Undeviating Happiness

(Mt 5:17-19)

 

In the early congregations, some believers believed that First Testament regulations should no longer be considered, since we are saved by Faith and not by works of Law.

Others accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but resented the excess of freedom with which some church brothers experienced his Presence in Spirit.

Still tied to an ideal ethnic background, they felt that the ancient observance was obligatory.

Precisely under the guise of "life in the Spirit", there was no shortage of believers enraptured by an excess of fantasies (personal or group), believed to be "inspired".

Some with an easy-going mentality, prone to compromise with power, denied the Hebrew Scriptures and considered themselves disengaged from history: they no longer looked at the story of Jesus.

 

Mt sought a balance between compromising emancipation and closure in observances, believing that communal experience could achieve harmony between different sensibilities.

He writes his Gospel precisely to support converts to the Faith in Christ in the communities of Galilee and Syria, accused by their Judaizing brethren of being unfaithful to the Torah.

The evangelist makes it clear that Jesus himself had been accused of serious transgressions of the Law of Moses.

The Torah arrow was shot in the right direction, but only in the Spirit of the Beatitudes can a living assembly gain momentum to reach the ideal goal: Communion.

 

Matthew is at pains to emphasise that the ancient Scriptures, the historical story of Jesus, and life in the Spirit are to be valued as inseparable aspects of a single plan of salvation.

Lived in synergy, they lead to the fruitful coexistence and conviviality of differences.

The God of the patriarchs makes himself present in the loving relationship of the communities, through the Faith in Christ that expands his own life in their hearts.

The Living One transmits the Spirit that spurs all creativity, overcomes discouraging closures; he opens, and invites.

In short, in us Jesus of Nazareth becomes the living Body - and the taste for doing manifests Him (starting from the soul) in Person and full Faithfulness.

Reaching out to our brothers and sisters and going to God thus becomes agile, spontaneous, rich and very personal for everyone: the Strength comes from within, not from common ideas, legacies, seductions, mannerisms, or external urges.

 

To internalise and live the message:

Has the law in stone remained a rigid thing in you, or do you feel a new Covenant impulse?

Do you perceive within you an actualised and irresistible desire for good, which rediscovers everything of the Scriptures, and energises the Word in the various tastes of doing?

 

 

Demolish or completely Doing

 

Confronted with the precepts of the Law, different attitudes manifest themselves.

On the one hand, there are those who show attachment to the material sense of what is laid down; on the other, omission or disregard for the rules.

Jesus' teaching was so new and radical that it gave the impression of disregard and rejection of the Law. But in fact, rather than disagreeing with it, He was attentive to the spirit and deep meaning of the biblical-Judaic directives.

He did not intend to 'demolish' (v.17) the Torah, but he certainly avoided allowing himself to be minimised in the casuistry of morality.

Such an ethical obsession - still alive in the primitive fraternities - fragmented and crumbled the meaning of the basic choices, and made them all external, without focus.

This produced a de facto legalistic scleroticisation, which easily tended to equate the codes... with God.

But for the believer, his 'obligation' is at once affair, spirit of the Word, and Person: global following in those same incomparable appointments.

 

The believers in the communities of Galilee and Syria suffered criticism from the old-fashioned Jews.

These observant ones accused co-religionists converted to the new personal, creative Faith of being transgressors and contrary to the depth of the common Tradition.

Thus some emphasised salvation by faith alone in Christ and not by works of law. Others did not accept the Freedom that was growing in those who were beginning to believe in Jesus the Messiah.

New, more radical currents already wished to disregard His history and His Person, to get rid of them and take refuge in a generic "avant-garde" or "freedom of spirit" - without backbone, nor backbone or conjuncture.

 

Mt helps to understand the disagreement: the direction of the Arrow shot from the Judaic Scriptures is the right one, but it does not have a concordant and totally clear cue, nor the strength to reach the Target.

The evangelist harmonises the tensions, emphasising that authentic observance is not formal faithfulness [obedience of the "letter"].

The spirit of fundamental fulfilment does not allow one to put the total Christ and his travails in parentheses, perhaps then remaining neutral or indifferent dreamers.

Without reductions in the power of election, nor "putting down" (v. 17) the ways of being, ancient and identified or particular - He is present in the facets of the most diverse currents of thought.

New Words, ancient Words, and Spirit renewing the face of the earth, are part of one Design.

Only in the total fascination of the Risen One does our harvest come to complete life - the full objective of the Law - becoming forever.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

How do you evaluate Pentateuch, Psalms and Prophets?

How do you deal with situations in harmony with the Voice of the Lord and in His Spirit?

“Stand firm in your faith!”  We have just heard the words of Jesus:  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:15-17a).  With these words Jesus reveals the profound link between faith and the profession of Divine Truth, between faith and dedication to Jesus Christ in love, between faith and the practice of a life inspired by the commandments.  All three dimensions of faith are the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit.  This action is manifested as an inner force that harmonizes the hearts of the disciples with the Heart of Christ and makes them capable of loving as he loved them.  Hence faith is a gift, but at the same time it is a task.

“He will give you another Counsellor – the Spirit of truth.”  Faith, as knowledge and profession of the truth about God and about man, “comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ”, as Saint Paul says (Rom 10:17).  Throughout the history of the Church, the Apostles preached the word of Christ, taking care to hand it on intact to their successors, who in their turn transmitted it to subsequent generations until our own day.  Many preachers of the Gospel gave their lives specifically because of their faithfulness to the truth of the word of Christ.  And so solicitude for the truth gave birth to the Church’s Tradition.  As in past centuries, so also today there are people or groups who obscure this centuries-old Tradition, seeking to falsify the Word of Christ and to remove from the Gospel those truths which in their view are too uncomfortable for modern man.  They try to give the impression that everything is relative:  even the truths of faith would depend on the historical situation and on human evaluation.  Yet the Church cannot silence the Spirit of Truth.  The successors of the Apostles, together with the Pope, are responsible for the truth of the Gospel, and all Christians are called to share in this responsibility, accepting its authoritative indications.  Every Christian is bound to confront his own convictions continually with the teachings of the Gospel and of the Church’s Tradition in the effort to remain faithful to the word of Christ, even when it is demanding and, humanly speaking, hard to understand.  We must not yield to the temptation of relativism or of a subjectivist and selective interpretation of Sacred Scripture.  Only the whole truth can open us to adherence to Christ, dead and risen for our salvation.

Christ says:  “If you love me ... ”  Faith does not just mean accepting a certain number of abstract truths about the mysteries of God, of man, of life and death, of future realities.  Faith consists in an intimate relationship with Christ, a relationship based on love of him who loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:11), even to the total offering of himself.  “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).  What other response can we give to a love so great, if not that of a heart that is open and ready to love?  But what does it mean to love Christ?  It means trusting him even in times of trial, following him faithfully even on the Via Crucis, in the hope that soon the morning of the Resurrection will come.  Entrusting ourselves to Christ, we lose nothing, we gain everything.  In his hands our life acquires its true meaning.  Love for Christ expresses itself in the will to harmonize our own life with the thoughts and sentiments of his Heart.  This is achieved through interior union based on the grace of the Sacraments, strengthened by continuous prayer, praise, thanksgiving and penance.  We have to listen attentively to the inspirations that he evokes through his Word, through the people we meet, through the situations of daily life.  To love him is to remain in dialogue with him, in order to know his will and to put it into effect promptly.

Yet living one’s personal faith as a love-relationship with Christ also means being ready to renounce everything that constitutes a denial of his love.  That is why Jesus said to the Apostles:  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”  But what are Christ’s commandments?  When the Lord Jesus was teaching the crowds, he did not fail to confirm the law which the Creator had inscribed on men’s hearts and had then formulated on the tablets of the Decalogue.  “Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets;  I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.  For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Mt 5:17-18).  But Jesus showed us with a new clarity the unifying centre of the divine laws revealed on Sinai, namely love of God and love of neighbour:  “To love [God] with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mk 12:33).  Indeed, in his life and in his Paschal Mystery Jesus brought the entire law to completion.  Uniting himself with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, he carries with us and in us the “yoke” of the law, which thereby becomes a “light burden” (Mt 11:30).  In this spirit, Jesus formulated his list of the inner qualities of those who seek to live their faith deeply:  Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who weep, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake ... (cf. Mt 5:3-12).

[Pope Benedict, homily Warsaw 26 May 2006]

1. "Master what good must I do to obtain eternal life?". "Keep the commandments" (Mt 19:16-17).

This question and this answer come to mind when we listen carefully to the readings of today's liturgy.

The main theme of these readings is indeed that of God's commandments, the Law of the Lord.

2. The Church sings of it today in the Responsorial Psalm:

"Blessed is the man of integrity, / who walks in the law of the Lord. / Thou hast given thy precepts / that they may be faithfully observed. / Let my ways be straight, / in keeping thy decrees . . / Open my eyes that I may see / the wonders of thy law . . .".

And again:

"Show me, O Lord, the way of your precepts / and I will follow it to the end / Give me understanding, that I may keep your law / and guard it with all my heart" (Ps 119:1-34).

The idea contained in the verses of this psalm is so transparent, that it requires no comment.

3. Instead, it is worth adding a brief comment on the words from the book of Sirach, in the first reading:

"If thou wilt, thou shalt keep the commandments: being faithful shall depend on thy good pleasure. He has set fire and water before you; there where you will you shall stretch out your hand. Before men stand life and death; to each shall be given what he pleases" (Sir 15:16-17).

Sirach emphasises the close link that exists between commandment and man's free will: "If thou wilt . . .". And at the same time it shows that on man's choice and decision depends good or evil, life or death, in the spiritual sense.

The observance of the commandments is the way to goodness, the way to life.

Their transgression is the way of evil, the way of death.

4. Now let us turn to the Sermon on the Mount in today's Gospel, according to St Matthew.

Christ says first:

"Think not that I am come to abolish the Law (or the Prophets); I am not come to abolish, but to fulfil".(Matt 5:17).

Whoever transgresses a single one of these precepts, even a minimal one, and teaches men to do likewise, will be considered minimal in the kingdom of heaven. (Ibid. 5, 19)

Whoever, on the other hand, observes them and teaches them to men, will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven. (Ibid.)

And Christ adds:

"Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:17-20).

So the Law, the Commandments, the Rules are important not only in themselves, but also the way of understanding them, of teaching them, of observing them. This must be before the eyes of all those who explain God's law and interpret the principles of Christian morality, in every age and even in contemporary times.

5. And Christ gives three examples of the commandment and its interpretation in the spirit of the New Covenant.

"Thou shalt not kill" (Mt 5:21).

"Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Mt 5:27).

"Thou shalt not perjure" (Mt 5:33).

"Thou shalt not kill" means not only not to take the life of others, but also not to live in hatred and anger towards others. "Do not commit adultery": it means not only not to take another's wife, but also not to covet her, not to commit adultery in the heart.

"Do not perjure yourself . . .", "but I say unto you, swear not at all" (Mt 5:34), but let your speech be true: "yea, yea; nay, nay" (Mt 5:37).

6. What is the Gospel? What is the Sermon on the Mount?

Is it merely a "code of morals?".

Certainly yes. It is a code of Christian morality. It indicates the main ethical demands. But it is more: it also indicates the way to perfection. This way corresponds to the nature of human freedom: to free will. In fact, man, with his free will, can choose not only between good and evil, but also between 'the good' 'the best' and 'the most' in the sphere of morality, also so as not to descend towards 'the least good' or even towards 'evil'.

Indeed, as the book of Sirach continues:

"Great indeed is the wisdom of the Lord; he is all-powerful and sees all things. His eyes are on those who fear him, he knows every deed of men. He has not commanded anyone to be ungodly, nor given anyone permission to sin" (Sir 15:18-20).

And St Paul goes further, when in his first letter to the Corinthians he writes:

"Among the perfect we speak, yes, of wisdom . . .; we speak of a divine, mysterious wisdom, which has remained hidden, and which God foreordained before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this world have been able to know it" (1 Cor 2:6-8).

Those things which God has prepared for those who love him "to us God has revealed them by the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God" (1 Cor 2:10).

7. Dear parishioners of the Roman community dedicated to St Hippolytus! Secure information on the life and work of your patron, as you know, is unfortunately scarce, yet we know with certainty that fact which alone suffices to prove the greatness of his life and holiness: his martyrdom together with Pope Pontian.

Whatever Hippolytus' previous life may have been, he was able to reach the summit of exemplary holiness with that supreme gesture of love for Christ and his vicar on earth. His example is therefore a source of encouragement and hope for you too.

For now, I would like to greet all those present: the Cardinal Vicar, the Bishop of the sector, Monsignor Alessandro Plotti, the parish priest, Father Maurilio Beltramo, the community of Capuchin friars, the Sacramentine nuns, the other priests and religious, who collaborate in the parish activities, all the groups, and the people of God of this portion of the Church, indeed of this small Church that is the parish, image and sign of the universal Church spread throughout the world.

The parish is the normal and concrete medium through which people can get to know the great and mysterious reality of the universal Church. Hence the perennial need for the parish to present, by its very existence, to the world, an image as faithful as possible to the universal Church, contributing actively and responsibly to its construction and development.

I know that your parish population is very numerous and composite in terms of social classes and professions. The harvest is therefore abundant for the workers of the Gospel.

I also know that initiatives, groups, activities are not lacking among you. I recommend that this lively and flourishing pluralism of yours should always know how to express itself on the basis of an unquestioning fidelity to the authentic principles of unity in faith and charity, in communion with your pastors. Such principles in fact underpin the true effectiveness of the many and varied activities.

8. 'Blessed is the man of integrity, who walks in the law of the Lord'.

May these words, taken from today's liturgy, remain with you, dear brothers and sisters, as an expression of the fervent good wishes of the Bishop of Rome on the occasion of today's visit.

Seek God, follow the paths of truth and love: follow them according to the principles of Christian morality, according to the light of God's eternal wisdom.

And may your hearts never cease to be open to the action of the Holy Spirit who "scrutinises everything, even the depths of God".

Amen.

[Pope John Paul II, homily 12 February 1984]

Today’s Gospel reading (cf. Mt 5:17-37) is on the “Sermon on the Mount” and deals with the subject of the fulfilment of the Law: how should  I fulfil the Law, how can I do it? Jesus wants to help his listeners take the right approach to the prescriptions of the Commandments given to Moses, urging them to be open to God who teaches  us true freedom and responsibility through the Law. It is a matter of living it as an instrument of freedom. Let us not forget this: to live the Law as an instrument of freedom, which helps me to be freer, which helps me not to be a slave to passion and sin. Let us think about war, let us think about the consequences of war, let us think of that little girl who died due to the cold [temperatures], in Syria the day before yesterday. So many calamities, so many. This is the result of passion, and people who wage war do not know how to master their passions. They do not comply with the law. When one  gives in to temptation and passion, one is not the master and agent of one’s own life, but rather one becomes  incapable of managing it with willingness and responsibility.

Jesus’ discourse is divided into four antitheses, each one expressed by the formula: “You have heard that it was said... But I say to you”. These antitheses refer to as many situations in daily life: murder, adultery, divorce and swearing. Jesus does not abolish the prescriptions concerning these issues, but he explains their full meaning and indicates the spirit in which they must be observed. He encourages us to move away from the formal observance of the Law to substantive observance, accepting the Law in our hearts, which is the centre of the intentions, decisions, words and gestures of each of us. From the heart come good and bad deeds.

By accepting the Law of God in our heart, one understands that, when one does not love one’s neighbour, to some extent one kills oneself and others, because hatred, rivalry and division kill the fraternal charity that is the basis of interpersonal relationships. And this applies to what I have said about war and also about gossip, because words kill. By accepting the Law of God in our heart one understands that desires must be guided, because one cannot obtain everything one desires, and it is not good to give in to selfish and possessive feelings. When one accepts the Law of God in one’s heart, one understands that one must give up a lifestyle of broken promises, as well as move from the prohibition of perjury to the decision not to swear at all, behaving sincerely to  everyone.

And Jesus is aware that it is not easy to live the Commandments in such an all-encompassing way. That is why he offers us the help of his love: he came into the world not only to fulfil the Law, but also to give us his grace, so that we can do God’s will, loving him and our brothers and sisters. We can do everything, everything, with the grace of God! Indeed,  holiness is none other than guarding God’s freely given  grace. It is a matter of trusting and entrusting ourselves to him, to his Grace, to that freedom that he has given us, and welcoming the hand he constantly extends to us, so that our efforts and our necessary commitment can be sustained by his help, overflowing with goodness and mercy.

Today Jesus asks us to continue on the path of love that he has indicated to us and which begins from the heart. This is the path  to follow in order to live as Christians. May the Virgin Mary help us to follow the path traced by her Son, to reach true joy and to spread justice and peace everywhere.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 16 February 2020]

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

3rd Sunday in Lent (year C)  [23 March 2025]

 

*First Reading from the book of Exodus (3:1-8a.10.13-15)

This text has a fundamental importance for the faith of Israel and also for us because for the first time mankind discovers that it is loved by God, a God who sees, hears and knows our sufferings. Never could man have come so far if God Himself had not decided to reveal Himself, and it is precisely from His autonomous revelation that Israel's faith, and consequently ours, was born. We must grasp the strength of this biblical text, which unfortunately the liturgical translation renders weakly. When we read: "I have seen the misery of my people", the Hebrew text is much more insistent, so it would be more correct to translate it this way, hearing the voice God: "indeed I have seen, yes, I have seen" the misery of my people in Egypt. A real misery as seen in the story of the Hebrew people who emigrated centuries earlier due to a famine, and while things were going well at first, then as their numbers grew, just as Moses was born the Egyptians began to worry. They kept the Hebrews as cheap labour, but wanted to prevent their population growth by having every male infant killed by the midwives. Moses was saved because he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and grew up in his court, but could not forget his origins, constantly torn between his adoptive family and his blood brothers, who were reduced to helplessness and revolt. Until one day he killed an Egyptian who was using violence towards a Jew, but the next day, intervening between two quarrelling Jews, they told him not to interfere, which meant that they did not recognise his responsibility for leading a rebellion against the Pharaoh while Pharaoh had decided to punish him for the murder of the Egyptian. Moses was forced, in order to avoid revenge, to flee to the Sinai desert, where he took as his wife a Midianite, Sipporah, daughter of Jethro, and today's text starts from here. While shepherding his father-in-law's flock, one day he arrived across the desert at the mountain of God, Horeb, where he met God who entrusted him with a great mission. Beware! Moses felt the misery of his brothers and had risked his life for them by killing an Egyptian, but he had to recognise his powerlessness, so he fled, marginalised by his blood brothers who recognised no authority in him. He is therefore a humanly bankrupt man who approaches a strange burning bush and from here his story changes completely. I close with two reflections. The first: Moses encounters the transcendent God and at the same time the near God. Transcendent because one can only approach him with fear and respect, but also the near God, who sees the misery of his people and raises up a deliverer. We grasp God's holiness and man's deep respect for his presence in these expressions: 'the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush'. To indicate God's presence, the periphrasis: "the Angel of the Lord" is used, which is a respectful way of speaking of God, as are the words: "Come no closer! Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground"; and finally "Moses then covered his face, because he was afraid to look towards God". God, however, is revealed as the God who is close to man, the one who stoops to his suffering. The second reflection concerns the way God intervenes: he sees man's suffering, acts and sends Moses. God calls a co-worker, but for the deliverance to take place, the one who is called must accept to respond, and the one who suffers must accept to be saved.

 

*Responsorial Psalm (102 (103), 1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8.11)

In the first reading, the account of the burning bush from the book of Exodus chapter 3, God reveals his Name: 'I am' ... that is, 'with you' in the depths of your suffering. Almost echoing this, the responsorial psalm proclaims: 'Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and great in love'. The two formulations of the Mystery of God: 'I am' and 'Merciful and gracious' complement each other. In the episode of the burning bush, the expression 'I am' or 'I am who I am' should not be taken as the definition of a philosophical concept. The repetition of the verb 'I am' is an idiomatic form of the Hebrew language that serves to express intensity, and God begins by recalling the long history of the Covenant with the Fathers: 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob' to express his faithfulness to his people through the ages. Then he wanted to manifest his compassion for humiliated Israel, enslaved in Egypt, and only then does he reveal his Name 'I am'. Moses' first discovery at Sinai was precisely the intense presence of God in the heart of human despair: 'I have seen,' said God, 'yes, I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cries under the beatings of the overseers. Yes, I know his sufferings. I have come down to deliver them..." Moses retained such a profound memory that he drew from it the incredible energy that transformed him from a lonely man, exiled and rejected by all, into the tireless leader and liberator of his people. However, when Israel remembers this unprecedented adventure, it knows very well that its first liberator is God, while Moses is only its instrument. Moses' 'Here I am' (like that of Abraham, and of so many others later) is the answer that allows God to bring about the liberation of humanity. And, henceforth, when one says "The Lord" - translation of the four letters (YHVH) of God's name - one evokes God's liberating presence. To better understand the mystery of God's presence, we need to go back to the account of the burning bush: the bush burned with fire, but was not consumed (cf. Ex 3:2). God reveals himself in two ways: through this vision as through the word that proclaims his Name. Confronted with the flame that burns a bush without consuming it, Moses is invited to understand that God, comparable to a fire, is in the midst of his people (the bush) as a presence that does not consume or destroy the people; Moses veiled his face and understood that one should not be afraid. Thus came the vocation of Israel, the place chosen by the Lord to manifest his presence and, from then on, the chosen people will testify that God is among men and there is nothing to fear.  The responsorial psalm proclaims this: "Merciful and gracious is the Lord", that is, tenderness and mercy, echoing another revelation of God to Moses (Ex 34:6), and the two merge into a single truth. The psalm continues: 'The Lord does just things, he defends the rights of all the oppressed. He made known to Moses his ways, his works to the children of Israel". God is the same from everlasting to everlasting: he is in our midst, a flame, a fire of tenderness and mercy, and Israel is called to bear witness to this in the world that needs such a message because it suffers if such a fire does not burn there. Hence the preaching of the prophets who always highlight two aspects of Israel's vocation: to proclaim one's faith by revealing the truth of which one is the bearer, and to act in the image of one's Lord, that is, working in justice in defence of the oppressed. All the prophets struggled against idolatry because a people who have experienced the presence of the God who sees their suffering cannot put their trust in idols of wood or stone and at the same time must defend the rights of the oppressed, as Isaiah says: "The fasting that pleases me...is to share your bread with the hungry, to take in the homeless poor, to clothe the naked, not to turn your back on your fellow man" (Is 58:6-7). 

 

*Second reading from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians (10:1-6.10-12)

In order to warn the community of Corinth, as it is important what he is about to say, Paul starts like this: "I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers", he then recalls what happened during the exit from Egypt and ends with "therefore, whoever thinks he is standing, watch that he does not fall", i.e. do not overestimate yourselves as no one is safe from temptation. In the first chapters of the letter, the Apostle warned the Christians of Corinth of the many risks of corruption and immorality, inviting them to be humble. He proposed to them a rereading of the entire history of the people of Israel during the Exodus: a history where God's gifts were not lacking, but man's fickleness always emerges. God promised Moses to be the faithful God, present to his people on the difficult journey towards freedom, through the Sinai desert, but in return on many occasions the people betrayed their Covenant. The Apostle retraces the stages narrated in the book of Exodus, from the departure from Egypt before the crossing of the Red Sea, when the Lord himself had taken over the leadership of operations by marching at their head by day in a pillar of cloud, to show them the way, and by night with a pillar of fire (cf. Ex 13:21-22). From the first encampment, however, the people seeing the Egyptians behind them were afraid and rebelled against Moses: "Perhaps because there were no graves in Egypt, you led us to die in the desert? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt? ... Leave us alone, we want to serve the Egyptians. It is better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!" (cf. Ex 14:10-11). And this will be repeated with every difficulty because the path to freedom is full of obstacles and the temptation to fall back into the old slavery is constant. Paul conveys this message to the Corinthians: Christ has set you free, but you are often tempted to fall back into the old errors and you do not realise that these behaviours make you slaves. The path of Christ seems difficult to you, but trust him: he alone is the true deliverer. Even at the crossing of the Red Sea, in a situation that was humanly desperate, God intervened (cf. Ex 14:19) and the people were able to cross it because the waters opened up to let them pass: "The Lord all night long drove the sea with a strong east wind, making it dry; the waters parted" (Ex 14:21). The trials will continue and, on many occasions, the Israelites will return to regret the security of slavery in Egypt. They will complain and rebel instead of trusting in the knowledge that God will always intervene. The episode that best highlights this crisis is when in the desert the people began to really suffer thirst and began to protest, accusing Moses and, through him, God himself: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt? To make us and our children and our cattle die of thirst?" (Ex 17:3). It was then that Moses struck the Rock and water gushed out of it and gave that place the name Massa e Meriba, which means "Trial and Dispute", because the children of Israel had disputed the Lord (Ex 17:7). The problems of the Corinthians, of course, are not the same, but there are other "Egypts" and other forms of slavery: for these new Christians there are choices to be made in the name of their baptism, there are behaviours that can no longer be maintained. And these choices sometimes become painful. Let us think of the demands of the catechumenate that entailed real renunciations of certain behaviours, certain relationships and sometimes even a trade; renunciations that can only be accepted when one places all one's trust in Jesus Christ. In the mixed and particularly permissive society of Corinth, maintaining Christian behaviour required courage, but Paul emphasises, what seems folly to men is true wisdom in the eyes of God. It is no coincidence that, during Lent, the Church invites us to meditate on this text of Paul's, which reminds us how demanding we must be with ourselves in order not to fall into old slavery, and instead how much renewed trust must be placed in God at all times.

 

*From the Gospel according to St Luke (13:1-9)

 In this Sunday's gospel, we find the account of two facts of crime, Jesus' commentary with the parable of the fig tree, and their juxtaposition is surprising, though certainly the evangelist intentionally proposes it to us. Therefore, it is precisely the parable that can help us understand the meaning of what Jesus means about the two news events.

The first concerns a massacre of Galilean pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem to offer a sacrifice in the Temple. These events were not unusual at the time since Pilate's cruelty was known and pilgrims were often accused of being opponents of Roman power.  In truth, the majority of the Jewish people hardly tolerated the occupation of the Romans and it was precisely from Galilee, at the time of Jesus' birth, that the revolt of Judas the Galilean had started. The second news event, the collapse of the tower of Siloe with 18 victims, was a tragedy like many others. From Jesus' words we can guess the question that the disciples had on their lips and that we often hear repeated even today: 'What did they do wrong to deserve this divine punishment? This is the great question about suffering, which to this day is an unsolved problem. In the Bible, the book of Job poses the problem in the most dramatic way and the three friends - Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar - try to explain his suffering through the principle of retributive justice, according to which suffering is a punishment for sin and therefore Job must have committed some hidden fault that justifies his afflictions.  However, Job declares himself innocent and rejects these explanations. At the end of the book, God intervenes and rebukes Job's friends for speaking incorrectly about him, instead representing Job's sincerity in his search for answers. The theme of suffering is a complex one, and God, who recognises all human attempts to interpret pain as ineffective because the control of events eludes human intelligence, invites man to maintain his trust in God in every difficulty, even the most dramatic. Faced with the horror of the massacre of the Galileans and the collapse of the tower of Siloe, Jesus is categorical: there is no direct link between suffering and sin so those Galileans were no more sinners than the others, nor were the eighteen people crushed by the tower of Siloe more guilty than the other inhabitants of Jerusalem. But then, starting from these two events, he invites the disciples to true conversion, indeed he insists on the urgency of conversion, echoing the appeals of the prophets such as Amos, Isaiah and many others. This is followed by the parable of the fig tree, which softens the apparent harshness of his words because it shows that God's thoughts are very different from those of men and shows us the face of a patient and merciful God. For us, a barren fig tree that uselessly exploits the soil must be cut down, that is, someone who does evil must be punished at once and even eliminated, but not so thinks our God who, on the contrary, affirms: "As I live - oracle of the Lord God - I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but in his conversion, that he may live" (Ez 33:11).  Jesus does not primarily ask us to change our behaviour, but to urgently change the image of a God who punishes. On the contrary, precisely in the face of evil, the Lord is "merciful and pitiful", as this Sunday's Psalm says: merciful, that is, bent over our miseries, and the conversion that awaits us is to entrust ourselves to his infinite and patient mercy. In short, taking up the conclusions of the book of Job, Jesus invites us not to try to explain suffering with sin and other theories as it is a mystery, but to keep our trust in God in spite of everything. And when he says: "unless you are converted, you will all perish in the same way" he means that humanity is heading for ruin when it loses trust in God. Like Israel in the wilderness, whose adventure Paul recalls in the second reading, we too are challenged to always choose whether to trust or to be suspicious of God. However, we must know that his plan is always in our favour and if it changes our heart (that is conversion), it will also change the face of the world.

+Giovanni D’Ercole

From religion to Faith, from barren to Beloved one

(Lk 1:26-38)

 

The solemnity of the moment that restores the soul to the Mystery invites a passage wave upon wave: from the Temple religion to domestic and personal Faith.

From outside to inside ourselves. From patterns to innate prophecy. Unique Promise, more subtle condition.

Faith-surrender - that of Mother - which shows the freedom and beauty of the new orientations, in the progress of the inner guiding images.

Alliance no longer for what is already known.

His Pact is all in the Opening to the Inexplicable that lives inside us. 

Intimate Eternal, which can now concretize the hope and the journey of the peoples. A turning point of authenticity, growing.

If the heart’s virgins do not impose demands, the Call by Name (from our own fibers) opens the incapable and sterile breath.

 

Ad coeli Reginam: silent Echo... this invisible core-Vocation is startling. And with spontaneous virtue introduces the spirit into the fruitful synergy of God himself.

Spousal Trust that re-annotate the threads of the history of salvation: and is opposed to the broad road of alliances with people "who matter".

 

In the intertwining between fruitfuling Initiative and welcome into the bosom, the Handmaiden is icon of the expectation and the way of each one - where what remains decisive is not the usual, predictable desire.

Vibrant Appeal that is prolonged through history, in a sort of unfolded and continuous Incarnation, thanks to the collaboration of “distant”, unstable and insignificant servants, like Mary.

 

Ours too, despite us still being filled of normal expectations.

 

 

To internalize and live the message:

 

Which Words open us to life in the Spirit and question the foreseen path?

What is our still intermediate zone, without Encounter?

 

 

How to make the invisible Seed bloom

 

The Tao Tê Ching (Lxi) says: «The great kingdom which held itself below is the confluence of the world; is the female of the world. The female always overcomes the male with the quiet, since she is modestly submissive. For this reason, the great kingdom which places below the small kingdom attracts the small kingdom; the small kingdom that is below the great kingdom attracts the great kingdom: one lowers to attract, the other attracts because below. […] In order for each one to obtain what he craves, it’s better for the great to keep down».

 

 

[Annunciation of the Lord, March 25]

Mary, the Art of Perception that breaks the mould

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

 

For a life from the authentic I to the unknown Culmination

 

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

What about her, her Son and all the others?

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

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

For this she knew far more expressive things than many minds - sublime and yet incapable of breaking out of automatisms, already flooded with remarkable doctrines and traditions.

We are willingly there too, with Mary; in a culture that invades our senses and pollutes our souls with noisy opinions, with seemingly eloquent but knee-jerk models: stressful and futile.

All emphatic, impactful reproductions - but external.

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

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

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

A side we do not yet know: it never has the same tone as always. It is all ours, but it hints at real encounters.

By refining our inner vision, we grasp our source and the meaning of history; and its folds - thus we can still give birth to the precious world inside and outside of us.

We do this from the intangible, which acts as the pivot of essence. And guards the Fire within.

 

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

They want to inoculate us with the false sense of protagonism and permanence that quickly fades away; in fact, they overwhelm us.

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

We seek involvement, and distance.

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

 

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

Rather, he expressed his being - in flight from conventional ways.

In order to live intensely, she did not wish to enter into the nomenclature - then be normal, and enslaved - rather to distance herself, but to be there. So she did not exclude anything.

She also recognised herself in those wanderers.

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

She did not revisit herself to bask, but rather to verify and reactivate her 'way' - which she did not want to lose: it could be overwhelmed by external opinions and buried by circumstances [impelling but without horizon].

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

The one we built for her was not her home.

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only this lasted her through the years - not the functional side.He did not dream of a quiet life, but of understanding his personal mission.

 

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

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

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

Never did she want to be a model: an expired identity card - plastered, dogmatic. Never an icon of privilege, and ostentatious - like a woman who extinguishes her consciousness, and makes herself identified, empty, disjointed.

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

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

Removing the gaze from conformist intention.

 

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

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

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

And without mortification, she brought her attention to another dimension, gradually entering the Wind that ceaselessly disengaged her.

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

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

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

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

He waited for his eminent Self to lead the strange, non-directed, non-voluntarist path that was unfolding, truly all eccentric and unexemplary.

 

She did not act to please.

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

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

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

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

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

In the hope of things present and in their sensitive Listening, she was acquiring fluidity.

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

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

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

 

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

He expanded the Vision not just from around.

Unfolding her lost self in the We, not selective, but only from her own sacred centre, the horizon also dilated in the sensation of infinity in action.

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

She still reinterpreted the expressive image of her Vocation. And it changed its destiny - not giving weight to one-sided angles.

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

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

 

And each one equally rediscovered the energy of the primordial suggestion that led him or her, so that in Meditation he or she might once again embrace the Calling that still wants to snatch him or her from the mire.

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

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

Mary let herself be traced in time by unpatented Love.

Such are the Dreams of creatures totally immersed in the true passions, which grasp, anticipate and actualise the timelessness in time.He did not give up wondering what - with its many aspects - was inhabiting it and silently guiding it.

 

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

She did not think of efficient causes: it was to rediscover otherwise her opening the door to visitors, and to each new thing to be astonished.

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

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

Without realising it, it was already feeding the world, guarding itself.

Truly, she comes to us and in us, tending the nest of essence and history... without any semblance of banners and display cases - respecting only what happens.

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

Certainly from nothing outside. Therefore decisive.

Totally adherent to circumstances and present in himself, he became completely - in the clear and spontaneous motions, even of others.

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To question ourselves as well.

 

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

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

When she carved out preparatory energies, she also arranged herself in a more balanced, fuller way for the Announcement.

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

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

Her realm of truthfulness that heals the I and the Thou was the heaven and earth of new powers.

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

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

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

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

 

 

Mary: Slowing down a little, one is born

 

Those who do not follow innate intuitions, a call more radical than the self, or stunning proclamations [Lk 1:26-38. 2:8-15] do not develop their destiny, do not move; they do not set things right.

Common proclamations end up incinerating personalities.

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

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

Archaic religion had branded them forever: lost, despicable beings, without remedy. Now they are free from identification.They have another eye - like that of the first time. A look that will bring them one hundred per cent.

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

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

 

A baby in a manger, an unclean place where the beasts used to play.

It is strange that the modest sign convinces them, makes them regain esteem, and makes them evangelisers - perhaps not even assiduous evangelisers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

And to remain receptive; not to be swayed by the convictions of the devotional enclosures - targetted and inflexible, which would have given her no escape.

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

Never before imagined.

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Sometimes, in order not to be conditioned, we need to rebuild ourselves in silence, like the Virgin; to build a kind of hermeneutic island that opens different doors, that introduces other lights.

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

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

 

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

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

Thus he did not allow himself to be absorbed by the conformist ideas of others or by [external] situations that wanted to break the balance.

In her veracious solitude - filled with Grace - that superior and hidden self in essence came more and more to Her. He made himself a new Dawn and guide.She did not want to live inside thoughts, knowledge and reasoning around - none capable of amplifying life - all in the hands of the drugs of procedures, dehumanising the Enchantment.

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

Dreams sustained and conveyed her nest and inner core - causing new life to flow from the core of her Person, and the youth of the world.

 

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

From generation to generation, the wonder evoked by this ineffable mystery never ceases. St Augustine imagines a dialogue between himself and the Angel of the Annunciation, in which he asks:  "Tell me, O Angel, why did this happen in Mary?". The answer, says the Messenger, is contained in the very words of the greeting:  "Hail, full of grace" (cf. Sermo 291: 6).

In fact, the Angel, "appearing to her", does not call her by her earthly name, Mary, but by her divine name, as she has always been seen and characterized by God:  "Full of grace - gratia plena", which in the original Greek is 6,P"D4JTµXv0,  "full of grace", and the grace is none other than the love of God; thus, in the end, we can translate this word:  "beloved" of God (cf. Lk 1: 28). Origen observes that no such title had ever been given to a human being, and that it is unparalleled in all of Sacred Scripture (cf. In Lucam 6: 7).

It is a title expressed in passive form, but this "passivity" of Mary, who has always been and is for ever "loved" by the Lord, implies her free consent, her personal and original response:  in being loved, in receiving the gift of God, Mary is fully active, because she accepts with personal generosity the wave of God's love poured out upon her. In this too, she is the perfect disciple of her Son, who realizes the fullness of his freedom and thus exercises the freedom through obedience to the Father.

In the Second Reading, we heard the wonderful passage in which the author of the Letter to the Hebrews interprets Psalm 39 in the light of Christ's Incarnation:  "When Christ came into the world, he said:  ..."Here I am, I have come to do your will, O God'" (Heb 10: 5-7). Before the mystery of these two "Here I am" statements, the "Here I am" of the Son and the "Here I am" of the Mother, each of which is reflected in the other, forming a single Amen to God's loving will, we are filled with wonder and thanksgiving, and we bow down in adoration.

What a great gift, dear Brothers, to be able to conduct this evocative celebration on the Solemnity of the Lord's Annunciation! What an abundance of light we can draw from this mystery for our lives as ministers of the Church!

You above all, dear new Cardinals, what great sustenance you can receive for your mission as the eminent "Senate" of Peter's Successor! This providential circumstance helps us to consider today's event, which emphasizes the Petrine principle of the Church, in the light of the other principle, the Marian one, which is even more fundamental. The importance of the Marian principle in the Church was particularly highlighted, after the Council, by my beloved Predecessor Pope John Paul II in harmony with his motto Totus tuus.

In his spirituality and in his tireless ministry, the presence of Mary as Mother and Queen of the Church was made manifest to the eyes of all. More than ever he adverted to her maternal presence in the assassination attempt of 13 May 1981 here in St Peter's Square. In memory of that tragic event, he had a mosaic of the Virgin placed high up in the Apostolic Palace looking down over St Peter's Square, so as to accompany the key moments and the daily unfolding of his long reign. It is just one year since his Pontificate entered its final phase, full of suffering and yet triumphant and truly paschal.

The icon of the Annunciation, more than any other, helps us to see clearly how everything in the Church goes back to that mystery of Mary's acceptance of the divine Word, by which, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the Covenant between God and humanity was perfectly sealed. Everything in the Church, every institution and ministry, including that of Peter and his Successors, is "included" under the Virgin's mantle, within the grace-filled horizon of her "yes" to God's will. This link with Mary naturally evokes a strong affective resonance in all of us, but first of all it has an objective value.

Between Mary and the Church there is indeed a connatural relationship that was strongly emphasized by the Second Vatican Council in its felicitous decision to place the treatment of the Blessed Virgin at the conclusion of the Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium.

The theme of the relationship between the Petrine principle and the Marian principle is also found in the symbol of the ring which I am about to consign to you. The ring is always a nuptial sign. Almost all of you have already received one, on the day of your episcopal ordination, as an expression of your fidelity and your commitment to watch over the holy Church, the bride of Christ (cf. Rite of Ordination of Bishops).

The ring which I confer upon you today, proper to the cardinalatial dignity, is intended to confirm and strengthen that commitment, arising once more from a nuptial gift, a reminder to you that first and foremost you are intimately united with Christ so as to accomplish your mission as bridegrooms of the Church. May your acceptance of the ring be for you a renewal of your "yes", your "here I am", addressed both to the Lord Jesus who chose you and constituted you, and to his holy Church, which you are called to serve with the love of a spouse.

So the two dimensions of the Church, Marian and Petrine, come together in the supreme value of charity, which constitutes the fulfilment of each. As St Paul says, charity is the "greatest" charism, the "most excellent way" (I Cor 12: 31; 13: 13).

Everything in this world will pass away. In eternity only Love will remain. For this reason, my Brothers, taking the opportunity offered by this favourable time of Lent, let us commit ourselves to ensure that everything in our personal lives and in the ecclesial activity in which we are engaged is inspired by charity and leads to charity. In this respect too, we are enlightened by the mystery that we are celebrating today.

Indeed, the first thing that Mary did after receiving the Angel's message was to go "in haste" to the house of her cousin Elizabeth in order to be of service to her (cf. Lk 1: 39). The Virgin's initiative was one of genuine charity; it was humble and courageous, motivated by faith in God's Word and the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit. Those who love forget about themselves and place themselves at the service of their neighbour. Here we have the image and model of the Church!

Every Ecclesial Community, like the Mother of Christ, is called to accept with total generosity the mystery of God who comes to dwell within her and guides her steps in the ways of love. This is the path along which I chose to launch my Pontificate, inviting everyone, with my first Encyclical, to build up the Church in charity as a "community of love" (cf. Deus Caritas Est, Part II).

In pursuing this objective, venerable Brother Cardinals, your spiritual closeness and active assistance is a great support and comfort to me. For this I thank you, and at the same time I invite all of you, priests, deacons, Religious and lay faithful, to join together in invoking the Holy Spirit, praying that the College of Cardinals may be ever more ardent in pastoral charity, so as to help the whole Church to radiate Christ's love in the world, to the praise and glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen!

[Pope Benedict, homily with the new cardinals 25 March 2006]

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word” (Angelus Prayer).

Your Beatitude,
Brother Bishops,
Father Custos,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1. 25th March in the year 2000, the Solemnity of the Annunciation in the Year of the Great Jubilee: on this day the eyes of the whole Church turn to Nazareth. I have longed to come back to the town of Jesus, to feel once again, in contact with this place, the presence of the woman of whom Saint Augustine wrote: “He chose the mother he had created; he created the mother he had chosen” (Sermo 69, 3, 4). Here it is especially easy to understand why all generations call Mary blessed (cf. Lk 2:48).

I warmly greet Your Beatitude Patriarch Michel Sabbah, and thank you for your kind words of presentation. With Archbishop Boutros Mouallem and all of you – Bishops, priests, religious women and men, and members of the laity – I rejoice in the grace of this solemn celebration. I am happy to have this opportunity to greet the Franciscan Minister General, Father Giacomo Bini, who welcomed me on my arrival, and to express to the Custos, Father Giovanni Battistelli, and the Friars of the Custody the admiration of the whole Church for the devotion with which you carry out your unique vocation. With gratitude I pay tribute to your faithfulness to the charge given to you by Saint Francis himself and confirmed by the Popes down the centuries.

2. We are gathered to celebrate the great mystery accomplished here two thousand years ago. The Evangelist Luke situates the event clearly in time and place: “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph. . . The virgin’s name was Mary” (1:26-27). But in order to understand what took place in Nazareth two thousand years ago, we must return to the Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. That text enables us, as it were, to listen to a conversation between the Father and the Son concerning God’s purpose from all eternity. “You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices for sin. Then I said. . . ?God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will’” (10:5-7). The Letter to the Hebrews is telling us that, in obedience to the Father’s will, the Eternal Word comes among us to offer the sacrifice which surpasses all the sacrifices offered under the former Covenant. His is the eternal and perfect sacrifice which redeems the world. 

The divine plan is gradually revealed in the Old Testament, particularly in the words of the Prophet Isaiah which we have just heard: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. It is this: the virgin is with child and will soon give birth to a child whom she will call Emmanuel” (7:14). Emmanuel - God with us. In these words, the unique event that was to take place in Nazareth in the fullness of time is foretold, and it is this event that we are celebrating here with intense joy and happiness. 

3. Our Jubilee Pilgrimage has been a journey in spirit, which began in the footsteps of Abraham, “our father in faith” (Roman Canon; cf. Rom 4:11-12). That journey has brought us today to Nazareth, where we meet Mary, the truest daughter of Abraham. It is Mary above all others who can teach us what it means to live the faith of “our father”. In many ways, Mary is clearly different from Abraham; but in deeper ways “the friend of God” (cf. Is 41:8) and the young woman of Nazareth are very alike. 

Both receive a wonderful promise from God. Abraham was to be the father of a son, from whom there would come a great nation. Mary is to be the Mother of a Son who would be the Messiah, the Anointed One. “Listen!”, Gabriel says, “ You are to conceive and bear a son. . . The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. . . and his reign will have no end” (Lk 1:31-33). 

For both Abraham and Mary, the divine promise comes as something completely unexpected. God disrupts the daily course of their lives, overturning its settled rhythms and conventional expectations. For both Abraham and Mary, the promise seems impossible. Abraham’s wife Sarah was barren, and Mary is not yet married: “How can this come about”, she asks, “since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34). 

4. Like Abraham, Mary is asked to say yes to something that has never happened before. Sarah is the first in the line of barren wives in the Bible who conceive by God’s power, just as Elizabeth will be the last. Gabriel speaks of Elizabeth to reassure Mary: “Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself conceived a son” (Lk 1:36). 

Like Abraham, Mary must walk through darkness, in which she must simply trust the One who called her. Yet even her question, “How can this come about?”, suggests that Mary is ready to say yes, despite her fears and uncertainties. Mary asks not whether the promise is possible, but only how it will be fulfilled. It comes as no surprise, therefore, when finally she utters her fiat: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me” (Lk 1:38). With these words, Mary shows herself the true daughter of Abraham, and she becomes the Mother of Christ and Mother of all believers. 

5. In order to penetrate further into the mystery, let us look back to the moment of Abraham’s journey when he received the promise. It was when he welcomed to his home three mysterious guests (cf. Gen18:1-15), and offered them the adoration due to God: tres vidit et unum adoravit. That mysterious encounter foreshadows the Annunciation, when Mary is powerfully drawn into communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Through the fiat that Mary uttered in Nazareth, the Incarnation became the wondrous fulfilment of Abraham’s encounter with God. So, following in the footsteps of Abraham, we have come to Nazareth to sing the praises of the woman “through whom the light rose over the earth” (Hymn Ave Regina Caelorum). 

6. But we have also come to plead with her. What do we, pilgrims on our way into the Third Christian Millennium, ask of the Mother of God? Here in the town which Pope Paul VI, when he visited Nazareth, called “the school of the Gospel”, where “we learn to look at and to listen to, to ponder and to penetrate the deep and mysterious meaning of the very simple, very humble and very beautiful appearing of the Son of God” (Address in Nazareth, 5 January 1964), I pray, first, for a great renewal of faith in all the children of the Church. A deep renewal of faith: not just as a general attitude of life, but as a conscious and courageous profession of the Creed: “Et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.”

In Nazareth, where Jesus “grew in wisdom and age and grace before God and men” (Lk 2:52), I ask the Holy Family to inspire all Christians to defend the family against so many present-day threats to its nature, its stability and its mission. To the Holy Family I entrust the efforts of Christians and of all people of good will to defend life and to promote respect for the dignity of every human being.

To Mary, the Theotókos, the great Mother of God, I consecrate the families of the Holy Land, the families of the world. 

In Nazareth where Jesus began his public ministry, I ask Mary to help the Church everywhere to preach the “good news” to the poor, as he did (cf. Lk 4:18). In this “year of the Lord’s favour”, I ask her to teach us the way of humble and joyful obedience to the Gospel in the service of our brothers and sisters, without preferences and without prejudices.

“O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me. Amen” (Memorare).

[Pope John Paul II, homily Basilica of the Annunciation 25 March 2000]

Salvation "cannot be bought or sold" because "it is a totally free gift". But to receive it God asks us to have "a humble, docile, obedient heart". Pope Francis said this in the Mass celebrated on Tuesday morning 25 March in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, inviting "to celebrate and give thanks to God" because "today we commemorate a definitive stage in the journey" towards salvation "that man has made since the day he came out of paradise".

It is precisely "for this reason that today we celebrate: the celebration of this journey from a mother to another mother, from a father to another father", the Pontiff explained. And he invited us to contemplate "the icon of Eve and Adam, the icon of Mary and Jesus", and to look at the course of history with God who always walks with his people. Thus, he continued, "today we can embrace the Father who, thanks to the blood of his Son, became one of us, and saves us: this Father who awaits us every day". Hence the invitation to say "thank you: thank you, Lord, because today you say to us that you have given us salvation".

In his reflection, the Pontiff started from the mandate given to Adam and Eve: the commitment to work and dominate the earth, and to be fruitful. 'It is the promise of redemption,' he explained, 'and with this commandment, with this promise, they began to walk, to make a way'. A "long road", made up of "many centuries", but which began "with disobedience". Adam and Eve in fact "were deceived, they were seduced. They have been seduced by Satan: you will be like God!". Pride and pride" prevailed in them, so much so that "they fell into the temptation: to take the place of God, with pride enough". It is precisely "that attitude that only Satan has totally in him".

Adam and Eve "made a people". And "they did not make this journey alone: the Lord was with them", who accompanied humanity along an itinerary "that began with disobedience and ended with obedience". To explain this, Pope Francis recalled, "the Second Vatican Council takes a beautiful phrase from St Irenaeus of Lyons that says: the knot that Eve made with her disobedience Mary untied with her obedience". Moreover, he added, the Church also explains this path with a prayer that reads: "Lord, you who wonderfully created humanity and restored it, restored it more wonderfully...". It is therefore "a path where the wonders of God are multiplied, they are more!".

God therefore always remains "with his people on their journey: he sends prophets and he sends people to explain the law". But "why," the Pontiff wondered, "did the Lord walk with his people with such tenderness? To soften our hearts' is the answer. And indeed Scripture explicitly reminds us of this: I will make your heart of stone a heart of flesh.

In essence, the Lord wants to "soften our hearts" so that they can receive "that promise that he had made in paradise: for one man sin entered, for another man salvation comes". And it is precisely this 'long journey' that has helped 'all of us to have a more human heart, closer to God; not so proud, not so sufficient'.

"Today," the Pope explained, "the liturgy speaks to us of this journey of restoration, of this stage in the journey of restoration. And it speaks to us of obedience, of docility to the word of God'. A thought, the Pontiff pointed out, that "is very clear" in the second reading, taken from the letter to the Hebrews (10:4-10): "Brothers, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to eliminate sins".

Hence the statement that "salvation is not bought, it is not sold. It is given, it is free'. And since 'we cannot save ourselves from ourselves, salvation is a gift, totally free. As St Paul writes, it cannot be bought with 'the blood of bulls and goats'. And if 'it cannot be bought', to 'enter into us this salvation demands a humble heart, a docile heart, an obedient heart, like that of Mary'. Thus "the model of this path of salvation is God himself, his Son, who did not esteem it an irrenounceable good to be equal to God - Paul says so - but annihilated himself and obeyed even unto death and death on a cross".

What then does 'the path of humility, of humiliation' mean? It simply means, Pope Francis concluded, 'to say: I am man, I am woman, and you are God! And to go before, in the presence of God, as a man, as a woman in obedience and docility of heart".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 26/03/2014]