In all religions, man is invited to bind himself to the divine blessing in order to receive light and strength by submitting to its authority.

The dilemma of the Roman assemblies - reflected here - is whether to close or conversely open the circuit of the sacred.

And whether to customise, or back down and repeat.

The passage from Mark associates the icons of the sea, the cemetery, the wandering possessed, and the Roman legions.

The perspective is that of our baptismal purification in Christ, which drowns impurity and the germs of death.

In Semitic literature, the image of the 'sea' alludes to disordered, aimless forces that do not conform to God's plan for man.

Powers that generate chaos in our existence.

'Cemetery' is the bitter panorama of a world that loses the foundation of its being and becoming.

Circle assiduously forced to grope... to solve problems and not permanently lose the wave of life.

The 'swine' is a figure of that kind of irretrievable contamination [a symbol of paganism] that prevented the human being from having a relationship with God - and feeling his welcome.

'Legion' is the name of every power (here religious, political and military) that stifled yearnings for happiness, producing bewilderment, marginalisation, inner division.

Milieu and determining factor of processes that worsened the same congenital indigence.

Imperial ideology was threatening and destructive. It appealed to people's fears in order to subdue their consciences.

This was the situation of the people - crumbling inside - before the arrival of Jesus.

The legions then ideologically manipulated popular beliefs about demons - to shatter singular personalities, and accentuate the surrender of the already oppressed masses.

Conversely, in the experience of the victory of life over death, the early Christian communities experienced breath of Faith and the return to self - as a therapy of the soul.

They experienced a kind of disproportion and self-control - despite defeats in preaching.

The ancient assembly that once had a horror of contamination began to open the doors of the purist ghetto, making everyone participate.

The church was breaking away from the beliefs common in the capital of the empire, which conveyed perverse competitions, and to the weak a sense of mortifying awe - a lack of autonomy and conscience.

Of course, the early heralds were quick to realise that the new sense of freedom produced a twofold feeling: the oppressed man does not always want to be freed from his alienations and torments.

Jesus fascinates and dismays. He brings down the flimsy bonds and common idols.

His Message is decisive and beneficial, but it forces one to upset habits, goals, and all closures.

God is not a ticket inspector

(Mk 5:18-20)

We are called to a more intense enjoyment of existence and to a new "Witness".

The latter is not about effort, renunciation, or easy moralising.

The Lord does not want us to mix with the sick officialdom of those who crowd around him, but rather to walk our own path.

Jesus' invitation (Mk 5:19) astounds.

Ideological demons deaden the being, and are to be cast out - despite the devout masses being satisfied with this.

Perhaps people have become accustomed to harbouring them in the environment to which they remain attached; and by now they consider them part of the unavoidable landscape (Mk 5:1-17).

Here, then, is the adventure of Faith - based on one's experience of God.

In this way, the Baptismal Announcement has the "task" of broadening the orientation and dilating Heaven-earth communication.

This starts from the extraordinariness of the person. For the joy of all.

The Prophet disturbs the ancient balances because he does not adapt to the quiet life.

He goes against the tide... out of a need for the intimate hearth, which he feels like a burning, unquenchable bonfire.

He goes against not the opinion of others, but the ever-fresh, crystal-clear water of the ongoing Source.

The innate paradigm that lurks in the Calling imparts to him the vision of a course, an instinct to proceed. Even the essential equipment.

Impulse of life - or exodus - that enables one to set out towards that address, absolute because it is unrepeatable.

The natural interface of the route nestles in the deep identity of each one.

Its extraordinary uniqueness, incomparable and unusual, manifests itself in privileged emotional inclinations - and in personal eccentricities - often already detectable at an early age.

The Vocation reveals itself to the soul in a burning desire and through a true image [unique to each, even dreamy but lasting] perceptible to the inner eye, which periodically peeps out.

It is perhaps the panorama of a future situation - not only individually unrepeatable and singular (or otherwise).

It possesses the authentic perfection of even relational character of the divine condition. But with its own point of view - albeit communal and festive - which echoes perseveringly and accompanies the way forward.

Interacting with the surroundings and also by contrast, each root will bear fruit.

But any distraction from one's character will become a tiring labyrinth....

Normally there is a struggle between the individual divine spark and the restriction of the addictive environment, already endowed with its own convoluted perceptions.

Consequently, the difficulty of the journey is guaranteed by that hidden icon that is our real and ideal reach.

This is worth far more than the reassurances lavished by preponderant knowledge - on the spot - or dexterity and discipline.

Realising oneself will rhyme with relying, but in the opposite of the ancient sense.

In fact, to achieve one's aspirations, one does not have to improve by imitating 'right' models and become skilled, or impose greater efforts on oneself.

As Pope Francis reiterated: "God is not a ticket inspector".

To realise the dream of life one does not have to fixate, obey external voices, and sweat.

Rather, one must let go of one's innate nature, one's quintessence: therein lies the secret of our Happiness.

Here, even by partial attempts and momentary mistakes that recalibrate, everyone finds their own way and realises themselves. He does not always stand in the starting blocks, nor does he feel inferior to his more entitled friends.

He has gained the confidence to please himself and the Father.

Because it produces attractive effects, its spontaneous beauty also involves others.

And it is the one who has found a way to throw off so much ballast: the old artificial posturing, with useless and static things.

By taking a turn... we get back in touch with the ancient energy of exceptional inclination - even in our aches and pains.

In pious life, in order to grow, one must normally submit oneself to an expected task, and - if one really wants to excel - exhaust oneself in rigid procedures, which have already been done by others.

Thus one can hope to make a religious, even spiritually athletic or catwalk 'career' - to be co-opted into the upper echelons of bon ton.

The soul that instead runs in the track of its completeness gets out of the way of the swamp mentality (discouraging the unusual) to head towards a new birth and childhood.

Genesis and developments that reactivate interests, or our 'ball' - and spread wings of vivacity. Waves that belong to us.

Amazing exemplarity.

To internalise and live the message:

From what alienating power has Faith in Christ saved you?

Back into yourself or something else? What matters to you in community? The healing of dissipated humanity or the usual bonding - insubstantial and to be precipitated - with common idols?

Faith, caricatures and a different Dishipleship

Mk 5:18-20 [Lk 9:57-62].

For the Semites, parental figures indicate the link with ethnicity, tradition, past, and cultural environment.

Jesus seems to exclude the correlation to such figures, although he addresses his own exclusively and singularly.

He never speaks of fathers, but of the Father - who is not a repeater.

He therefore imposes on all a horizontal cut with the customs that could delay or condition his Calling, the profound discovery of the meaning of events, the emergence of a new mentality, the Following.

He diversifies the Vocations, to make each one understand the intimate character, by Name, of the Covenant relationship in the Faith - which does not depersonalise as in religions.

Symbiosis with the surrounding mentality or intellectual knowledge itself can paradoxically obscure precisely the intelligence of the unrepeatable inclinations that in our innermost being manifest the Creator's incomparable signature.

The authentic Appeal grasps woman and man in an exclusive and penetrating way, in the uniqueness of their experience. What Covenant and Mission would they be otherwise?

Sometimes the best thing to do for oneself and one's neighbour is to cut an umbilical cord, and to distance oneself from the expectations of people one habitually associates with.

This decision is essential in order to be able to seek the meaning of the Spirit which is only Personal Love - and becomes the true Passion.

This is where the inner state of individuation and independence must be present to the soul.

By frequenting the same conformist circles, one identifies oneself with people and situations: one thus blocks the centre of expectations and dreams. The doors to other worlds, to another realm, are not opened.

The personality wants its own space of autonomy, because life in its fullness is to experience a fresh cascade of rebirth in Christ - partying together, but standing on one's own two feet.

Impossible for our nature... but the Source of being leads us as a skilful director, always from newness to newness. And his profound Wisdom will make us dance - even if we have never learnt to dance in style. 

What kind of life of faith would it be that pretends to stem the waves of the open sea to keep us always in the most familiar, reassuring bay?

Leaning on family, on friends, on addicted opinion, on the creek of the club or the beach of the movement [in short, wanting to resemble in order to immediately gain consensus] does not allow us to experience new genesis.

Jesus is peremptory, because the choice is decisive.

He who keeps his head down or backwards - or in confrontation - cannot experience the adventure of Faith; he does not live, but drags along the religion of the dead.

He who only stands in the future and has no sense of reality experiences illusions. But he who stays in the past or with the models, stays with skeletons (not only in the wardrobe) and does not perceive the sense of change.

They easily become obsessed or brooding, chronicling. While the novelty of stimuli could introduce him into a chain of unexpected leaps.

This is why hammering family and cultural ties can take away the intensity or character of the Calling by Name.

They erode its necessary space, which is invaded by too many Sirs - who do not belong to us and we do not want. They only block the hidden mechanisms.

In the passionate exodus with Jesus, the pleasure of the Vocation cannot allow others' [and conforming] inclinations to spill over, pervade, occupy our personal world and time.

In order to hear and make the Call to Mission one's own, it is necessary to build an eminent, unassailable, friendly; guarded sphere of the Self - whose pace and horizons we learn to take in time.

This individuating sphere, with its boundaries protected from interference, will help us in the Dialogue of Prayer. And it will distance us from the danger of being absorbed by the common mentality; impersonal, accommodating.

The defence of such dense non-institutional privacy becomes the spring and thrust of our committed life, which does not back down.

In time, such a nest will teach us to express the quality of relationships in an unadorned, but genuine way - even full disagreement with the external winning and empowering, if banal, mentality.

He who chooses otherwise will sooner or later have to compensate for the cut (of himself) with gratifications of various kinds, which will distance him from his own face and from the ideal that intimately corresponds to it.

[Even a dreamy naughtiness can serve to rediscover the intimate Core of the person, the sacred of each].

We are not called upon to conform to a neutral goodness that only wants to be liked on the outside, perhaps because it is afraid of being excluded from the circle or misjudged - even the opposite.

Behind the outlines of each person's personality lies a pearl, which in order to be able to make significant contributions according to the Lord's plan must manifest its own unique nuances.

Especially in the spousal relationship with God, one must not adapt oneself to roles that deeply do not belong to us.

Over time, compromise becomes a habitus that makes one lose the natural tendencies: in them are nested the chromosomes of the Vocation.

The realisation of the unrepeatable missionary nature does not take place according to character, or established and widespread principles - concordist and successful - nor because we go hand in hand with the whole world of veterans [or the "à la page" world].

As opposed to adapting and allowing ourselves to be influenced by irenicism, at a certain point we deviate, to follow the inner Friend who knows where to lead us and does not know the act of agreeing in any case.

Otherwise, having lost the energy-Person and the goal leading to the destination, the Oneness pales in the mediations that hold us hostage - behind outdated events, lines of thought and roles.

Finally, one loses sight of one's founding Eros, which was meant to move desires, our way of knowing the world and activities.

[Result: a Nucleus now blurred, a Source that recycles and does not gush as before, dispersed in the thousand rivulets of transformisms - cunning shortcuts for a career without jolts].

Here, then, are the great dances on nothingness: that of missed dangers - staged as quiet compensation precisely by those whom Christ would call "empty shells" ["makers of vain things": Lk 13:27 original text].

Not infrequently, it is precisely the caste or herd objectives linked to tribal and sectorial thinking that consolidate - they take over from the specific weight and intimacy of values, replaced by facile and conformist slogans or adult slogans that plagiarise existence.

Every missionary knows that entrusting life to mannered, serious and quiet opinions, reassuring initiatives or textbook choices, bears no fruit, indeed it becomes counterproductive.

Concordism seems a refuge that attracts, but it only becomes a den of flattery.

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

Indeed: 'Domestic animals die prematurely. And so do men, whose social conventions forbid spontaneous obedience to the rhythm of universal life'.

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

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

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

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

The suggestion of the past to perpetuate, the snare of narrow judgements and the ties of circle can rob us of hidden wealth, stealing the present and the future: this is the real mistake to avoid!

What is important is not to restore the situation, to copy the ancients or the acclaimed and strong, to identify ourselves in order to be quiet and not to fail, but to renew ourselves in order to evolve, to grow, to expand, to amaze.

Otherwise our awkward problems will always be the same and there will be no exuberant Path nor Promised Land, but only a vicious circle of regrets or fake reassurances.

To live the Faith of the real moment - one that does not give up and puts things in line - one cannot be a repeating schoolboy of the place or the fashions, the time or the day before.

He takes care of our health in the fullest sense. Jesus demonstrates this in the Gospel: He has healed the sick of all kinds, but He has also freed the possessed, forgiven sins, raised the dead. Jesus revealed that God loves life and wants to free it from all denial, even the radical denial that is spiritual evil, sin, the poisonous root that pollutes everything. For this reason, Jesus himself can be called the "Health" of man: Salus nostra Dominus Jesus. Jesus saves man by placing him once again in the salutary relationship with the Father in the grace of the Holy Spirit; he immerses him in this pure and life-giving current that loosens man from his physical, psychic and spiritual "paralysis"; he heals him from hardness of heart, from egocentric closure, and makes him taste the possibility of truly finding himself by losing himself for love of God and neighbour. Unde origo, inde salus. This motto recalls many references; I will just recall one, the famous expression of St Irenaeus: "Gloria Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei [est]" (Adv. haer. IV, 20, 7). Which could be paraphrased thus: the glory of God is the full health of man, and this consists in being in deep relationship with God. We can also say it in terms dear to the newly born John Paul II: man is the way of the Church, and the Redeemer of man is Christ.

[Pope Benedict, meeting with the world of culture, art and economics 8 May 2011]

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

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

[Papa Giovanni Paolo II, Redemptor hominis]

Against the strategy of the devil, who plays "the polite" and even rings the doorbell presenting himself as a friend, Pope Francis warned celebrating Mass on Friday 12 October at Santa Marta. Prayer, examination of conscience, as well as "vigilance and calm" as Isaiah taught, are the right answers to unmask the devil's wiles and not end up "on the road to mediocrity and worldliness".

"The devil, when he takes possession of a person's heart, remains there, as if at home, and does not want to leave," the Pontiff said. "That's why so many times when Jesus casts out demons, they try to ruin the person, to do harm, even physically," he said, suggesting to think "of that little boy, whom the father presents to Jesus so that he may be healed, that is, so that the demon may be cast out. And when he comes out the demon leaves him as if dead on the floor. He doesn't want to come out when he's inside. He doesn't want to come out."

"Jesus so many times in the Gospels cast out demons, who were his real enemies and our enemies," Francis pointed out. "The struggle between good and evil," he explained, "sometimes seems too abstract: the real struggle is the first struggle between God and the ancient serpent, between Jesus and the devil". And 'this struggle takes place within us: each of us is in a struggle, perhaps unbeknownst to us, but we are in a struggle'.

Referring to the Gospel passage from Luke (11:15-26) proposed by the liturgy, the Pope pointed out that "Jesus casts out this devil", but "there are always the bad tongues that begin to say: 'but this is a healer, he too has a secret pact with the devil; this is a farce: he casts them out with the permission of their leader, that is, of Beelzebubl'".

This is exactly how, the Pope recalled, "this Gospel passage begins, with a discussion between Jesus and these people". But "let us leave this discussion aside," the Pontiff continued, "and let us go to the end of the Gospel passage. What happens? At the end, the devil is cast out and leaves. And that man, that woman, that boy, that girl, becomes free, liberated, happy, healed, but healed right in the deepest wound of the soul'.

At this point, however, "what does the devil do? Some make a massacre; think of those who were called "legion", because they were many, and when Jesus drives them away they ask him to go to the pigs and there they make a massacre of pigs, because the task of the devil is to destroy. This is his vocation: to destroy the work of God'. In reality, Francis relaunched, "no one can say 'no, I know a devil who does not behave like this'" because "the essence of the devil is to destroy". Yet "we are like children, many times we suck our finger and believe: 'no, but it's not like that, they are inventions of the priests, no, it's not true'".

"In the Gospel the devil destroys," the Pontiff explained, "and when he cannot destroy face to face, because in front of him there is a force of God that defends the person, the devil is more cunning than a fox, he is cunning, and he looks for a way to take possession of that house, that soul, that person". The Gospel passage from Luke repeats to us the words of Jesus: "When the unclean spirit comes out of a man, he wanders about in deserted places seeking relief - that is, he does not know what to do, he does not know what to destroy - and, not finding any, he says: 'I will return to my house - from where Jesus drove him out - from which I came out'".

The devil, the Pope noted, "even in speaking presents himself politely", so much so that he says: "I have gone out". No, in reality 'you have been cast out'. The Gospel passage goes on to point out that the devil, once back in the house from which he had been driven out, "finds it swept and adorned - oh, he likes it! - and so he goes, takes seven other spirits worse than himself, enters and takes up residence there, and the condition of that man becomes worse than the first'. He in fact, Francis insisted, 'before he was, so to speak, a possessed man, because the devil was in there and would not leave him; now he continues to be a possessed man, but without his knowledge'.

"When the devil - said the Pontiff - cannot impose himself by force, cannot destroy a person by clear vices, cannot destroy a people with wars, persecutions, he thinks of another strategy and, dear brothers and sisters, it is the strategy he uses with all of us" And in fact "we are Christians, Catholics, we go to Mass, we pray: everything seems to be in order, yes, we have our faults, our little sins, but everything seems to be in order".

So the devil "plays 'polite': he goes, he sees, he looks for a nice clique, he knocks on the door - "permission? may I come in?" - rings the bell and these polite devils are worse than the first ones, because you don't realise that you have them at home". And 'this is the worldly spirit, the spirit of the world'. 

"The devil either destroys directly with vices, with wars, with injustices directly," the Pope further explained, "or he destroys politely, diplomatically in this way outlined by Jesus". In short, he added, "they don't make noise, they make friends, they persuade you - 'No, it goes, it doesn't do much, no, but it's fine up to here' - and they take you on the road of mediocrity, they make you a 'lukewarm' on the road of worldliness". And it is not easy to realise this: '"Father, I do not have an enemy at home" - "But look, when you go to bed, between the sheets there is a scorpion" - "But it is a friendly scorpion, it does no harm"'. And in doing so 'we fall into this spiritual mediocrity, into this spirit of the world: "But these things are not so bad"'. And "the spirit of the world ruins us, corrupts us from within".

"I tell you: I am more afraid of these demons than of the first ones," Francis stated. And so "when they tell me: 'we need an exorcist because a person is possessed by the devil', I don't worry as much as when I see these people who have opened the door to polite demons, to those who persuade from within that they are not so much enemies: 'We are friends'". Because, as today's Gospel says, 'the last condition of that man becomes worse than the first'.

So the Pontiff relaunched: 'I many times ask myself what is worse in a person's life: a clear sin or living in the spirit of the world, of worldliness? That the devil throws a sin at you - even, not one, twenty, thirty sins, but clear ones, that you are ashamed of - or that the devil is at the table with you and lives, lives with you and it is all normal, but there, he gives you insinuations and possesses you with the spirit of worldliness?"

"I am reminded," the Pope confided, "of Jesus' prayer at the Last Supper: 'Father, I ask you for these, defend them from the spirit of the world'". And "the spirit of worldliness is this: that which the educated demons bring".

"Let us pray, without fear" is the Pontiff's invitation, who wished to recall Isaiah's warning to Ahaz. "When once, the people of Israel saw a great army coming against them, capable of destroying everything, they became afraid and the prophet, in the name of God said: 'watch and calm'". And so, Francis said, "in front of these polite demons who want to enter through the front door like wedding guests, we say: 'vigilance and calm'".

So 'vigilance is the message of Jesus, Christian vigilance'. And in conclusion the Pope also suggested some questions for an examination of conscience on this point: "What is going on in my heart? Why am I so mediocre? Why am I so lukewarm? How many 'educated' people live at home without paying rent?"

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 13/10/2018]

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

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

III Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+Giovanni D’Ercole

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

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

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

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

I will just follow the text with a few comments: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

+Giovanni D’Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

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

Epiphany of the Lord [6 January 2025]

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

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

*Responsorial Psalm (71/72) 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRAYER TO THE HOLY TRINITY FOR THE GIFT OF FAITH

Lord, sustain my Faith!

O My Lord, O My God

with deepest faith I am prostrate here to Thee.

Thou art Hope Certain in whom I am made safe!

Thou art Mercy, in Thee all things draw me!

Thou art Charity, Thou all-given to me!

Thou art Eternal Love in whom my heart is quenched!

For this immense Gift

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

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

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

I believe, I believe

In thee One and Triune God, my One Lord!

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

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

Thou, Divine Spirit, Who confirmest me in it.

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

in the Holy Sacrifice of the God who becomes Son,

grant that I may always find Food, Comfort and Strength

and Water that purifies,

to make me steadfast and holy,

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

By the sure hand of Virgo Purissima

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

Firm and secure in abiding

In the bosom of thy Holy and Beloved Bride,

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

+ Giovanni D'Ercole