Uncovering and opening "synagogues": unusual crossroads of Tenderness

(Mk 2:1-12)

Paralysis and punishment: different Tenderness [introduction].

The episode bears witness to the harsh clash between the synagogue and the first fraternities of Faith, where without prior conditions of ritual or legal purity all were invited to share the table and the breaking of bread.

On the Lord's ideal delegation, a fraternal practice (unknown to others) of mutual forgiveness and even cancellation of contracted debts, up to the communion of goods, was already in force in the early churches.

A reality capable of putting any person back on their feet and moving forward, even the wretched - starting with their conscience (v.3), stifled by a religion that accentuated the sense of unworthiness.

According to popular belief, conditions of penury or misfortune were a punishment.

Jesus, on the other hand, is the One who restores a horizon of authenticity to believing, new awareness and hope to the person suffering from paralysis - that is, unable to go towards God and towards men.

"I say to you, get up, take your stretcher and go to your house" [Mk 2:11; cf. Mt 9:6; Lk 5:24].

Starting from what we are - that is, already resourceful, beyond all appearances - we live by Faith the same state as the "Son of Man" (v.10).

Such is the requirement of the Risen in the Lord: those who manifest the Person in fullness - in the divine condition.

In Christ we can free ourselves from the constraints that made us live horizontal, prone and ankylosed.

Recovering dignity, we can now stand upright and promote life; thus return to the House that is truly ours [Mk 2:10-12; cf. Mt 9:6-7; Lk 9:24-25].

For the experts, the forgiveness announced by the Lord is not only an offence against their supposed prestige and spiritual rank, but a sacrilege and blasphemy.

After all, how else can the masses - on the part of these destructive leaders - be appealed to, if not by intimidating them and making them feel inadequate, sterile, incapable, unempowered, with no way out?

The whole life of the people was conditioned by obsessions of impurity and sin.

Instead, the Master reveals that the divine propensity is only to forgive in order to enhance - and the attitude of - the man of Faith, to be born again and to help do so.

Indeed, the Father's gratuitousness is seen in the action of expectation and understanding exercised by the most authentic men of God: those capable of chiselling healthy environments.

Not only by their own virtue, but because tolerance introduces new, unknown forces; different powers, which overturn situations.

They allow other energies to pass through, creative and regenerating to the unhealthy - conversely deadly, unfortunately, where one does not promote oneself.

Only Jesus is the One who makes visible and manifest the healing that seemed mission impossible. And before physical, making us flourish again from the fears of false morality or devotion, which imposes absurd curbs on autonomy.

The young Rabbi's proposal does not drown us under a heap of impersonal arrogance. It heals the blocked, puts them back in the race.

"Jesus has the power not only to heal the sick body, but also to forgive sins; and indeed, physical healing is a sign of the spiritual healing that his forgiveness produces. In fact, sin is a kind of paralysis of the spirit from which only the power of God's merciful love can free us, enabling us to get back up and get back on the path of good" [Pope Benedict, Angelus 22 February 2009].

The Lord's "brothers" [cf. parallel passages Mt 9:1-8 and Lk 5:17-26] do all they can to lead the needy to the Master.

Often, however, they find themselves before a crowd of hijackers of the Sacred that does not allow for a face-to-face, personal, immediate relationship.

The critical impetus and love for the needs of the needy for a full life must then overcome the 'cultural', ethical, doctrinal and ritualistic sense of belonging - which only traces and reiterates.

Unfortunately, no sign of joy from the authorities [Mt 9:3; Mk 2:6-8; Lk 5:21] - but people are enthusiastic [Mt 9:8; Mk 2:12; Lk 5:26]. Why?

Another kind of world

Jesus teaches and heals. He does not announce the God of religions, but a Father - an attractive figure, who does not threaten, nor punish, but welcomes, dialogues, forgives, makes one grow.

The opposite of what was conveyed by the official guides, linked to the idea of an archaic, suspicious and prejudiced divinity, which discriminated between friend and foe.

The Father expresses himself in non-oppressive forms, in the manner of the family and inter-human covenant: he does not enjoy the perfect, sterilised and pure - he offers his Love to all without requirements.

For imperfection is not an expression of guilt, but a condition - and in any case sin is not an absolute force (v.7).

It is this awareness that gives rise to liberated people and a new order: 'to forge bonds of unity, of common projects, of shared hopes' [Fratelli Tutti, n.287]. 

The Lord's co-workers bring to Him all the paralytics, that is, those who are stuck and continue to lie in their stretchers (where perhaps those of common opinion have laid them down).

These are people whose lives seem to proceed neither in the direction of the true God nor to others. Nor can they meet themselves.

Only personal contact with Christ can release these vegetating corpses from their depressing pond.

The friends of God "come bringing to him a paralytic borne by four" (Mk 2:3): they come from everywhere, from the four cardinal points; from very different, even opposite origins - which you would not expect.

They expose themselves to lead the needy to the Master, but sometimes find themselves in front of an impermeable crowd [precisely, of hijackers of the Sacred] that does not allow a direct, face-to-face personal relationship.

They do not let us in - instead we want to put ourselves before Him (v.4): sometimes we are like blackmailers and subjected to procedures, otherwise you do not pass; you are out.

Paraphrasing Pope Francis's third encyclical again, we could say that even in the selective or hierarchical access paths of Faith "the lack of dialogue means that no one, in the individual sectors, is concerned with the common good, but rather with obtaining the advantages that power procures, or, at best, with imposing one's own way of thinking" [no.202].

What to do? A dismantling action, without diplomatic negotiations or requesting permission - an overthrow (of proximities, pyramids and gateways) completely emancipated from reverential fears!

A work very pleasing to the Father... and which the Son values as an expression of Faith (v.5)!

Faith that thinks and believes in "an open world where there is room for everyone, which includes the weakest and respects different cultures" [FT n.155].

Some insufferable 'synagogues' conversely advocate 'a binary division' [FT No.156] that attempts to classify.

There are exclusive, refractory cliques and clubs which claim to appropriate poor Jesus... backwards.

Hence their congregations or 'synagogues' or 'houses of prayer' must be uncovered and thrown wide open (v.4) - with extreme decisiveness.

Such 'seats' turn God's presence on earth upside down and disrupt the lives of the derelicts, who have real urgencies - not interest in cultivating unintelligible formulas, cultic purities or other sophistications.

No more proper compliments, mirrors for the larks à la page, and 'proper' customary procedures!

Only in the concreteness of the incarnate Faith does man regenerate and discover his own divine powers - which are then the humanising ones: to put himself and his brothers and sisters back on their feet.

With Christ, one advances without any more regulated authorisations to be begged at times to scandalous dummies that make life pale.

So, let us note that there are no steps taken, but only unusual initiative overcomes the pond of devout structures taken hostage by regulars or disembodied thinkers.

Where one would only have to queue up, wait one's turn, settle... be content with ready-made organisational charts, and doze off, or disperse.

The critical impetus and love for the full, discerning life needs of all of us in need must overcome the sense of feigned collective compactness.

It must outclass all 'cultural', moral, doctrinal and ritual affiliations - which it only makes up and reiterates.

Thus, no sign of joy from the authorities (vv.6-7) who only draw negative diagnoses - while the people are enthusiastic (v.12).

Obviously, the customary and the 'new' unchurched judge Jesus to be a blasphemer: they have been uneducated 'in this fear and distrust' [FT no.152].

They do not love humanity, but rather their worldview, their doctrines, their codes, their milestones; a few beautiful rubrics - from purely ritualistic holiness. All papier-mâché.

They do not protect people, but only their vested interests, correct protocols and acquired positions; possibly fashions of thought for their own benefit. Ropes that get in the way of our development.

In short, we are called upon to choose in a very unusual way, compared to the cliché of wicked preaching - which has never been able to reconcile esteem... with imperfection, error, diversity.

According to the Gospels, there is another, decisive crossroads: the path of defending the privileges of a caste that gags God in the name of God, or the path of the impelling, universal desire to live fully, to the full.

To this we are called, as opposed to conformist ways: to choose in an unusual, profound and decisive way, to reconcile de-centred uniqueness, truth, imperfection, our exceptionalism.

Otherwise, the soul rebels. It wants to be with Jesus at the front, not behind the crowd, even of believers - démodé or glamour.

The passage from the Synoptics makes it clear that the problem of the 'paralytic' is not his discomfort, his sense of oppression, his apparent misfortune. 

These are not the breaks in the relationship with life and with God.

On the contrary, the impediment becomes a paradoxical reason to seek 'therapy', and vis-à-vis.

Unthinkable - perhaps insulting - to the outline.

The eccentric configurations, considered miserable, in fact contain secret doors, immense virtues, and the cure itself.

Indeed, they guide towards a new existence. They urge, and 'oblige' us to an immediate relationship with our Lord. Almost as if seeking His likeness.

Breathing in the common thought and tracing the trajectories of others, even those considered "intimate to God", the stiffening would have remained.

No unpredictable Salvation would have broken through.

In short, according to the Gospels there is only one non-negotiable, crossroads, decisive value: the desire to live fully, in a truly integrated way; in the first person.

Unusual crossroads of Tenderness and Faith.

To internalise and live the message:

What arouses your sense of admiration for the Power of God? Are you enthusiastic about physical or inner miracles?

Where do you most frequently hear: 'Son, your sins are forgiven [...] Get up and go'? Do the others seem healthy and spiritual environments to you?

What kind are your works of faith? In sectors?

Marked by successful milestones and negotiations with the distrustful installed (so that they are accepted and mistaken for Tenderness)?

98. We are all very familiar with the episode of the paralytic who was brought to Jesus to be cured (cf. Mk 2:1-12). For us today, this man represents all our brothers and sisters in Africa and elsewhere who are paralyzed in different ways and, sadly, often in great distress. In the light of the challenges that I have described briefly, drawing on the comments of the Synod Fathers, let us reflect on the attitude of those who carry the paralytic. He himself cannot come close to Jesus without the assistance of those four people of faith who braved the physical obstacle of the crowd as a sign of their solidarity and their complete trust in Jesus. Christ “saw their faith”. He then removes the spiritual obstacle when he says to the paralysed man: “Your sins are forgiven”. He removes what prevents the man from rising. This example invites us to grow in faith and, in turn, to show solidarity and creativity in relieving those who bear heavy burdens, thus opening them to the fullness of life in Christ (cf. Mt 11:28). Before the obstacles, both physical and spiritual, that stand before us, let us mobilize the spiritual energies and the material resources of the whole body which is the Church, convinced that Christ will act through the Holy Spirit in each of her members.

[Pope Benedict, Africae munus]

1. Jesus Christ, Son of Man and God: this is the culminating theme of our catechesis on the identity of the Messiah. It is the fundamental truth of Christian revelation and faith: the humanity and divinity of Christ on which we shall have to reflect more fully later. For now, we would like to complete our analysis of the messianic titles already present in some way in the Old Testament and see in what sense Jesus attributes them to himself.

As for the title "Son of Man", it is significant that Jesus used it frequently when speaking of himself, while it is the others who call him "Son of God", as we shall see in the next catechesis. Instead, he called himself "Son of Man", whereas no one else called him that, except the deacon Stephen before the stoning (Acts 7:56) and the author of the Apocalypse in two texts (Acts 1:13; 14:14).

2. The title "Son of Man" comes from the Old Testament from the Book of the Prophet Daniel. Here is the text describing a night vision of the prophet: "Looking again in the night visions, behold, there appeared in the clouds of heaven one like a son of man; he came and was presented to him, who gave him power and glory and a kingdom; all peoples, nations and languages served him; his power is an everlasting power, which never fades, and his kingdom is such that it will never be destroyed" (Dan 7:13-14).

And when the prophet asks for an explanation of this vision, he receives the following answer: "The saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess it for ever and ever . . . then the kingdom and the power and the greatness of all the kingdoms that are under heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High" (Dan 7:18, 27). The text of Daniel is about an individual person and the people. We note immediately that what refers to the person of the Son of Man is found in the words of the angel in the annunciation to Mary: "he will reign forever . . . and his kingdom will have no end" (Lk 1:33).

3. When Jesus calls himself 'Son of Man' he uses an expression from the canonical tradition of the Old Testament and also found in the Jewish apocrypha. It should be noted, however, that the expression "Son of Man" (ben-adam) had become in the Aramaic of Jesus' time an expression simply indicating "man" ("bar-enas"). Jesus, therefore, by calling himself "son of man", almost succeeded in hiding behind the veil of common meaning the messianic significance the word had in prophetic teaching. It is no coincidence, however, that if utterances about the "Son of Man" appear especially in the context of Christ's earthly life and passion, there is also no lack of them in reference to his eschatological elevation.

4. In the context of the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, we find texts such as: "The foxes have their dens and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matthew 8: 20); or also: "The Son of Man has come, who eats and drinks, and they say, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners" (Matthew 11: 19). At other times the word of Jesus takes on a value more strongly indicative of his power. Thus when he says: 'The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath' (Mk 2:28). On the occasion of the healing of the paralytic lowered through an opening in the roof he states in an almost defiant tone: 'Now, so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, I command you,' he said to the paralytic, 'get up, take up your bed and go home' (Mk 2:10-11). Elsewhere Jesus declares: "For as Jonah was a sign to those in Nineveh, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation" (Lk 11:30). On another occasion it is a vision shrouded in mystery: "A time will come when you will long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see him" (Lk 17:22).

5. Some theologians note an interesting parallelism between the prophecy of Ezekiel and the utterances of Jesus. The prophet writes: "(God) said to me: 'Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites . . . who have turned against me . . Thou shalt say to them, 'Says the Lord God'" (Ez 2:3-4). "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a race of rebels, who have eyes to see and do not see, have ears to hear and do not hear . . ." (Ez 12:2) "You, son of man . . . keep your eyes fixed on it (Jerusalem) which will be besieged . . . and you will prophesy against it" (Ez 4:1-7). "Son of man, prophesy a riddle telling a parable to the Israelites" (Ez 17:2).

Echoing the words of the prophet, Jesus teaches: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost" (Lk 19:10). "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45; cf. also Mt 20:28). The "Son of Man" . . . "when he comes in the glory of the Father", he will be ashamed of those who were ashamed of him and his words before men (cf. Mk 8:38).

6. The identity of the Son of Man appears in the dual aspect of representative of God, herald of the kingdom of God, prophet calling to conversion. On the other hand, he is the "representative" of men, whose earthly condition and sufferings he shares in order to redeem and save them according to the Father's plan. As he himself says in his conversation with Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whoever believes in him may have eternal life" (Jn 3:14-15).

It is a clear proclamation of the passion, which Jesus repeats: "And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly, and be reproved by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and then be killed, and after three days rise again" (Mk 8:31). Three times in Mark's Gospel (cf. Mk 9:31; 10:33-34) and in each of them Jesus speaks of himself as the "Son of Man".

7. By the same appellation Jesus defines himself before the tribunal of Caiaphas, when to the question: "Are you the Christ, the blessed Son of God?" he replies: "I am! And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven" (Mk 14:62). In these few words echoes Daniel's prophecy about the "Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven" (Dan 7:13) and Psalm 110 that sees the Lord seated at the right hand of God (cf. Ps 110:1).

8. Repeatedly Jesus speaks of the elevation of the "Son of Man", but he does not hide from his listeners that it includes the humiliation of the cross. To the objections and incredulity of the people and disciples, who well understood the magic of his allusions and yet asked him: "How then do you say that the Son of Man must be elevated? Who is this Son of Man?" (Jn 12:34), Jesus asserts: "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am and do nothing of myself, but as the Father has taught me" (Jn 8:28). Jesus states that his "elevation" by the cross will constitute his glorification. Shortly afterwards he will add: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12: 23). It is significant that at Judas' departure from the Upper Room, Jesus says "now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God also has been glorified in him" (Jn 13:31).

9. This constitutes the content of life, passion, death and glory of which the prophet Daniel had offered a pale sketch. Jesus does not hesitate to also apply to himself the character of an eternal and everlasting kingdom that Daniel had assigned to the work of the Son of Man, when he proclaims to the world: "Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory" (Mk 13:26; cf. Mt 24:30). It is in this eschatological perspective that the Church's work of evangelisation must take place. He warns: "You will not have finished going through the city of Israel before the Son of Man comes" (Mt 10:23). And he asks: "But will the Son of Man, when he comes, find faith on earth?" (Lk 18:8).

10. If, as the "Son of Man", Jesus realised by his life, passion, death and resurrection, the messianic plan outlined in the Old Testament, at the same time he assumes by that same name his place among men as a true man, as the son of a woman, Mary of Nazareth. Through this woman, his Mother, he, the 'Son of God', is at the same time the 'Son of man', a true man, as the Letter to the Hebrews attests: 'He became truly one of us, in all things like us except sin' (Heb 4:5; cf. Gaudium et Spes, 22).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 29 April 1987]

Faith is "a gift" that one does not buy or acquire on one's own merits. Inspired by the liturgy of the day, Pope Francis, in the Mass celebrated on Friday 15 January at Santa Marta, continued to speak about the characteristics of faith.

Recalling how the previous day's Gospel had presented the episode of the leper who says to Jesus: "If you want, you can heal me", the Pontiff dwelt on the figures of others who are "resolute", others who are "courageous" driven by faith. In taking up the passage from Mark (2:1-12), Francis retraced the episode of the paralytic brought by his friends before Jesus. Who, "as usual, is among people, many people". In order to bring the sick man to him, the friends dared everything, 'but they did not think of the risks' involved in 'putting the stretcher on the terrace' or even the risk 'that the owner of the house would call the police and send them to jail'. They, in fact, 'thought only of approaching Jesus. They had faith'.

This is, the Pope said, the "same faith as that lady who also, in the midst of the crowd, when Jesus went to Jairus's house, reached out to touch the flap of Jesus's robe, of Jesus's mantle, to be healed". The same faith as the 'centurion who said: "No, no, master, do not trouble yourself: only one word from you, and my servant will be healed". A faith that is 'strong, courageous, that goes forward', with an 'open heart'.

At this point, however, Francis stressed, "Jesus takes a step forward". To explain what he said, the Pontiff recalled another Gospel episode, the one in which Jesus "in Nazareth, at the beginning of his ministry, had gone to the synagogue and said that he had been sent to free the oppressed, the imprisoned, give sight to the blind... inaugurate a year of grace, that is, a year - one can understand well - of forgiveness, of drawing closer to the Lord". He was pointing, that is, to a new road, 'a road to God'. The same thing happens with the paralytic to whom he does not simply say: 'Be healed', but: 'Your sins are forgiven'.

With this novelty, the Pope pointed out, Jesus triggered the reaction of "those whose hearts were closed". They 'already accepted - up to a certain point - that Jesus was a healer'; but that he also forgave sins was 'too much' for them. They thought: 'You have no right to say that, because only God can forgive sins'.

Then Jesus retorts: "Why do you think these things? So that you may know that the Son of Man has the power - and here, Francis explained, is "the breakthrough" - to forgive sins. Arise, take and heal". Jesus begins to speak the language 'that at a certain point will discourage people', a harsh language, with which he 'speaks of eating his body as the way to salvation'. He begins, that is, to "reveal himself as God", which he will later do clearly before the high priest by saying: "I am the Son of God".

A step forward that is also proposed to the faith of Christians. Each one of us, in fact, can have faith in "Christ the Son of God, sent by the Father to save us: yes, save us from sickness, so many good things that the Lord has done and helps us to do"; but above all we must have faith that he came to "save us from our sins, save us and bring us to the Father". This, Pope Francis said, is "the most difficult point to understand". And not only for the scribes "who said: 'But, this blasphemes! Only God can forgive sins!"". Some disciples, in fact, "doubt and leave" when Jesus shows himself "with a mission greater than that of a man, to give that forgiveness, to give life, to recreate humanity". So much so that Jesus himself "must ask his small group: 'Do you also want to leave?'".

From Jesus' question, the Pontiff took the cue to invite everyone to ask themselves: "What is my faith in Jesus Christ like? Do I believe that Jesus Christ is God, is the Son of God? And does this faith change my life? May it be renewed in my heart in this year of grace, this year of forgiveness, this year of drawing near to the Lord?"

It is an invitation to discover the quality of faith, aware that it "is a gift. No one 'deserves' faith. No one can buy it". For Francis, it is necessary to ask: "Does "my" faith in Jesus Christ, lead me to humiliation? I do not say to humility: to humiliation, to repentance, to prayer that asks: 'Forgive me, Lord' and that is able to testify: 'You are God. You 'can' forgive my sins'".

Hence the concluding prayer: "May the Lord make us grow in faith" so that we may do as those who, having heard Jesus and seen his works, "marvelled and praised God". Indeed, "praise is the proof that I believe that Jesus Christ is God in my life, that he was sent to me to 'forgive me'". And praise, the Pontiff added, "is free. It is a feeling that gives the Holy Spirit and leads you to say: 'You are the only God'".

[Pope Francis, s. Marta, in L'Osservatore Romano 16/01/2016]

The leper and the Touch

(Mk 1:40-45)

Jesus' Touch sums up His life, teaching and mission. God is all off the line, and not afraid of contaminating Himself - not even with an individual covered in disease and cracks (v.40).

No leper could approach anyone - let alone a man of God - but Mk wants to emphasize that it is the usual way of understanding "religion" that makes impure.

Legalistic norms marginalize people and blame them, make them feel dirty inside - inculcating that sense of unworthiness that negatively affects evolution.

Of course, made transparent in God, we all catch ourselves full of evils. But this must not mark our history.

In Christ poverty becomes more than a hope (vv.40-42).

His Love is symptomatic and engaging, because he doesn’t wait for perfections first.

The Source of Freedom transforms, and does not modulate generosity on the basis of merits - on the contrary, needs.

The religious norm accentuated exclusions and chastished the poor to solitude. The leper had to live far away.

But having realized that only the Person of the Lord could clean him, he set aside the Law that had put him in punishment for vacuous prejudices.

Mk means: we must not be afraid to denounce with our own initiative that some customs are contrary to God’s plan.

Watch out for models!

To help one’s neighbour who is judged impure, precarious and contaminated, the Son also transgresses the religious directives.

It required to be on guard against lepers - suffering from an evil corroding inside, very image of sin.

That gesture imposes the ‘practice of risk’, although by rule of religion He himself with his Touch becomes a polluted to heal and keep distant (v.45) - deprived of rights.

But He reveals the face of the Father: He wants each of us to be able to live with others and be accepted, not segregated - reinterpreting the primordial prescriptions (v.44).

He is saying his own intimates, who already in the first communities showed strange tendencies: you are obliged to welcome in everything even the misfits, those out of the loop and miserable, and let them take an active part in the liturgies, in the meetings, in the joy of the festivities.

Beautiful such a subversion! It combines the divine and human traits, in an incomparable way.

Overturning that offers us the purity of God and entrusts our uncertainty to Him: precisely, only eversion that gathers many crowds «from every side» (v.45).

Really lovable Proposal, free of forcing and dissociations. For each, without hysterical tares.

Wisdom that transmits self-esteem and will amaze us with blooms. Complicity of a God finally not unpleasant.

Eternal who makes himself Present in the very foundation and sense of the divine-human place on earth: his Vineyard of inapparent people.

In this way He can break down the barriers of "religious" defects, and make everyone feel ‘adequate’.

[Thursday 1st wk. in O.T.  January 16, 2025]

The leper and the Touch

(Mk 1:40-45)

"He who proclaims makes God's own desire, who pines for the distant. He knows no enemies, only fellow travellers. He does not stand as a master, he knows that the search for God is common and must be shared, that the closeness of Jesus is never denied to anyone" [Pope Francis].

The nameless leper represents us. And the Touch of Jesus sums up his life, teaching and mission.

It manifests itself especially when the environment marginalises the uniqueness of the soul, and a part of us seems impatient, wants the new.

Certain established aspects no longer belong to us. Such moral certainty in the soul is a precious spy, not to be silenced.

In the restless, ill-judged person there is often an external - conditioned - aversion and an intuitive, internal one too.

We are not placated by the artificial lifestyle we lead, almost forced - or even by the very idea of us.

So we ask: is there any therapy to the mechanisms that do not belong to us, and to those that we instinctively consider in our character, outdated?

Yes, because discomfort can become knowledge: it is a primordial language that can guide us towards change.

Disaffection and the perception of estrangement give rise to new awareness.

Discontent generates shock, dreams of expectation, hence the now unpostponable Exodus.

Where to look for trust and support, to overcome automatisms?

In the Living One Himself, who is all off the rails, and is not afraid to defile Himself - not even with an individual covered in disease and cracks ["leper": v.40].

No one with 'leprosy' or skin disease could approach anyone - least of all a man of God - but Mc wants to emphasise that it is the customary way of understanding religion [and one's 'place'] that makes one unclean.

Legalistic norms marginalise people and guilt them, make them feel dirty inside - inculcating that sense of unworthiness that negatively affects their evolution.

Of course, made transparent in God, we all catch ourselves full of evil. But this must not mark our history, because of fallibility; with a cloak of insuperable identifications.

In this way, perception does not disintegrate into torment. On the contrary, relentlessly shifting gaze presents horizons, suggests paths, triggers even transgressive reactions - at least from the point of view of intransigent indictments, all far removed from real life.

We are challenged even by the banality of concatenations, but our today and tomorrow may not result from our yesterday [fabric of any, predictable sentences].

In Christ, poverty becomes more than a hope (vv.40-42). So, beware of models!

One does not have to be 'worldly and precise' to have 'then' the right to present oneself to God: his Love is symptomatic and engaging, because it does not wait for the other's perfections first.

The Source of the Free transforms and makes it transparent: it does not modulate generosity on the basis of merits - on the contrary, of needs.

The archaistic religious directive accentuated exclusions - thus chastising the infirm to solitude, to social marginalisation.

The leper had to live apart. But having realised that only the Person of the Lord could make him 'pure', he set aside the Law that had chastised him for vacuous prejudices.

Mk means: do not be afraid to denounce by your own initiative that certain customs are contrary to God's plan.

As a matter of fact, there is no way to get close to Christ (i.e. to have a personal relationship) without each of us inventing a chance that dribbles the usual people around Him - and absolutely does not follow their mentality.

The devout or sophisticated environment will try to curb any individual eccentricity.

But in our relationship with God and to realise life, it is decisive that we remain lovers of direct communication.

In every condition we are in eccentric dialogue with the regenerative and superior Source; passionate about the experience of love, which does not exist without freedom.

To help the precarious brother on whom the sentence of impurity hangs - "neighbour" seen as inappellably defiled - even the Son transgresses the religious prescription!

In order to remain undefiled, the sacred precept required to be on guard against lepers - afflicted with an evil that corrodes within, the very image of sin.

That unscrupulous gesture also imposes on us overly considerate people the practice of risk, of demystification.

Indeed, by rule of religion the Lord himself with his Touch becomes a polluted person to be healed and kept at a distance (v.45) - disenfranchised.

However, by reinterpreting the prescriptions of the beginning (v.44) Jesus reveals the face of the Father: he wants each of us to be able to live with others and be accepted, not segregated. 

He is saying to his own, who were already showing strange tendencies in the first communities: you are obliged to welcome in everything even the misfits, outcasts and wretches, and let them take an active part in the liturgies, the meetings, the joy of the feasts.

The Risen One (v.45) continues to suggest to us, challenging public opinion:

"The certificate of healing I will provide, to the people you make feel guilty. My church leaders are not to endorse, but only to note that I have absorbed the fault of the missing - indeed, it will become astonishment in me'.

A truly amiable proposal, free of forcing and dissociation.

In the attitude of an inverted spirituality - neither selective nor empty - here we are driven to the enthusiastic proclamation of the concrete experience each person has with the person of Christ.

This even if at first it may be lacking, because He does not like to be considered a triumphant king of this world (v.44a).

Beautiful, however, is this subversion: that which unites divine and human traits in an incomparable way.

For each, without hysterical tares.

Reversal that offers us God's purity and entrusts our uncertainty to Him: indeed, the only "scandalous" subversion that brings together many crowds "from all sides" (v.45).

Indeed, the Tao Tê Ching (LXIII) says:

"He plans the difficult in his easy, he works the great in his small: the most difficult undertakings under heaven certainly begin in the small. That is why the saint does not work the great, and thus can complete his greatness'.

This is natural Wisdom, which conveys self-confidence, and will amaze us with flourishes. Complicity of a God who is finally not unpleasant.

Eternal One who makes Himself Present in the very foundation and meaning of the divine-human place on earth, His Vineyard of inapparent.

Thus he can break down the barriers of 'religious' defects, and make everyone feel adequate.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you challenge the public opinion of your time, to foster the practice of equality, freedom, convivial love?

Have you ever marvelled at your shadow sides, which have become precious pearls, of unprecedented value?

Have you encountered passionate guides, who taught you to love your religious flaws?

Ritual purity is completely incidental

The evangelical proclamation of 'beatitude', of happiness, retains and increases its full validity today, when Catholics and all people of good will throughout the world are invited to express their solidarity with their leprous brethren with a concrete and active gesture.

Leprosy! The very name, even today, inspires in everyone a sense of dismay and horror. We know from history that this feeling was strongly perceived among the ancients, particularly among the peoples of the East, where, for climatic and hygienic reasons, this disease was very much felt. In the Old Testament (cf. Lev 13-14) we find detailed and minute case histories and legislation regarding those afflicted by the disease: ancestral fears, the widespread conception of fatality, incurability and contagion, forced the Jewish people to use the appropriate preventive measures, through the isolation of the leper, who, considered in a state of ritual impurity, found himself physically and psychologically marginalised and excluded from the family, social and religious events of the chosen people. Moreover, leprosy was a mark of condemnation, as the disease was considered a punishment from God. All that remained was the hope that the power of the Most High would heal the afflicted.

Jesus, in his mission of salvation, often encountered lepers, these beings disfigured in form, deprived of the reflection of the image of the glory of God in the physical integrity of the human body, authentic wrecks and refuse of the society of the time.

Jesus' encounter with lepers is the type and model of his encounter with every man, who is healed and brought back to the perfection of the original divine image and readmitted to the communion of God's people. In these encounters Jesus manifested himself as the bearer of new life, of a fullness of humanity long lost. Mosaic legislation excluded, condemned the leper, forbade approaching him, speaking to him, touching him. Jesus, instead, shows himself, first of all, sovereignly free with respect to the ancient law: he approaches, speaks, touches, and even heals the leper, heals him, restores his flesh to the freshness of that of a child. "Then there came to him a leper," we read in Mark, "begging him on his knees and saying to him, "If you want, you can heal me! Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said, "I will, heal him!" Immediately the leprosy disappeared and he was healed" (Mark 1:40-42; cf. Matth. 8:2-4; Luc. 5:12-15). The same will happen to ten other lepers (cf. Luc. 17: 12-19). "The lepers are healed! ", this is the sign that Jesus gives for his messianicity to the disciples of John the Baptist, who came to question him (Matth. 11:5). And to his disciples Jesus entrusts his own mission: "Preach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand . ., heal the lepers" (Matth. 10: 7 ff.). He also solemnly affirmed that ritual purity is completely ancillary, that the truly important and decisive one for salvation is moral purity, that of the heart, of the will, which has nothing to do with the stains of the skin or of the person (Ibid. 15, 10-20).

But the loving gesture of Christ, who approached the lepers, comforting and healing them, has its full and mysterious expression in the Passion, in which he, tortured and disfigured by the sweat of blood, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the crucifixion, the exclusionary rejection of the people already benefited, comes to identify himself with the lepers, becomes the image and symbol of them, as the prophet Isaiah had intuited when contemplating the mystery of the Servant of Yahweh: "He has no appearance or beauty.. despised and rejected by men . . like one before whom one covers one's face, ... and we judged him chastened, beaten by God and humiliated" (Is. 53:2-4). But it is precisely from the wounds of Jesus' mangled body and the power of his resurrection, that life and hope spring forth for all men affected by evil and infirmity.

The Church has always been faithful to the mission of proclaiming the Word of Christ, combined with the concrete gesture of solidarity and mercy towards the least. Over the centuries, there has been an overwhelming and extraordinary crescendo of dedication to those afflicted by the most humanly repugnant diseases, and in particular leprosy, whose gloomy presence continued to persist in the eastern and western worlds. History makes it clear that it was the Christians who first became interested and concerned about the problem of lepers. Christ's example had set a school and was fruitful in solidarity, dedication, generosity, and selfless charity.

In the history of Christian hagiography, the episode concerning Francis of Assisi has remained emblematic: he was young, like you; like you he sought joy, happiness, glory; yet he wanted to give total and definitive meaning to his own existence. Among all the horrors of human misery, Francis felt an instinctive repugnance for lepers. But lo and behold, one day he encountered one, while on horseback near Assisi. He felt great revulsion, but, not to fail in his commitment to become a 'knight of Christ', he leapt from the saddle and, as the leper extended his hand to receive alms, Francis handed him money and kissed him (Cf. TOMMASO DA CELANO, Vita seconda di San Francesco d'Assisi, I, V: "Fonti Francescane", I, p. 561, Assisi 1977; S. BONAVENTURA DA BAGNOREGIO, Leggenda maggiore, I, 5: ed. cit, p. 842).

The great expansion of the Missions in modern times has given new impetus to the movement in favour of the leprous brothers. In all regions of the world the Missionaries have encountered these sick, abandoned, rejected, victims of social and legal disqualifications and discrimination, which degrade man and violate the fundamental rights of the human person. The missionaries, out of love for Christ, have always proclaimed the Gospel even to lepers, they have tried by all means to help them, to cure them with all the possibilities that medicine, often primitive, could offer, but especially they have loved them, freeing them from loneliness and incomprehension and sometimes sharing their lives fully, because they saw in the disfigured body of their brother the image of the suffering Christ. We wish to recall the heroic figure of Father Damien de Veuster, who spontaneously chose and asked his Superiors to be segregated among the lepers of Molokai, to remain with them and to communicate to them the hope of the Gospel, and finally, stricken by the disease, shared the fate of his brothers until his death.

But with him we wish to remember and present to the admiration and example of the world the thousands of missionaries, priests, religious men and women, lay people, catechists, doctors, who have wanted to be friends of the lepers, and whose edifying and exemplary generosity is today a comfort and a spur to us, to continue the human and Christian "fight against leprosy and all leprosy", which is rampant in contemporary society, such as hunger, discrimination, underdevelopment.

[Pope Paul VI, Homily XXV World Leprosy Day 29 January 1978].

Dear brothers and sisters!

[...] in his public life Jesus healed many sick people, revealing that God wants life for human beings, life in its fullness. This Gospel (Mk 1:40-45) shows us Jesus in touch with a form of disease then considered the most serious, so serious as to make the person infected with it “unclean” and to exclude that person from social relations: we are speaking of leprosy. Special legislation (cf. Lev 13-14) allocated to priests the task of declaring a person to be “leprous”, that is, unclean; and it was likewise the priest’s task to note the person’s recovery and to readmit him or her, when restored to health, to normal life.

While Jesus was going about the villages of Galilee preaching, a leper came up and besought him: “If you will, you can make me clean”. Jesus did not shun contact with that man; on the contrary, impelled by deep participation in his condition, he stretched out his hand and touched the man — overcoming the legal prohibition — and said to him: “I will; be clean”.

That gesture and those words of Christ contain the whole history of salvation, they embody God’s will to heal us, to purify us from the illness that disfigures us and ruins our relationships. In that contact between Jesus’ hand and the leper, every barrier between God and human impurity, between the Sacred and its opposite, was pulled down. This was not of course in order to deny evil and its negative power, but to demonstrate that God’s love is stronger than all illness, even in its most contagious and horrible form. Jesus took upon himself our infirmities, he made himself “a leper” so that we might be cleansed.

A splendid existential comment on this Gospel is the well known experience of St Francis of Assisi, which he sums up at the beginning of his Testament: “This is how the Lord gave me, Brother Francis, the power to do penance. When I was in sin the sight of lepers was too bitter for me. And the Lord himself led me among them, and I pitied and helped them. And when I left them I discovered that what had seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness in my soul and body. And shortly afterward I rose and left the world” (FF, 110).

In those lepers whom Francis met when he was still “in sin” — as he says — Jesus was present; and when Francis approached one of them, overcoming his own disgust, he embraced him, Jesus healed him from his “leprosy”, namely, from his pride, and converted him to love of God. This is Christ’s victory which is our profound healing and our resurrection to new life!

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 12 February 2012]

My beloved brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,

Your presence arouses in me tenderness and compassion, some of the feelings that Jesus Christ felt when he received the sick. He bent over human suffering, over the wounds of the body, and revived serenity, confidence and courage in people's hearts. I would like this visit to have the same spiritual effect; and I would like to have more time to talk to each one, because I love you very much, I suffer seeing you suffer and I want to comfort you all.

And why do I love you? Because you are human persons, loved by God, and by his son Jesus Christ, who suffered so much for you, because the Catholic Church, like Jesus Christ, loves you and will do all it can for you.

I am leaving; but I ask Monsignor Bishop - who is your great friend and to whom this work of Cumura is due - and the doctors, nurses and all those who assist you, that they do you all the good that the Pope would wish you if he could remain here with you. And I leave you, as a reminder, the message that, from here and now, I address to the whole Church, with an appeal on your behalf.

Do not let yourselves be defeated! Suffering always has value. It can teach the world what love like the love of Jesus means. And may this life of yours serve to help your neighbour, to receive and transmit moral strength; and, if you are Christian, may you transmit the power of renewal and the joy of Christ. He rose from the dead so that all might have access to eternal life. Your suffering can make the world a better place, if you are friends of God and friends of each other, if you unite serenity, confidence and courage with the progress of medicine and the goodwill of those who care for you with love.

I will never forget you and I trust in your friendly remembrance. I will pray for you and rely on your prayers. I impart to you with all my heart the Apostolic Blessing.

[Pope John Paul II, Leprosarium in Cumura, Guinea Bissau, 28 January 1990]

[...] The evangelist Mark is telling us of Jesus' action against all kinds of evil, for the benefit of those who suffer in body and spirit: the possessed, the sick, sinners... He presents himself as the one who fights and overcomes evil wherever he encounters it. In today's Gospel (cf. Mk 1:40-45) this fight of His confronts an emblematic case, because the sick person is a leper. Leprosy is a contagious and merciless disease, which disfigures the person, and was a symbol of impurity: the leper had to stay out of built-up areas and signal his presence to passers-by. He was marginalised by the civil and religious community. He was like the walking dead.

The episode of the healing of the leper unfolds in three short passages: the invocation of the sick person, Jesus' response, and the consequences of the prodigious healing. The leper begs Jesus "on his knees" and says to him: "If you wish, you can cleanse me" (v. 40). To this humble and trusting prayer, Jesus reacts with a profound attitude of his soul: compassion. And 'compassion' is a very profound word: compassion that means 'suffering-with-another'. Christ's heart manifests God's paternal compassion for that man by approaching him and touching him. And this detail is very important. Jesus "stretched out his hand and touched him ... and immediately the leprosy disappeared from him and he was cleansed" (v. 41). God's mercy overcomes all barriers and Jesus' hand touches the leper. He does not place himself at a safe distance and does not act by proxy, but exposes himself directly to the contagion of our evil; and so it is precisely our evil that becomes the place of contact: He, Jesus, takes from us our sick humanity and we take from him his healthy and healing humanity. This happens every time we receive a Sacrament with faith: the Lord Jesus 'touches' us and gives us his grace. Here we think especially of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which heals us from the leprosy of sin.

Once again, the Gospel shows us what God does in the face of our evil: God does not come to "lecture" us on pain; neither does he come to eliminate suffering and death from the world; rather, he comes to take upon himself the weight of our human condition, to carry it to the end, to free us radically and definitively. This is how Christ fights the evils and sufferings of the world: by taking them upon himself and overcoming them with the power of God's mercy.

To us, today, the Gospel of the healing of the leper tells us that, if we want to be true disciples of Jesus, we are called to become, united with him, instruments of his merciful love, overcoming all kinds of marginalisation. To be "imitators of Christ" (cf. 1 Cor 11:1) when faced with a poor person or a sick person, we must not be afraid to look them in the eye and approach them with tenderness and compassion, and to touch and embrace them. I have often asked people who help others to do so by looking them in the eye, not to be afraid to touch them; that the gesture of helping is also a gesture of communication: we too need to be welcomed by them. A gesture of tenderness, a gesture of compassion... But I ask you: when you help others, do you look them in the eye? Do you welcome them without fear of touching them? Do you welcome them with tenderness? Think about this: how do you help? At a distance or with tenderness, with closeness? If evil is contagious, so is good. Therefore, good must abound in us, more and more. Let us be infected by the good and let us infect the good!

[Pope Francis, Angelus 15 February 2015]

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

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

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

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

I will just follow the text with a few comments: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+Giovanni D’Ercole