On this Sunday, the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, the word of God calls us into question with two crucial questions that I shall sum up in these words: "Who do you say Jesus of Nazareth is?". Then: "Is your faith shown in your works, or not?". We find the first question in today's Gospel, where Jesus asks his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8: 29). Peter's answer is loud and clear: "You are the Christ", in other words the Messiah, the consecrated one of God, sent to save his People. Therefore Peter and the other Apostles, unlike the majority, believe not only that Jesus is a great teacher or a prophet but far more. They have faith: they believe that God is present and active in him. However, directly after this profession of faith when Jesus announces openly for the first time that he must suffer and be killed, Peter himself opposes the prospect of suffering and death. Jesus must then rebuke him sternly, to make him understand that it is not enough to believe that he is God but that, impelled by charity, it is necessary to follow him on the same path, that of the Cross (cf. Mk 8: 31-33). Jesus did not come to teach us philosophy but to show us a way, indeed the way that leads to life.

This way is love which is an expression of true faith. If someone loves his neighbour with a pure and generous heart it means that he truly knows God. If instead someone says he has faith but does not love his brethren, he is not a true believer. God does not dwell within him. St James clearly affirms this in the Second Reading of this Sunday's Mass: "Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (Js 2: 17). In this regard I would like to cite a passage from St John Chrysostom, one of the great Fathers of the Church, whom the liturgical calendar today invites us to commemorate. In commenting precisely on the verse from the Letter of James quoted above, he writes: "A person moreover may have a righteous faith in the Father and in the Son, as in the Holy Spirit, but if he does not have a righteous life, his faith will not serve him for salvation. Therefore, when you read in the Gospel: "This is eternal life, that they know you as the one true God' (Jn 17: 3), do not think that this verse suffices to save us: a most pure life and conduct are essential" (cit. in J.A. Cramer, Catenae graecorum Patrum in N.T., Vol. VIII: In Epist. Cath. et Apoc., Oxford 1844).

Dear friends, tomorrow we shall be celebrating the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross and the following day, that of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Virgin Mary, who believed in the word of the Lord, did not lose her faith in God when she saw her Son rejected, abused and crucified. Rather she remained beside Jesus, suffering and praying, until the end. And she saw the radiant dawn of his Resurrection. Let us learn from her to witness to our faith with a life of humble service, ready to personally pay the price of staying faithful to the Gospel of love and truth, certain that nothing that we do will be lost.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 13 September 2009]

2. Jesus had already asked the group of the 12 Apostles to profess their faith in his person. At Caesarea Philippi, after questioning his disciples about the people's opinion of his identity, he asks: "But who do you say that I am?" (Mt 16:15). The reply comes from Simon Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (16:16).

Jesus immediately confirms the value of this profession of faith, stressing that it stems not only from human thought idea but from heavenly inspiration: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Mt 16:17). These statements, in strongly Semitic tones, indicate the total, absolute and supreme revelation: the one that concerns the person of Christ, Son of God.

Peter's profession of faith will remain the definitive expression of Christ's identity. Mark uses this same expression to begin his Gospel (cf. Mk 1:1) and John refers to it at the end of his, saying that he has written his Gospel so that you may believe "that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", and that in believing you may have life in his name (cf. Jn 20:31).

3. In what does faith consist? The Constitution Dei Verbum explains that by faith, "man freely commits his entire self to God, making 'the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals'" (n. 5). Thus faith is not only the intellect's adherence to the truth revealed, but also a submission of the will and a gift of self to God revealing himself. It is a stance that involves one's entire existence.

The Council also recalls that this faith requires "the grace of God to move [man] and assist him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth'" (ibid.). In this way we can see how, on the one hand, faith enables us to welcome the truth contained in Revelation and proposed by the Magisterium of those who, as Pastors of God's People, have received a "sure charism of truth" (Dei Verbum, n. 8). On the other hand, faith also spurs us to true and deep consistency, which must be expressed in all aspects of a life modeled on that of Christ.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 March 1998]

Today’s Gospel presents us Jesus who, on his way towards Caesarea Philippi, asks the disciples: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mk 8:27). They respond with what the people are saying: some believe he is John the Baptist reborn, others Elijah or one of the great Prophets. The people appreciated Jesus, they considered him “God’s emissary”, but still were unable to recognize him as the foretold Messiah, awaited by all. Jesus looks at the Apostles and asks again: “But who do you say that I am?” (v. 29). This is the most important question, which Jesus directly addresses to those who have followed him, to verify their faith. Peter, in the name of all, exclaims candidly: “You are the Christ” (v. 29). Jesus is struck by Peter’s faith, and recognizes that it is the fruit of grace, a special grace of God the Father. Then he openly reveals to the disciples what awaits him in Jerusalem, which is that “the Son of man must suffer many things... be killed, and after three days rise again” (v. 31).

On hearing this, Peter, who had just professed his faith in Jesus as Messiah, is shocked. He takes the Master aside and rebukes him. And how does Jesus react? He in turn rebukes Peter, with very harsh words: “Get behind me, Satan!” — he calls him Satan! — “You think not as God does, but as men do” (cf. v. 33). Jesus sees in Peter, as in the other disciples — and in each one of us! — that temptation by the Evil One opposes the grace of the Father, that he wants to deter us from the will of God. Announcing that he must suffer, be put to death in order to then rise, Jesus wants his followers to understand that he is a humble Messiah, a servant. He is the Servant obedient to the word and the will of the Father, until the complete sacrifice of his own life. For this reason, turning toward the whole crowd there, He declares that one who wishes to become his disciple must accept being a servant, as He has made himself a servant, and cautions: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (v. 34).

To undertake the discipleship of Jesus means to take up your cross — we all have one — to accompany him on his path, an uncomfortable path that is not of success or of fleeting glory, but one which takes us to true freedom, to that which frees us from selfishness and sin. It is necessary to clearly reject that worldly mentality which places one’s “I” and one’s own interests at the centre of existence. That is not what Jesus wants from us! Instead Jesus invites us to lose our life for him and for the Gospel, to receive it renewed, fulfilled and authentic. We are certain, thanks to Jesus, that this path leads us to the resurrection, to the full and definitive life with God. Choosing to follow him, our Master and Lord who made himself the Servant of all, one to walk behind and to listen attentively to his Word — remember to read a passage from the Gospel every day — and in the Sacraments.

There are young people here in the Square, young men and women. I want to ask you: do you feel the desire to follow Jesus more closely? Think. Pray, and allow the Lord to speak to you.

May the Virgin Mary, who followed Jesus to Calvary, help us to always purify our faith of false images of God, in order to adhere fully to Christ and his Gospel.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 13 September 2015]

Going up and down, to go further or back

(Jn 3:13-17)

One of st Francis' first companions - fra' Egidio - said: «The way to go up is to go down». We ask ourselves: what’s the meaning of this paradox?

Today’s feast has the title of Exaltation. The Gospel speaks instead of «Elevation».

Of course, synonymous with being seen and noticed, but under a «contrary species». So, how to elevate life by staring at Jesus crucified?

Nicodemus’ passage suggests an answer.

The doctor of the Law, a Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin is «in the night»because he’s disinducated to the normal idea of a ‘successful’ man, according to the attributes of possession, power and glory.

However, the moment comes when even the costume is shaken by doubt, by the alternative of Christ.

The Cross no longer takes anything for granted. It’s a new Judgment, from which other possibilities emerge, precisely in the ons of unregulated vacillations.

Misadventures, upheavals, the adversities of life, the context of chaos... bring out a better relationship with actions and our destiny.

Uncertainty guide us closer to our essence - it invokes resources, pure air, relationships.

In short, scaffold situations can get creative.

Compromising «reputation» reshapes our soul, our point of view; it calls into question the idea we made of ourselves.

It opens up stunning new paths, sudden - otherwise suffocated achievements at the start.

Of course, for those who choose to be themselves, the fate of persecution, misunderstanding, mockery and slander, lack of credit and laurels, is marked - as if we were failures.

But in the Judgment of the Crucified One, this is the «right position» to become ‘sons’ who find human completeness, and give birth to corresponding fruits: often the best time in their story.

The Cross is a free Gift, for a Life as Saved persons. The Cross redeems from the attractions that extinguish our growth.

The Cross is the best opportunity for development.

In fact, realization and completion emerge from sides of ourselves [and situations] that we don’t want. Even from deep wounds, which invest a whole way of being, doing and appearing.

‘Trial’ is not the end of the world. It annihilates our powerful appearance, yet it lets out the virtue of the fragile side, first overshadowed for social catwalk needs.

Here is the Crucified One, who bleeds not only to heal, soften and remove ballasts, but to overthrow, replace horizons and supplant the entire system of addicted conformisms. And even (self-styled) alternative aspects, ways of thinking that seemed like who knows what.

Thus the embraced Cross saves us.

It seems like a sabotage to our "infallible" side, instead it’s the Antidote to the city dormant on the same paths as before - in the usual ways of being and taking the field [now without a future].

Raising the Cross goes far beyond resilience capacity.

[Exaltation of the Holy Cross,  September 14, 2024]

To go up and to go down, to go further or to go backwards

(Jn 3:13-17)

Nothing doing, despite two millennia of Christian symbols, formulas and rituals, especially in Italy we remain at the usual pole: Guelphs versus Ghibellines; even as a shaky destiny looms.

Why such a folded-up faith, incapable of freeing us from occasional stings? Why is it that - even when we are on our way to a mountain of debt - we continue to behave like those who do not stop pawing each other?

We need a good Conversion, with the inverted pyramids of 'supremacy' and glory: arrogant, aggressive, intransigent and haughty becoming humble, meek, benevolent and weak.

Never need? Have great need! All the more reason to cling to the Crucifix.

After all, one of Francis' first companions - Brother Aegidius - used to say: "The way to go up is to go down". We ask ourselves: what is the meaning of such a paradox?

Today's feast has the title of Exaltation (or Invention - derived from the Latin: finding). The Gospel, on the other hand, speaks of "Elevation".

Of course, synonymous with being seen and noticed, but under an 'opposite species'. So, how can one elevate one's life by staring at the crucified Jesus? The Nicodemus passage suggests an answer.

The doctor of the Law, Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin is "in the night" because he is uneducated to the normal idea of a successful man: if God is "somebody", the follower too... must resemble him in the attributes of possession, power and glory.

However, there comes a time when even popular or theological custom and the antiquated way of seeing things is shaken by doubt, by the alternative of Christ.

Is the person who evolves really the one who imposes himself? Is the successful man really the one who rises above others - treated as a stool - or is he not the one who has the freedom to come down and let us breathe?

Everything with spontaneity and fluidity, not effort: imposing climbs of renunciation and pain is not therapeutic and does not extract the best from us. On the contrary, it separates us from that plasticity and simplicity that produce the best things in the world.

The Cross is not a discipline of standard purifications, such as wanting to change one's life, sorting out relationships by suffocating the inconsistencies that belong to us, setting oneself up to hit targets and succeed (even spiritually) at all costs...

These are the usual clichéd improvement programmes that often do not make us natural, but full of artifice - and do not allow us to be open with ourselves, and therefore not even with others.

In Christ, the Cross opens up unbroken horizons, because it no longer takes anything for granted. It is a new Judgement, global and of merit.

Other possibilities emerge, which make us encounter the change that solves the real problems - precisely in the midst of unbridled vacillation.

When lived in Faith, the wavering mixture is a profoundly energetic, malleable and evolutionary reality.

It brings us into a situation of chaos, disorder in which, however, a better relationship with actions and our destiny emerges, even recovering all that we thought unattainable.

This happens in the indeterminacy that brings us closer to our essence - in the days when events become serious, and we call for resources, fresh air, more solid relationships.

We then need to take a leap, not retreat [to stand there and retreat (self-centred) in order to identify problems and faults, then hastily and unnaturally correct them].

It would be an absurd waste of virtues and opportunities for growth in the search for our territory.

Even on the spiritual path, in fact, we do everything to achieve complete life, total fulfilment, strong freedom. Not to be seen to be perfect.

The passage into the climate of social contempt will be inevitable.

The Crucified One does not say 'how we should be and yet are not' (in a conventional way): for we only approach our Vocation if we surprise ourselves and others - just when common, conformist opinion judges us inconsistent.

It does not mean that we are rejecting the gallows.

Convicting situations can become creative, so the gallows that belongs to us in that situation - although it compromises reputation - need not torment the soul beyond measure.

Mishaps, upheavals, contrarieties, bitter contexts... they reshape the soul and the point of view, questioning the idea (that we have already made) of ourselves.

Indeed, they open up astounding new paths - realisations otherwise stifled at the start, due to external convictions.

This is why there is something paradoxical and absurd in Jesus' proposal: to grow, reach fullness and complete oneself, one must lose; not be an opportunist, not be quick-witted, not take advantage. All insulting and puerile attitudes that do not regenerate, that bring us back to friction, to unreliable conformisms, and accentuate them.The logic of the Cross is puzzling: on the spur of the moment it seems to humiliate us. Conversely, it shields us from the poison of a vain religiosity, of fine manners and bad habits.

Empty, consolatory or merely theatrical spirituality, which produces conflictual but inert environments [they make the arms fall off: useless and haunting].

Everyone knows that one must learn to accept the inevitable contrarieties of existence. But this is not the meaning of the Cross.

God does not redeem through pain, but with Love - that which does not fold and crumple, but expands life and unexpressed capacities.

The providential Cross is not given by God, but actively taken up and accepted by the disciple. In the Gospels it signifies the acceptance of the inevitable shame involved in following Jesus - even in a comically vain, albeit papier-mache scenario.

For those who choose to be themselves in the world of 'seeming' and name-calling, the (outward) fate of persecution, misunderstanding, mockery and slander, lack of credit and laurels - as if we were failures - is sealed.

But in the Judgement of the Crucified One, this is the right position to become children who find human completeness, stand firm in their choices of specific weight - and bear corresponding fruit: often the best time in their history.

A free gift, for a Saved Life, the Cross redeems us from the lure of appreciation in society that willingly on the side of the banal and extrinsic bestows ample credits, which however extinguish our complete personal growth.

It saves us from the dangers of crumbling pedestals, on which it is not worthwhile to keep climbing in order to be noticed and unnecessarily - cunningly - pleasured. As would any manipulator who loves mightiness; even a pious one, full of attributes of vigour, but inexorably old and doomed to death - bogged down and sterile - incapable of generating new creatures and reviving himself.

The best opportunities for development, fulfilment and completion emerge from sides of ourselves and situations we do not want. Exactly; even from deep wounds, which affect a whole way of being, doing and appearing.

It is not the end of the world. Today, the global crisis has already annihilated our powerful side, yet it is bringing out the virtue of the fragile side; previously overshadowed for the sake of social catwalks.

Here is the Crucified One, who bleeds not only to heal, soften and remove ballasts, but to overthrow, replace horizons and supplant the entire system of addicted conformisms; and 'stitches' even self-styled alternatives, ways of thinking that seemed like who knows what.

All this, by Faith. Not with identified tension and design, but by baptismal attitude to the new integrity that comes: given, welcomed, recognised.

Thus the embraced Cross saves us.

It appears to be a sabotage to our 'infallible' side, instead it is the Antidote to the city slumbering on the same paths as before - in the usual ways of being and taking the field (now without a future).

Lifting up the Cross goes far beyond resilience.

[Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 14 September]

“What a great thing it is to possess the Cross! He who possesses it possesses a treasure” (Saint Andrew of Crete, Homily X on the Exaltation of the Cross, PG 97, 1020). On this day when the Church’s liturgy celebrates the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Gospel you have just heard reminds us of the meaning of this great mystery: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that men might be saved (cf. Jn 3:16). The Son of God became vulnerable, assuming the condition of a slave, obedient even to death, death on a cross (cf. Phil 2:8). By his Cross we are saved. The instrument of torture which, on Good Friday, manifested God’s judgement on the world, has become a source of life, pardon, mercy, a sign of reconciliation and peace. “In order to be healed from sin, gaze upon Christ crucified!” said Saint Augustine (Treatise on Saint John, XII, 11). By raising our eyes towards the Crucified one, we adore him who came to take upon himself the sin of the world and to give us eternal life. And the Church invites us proudly to lift up this glorious Cross so that the world can see the full extent of the love of the Crucified one for mankind, for every man and woman. She invites us to give thanks to God because from a tree which brought death, life has burst out anew. On this wood Jesus reveals to us his sovereign majesty, he reveals to us that he is exalted in glory. Yes, “Come, let us adore him!” In our midst is he who loved us even to giving his life for us, he who invites every human being to draw near to him with trust.

This is the great mystery that Mary also entrusts to us this morning, inviting us to turn towards her Son. In fact, it is significant that, during the first apparition to Bernadette, Mary begins the encounter with the sign of the Cross. More than a simple sign, it is an initiation into the mysteries of the faith that Bernadette receives from Mary. The sign of the Cross is a kind of synthesis of our faith, for it tells how much God loves us; it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weaknesses and sins. The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us. It is this mystery of the universality of God’s love for men that Mary came to reveal here, in Lourdes. She invites all people of good will, all those who suffer in heart or body, to raise their eyes towards the Cross of Jesus, so as to discover there the source of life, the source of salvation.

The Church has received the mission of showing all people this loving face of God, manifested in Jesus Christ. Are we able to understand that in the Crucified One of Golgotha, our dignity as children of God, tarnished by sin, is restored to us? Let us turn our gaze towards Christ. It is he who will make us free to love as he loves us, and to build a reconciled world. For on this Cross, Jesus took upon himself the weight of all the sufferings and injustices of our humanity. He bore the humiliation and the discrimination, the torture suffered in many parts of the world by so many of our brothers and sisters for love of Christ. We entrust all this to Mary, mother of Jesus and our mother, present at the foot of the Cross.

[Pope Benedict, homily 150th anniversary Lourdes, 14 September 2008]

1. "Rejoice, Holy Church, for today Christ, King of heaven, has crowned you with his Cross and adorned your walls with the splendour of his glory".

Your liturgy sings these words on many occasions, dear brothers and sisters of the Armenian people who have come here to celebrate your Jubilee. The Bishop of Rome extends his cordial greeting to you all and gives you a fatherly embrace.

I exchange a holy kiss of brotherhood with His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX, Patriarch of Cilicia for Armenian Catholics, and the Bishops who accompany him. On this happy occasion, I express my best wishes for the Synod which in a few days will begin in this city of Rome. I greet the priests, the religious and all the lay people who have come for this meeting and for today's celebration.

"Today Christ has crowned you with his Cross". Supreme shame, ignoble torture, the cross of the condemned has become a crown of glory. We exalt and venerate what was the despicable sign of abandonment and shame for everyone. How is this paradox possible? The hymn you will sing in this evening's Office explains it to us:  "You were hung on this holy Cross, O God, and you spilled your precious blood upon it". Our salvation originates in Christ's total humiliation.

"I, when I am lifted up from the earth", he said, "I will draw all men to myself" (Jn 12: 32).

The power that triumphs over death is born of the inexpressible pain of love, and the Spirit, sent into the world by the crucified One, restores the rich foliage of the earthly paradise to the withered tree of humanity.

Humanity is astounded by this mystery; it can only kneel and adore the divine plan of our liberation.

2. Brothers and sisters, a few months ago the celebrations of the 1,700th anniversary of the Baptism of the Armenian people began. With this act, accomplished by your ancestors, the holy waters of redemption have brought forth new seeds of life and prosperity among the thorns and thistles that the earth had produced as a consequence of our first parents' sin. This Jubilee of the universal Church opens your Jubilee, in a wonderful continuity of spirit and theological content:  from the Cross, from the side of the crucified Lord, flowed the water of your Baptism. May this anniversary be the opportunity for a precious renewal, for rediscovered hope, and for deep communion among all believers in Christ.

The Armenian people know the Cross well:  they bear it engraved upon their hearts. It is the symbol of their identity, of the tragedies of their history and of the glory of their recovery after every adverse event. In all epochs, the blood of your martyrs has mingled with that of the crucified One.

Whole generations of Armenians have not hesitated to give their lives in order not to deny the faith which, as one of your historians says, belongs to you as the colour belongs to your skin.

The crosses with which your land is strewn are of bare stone, just as human pain is bare; at the same time they are carved with elegant volutes, to show that the whole world is sanctified by the Cross, that pain is redeemed. This evening you will bless the four cardinal points with the Cross, to recall that this poor instrument of torture has become the measure of the world's judgement, a cosmic symbol of the blessing of God, which sanctifies all things and makes all things fruitful.

3. May this blessing reach your regions and bring them serenity and trust! I pray to the crucified One first of all for your communities in Armenia:  there, new and serious forms of poverty are putting your brothers and sisters to the test, giving rise to the temptation of new exoduses to seek elsewhere the means to live and assure safety to their families. Your people are asking for bread and justice, asking politics to be what they should be by their profound vocation:  the honest and disinterested service of the common good, the struggle to enable the poorest and the most forsaken, always clothed in spite of all in the indelible dignity of every child of God, to live a dignified and human life. Do not abandon your suffering brethren:  today, more than ever, may Armenians across the world who, through their hard work, have achieved financial and social security, take charge of their compatriots in a common effort for rebirth!

Today the Pope wants to carry with you the cross of those who suffer. He reminds you that in privations and daily suffering your gaze must be raised to the Cross, from which salvation continues to come. The Gospel is not only a comfort, it is also an incitement to live to the full the values which restore dignity to civil life, uprooting from the depths of the human heart the temptation of violence and injustice, of the exploitation of the lowly and the poor by the powerful and the rich. It is only by putting Christ the Lord at the centre of life that society will be just and that the selfishness of the few will give way to the good of all.

In addition to the Catholics, my remembrance and my greeting are extended to the children of the Armenian Apostolic Church:  may they rest assured that the Pope of Rome is following with concern their efforts to be "the salt of the earth and the light of the world", so that the world will believe and find the strength to hope and to fight. The Catholic Church intends to uphold this effort as though it were her own, in the love which unites us all in Christ.

4. Dear friends, I invoke the blessings of the Lord upon you here, upon all your loved ones, upon the entire Armenian people and particularly upon the sick, the elderly and all who are suffering in body and in soul.

Today I will be with you in spirit during your pilgrimage of faith which is a fundamental dimension of the Jubilee. The pilgrimage reminds us that our being is on the way towards the fullness of the kingdom, which will be given to us when, with grateful wonder, we will see the Lord of the ages come again in glory, still bearing on his Body the marks of the Passion:  "per Crucem ad gloriam".

Do not forget to pray for me too, so that the Lord will guide my steps on the path of peace!
I cordially impart my Blessing to everyone!

[Pope John Paul II, Audience Armenian Patriarchate 14 September 2000]

On 14 September the Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Some non-Christian person might ask: why “exalt” the Cross? We can respond that we do not exalt any cross whatsoever or all crosses: we exalt the Cross of Jesus, because in it God’s love for humanity was fully revealed. That’s what the Gospel of John reminds us of in today’s liturgy: “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son” (3:16). The Father “gave” the Son to save us, and this resulted in the death of Jesus, and his death on the Cross. Why? Why was the Cross necessary? Because of the gravity of the evil which enslaved us. The Cross of Jesus expresses both things: all the negative forces of evil, and all of the gentle omnipotence of God’s mercy. The Cross would seem to decree Christ’s failure, but in reality it signals His victory. On Calvary, those who mocked him said to him, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (cf. Mt 27:40). But the opposite was true: it was precisely because Jesus was the Son of God, that He was there, on the Cross, faithful to the end to the loving plan of the Father. And for this very reason God “exalted” Jesus (Phil 2:9), conferring universal kingship on Him.

When we look to the Cross where Jesus was nailed, we contemplate the sign of love, of the infinite love of God for each of us and the source of our salvation. The mercy of God, which embraces the whole world, springs from the Cross. Through the Cross of Christ the Evil One is overcome, death is defeated, life is given to us, hope is restored. This is important: through the Cross of Christ hope is restored to us. The Cross of Jesus is our one true hope! That is why the Church “exalts” the Holy Cross, and why we Christians bless ourselves with the sign of the cross. That is, we don’t exalt crosses, but the glorious Cross of Christ, the sign of God’s immense love, the sign of our salvation and path toward the Resurrection. This is our hope.

While we contemplate and celebrate the Holy Cross, we think with emotion of so many of our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted and killed because of their faith in Christ. This happens especially wherever religious freedom is still not guaranteed or fully realized. It happens, however, even in countries and areas which, in principle, protect freedom and human rights but where, in practice, believers, and especially Christians, encounter restrictions and discrimination. So today we remember them and pray for them in a special way.

On Calvary, there at the foot of the Cross, was the Virgin Mary (cf. Jn 19:25-27). She is Our Lady of Sorrows, whom we shall celebrate tomorrow in the liturgy. To her I entrust the present and the future of the Church, so that we may all always be able to discover and welcome the message of love and salvation of the Cross of Christ.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 14 September 2014]

XXII Sunday in O.T.  B  (1 September 2024)

1. "This great nation is the only wise and intelligent people". The statement is found in the first reading from the book of Deuteronomy and refers to what everyone could say about Israel when it remains faithful to the Covenant. The Creator's plan is that, attracted by the example of this small people who chose themselves as the driving force of humanity, the day will come when people from every continent will ask to be part of the people of the new covenant and will be able to shout with joy that they have finally found the joy of living and living together with the one God, God of all peoples.  The biblical texts of this XXII Sunday of Ordinary Time help us to discover what is the snag, rather the obstacle to the realisation of such a divine dream.  The first reading taken from Deuteronomy (written between the 8th and 6th centuries B.C.) attributes the speech to Moses, although in truth it is many years after his death, but it is as if it is intended to repeat what he would have said at that time if he were alive. Here it is insisted that nothing be added and nothing be taken away from the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai because unfortunately the people had drifted away over time and it was urgent to reaffirm the essentials of the Jewish faith, that is, the observance of the Torah that keeps the Covenant alive over the centuries. The Covenant between Yahweh and his people has two inseparable aspects. On the one hand, God faithfully fulfilled what he had promised (a land to his people), while the same cannot be said of Israel's response. Indeed, from the moment he entered the promised land, the land of Canaan, he could not resist the temptation to abandon the one God and his precepts (mitzvot) to turn to the idols of those peoples. The Lord had given him the land for him to live in in a holy way, and the term 'holy' (Kadosh) indicates someone or something that is distinct from the rest, for good or evil, and could be translated as 'separate'. We speak of a holy land, but it would be better to say "separate land", a land given to Israel to live in in a different way, and this means at least three things. Firstly, it is a land destined to be the homeland of a people that is happy because it is faithful to its God; secondly, it is a land called to become a land of justice and peace because the people has learnt from the mouth of its God that it is not the only people in the world and that it must therefore learn to cohabit with others. From this point of view, the long biblical history of Israel can be read as a path of difficult conversion from violence to fraternal openness to others. Thirdly, the Holy Land constitutes in the divine plan the space to learn to live entirely according to the Torah. We then understand the command of the Lord: "Now, Israel, listen to the laws and regulations that I teach you, that you may put them into practice, so that you may live in and possess the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is about to give you". If this text dates back to the time of the exile in Babylon, it could be interpreted as follows: Israel would never have lost this Land if it had followed the Torah and the commands of its God, but now that it is about to re-enter it, it seeks at least this time to be faithful to what guarantees its happiness. Being faithful for Israel, however, did not appear easy and that is why the sacred author, to encourage it, invents a new argument: "hearing of all these laws", that is, seeing the life and style that animates it, the other peoples will say: "This great nation is the only wise and intelligent people". Here we hear the echo of the book of Proverbs that considers the acceptance of Wisdom (Pr 9:1-6 that we heard last 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time) the best way to learn to live. Finally, a final argument: the sweetness of life under the Covenant is the unique spiritual experience Israel was privileged to have: . "What great nation has gods so close to it, as the Lord our God is close to us whenever we call upon him?"

2. In turn, we, the baptised people, can paraphrase and repeat: "What great nation has the gods as close as the Lord is to us every time we call upon him?" This question provokes us, and to attempt an answer we must start from another word of Jesus that we find today in the gospel: "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me by teaching doctrines that are the precepts of men". We are in the midst of a dispute with the Pharisees who rebuke his disciples for not observing the Torah. Mention is made here of the "tradition of the ancients": the word tradition repeated in verses 3 and 5 is not to be understood in a derogatory sense. On the contrary, it constitutes the richness of what the ancestors tried to teach about the divine Law and codified, in the form of precepts, the behaviour pleasing to God, concerning every smallest detail of daily life. This is why the Pharisees considered the observance of such discipline indispensable to preserve the identity of the Jewish people. Israel felt itself a "separate" nation to belong to God and therefore any contact with pagans constituted an impediment to its fidelity to the Covenant. This is why the Pharisees are indignant against Christ's disciples for going against the Law by eating without washing their hands.  Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus calls them "hypocrites" and this severity of his calls them "hypocrites" and implies a fundamental problem that challenges our lives. In truth, Jesus also quotes the Scriptures that are for all the supreme reference of every choice and says: "This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me". Herein lies the problem: the faithful observance of every norm of the Law becomes a useless cult if the doctrines that are taught are reduced to human precepts, as the prophets had already declared several times (Cf. Is 29:13). Jesus says: Neglecting the commandment of God, you keep the tradition of men". Which commandment of God he is referring to, which the Pharisees and scribes trample on, Jesus does not say, but rebukes them for "having their hearts far from God". He returns often in the Gospel to this rebuke of the Lord - fighting against any exclusion made in the name of God and this is the underlying canvas of his disputes with the religious authorities. One misunderstands the divine law if one believes that to approach God one must separate oneself from other men. On the contrary, the prophets deployed every energy to make it clear that true worship pleasing to Heaven begins with respect for every human person. If we read in Leviticus: "Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy" (19:2), let us not forget that the same God is announced by Isaiah as the God of forgiveness (Is 43) who can never lead to contempt for others. And Jesus then explains what true "purity", that is, authentic worship rendered to God, consists of. If in the biblical sense "purity" means the way of approaching God, the true purity of heart, as many prophets have repeated, is love and forgiveness, tenderness and acceptance: in a word, mercy, while the impurity that condemns in his adversaries is the hardening of the heart because it is what comes out of the human heart that makes us impure.

3. For Jesus then turns to his disciples and thus completes his teaching: For from within, that is, from the hearts of men, come forth evil intentions: impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and make man impure. It must be acknowledged that this is a difficult teaching to understand not only for the Pharisees, but also for us. It is, however, a lesson of life that we can only fully understand and accept because God came to dwell among us, showing by his example not to be afraid of contact with the impure beings that we are. And to encourage the disciples immediately afterwards, Jesus leaves for a region inhabited by pagans.  As in Christ's time, there is the risk of the Pharisees, which was the religious movement that arose around 135 BC out of a desire for sincere conversion. The term Pharisee means 'separate' and translates into the rejection of all political compromise and laxity in religious practice. These are two deeply felt problems and Jesus never attacks the Pharisees or refuses to talk to them, as he does with Nicodemus (Jn 3) and Simon ( Lk 7). But the pretension to the highest spiritual and religious ideal can have its pitfall: the rigour of observance can generate a conscience so centred on the pursuit of the optimum, that it despises those who do not achieve it. More profoundly, when one conceives of perfection in living exclusively and 'apart' one forgets that God's plan is to see all men united in love. If Jesus sometimes uses harsh words, it is not against the practice of the Pharisees, but he condemns those deviations concerning what is called 'Phariseeism', and no religious movement, including Christianity, is exempt from this risk.

Have a good Sunday and a happy month of September 

+Giovanni D'Ercole 

(Lk 6:39-42)

In the assemblies of the first centuries the baptized were called «enlightened», people capable of orienting themselves, choosing and making autonomous.

The Lord did not allow his intimates to take on the role of "guides" in the life of others (v.39).

The apostles of all times must only announce and remain disciples, that is, pupils of the Spirit - not experts.

God's Way is Christ himself. Person that can’t be communicated by teachers.

Global Truth: it is not an “information” that fills empty heads and useless events redundant with exteriority.

The context of today's passage abolishes judgment, in the ideal of a personal existence transformed into wealth and gift - which ridicules any tendency of domination.

No one is master of the fate and personality of those who do not orient themselves, otherwise everyone goes astray (v. 39) - even with the best of intentions.

Jesus himself neither commanded nor directed, but educated and helped.

The rabbis got paid: He offered everything, living with his disciples for a mutual identification (but with loose meshes).

Transparent and creative attitude: this is the true and only norm of conduct for the apostles of all times, often unable to grasp their own blindness - because they are still one-sided.

Again, of a plant it is not the size and appearance that count, but the Fruit (vv. 43-45).

All the more reason to re-emphasize that church animators are not superior to others, nor are they the repositories of absolute truths.

In fact, Jesus is incomparable: sui generis Master (v.40).

He does not have a classroom furnished with a Chair and desks. And He still teaches along the way: there introduces us to meet ourselves, our brothers and the surrounding reality (in a process, on a journey).

He doesn’t hold quiet glossary, compilation or moralistic lessons: He amazes.

He does not reinterpret the tangle of knowledge, customs and archaic dispositions - authentic «beams» (vv. 41-42) stuck in the free eye of the soul, which deform its gaze.

He proposes his Person and his Life. As well as his reproaches - but precisely those and not other (obvious) volatile as «motes» (vv.41-42).

This while the false teachers considered themselves friends of God and recipients of obvious recognition.

From how they behaved, they seemed to feel distinctly superior not only to the people, but to the Master himself (v.40).

So He dubbed them for what they are: «hypocrites» (v.42). In the Greek language it means actors, people who act.

Jesus warns his disciples [who in words gladly call him “Lord”: v.46] of the presumption of being captains of the troop.

There is only one Master who directs and knows where to go; and each person is unique - perhaps inexperienced and believed to be blind, but who sees better than the big names.

These, from their bad treasure, will bring out - just around the corner - the «ugly and corrupt» for others too [vv. 43-45; Greek text].

Instead, the man of Faith still experiences a new Beauty inside, which wants to express itself and remain at first hand - not be satisfied with tearing a "mediocre draw".

Worst of ditches (v.39) in which we fall together.

[Friday 23th wk. in O.T.  September 13, 2024]