All called, but with what outfit? Without artifice

Mt 22:1-14 (1-21)

The "wedding garment" (vv.11-12) is a figure of the essential - the indispensable even the precarious, without frills of refinement.

"Each one of you, therefore, who in the Church has faith in God has already taken part in the wedding feast, but cannot say that he has the wedding garment if he does not keep the grace of Charity" (Homilia 38:9: PL 76:1287). And this robe is symbolically woven of two woods, one at the top and the other at the bottom: love of God and love of neighbour (cf. ibid.,10: PL 76,1288)" (Gregory the Great; Pope Benedict, 9 October 2011).

The Kingdom of God announced by Jesus is different from the one imagined by the rabbis, whose doctrine could admit personal and civic disregard [e.g.: sellers in the temple, barren fig tree, objection to authority, murderous vine-dressers, etc.: Mt 21].

The Banquet preached by the Master is not a Garden of Eden set up for a future in the hereafter, which in the meantime - albeit in flashes - can endure inauthenticity. Rather, it is a direct thread.

His set table is the new condition into which the person who trusts his proposal to share is introduced.

There are those who feel satiated, because they believe they already possess enough for a life without too many problems - and so they adapt to any occasion, even a petty one.

This was the situation of the authorities, satisfied with the overabundant religious structure, which seemed to offer just social security, and certainty even before God.

Instead (as if to say): it is not enough to have one's name transcribed in the parish registers, and then present oneself in the rags of ancient life.

Today, the rebirth from the global crisis calls for fundamental options, for radical changes in mentality and reality.

One really needs to renew one's 'clothing', that is, to set one's choices on new values. 

It is appropriate to become plastic again, to remodel ourselves on the Person of Christ, not to reject the changes that stimulate - to the point of building a common life project, and rebuild the world around.

All are called (v.14), but some have not kept the white garment of Baptism. He has totally changed his outfit, unfortunately - despite in some cases presiding over and defending the institution.

Jesus resumes speaking to the leaders and offends them without half-measures, because he does not compare the Father's kingdom to a liturgical assembly of theirs, those well set up, of great authority, full of artifice... but to a wedding feast, without sacred banners!

In that festive simplicity, in the immediate and joyful frankness of a wedding, there is a human reality characterising the divine condition: the spontaneous Joy of frank relationships, face to face - now lost in the formalisms of habituated religion.

The proposal of festive novelty is, however, rejected. The self-sufficient and experienced (who know better) worship another master: self-interest.

Opportunism cannot be an ingredient of the Sacred: self-interest turns people inward, closes their gaze, makes them one-sided and gloomy.

It consigns the Church to entanglements.

Jesus realises: all that the cunning and messy people were doing was a function of their own profit. For they thought of the Kingdom in an elective, already selected [and commercial, usual] way.

As for the labourers of the last hour [Matthew 20:1-16] the only currency for all is Christ himself. But the veterans, who consider themselves first in their class by right, do not care about people's happiness.

So the fate of the prophets was nothing more than the careless outcome of despicable calculations [in Luke 14:18-20 "ordinary" daily duties] that were, however, leading the people to destruction (v.7).

The background of the parable is the friction between converted Jews and converted Gentiles.

Considering themselves chosen - "elect" (v.14) - the former refused to break the Bread, share and put themselves on an equal footing with the latter.

Interestingly, however, it was precisely the faithful servants, push come to shove, who stood out in reverse: they were already recognisable because under any circumstances they were prepared to enter the Banquet 'last'.

In short, the space opened by the self-exclusion of the people called first would not be able to put an 'end' to the efforts of those who have always fought for life and authenticity.

Fruitful trees - Jesus argued, and we see this everywhere today - do not like to prevaricate: they prefer to produce, without opportunist claims or envy.

They take risks, and occupy only the last place; to be close to the uncertain, and encourage them. 

So in v.9 Mt does not speak of going to the crossroads [CEI translation] but to the outlets of the streets [Greek text].

Pope Francis would say: to the existential peripheries, where life is not taken for granted, but always pulsates new. There where one cannot be indifferent.

The Greek term indicates the end of the (reassuring) urban roads and the beginning of the careless and risky paths.In the Semitic mentality, they were the border of pure territory and the threshold of precarious, contaminated places.

Not only: God's offer of love first brings together the 'wicked' ['wicked': v.10 Greek text] to emphasise that Heaven is not 'at points'.

It is available to the needy, to those who recognise themselves as such.

But everyone can be wicked on the outside, not on the inside: that is, watchful to our brother and diligent.

We are called to abandon neglect and carelessness.

In order not to confuse the Face of God and ruin the lives of the most motivated, a change of mentality is needed within the Church.

A decisive substitution of principles and conveniences, overthrowing every pyramid ideology, of self-interest and power.

By Faith that incorporates us unconditionally to the Bridegroom, the clean and sumptuous dress is always provided by the Master of the House.

But wearing it is the result of a conscious choice, made by us: wanting to "give birth to a new world, where we are all brothers, where there is room for every discarded person" [Fratelli Tutti, no. 278].

That is to say, we will continue to undergo the journey into the parallel world - sometimes even communal - where everything is disconnected and double: the result of bad indoctrination, corrupt options and diabolical motives.

As if the only God worshipped was 'marketing and convenience'.

To internalise and live the message:

What do you consider diabolical and imagine could lead you away from the spiritual path?Do you think of God in a serious way or do you associate Him with the joy of a wedding party?

Give God back the image of true humanity. What acronym?

(Mt 22:15-21)

After the expulsion of the sellers from the Temple, the objection on authority, and the parables of the two sons, the murderous vinedressers, and the rejected banquet (all referring to the elite), here is another clash between Jesus and the political and religious leaders - the latter placed behind the scenes.

Jesus (in his) systematically dismantles the traps set by the leaders and experts.

With tried and tested duplicity, they approach Him trying to stroke their self-love (v.16: situations that often occur even to critical witnesses).

The interest of the cunning, however, clashes with the attention of Christ, who is all for the real good of people and respect for the intelligence of things - not for the eagerness of approval or opportunism.

Right in the Temple (Mt 21:23) - the eminent Abode of the one Lord God - these gendarmes provoke the new Rabbi about paying taxes to the Romans (22:17).

We know what was at stake: the accusation of not being a prophet according to divine Right, or (vice versa) that of collaborationism with the occupiers.

The Master does not allow himself to be fooled by the ostentation of closeness to the God of Israel - false because sought outside - and he easily plays them.

In the Temple of Jerusalem, it was forbidden to carry Roman coins, which depicted imperial profiles and insignia (contrary to the Commandment 'Thou shalt not make thyself any image').

He asked for them, however, because indeed he had none. But the very paladins hand him one.... The scene borders on the ridiculous.

Drawing the forbidden coin from the pouch concealed under the cloak, the very leaders reveal their true God: self-interest (well hidden under devout and ostentatious manners, which only act as a screen).

Christ invites us not to allow ourselves to be flattered by the ostentatious duplicity of insignia: what is important is not to deceive people by using pious forms as theatrical masks (v.18 Greek text).

Purity fanatics only live the epidermic angle; and they rely on it: they not infrequently hide well the very material passions they disdain. It does not work with Christ.

Each one is called upon to return to his true lord the indelible image and likeness engraved on him. So let the coin be given back to its master.

Woman and man - creatures in whom the image and likeness of God is imprinted - are to return themselves in authenticity, to the Creator (v.21) who dwells in their essence as persons.

Humanity is sealed by much more intimate and natural belonging than those of convenience.

Eucharist, gratuitousness and strangers: unheard of or marketing

(Lk 14:15-24)

Jesus does not compare the Father's Kingdom to a solemn assembly, but to a great Supper!

However, the proposal of festive novelty is rejected. The self-sufficient and experienced have other commitments and interests...

After the destruction of the Temple, the government of the synagogues was taken over by the Pharisees, who were saved from disaster because their traditionalism had no explicit political-nationalist overtones.

In fact, they believed that the expectation of the Messiah had nothing to do with the struggle against Rome; in this they seemed in tune with the Christians.

But they constantly demanded from their followers the strict fulfilment of the rules that identified the traditional Jewish religion.

After the year 70, this demand led them to an increasingly obsessive condemnation of Jewish converts to the Lord Jesus - and at the end of the century to their expulsion from the synagogues.The fundamentalist religious leaders thus ended up marginalising even socially the followers of the younger Messiah, guilty of neglecting the distinctions between the customs of Israel and those of other peoples.

In the communities of Lk the situation was less lacerating, but equally alive.

The converts to faith in Christ came for the most part from paganism, who despite differences in cultural background and class, lived here and there [without those purist ideological tares] the ideal of sharing and communion even of goods.

The invitation to take part in the Feast was initially addressed to the children of Israel, who still compared the Messianic times to a great Banquet, characterised by gratitude and (internal) fraternity.

But the difficulties in broadening the criteria of communion came precisely from converts from Judaism, who by long practice retained the custom of not sharing food with those far away; thus the breaking of the Eucharistic Bread.

Within the framework of their customs and the sacred norms attested in the Torah (Deut 20:5-7), the behaviour of those who refuse the invitation in the parable of the Banquet (vv.18-20) was legitimate from the point of view of recognised right - not friendship.

It is to accentuate the meaning of the gesture that the master of the feast orders the servants to gather precisely those who were socially excluded from the ancient religion because they were considered unclean: the pagans. Open to expectation.

Christ continues to draw a dividing line between those who advocate an untouchable order and ideals above human reality, and those who, being on the periphery, are always willing to participate in the Feast.

They are not the 'all concerned with ritual', manners, appearance; but with the life they spread.

They do not let themselves be conditioned by privileges, their things, and laws: they give without double-entry accounts, they accept with natural readiness; they rejoice in reality and not in the distinction between sacred and profane. They do not think they already have the answer, and do not end up being slaves to it.

Jesus' teaching invites us not to limit our affections and not to let our hearts be cluttered by customs, by particular or current mentalities, by legalistic blocks - or by 'many things'.

In the assembly of the children, it is not the well provided for [serious, busy people with no time to lose, with too many possessions and invitations to manage] but the petty people... who come to the fore... despite their meagre aptitudes.

All this, because characteristic of the Little and Pitocchios is the readiness to cross fences: that which makes them fit to grasp God's summons.

The distant - albeit in straits - fill the Father's house.

In society the poor man is one of many, but the invitation to Mensa conveys to him a sense of values that do not suffocate life with pettiness, and ties; indeed, the destitute often have a better understanding of divine-human things.

This ever more conscious resemblance to the Son of God is accentuated in the scarcity of 'adequate' means: scarcity that makes true, that induces others to reflect - remaining unremarkable, incapable of making lightning.

This intimate, luminous, transfiguring awareness pales and fades in the vortex of legalisms, of cultural conventions.

It seems to fade in the dizzying multiplication of activities - they do not reform: they make us external and conditioned by the advantages of worldly-sacred, unfortunately monopolistic security.

An obligatory banquet would not be a Banquet... certainly not a Feast, a Gift to be cherished - confused with advantages or perfections [bad interpretation of stubborn observant circles].

This is why many prefer their particular purgatory to the Heaven on Earth that the Father offers.

Our solidarity is not a matter of sympathy, common interests and esprit de corps, but the result of an extended Calling, of one powerful Life circulating in all, respecting their freedom and reality - as well as their phases of change.

Paraphrasing the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (nn.13-15, passim) according to the passage from Lk we must remain careful not to impoverish the life of Faith, turning it into a detached commitment to 'cultural colonisation'.

If this were the case, even the universal-Catholic horizon of a conviviality of differences would dissolve into an overly normalised, absolutely predictable, ultimately deserted invitation.

The engrossed or interested rejection of the Banquet would bring with it - as before our eyes - the "further disintegration" of "critical thinking", of action "for justice", of its "paths of integration".

Even ecclesial society can in fact run the risk of "distorting the great words", "risking impoverishment"; thus "reducing itself to the arrogance of the strongest" and to "merely ephemeral marketing recipes, which find in the destruction of the other the most effective resource".But God's people cannot live in a parallel, disconnected, double world - as if the only Eternal worshipped was a patchwork of wiles, marketing and convenience.

To internalise and live the message:

What does the Eucharist convey in your church or group reality? What particular and special invitation does it communicate?

In the Gospel Jesus speaks to us of the answer that is given to the invitation of God — represented by a king — to take part in this marriage feast (cf. Mt 22:1-14). Many guests were invited but something unexpected happens: they refuse to take part in the celebration, they have other things to do; indeed, some of them show contempt for the invitation. God is generous to us, he offers us his friendship, his gifts, his joy, but often we do not welcome his words, we show greater interest in other things and put our own material concerns, our own interests, first. The king’s invitation even meets with hostile and aggressive reactions. Yet this does not impede his generosity. He is not discouraged and sends his servants out to invite many other people. The refusal of those invited first causes the invitation to be extended to everyone, even the poorest, the abandoned and disinherited. The servants gather together those they find and the wedding hall is filled: the king’s goodness knows no bounds and all are given the possibility of answering his call. However, there was one condition in order to attend this wedding feast: that the wedding garment be worn. And, on entering the hall, the king notices that someone has not wished to wear it and for this reason bars him from the banquet.

I would like to reflect for a moment on this point with a question: why did this man accept the king’s invitation, enter the banquet hall, find the door opened to him but not put on the wedding garment? What is this wedding garment? At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, in Coena Domini, this year I mentioned a beautiful commentary on this parable by St Gregory the Great. He explains that the guest had accepted God’s invitation to take part in his banquet, that in a certain way he had faith which opened the door of the banquet hall to him, but he lacked something essential: the wedding garment, which is charity or love. And St Gregory adds: “Therefore each one of you in the Church who has faith in God has already taken part in the wedding feast, but cannot claim to wear the wedding garment unless he jealously guards the grace of love” (Homily 38, 9; PL 76, 1287). And this garment is woven symbolically on two looms of wood, one above and one below: love of God and love of neighbour (cf. ibid., 10: PL 76, 1288). We are all invited to be the Lord’s guests, to enter his banquet with faith, but we must put on and take care of the wedding garment: charity, to live in the profound love of God and neighbour.

[Pope Benedict, homily in Lamezia Terme 9 October 2011]

2. Jesus says: "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son" (Matthew 22: 2). The parable of the wedding feast presents the Kingdom of God as a royal - and therefore sovereign - initiative of God himself. It also includes the theme of love, and precisely of spousal love: the son for whom the father prepares the wedding feast is the bridegroom.

Although the bride is not called by name in this parable, the circumstances indicate her presence, and make it clear who she is. This will appear clearly in other New Testament texts, which identify the Church with the Bride (Jn 3:29; Rev 21:9; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:23-27.29).

3. On the other hand, the parable clearly contains the indication of the Bridegroom, who is Christ, who implements the Father's new Covenant with humanity. This is a covenant of love, and the Kingdom of God itself appears as a communion (community of love), which the Son implements by the Father's will. The 'banquet' is the expression of this communion. In the context of the economy of salvation described by the Gospel, it is not difficult to see in this nuptial banquet a reference to the Eucharist: the sacrament of the new and eternal Covenant, the sacrament of Christ's nuptial wedding with humanity in the Church.

4. Although the Church as Bride is not mentioned in the parable, other elements are found in the context of the parable that recall what the Gospel tells us about the Church as the Kingdom of God. Thus the universality of the divine invitation: "The King says to his servants, 'Everyone you find, call them to the wedding'" (Matthew 22:9).

Among the guests at the wedding banquet of the Son, those chosen first are missing: those who were to be guests according to the tradition of the old Covenant. These refuse to go to the banquet of the new Covenant, citing various pretexts. Then Jesus makes the King, the master of the house, say: "Many are called, but few chosen" (Mt 22:14). Instead, the invitation is extended to many others, who crowd the banquet hall. The detail brings to mind that other cautionary word that Jesus had spoken: "Now I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom will be cast out" (Mt 8:11-12). Here we can clearly see how the invitation becomes universal: God intends to make the new Covenant in his Son no longer with the chosen people alone, but with the whole of humanity.

5. The sequel to the parable indicates that definitive participation in the wedding banquet is linked to certain essential conditions. It is not enough to have entered the Church to be sure of eternal salvation: "Friend, how could you enter here without a wedding garment?" (Matthew 22:12), the King asks one of the guests. The parable, which at this point seems to move from the problem of the historical rejection of the election by the people of Israel to the individual behaviour of whoever is called and the judgement that will be pronounced on him, does not specify the meaning of that 'garment'. But it can be said that the explanation is to be found in the whole of Christ's teaching. The Gospel, particularly the Sermon on the Mount, speaks of the commandment of love, which is the principle of divine life and perfection after the pattern of the Father: 'Be . . . perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect' (Mt 5:48). This is that 'new commandment', which, as Jesus teaches, consists in this: 'As I have loved you, so love one another' (Jn 13:34). It thus seems to be concluded that the "wedding garment", as a condition for attending the banquet, is precisely this love.

This is confirmed by another great parable, concerning the final judgement, and therefore of an eschatological nature. Only those who implement the commandment of love in works of spiritual and corporal mercy towards their neighbour can take part in the banquet of the Kingdom of God: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt 25:34).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 September 1991]

With the narrative of the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, in today’s Gospel passage (cf. Mt 22:1-14), Jesus outlines the plan that God envisaged for humanity. The king who “who gave a marriage feast for his son” (v. 2) is the image of the Father who prepared for the entire human family a wonderful celebration of love and communion around his only begotten Son. Twice the king sends his servants to call the invited guests, but they refuse; they do not want to go to the feast because they have other things to think about: fields and business. We often also put our interests and material things ahead of the Lord who calls us — and he calls us to a feast. But the king in the parable does not want the hall to remain empty, because he wants to offer the treasures of his kingdom. So he tells his servants: “Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find” (v. 9). This is how God reacts: when he is rejected, rather than giving up, he starts over and asks that all those found at the thoroughfares be called, excluding no one. No one is excluded from the house of God.

The original term that Matthew the Evangelist uses refers to the limits of the roads, or those points at which the city streets end and the paths begin that lead to the area of the countryside, outside the residential area, where life is precarious. It is to this humanity of the thoroughfares that the king in the parable sends his servants, in the certainty of finding people willing to sit at the table. Thus the banquet hall is filled with the “excluded”, those who are “outside”, those who never seemed worthy to partake in a feast, in a wedding banquet. In fact, the master, the king, tells the messengers: “Call everyone, both good and bad. Everyone!”. God even calls those who are bad. “No, I am bad; I have done many [bad things]...”. He calls you: “Come, come, come!”. And Jesus went to lunch with the publicans, who were public sinners; they were the bad ones. God is not afraid of our spirits wounded by many cruelties, because he loves us; he invites us. And the Church is called to reach the daily thoroughfares, that is, the geographic and existential peripheries of humanity, those places on the margins, those situations where the hopeless remnants of humanity camp out and live. It is a matter of not settling for comforts and the customary ways of evangelization and witnessing to charity, but rather of opening the doors of our hearts and our communities to everyone, because the Gospel is not reserved to a select few. Even those on the margins, even those who are rejected and scorned by society, are considered by God to be worthy of his love. He prepares his banquet for everyone: the just and sinners, good and bad, intelligent and uneducated.

Yesterday evening, I was able to make a phone call to an elderly Italian priest, a missionary in Brazil since youth, but always working with the excluded, with the poor. And he lives his old age in peace: he burned up his life with the poor. This is our Mother Church; this is God’s messenger who goes to the crossroads.

However, the Lord places one condition: to wear a wedding garment. Let us return to the parable. When the hall is full, the king arrives and greets the latest guests, but he sees one of them without a wedding garment, that kind of little cape that each guest received as a gift at the entrance. The people went as they were dressed, as they were able to dress; they were not wearing gala attire. But they were given a type of capelet, a gift, at the entrance. That man, having rejected the free gift, excluded himself: thus, the king could do nothing but throw him out. This man accepted the invitation but then decided that it meant nothing to him: he was a self-sufficient person; he had no desire to change or to allow the Lord to change him. The wedding garment — this capelet — symbolizes the mercy that God freely gives us, namely, grace. Without grace we cannot take a step forward in Christian life. Everything is grace. It is not enough to accept the invitation to follow the Lord; one must be open to a journey of conversion, which changes the heart. The garment of mercy, which God offers us unceasingly, is the free gift of his love; it is precisely grace. And it demands to be welcomed with astonishment and joy: “Thank you, Lord, for having given me this gift”.

May Mary Most Holy help us to imitate the servants in the Gospel parable by emerging from our frames of mind and from our narrow views, proclaiming to everyone that the Lord invites us to his banquet, in order to offer us his saving grace, to give us his gift.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 11 October 2020]

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 2024)

1. In the heart of summer, the liturgy invites us to celebrate the Virgin Mary assumed into heaven, a sign of consolation and sure hope for all. It was Pope Pius XII, on 1 November in the Holy Year of 1950, who declared as dogma (i.e. truth of faith) the Assumption of Mary to heavenly glory in body and soul. Today's Gospel of Luke presents Mary as the one who is blessed because she believed. To Elizabeth's greeting, "To what do I owe that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" she responds with her silence, which eventually expands into the singing of the Magnificat.  In her place, Jesus in gestation within her speaks mysteriously, causing John the Baptist to leap for joy in the womb of the elderly Elizabeth. Here is Mary, the Ark of the new covenant, the first itinerant tabernacle of the Eucharist in the history of humanity, a model of evangelisation: proclaiming the gospel without the need for words, carrying Christ in one's heart. Among Muslims, Saint Charles de Foucauld chose the icon of the Visitation as a reference for his mission as a little brother to all. He wanted to be like Mary in constant adoration of the Eucharist and listening to the needs of the people first at Beni-Abbès, on the border between Algeria and Morocco, and then at Tamanrasset among the Tuaregs of the Sahara desert. The Ark of the new covenant, Mary continues to walk today and enters our homes as the Ark of the covenant did in the Old Testament when it was taken from Jerusalem to the hills of Judea and entered the house of Obed Edom for three months, bringing joy there (2 S 6:11-12). The prayer, the Magnificat canticle with which she responds to Elizabeth, is a sylloge of many small fragments of biblical texts and psalms. She did not want to invent her own prayer, but took up various expressions of her ancestors in faith, thus embodying her prayer in the life of humanity. Mary, a humble and believing woman, offers us a valuable lesson: in this very difficult time for humanity where God is being provoked with every offence and a war is being risked that could create the self-destruction of humanity, we must go back to silencing so much controversy and so many debates and clashes. We must take responsibility for what we say and do, knowing that we are part of the same humanity and for better or for worse we touch the lives of all. The believer cannot forget that every vocation, even in the plurality of differences, makes us servants of the one people called to face a hard fight against the powers of evil in every age.   

2. This war without frontlines is referred to in the first reading, taken from the book of Revelation, which sees as the victor the "Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars", accompanied by other symbolic images: the Ark of the covenant, the dragon and the newborn child.  The Ark of the Covenant, as already mentioned, is a reference to the golden wooden Ark that accompanied God's people during the exodus to Sinai. When John writes the Revelation, the Ark of the Covenant had already been lost for many years during the Babylonian exile and everyone thought that the prophet Jeremiah had hidden it in a secret place on Mount Nebo (2 M 2:8) and it would reappear at the arrival of the Messiah. If John describes her as having been found, it means that the promise has now been fulfilled, God's covenant with humanity has been definitively realised through the birth of the Messiah (Rev 11:19). The "Woman clothed with the sun" is pregnant and "cries out in labour pains". The Woman is the image of the chosen people within which the Messiah is born, a painful birth because it is a people marked by suffering, divisions and persecutions. With the advent of Jesus, it was not difficult for the first Christians to associate in the Woman of the Apocalypse the call to the Church, new Israel, and to Mary, the Mother of the Saviour. Before the Woman stands "a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on its heads seven diadems" to devour her newborn son, a striking symbol of the forces of evil unleashed against God's plan.  Its head and horns indicate the intelligence and violence of Satan's power to destroy humanity. The dragon seems to prevail because it shoots down a third of the stars in the sky to plunge them to earth, an eloquent parable of the travails of a universe never at peace. Despite its power, however, it succeeds in knocking down only a third of the stars. It is therefore an illusory victory and the message is clear: the power of evil is provisional and it will be the newborn child destined to rule all nations that will bring it down for good. Everyone recognises in this newborn child, triumphant over the satanic powers, the Messiah since there are clear references in Revelation to the psalms that foresaw his coming: "The Lord has said to me: You are my son, I have begotten you today. Ask me and I will give thee the nations as an inheritance, and in thy dominion the far-off lands. You shall break them with scepter of iron, like pots of clay you shall shatter them." (Ps 2:7-9).  Moreover, in the rapture of the newborn child is symbolised the resurrection of the risen Christ, victor over death and seated at the right hand of the Father. The Messiah is joined by the reference to Mary, the Immaculate Virgin Mother, always represented in the act of crushing the head of the serpent-dragon, who having failed in heaven will not succeed on earth either. How then can one fail to love Mary by entering into her Immaculate Heart, the "safe refuge of souls"?

3. Mary is the support of our hope because she is the Woman of faith who accepted God's plan without fully understanding, indeed a sword pierced her soul as old Simeon had foretold (Lk 2:35). The tradition of the Church from the beginning has inseparably associated her with Jesus, the unsurpassable model of total adherence to God's will. Indeed, he himself teaches us with the prayer of the 'Our Father' to abandon ourselves fearlessly into the arms of the heavenly Father, saying with our lives: 'Thy will be done'. Mary, like all of us, knew toil, pain and death; by a special privilege, however, death was for her a falling asleep, thus entering into glory in God. By contemplating her we can understand what awaited mankind if our forefathers had not committed the first sin that condemned us to the sufferings of death. In the light of Mary we can therefore affirm two truths: Our body, because of original sin, is subject to the labours, suffering and death that decompose our mortal being. Mary assumed into heaven assures us, however, that if death has entered because of sin, God can transform it and give us back immortal life as a gift. This is the message of today's Feast of the Assumption, an occasion to reflect, pray and trust in God's mercy that in Mary shows us the victory of love over hate and of life over death. Let us pause to contemplate Mary with this prayer of St Bernard: "Whoever you are, you who feel that in the flux of this world you are swaying between gales and storms instead of walking securely on the earth, do not avert your eyes from the splendour of this star, if you do not want to be overwhelmed by storms! If the winds of temptation rise, if you come upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star, call upon Mary. If you are buffeted by the waves of pride, ambition, slander, jealousy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If wrath or avarice or the lure of the flesh have shaken the ship of your soul, look to Mary. If troubled by the enormity of sins, confused by the unworthiness of conscience, frightened by the horror of judgement, you begin to be engulfed in the abyss of sadness, in the abyss of despair, think of Mary. In dangers, in anxieties, in uncertainties, think of Mary, invoke Mary. Do not turn away from your mouth, do not turn away from your heart. And to obtain the suffrage of her prayer, do not abandon the example of her life gathered in God. Following Her you do not go astray, praying to Her you do not despair, thinking of Her you do not err. If she holds you, you do not fall; if she protects you, you do not fear; if she guides you, you do not grow weary; if she gives you her favour, you reach your goal, and so you experience for yourself how rightly it has been said: "And the Virgin's name was Mary" (In laudibus Virginis Matris II, 17).

+ Giovanni D’Ercole

(Unique Coin and smart working: Love)

(Mt 20:1-16)

In the atrium of the Temple in Jerusalem, the climbing vine of the portal was a symbol of the gifts that people were called to present to God: mutual acceptance, understanding, sharing... for the happiness of all.

Obviously, entering at the beginning of the day (that is, of our existence) into this logic of love is better, than entering at the last hour.

Being in communion with God, being in his Vineyard and having had the grace not to lose even a moment of life without his Presence, is a «bearing the burden» or vice versa a pleasure?

Believers of the first hour feel deeply offended, because they identify the "advantage" with what they have always denied themselves.

They think the "enjoy life" in the same way as the pagans! The work is indeed... «endured» [v.12: notice the verb!].

Well, God has no wage workers: only sons; no subordinate. And none of us is negligible for "inefficiency".

That of the models is a blocking effect; tied to insignificant comparisons.

Not in deep synchrony with oneself [vv.6-7].

The Gospel of Mt originated from Syro-Palestinian communities, which were beginning to experience pagans and sinners flocking in large numbers and becoming a numerical majority.

The attitude of the outsiders who showed up at the gates of the communities was much freer than that of the embarrassed veterans.

The new mentality, dissolved from constraints, provoked jealousy among those who were accustomed to scrutinizing the lives of others - almost out of religious duty.

After all, that of beginners and ‘mestizos’ who wanted to start a way of love was but a reflection of the superabundant fluidity of the divine Gifts.

‘Gratis’: communicated without mistrust or exclusions; not on the basis of previous merits, but free of charge and by virtue of need alone.

Therefore, today’s passage remains a strong Call.

The importance of work induces the Master not to send his factor (!) whom he unfortunately knows he cannot fully trust.

He himself goes out repeatedly and does not want dirigistic interference, in personally calling the workers.

Because He’s the Unique who understands: it’s never too late!

Teaching is precisely for community leaders, who often do not take on the burden of bothering themselves from home in the continuous search for everyone, and adapting themselves to people and events.

The Father wants a Family (Vineyard) that presents to the world the sweet and sugary fruit of the Feast - the only really important thing, non-negotiable principle.

Thus, to the always morbids top of the class the Lord continues to do a very educational "spite".

From now on they must discover that He does not discriminate on the basis of external profitable percentages, nor other negative mental states.

He “pays” everyone unreservedly and with a unique single «currency»: his Person. No automatic pilot is enabled to disturb our breathing.

The soul counts, not the curriculum [CV] or performance.

[Wednesday 20th wk. in O.T.  August 21, 2024]

It's never too late (single coin and smart working: Love)

(Mt 20:1-16)

In the atrium of the temple in Jerusalem, the portal creeper was a symbol of the gifts that the people were called upon to present to God: mutual acceptance, understanding, sharing... for the happiness of all.

Obviously, entering at the beginning of the day (that is, of our existence) into this logic of love is better than entering at the last hour.

Instead: "Is your eye bad because I am good?" [v.19 Greek text].

But is being in communion with God, being in his Vineyard and having had the grace not to lose a single moment of life without his Presence a 'burden-bearing' or vice versa a pleasure?

But what a naive question... of course, the issues at stake are these and they are profound, but also others. So let us ask ourselves: in what we do, how much does external theatre count? So much?

The believers of the 'first hour' feel deeply offended, because underneath they identify 'pleasure' or 'advantage' with what they have always forcibly denied themselves. Perhaps out of a matter of social respectability, or out of a misunderstood sense of God; either way, artificially.

They think of 'enjoying life' in the same way as pagans! Work is indeed ... 'endured' [v.12: note the verb!].

Their unspoken sentiments are equally ungodly... but the first of the class remain more adept than others at exploiting the screen of long-certified membership to mask themselves behind the zeal of renunciations, works, sweats, procedures, prescriptions, performances, and better performances.

Well, God has no wage labourers: only children; no underlings. 

None of us are negligible for 'inefficiency' - based on the old idea of proven belonging: the inhuman pace, the production volumes, the effort, the performance... the extra overtime...

That of patterns is a blocking effect; linked to meaningless comparisons, stressful, rushed (and overworked) life - all under external influence.

Not in deep synchrony with oneself [vv.6-7: ""Why do you stand here all day idle?" They say to him, "Because no one has taken us for a day. He says to them, 'You also go into the Vineyard'"].

The Father is only interested in personal Happiness and the Joy of Love: the only tasty Fruit; not the heap of external works, not the great volume of the many and many 'fruits' - often unfortunately inedible.

It is the outcome of the new, inverted world.

We are all equally protagonists and leaders, even if to some 'internal' regulars our contribution appears fragmentary, inefficient - and assesses us as not very 'involved' (perhaps in 'customs'); not at all 'regular' - with a grim and presumptuous eye.

The recent experience of smart working during the health crisis has brought out the specific weight of the 'late-comers': people who are less tied to production, less extroverted and less able to lead, but perhaps more thoughtful and profound, more respectful of the preciousness of their own work; less outward-looking or exhibitionist, more collaborative.

The unfavourable has become favourable!

The Gospel of Mt originated from Syro-Palestinian communities, which were beginning to experience pagans and sinners flocking in large numbers and becoming a numerical majority.

All this, to the great scandal of both Pharisaic and Judeo-Christian circles - who were now showing themselves to be opponents of the newcomers.

In short, the veterans were beginning to behave as if they were returning 'Pharisees', bound to the works of the law and the old ethnic-cultural baggage.

This is how the Master treats them - because they stubbornly refused to listen to the tide of people once far away, who were now bringing new things. And [they, without much practice of pious works] opened up to the veterans a path of Exodus, of Liberation from the convictions of the fathers.

The attitude of the outsiders and "intermarriers" who presented themselves at the fraternities' doors was much freer and fiercer than that of the community elders, Judaizers.

Their unencumbered mentality began to provoke jealousy among those who - almost out of religious duty - were used to scrutinising the lives of others with suspicion.

After all, that of the beginners and 'half-breeds' who wanted to begin a journey of love was but a reflection of the superabundant fluidity of the divine Gifts.

'Free' communicated without mistrust or exclusion: not on the basis of previous merits, but freely and by virtue of need alone.

We can experience live today the identical dynamics of confrontation, between new blood relatives on the basis of Faith and the customary ones [more concerned with their fixed places and 'laboriously' won positions of supremacy].

But thanks to the Word (v.15b) we now recognise the latter: by their judgement and manners. Nor do they ever want to let go of a finished past, or their 'new' sophisticated world of fashionable brain hypotheses.When the 'good' God unmasks them, exposing their prejudice, they remain with the slanted, evil eye of false paternalism.

But it is a malicious gaze only for intimidation purposes - for envy and 'lese majesty', not to educate us.

Thus they delude themselves not to be understood and continue to sterilise or pilot, ridiculing Love [also to get us out of the way - to avoid the danger of being overshadowed] by ineptitude, and by the very normal unfolding of life.

Therefore, today's passage remains, after so many centuries, a powerful reminder.

The importance of the work induces the Master not to send his factor (!) whom he unfortunately knows he cannot fully trust.

He himself repeatedly goes out and does not want dirigiste interference in calling the workers personally.

He is the only one who understands: it is never too late!

The teaching is precisely for community leaders, who often do not take on the burden of constantly searching for everyone from home, and adapting themselves to people and events.

Instead, the Father wants a Family (Vineyard) that presents the world with the sweet, sugary fruit of the Feast - the only truly important, non-negotiable principle.

Thus, to the ever morbid top of the class, the Lord continues to do a very educational 'spite'.

Already in life, they must discover that He does not discriminate on the basis of external profitable percentages, or others' negative mental states.

He "pays" everyone without reservation and with a single "currency": His Person. No autopilot is enabled to disturb our breathing.

The soul counts, not the CV or performance.

To internalise and live the message:

In what do you find God's Will incomprehensible, or rather the commercial, gloomy and square mentality (covered with duties, sadness, fatigue and pain) of his investigators?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

You may remember that when I addressed the crowd in St Peter's Square on the day of my election it came naturally to me to introduce myself as a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. Well, in today's Gospel (cf. Mt 20: 1-16), Jesus recounted the very same parable of the owner of the vineyard who at different hours of the day hires labourers to work in it. And in the evening he gives them all the same wages, one denarius, provoking protests from those who began work early. That denarius clearly represents eternal life, a gift that God reserves for all. Indeed those who are considered the "last", if they accept, become the "first", whereas the "first" can risk becoming the "last". The first message of this parable is inherent in the very fact that the landowner does not tolerate, as it were, unemployment: he wants everyone to be employed in his vineyard. Actually, being called is already the first reward: to be able to work in the Lord's vineyard, to put oneself at his service, to collaborate in his work, is in itself a priceless recompense that repays every effort. Yet only those who love the Lord and his Kingdom understand this: those who instead work only for the pay will never realize the value of this inestimable treasure.

It is St Matthew who recounts this parable, an apostle and an evangelist, whose liturgical feast day we are celebrating on this very day. I like to emphasize that Matthew lived this experience in the first person (cf. Mt 9: 9). Indeed, before Jesus called him he worked as a tax collector and was therefore seen as a public sinner, excluded from "the Lord's vineyard". But everything changed when Jesus passed by his table, looked at him and said to him: "Follow me". Matthew rose and followed him. From a publican he immediately became a disciple of Christ. From being "last" he found himself "first", thanks to God's logic, which - for our good fortune! - is different from the logic of the world. "My thoughts are not your thoughts", the Lord says, speaking through the mouth of Isaiah, "neither are your ways my ways" (Is 55: 8). St Paul, for whom we are celebrating a special Jubilee Year, also experienced the joy of feeling called by the Lord to work in his vineyard. And what a lot of work he accomplished! Yet, as he himself confessed, it was God's grace which worked in him, that grace which from persecutor of the Church transformed him into an Apostle to the Gentiles, to the point of saying: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" However he immediately added: "If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell" (Phil 1: 21-22). Paul clearly understood that working for the Lord is already a reward on this earth.

The Virgin Mary, whom I had the joy of venerating in Lourdes a week ago, is the perfect branch of the Lord's vine. In her germinated the blessed fruit of divine love: Jesus, our Saviour. May she help us to respond constantly and joyously to the Lord's call and to find our happiness in toiling for the Kingdom of Heaven.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 21 September 2008]

6. Another parable makes us realise that it is never too late to enter the Church. God's invitation can be addressed to man up to the last moment of life. It is the well-known parable of the labourers in the vineyard: "The kingdom of heaven is like a householder who went out at dawn to hire labourers for his vineyard" (Mt 20:1). He went out again a few times at different times of the day, until the last hour. And to all was given a wage in which, beyond the limit of strict justice, the master wished to manifest all his generous love.

The moving episode, narrated by the evangelist Luke, about the 'good thief' crucified alongside Jesus on Golgotha comes to mind in this regard. To him, the invitation manifested itself as God's merciful initiative, as he was almost breathing: 'Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom'. He heard from the mouth of the Redeemer-Spouse, condemned to death on the cross: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise" (Lk 23:42-43).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 18 September 1991]

Today’s passage from the Gospel (cf. Mt 20:1-16) recounts the parable of the labourers called to put in a day’s work by the owner of the vineyard. Through this narrative, Jesus shows us the surprising way God acts, represented by two of the owner’s attitudes: the call and the recompense.

First of all, the call. Five times the owner of the vineyard goes out and calls people to work for him: at six, at nine, at twelve, at three and at five in the afternoon. The image of this owner, who goes out numerous times to look for day labourers for his vineyard, is touching. That owner represents God who calls everyone and calls always, at any hour. Even today, God acts this way: he continues to call anyone, at whatever hour, to invite them to work in his Kingdom. This is God’s way, which, in our turn, we are called to receive and to imitate. He does not stay shut in within his world, but “goes out”: God always goes out, in search of us; he is not closed up — God goes out. He continually seeks out people, because he does not want anyone to be excluded from his loving plan.

Our communities are also called to go out to the various types of “boundaries” that there might be, to offer everyone the word of salvation that Jesus came to bring. It means being open to horizons in life that offer hope to those stationed on the existential peripheries, who have not yet experienced, or have lost, the strength and the light that comes with meeting Christ. The Church needs to be like God: always going out; and when the Church does not go out, she becomes sick with the many evils we have in the Church. And why are these illnesses in the Church? Because she does not go out. It is true that when someone goes out there is the danger of getting into an accident. But better a Church that gets into accidents because she goes out to proclaim the Gospel, than a Church that is sick because she stays in. God always goes out because he is a Father, because he loves. The Church must do the same: always go out.

The owner’s second attitude, representing God’s, is his way of compensating the workers. How does God pay? The owner agrees to “one denarius” (v. 2) with the first workers he hired in the morning. Instead, to those he hired later, he says: “Whatever is right I will give you” (v. 4). At the end of the day, the owner of the vineyard orders that everyone be given the same pay, that is, one denarius. Those who had worked since morning are outraged and complain against the owner, but he insists: he wants to give the maximum pay to everyone, even to those who arrived last (vv. 8-15). God always pays the maximum amount: he does not pay halfway. He pays everything. Here we understand that Jesus is not speaking about work and fair wages — that is another problem — but about the Kingdom of God and the goodness of the heavenly Father who goes out continually to invite, and he pays everyone the maximum amount.

In fact, God behaves like this: he does not look at the time and at the results, but at the availability; he looks at the generosity with which we put ourselves at his service. His way of acting is more than just, in the sense that it goes beyond justice and is manifested in Grace. Everything is Grace. Our salvation is Grace. Our holiness is Grace. In giving us Grace, he bestows on us more than what we merit. And so, those who reason using human logic, that is, the logic of the merits acquired through one’s own greatness, from being first, find themselves last. “But, I have worked a lot, I have done so much in the Church, I have helped a lot and they pay me the same as this person who arrived last…”. Let us remember who was the first canonized saint in the Church: the Good Thief. He “stole” Paradise at the last minute of his life: this is Grace. This is what God is like, even with us. Instead, those who seek thinking of their own merits fail; those who humbly entrust themselves to the Father’s mercy, rather than being last — like the Good Thief — find themselves first (cf. v. 16).

May Mary Most Holy help us to feel every day the joy and wonder of being called by God to work for him, in his field which is the world, in his vineyard which is the Church. And to have as our only recompense his love, friendship with Jesus.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 20 September 2020]