(Mt 11:2-11)

Crisis of the titanic spirit. Perplexity of the Baptist

(Mt 11:2-6)

This is the so-called crisis of the Baptist. Ultimately, it is the crossroads of our own experience in the growth of Faith.

The name John means God-is-merciful, but here the last of the ancient prophets and forerunner of Christ is scandalised by excessive Mercy: without conditions.

Jesus performs all positive signs of recovery. No condemnation, no punishment: this is the prodigious Word!

The people of the righteous are now of a different nature - disconcerting, as they also include unbelievers.

As with Zacchaeus-Matthew [Lk 19:1-10]: those who are ashamed to show themselves and present themselves are not punished, but are rehabilitated in society. 

The bowels of God's mercy give life to those who have lost it.

Christ does not break, he fixes: even those who find themselves off the path 'according to religion' - and feel repugnant, repellent even to themselves.

He censures the vengeance (v. 5) of the messianic oracles of the First Testament [cf. Is 29:20ff. 61:2]: because the authentic 'Land that will give birth to shadows' (Is 26:19), the true 'parched ground that becomes springs of water' [Is 35:7 - it is not clear why this is excluded from the liturgy] will not be dirigiste or forensic.

Perhaps we too would not expect so many positions of concern, but the Master throws everything up in the air and replaces the appearances of the stone Sanctuary.

A sacred reversal: because in fact it promoted an unfair, opportunistic, corrupt, unscrupulous mentality.

A way of thinking useful to cunning comedians, to the strong and the quick; humiliating for those outside the circle.

It was not a Kingdom of God that was holed up there, but rather the camp of the 'great', who ultimately bent where the wind blew - in some cases of manipulation, even today sometimes expropriating people of themselves.

No one would have expected a cleansing of all the spiritual toxins that shaped the pious life of those who love power.

Jesus recovered with lightness, because his Word, his Works and his high Discernment awakened the most personal sides.

People's own characters did not lead them to regret kingdoms.

The intimate vocation invites us to get involved - igniting the love that turns the page, not the love that angrily plants itself in the traps of fear.

The Call by Name frees us from the shackles of artificial entrapments, which prevent us from continuing naturally.

Devoid of a titanic spirit, the new Rabbi awakened resources and courage that the least among us did not even suspect they had as an unexpressed gift.

The Master tirelessly stimulated their exceptional - even decisive - contribution to the history of Salvation.

He encouraged the impulses of those whom common devout opinion considered sick or unbalanced because they did not conform - but who had truly multifaceted gifts.

Warm and propulsive faces.

The young Master favoured dreams of transformation, not just of shelter - all with the usual colour (pyjamas or armour).

He welcomed the unleashing of natural sides and other identifications, more elegant and soft, or strange, fascinating in their uniqueness.

He taught not to give up and plan and practise, but to listen, welcome and accept oneself - waiting for new energies: profiles aroused by moments of need, by contact with one's own deep states.

It did not diminish the sense of Mystery brought about by the right time, or by the very annoyances that provide us with valuable insights [more than the boomerang of ascetic voluntarism, as ideal as it is artificial].

He made us rediscover the convincing charm of the beauty of life in subtle tones, without the exaggeration of continuous strong colours.

At that time, lacerations were also caused by nationalism, which accentuated wounds and altered the balance of the human family, on which the Father dreamed of 'resting'.

Well, Christ also praised the slowness of the less angry. Because the gentle pace brought out the inner root, the specific Mission and appearance even of the voiceless.

In this way, not with peremptory acts of muscle, but spontaneously, from within.

All this, with a transparent and sacred authenticity - starting from the custody of one's own qualitative Calling, brought to awareness without too many strokes of genius or strength.

Only when ready.

It stimulated the discovery of the codes of the unexpected, knowing how to wait for new readiness and evaluating... because those who begin to see their own story with new eyes are already on the threshold of change.

Being content with the old song [or joining in with the glamorous anthem] would not have developed the discernment of broad horizons and ways, regenerating even if only carried in the heart.

We would have been content with some disembodied fantasy, or a return to the usual ancient village, or somewhere else nearby.

The heaviness of ideas and conformism, clichés, traditions, guilt, activism and moralistic judgements caged personalities.

Never before Christ would the subjugated people have imagined the Most High as anything other than an energetic and spiritual vampire, full of plans and expectations of formal perfection.

Instead, thanks to the Son, they could discover that the Father blesses the personal and social recovery of opposites.

It is precisely eccentricities that complete us and stimulate [not only ornamentally] the conviviality of differences.

Saying, for example, 'this is our culture and way of doing things!' or 'we must do this and be à la page' limits our operational and innovative faculties and does not surprise or amaze anyone.

On the contrary, one-sidedness always accentuates external and internal enmity and limits achievements and independence of action (based on discrepancies).

Jesus also invited John the Baptist to ignite his inner world and change his outlook - because by focusing only on problems and controls, solutions are no longer visible.

You don't go back to being a child; you don't turn intruders into jewels. You don't encounter your own infinite part.

In short, he wanted him to personally undergo the Conversion from religiosity to Faith that he preached to others.

The Roots: the true Friend and the great enemy

John the Baptist, Jesus, the courts: differences in exodus

    'What did you go out into the desert to see? What did you go out to see?' (vv. 7-8-9).

The Lord wants to help us become deeply aware of the road we have travelled and what still lies ahead.

We are not yet in possession of Salvation. We need to reflect on the true Exodus that still lies ahead.

John the Baptist and Jesus never frequented the palaces of the court. This is clear (v. 8).

The hedonistic or domesticating spirit flatters and attracts us, but it dulls and saps the frankness and vitality of every journey.

Instead, Christ proposes another movement of Conversion: a further excavation, which distinguishes his proposal even from that of the Precursor.

'Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he' (v. 11).

For a path of authentic and ultimately mature growth - children in the Son - it is appropriate to free ourselves from any model of perfection.

Adopting a unilateral path does not lead to any flowering, but rather to a shrinking of things.

In the positive (and intimate) itinerary, there is no single path. Life is variety, change, the experience of resurrection.

In this horizon, the greatest obstacles in responding to our personal Call by Name arise precisely from identifications.

Resolute recognitions are always artificial. They do not wake us up from swampy situations, nor do they allow us to rediscover the gold of mysterious, intimate, wise inclinations.

Existence and people themselves are not black and white. And the path of Life in the Spirit accepts nuances of character.

These can sometimes appear as confusing notes, typical of personalities in need of correction. This was the belief until not long ago, but it tended to impoverish and level us.

The ancient devout idea - which has conditioned us so much - was in fact linked to the primacy of external moral 'consistency' [correspondence between ideas and actions].

Christ replaces this banal thought with a completely different focus: the correspondence between inner states and their manifestation.

In short, a 'little one in the kingdom of heaven' may also be a misfit and disturbing, an eccentric and reprehensible restless person - who, however, would like to grow. So he does not cover up his inner struggles.

Not infrequently, smiles of circumstance, moralising, or even good manners, veil ideas, impulses, and opposing habits that, sooner or later, will find their way to the forefront.

Not to mention—even in religion—authoritarian attitudes, which hide a "double" that is not well understood. They are not true linearity, authentic order, nor "discipline."

The Master dreams that his apostles will move away from rash judgements and abstract ideals. They are too easy. They do not allow us to perceive clearly.

In short, we must suspend the clichés about love for God and others, as well as the opinions we have absorbed.

Contrasts are natural. Discomforts are the primordial language of the soul that calls us to turn our gaze, to activate the spirit towards new paths to explore.

Only in such an Exodus will we arrive at the Promised Land, a virgin land waiting to be discovered. To be redone every day.

Not by cutting our roots horizontally, but by starting from them.

A different concept

1. In previous catechesis, we have tried to show the most relevant aspects of the truth about the Messiah as it was foretold in the old covenant and as it was inherited by the generation of Jesus of Nazareth's contemporaries, who entered the new stage of divine revelation. Of this generation, those who followed Jesus did so because they were convinced that in him the truth about the Messiah was fulfilled: that he himself was the Messiah, the Christ. Significant are the words with which Andrew, the first of the apostles called by Jesus, announces to his brother Simon: 'We have found the Messiah (which means the Christ)' (Jn 1:41).

It must be acknowledged, however, that such explicit statements are rather rare in the Gospels. This is also due to the fact that in Israeli society at that time there was a widespread image of the Messiah to which Jesus did not want to adapt his figure and his work, despite the amazement and admiration aroused by all that he 'did and taught' (Acts 1:1).

2. Indeed, we know that John the Baptist himself, who on the banks of the Jordan had pointed to Jesus as 'the one who was to come' (cf. Jn 1: 15:30), having seen in him with prophetic spirit "the Lamb of God" who came to take away the sins of the world, John, who had foretold the "new baptism" that Jesus would confer with the power of the Spirit, sent his disciples to ask Jesus the question when he was already in prison: "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?" (Mt 11:3).

3. Jesus does not leave John and his messengers without an answer: "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news preached to them" (Lk 7:22). With this answer, Jesus intends to confirm his messianic mission, referring in particular to the words of Isaiah (cf. Is 35:4-5; 61:1). And he concludes: "Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me" (Lk 7:23). These last words sound like a direct appeal to John, his heroic precursor, who had a different concept of the Messiah.

In fact, in his preaching, John had portrayed the Messiah as a severe judge. In this sense, he had spoken of the "imminent wrath" and the "axe already laid to the root of the trees" (cf. Lk 3:7, 9), to cut down every tree "that does not bear good fruit" (Lk 3:9). Certainly, Jesus would not have hesitated to deal firmly and even harshly, when necessary, with obstinacy and rebellion against the word of God, but he would have been above all the herald of "good news to the poor" and, through his works and wonders, he would have revealed the saving will of God, the merciful Father.

4. Jesus' response to John also presents another element that is interesting to note: he avoids openly proclaiming himself the Messiah. In the social context of the time, in fact, this title was very ambiguous: people commonly interpreted it in a political sense. Jesus therefore prefers to refer to the testimony offered by his works, desiring above all to persuade and inspire faith.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 4 March 1987]

3. In John's teaching, which foreshadows that of Jesus, a fundamentally positive view of society, classes and professions emerges: none of them excludes one from salvation, if one is committed to practising justice and charity. However, the Baptist is severe, even harsh, in his proclamation of Christ who will come with a winnowing fork to clean the threshing floor and put the axe to the roots. It is a frank and strong message that outlines the new relationships of justice among men.

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus, December 1990]

The Church begins by evangelising herself

As an evangeliser, the Church begins by evangelising herself. A community of believers, a community of lived and shared hope, a community of fraternal love, she needs to listen continually to what she must believe, the reasons for her hope, the new commandment of love. As the people of God immersed in the world and often tempted by idols, it always needs to hear proclaimed "the mighty works of God" [41] that converted it to the Lord, and to be summoned and gathered together by him anew. This means, in a word, that it always needs to be evangelised if it is to retain its freshness, enthusiasm and strength to proclaim the Gospel. The Second Vatican Council recalled [42] and the 1974 Synod strongly reiterated this theme of the Church evangelising itself through constant conversion and renewal in order to evangelise the world with credibility.

[40] Cf. Acts 2:42-46; 4:32-35; 5:12-16

[41] Cf. Ibid. 2:11; 1 Pet. 2:9

[42] Cf. Ad Gentes, 5, 11, 12: AAS 58, 1966, pp. 951-952, 959-961

[Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi n.15]

The great Baptiser, smaller than the smallest

And why Elijah

(Mt 11:11-15)

St Augustine said: 'In the Old Testament the New is hidden, in the New Testament the Old is revealed'. But on a different level.

It is true that the message of the second Covenant arises from the humus of the first, just as the new reveals the meaning and is the culmination of the old.

It is also certain that throughout the history of Redemption, the Baptist was a crossroads of radical, unexpected, decisive proposals.

He had refused to be part of the priestly class, corrupt and resistant to the newness of the Spirit.

He preached social justice and the forgiveness of sins outside the Temple, thanks to a change of mentality that unfolded in real life.

According to John, the factor of salvation could not be a formal ritual, but rather concrete conversion and relationship: for example, no longer thinking only of oneself. 

But he did not reveal - like the Son - the depth of the Father's heart.

He believed that the work of the new prophets should bring immediate (summary...) justice.

He dreamed of being able to recover the ancient purity and strength by patching up the ingredients of the religion of the fathers; in short, of returning to the origins.

All this by purifying and updating the great Temple - not by supplanting it in its juridical-theological configuration.

According to Jesus, however, it remained radically deviant, because it was inclined towards force and incapable of valuing fragility and insecurity.

The God of archaic beliefs disdained contradictions. He came to judge and punish according to a cold code, as ideal as it was distant from everyone [even his own believers].

But a Most High sovereign who does not care for weak people or things he does not like does not seem lovable: he triggers and accentuates the sectarian mechanisms of competitive, anxiety-inducing, demeaning devotion.

And the problem 'Where do I find trust?' remains unresolved; it does not move an inch.

Well, we cannot draw energy from a severe, purist, forced and sterilising approach that is contrary to the flowering of our precious Uniqueness.

The constant mortification of the eccentricities that would make us fantastic demotivates us.

Locked in armour that does not belong to us, we become grim, enemies of life, instead of exceptional, unique, flourishing.

This is why Jesus announces the novelty of a Kingdom to be 'welcomed'.

Not to be set up with sweat and prepared with effort, according to cultural, legalistic, external dictates, but precisely to be welcomed and included; because it displaces, transcends, astounds.

The new eyes to discover the meaning of a whole journey are transmitted only by the one who is Friend.

And Christ does this not when we position ourselves well or equip ourselves strongly - remaining in a dirigiste attitude - but in total listening (v. 15).

In this sense, John is inferior to any of the least of the least and without weight (v. 11) who presents himself at the threshold of the community.

This person wants to enjoy fraternal life and learn how to internalise the transition from religious meaning to Faith, to self-fulfilment, to Love.

Even the Baptist's idea of the Messiah was not that of Christ willing to embrace, recover, value and even favour the voiceless or those far away who were considered impure.

Our Master and Brother, on the contrary, is an advocate of works of life alone, filled with happiness (vv. 2-6). Not of rudeness and harsh mortification - his own and that of his enemies - or accusations.

For Jesus, the mikròi (v. 11) - that is, the least, the strangers and the beggars - carry in their hearts and in the Kingdom the seed of the newness of the heavens torn open forever.

Although they have little energy, they bring the dove of peace [Mt 3:16; Mk 1:10; Lk 3:22].

They are icons of an energy that is no longer aggressive, even though they suffer it (v. 12) [cf. Lk 16:16].

And as Paul VI emphasised, at the price of a filial style, open to rethinking oneself, crucifying oneself - in the intimate virtue of reversal:

'This Kingdom and this salvation, key words of the evangelisation of Jesus Christ, can be received by every man as grace and mercy, and yet each must, at the same time, conquer them by force - they belong to the violent, says the Lord - through toil and suffering, through a life according to the Gospel, through renunciation and the cross, through the spirit of the Beatitudes. But first of all, each person conquers them through a total inner reversal that the Gospel designates with the name 'metanoia', a radical conversion, a profound change of mind and heart."

[Evangelii Nuntiandi, n.10].

The man of faith has strength, passion and determination - especially incisive when it comes to building his destiny (by Grace).

Yet he will never be a surly shouter or a belligerent bully.

For this reason, the Son of God can place before the distinguished personality of the great and famous Saint of the desert and the Jordan - an unblemished conqueror of crowds - not one of his veterans, but any inexperienced, new, limping, sinful person; who has been set free because they have been regenerated.

This is the new era, where no one is singled out and besieged anymore. The different Kingdom is one of non-institutional expectations (sometimes yawn-inducing).

The creative states of any infant - outside the loop, but sensitive - are welcomed and awakened, rather than pulled aside and silenced.

The authentic engine of history is a dedicated but open and calm spontaneous, natural, innate power.

Whether in reversals (even epochal ones), in the search for integral human development, or in the incessant search for peace, this baptismal attitude knows how to start from scratch.

'If it is a question of starting again, it will always be from the bottom up' [cf. encyclical Fratelli Tutti n.235], not from those who have already achieved.

Humble energy is in fact the typical resource even of the least capable and most insignificant of authentic disciples.

It is a unique virtue and an incomparable spirit that does not diminish the space for existence.

On the contrary, it unties the real knots and does not impoverish things.

To internalise and live the message:

What does everything mean to you?

And added value?

What if the least in the Kingdom were Jesus himself?

Whether you are miserable and incapable of triumphing, consider it nothing... or does it block you?

Does the community welcome your desires or pull them aside?

Why Elijah

At the time, economic difficulties and Roman domination in the Palestinian area forced people to fall back on an individual model of life.

Problems of subsistence and social structure had resulted in the breakdown of relationships (and bonds) both within clans and within families themselves.

These were cohesive groups that had always provided assistance, support and concrete defence to the weakest and most vulnerable members.

Everyone expected that the coming of Elijah and the Messiah would have a positive outcome in rebuilding fraternal life, which had been undermined at that time.

As it was said: 'to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers' [Mal 3:22-24 announced the sending of Elijah] in order to rebuild the disintegrated community.

Obviously, the recovery of the people's internal sense of identity was frowned upon by the system of domination. Imagine the significance of Jesus' calling people by name, which would have opened up a thousand possibilities for the pious life of the people.

John had strongly preached a rethinking of the idea of freedom conquered (crossing of the Jordan), a reorganisation of established religious ideas (conversion and forgiveness of sins in real life, outside the Temple) and social justice.

Having an advanced plan for reform in solidarity (Lk 3:7-14), in practice it was the Baptist himself who had already carried out the mission of the expected Elijah [Mt 17:10-12; Mk 9:11-13].

For this reason, he had been removed: he could reassemble a whole people of outcasts - marginalised both from the circle of power and from a top-down, accommodating, servile and collaborationist religiosity.

A compartmentalised devotion that allowed absolutely no 'remembrance' of oneself or of the ancient social community structure, which was inclined towards sharing.

In short, the system of things, interests and hierarchies forced people to take root in that unsatisfactory configuration. But here is Jesus, who does not bow down.

Those who have the courage to embark on a path of biblical spirituality and Exodus learn that everyone has a different way of taking the field and being in the world.

So, is there a wise balance between respect for oneself, the context, and others?

Jesus is presented by Matthew to his communities as the One who wanted to continue the work of building the Kingdom, both in terms of vocational quality and in terms of rebuilding coexistence.

With one fundamental difference: compared to ethnic-religious conceptions, the Master does not propose a sort of body ideology to everyone, which ends up depersonalising the eccentric gifts of the weak - those that are unpredictable for a consolidated mentality, but which trace the future.

In a climate of reinforced clans, it is often the weightless and those who know only abysses (and not peaks) who are driven to accept a reassuring conformation of ideas - rather than a dynamic one - and a forge of wider acceptance.

Those who know only poverty and not heights are the first to be invited by adverse circumstances to obscure their view of the future, especially in times of crisis.

The poor remain unable to look in another direction and move on, charting a different destiny - precisely because of external factors beyond their control: cultural, traditional, income-related or 'spiritual'.

All recognisable boxes, perhaps not always alarming, but far from our nature.

And immediately: with condemnation within reach of common judgement [for failure to conform].

A sentence that seeks to clip our wings, destroy the hidden and secret atmosphere that truly belongs to personal uniqueness, and lead us all - even in an exasperated way.

The Lord proposes a communal life of character, but not obstinate or labelled - not inattentive... as in the measure in which it is forced to follow the same old route as always. Or in the same direction as the chieftains.

Christ wants a more flourishing collaboration, which makes good use of resources (internal and external) and differences.

A structure for the unprecedented: in such a way that, for example, failures or inexorable tensions are not disguised - on the contrary, they become opportunities, unknown and unthinkable but very fruitful for life.

Here, even crises become important, indeed fundamental, in order to evolve the quality of being together - in the richness of the 'polyhedron' which, as Pope Francis writes, 'reflects the confluence of all the partialities that maintain their originality within it' [Evangelii Gaudium n.236].

Without regenerating ourselves, merely repeating and copying collective modes - from a sphere model (ibid.) - or those of others, i.e. from nomenclature, not personally reworked or validated, we do not grow; we do not move towards our own unique mission.

The lacerating sense of emptiness is not filled.

By attempting to manipulate characters and personalities to guide them to 'how they should be', one is not at peace with oneself or with others. One does not convey to the many different people a perception of esteem and adequacy, nor a sense of benevolence - let alone joie de vivre.

Curved trajectories or trial and error are in keeping with the Father's Perspective and our unique growth.

Difference between religiosity and Faith.

For his Name

(Kingdom of God, Messianic Kingdom, Divine People gathered in the Church)

1. We read in the Constitution Lumen gentium of the Second Vatican Council that "believers in Christ (God) wanted to call them into the Holy Church, which . . . prepared in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old Covenant . . . was manifested by the outpouring of the (Holy) Spirit" (Lumen Gentium, 2). We dedicated our previous catechesis to this preparation of the Church in the Old Covenant, in which we saw that, in Israel's progressive awareness of God's plan through the revelations of the prophets and the events of its history, the concept of a future kingdom of God, far greater and more universal than any prediction about the fate of the Davidic dynasty, became increasingly clear. Today we turn to another historical event, rich in theological significance: Jesus Christ begins his messianic mission with the proclamation: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mk 1:15) . Those words mark the entry "into the fullness of time," as St Paul will say (cf. Gal 4:4), and prepare the transition to the New Covenant, founded on the mystery of the redemptive incarnation of the Son and destined to be an eternal Covenant. In the life and mission of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God is not only "at hand" (Lk 10:9), but is already present in the world, already at work in human history. Jesus himself says: "The kingdom of God is among you" (Lk 17:21).

2. The difference in level and quality between the time of preparation and that of fulfilment - between the old and the new Covenant - is made known by Jesus himself when, speaking of his precursor John the Baptist, he says: "Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (Mt 11:11). John, from the banks of the Jordan (and from his prison), certainly contributed more than anyone else, even more than the ancient prophets (cf. Lk 7:26-27), to the immediate preparation of the ways of the Messiah. Nevertheless, in a certain sense, he remains on the threshold of the new kingdom, which entered the world with the coming of Christ and is in the process of being manifested through his messianic ministry. Only through Christ do human beings become true “children of the kingdom”: that is, of the new kingdom far superior to that of which the Jews of his time considered themselves the natural heirs (cf. Mt 8:12).

3. The new kingdom has an eminently spiritual character (...)

4. This transcendence of the kingdom of God is given by the fact that it originates not only from a human initiative, but from the plan, design and will of God himself. Jesus Christ, who makes it present and brings it about in the world, is not only one of the prophets sent by God, but the Son consubstantial with the Father, who became man through the Incarnation. The kingdom of God is therefore the kingdom of the Father and his Son. The kingdom of God is the kingdom of Christ; it is the kingdom of heaven that has opened up on earth to allow men to enter this new world of spirituality and eternity (...)

Together with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit also works for the realisation of the Kingdom already in this world. Jesus himself reveals this: the Son of Man 'casts out demons by the power of God's Spirit', and for this reason 'the kingdom of God has certainly come upon you' (Mt 12:28) (...)

7. The messianic kingdom, brought about by Christ in the world, reveals itself and definitively clarifies its meaning in the context of the passion and death on the cross. Already at the entrance into Jerusalem, an event takes place, arranged by Christ, which Matthew presents as the fulfilment of a prophetic prediction, that of Zechariah about "the king riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zechariah 9:9; Mt 21:5). In the mind of the prophet, in the intention of Jesus and in the interpretation of the evangelist, the donkey signified meekness and humility. Jesus was the meek and humble king who entered the city of David, where by his sacrifice he would fulfil the prophecies about true messianic kingship.

This kingship becomes very clear during Jesus' interrogation before Pilate's court (...) before the Roman governor

8. It is a declaration that concludes the entire ancient prophecy that runs through the history of Israel and becomes fact and revelation in Christ. Jesus' words allow us to grasp the flashes of light that pierce the darkness of the mystery condensed in the trinity: Kingdom of God, Messianic Kingdom, People of God gathered in the Church. In this wake of prophetic and messianic light, we can better understand and repeat, with a clearer understanding of the words, the prayer taught to us by Jesus (Mt 6:10): "Thy Kingdom come." It is the Kingdom of the Father, which entered the world with Christ; it is the Messianic Kingdom which, through the work of the Holy Spirit, develops in man and in the world to ascend into the bosom of the Father, in the glory of heaven.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience, 4 September 1991]

Dear brothers and sisters, next to the invitation to rejoice, today’s Liturgy, with the words of St James that we have heard, also asks us to be constant and patient in waiting for the Lord who comes and to be so together, as a community, avoiding complaints and criticism (cf. Jas 5:7-10).

In the Gospel we heard the question asked by John the Baptist who was in prison: John, who had proclaimed the coming of the Judge who would change the world, and now felt had that the world has remained the same. Thus he sends word to Jesus asking: “Are you ‘He who is to come’, or shall we look for another?”. Is it you or should we expect another? 

In the past two or three centuries many have asked: “But is it really you? Or must the world be changed in a more radical manner? Will you not do it?”. 

And a great tide of prophets, ideologists and dictators have come and said: “It is not him! He did not change the world! It is we!”. And they created their empires, their dictatorships, their totalitarianism which was supposed to change the world. And they changed it, but in a destructive manner. Today we know that of these great promises nothing remained but a great void and great destruction. It was not they.

And thus we must see Christ again and ask Christ: “Is it you?” The Lord, in his own silent way, answers: “You see what I did, I did not start a bloody revolution, I did not change the world with force; but lit many I, which in the meantime form a pathway of light through the millenniums”. 

Let us start here in our Parish with St Maximilian Kolbe, who offered to die of hunger himself in order to save the father of a family. What a great light he became! How much light shone from this figure and encouraged others to give themselves, to be close to the suffering and the oppressed!

Let us think of Damien de Veuster who was a father to lepers, and who lived and died with and for lepers, and has thus brought light to this community.

Let us think of Mother Teresa, who gave so much light to people that, after a life without light, they died with a smile because they were touched by the light of God’s love.

And thus we shall be able to continue and we shall see, as the Lord said in his answer to John, that it is not the violent revolution of the world, but rather the silent light of the truth, of the goodness of God that is the sign of his presence and gives us the certainty that we are loved to the end and are not forgotten, that we are not a product of chance but of a will to love.

Thus we may live, we may feel God’s nearness. “God is close”, says today’s First Reading, he is near us but we are often distant. Let us draw near, let us move into the presence of his light, let us pray the Lord that through contact with him in prayer we ourselves will become light for others.

And this is precisely also the meaning of the parish church: to enter here, to enter into conversation, into contact with Jesus, with the Son of God, so that we ourselves may become one of the smallest lights that he has lit to carry his light into the world which feels it must be redeemed.

Our spirit must be open to this invitation and let us thus walk joyfully towards Christmas, like the Virgin Mary who awaited the Redeemer’s birth in prayer, with intimate and joyful trepidation. 

Amen!

[Pope Benedict, homily, 12 December 2010]

It is significant that, when the messengers sent by John the Baptist came to Jesus to ask Him: "Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?", He answered by referring to the same testimony with which He had begun His teaching at Nazareth: "Go and tell John what it is that you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them." He then ended with the words: "And blessed is he who takes no offense at me".

Especially through His lifestyle and through His actions, Jesus revealed that love is present in the world in which we live - an effective love, a love that addresses itself to man and embraces everything that makes up his humanity. This love makes itself particularly noticed in contact with suffering, injustice and poverty - in contact with the whole historical "human condition," which in various ways manifests man's limitation and frailty, both physical and moral. It is precisely the mode and sphere in which love manifests itself that in biblical language is called "mercy." 

Christ, then, reveals God who is Father, who is "love," as St. John will express it in his first letter; Christ reveals God as "rich in mercy," as we read in St. Paul. This truth is not just the subject of a teaching; it is a reality made present to us by Christ. Making the Father present as love and mercy is, in Christ's own consciousness, the fundamental touchstone of His mission as the Messiah; this is confirmed by the words that He uttered first in the synagogue at Nazareth and later in the presence of His disciples and of John the Baptist's messengers.

[Dives in Misericordia n.3]

On this third Sunday of Advent, known as the Sunday “of joy”, the Word of God invites us on the one hand to joy, and on the other hand to the awareness that existence also includes moments of doubt, in which it is difficult to believe. Joy and doubt are both experiences that are part of our lives.

To the explicit invitation to joy of the prophet Isaiah: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom” (35: 1), the Gospel opposes the doubt of John the Baptist: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt 11: 3). Indeed, the prophet sees beyond the situation; he discouraged people before him: weak hands, trembling knees, lost hearts (cf. 35: 3-4). It is the same reality that in every age puts faith to the test. But the man of God looks beyond, because the Holy Spirit makes his heart feel the power of His promise, and he announces salvation: “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance” (v. 4). And then everything is transformed: the desert blooms, consolation and joy take possession of the lost of heart, the lame, the blind, the mute are healed (cf. vv. 5-6). This is what is realized with Jesus: “The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Mt 11: 5).

This description shows us that salvation envelops the whole person and regenerates him. But this new birth, with the joy that accompanies it, always presupposes a death to ourselves and to the sin within us. Hence the call to conversion, which is the basis of the preaching of both the Baptist and Jesus; in particular, it is a question of converting our idea of God. And the time of Advent stimulates us to do this precisely with the question that John the Baptist poses to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Mt 11: 3). We think: all his life John waited for the Messiah; his lifestyle, his very body is shaped by this expectation. This is also why Jesus praises him with those words: no one is greater than him among those born of a woman (cf. Mt 11: 11). Yet he too had to convert to Jesus. Like John, we too are called to recognize the face that God chose to assume in Jesus Christ, humble and merciful.

Advent is a time of grace. It tells us that it is not enough to believe in God: it is necessary to purify our faith every day. It is a matter of preparing ourselves to welcome not a fairy-tale character, but the God who challenges us, involves us and before whom a choice is imposed. The Child who lies in the manger has the face of our brothers and sisters most in need, of the poor who are “a privileged part of this mystery; often they are the first to recognize God’s presence in our midst” (Apostolic Letter Admirabile signum, 6).

May the Virgin Mary help us so that, as we approach Christmas, let us not allow ourselves to be distracted by external things, but make room in our hearts for the One Who has already come and Who wishes to come again to heal our illnesses and to give us His joy.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 15 December 2019]

Curved trajectory, and the model that is not the "sphere"

(Mt 17:10-13)

At the time of Jesus, in the Palestinian area, economic difficulties and Roman domination had forced people to fall back on an individual life model.

The problems of subsistence and social order had resulted in a breakdown of relationship (and ties) of both clans and families themselves. Uniting groups, which had always ensured assistance, support and concrete defense to the weakest and distressed members.

Everyone expected that the coming of Elijah and the Messiah could have a positive outcome in the reconstruction of fraternal life, affected.

As it was said: «to lead the heart of the fathers to the sons and the heart of the sons to the fathers» [Mal 3:22-24 announced the sending of Elijah] to rebuild the disintegrated coexistence.

Obviously the recovery of the people’s inner sense of identity was frowned upon by the system of domination. Let alone the [Jesus’ typical] figure of the Call by Name, which would have opened the life of popular piety and of communion to a thousand possibilities.

John had forcefully preached a rethinking of the idea of conquered freedom (Jordan’s passage), the rearrangement of established religious ideas (conversion and forgiveness of sins in real life, outside the Temple) and social justice.

Having an evolved project of reform in solidarity (Lk 3:7-14), in practice he was the Baptizer himself who had already carried out the mission of the expected Elijah [Mt 17:10-12; Mk 9:11-13].

For this reason he had been taken out of the way: he could reassemble a whole people of ousters - marginalized from both the power and the verticist religiousness, accommodating, servile, and collaborationist.

A compartmentalized devotion, which absolutely did not allow either the ‘memory’ of themselves, or the ancient social community structure, inclined to sharing.

In short, the system of things, interests, hierarchies, forced persons to take root in that unsatisfactory configuration.

But here is Jesus, who does not bend.

He is presented by Mt to his communities as the One who wanted to continue the work of building up the Kingdom, both in terms of vocational quality and in terms of coexistence‘s reconstruction.

With a fundamental difference: compared to the scope of ethnic-religious conceptions, the Master does not propose to everyone a kind of amalgamating ideology that ends up depersonalizing the eccentric Gifts of the weak - those unpredictable for an established mentality, but that trace future.

The Lord proposes a fraternal and assembly life of character, yet not stubborn or marked.

Christ wants a more flourishing collaboration that makes good use of resources (internal and not) and differences.

Here even crises become important, indeed fundamental in order to evolve the quality of ‘being close’ to one another - in the richness of the «polyhedron, which reflects the convergence of all its parts, each of which preserves its distinctiveness» [Evangelii Gaudium 236].

Attempting to manipulate characters and personalities to guide them to the "as they should be", one is not comfortable with oneself or even side by side. Nor is the perception of esteem and adequacy transmitted to the ‘many different’ ones, nor the sense of benevolence - much less the joy of living.

‘Curved or attempt-and-error trajectories fit the Father’s Perspective, and our unrepeatable growth.

Difference between religiosity and Faith.

[Saturday 2nd wk. in Advent, December 13, 2025]

Curved trajectory, and the model that is not the "sphere"

(Mt 17:10-13)

The experience of "the Mount" - the so-called Transfiguration - is followed by the episode of Elijah and John [cf. Mt 17:10-13 and parallel Mk 9:2-13].

Jesus introduced the disciples in view but more stubborn than the others to the perception of the Metamorphosis (Mt 17:2 Greek text) of the divine Face and to an inverted idea of the expected Messiah (vv.4-7).

The experts of the sacred Scriptures believed that the return of Elijah was to anticipate and prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Since the Lord was present, the early disciples wondered about the value of that teaching.

Even in the communities of Mt and Mk, the question arose among many from Judaism about the weight of ancient doctrines in relation to Christ.

The Gospel passage is endowed with a powerful personal, Christological specificity [the redeeming, closest brother: Go'El of blood].

To this is added a precise communitarian significance, because Jesus identifies the figure of the prophet Elijah with the Baptist.

At the time, in the Palestinian area, economic difficulties and Roman domination forced people to retreat to an individual model of life.

The problems of subsistence and social order had resulted in a crumbling of relationship life (and bonds) both in clans and in families themselves.

Clan nuclei, which had always provided assistance, support and concrete defence for the weakest and most distressed members.

Everyone expected that the coming of Elijah and the Messiah would have a positive outcome in the reconstruction of fraternal life, which had been eroded at the time.

As it was said: "to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the sons and the hearts of the sons back to the fathers" [Mal 3:22-24 announced precisely the sending of Elijah] in order to rebuild the disintegrated coexistence.

Obviously the recovery of the people's internal sense of identity was frowned upon by the ruling system. Let alone the Jesuit figure of the Calling by Name, which would have opened the people's pious life wide to a thousand possibilities.

John had forcefully preached a rethinking of the idea of conquered freedom (the crossing of the Jordan), the rearrangement of established religious ideas (conversion and forgiveness of sins in real life, outside the Temple) and social justice.

Having an evolved project of reform in solidarity (Lk 3:7-14), in practice it was the Baptizer himself who had already fulfilled the mission of the awaited Elijah [Mt 17:10-12; Mk 9:11-13].

For this reason he had been taken out of the way: he could reassemble a whole people of outcasts - outcasts both from the circle of power and of the verticist, accommodating, servile, and collaborationist religiosity.

A watertight compartmentalised devotion, which allowed absolutely no 'remembrance' of themselves, nor of the old communitarian social order, prone to sharing.

In short, the system of things, interests, hierarchies, forced to take root in that unsatisfactory configuration. But here is Jesus, who does not bend.

Whoever has the courage to embark on a journey of biblical spirituality and Exodus learns that everyone has a different way of going out and being in the world.

So, is there a wise balance between respect for self, context, and others?

Jesus is presented by Mt to his communities as the One who wanted to continue the work of Kingdom building.

With one fundamental difference: with respect to the bearing of ethno-religious conceptions, the Master does not propose to all a kind of ideology of body, which ends up depersonalising the eccentric gifts of the weak - those unpredictable for an established mentality, but which trace a future.

In the climate of the clan that has been strengthened, it is not infrequently those without weight and those who know only abysses (and not summits) who come as if driven to the assent of a reassuring conformation of ideas - instead of dynamic - and a forge of wider acceptance.

Those who know no summits but only poverty, precisely in moments of crisis are the first invited by adverse circumstances to obscure their view of the future.

The miserable remain the ones who are unable to look in another direction and move, charting a different destiny - precisely because of tares external to them: cultural, of tradition, of income, or 'spiritual'.

All recognisable boxes, perhaps not alarming at times, but far removed from our nature.

And right away: with the condemnation at hand [for lack of homologation].

Sentence that wants to clip the wings, annihilate the hidden and secret atmosphere that truly belongs to personal uniqueness, and lead us all - even exasperatedly.

The Lord proposes an assembly life of character, but not obstinate nor targetted - not careless... as to the extent to which it is forced to go in the same ancient route as always. Or in the same direction as the captains.

Christ wants a more luxuriant collaboration that makes good use of resources (internal and otherwise) and differences.

Arrangement for the unprecedented: so that, for example, falls or inexorable tensions are not camouflaged - on the contrary, they become opportunities, unknown and unthinkable but very fruitful for life.

Here even crises become important, indeed fundamental, in order to evolve the quality of being together - in the richness of the "polyhedron" that as Pope Francis writes "reflects the confluence of all the partialities that in it maintain their originality" [Evangelii Gaudium no. 236].

Without regenerating oneself, only by repeating and tracing collective modalities - from the sphere model (ibid.) - or from others, that is, from nomenclature, not personally re-elaborated or valorised, one does not grow; one does not move towards one's own unrepeatable mission.

One does not fill the lacerating sense of emptiness.

By attempting to manipulate characters and personalities to guide them to 'how they should be', one is not at ease with oneself or even side by side. The perception of esteem and adequacy is not conveyed to the many different ones, nor is the sense of benevolence - let alone joie de vivre.

Curved or trial-and-error trajectories suit the Father's perspective, and our unrepeatable growth.

Difference between religiosity and Faith.

To internalise and live the message:

When in your life has your sense of community grown in a sincere way and not constrained by circumstances?

How do you contribute in a convinced way to concrete fraternity - sometimes prophetic and critical (like John and Jesus)? Or have you remained with the fundamentalist zeal of Elijah and the uniting but purist zeal of the precursors of the Lord Jesus?

By telling his disciples that he must suffer and be put to death, and then rise again, Jesus wants to make them understand his true identity. He is a Messiah who suffers, a Messiah who serves, and not some triumphant political saviour. He is the Servant who obeys his Father’s will, even to giving up his life. This had already been foretold by the prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading. Jesus thus contradicts the expectations of many. What he says is shocking and disturbing. We can understand the reaction of Peter who rebukes him, refusing to accept that his Master should suffer and die! Jesus is stern with Peter; he makes him realize that anyone who would be his disciple must become a servant, just as he became Servant.

Following Jesus means taking up one’s cross and walking in his footsteps, along a difficult path which leads not to earthly power or glory but, if necessary, to self-abandonment, to losing one’s life for Christ and the Gospel in order to save it. We are assured that this is the way to the resurrection, to true and definitive life with God. Choosing to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who made himself the Servant of all, requires drawing ever closer to him, attentively listening to his word and drawing from it the inspiration for all that we do.

[Pope Benedict, homily in Beirut 16 September 2012]

This is yet another direction of the road on which Advent sets us on. Man not only walks towards God through what is in him: through his incompleteness, his threat, and at the same time the transcendental character of his personality, directed towards truth, the good, the beautiful; through culture and science; through the desire and nostalgia for a more human world, more worthy of man.

Man not only walks towards God (moreover, often without knowing it or even denying it) through his own advent: through the cry of his humanity. Man walks towards God, walking, in the history of salvation, before God: before the Lord, as we hear in the Gospel with regard to John the Baptist, who had to walk before the Lord in spirit and strength.

This new direction of man's path of advent is connected in a special way with the Advent of Christ. However, man walks "before the Lord" from the beginning and will walk before Him to the end, because he is simply the image of God. Therefore, walking through the streets of the world, he tells the world and bears witness to himself of Whom he is the image.

He walks before the Lord, subduing the earth, for in fact the earth itself, as well as all creation, are subject to the Lord and the Lord has given them into the dominion of man.

He walks before the Lord, filling his humanity and earthly history with the content of his work, with the content of culture and science, with the content of the unceasing quest for truth, goodness, beauty, justice, love, peace. And he walks before the Lord, often enveloping himself in everything that is a negation of truth, goodness and beauty, a negation of justice, love, peace. Sometimes he feels that he is very much enveloped in these negations. Almost by contrast he then feels the full weight of the disfigured image of God in his soul and in his history.

The advent of man meets the advent of Christ.

"O Radix Iesse, qui stas in signum populorum,.... quem gentes deprecabuntur, veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare!"

The Advent of Christ is indispensable, so that man may find in it the certainty that, walking through the world, living from day to day and from year to year, loving and suffering..., he walks before the Lord, whose image he is in the world; that he bears witness to Him before the whole of creation.

[Pope John Paul II, homily to university students 19 December 1980, no. 4]

Before entrusting us with a mission, the Lord prepares us, testing us with a process of purification and discernment. It is the story of the prophet Elijah that prompted the Pope, during the Mass celebrated on Friday morning 13 June in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta, to reflect on this fundamental rule of Christian life.

"In the first reading," said the Pontiff, referring to the passage from the first book of Kings (19:9, 11-16), "we heard the story of Elijah: how the Lord prepares a prophet, how he works in his heart so that this man may be faithful to his word and do what he wants".

The prophet Elijah 'was a strong person of great faith. He rebuked the people for worshipping God and worshiping idols: but if he worshipped idols, he worshipped God badly! And if they worshipped God, they worshipped idols badly!". This is why Elijah said that the people limped "with both feet", had no stability and was not firm in the faith. In his mission "he was courageous" and, in the end, he issued a challenge to the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel and defeated them. "And to finish the story he killed them all", thus putting an end to idolatry "in that part of the people of Israel". So Elijah "was happy because the strength of the Lord was with him".

However, the Pope continued, "the next day, Queen Jezebel - she was the king's wife but she was the one who ruled - threatened him and told him that she would kill him". Faced with this threat Elijah 'was so afraid that he became depressed: he left and wanted to die'. Precisely that prophet who on the previous day "had been so brave and had won" against the priests of Baal, "today is down, does not want to eat and wants to die, such was the depression he had". And all this, the Pontiff explained, "because of the threat of a woman". Therefore 'the four hundred priests of the idol Baal had not frightened him, but this woman did'.

It is a story that 'shows us how the Lord prepares' for the mission. In fact Elijah "with that depression went into the desert to die and lay down awaiting death. But the Lord calls him" and invites him to eat some bread and drink because, he tells him, "you still have a long way to go". And so Elijah "eats, drinks, but then lies down again to die. And the Lord one more time calls to him: go on, go on!".

The point is that Elijah "did not know what to do, but he felt he had to go up the mountain to find God. He was courageous and went up there, with the humility of obedience. For he was obedient". Although in a state of despondency and "with much fear", Elijah "went up the mountain to await God's message, God's revelation: he prayed, because he was good, but he did not know what would happen. He did not know, he was there and waited for the Lord'.

We read in the Old Testament: "And behold, the Lord passed by. There was a mighty, rushing wind to break the mountains and break the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind'. Elijah, the Pope commented, "realised that the Lord was not there". Scripture continues: 'After the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake'. Therefore, the Pontiff continued, Elijah "discerned that the Lord was not in the earthquake and was not in the wind". And again, the first Book of Kings recounts: 'After the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. After the fire, the whisper of a gentle breeze'. And "as he heard it, Elijah realised" that "it was the Lord passing by, he covered his face with his cloak and worshipped the Lord".

In fact, said the bishop of Rome, 'the Lord was not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but was in that whisper of a gentle breeze: in peace'. Or 'as the original says, a beautiful expression: the Lord was in a thread of sonorous silence'.

Elijah, therefore, 'knows how to discern where the Lord is, and the Lord prepares him with the gift of discernment'. Then he entrusts him with his mission: "You have been put to the test, you have been put to the test of depression", of being downcast, "of hunger; you have been put to the test of discernment", but now - we read in the Scripture - "return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, until you come there, you shall anoint Cazael as king over Aram. Then thou shalt anoint Ieu the son of Nimsi as king over Israel, and thou shalt anoint Ezekiel".

This is precisely the mission that awaits Elijah, the Pope explained. And the Lord sent him on that long journey to prepare him for the mission. Perhaps, one could object, it would have been "much easier to say: you were brave enough to kill those four hundred, now go and anoint this one!". Instead, 'the Lord prepares the soul, prepares the heart and prepares it in trial, prepares it in obedience, prepares it in perseverance'.

And "this is how the Christian life is," the Pontiff pointed out. In fact "when the Lord wants to give us a mission, wants to give us a job, he prepares us to do it well", just "as he prepared Elijah". What is important "is not that he met the Lord" but "all the way to the mission that the Lord entrusts". And precisely "this is the difference between the apostolic mission that the Lord gives us and a human, honest, good task". So 'when the Lord gives a mission, he always makes us enter into a process of purification, a process of discernment, a process of obedience, a process of prayer'. Thus, he reiterated, 'it is the Christian life', that is, 'fidelity to this process, to letting ourselves be led by the Lord'.

A great lesson flows from the Elijah story. The prophet 'was afraid, and this is so human', because Jezebel 'was an evil queen who killed her enemies'. Elijah "is afraid, but the Lord is more powerful" and makes him realise that he "needs the Lord's help in preparing for the mission". So Elijah "walks, obeys, suffers, discerns, prays and finds the Lord". Pope Francis concluded with a prayer: "May the Lord give us the grace to allow ourselves to be prepared every day in the journey of our lives, so that we may bear witness to the salvation of Jesus."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 14/06/2014]