The Lord’s Coming continues, the world must be penetrated by his presence and this ongoing Coming of the Lord in the proclamation of the Gospel requires our continuous collaboration. Moreover the Church, who is, as it were, the Betrothed, the promised Bride of the Lamb of the Crucified and Risen God (cf. Rev 21:9), in communion with her Lord, collaborates in this Coming of the Lord, in which his glorious return has already begun. 

Today the word of God calls us to this, outlining the lines of conduct we should follow to be ready for the Lord’s Coming (...)

In the midst of the upheavals of the world or in the deserts of indifference and materialism, may Christians accept salvation from God and bear witness to it with a different way of life, like a city set upon a hill. “In those days”, the Prophet Jeremiah announced, “Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: The Lord is our righteousness” (33:16). The community of believers is a sign of God’s love, of his justice which is already present and active in history but is not yet completely fulfilled and must therefore always be awaited, invoked and sought with patience and courage.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 2 December 2012]

1. Once again you are faithfully attending the annual meeting of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Coming as you do from Africa, from North and Latin America, from Asia and Europe, your presence reminds us of the vast panorama of cultures throughout the world; some have already been made fruitful by Christ's message, and their fruitfulness endures. Others are still awaiting the light of Revelation, for every culture is open to the highest human aspirations, and capable of fusing with the Gospel to produce something new and creative.

Ours is a troubled century, and that fact is being impressed upon us daily; yet even now a new millennium is dawning, bearing new hope for humankind. The historical process of the inculturation of the Gospel and the evangelization of cultures is far from having exhausted all its latent energies. As new cultures arise, or go through the pangs of rebirth, they encounter the eternal newness of the Gospel. It is obvious that the emergence of new cultures calls for courage and intelligence on the part of all believers and of everyone of good will. Social and cultural change, political upheaval, ideological ferment, religious questionings, ethical probing, all show a world in gestation, in search of form and direction, organic wholeness, prophetic renewal. May we know how to draw fresh responses from the treasury of our hope.

Shaken by socio-political imbalance, scientific discoveries not fully under control, and technical inventions of incredible potential, people are confused as old ideologies fade away and old systems wear out. The new nations provoke the old-established societies, as if to arouse them from their lassitude. The young in search of an ideal are trying to give real meaning to the human adventure. Neither drugs nor violence, neither permissiveness nor nihilism can fill the emptiness of existence. Minds and hearts are seeking light to shine on them, love to bring them warmth. Our era reveals to us how deep is the spiritual hunger of the human mind, how immense its hope.

2. The recent Extraordinary Synod of Bishops, in which we had the grace of participating here in Rome, gave us a renewed awareness of these profound hopes of humanity and of the prophetic inspiration of the Second Vatican Council, 20 years ago. At the invitation of Pope John XXIII, father of this Council of modern times, as we are all its sons, we must bring the modern world into contact with the life-giving energies of the Gospel (cf. the Bull Humanae Salutis, Christmas 1961, announcing the Council.

Yes, we are at the beginning of a gigantic work of evangelization of the modern world, which is presented in new terms. The world has entered an era of profound turmoil, on account of the stupefying range of human inventions, which threaten to destroy humanity itself unless they are integrated into an ethical and spiritual vision. We are entering a new era of human culture, and Christians are faced with an immense challenge. Today we are in a better position to gauge the extent of Pope John XXIII's prophetic exhortation to banish the prophets of doom, and to put our hands courageously to the formidable task of renewing the world and its "encounter with the face of the risen Jesus ... shining through the whole Church to bring salvation, joy and light to the nations of the world" (Message Ecclesia Christi, Lumen Gentium, 11th September 1962).

[Pope John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Council for Culture 13 January 1986]

Paganisation', 'worldliness', 'corruption' lead to the destruction of the person. But the Christian, called to confront the "trials of the world", in the difficulties of life has a horizon of hope because he is invited to the "wedding of the Lamb". During the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on the morning of Thursday 29 November, Pope Francis continued to follow the cues of the liturgy, which, in the final week of the liturgical year, proposes a series of provocations on the theme of the end, of the "end of the world", of the "end of each one of us".

In the day's liturgy of the word, the Pontiff explained at the beginning of his homily, the two readings taken from Revelation (18, 1-2.21-23; 19, 1-3.9) and from Luke's gospel (21, 20-28) are both characterised by "two parts: one part destruction and then one part trust; one part defeat, one part victory". The focus is on two cities with great evocative power: Babylon and Jerusalem, "two cities that are defeated".

First of all Babylon, "symbol of the worldly city, of luxury, of self-sufficiency, of the power of this world, rich". A reality that "seems joyful", yet "will be destroyed". Revelation affirms this by describing "a rite of victory: 'It has fallen. Babylon, the great, has fallen. It has fallen'". Considering her "incapable of being faithful", the Lord condemns her: "He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her prostitution".

Still referring to the biblical text, the Pontiff went into detail about the reality of Babylon. "That ostentation of luxury, of glory, of power," he said, "was a great seduction that led people to destruction. And that great city so beautiful showed its truth: 'it became a den of demons, the refuge of every unclean spirit, the refuge of every unclean bird, the refuge of every unclean and hideous beast'". Behind the "magnificence", therefore, lies "corruption: the feasts of Babylon seemed to be feasts of happy people", but "they were fake feasts of happiness, they were feasts of corruption". And for this reason, the Pope explained, the angel's gesture described by Revelation has a symbolic power: "He took a great stone, as big as a millstone and threw it into the sea, exclaiming: 'With this violence Babylon, the great city, will be destroyed'".

Significant is the list, recalled by the Pontiff, of the consequences reserved for it. First of all, there will be no more feasts: "The sound of the musicians, the zither, flute and trumpet players, will no longer be heard in you". Then, since it is "not a city of labour but of corruption", there will no longer be "any craftsman of any trade" in it and "the sound of the millstone" will no longer be heard. And again: 'The light of the lamp will no longer shine in you; it will perhaps be an enlightened city, but without light, not bright; this is the corrupt civilisation'. Finally, 'the voice of the bridegroom and the bride will no longer be heard in you'. There were many couples, many people, but there will be no love'.

A destiny of destruction, the Pontiff remarked, that 'begins from within and ends when the Lord says: "Enough". And there will be a day when the Lord will say: 'Enough, to the appearances of this world'". In fact, he added, this 'is the crisis of a civilisation that thinks it is proud, sufficient, dictatorial, and ends like that'.

But a sad fate is also reserved for the other symbol-city, Jerusalem. This is spoken of in the Gospel passage in which Jesus - who "as a good Israelite" loved Jerusalem, but saw it as "adulterous, not faithful to the law" - says: "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its devastation is near"". That is, Francis explained, the city 'is destroyed because of another kind of corruption: the corruption of infidelity to love'. Because of this infidelity it 'has not been able to recognise the love of God in his Son'. For Jerusalem, too, therefore, the fate is harsh: "And it will fall, and there will be days of vengeance. Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles".

It is precisely in this passage from Luke's Gospel that the Pontiff singled out "a phrase that helps us understand the meaning of the destruction of both cities: the worldly city and the holy city: 'Until the days of the Gentiles are fulfilled'". The holy city will be punished because it has opened "the gates of its heart to the pagans". The Pope explained how here emerges "the paganisation of life, in our case, Christian life"; and he launched a provocation: "Do we live as Christians? It seems so. But in truth, our life is pagan'. The Christian, that is, enters into the same "seduction of Babylon and Jerusalem lives like Babylon. He wants to make a synthesis that cannot be made. And both will be condemned". Hence the questions: "Are you a Christian? Are you a Christian?" Then, he urged, 'live as a Christian', because 'you cannot mix water with oil'. Instead, today we are witnessing the 'end of a civilisation that is contradictory in itself, which says it is Christian' but 'lives as a pagan'.

At this point, the horizon of hope suggested by the readings opened up in Francis' reflection. In fact, 'after the end of the worldly city and the paganised city of God, the voice of the Lord will be heard: "After this I heard as a mighty voice of an immense crowd in heaven saying: Alleluia!"'. Hence: 'after destruction there is salvation'. As we read in chapter 19 of Revelation: 'Salvation and glory and power are of our God, for true and just are his judgments'. And the destruction of the two cities, the Pontiff explained, is "a judgement of God: He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her prostitution, avenging on her the blood of her servants!" For that worldly city "sacrificed the servants of God, the martyrs. And when Jerusalem became paganised, it sacrificed the great martyr: the Son of God".

The vision of Revelation is grandiose: "And for the second time they said, "Hallelujah!" And the angel said: "Come, blessed are those invited to the wedding of the Lamb!"". It is the image of the "great feast, the true feast. Not the pagan feast and the worldly feast". An image of victory and hope also evoked by Jesus in the gospel: "At that moment of tragedy, then they will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with great power and glory. When these things begin to happen, arise - in the face of tragedy, of the destruction of paganism, of worldliness, arise - lift up your heads, for your deliverance is at hand'.

Here is the message that challenges every Christian: 'There are tragedies, even in our lives, but in the face of these, look to the horizon, because we have been redeemed and the Lord will come to save us. And this,' Francis added, 'teaches us to live the trials of the world not in a pact with worldliness or paganism that leads us to destruction, but in hope, detaching ourselves from this worldly and pagan seduction, and looking at the horizon, hoping for Christ, the Lord'.

In this perspective of hope, the Pope invited us to cast a glance at the past, even the recent past, in order to reread history in the light of the word of God: "Let us think of how the 'Babylonies' of this time have ended. Let us think of the empires of the last century, for example: "It was the great, the great power...". All collapsed. Only, the humble remain who have their hope in the Lord. And so the great cities of today will also end". In the same way "our life will end if we continue to take it down this road of paganisation. It is the opposite of hope: it leads you to destruction. It is the Babylonian seduction of life that draws us away from the Lord'. Instead, the Lord, the Pontiff concluded, invites us to a "contrary path: to go forward, to look with that Alleluia of hope", because "we are, all of us, invited to the wedding feast of the Son of God". So "let us open our hearts with hope and turn away from the paganisation of life".

[Pope Francis, S. Marta homily, in L'Osservatore Romano 30/11/2018]

Placing in the events of persecution

(Lk 21:12-19)

The course of history is a time when God composes the confluence of our freedom and circumstances.

In such folds there is often a vector of life, an essential aspect, a definitive destiny, that escapes us.

But to the non-mediocre eye of the person of Faith, abuses and even martyrdom are also a gift.

To learn the important lessons of life, every day the believer ventures into what he is afraid to do, overcoming fears.

The spousal and gratuitous love received places us in a condition of reciprocity, of active desire to unite life to Christ - albeit in the meagre nature of our responses.

Continuing instead to complain about failures, dangers, calamities, everyone will see in us women like the others and ordinary men - and everything will end at this level.

We won’t be on the other side. At most we will try to escape the harshness, or we will end up looking for circumstance’s allies (vv.14-15).

Mt intends to help his communities to clash with worldly logic and to place themselves fervently in the events of persecution.

Social harassments are not fatalities, but opportunities for mission; places of high eucharistic witness (v.13).

The persecuted do not need external crutches, nor do they have to live in the anguish of collapse.

They have the task of being signs of the God’s Kingdom, which gradually leads the distant and the usurpers themselves to a different awareness.

No one is the arbiter of reality and all are twigs subject to reverses, but in the humanizing condition of the apostles overflows an emotional independence.

This happens through the intimate, living sense of a Presence, and the reading of external events as an exceptional action of the Father who ‘reveals himself’.

In this mouldable energy magma, unique paths emerge, unprecedented opportunities for growth... even in adversity.

Attitude without alibi or granite certainties: with the sole conviction that everything will be put back on the line.

Sacred and profane times come to coincide in a fervent Covenant, which nests and bears fruit even in moments of travail and nonsense.

Here the only necessary resource is the spiritual strength to go all the way... yes, in paradoxes of other side.

It’s in the Lord and in the insidious or day-to-day reality the "place" for each of us. Not without lacerations.

Yet we draw spiritual energy from the knowledge of Christ, from the sense of deep bond with Him and even minute and varied reality, or fearsome - always personal (v.18).

Our story will not be like an easy and happy ending novel.

But we’ll have the opportunity to witness in the present the most genuine ancient roots: at every moment God calls, manifests himself - and what seems to be failure becomes Food and source of Life.

To internalize and live the message:

What kind of reading do you do, and how do you place yourself in events of persecution? 

Are you aware that setbacks do not ‘come’ for despair, but to free you from closure in stagnant cultural patterns (and not yours)?

[Wednesday 34th wk. in O.T.  November 27, 2024]

(Lk 21:5-19)

Stone upon stone, dark hues?

Instances of the world, idea of 'perfection', sense of Christ

(Lk 21:5-11)

In his Apocalyptic Discourse Lk wants us to meditate on the meaning of history and 'what remains'... but how many adverse conditions and oppositions!

So he aims to sustain the hope [not fictitious and yet frustrated] of the poor and persecuted people of his communities.

Certainly, Faith turns to the God who guides history. He is Lord of it; however, today remains obscure and uncertain; thus we remain as if hunted down by demands that do not correspond to us - but overtake us.

Even some believers are beginning to doubt: is God really in control of events and the cosmos? It is the same question we ask ourselves today: in the midst of so much misfortune, where will we end up?

How to bite the bullet and be fulfilled in the midst of emergency? How do we live through conflict and bewilderment, without allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by events? How do we emerge from so much darkness, which we do not like?

In times of change, global insecurity and political unrest, parasitic cavities continue to crop up, accentuating disorientation, feelings of inadequacy; perhaps guilt.

Here are the cunning quarters who (even in the ecclesial undergrowth) want to take advantage of the turmoil and confusion, deceiving weak and bewildered souls - even the young.

In order not to be beguiled, confused and plagued, a better awareness must take over, a refinement of perception, in order to discern the meaning of the 'kingdoms' that come and go.

The sovereignty of God advocates a maturing of the 'harvest' with the light and warmth of the Spirit, a deeper discernment of the genius and events of the century.

Not excluding ugliness: it too has the power to activate us, to seek new harmonies.

The authentic Church has a new vision, which precisely advocates these earthquakes and calamities, the upheavals of the ancient world - the world that, today as always, is teetering and coming to an end.

On the other hand, upheavals do not disintegrate creation: they prepare a radically new one.

One must endure within and apply oneself - perhaps taking more care of the character of time, of the unusual friends of the soul, and disregarding the inherited [or imposed] idea of 'perfection'.

So many worlds built by the mind and hands of man imagined perpetual, even the End of Everything.

Instead they continue to crumble, dragging away ancient expressions, beliefs, customs, hegemonies, visions of things...

Every era brings with it the crumbling of human constructions and empires - fragile and insubstantial, despite appearances to the contrary (and the sense of permanence with which we interpret them).

So even the Temple of bricks and stucco - the centre of the people's life and identity - is doomed to agony, to crumbling, to the most miserable ruin, to be razed to the ground... despite its imposing magnificence.

It bewilders us, certainly. But if one-sided, it no longer makes present, but rather dissolves the Mystery - concentration of novelty and love.

When, for example, one closes cultural frontiers [and the search for depth] for fear of 'problems', and becomes intransigent, the devout present becomes a pure reality of the world, which sooner or later will be dismantled.

The functions of the earth have no law other than to perish: they are undermined at the base, destined to evaporate. In an instant they go from control to disintegration and from dominance to insignificance.

Radiant beauty and the 'depth' of the eternal and holy city - with its jealous privileges, and minute or generalist (and terrifying) doctrines - turn into an overthrow and overthrow: into a profile of death.

A reversal is enough.

Futile to imagine it lasting and keeping it up at all costs.

Conversely, the New Kingdom is intimate and subdued: that is why it is not splintered by external events.

Some upheavals are not so much to be resisted as to be with them.

The goal is to be 're-born' - as children, still regenerated, journeying through another founding Eros [to be abandoned, otherwise it cannot fulfil its lofty function].

It establishes itself in hearts and transforms them; it cements them, without clamour: with great power, subversive, triggering new forms - but with secret virtue.

It has a different, welcoming pace, and a different time.

So we do not lose any part of ourselves; on the contrary, we make all sides of personality and relationships grow.

It is the plural Faith that welcomes opposites, to solidify the stones.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you live the upheavals?

Do you surrender your freedom and chase after charlatans who fix and worsen everyone's existence - or do you oppose them in Christ, igniting Hope and your most blazing secret powers (even opposites)?The Bush

Outstanding Faith, Burning Conversion

(Ex 3:2-4)

Conversion in the biblical sense is not turning back, but entering within oneself so as not to alienate oneself, and rediscovering one's root in order to be able to intervene, releasing the blaze of one's essential Relationship.

Conversion does not have to do with the disinterested tacticism of those who close themselves off from the world, avoiding getting involved until events have a negative impact on their own interests.

But how to take the measure of reality, how to understand it? How to understand oneself? And from where to draw guidance, wisdom and strength to propose wise solutions and effective action?

Moses is an outsider because he is hasty. His impulsive actions forced him to flee into the desert. There he makes more messes, again because of his hot temper. So he decides to calm down and settle down.

But the solution is not to meddle on behalf of others, forcibly choosing a quiet life. That fire of his that burns his chest and mind is not extinguished; even dormant, he always carries it with him.

Only God understands that it is precisely his dark side and his irascible charge - like no other energy - that can make him the protagonist of an absurd design, in favour of the people, and make him tread impervious situations and territories.

A risky task, which will force him to bring out his determination, his drives, his conviction; every resource, even those that are not very virtuous. A mission uniquely his, impossible for other, more balanced and tranquil souls.

How to explain the passion for freedom of the humiliated?

We find it within us, like a flame that burns and gives no respite. It rises spontaneously, despite prudent attempts to stifle it.

For his crazy redemptive designs, God needs someone exactly like us, just as we are. With our immense unexpressed resources, hidden even behind individual blood spots.

Qualities that arise spontaneously and have their own path to conversion, but that sooner or later have to come into play as they are.

They express ourselves deeply, and the call of the Father.

Various conditioning can create misperceptions of our personal uniqueness; likewise, of its development and destination.

The great risk is to spend our lives dissipating our character identity in search of induced illusions and conditioned reflections: of what we are not and do not even want.

Not only distractions, but also too much reasoning can lead us astray from the home that is truly ours.

Continuing to insist on that which damages the soul's development and its full flowering, makes it indecisive or cunning and stubborn - especially if suggestible, fearful, or even receptive and helpless.

Our founding Eros comes into play when it realises that reality or its (defined) cultural paradigm can lead us astray.

The Vocation then manifests itself to the personal 'vision' in a kind of energetic, reserved and unique Image, which makes us think in dreams, acts as a guide, and drags us no one knows why or where.

Believers who experience this inner Fire that is not extinguished are not ushered into a world that only wants to endure, all already chiselled out and knowing its destination.

The Father's Flame does not express itself through artifices to be recited: it wants to recover and bring home all resources, our essence and its jewels - to be exalted instead of hidden.

Jewels all to be extracted from the world of careless and locked-up certainties. Jewels - not infrequently concealed behind sides and propensities that (to the eye worn out by clichés) appear obscure.

Often it is precisely our side unknown to the schemes that is the 'spark' that presses in and acts as therapy to the sick soul; it takes it by the hand, and with due energy becomes a guide to relevant self-discovery - and great service to others.

The burning bush in the flesh - divine revelation - is kindled so that we realise the Dream of our own dreams. Not so that the soul becomes more and more equal and bound, or fundamentalist.

And only our torch-bearing Nucleus-that-doesn't-consume-itself continually in action, can prevent those who are born revolutionaries of the spirit from then [but also quickly] surviving as armchair.

It happens in the banality of ideologies as in the conformity of religions, but it cannot happen in the sphere of the life of Faith.

In this way, the dance is not conducted by controlling extraneousness: aims, intentions, ideas, projects, or codes... but by passionate and pulsive powers, which every day question us about the tide that comes to us.

Providence acts as director, wooing and mysteriously directing unrepeatable strategies, which plough through history attracting and dragging, unblocking mechanisms and empowering energies - even causing us to change, reshape, or accentuate characters.

One must abandon oneself to such personal lines. Not out of need, duty, calculation, nor just to understand something more, but to enjoy the spiritual Light; the rays of Love, near and far, creative of the inner and of genius forces [around].

The Flame returns to spur us on to rekindle the personal balm of instinctiveness, the possibilities of fulfilment of our nature.

The absurd desire that explodes within wants to expand the possibilities of the Lymph - both of the tree and of the roots themselves - to make us into well-rounded persons.

Thus we will no longer seek to resemble our 'models':

The principle of such transmutation bursting upon the placid and conventional scenario has re-proposed why we are in the world.

It is our life-saving task... or the very barrenness of 'types' to conform to.

Here, then, is our dead and nostalgic side, or the dark evil of living - and the exhaustion of a wisdom that has no more than Wisdom.

Having extinguished the radiance and beauty of the Torch, its energetic virtue on our flesh fades, dampening the enthusiasm of the soul - extinguishing action (as in a position of starvation).

The passionate state is the force of practical thought and intellect.

Intimate involvement makes our identity-character soar, and has significant repercussions on others.

It is the custodian of independence. And it integrates us, overcoming the sense of imperfection - or existential emptiness.

The intelligent Primordial Energy recognises our essence; and it brings the soul from external events back to the Core: from vicissitudes, from things, from wounds, to our innermost and richest being.

It knows that from the stimulus of that source centre - intimate link of origin, primordial - will burst forth astounding events, unknown propensities, magic of unforeseen happenings.

A new Creation.

From this House of new life and different hymns, a whole world of relationships is released... new engagements, brilliant intuitions; practical aptitudes, weaving the magic of the bride-matched soul.

It is such a Source that takes over again, when it realises that we are not fulfilled, or that we feel betrayed by it - that is to say, to overcome fears, a sense of desolation, bitter abandonments. Like a power that calls us back to ourselves, to our unexpressed talents, to the energy of the gaze that captures the sense of a story, of the genius of our territory or time. And it crosses them, making us lean out.

It becomes the daily compass of life and transformation. But it bears the interference of external judgements poorly, which do not dwell in the depths but contribute to the atmosphere that circulates around it.

It feels like a force that happens, an energy that cannot be directed or explained by a universe of ready-made meanings, planned emotions and symbols, or manipulated into submission.

Ready to rise again as, when and why we do not expect; only to regenerate and make exponential the unusual, autonomous seed of the soul. As it is: ascetic effort would yield poor results.

The hidden Source expresses itself in events imbued with the future, drenched in an atmosphere of Presence.

Events imbued with a whole side of our personality, and not just some offshoot of its social sense [a nomenclature].

Roots manifest themselves in actions that contain as yet unexpressed but strongly potential, affectively vital knowledge. They solve problems by acting in their own way.

Precisely what we do not yet know about ourselves (attitudes, desires) can be the secret, the spring of our blossoming. A discovery that springs up innately, not a taught and recognised path.

The true measure is deeper.

One gets lost in trivialities, if one does not discover the personal seed - and assumes one already knows the direction: what to love, how to say and do according to instructions.

The world of acquired knowledge is conversely often the enemy of the hidden process, which keeps wanting to carry out its theme, and repudiating what it does not want to absorb, because it would counter it.

And that is the whole game: not to fade, but to sense attitudes and let them be, even contradictory.

And dance without placing them, identifying them, lining them up according to custom or ideal - thus intoxicating them.

The peculiar characteristic has the flavour of the Eternal.

It incessantly gives birth to a renewed gaze, which is formed spontaneously, along the way.

Preparing for the New, which does not bear expectations.

So the unforeseen spark of the heart [that never matches] cannot be humiliated, threatened, shattered, removed, or alienated.

It is our consistent Inclination, which releases a clear radiance of Oneness.

Values and emotional independence

Placing oneself in the events of persecution

(Lk 21:12-19)

The course of history is a time in which God composes the confluence of our freedom and circumstances.In such folds there is often a vector of life, an essential aspect, an ultimate fate, that escapes us.

But to the unmediated eye of the person of Faith, even abuse and even martyrdom are a gift.

In order to learn the important lessons of life, the believer ventures into what he is afraid to do, overcoming his fears.

The spousal and gratuitous love received places one in a condition of reciprocity, of an active desire to unite one's life with Christ - albeit in the meagreness of our responses.

By continuing instead to complain about failures, dangers, calamities, everyone will see in us women like the others and ordinary men - and everything will end at this level.

We will not be on the other side.

At best we will try to escape the harshness, or we will end up seeking allies of circumstance (vv.14-15).

Lk intends to help his communities to bump up against worldly logic and place themselves in the events of persecution in a fervent manner.

Social anguish is not a fatality, but an opportunity for mission; a place of high Eucharistic witness (v.13).

The persecuted do not need external crutches, nor do they have to live in the anguish of collapse.

They have the task of being signs of the Kingdom of God, which gradually brings the distant and the usurpers themselves to a different awareness.

No one is the arbiter of reality and all are twigs subject to toppling, but in the humanising condition of the apostles an emotional independence shines through.

This happens because of the intimate, living sense of a Presence, and the reading of external events as an exceptional action of the Father who reveals himself.

In this mouldable magma of energy, unique paths emerge, unprecedented opportunities for growth... even in adversity.

An attitude without alibis or granitic certainties: with the sole conviction that everything will be put back into play [not through effort: through shifting one's gaze, simply].

Sacred and profane time come to coincide in a fervent covenant, which nestles and broods fruit even in moments of travail and paradox.

Here, the only resource needed is the spiritual strength to go all the way... in the other side's counter-senses.

Thus even the family or 'clan' to which one belongs must be led to a different world of convictions; not without lacerating contrasts (v.16).

The Torah itself obliged the denunciation of those unfaithful to the religion of the fathers - even close relatives - to the point of putting them to death (Deut 13:7-12) [in fact, just to designate the gravity of that kind of transgression].

The Announcement could only cause extreme divisions, and on basic issues such as success, or progress in this life - the vision of a new world, of the utopia of other and other people's needs.

Everything will seem to conspire and mock our ideal (v.17).

The reference to the Name alludes to the historical story of Jesus of Nazareth, with its load not only of ideal and explicit goodness, but also of denunciatory activity against the official institution and the false leaders who had put the God of the Exodus under hijacking.

Despite the interference, being misunderstood, slandered, ridiculed, blackmailed and hated... anchored in Christ we will experience that the stages of history and life proceed towards Hope.

God's 'protection' does not preserve from gloomy hues, nor from being harmed, but ensures that nothing is lost, not even a hair (v.18).

Even this spontaneous example that Jesus draws from nature - an echo of the conciliatory life dreamt for us by the Father - introduces us to the Happiness that makes one aware of existing in all personal reality.

Indeed, the expression shows the value of genuine, silent, unremarkable things, which nevertheless inhabit us - they are not 'shadows'. And we perceive them without effort or cerebral commitment.

In the time of momentous choices, of the emergency that seems to put everything in check - but wants to make us less artificial - this awareness can overturn our judgement of substance, of the small and the great.

Indeed, for the adventure of love there is no accounting or clamour.

It is in the Lord and in the insidious or summary reality the 'place' for each of us. Not without tears.

Yet we derive spiritual energy from knowing Christ, from the sense of deep connection with Him and the reality, even minute and varied, or fearful - always personal (v.18).

And (indeed) the hereafter is not imprecise.

One does not have to misrepresent oneself in order to have consent... least of all for the 'heaven' that conquers death.

The destiny of oneness does not go to ruin: it is precious and dear, as it is in nature.

One must glimpse its Beauty, future and already present.

Nor will it matter to place oneself above and in front: rather in the background, already rich and perfect, in the intimate sense of the fullness of being.

Thus we will not have to trample on each other (Lk 12:1)... even to meet Jesus.

"We are absolutely lost if we lack this particular individuality, the only thing we can truly call our own - and whose loss is also a loss for the whole world. It is most precious also because it is not universal'.

(Rabindranath Tagore)

Jesus warns us: we will not be able to count on unassailable friendships, nor on human powers lined up to defend the earthly plot.

Even he whom we thought close will scrutinise us with suspicion: the price of truth is always in the choice against the world of lies [even sacred, dated or ephemeral lies] all arrayed against.

Our story will not be like an easy novel with a happy ending.

But we will have a chance to witness in the present the most genuine ancient roots: that in every moment God calls, manifests Himself - and what appears to be failure becomes Food and the source of Life.

Obstinate only in the change of proportions, between stripping and elevation. In the opposition of the very criteria and foundations of thinking.

To internalise and live the message:

What kind of reading do you do, and how do you place yourself in the events of persecution? 

Are you aware that hindrances do not come out of desperation, but rather to free you from closure in stagnant cultural patterns (and not your own)?

On the other side of the world

Christians must therefore always be found on the 'other side' of the world, the side chosen by God: not persecutors, but persecuted; not arrogant, but meek; not sellers of smoke, but submissive to the truth; not impostors, but honest.

This fidelity to the style of Jesus - which is a style of hope - even unto death, would be called by the early Christians by a beautiful name: 'martyrdom', which means 'testimony'. There were many other possibilities, offered by the vocabulary: one could call it heroism, self-denial, self-sacrifice. Instead, the Christians of the first hour called it by a name that smells of discipleship. Martyrs do not live for themselves, they do not fight to affirm their ideas, and they accept that they must die only out of fidelity to the Gospel. Nor is martyrdom the supreme ideal of Christian life, because above it there is charity, that is, love of God and neighbour. The Apostle Paul says it very well in his hymn to charity, understood as love of God and neighbour. The Apostle Paul says it very well in the hymn to charity: "Though I give all my goods for food and deliver up my body to boast, yet have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Cor 13:3). The idea that suicide bombers can be called 'martyrs' is repugnant to Christians: there is nothing in their end that can be approximated to the attitude of God's children.

Sometimes, reading the stories of so many martyrs of yesterday and today - who are more numerous than the martyrs of earlier times - we are amazed at the fortitude with which they faced their trials. This fortitude is a sign of the great hope that animated them: the certain hope that nothing and no one could separate them from the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:38-39).

May God always give us the strength to be his witnesses. May he grant us to live Christian hope above all in the hidden martyrdom of doing our daily duties well and with love. Thank you.

[Pope Francis, General Audience 28 June 2017].

The Meaning and the End, not the End

It is a time of joy for the feast of Easter, which awakens expectations and hopes of liberation. Jesus enters the temple in Jerusalem, everywhere covered with perfectly profiled marble and overflowing with gold.

"These things you observe, there will come days when no stone will be left upon stone, which will not be destroyed":

For a Jew it meant the end of the world. It was unthinkable that a place of such extent, luxury and magnificence could be undermined by some utopian theory.

Jesus meant: if you do not change your mindset and continue to think in terms of power and aggression, you will destroy yourselves and ruin forever the house of God, the sign of his presence and the centre of your identity.

This is what happened - by Vespasian's troops led by his favourite son and successor, Titus: tabula rasa (year 70).

Luke invites us to stop chasing other people's opinions - and instead reflect on the only interesting thing: how to put an end to the ancient world and begin a society guided by the Father's plan, for our integral good.

First of all, we must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the barkers who obsessively repeat: "This is the moment not to be missed, mind you! You will be great if you follow me and my group...".

So many moralisers, so many bitter disappointments. Even belief reduced to ideology and packaged codices: we see this every day.

Disappointed hopes also on the contrary, because of the desire to scapricciarsi... and even if advocated by science and technology: they turn out to be dehumanising.

Lk wants to help his communities not to remain on the margins of God's story.

Of course, persecution is to be reckoned with: a perfectly predictable outcome for those who go against the grain, and one that should not surprise us, nor throw us into despondency.Anyone who wishes even out of venal interest to perpetuate the ancient world that has led him to float above others, will certainly not spontaneously step aside. He is only annoyed by the plans of the Sons.

No terror! Amidst contortions and earthquakes, the antiquated set-up is reeling. But a new world is being born: that of the Pentecost earthquake.

It is a Gospel, that is, a proclamation of joy: the competitive world has had its coup de grace. The dawn of a splendid new day is dawning.

The passage between two ages is taking place - just as it is for us today: let us not lower our eyes, let us not be afraid; rather let us look up (v.28)!

The message calls into question three powers: religious, political and family.

The repetitive world of rituals and closed sacral interest is replaced by Faith [adherence to a spousal proposal, of love] that transcends the tactics and ideology of power.

And its homeland is a borderless realm.

The family world of religious societies tends to defend the narrow interest of the members, the home and the clan. Jesus creates an open universe.

His family is not confined to the fences of old blood; it opens the heart to limitless thought, to encounter without prejudice.

Because the essential thing is not to prevail and win, but to bear non-aggressive witness that the mentality of self-interest is a loser (in the sense that it does not build life), and that the ancient idea of man-God is impressive, but wormy, inauthentic, and will not stand the test of facts.

So there is no need to prepare defences, i.e. to act as any pagan would do: to seek the support of those who count, to sell out, to become omertous, to join power groups and the normal style of lying. All in order to defend oneself with artifice or assert oneself with guile.

Faith is at stake here. Not because an extra prayer or a greater fulfilment of devotions comes into play. And not because of calculation, effort or strategy, but because of the fact that the rising (opposite) Vision of reality corresponds to us spontaneously.

Falling in love is at stake: the disciple of Christ assimilates the Vision, recognises it as his own - because the true lover ends up seeing things as the beloved Person.

So, yesterday as today, the innocent still do not know that the Project they spontaneously collaborate with is unrealisable... that is why they carry it out.

It is the world of the children.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you read the enigmatic realities of the world? Is it "the" End or does "the" End emerge?

We are gathered this evening in a place that is dear to you, a place that is a visible sign of the power of divine grace acting in the hearts of believers. The beauty of this thousand-year-old church is indeed a living testimony to your people’s rich history of faith and Christian tradition: a history that is illuminated in particular by the faithfulness of those who sealed their adherence to Christ and to the Church by martyrdom. I am thinking of Saint Wenceslaus, Saint Adalbert and Saint John Nepomuk, milestones in your Church’s history, to whom we may add the example of the young Saint Vitus, who preferred to die a martyr’s death rather than betray Christ, and the examples of the monk Saint Procopius and Saint Ludmila. From the twentieth century, I recall the experiences of two Archbishops of this local Church, Cardinals Josef Beran and František Tomášek, and of many Bishops, priests, men and women religious, and lay faithful, who resisted Communist persecution with heroic fortitude, even to the sacrifice of their lives. Where did these courageous friends of Christ find their strength if not from the Gospel? Indeed, they were captivated by Jesus who said: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). In the hour of trial they heard another saying of Jesus resounding deep within them: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (Jn 15:20).

The heroism of these witnesses to the faith reminds us that only through personal intimacy and a profound bond with Christ is it possible to draw the spiritual vitality needed to live the Christian vocation to the full. Only the love of Christ can make the apostolate effective, especially in moments of difficulty and trial. Love for Christ and for one’s fellow men and women must be the hallmark of every Christian and every community. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that “the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (4:32). Tertullian, an early Church writer, noted that pagans were impressed by the love that bound Christians together (cf. ApologeticumXXXIX). Dear brothers and sisters, imitate the divine Master who “came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).

[Pope Benedict, Vespers in Prague, 26 September 2009]

1. The memory of the martyrs has brought us here today to Otranto. It has brought us here to venerate martyrdom, on which, from the beginning, the kingdom of God, proclaimed and initiated in human history by Jesus Christ, is built.

The truth about martyrdom has in the Gospel an eloquence full of penetrating depth and at the same time transparent simplicity. Christ does not promise his disciples earthly success or material prosperity; he does not present before their eyes any 'utopia', as has happened more than once and as always happens in the history of human ideologies. He simply says to his disciples: "they will persecute you. They will hand you over to the organs of the different authorities, they will put you in prison, they will call you before the different courts. All this "because of my name" (Lk 21:12).

The substance of martyrdom is linked, from the beginning and throughout the centuries, with this name! We qualify as martyrs those Christians who, in the course of history, have undergone suffering, often terrifying, for their cruelty 'in odium fidei'. Those on whom 'in odium fidei' death was finally inflicted. Hence those who by accepting suffering and suffering death in this world bore special witness to Christ.

Putting before the eyes of his disciples the image of the sufferings that await them because of his name, the Master says: "This will give you occasion to bear witness" (Lk 21:13).

2. Five hundred years ago here in Otranto, 800 disciples of Christ bore precisely such a testimony, accepting death for the name of Christ. The words of the Lord Jesus on martyrdom refer to them: 'You will be hated by all for my name's sake' (Lk 21:17). Yes. They have been hated. They drank for the name of Christ the cup of this hatred to the bottom, like their master, who went straight from the Passover supper to Gethsemane and prayed there: 'Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me' (Lk 22:42). However, the cup of human hatred, cruelty and the cross did not depart. Christ, obedient to the Father, emptied it to the bottom: "Not my will, but Thy will be done" (Lk 22:42).

The testimony of Gethsemane and the cross is a definitive seal, stamped on all that Jesus did and taught. He, accepting death, gave his life for the salvation of the world. The martyrs of Otranto, by accepting death, gave their lives for Christ. And in this way they bore special witness to Christ.

The testimony of the martyrs also introduces them in a special way into his Paschal Mystery. "By your perseverance," says Jesus, "you will save your souls" (Lk 21:19). Just as he himself conquered the new life by accepting death, so the martyrs, by accepting death, conquer the life to which Christ initiated in his resurrection.

3. "That" life: the new and full life disproves, in a certain sense, the experience of death. Above all, it disproves the certainty of those who, by inflicting death, believed that they had deprived the martyrs of life and snatched them permanently from the land of the living.

"To the eyes of the foolish it seemed that they died; / their end was deemed a misfortune, / their departure from us a ruin".

So proclaimed the author of the book of Wisdom (Wis 3:2-3) long before Christ uttered his words on martyrdom.

"...but they are in peace" (Wis 3:3). But they are in peace!

In the act of martyrdom, therefore, a radical, so to speak, contraposition of the very criteria and foundations of thinking takes place. The human death of the martyrs, the death linked to suffering and torment - like the death of Christ on the cross - yields, in a certain sense, before another superior reality. The author of the book of Wisdom writes: "The souls of the righteous ... are in the hands of God / no torment shall touch them" (Wis 3:1).

This other higher reality does not annul the fact of torment and death, just as it did not annul the fact of Christ's passion and death. It, the invisible 'hand' of God only transforms this human fact. It already transforms it even in its earthly texture, through the power of faith that is revealed in the souls of the martyrs in the face of torment and suffering: 'Though in the eyes of men they suffer punishment, their hope is full of immortality' (Wis 3:4).

The strength of this faith and the power of hope that comes from God are more powerful than chastisement and death itself. Martyrs bear witness to Christ precisely because of this power of faith and hope. Indeed, similar to Him in passion and death, they simultaneously proclaim the power of His resurrection. Suffice it to recall here how Christ's first martyr, the deacon Stephen, died; he died crying out: "Behold I behold the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56).

So then, thanks to the power of faith and the power of hope, the proportions change in a certain sense: the proportions of life and death, of defeat and victory, of dispossession and elevation. The author of the book of Wisdom later writes:"In exchange for a short punishment / they will receive great benefits, / because God has tried them / and found them worthy of himself" (Wis 3:5).

4. Here we touch on a particularly important point in the fact of martyrdom. Martyrdom is a great trial, in a certain sense it is the ultimate and radical trial. It is man's greatest test, the test of man's dignity before God Himself. It is difficult to say more on this subject than what the very book of Wisdom states: 'God tried them and found them worthy of himself' (Wis 3:5). There is no greater measure of man's dignity than that found in God Himself: in the eyes of God. Martyrdom is therefore 'the' trial of man that takes place in the eyes of God, a trial in which man, aided by the power of God, brings victory.

Through such a trial numerous confessors and disciples of Christ have passed throughout history. Through such a trial the martyrs of Otranto passed five hundred years ago. Through such an ordeal have passed and are passing the martyrs of our century, martyrs who are often unknown, or little known, even if they are not far from us.

And so in today's circumstance I cannot but turn my gaze, beyond the sea, to the not distant heroic Church in Albania, shattered by harsh and prolonged persecution but enriched by the witness of its martyrs: Bishops, priests, men and women religious and simple faithful.

In addition to them, my thoughts also go to my other Christian brothers and sisters and all believers in God who suffer similar hardships in that nation.

Being spiritually close to all those who suffer violence because of their faith is a special duty of all Christians, according to the tradition inherited from the first centuries. I would go further: here it is also a matter of solidarity due to individuals and communities whose fundamental rights are violated or even totally conculturated. We must pray that the Lord will sustain these brothers of ours with his grace in such difficult trials. And we also want to pray for those who persecute them, repeating Christ's invocation on the cross, addressed to the Father: 'Forgive them for they know not what they do'.

Very often people try to qualify martyrs as 'guilty of political offences'. Christ too was condemned to death apparently for this reason: because he claimed to be king (cf. Lk 23:2). Let us not, therefore, forget the martyrs of our times. Let us not act as if they did not exist. Let us thank God that they have victoriously passed the test. Let us implore the power of the Holy Spirit for the persecuted who still have to undergo this trial. May the words of the Master be fulfilled upon them: "I will give you a tongue and wisdom, which all your adversaries will not be able to resist or fight" (Lk 21:15).

Let us remain in communion with the martyrs. They dig the deepest bed of the divine river in history.

They build the most solid foundations of that divine city that rises towards eternity.

The author of the book of Wisdom proclaims: "(God) has sifted them like gold in the crucible and has graced them as a burnt offering" (Wis 3:6).

5. In the Church on earth, the memory and veneration of the holy martyrs remains, as here in Otranto, and in so many other places in Italy, Europe and the world. In the kingdom of God they receive together with Christ a special strength and power in the mystery of the communion of saints and in the whole divine economy of truth and love.

"They shall rule the nations, they shall have power over the peoples, and the Lord shall reign over them forever.

Those who trust in him will understand the truth; those who are faithful to him will live with him in love, for grace and mercy are reserved for his elect" (Wis 3:8-9).

The martyrs, before the majesty of divine justice, could cry out as we read in the Apocalypse: "Until when, you sovereign, you who are holy and true, will you not do justice and avenge our blood upon the inhabitants of the earth?" (Rev 6:10). Yet in the eternal light of the Most Holy Trinity, united in supreme truth and perfect love, they become spokesmen of grace and mercy for their brothers and sisters on earth. Indeed, they become so for their own persecutors. They become so especially for the Church, which according to God's merciful designs must be the 'divine city' elevated among the peoples, must be: 'in Christ as a sacrament, or sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race' (Lumen Gentium, 1).

It is therefore precisely this Church, gathered today in Otranto at the great tomb of the martyrs, desires in the spirit of the mission that is proper to it to raise, through them, its prayer to God. This prayer places in first place the problems that we today, from this great tomb of the Otranto martyrs, after 500 years, see in a new way and with a new clarity, in the perspective of the cross of Christ and the mission of the Church.

6. The Second Vatican Council, which affirmed that "the Church is in Christ as a sacrament or sign and instrument of intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race" (Lumen Gentium, 1), also manifested its attitude consistent with this profession towards those events that, in the past, set Muslims and Christians against each other as enemies: "If in the course of the centuries there have arisen between Christians and Muslims not a few contentions and enmities, this sacrosanct Council exhorts all to forget what has passed, to sincerely practice mutual understanding and to promote together moral goods, peace and freedom" (Nostra Aetate, 3).

For us, these words are of decisive importance. I have already had occasion to speak in the same spirit more than once: in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, during my visit to that country last year, and also in Nairobi, Accra, Ouagadougou and Abidjan during my recent trip to African soil.

Today, at the glorious tombs of the martyrs of Otranto, I invoke the intercession of those whose "souls are in the hands of God", and, together with the whole Church, I raise fervent prayers so that the words of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council may become more and more a reality.

At this time, a deferential and cordial thought goes out to the Church in Byzantium, which had historical ties with the local Church of Otranto.

From this ancient land of Apulia, stretched out like a bridgehead towards the East, we look with attention and sympathy to the regions of the East and particularly where the three great monotheistic religions, namely Christianity, Judaism and Islam, had their historical origins. We have in mind what the Council says of "that people to whom were given the wills and the promises and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh (cf. Rom 9:4-5); a people, by virtue of election, beloved by reason of its fathers, because the gifts and vocation of God are irrevocable (cf. Rom 11:28-29)". And later we read on the same page of the Second Vatican Council: "But the plan of salvation also embraces those who recognise the creator, and among them in particular the Muslims, who professing to hold the faith of Abraham, worship with us a single, merciful God, who will judge mankind on the final day" (Lumen Gentium, 16).

At the same time, we cannot close our eyes to the particularly delicate situations that have arisen and still exist there. Very serious conflicts have broken out; the Middle East region is pervaded by tensions and disputes, with the ever-looming risk of new wars breaking out again. It is painful to note that clashes have often taken place along dividing lines between different confessional groups, so that it has been possible for some, unfortunately, to artificially fuel them by appealing to religious sentiment.

The terms of the Middle East drama are well known: the Jewish people, after tragic experiences, linked to the extermination of so many sons and daughters, driven by the anxiety for security, gave birth to the state of Israel; at the same time, the painful condition of the Palestinian people was created, a large part of which was excluded from its land. These facts are there for all to see. And other countries, such as Lebanon, are suffering from a crisis that threatens to be chronic. And these days, a bitter conflict is going on in a neighbouring region, between Iraq and Iran.

Gathered here today, at the tombs of the martyrs of Otranto, let us meditate on the words of the liturgy proclaiming their glory and power in the kingdom of God: 'They will rule the nations, they will have power over the peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever'. Therefore, in union with these martyrs, we present to the one God, to the living God, to the Father of all men, the problems of peace in the Middle East and also the problem, so dear to us, of rapprochement and true dialogue with those with whom we are united - despite our differences - by faith in one God, the faith inherited from Abraham. May the spirit of unity, mutual respect and understanding prove more powerful than that which divides and opposes.Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia have nurtured the roots of sacred traditions for each of the three religious groups for millennia; there, for centuries, Christian, Jewish and Islamic communities have coexisted on the same territories; in those regions, the Catholic Church boasts communities distinguished for their antiquity of history, vitality, variety of rites, and their own spiritual characteristics.

It towers high over all this world, like an ideal centre, a precious casket that holds the treasures of the most venerable memories, and it is itself the first of these treasures, the holy city, Jerusalem, today the object of a dispute that seems without solution, tomorrow - if one so wishes! - tomorrow a crossroads of reconciliation and peace.

Yes, we pray that Jerusalem, instead of being, as it is today, an object of contention and division, will become the meeting point, towards which Christians, Jews and Muslims will continue to turn their gaze, as to their common hearth; around which they will feel like brothers, none superior, none in debt to the others; towards which pilgrims, whether followers of Christ, or believers in the Mosaic law, or members of the Islamic community, will once again direct their steps.

7. And now our thoughts turn once again to the liturgy of the martyrs. We look with the eyes of the author of the Book of Revelation and we see in the great cemetery of Otranto and, at the same time, in the perspective of the eternal Jerusalem... we see: "under the altar the souls of those who were immolated because of the word of God and the testimony they had borne to him... a white robe was given to each of them and they were told to be patient a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers was complete" (Rev 6:9, 11).

[Pope John Paul II, Otranto homily 5 October 1980]

Today we reflect on Christian hope as the strength of martyrs. When in the Gospel Jesus sends the disciples on mission, he does not mislead them with mirages of easy success. On the contrary he warns them clearly that the proclamation of the Kingdom of God always involves opposition. And he also uses an extreme expression: “and you will be hated — hated — by all for my name’s sake” (Mt 10:22). Christians love but they are not always loved. Jesus places us before this reality from the start. In a somewhat strong measure, the confession of faith occurs in a hostile climate.

Christians are therefore men and women who “go against the tide”. It is normal: because the world is marked by sin which manifests itself in various forms of selfishness and injustice; those who follow Christ walk in the opposite direction. Not due to an argumentative spirit, but because of loyalty to the rationale of the Kingdom of God, which is a logic of hope that translates into a lifestyle based on the instructions of Jesus.

And the first instruction is poverty. When Jesus sends his [disciples] on mission, it seems that he takes more care to “strip” them than to “clothe” them! In effect, a Christian who is not humble and poor, detached from wealth and power and, above all, detached from self, does not resemble Jesus. Christians travel their path in this world with the essentials for the journey but with their heart filled with love. The true defeat for him or for her is to fall into the temptation of revenge and violence, responding to evil with evil. Jesus tells us: “I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Mt 10:16). Therefore without jaws, without claws, without weapons, the Christian will have to be rather prudent; at times even shrewd. These are virtues that are accepted by the logic of the Gospel. But never violence. In order to overcome evil, one cannot use the same methods of evil.

The only strength Christians have is the Gospel. In difficult times, one must believe that Jesus is before us and does not cease to accompany his disciples. Persecution is not in contradiction to the Gospel but rather is part of it. If they persecuted our Teacher, how can we hope to be spared the fight? However, in the midst of the storm, Christians must not lose hope, thinking that they have been abandoned. Jesus assures his disciples: “even the hairs on your head are all numbered” (Mt 10:30); as if to say that none of man’s suffering, not even that which is most minute and hidden, is invisible to the eyes of God. God sees and certainly protects; and he will give his redemption. There is in fact in our midst Someone who is stronger than evil, stronger than the mafia, than the obscure conspiracies of those who profit at the expense of desperate people, than those who crush others with disdain.... Someone who has always listened to the cry of Abel’s blood from the earth.

Christians therefore, must always be found on the “opposite side” of the world, that chosen by God: not persecutors but persecuted; not arrogant but meek; not charlatans but submissive to the truth; not imposters but honest men and women.

This fidelity to Jesus’ style — which is a style of hope — until death, was to be called a beautiful name by the first Christians: “martyrdom”, meaning “witness”. There were so many other possibilities offered by the vocabulary: it could have been called heroism, abnegation, self-sacrifice. Yet the Christians of the first hour identified it with a term that suggests discipleship. Martyrs do not live for themselves; they do not fight to assert their own ideas, and they accept having to die solely out of loyalty to the Gospel. Martyrdom is not even the supreme ideal of Christian life, because over and above it there is charity, that is, the love of God and of neighbour. The Apostle Paul says it very well in the hymn to charity, understood as love of God and of neighbour. The Apostle Paul says it very well in the hymn to charity: “If I give away all I have and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Cor 13:3). The idea that suicide bombers may be called “martyrs” is repulsive to Christians: there is nothing in their quest that can come close to the attitude of the children of God.

Sometimes, reading the stories of so many of yesterday’s and today’s martyrs, — who are more numerous than the martyrs of the early days — we are amazed at the strength with which they have faced the supreme trial. This strength is a sign of the great hope that animated them: the certain hope that nothing and no one could separate them from God’s love given to us in Jesus Christ (cf. Rom 8:38-39).

May God always give us the strength to be his witnesses. May he give us the opportunity to live out Christian hope especially in the hidden martyrdom of performing our daily obligations well and with love. Thank you.

[Pope Francis, General Audience 28 June 2017]

Instances of the world, idea of ‘perfection’, sense of the Christ

(Lk 21:5-11)

In his Apocalyptic Discourse Lk wants us to meditate on the meaning of history and ‘what is it that remains’... but how many adverse conditions and oppositions!

So he aims to support the hope of poor people and persecuted of his communities.

Certainly, Faith turns to the God who guides history. He is Lord of it; but today remains obscure and uncertain, so we remain as if hunted by instances that do not correspond to us - but loom.

Even some believers were beginning to doubt: does God really have control over the facts and the cosmos? It’s the same question we ask ourselves today: in the midst of so many calamities, where will we end up?

In order not to be confused and plagiarized, a better awareness, a refinement of perception must take over in order to discern the meaning of the “realms” that alternate and pass.

The authentic Church has a new Vision, which precisely advocates these earthquakes and calamities, i.e. the shattering of the concatenations of the ancient world.

On the other hand, the turmoils do not disintegrate creation: they prepare a radically new one.

We have to endure within and apply ourselves - perhaps taking more care of the character of time, of unusual friends of the soul, and neglecting the inherited [or imposed] idea of ‘perfection’.

So many worlds built by the mind and hands of man imagined themselves perpetual, even the Goal of everything.

Instead they continue to collapse, dragging away ancient expressions, beliefs, customs, hegemonies, visions of things.

Each era carries with it the crumbling of human ediments and its empires - fragile and insubstantial, despite the contrary appearances (and the sense of permanence with which we interpreted them).

The functions of the earth have no other law than that of perishing: they are undermined at the base, destined to evaporate.

In a moment they move from control to flaking and from dominance to insignificance.

A reversal is enough.

Conversely, the New Kingdom is intimate and like whisper: for this reason it does not remain chipped by external events.

We are not so much called to resist some hard changes, as to stay with them.

The objective is to be ‘re-born’ - as sons, still regenerated, who go through another founding Eros [to whom abandon themselves, otherwise it will not be able to perform its high function].

This impetus settles in hearts and transforms them; it cements them, without clamour: with a very great, subversive power, which triggers new forms - but with secret virtue.

It has another step and rhythm, cozy; and a different time.

So we do not lose any part of ourselves, indeed we let grow all sides of personality and relationships.

It is the Faith [plural] that accepts the opposites - to solidify the stones.

To internalize and live the message:

How do you experience the upheavals?

Do you contract your freedom or do you ignite your most brilliant (even opposing) secret powers?

[Tuesday 34th wk. in O.T.  November 26, 2024]

Instances of the world, idea of 'perfection', sense of the Christ

(Lk 21:5-11)

In his Apocalyptic Discourse Lk wants us to meditate on the meaning of history and 'what remains'... but how many adverse conditions and oppositions!

So he aims to sustain the hope [not fictitious and yet frustrated] of the poor and persecuted people of his communities.

Certainly, Faith turns to the God who guides history. He is Lord of it; however, today remains obscure and uncertain; in this way we remain as if hunted by demands that do not correspond to us - but overtake us.

Even some believers began to doubt: is God really in control of events and the cosmos? It is the same question we ask ourselves today: in the midst of so much misfortune, where will we end up?

How to bite the bullet and be fulfilled in the midst of emergency? How do we live through conflict and bewilderment, without allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by events? How do we emerge from so much darkness, which we do not like?

In times of change, global insecurity and political unrest, parasitic cavities continue to crop up, accentuating disorientation, feelings of inadequacy; perhaps guilt.

Here are the cunning quarters who (even in the ecclesial undergrowth) want to take advantage of the turmoil and confusion, deceiving weak and bewildered souls - even the young.

In order not to be beguiled, confused and plagued, a better awareness must take over, a refinement of perception, in order to discern the meaning of the 'kingdoms' that come and go.

The sovereignty of God advocates a maturing of the 'harvest' with the light and warmth of the Spirit, a deeper discernment of the genius and events of the century.

Not excluding ugliness: it too has the power to activate us, to seek new harmonies.

The authentic Church has a new vision, which precisely advocates these earthquakes and calamities, the upheavals of the ancient world - the world that, today as always, is teetering and coming to an end.

On the other hand, upheavals do not disintegrate creation: they prepare a radically new one.

One must endure within and apply oneself - perhaps taking more care of the character of time, the unusual friends of the soul, and disregarding the inherited [or imposed] idea of 'perfection'.

So many worlds built by the mind and hands of man imagined perpetual, even the End of Everything.

Instead they continue to crumble, dragging away ancient expressions, beliefs, customs, hegemonies, visions of things...

Every era brings with it the crumbling of human constructions and empires - fragile and insubstantial, despite appearances to the contrary (and the sense of permanence with which we interpret them).

So even the Temple of bricks and stucco - the centre of the people's life and identity - is doomed to agony, to crumbling, to the most miserable ruin, to be razed to the ground... despite its imposing magnificence.

It bewilders us, certainly. But if one-sided, it no longer makes present, but rather dissolves the Mystery - concentration of novelty and love.

When, for example, one closes cultural frontiers [and the search for depth] for fear of 'problems', and becomes intransigent, the devout present becomes a pure reality of the world, which sooner or later will be dismantled.

The functions of the earth have no law other than to perish: they are undermined at the base, destined to evaporate. In an instant they go from control to disintegration and from dominance to insignificance.

Radiant beauty and the 'depth' of the eternal and holy city - with its jealous privileges, and minute or generalist (and terrifying) doctrines - turn into an overthrow and overthrow: into a profile of death.

A reversal is enough.

Futile to imagine it lasting and keeping it up at all costs.

Conversely, the New Kingdom is intimate and subdued: that is why it is not splintered by external events.

Some upheavals are not so much to be resisted as to be with them.

The goal is to be 're-born' - as children, still regenerated, journeying through another founding Eros [to be abandoned, otherwise it cannot fulfil its lofty function].

It establishes itself in hearts and transforms them; it cements them, without clamour: with great power, subversive, triggering new forms - but with secret virtue.

It has a different pace, a different cosiness, and a different time.

So we do not lose any part of ourselves; on the contrary, we make all sides of personality and relationships grow.

It is the plural Faith that welcomes opposites, to solidify the stones.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you live the upheavals?

Do you surrender your freedom and chase after charlatans who fix and worsen everyone's existence - or do you oppose them in Christ, igniting Hope and your most blazing secret powers (even opposites)?The Bush

Outstanding Faith, Burning Conversion

(Ex 3:2-4)

Conversion in the biblical sense is not turning back, but entering within oneself so as not to alienate oneself, and rediscovering one's root in order to know how to intervene, releasing the blaze of one's essential Relationship.

Conversion does not have to do with the disinterested tacticism of those who close themselves off from the world, avoiding getting involved until events have a negative impact on their own interests.

But how to take the measure of reality, how to understand it? How to understand oneself? And from where to draw guidance, wisdom and strength to propose wise solutions and effective action?

Moses is an outsider because he is hasty. His impulsive actions forced him to flee into the desert. There he makes more messes, again because of his hot temper. So he decides to calm down and settle down.

But the solution is not to meddle on behalf of others, forcibly choosing a quiet life. That fire of his that burns his chest and mind is not extinguished; even dormant, he always carries it with him.

Only God understands that it is precisely his dark side and his irascible charge - like no other energy - that can make him the protagonist of an absurd design, in favour of the people, and make him tread impervious situations and territories.

A risky task, which will force him to bring out his determination, his drives, his conviction; every resource, even those that are not very virtuous. A mission uniquely his, impossible for other, more balanced and tranquil souls.

How to explain the passion for the freedom of the humiliated?

We find it within us, like a flame that burns and gives no respite. It rises spontaneously, despite prudent attempts to stifle it.

For his crazy redemptive designs, God needs someone exactly like us, just as we are. With our immense unexpressed resources, hidden even behind individual blood spots.

Qualities that arise spontaneously and have their own path to conversion, but that sooner or later have to come into play as they are.

They express ourselves deeply, and the call of the Father.

Various conditioning can create misperceptions of our personal uniqueness; likewise, of its development and destination.

The great risk is to spend our lives dissipating our character identity in search of induced illusions and conditioned reflections: of what we are not and do not even want.

Not only distractions, but also too much reasoning can lead us astray from the home that is truly ours.

Continuing to insist on that which damages the soul's development and its full flowering, makes it indecisive or cunning and stubborn - especially if suggestible, fearful, or even receptive and helpless.

Our founding Eros comes into play when it realises that reality or its (defined) cultural paradigm can lead us astray.

The Vocation then manifests itself to the personal 'vision' in a kind of energetic, reserved and unique Image, which makes us think in dreams, acts as a guide, and drags us no one knows why or where.

Believers who experience this inner Fire that is not extinguished are not ushered into a world that only wants to endure, all already chiselled out and knowing its destination.

The Father's Flame does not express itself through artifices to be recited: it wants to recover and bring home all resources, our essence and its jewels - to be exalted rather than hidden.

Jewels all to be extracted from the world of careless and locked-up certainties. Jewels - not infrequently concealed behind sides and propensities that (to the eye worn out by clichés) appear obscure.

Often it is precisely our unknown side to the schemes that is the 'spark' that presses in and acts as therapy to the sick soul; it takes it by the hand, and with due energy becomes a guide to relevant self-discovery - and great service to others.

The burning bush in the flesh - divine revelation - is kindled so that we realise the Dream of our own dreams. Not so that the soul becomes more and more equal and bound, or fundamentalist.

And only our torch-bearing Nucleus-that-doesn't-consume-itself continually in action, can prevent those who are born revolutionaries of the spirit from then [but also quickly] surviving as armchair.

It happens in the banality of ideologies as in the conformity of religions, but it cannot happen in the sphere of the life of Faith.

In this way, the dance is not conducted by controlling extraneousness: aims, intentions, ideas, projects, or codes... but by passionate and pulsive powers, which every day question us about the tide that comes to us.

Providence acts as director, wooing and mysteriously directing unrepeatable strategies, which plough through history attracting and dragging, unblocking mechanisms and empowering energies - even causing us to change, reshape, or accentuate characters.

One must abandon oneself to such personal lines. Not out of need, duty, calculation, nor just to understand something more, but to enjoy the spiritual Light; the rays of Love, near and far, creative of the inner and of genius forces [around].

The Flame returns to spur us on to rekindle the personal balm of instinctiveness, the possibilities of fulfilment of our nature.

The absurd desire that explodes within wants to expand the possibilities of the Lymph - both of the tree and of the roots themselves - to make us well-rounded persons.

Thus we will no longer seek to resemble our 'models':

The principle of such transmutation bursting upon the placid and conventional scenario has re-proposed why we are in the world.

It is our life-saving task... or the very barrenness of the 'types' to conform to.

Here, then, is our dead and nostalgic side, or the dark evil of living - and the exhaustion of a wisdom that has no more than Wisdom.

Having extinguished the radiance and beauty of the Torch, its energetic virtue on our flesh fades, dampening the enthusiasm of the soul - extinguishing action (as in a position of starvation).

The passionate state is the force of practical thought and intellect.

Intimate involvement makes our identity-character soar, and has significant repercussions on others.

It is the custodian of independence. And it integrates us, overcoming the sense of imperfection - or existential emptiness.

The intelligent Primordial Energy recognises our essence; and it brings the soul from external events back to the Core: from vicissitudes, from things, from wounds, to our innermost and richest being.

It knows that from the stimulus of that source centre - intimate link of origin, primordial - will burst forth astounding events, unknown propensities, magic of unforeseen happenings.

A new Creation.

From this House of new life and different hymns, a whole world of relationships is released... new engagements, brilliant intuitions; practical aptitudes, weaving the magic of the bride-matched soul.

It is such a Source that takes over again, when it realises that we are not fulfilled, or that we feel betrayed by it - that is to say, to overcome fears, a sense of desolation, bitter abandonments. Like a power that calls us back to ourselves, to our unexpressed talents, to the energy of the gaze that captures the sense of a story, of the genius of our territory or time. And it crosses them, making us lean out.

It becomes the daily compass of life and transformation. But it bears the interference of external judgments poorly, which do not dwell in the depths but contribute to the atmosphere that circulates around it.

It feels like a force that happens, an energy that cannot be directed or explained by a universe of ready-made meanings, planned emotions and symbols, or manipulated into submission.

Ready to rise again as, when and why we do not expect; only to regenerate and make exponential the unusual, autonomous seed of the soul. As it is: ascetic effort would yield poor results.

The hidden Source expresses itself in events imbued with the future, drenched in an atmosphere of Presence.

Events imbued with a whole side of our personality, and not just some offshoot of its social sense [a nomenclature].

Roots manifest themselves in actions that contain as yet unexpressed but strongly potential, affectively vital knowledge. They solve problems by acting in their own way.

Precisely what we do not yet know about ourselves (attitudes, desires) may be the secret, the spring of our blossoming. A discovery that springs up innately, not a taught and recognised path.

The true measure is deeper.

One gets lost in trivialities, if one does not discover the personal seed - and assumes one already knows the direction: what to love, how to say and do according to instructions.

The world of acquired knowledge is conversely often the enemy of the hidden process, which keeps wanting to carry out its theme, and repudiating what it does not want to absorb, because it would counter it.

And that is the whole game: not to fade, but to sense attitudes and let them be, even contradictory.

And dance without placing them, identifying them, lining them up according to custom or ideal - thus intoxicating them.

The peculiar characteristic has the flavour of the Eternal.

It incessantly gives birth to a renewed gaze, which is formed spontaneously, along the way.

Preparing for the New, which does not bear expectations.

So the unforeseen spark of the heart [that never matches] cannot be humiliated, threatened, shattered, removed, or alienated.

It is our consistent Inclination, which releases a clear radiance of Oneness.