious world within and without us.

We do this from the intangible that pivots the essence. And guards the Fire within.

 

For a stretch - ever so briefly - the official pundits delude us that we are at the centre of the world.

They want to inoculate us with a false sense of prominence and permanence that quickly fades away; in reality, they overwhelm us.

We feel the need for a rediscovery of being and essence, not dissolved in the realm of night and illusion [to have power appear, to hold back rise dominate]. Without escapes, nor rhythms that do not belong to us.

We seek involvement, and distance.

We want to 'perceive' like Mary and like the shepherds - disconcerted by the religious opinions of others - in order to become and be reborn, and to become again. Recovering the frenzies, the surprises, the wounds; without dispersing the Centre.

 

"Taking refuge" in a secret space was not for her a rediscovery of the self expected by all, stereotypical and adequate as always.

Rather, she was expressing her being - escaping from conventional ways.

In order to live intensely, she did not wish to enter the nomenclature - then to be normal, and subservient - rather to get away from it, but to stay there. So she did not exclude anything.

She also recognised herself in those vagabonds.

Never would she have imagined herself the (acting) protagonist of a tradition that placed her on pedestals, forms, solemn attributes, and constraints - the very ones that would have made her sweetly but decisively rebellious.

She did not revisit herself to bask in it, but to verify and reactivate her 'way' - which she did not want to lose: it could be overwhelmed by external opinions and buried by [impelling but horizonless] circumstances.

She did not want to lose her address within common, homologated goals, losing sight of what she really was, and introduce her into the sky of the timeless - nor did she want to resemble the majority, or be above them.

The one we built for her was not her home.

Mary did not look out into reality and into us today [to help us look at 'our' Mystery] with a conformist face; sweetened and artefactual, or intimist, swampy.

 

His soul was always on the move. To know the unknowable, she would never stop - even without knowing in advance where to go.

Her character did not want the certainties of accommodation. Without wavering, even within herself she preferred to intuit and live the Passion of love.

He allowed himself to be guided and saved, but from his own sacred centre, sanctuary of the God-Con. He who unlocks, sets us free.

He could not allow his Vocation to be covered by idols, nor by any plot, which was nevertheless unfolding.

In the 'here and now' he found his affinity from his very being as a wayfarer, who by advancing put hardships behind him.

As she developed her inner eye, she also transmuted her inner self to find the step of the Annunciation hidden in the misfits, which still led her on.

Only this lasted her over the years - not the functional side. 

He did not dream of a quiet life, but rather of understanding his personal mission.

 

Without naivety, she questioned the meaning of intimate callings, happenings, and her own motives - alien only to the anxiety of pleasing everyone.

She wished to understand how best to fit in, moving towards the new promised land [cf. Lk 1:29: "But she was greatly troubled by the Word and wondered what greeting this was"; Lk 1:34: "How shall this be?"].

The stillness within was not uniform, but filled with the vicissitudes and unpredictable 'news'.

Never to become a model: an expired identity document - plastered, dogmatic. Never an icon of privilege, and ostentatious - like a woman who extinguishes her consciousness, and becomes identified, empty, disjointed.

In the midst of others - even the lazy, indiscreet ones - Maria let herself be, perceiving the inaudible sounds of the silence of the soul.

Notes that produced her figure and - even better - her evolution and Destination, without disturbing her with separate intentions.

Removing her gaze from conformist intention.

 

To really exist, intensely, she changed or broke through; she recovered history but listened to the inside of herself.

Grasping her own deep layers, perceiving herself in her innermost voices, she became aware of the meaning of her life, and of the unfolding story.

In the intervals of thought, he reactivated the energy of the 'gaze'.

And without mortification, he would bring his attention to another dimension, gradually entering the Wind that ceaselessly disengaged it.

In this way, he learnt not to expect something aligned with normal intentions and predictions, nor with social and cultural rankings: he had to enter into the events, and detach himself (to contemplate their importance and depth).

Mysteriously - thus scrutinising without doing too much - he read the 'notes', chose the right registers; he interpreted the score.

Epiphany of God in a creature utterly devoid of hieratic or courtly style; rather, delicate and gypsy.

She did not rush to put things in place: she sensed 'inside' the summary life, rather than leading it and organising it, or arranging it.

She waited for her eminent self to lead the strange, non-directed, non-voluntarist path that was unfolding, truly all eccentric and unexemplary.

 

She did not act to please.

We also learn in her: to see the domestic God happen, the 'visits' we would not expect; the intensity of different colours.

They then lead us to a different look into the soul too; involved and detached.

Like the surrounding reality, Maria was not always the same.

She did not have in mind a champion to be pursued to the end, only to find herself chronicled in the exemplarity of others - uprooted, external, dissipated and discharged.

Situations and emotions had value, not only and not primarily on the basis of the - now useless - paradigm register with which they were interpreted.

In the hope of things present and in their sensitive listening, they were acquiring fluidity.

In this way, it passed unforced from the religion of the fathers to the Faith, to the risk of friendship in the unpredictable proposal of the one Father.

Retreating into the Abode of the Spirit, within a Hope that unveiled itself wave by wave, she learned to understand relationships and inner energies, unpacked.

Once listened to and taken in, they could deviate, and take precisely the unexpected path.

 

Step by step, the attentive eye, ear and heart also introduce us - like Mary - into a territory of suspension of closed intentions. Where the love and destiny of the Newness of God dwells.

It expands the Vision not just from around.

By deploying his losing himself in the We, not selectively, but only from his own sacred centre, the horizon also expanded in the sensation of infinity in action.

In the contemplation of events, she would flesh out and even reinvent the figure of the heart that had guided her there.

She was still reinterpreting the expressive image of her Vocation. And she changed her destiny - giving no weight to one-sided angles.

No obligations and chiselled intentions - against the tide but natural, without the laceration of titanic efforts.

So even the hardships brought her closer to her Mission as Mother of the new humanity, in her Son.

 

And each one equally rediscovers the energy of the primordial suggestion that leads him, so that in Meditation he re-embraces the Calling that still wants to snatch him from the mire.

Echo of the primordial Call that is woven into the events and is already the Destination.

Witness every moment to be rediscovered in the "intimate and full void" to be made within, to wait for something we do not know what it is first.

Mary let herself be traced in time by Love without a patent.

Such are the Dreams of creatures totally immersed in true passions, which grasp, anticipate and actualise the timelessness in time. 

She did not give up wondering what - with its many facets - was inhabiting her and silently guiding her.

 

We still imagine her (v.19) 'as with eyes closed': a situation our culture often ignores.

She did not think of the efficient causes: it was to rediscover otherwise her opening the door to visitors, and to every new thing by astonishment.

She was already nursing, not only her Son; at the same time she was feeding herself.

Not out of vain intimism did she rediscover the subtle Mystery nested in the different - and the raw, changing - unpredictable within and without.

Without realising it, she was already nourishing the world, preserving herself.

True, she comes to us and in us, tending the nest of essence and history... without any appearance of banners and shop windows - respecting only what happens.

Similarly, her entire Family becomes the true fruitful lady of an impossible Feast of the Announcement around - which we do not understand where it came from (Lk 1:20).

Certainly from nothing external. Therefore decisive.

Totally adherent to the circumstances and present in herself, she became completely - in the clear and spontaneous movements, also of others.

 

Certainly he had no people around him who could boast of screens. Only strange individuals, but who ceaselessly let their vital instincts emerge.

They too did not tell each other beforehand where to go. That is why they found themselves in an incessant pregnancy.

All they had in store was the experience of distance; often frost and rejection.

They never knew a figure who helped them to recognise themselves completely, and to look at things from the point of view of the timeless gentleness they had discovered.

Even capable of tending to the wider and more inclusive global [we would say, to the helpful eternity of the angelic condition].

Instead, here they are set ablaze by the everlasting Flame - that of the whole world (past, present and future) that knows how to recover and stay hidden, apart but in the cosmos - as the dawn and day of the Lord.

In the culture of the time, the condition of the spirits of the heavenly throne service, who glorified and praised God (v.20) "for all that they had heard and seen".

 

Before the domestic Church Family, in Mary and Jesus the shepherds have a decisive experience.

No longer of one-sided lack and judgement, but of rebirth in esteem; of another world, available and inclusive - of another kingdom, unison without uniformity.

The Mother of God is a possibility to strive for the eternal present, no longer exclusive: but like a dance, where the changing whole puts one perfectly at ease - with no tracks to retrace.

Society's oddballs, pilgrims and prairie dogs, skilled only in transhumance, had perhaps never had the ability to recognise the ecstasy of being well and intensely in the brief.

Perhaps they had never had the experience of recognising in an accurate creature their own sensitive, tender and feminine side.

Appearance that in the authentic Woman Church becomes the guardian and differently announcer [in the shaky] of the treasure chest of Life.

From the warmth of Mary and the Cradle, amidst their labyrinths, they now bring to their own secluded place an exciting blessing, and the indestructible intimate side; even elsewhere.

To question us too.

 

We seek a silent soul, for an art of rebirth.

Here was Maria: she had noticed, as she meditated, that others reflexively did too.

When she carved out preparatory energies, even those around her disposed themselves in a more balanced, fuller way to the Announcement.

He walked through life to guard and nurture new fathers and mothers of humanisation.

Not to comment, but to intuit and dissolve; not to extinguish the dreaming side with the 'up to date', old side.

His realm of truthfulness that cures the I and the Thou was the heaven and earth of new powers.

Reliable virtues because they sprang from the Silence of the Way that was completely renewing her - loving contradictions.

Because everything can now happen, regenerate; and each day bring its tide (of the unseen) in the presence of Spirit, without routine.

A genuine soul, devoid of pretense, can do it.

For an adventure that pushes away continuity, filled with foundational Eros; for a direct exploration to the unknown Culmination.

 

 

Maria: Slowing down a little, one is born

 

Whoever does not follow innate intuition, a more radical call of the self, or stunning proclamations [Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15] does not develop his destiny, does not move; does not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

It is true that the shepherds find nothing extraordinary or prodigious, except a family reduced to an ordinary condition, which they know.

But it is that simple hearth that draws them into the new Project, and into the proclamation of its scandalous unconditional Mercy - which did not electrocute them for impurity.

Archaic religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable, remorseless beings. Now they are free from identification. 

They have another eye - like the one from the first time. An eye that will take them one hundred per cent.

Exodus facing a defenceless image of God, they do not bother to engage in ethical discipline: it would crumble them.

Rather, they enjoy the awe of a simply human reality - in a mysterious relationship of mutual recognition.

 

A baby in a manger, an unclean place where beasts would play.

Strange that the modest sign convinces them, that it makes them regain esteem, and makes them evangelisers - perhaps not even assiduous evangelisers.

Like Calvary (to which it refers), the Resolute Manifestation of the Eternal is a paradox.

But the affective geography of this Bethlehem devoid of conformist circuits remains intact, because it is spontaneously rooted in us.

There is a sense of immediacy, without any particular entanglement or ceremony.

The Child is not even worshipped by the now 'pure' gazes of the little, vilified prairie dogs and transhumance - as, conversely, the Magi will do (Mt 2:11).

They did not even know what it meant, reflecting Eastern court ceremonials - like the kissing of red slippers.

[This is why Pope Francis rejected them, along with the ermine - after Paul VI had had the courage to lay down the pluridirigist sign of tiaras, with its three overlapping crowns; a little more intricate was the affair of the anachronistic gestatorial chair].

The wretched of the earth and the distant of the flocks are those who hear the Announcement, readily verify it, and found the new divine lineage.

People untroubled by static judgement - men in the midst of all; no longer at high altitude.

 

In the meantime, Mary sought the meaning of surprises and thus regenerated, for a new way of understanding and 'being' together - to give birth also to the inner world of a different people of fullness.

She would put facts and Word together, to discover the common thread.

And to remain receptive; not to be conditioned by the convictions of the devout and inflexible fences, which would give her no escape.

The Mother herself, though taken by surprise, prepared herself for God's eccentricity, without departing from time and her real condition.

 

Her figure and that of the shepherds question us, demand the courage of an answer - but after having allowed the same kind of inner Presences to flow: worthy visitors, allowed to express themselves.

 

Like us, you too had to move from the beliefs of the fathers to Faith in the Father.

From the idea of love as reward to that of 'gift'.

From the practice of cults and closures that do not make one at all intimate with the Eternal, to the opening of the mind and of the exits.

He did not achieve this without effort, but rather by enduring the resistance of his arid environment.

Jesus was indeed circumcised - a useless rite that according to custom claimed to change the Son of God into the son of Abraham.

 

The Good News proclaims a reversal: what religion had considered distant from the Most High is very close to Him; indeed, it corresponds fully to Him.

Never before imagined.

In the Annunciations of the Gospels, the adventure of Faith is opened wide.

And the new Child has a Name that expresses the unprecedented essence of Saviour, not executioner.

His whole story will also be fully instructive from the point of view of how to internalise uncertainties and discomforts: these "no moments" and precariousness that teach us how to live.

In fact, we too, like Mary, 'recognise' the presence of God in the enigmas of Scripture, in the Little One 'wrapped in bandages' - even in the ancestral echo of our inner worlds.

And we let ourselves go - we don't really know where. But so is the Infinite, the immense Secret, the inexplicable Breath, in its folds.

 

The wise Dream that inhabits the human knows of ancient humus, but its echo is reborn every day, in the tide of being that directs one to really 'look', without veils.

A conformist demeanour of 'seeing things' would not solve the problem.

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, it is necessary to re-establish oneself in silence, like the Virgin; to build a sort of hermeneutic island that opens different doors, that introduces other lights.

Within her sacred circuit, the Mother of God also valorised innate transformative energies, precisely by rooting them in questions...

Thus returning to her primordial being and to the sense of the Newborn - an image steeped in primordial meaning and vital wave, dear to many cultures.

 

Mary entered an Elsewhere and did not leave the field of the real.

She was 'inside' her Centre, unhurried - searching for the Sun drowned in her being and which returned, emerged, resurrected; from within, it made her exist beyond.

Thus she did not allow herself to be absorbed in energy by the conformist ideas of others or by [external] situations that wanted to break the balance.

In her veracious solitude - filled with Grace - that higher and hidden self in essence came more and more to her. She made herself a new Dawn and guide. 

He did not want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around him - none capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of the drugs of procedures, dehumanising the Enchantment.

The happy magic of that Frugolo of flesh brought her Peace.

Dreams sustained and conveyed its nest and inner core - making new life flow from the core of its Person, and the youth of the world.

 

"Now Mary kept all Words-events by comparing them in her heart".

(Lk 2:16-21)

 

In the cages of our devotion, perhaps there is still no place for Jesus who offers himself. He continues to be born a child like the others, distant and poor, rejected.

Only those on the margins of society seem capable of waiting, openness to the mystery, and searching: keeping watch at night (v.8), passing by and seeing (v.15), coming in haste (v.16), praising (v.20).

The Mother is already making her way from the religiosity of the fathers to the Faith in the Father: Contemplative who listens, meets her deepest states and tries not to miss anything.

Those who are nobodies but feel anxious searching and prayerful hearts can sing a new song.

In this way, he will be able to decipher the signs of the divine Presence inscribed in events, and welcome Christ into his inner dwelling (v.7) [cf. commentary on the Prologue of John].

In the simplicity of the Son - in the Freedom of children - the Eternal God points out to the wretched and abandoned multitudes a new Way, capable of valuing the limits and even the eccentricities of each one.

 

Throughout the first century, both in Palestine and Asia Minor [Johannine and Lucan churches] the different schools of theology and servants of God - of traditional Judaism, of Jesus, of the Baptist - confronted each other in alternative ways.

Where there were communities of Jews, there was no lack of controversy between Christians and various (more or less radical) observers of the religion of the fathers - as well as people who had been baptised by John, or at least in contact with his pupils. The Master and the first apostles had also been.

Rather than confusion, there was real competition between the group of Christ's disciples and those of the Baptizer.

This, even though both proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of God, and proposed social justice and the forgiveness of sins in practical life - instead of through rituals and sacrificial gestures at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Yet, thanks to the Son, the apostles grasped the depth of the Father's heart, which never resembles a justicialist, but works exclusively for the good and the promotion of life.

Hence in the Faith they themselves achieved inexplicable recoveries - precisely by gratuitously integrating the weak sides of people - without works of mortification of the insecure woman and man, nor claiming impossible preventive perfections.

 

Even today, precisely from the dark sides of our personality, the Father creates in the Spirit of the Beatitudes 'his' Newness, which turns the tables.

A completely unexpected change, impossible to imagine and propose; at least on the basis of prejudices or established ideas - all of which compete with self-esteem and joie de vivre.

The God of unconditional and guilt-dispelling love was precisely the exclusive prerogative of the new people of Faith in Christ, who had overcome the accusatory, moralistic and fussy cloaks of established custom.

Even then, diversity brought into play the question of the purifications required by the 'creeds' accepted by the cultural paradigm, and by identity rituals.

Jesus seemed completely alien to the mentality of the cultic ablutions of tradition.

It was the habit of life with Him that regenerated souls in the round, even from the eccentricities of each one.

Precious uniquenesses, interpreted as a sign of vocational exceptionality.

 

He taught the wretched and those condemned by religion how to get back on their feet by appealing to the different faces lurking in each one's soul: taking them on and investing them rather than denying them.

Personalities all... not pre-emptively sterilised; souls also with extravagant expressions, or with unconscious, shaky, unexpressed sides - in which Jesus taught to discover the traits of the personal missionary call.

And precisely 'from' here - it seems incredible - we too are sent to the Annunciation.

All this remains fundamental every day.

In fact, the [pious or avant-garde] proposals may present themselves in dignified forms - but they remain only outposts of the new quality leap.

The latter, capable of astonishment and all humanising: without the tare of feeling marked for life by external opinions.

Obviously, these forms of familial looseness and immediacy towards the Eternal God aroused the envy of the veterans still caged in the old fears of retribution, in the heap of works of law, of personal efficiencies unaware of open Grace, of personal Gift.

In no fulfilment, but in Christ alone, his friends and brothers recognised the Voice of the loving God.

He does not distinguish a priori 'superiorities': between the pure and the impure, the able and the unable, friends and foes; the chosen, the predestined, and the not.

 

In short, in our real life we do not wait for a phenomenon Messiah who continually upsets and oppresses us, filling us with fears and deviations to be corrected [which sap all energy]. 

Let us only look for a Friend who allows us to express ourselves in an unprecedented way and have a long - even undeserved - hope.

Let us be like the shepherds: no one has ever understood what convinced them, except the amazement of unpredictable gratuitousness (vv.15-18.20).

Paradoxically ready to found a new people - without too many regulations and clichés - starting from how and where each one found himself.

By now, we too no longer need the imprimatur of ideological sectarianism, without openness to the surprise of the surprising Incarnation, which makes the 'inadequate' gasp with joy...

Our most childish oddities [cf. commentary on the Prologue of John] can bring the human condition closer to the divine one.

So they have the approval of the Lord of all cosmos.

And Mary: the Question that is the Answer

(Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21)

 

We ask ourselves: in this time, what can make us intimate with the Lord?

[A certain Christopher changed history by sailing backwards...].

The shepherds experience the preference of a true and excessive Love, by blessing of the eccentric - and Wonder.

Preference that is not granted in exchange for merits, but because of needs.

Lk wants to emphasise that - by praising and glorifying God (v.20) just as the Angels do - the imperfect and defaulters paradoxically find themselves closer to the divine throne than the ever-arrogant position of the most sterile, or the most 'performing'.

We too are surprised to know a Father who, instead of incinerating us because of our insecurities, not only shrouds us in 'light' (v.9), but also builds his Newness on those very insecurities.

We all thought we were born to be pious and obedient children, or great 'phenomena' [narcissists].

Instead of putting us under stress, the Father wants us to rediscover the pleasure and wonder of gratuitousness and togetherness. Without models first - and minding obligations, ways, times, places, duties, reverences, prostrations and kissing of any kind!

God knows that we are surrounded by spheres, stimuli, moves, chores, which take us away. But neither does he demand a minimum of his own, for he does not act like the wayward child who wants the big slice of cake at snack time [corresponding to his rank].

The relationship with Him is not a continual effort, to be laboriously kept up with. It is a lightening, and even strengthening in the counterweights.

 

In Advent we have already emphasised: that of the Lord Who Comes is a Ray that does not intrude into the horizon of normal expectations, adapting itself to our external dreams - those that live of expected goals, and then become a torment.

In the arc of life, the encounter with such wise Light that pierces the darkness of night is in the difficulties that force us to shift our gaze, in the failure that compels us to regenerate creativity, in the bewilderment that makes us contact new ways of being.

The life of Faith does not endure the demon of 'perfection' imagined by archaic religions.

They willingly replace all gratuitousness with a sense of adult duty - which inevitably gives birth to nerve-wracking and even compensatory strategies [thank God, today less and less hidden].

 

According to Chinese thought, in order to gain polish and escape a polluted and worn-out servility, the saints 'are taught by beasts the art of avoiding the harmful effects of domestication, which life in society imposes'.

Indeed: 'Domesticated animals die prematurely. And so do men, whom social conventions forbid to obey spontaneously the rhythm of universal life'.

"These conventions impose continuous, self-interested, exhausting activity [whereas it is appropriate] to alternate between periods of slow life and jubilation".

"The saint does not submit himself to retreat or fasting except in order to achieve, through ecstasy, to escape for long journeys. This liberation is prepared by life-giving games, which nature teaches".

"One trains oneself for the paradisiacal life by imitating the amusements of animals. To sanctify oneself, one must first brutalise oneself - that is to say, learn from children, from beasts, from plants, the simple and joyful art of living only in view of life."

[M. Granet, The Chinese Thought, Adelphi 2019, kindle pp. 6904-6909].

 

The 'shepherds' immediately place both guilt and the obligatory time of fulfilment in the background of their real existence, retaining their charge and enthusiasm.

In this way, for us too, nothing in life seems an insurmountable wall any more - apart from the prejudice of the 'just' [those of the 'conditional': the 'ifs', the 'buts'].

Even routine does not take away energy and drive - how come? Because spontaneous souls do not need to take care of the external look, to please the opinion of others; so on.

Without even realising it, having no artificial screens to hold up, the genuine can face life head-on, and get off on the right foot.

Thus, attracting great opportunities for change.

 

They may not go too deep, but they listen to needs.

And they expand their space without asking permission from those who will never grant it; they sense the essentials that flow from freedom of mind and code.

Their 'having to be' has no artificial expectations: it is simple attunement with nature and with themselves.

A decisive position, because on such a ray they are able to see the weak side as a container of great strength, which activates capacities capable of building a whole other destiny.

They do not pose the problem of having to look good, or of not being what they are. Then they have plenty of time, and are seen to be orderly and good-natured, with no discomfort; in harmony with everyone.

They follow their story, and without too many expectations or intentions, they learn to trust the flow of events, even intimate ones.

They know how to welcome as worthy guests all their inner states, without feeling guilty.

In their own motives, they are 'clear'. So they do not fall into neuroses.

The encounter with serene Authenticity has retrained them.

Light that has conquered self-esteem.

They feel empowered instead of targets. And the regained confidence makes them open and welcoming towards others.

They have realised that they must rely on deeper knowledge than that inoculated by the prejudices of decision-makers.

God is the exact opposite of the veterans' catechism: it is only the encounter with Him that purifies - not the apparent vice versa.

 

We too wish to open ourselves to the new Mystery. Experience that is preparing the womb of our souls at this time.

We are in a transhumance full of discoveries and adventures: we can learn how to be with what is coming and reinterpret it, learning to walk on our own legs and putting our attitudes into action.

Side by side with the shepherds, who ceaselessly put energies back into circulation - our lives can turn out to be much richer than the affair of the precise and impeccable.

We want to turn routine into an adventure that glimpses the authentic Sacred in the small Seed that inhabits us.

We will do this without too much efficiency: perhaps we will also build a regenerating highland refuge, to train intuition - and from there recreate the Vision, and the world.

 

No one this year should feel inadequate, excluded from the action of God's Love and the ability to radiate it.

As in the Gospel of Easter morning, we can peer into the darkness and sense even amidst signs of death the great energies of Life.

 

The world of shadows is no longer in the same trim as before.

 

Among the humbled, even Mary is astonished, but seeks to understand and makes her own way. Indeed, she understands that the Answer is already in the Question.

Comparing within herself Word and events around her Son, she realises that in the 'problem' (which surprised her) there was already the energy of the 'solution'.

 

Who is Jesus?

The contrast between the extraordinary figure of the awaited and misunderstood Messiah, and the obtuseness of the elusive judgement of popular doctrines, ended up leaving things as they were.

Indeed, worse: it encapsulated the Mystery - the most normal one in the world [but one that remains forever]: the humanity of God.

And he lost his 'whereabouts'.

He could not understand the Person of Christ from the things he knew or by trying to frame him in the familiar criteria of the First Testament; in the common feeling, with the magical models of the time.

His Master pupil could not be satisfied with an improvement of the situation.

He had to replace it, announcing the Truth of the Father; of the authentic man and woman.

Proposing a germ of an alternative world to the ruthless and pyramidal society; the one that establishes what to think and say, how one must be and behave.

 

God intends to bring out and enhance the intuition of consciences more than to impose duties or cravings for analysing behaviour.

This is the incredible.

 

Each religious group enclosed the Messiah in its own interpretative model, consonant with an environment tinged with ancient hopes: defence of goods and customs, well-being at the expense of others, expansion, prodigies.

The children's revolution poses an issue that seeks its Way Elsewhere - after all around the corner, but not relegated 'inside' a corner.

For to question the Person of Christ is already to begin to overcome petty, habitual interpretations, and to embrace the irruption of God.

The ever-childlike Lord will overturn the fortunes, the destiny of man's kingdom, and its claims that cage the soul, immobilising life.

The knowledge of his story, the adhesion to his Person, and the Action of the Spirit, will not allow the fixed thoughts, attachments, clichés, window dressing that then impregnate the whole soul, depriving it of intoxication and fruitfulness, to persist in Mary's mind.

It is in the Son that she becomes a Mother, a totally personal Presence, a new Sense.

Maternity hers, of innate Wisdom, that opens horizons: in the authentic Church she is leading us to different Dreams of being.

 

Woman who wants to express herself by humanising.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As in a mosaic, today's liturgy contemplates different events and messianic situations, but attention is especially focused on Mary, Mother of God. Eight days after Jesus' birth, we commemorate the Mother, the Theotokos, the one who gave birth to the Child who is King of Heaven and earth for ever (cf. Entrance Antiphon; Sedulius).

The liturgy today meditates on the Word made man and repeats that he is born of the Virgin. It reflects on the circumcision of Jesus as a rite of admission to the community and contemplates God who, by means of Mary, gave his Only-Begotten Son to lead the "new people". It recalls the name given to the Messiah and listens to it spoken with tender sweetness by his Mother. It invokes peace for the world, Christ's peace, and does so through Mary, Mediatrix and Cooperator of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 60-61).

We are beginning a new solar year which is a further period of time offered to us by divine Providence in the context of the salvation inaugurated by Christ. But did not the eternal Word enter time precisely through Mary? In the Second Reading we have just listened to, the Apostle Paul recalls this by saying that Jesus was born "of woman" (Gal 4: 4).

In today's liturgy the figure of Mary, true Mother of Jesus, God-man, stands out. Thus, today's Solemnity is not celebrating an abstract idea but a mystery and an historic event: Jesus Christ, a divine Person, is born of the Virgin Mary who is his Mother in the truest sense.

Today too, Mary's virginity is highlighted, in addition to her motherhood. These are two prerogatives that are always proclaimed together, inseparably, because they complement and qualify each other. Mary is Mother, but a Virgin Mother; Mary is a virgin, but a Mother Virgin. If either of these aspects is ignored, the mystery of Mary as the Gospels present her to us, cannot be properly understood.

As Mother of Christ, Mary is also Mother of the Church, which my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI chose to proclaim on 21 November 1964 at the Second Vatican Council. Lastly, Mary is the Spiritual Mother of all humanity, because Jesus on the Cross shed his blood for all of us and from the Cross he entrusted us all to her maternal care.

Let us begin this new year, therefore, by looking at Mary whom we received from God's hands as a precious "talent" to be made fruitful, a providential opportunity to contribute to bringing about the Kingdom of God.

In this atmosphere of prayer and gratitude to the Lord for the gift of a new year, I am pleased to address my respectful thoughts to the distinguished Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See who have desired to take part in today's solemn Celebration.

I cordially greet Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my Secretary of State. I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and express to them my deep gratitude for the commitment with which they daily promote these values, so fundamental to social life.

For this World Day of Peace, I addressed the customary Message to the Governors and Leaders of Nations, as well as to all men and women of good will. Its theme this year is: The human person, the heart of peace.

I am deeply convinced that "respect for the person promotes peace and that, in building peace, the foundations are laid for an authentic integral humanism" (Message for World Peace Day, 1 January 2007, n. 1).

This commitment is especially incumbent on every Christian who is called "to be committed to tireless peace-making and strenuous defence of the dignity of the human person and his inalienable rights" (Message, n. 16). Precisely because he is created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1: 27), every human individual without distinction of race, culture or religion, as a person is clothed in God's same dignity. For this reason he should be respected, nor can any reason ever justify an arbitrary use of him, as if he were an object.

In the face of the threats to peace that are unfortunately ever present, the situations of injustice and violence that persist in various areas of the earth and the continuing armed conflicts often overlooked by the majority of public opinion, as well as the danger of terrorism that clouds the serenity of peoples, it is becoming more necessary than ever to work for peace together. This, as I recalled in my Message, is "both gift and task" (n. 3): a gift to implore with prayer and a task to be carried out with courage, never tiring.

The Gospel narrative we have heard portrays the scene of the shepherds of Bethlehem, who after hearing the Angel's announcement go to the grotto to worship the Child (cf. Lk 2: 16). Should we not look again at the dramatic situation marking the very Land in which Jesus was born? How can we not entreat God with insistent prayers for the day of peace to arrive as soon as possible in that region too, the day on which the current conflict that has lasted far too long will be resolved?

If a peace agreement is to endure, it must be based on respect for the dignity and rights of every person. I express to the representatives of the nations present here my hope that the International Community will muster its forces so that a world may be built in God's Name in which the essential human rights are respected by all. For this to happen, people must recognize that these rights are not only based on human agreements but "on man's very nature and his inalienable dignity as a person created by God" (Message, n. 13).

Indeed, were the constitutive elements of human dignity entrusted to changeable human opinions, even solemnly proclaimed human rights would end by being weakened and variously interpreted. "Consequently, it is important for international agencies not to lose sight of the natural foundation of human rights. This would enable them to avoid the risk, unfortunately ever-present, of sliding towards a merely positivistic interpretation of those rights" (ibid.).

"The Lord bless you and keep you... lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Nm 6: 24, 26). This is the formula of the Blessing we heard in the First Reading, taken from the Book of Numbers. The Lord's Name is repeated in it three times. This gives one an idea of the intensity and power of the Blessing, whose last word is "peace".

The biblical term shalom, which we translate as "peace", implies that accumulation of good things in which consists the "salvation" brought by Christ, the Messiah announced by the Prophets. We Christians therefore recognize him as the Prince of Peace. He became a man and was born in a grotto in Bethlehem to bring peace to people of good will, to all who welcome him with faith and love.

Thus, peace is truly the gift and commitment of Christmas: the gift that must be accepted with humble docility and constantly invoked with prayerful trust, the task that makes every person of good will a "channel of peace".

Let us ask Mary, Mother of God, to help us to welcome her Son and, in him, true peace. Let us ask her to sharpen our perception so that we may recognize in the face of every human person, the Face of Christ, the heart of peace!

[Pope Benedict, homily January 1st, 2007]

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

1. Let us give thanks to God, who has given us the opportunity to begin another year. As I beseech him to protect and give his grace to everyone, I offer my most cordial wishes to all for a happy New Year 2000!

On Christmas night, we listened once again to the angels' message: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased" (Lk 2: 14). This is the proclamation of hope which I wanted once again to present in my traditional Message for today's World Day of Peace. God loves us and he gives everyone the hope of a new time, a time of salvation and peace.

2. Yes, Christ is our peace. He calls us to love every human being without discrimination, turning our hearts and minds to thoughts of peace and removing the temptation of violence and war. The Jubilee which has just begun is a pressing invitation to love in view of a reconciled humanity.

Let us cross the threshold of a new year with a commitment to make our contribution so that peace can become the daily language of peoples. The Gospel teaches us that dialogue, cooperation, respect for life and solidarity are effective instruments for creating new relationships between peoples and countries, between rich and poor, believers and non-believers.

From every part of the earth rises a heartfelt plea for peace. Let us pray that it does not go unheard. At this moment, my thoughts turn to those who are victims of violence, to those who feel lonely and abandoned.

May Christ, the incarnate Son of God, enlighten human hearts with the gift of peace. You, Son of the Most High, were born for everyone. You are the same yesterday, today and for ever!

3. The first day of the year is placed under the special protection of Mary. Let us begin the Year 2000 under the loving gaze of the Mother of God, who gives Christ, the Prince of Peace, to the world. May she spread the mantle of her motherhood over all of us, protect us from evil and free us from hatred and violence. May she accompany humanity on the ways of peace. May every person discover in others, beyond every border, the face of brothers and sisters, friends, members of the same family.

Mary, Mother of God, make us apostles of peace!

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus January 1st, 2000]