Uncovering and opening "synagogues": unusual crossroads of Tenderness

(Lk 5:17-26)

Paralysis and punishment: different Tenderness [introduction].

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

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

Realities capable of putting any person back on their feet and moving forward, even the wretched - starting with their conscience (vv.18.23), stifled by a religion that accentuated a sense of unworthiness.

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

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

"I say to you, rise and take up your bed and go to your house" (Lk 5:24; cf. Mt 9:6; Mk 2:11).

Starting from what we are - that is, already resourceful, beyond all appearances - we live by Faith the same state as the "Son of Man" (v.24).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord's 'brothers' [cf. parallel passages Mt 9:1-8; Mk 2:1-12] do all they can to lead the needy to the Master.

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

Critical impetus and love for the full life needs of all of us in need must then overcome the 'cultural', ethical, doctrinal and ritualistic sense of belonging - which only flatters or reiterates.

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

Another kind of world

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

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

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

For imperfection is not an expression of guilt, but a condition - and in any case sin is not an absolute force (v.21).It is this awareness that gives rise to liberated people and a new order: 'to forge bonds of unity, of common projects, of shared hopes' [Fratelli Tutti, n.287].

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

These are people who in life seem neither to be going in the direction of the true God, nor are they going to others. Nor can they meet themselves.

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

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

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

They do not let us 'enter' - instead we want to put ourselves before Him (vv.18-19): sometimes we are like blackmailed by levies and subjected to procedures, otherwise you do not pass; you are out.

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

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

A work very pleasing to the Father... and which the Son values as an expression of Faith (v.20)!

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

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

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

Hence their congregations or 'synagogues' or 'houses of prayer' must be uncovered and thrown wide open (v.19) - with extreme decisiveness.

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

No more proper compliments, mirrors for fashionable larks, and 'proper' customary procedures!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thus, no sign of joy from the authorities (v.21) who only draw negative diagnoses - while the people are enthusiastic (v.26).

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

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

They do not protect people, but only their self-interested connections, correct protocols and acquired positions; possibly the latest news of thought for their own benefit. Ropes that get in the way of our development.

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

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

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

Otherwise, the soul rebels. It wants to be with Jesus up front, not behind the throng, albeit of believers - démodé or glamour.

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

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

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

Unthinkable - perhaps insulting - for the outline.

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

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

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

No unpredictable Salvation would have broken through.

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

Unusual crossroads of Tenderness and Faith.

To internalise and live the message:

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

Where do you most frequently hear, "My son, your sins are forgiven [...] Rise up and walk"? Do the others seem healthy and spiritual environments to you?

What kind are your works of faith? In sectors?

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

On these Sundays, the liturgy presents the Gospel account of various healings brought about by Christ:  last Sunday, the leper, and today, a paralyzed man lying on his bed, whom four people carried to Jesus. Having noted their faith, he said to the paralytic:  "My son, your sins are forgiven" (Mk 2: 5). By so doing he made it clear that first of all he wanted to heal the spirit.

The paralyzed man is the image of every human being whom sin prevents from moving about freely, from walking on the path of good and from giving the best of himself. Indeed, by taking root in the soul, evil binds the person with the ties of falsehood, anger, envy and other sins and gradually paralyzes him. 

Jesus, therefore, scandalizing the scribes who were present, first said:  "... your sins are forgiven". Only later, to demonstrate the authority to forgive sins that God had conferred upon him, did he add:  "Stand up! Pick up your mat and go home" (Mk 2: 11), and heals the man completely.
The message is clear:  human beings, paralyzed by sin, need God's mercy which Christ came to give to them so that, their hearts healed, their whole life might flourish anew. 

Today too, humanity is marked by sin which prevents it from rapidly progressing in those values of brotherhood, justice and peace that with solemn declarations it had resolved to practise. Why? What is blocking it? What is paralyzing this integral development?

We know well that there are many historical reasons for this and that the problem is complex. But the Word of God invites us to have a gaze of faith and to trust, like the people who were carrying the paralytic, that Jesus alone is capable of true healing. 

The basic choice of my Predecessors, especially of the beloved John Paul II, was to lead the people of our time to Christ the Redeemer so that, through the intercession of Mary Immaculate, he might heal them. I too desire to continue on this path. 

In particular, with my first Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, I wanted to point out to believers and to the whole world, God as the source of authentic love. Only God's love can renew the human heart, and only if he heals the heart of paralyzed humanity can it get up and walk. The love of God is the true force that renews the world. 

Let us invoke together the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that every person will be open to the merciful love of God and consequently that the human family will be healed in its depths of the evils that afflict it.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 19 February 2006]

1. A text by Saint Augustine offers us the key to interpreting Christ's miracles as signs of his saving power: "The fact that he became man for us has been of much greater benefit to our salvation than the miracles he performed among us; and it is more important than the fact that he healed the diseases of the body destined to die" (S. Augustini, In Io. Ev. Tr., 17, 1). In order to this health of the soul and the redemption of the whole world, Jesus also performed miracles of a corporal order. And so the theme of the present catechesis is as follows: through the "miracles, wonders and signs" he performed, Jesus Christ manifested his power to save man from the evil that threatens the immortal soul and his vocation to union with God.

2. This is what is revealed in a special way in the healing of the paralytic in Capernaum. The people who brought him, unable to enter through the door into the house where Jesus teaches, lower the sick man through an opening in the roof, so that the poor man comes to stand at the feet of the Master. "Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven you'". These words arouse suspicion of blasphemy in some of those present: "This man blasphemes! Who can forgive sins but God alone?". Almost in response to those who had thought so, Jesus addresses those present with the words: "What is easier: to say to the paralytic: Your sins are forgiven, or to say: Get up, take up your bed, and walk? Now, so that you may know that the Son of Man has the power on earth to forgive sins, I command you,' he said to the paralytic, 'Get up, take up your cot, and go to your house. He got up, took up his cot, and went out in the presence of all" (cf. Mk 2:1-12 and also Mt 9:1-8; Lk 5:18-26; Lk 5:25).

Jesus himself explains here that the miracle of healing the paralytic is a sign of the saving power by which he forgives sins. Jesus performs this sign to show that he has come as the Saviour of the world, whose main task is to free man from spiritual evil, the evil that separates man from God and prevents salvation in God, which is precisely sin.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 11 November 1987]

Diseases of the soul must be healed and the medicine is to ask for forgiveness. Pope Francis said this at the morning Mass celebrated on Friday 17 January at Casa Santa Marta, commenting on the Gospel account of Jesus' healing of the paralytic. It is right, said the Pontiff, to cure the diseases of the body, but "do we think about the health of the heart?"

Presenting the passage from the day's liturgy, taken from the Gospel according to Mark, the Pope reproposed the image of Jesus in Capernaum with the crowd gathered around him. Through an opening made in the roof of the house, some bring him a man lying on a stretcher. The hope is that Jesus will heal the paralytic, but he displeases everyone by telling them: 'Son, your sins are forgiven. Only then does he order him to get up, take the stretcher and go home. Francis commented by saying that with his words Jesus allows us to go to the essentials. "He is a man of God," he said; he healed, but he was not a healer, he taught, but he was more than a teacher, and before the scene before him he goes to the essential: "He looks at the paralytic and says, 'Your sins are forgiven. Physical healing is a gift, physical health is a gift that we must guard. But the Lord,' the Pope continued, 'teaches us that we must also guard the health of the heart, spiritual health'.

Jesus also goes to the essence with the sinful woman, of whom the Gospel speaks, when in front of her weeping he says to her: 'Your sins are forgiven'. The others are scandalised, Francis said, 'when Jesus goes to the essential, they are scandalised because there is prophecy, there is strength'. Similarly, 'Go, but sin no more,' Jesus says to the man in the pool who never arrives in time to immerse himself in the water in order to be healed. To the Samaritan woman who asks him so many questions, - "she was playing the theologian a bit," said the Pontiff - Jesus asks about her husband. He goes to the essentials of life and, the Pope emphasised, 'the essential is your relationship with God. And we forget, many times, this, as if we were afraid to go right there where there is an encounter with the Lord, with God'. We do so much, he noted again, for our physical health, we give ourselves advice on doctors and medicines, and that is a good thing, "but do we think about the health of the heart?" So he said: 'There is a word here from Jesus that will perhaps help us: "Son, your sins are forgiven". Are we used to thinking about this medicine of forgiveness of our sins, of our mistakes? We ask ourselves: 'Do I have to ask God's forgiveness for something? "Yes, yes, in general, we are all sinners", and so it gets watered down and loses its force, this power of prophecy that Jesus has when he goes to the essentials. And today Jesus, to each one of us, says: 'I want to forgive you your sins'".

The Pope went on to say that perhaps some people do not find sins in themselves to confess because they "lack the consciousness of sins". Of "concrete sins", of "illnesses of the soul" that must be healed "and the medicine to heal is forgiveness". It is a simple thing that Jesus teaches when he goes to the essentials, Pope Francis said, concluding: 'The essential is health, all of it: of body and soul. We guard well that of the body, but also that of the soul. And let us go to that Physician who can heal us, who can forgive sins. Jesus came for this, he gave his life for this".

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 18/01/2020]

In the Annunciation

(Gen 3:9-15.20; Lk 1:26-38)

A great theologian of the Mystical Body wrote: «At dawn there is a wonderful moment: the one that immediately precedes the sunrise [...] the light has been growing, slowly at the beginning, then faster» (É. Mersch).

The ecclesial Faith announces and transmits in Mary ‘Most Holy’ a specific style, a Faith and Hope well denoted in Scripture.

She prorupting and freed, not alienated; independent of “night”, not embarrassed.

Capable of passing from the God of fathers to the Father. Son’s God.

Dawn after dawn, story after story, genesis after genesis, moving house after moving, she lived decisively a kind of ‘spirituality of the rising dawn’. And confidence over time.

When a question mark was coming, she realized it was time to ask herself and give answers.

She sensed the Opportunity to rise again: all Fruitful and without losing motivation, thanks to a paradoxical Alliance, with the limits and emotional burdens.

When a labor broke in, she understood that those waves invaded life not to destroy, but to move a sea of reflows, perhaps still too calm.

She didn’t dream of stemting or blocking that tide. She internalized the restlessness of doubts as a great moment of life.

A Happiness that came from innovation. Like a Presence.

Instead of feeling constrained, she paused on every case, to ask herself: «What do I still have to learn, from this?».

Perhaps she understood that inside her usual figure there was a woman capable of transgression - in the sense of feeling called to overturn all the ancient and artificial that didn’t correspond to her.

This is how she began, by accepting the Invitation: by housing in herself and give space to an unnameable Eternal, believed to be absolutely transcendent and never to be mixed with the flesh!

Not just a sacrilege, but heresy. Yet in the Mother of God the paradoxical heterodoxy comes as it were swept beyond.

His spirituality was cleared of the real great "stain": the inability to correspond to the personal Announcement.

«Too bad! What a pity» «Sin! What a shame!» - it is precisely said of a lost opportunity: it’s the decrease of Uniqueness that we are in.

Pearl that every day could yield its uniqueness to the normalizing and sliced outline of common opinion, narrowing the space, the vital wave.

The divine call of every moment directed elsewhere Mary’s dreams and her innate knowledge - antechamber of trust.

In the Covenant of Root and Seed, decisions were not and did not remain poor: without brain burdens the Mother of God went directly to new possibilities, and to the end.

In this form she lived and weaved a sort of «spirituality of the rising sun». Recall of every moment, in the joy of changing herself and things; or in the happiness of living them like this - even by leaving everything.

While growing up, she did not age of uncertainties, because she tuned her destiny forward - saying Yes to what it faced - and instinctively even today we consider her Young.

She knew how to be with the contradictions of the environment subject to the ancient devotion, and with the unexpected waves, as with the eccentricity of the Son.

Mary cared for Him by being ‘present’, in simple everyday gestures. She relied only on the happy energy that surfaced all moments, and inhabited her.

She immersed herself in the minimal expressions of gestures with her gaze on the now, for a clear action.

Inadequate to the miracle but herself, while working thoroughly, she did not squeeze to the bone, like a torn-up person on her last legs - because she was able to get back into play. This is why she knew the dialogue with the most feared and suffered feeling: loneliness.

But even in the dark she regenerated, welcoming and coming out of it by strengthening the germs of change - feeding in the soul a sort of magical garden.

Always off track, the Immaculate has overcome all prejudices.

[Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2024]

In the Annunciation

(Gen 3:9-15.20; Lk 1:26-38)

A great theologian of the Mystical Body wrote: "At dawn there is a stupendous moment: that which immediately precedes the rising of the sun [...] the light has been growing, slowly at first, then more quickly" (É. Mersch, vol.I).

The ecclesial Faith announces and transmits in the all holy Mary a specific style, Faith and Hope, well denoted in Scripture.

Prorompent and enfranchised, not alienated; independent of 'night', not embarrassed.

Able to move from the God of the fathers to the Father. God of the Son.

The reassuring tradition of the feeble, almost dreamy Mother has its own considerable strength - it must be admitted: the intention to represent the nobility of a creature in balance.

Yet in the Gospels she is characterised by a surprising emancipation.

Even so, Mary remains an icon of the praying and authentic People, of the soul bride, of the friendly Church.

Relational, generous person and community, qualified by a dignity in the Spirit that is not exclusive, but at hand, personalising.

Dawn after dawn, affair after affair, genesis after genesis, move after move, he lived decisively - instant by instant - a kind of 'spirituality of the dawning dawn'. And trust in time.

This was his veracious and reflective (rather than withdrawn and pensive) foothold.

Despite the alarms, toils and dangers, strangely for us, she did not develop a sense of emptiness, nor did she allow herself to be conditioned or appalled by the perception of being watched and judged.

When a question mark came, she understood that it was time to ask and give answers.

She sensed the Opportunity to rise again: all Blind and without losing motivation, thanks to a paradoxical Alliance with emotional limits and burdens.

When labour broke through, she understood that those waves invaded life not to destroy, but to stir up a sea of ebbs that was perhaps still too calm.

In this way, she overlooked both the issues and the stasis: they would anchor her to the usual form of being and thinking - to the rushed, identified world, without imagination (and therefore more insecure).

She did not dream of stemming or blocking the tide, the Newness, the vital energy of Providence, even though the Calling by Name burst forth in a violent manner. To raise it to a new Easter.

She internalised the restlessness of doubts as a great moment of life, an incarnated Call that reminded her that there is Other.

She read her anxieties, welcoming and interpreting them, in order to overcome them.

In such an approach to events, the Virgin regenerated - and within her a subtle joy arose; that of the all beautiful dawn that rises.

First glow of a rising sun.

A Happiness hers that came from innovation. Like a Presence.

Secret side that makes creatures' lives take off, and fly over the issues that bridle the soul.

Instead of feeling constrained, she paused over each case, to ask herself: "What more do I have to learn, from this?".

In this way she was able to focus her days not on projects, but on the qualities and predispositions, even of family members - spending them well.

Perhaps she understood that within her usual figure was a woman capable of religious transgression - in the sense of feeling called to overturn all the old and artificial that did not correspond to her.

So she began, accepting the Invitation: to house within herself and give space to an Eternal then imagined unnameable, believed to be absolutely transcendent and that would never mix with the flesh!

Not just a sacrilege, but total heresy. But in the Mother of God the paradoxical heterodoxy [all our own and horizontal] is as if swept aside.

Her spirituality was cleared of the truly great 'stain': the inability to correspond to the personal Annunciation.

"Sin" - it is said of a missed opportunity: it is the flexing of the Oneness that we are within.

A pearl that every day can surrender its exceptionality to the normalising and slicing contour of common opinion, shrinking the space, the vital wave.

The divine call of each moment directed Mary's dreams and her innate knowledge elsewhere - the antechamber of trust.

In the Covenant of Root and Seed, decisions were not and did not remain poor: without cerebral burdens, the Mother of God went directly to new possibilities, and to the end.

In this Form she lived and wove a kind of "spirituality of the rising sun". She called for every moment, in the joy of changing herself and things; that is, in the happiness of living them that way - even of leaving everything behind.

Even as she grew up, she did not grow old with uncertainties, because she tuned her destiny forward - saying Yes to whatever came her way - and instinctively, even today, we consider her Young.

She knew how to be with the contradictions of the environment subject to the ancient devotion, and with the unexpected storms, as with the eccentricity of her Son. 

He cared for it by being 'present', in simple everyday gestures. He relied only on the happy energy that surfaced every moment, and inhabited it.

She immersed herself in the minimal expressions of gestures with her gaze on the now, for clear action.

Inadequate to the miracle but herself, occupying herself did not exhaust - because she was capable of putting herself back into play. That is why she knew the dialogue with the most feared and suffered feeling: loneliness.

But even in the darkness she regenerated, welcoming it and coming out of it reinforcing the germs of change - nurturing a kind of magic garden in the soul.

Always off the rails, Immaculata overcame all prejudices.

Annunciation: how to enter the realm of the soul

From Religion to Faith, from barren to Beloved

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

From the outside to within ourselves. From the models to the prophecy of the innate. Unique promise, more subtle condition.

Faith-faith - that of Mother - which shows the freedom and beauty of the new orientations, in the progression of the inner image-guides.

Covenant no longer for what is already known.

Her Covenant is all in the Openness to the Inexplicable that inhabits us. Intimate Eternal, which can now concretise the hope and journey of peoples. A turning point of authenticity, growing.

If the virgins of the heart make no demands, the Calling by Name (from our own fibres) uncovers the incapable and barren soul.

Ad coeli Reginam: Silent Echo... such an invisible nucleus-Vocation makes one wince. And with spontaneous virtue introduces the spirit into the fruitful synergy of God himself.

Spousal trust that reknots the threads of Salvation history: and contrasts with the broad road of alliances with people 'who matter'.

In the interweaving of the fruitful Initiative and our welcoming into our bosom, the Handmaid is an icon of each one's waiting and journey - where what remains decisive is not the usual, predictable desire.

A vibrant call that is prolonged in history, in a kind of unfolded and continuous Incarnation, thanks to the collaboration of distant, shaky and insignificant servants, like Mary.

Also ours, despite still being filled with normal expectations.

To internalise and live the message:

Which Words open us up to life in the Spirit and challenge the expected path?

What is our still in-between, unencountered zone?

How to realise the invisible Seed

Says the Tao Tê Ching (LXI): "The great realm that is held below, is the confluence of the world; it is the female of the world. The female always conquers the male with stillness, for she cheerfully submits to it. Therefore, the great realm that is below the little realm, attracts the little realm; the little realm that is below the great realm, attracts the great realm: the one lowers to attract, the other attracts because it is low. Let not the great kingdom exceed, lusting to feed and to unite others; let not the small kingdom exceed, lusting to be accepted and to serve others. That each one may obtain what he covets, the great should keep low.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

Today, we celebrate one of the most beautiful and popular feasts of the Blessed Virgin: the Immaculate Conception. Not only did Mary commit no sin, but she was also preserved from original sin, the common legacy of the human race. This is due to the mission for which God had destined her from eternity: to be the Mother of the Redeemer. All this is contained in the truth of faith of the "Immaculate Conception". 

The biblical foundation of this Dogma is found in the words the Angel addressed to the young girl of Nazareth: "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!" (Lk 1: 28). "Full of grace" - in the original Greek, kecharitoméne - is Mary's most beautiful name, the name God himself gave to her to indicate that she has always been and will always be the beloved, the elect, the one chosen to welcome the most precious gift, Jesus: "the incarnate love of God" (Deus Caritas Est, n. 12). We might ask: why exactly did God choose from among all women Mary of Nazareth? The answer is hidden in the unfathomable mystery of the divine will. 

There is one reason, however, which is highlighted in the Gospel: her humility. Dante Alighieri clearly emphasizes this in the last Hymn of Paradise: "Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son, lowly and exalted more than any creature, the fixed goal of eternal counsel..." (Paradise, XXXIII, 1-3). In the Magnificat, her canticle of praise, the Virgin herself says: "My soul magnifies the Lord... because he looked upon his servant in her lowliness" (Lk 1: 46, 48). 

Yes, God was attracted by the humility of Mary, who found favour in his eyes (cf. Lk 1: 30). She thus became the Mother of God, the image and model of the Church, chosen among the peoples to receive the Lord's blessing and communicate it to the entire human family. 

This "blessing" is none other than Jesus Christ. He is the Source of the grace which filled Mary from the very first moment of her existence. She welcomed Jesus with faith and gave him to the world with love. This is also our vocation and our mission, the vocation and mission of the Church: to welcome Christ into our lives and give him to the world, so "that the world might be saved through him" (Jn 3: 17). 

Dear brothers and sisters, may today's Feast of the Immaculate Conception illuminate like a beacon the Advent Season, which is a time of vigilant and confident waiting for the Saviour. While we advance towards God who comes, let us look at Mary, who "shines forth..., a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God" (Lumen Gentium, n. 68).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 December 2006]

1. Today we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast very dear to the Christian people. It fits in well with the Advent season and radiates the purest light on our spiritual journey to Christmas. 

Today we contemplate the humble girl of Nazareth who, by an extraordinary and ineffable privilege, was preserved from the contagion of original sin and from every fault, so that she could be a worthy dwelling-place for the Incarnate Word. In Mary, the New Eve, Mother of the New Adam, the Father's original, wondrous plan of love was re-established in an even more wondrous way. Therefore the Church gratefully acclaims:  "Through you, immaculate Virgin, the life we had lost was returned to us. You received a child from heaven, and brought forth to the world a Saviour" (Liturgy of the Hours, Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday, Benedictus Antiphon). 

2. Today's liturgy once again presents the Gospel account of the Annunciation. In response to the Angel, the Virgin proclaims:  "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1: 38). Mary expresses her total assent of mind and heart to God's hidden will and prepares herself to receive the Son of God, first in faith and then in her virginal womb. 

"Behold!". Her prompt compliance with the divine will is a model for all of us believers, so that in great events, as well as in ordinary affairs, we will entrust ourselves entirely to the Lord. 

By the witness of her life, Mary encourages us to believe in the fulfilment of God's promises. She calls us back to the spirit of humility, the right interior attitude of the creature towards the Creator; she urges us to put our sure hope in Christ, who fulfils the divine plan, even when events seem obscure and are difficult to accept. As a shining Star, Mary guides our steps to the Lord who comes. 

3. Dear brothers and sisters! Let us turn our eyes to the Immaculate, all Holy and all Fair. May Mary, our Advocate, Mother of the "King of Peace", who crushes the serpent's head, help us, the men and women of the third millennium, to resist the seductions of evil; may she rekindle faith, hope and charity in our hearts, so that, faithful to our call and ready to make any sacrifice, we may be fearless witnesses to Jesus Christ, the Holy Door of eternal salvation.

[Pope John Paul II, Angelus 8 December 2000]

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Mary Immaculate, which takes place within the context of Advent, a time of expectation: God will accomplish what he promised. But on today’s feast day we are told that something has already been accomplished, in the person and the life of the Virgin Mary. Today we consider the beginning of this fulfilment, which is even before the birth of the Mother of the Lord. In fact, her immaculate conception leads us to that precise moment when Mary’s life began to palpitate in her mother’s womb: already there was the sanctifying love of God, preserving her from the contagion of evil that is the common inheritance of the human family.

In today’s Gospel the Angel’s greeting to Mary resounds: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28). God has always thought of her and wanted her in his inscrutable plan, to be a creature full of grace, that is, full of his love. Yet, in order to be filled it is necessary to make room, to empty oneself, to step aside. Just as Mary did, she who knew how to listen to the Word of God and trust totally in his will, accepting it unreservedly in her own life. So much so that the Word became flesh in her. This was possible thanks to her “yes”. To the Angel who asks her to be ready to become the mother of Jesus, Mary replies: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (v. 38).

Mary does not lose herself in reasoning, she does not place obstacles in the Lord’s way, but she promptly entrusts herself and makes room for the action of the Holy Spirit. She immediately makes her whole being and her personal history available to God, so that the Word and the will of God may shape and bring them to fulfilment. Perfectly corresponding to God’s plan for her, Mary then becomes the “all beautiful”, the “all holy”, but without the slightest shadow of complacency. She is humble. She is a masterpiece, whilst remaining humble, small, poor. In her is reflected the beauty of God which is all love, grace, gift of self.

I would also like to underline the word with which Mary defines herself in her surrender to God: she professes herself “the handmaid of the Lord”. Mary’s “yes” to God takes on from the beginning the attitude of service, of attention to the needs of others. The visit to Elizabeth which immediately follows the Annunciation testifies this concretely. One’s availability to God is found in one’s willingness to take on the needs of one’s neighbour. All of this without clamour and ostentation, without seeking places of honour, without advertising, because charity and works of mercy needn’t be exhibited as a trophy. Works of mercy are done in silence, in secrecy, without boasting of doing them. Even in our communities, we are called to follow the example of Mary, practicing the style of discretion and concealment.

May the feast of our Mother help us to make our whole life a “yes” to God, a “yes” made of adoration of him and of daily gestures of love and service.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 8 December 2019]

Free of charge: the Near Kingdom and Incarnate Prayer

(Mt 9:35-10:1.6-8)

Jesus distinguishes himself from the Rabbis of his time, because he doesn’t wait for the exhausted and prostrate people (v.36) to go to him: he seeks it.

And the group of his intimates must be involved, both in works of healing and liberation - fraternity motivated by luminous disinterest.

The Lord enters the prayer assemblies with pastoral concern: to teach, not to discuss. He does not give lessons in logical analysis, but he does bring out Who inhabits him.

He proclaims a Kingdom totally different from how it was instilled by the manipulators of consciences - overflowing with detailed convictions, producing intimate coercion, anonymity, loneliness, passivity.

Still today we are looking for a God to experience, loveable, ‘not invisible’.

Thus the Gospel (v.35) announces Grace: the face of the Father - who doesn’t want anything for himself, but gives everything to transmit us his own Life.

A Friend who Comes, who doesn’t force us to "go up" [in the abstract] nor imprisons in guilt, exhausting already submissive creatures - making them even more desolate than before.

Here a Heaven is revealed that makes us feel adequate, doesn’t punish or impress, but promotes and puts at ease.

The Prodigal Father welcomes people as the Son does in the Gospels - as they are; not by inquiring. Rather by dilating.

His Word-event not only reactivates: it replenishes imbalances and enhances them in perspective of real person paths - without judging or disperse, nor break anything.

For such a work of wise recomposition of being, the Master invites to Prayer (v.38) - first form of disciples’ commitment.

Access to different tunies in the Spirit teaches us to stimulate the gaze of the soul, to value and understand everything and everyone.

Therefore - after making them less unaware - Jesus invites his disciples to get involved in missionary work; not to do the learned, nor moral lessons.

They would be scripted without love, which make the sick people feel yet more desperate.

Mission grows from a small but boundless dimension - that of inner perception, which is aware of the needs and mystery of a favourable Presence.

New configurations of understanding, in spirit: fully discovered only in deep Prayer (v.38). Incarnate Prayer.

Prayer does not want to distract us from our deep realization; on the contrary, it guides us - and relocates the soul scattered in the many common practices to be carried out, to its center.

It makes us feel the struding of desire and of understanding the perfect condition: the Father doesn’t intend to absorb our attitudes, but to empower them. Because everyone has an intimate project, a Call by Name, his own place in the world.

It seems paradoxical, but the outgoing Church is first and foremost a problem of formation and internal consciousness.

In short, we recognize ourselves and become aware of things through the Prayer-hunch, unitive.

In Christ it’s not a performance or a devout expression, but an understanding and above all a Listening to the God who in a thousand subtle forms reveals himself and calls.

Thus the fight against infirmities (Mt 9:35-10:1): we recover and win by sharpening our gaze and reinvesting the energy and character even of our own still blurred sides.

All the Free of charge (Mt 10:8) that may spring from it to build life in favor of the brothers, will not sprout as a childish exchange.

The sense of closeness (v.7) to oneself, to others and to reality, will be an authentic - neither programmatic nor alienated - contribution of the Kingdom that reveals itself: Beside.

[Saturday 1st wk. in Advent, December 7, 2024]