Once again we find ourselves in the Synagogue of Nazareth, the village where Jesus grew up, where every knew him and his family. Then, after a period of absence, he returned there in a new way: during the Sabbath liturgy he read a prophecy on the Messiah by Isaiah and announced its fulfilment, making it clear that this word referred to him, that Isaiah had spoken about him. The event puzzled the Nazarenes: on the one hand they “all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Lk 4:22).

St Mark reported what many were saying: “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him?” (6:2). On the other hand, however, his fellow villagers knew him too well: “He is one like us”, they say, “His claim can only be a presumption (cf. The Infancy Narratives, English edition, p. 3). “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Lk 4:22), as if to say “what can a carpenter from Nazareth aspire to?”.

Well-acquainted with this imperviousness which confirms the proverb: “no prophet is acceptable in his own country”, to the people in the synagogue Jesus addressed words that resonate like a provocation. He cited two miracles wrought by the great prophets Elijah and Elisha for men who were not Israelites in order to demonstrate that faith is sometimes stronger outside Israel. At this point there was a unanimous reaction. All the people got to their feet and drove him away; and they even tried to push him off a precipice. However, passing through the midst of the angry mob with supreme calmness he went away. At this point it comes naturally to wonder: why ever did Jesus want to stir up this antagonism? At the outset the people admired him and he might perhaps have been able to obtain a certain consensus.... But this is exactly the point: Jesus did not come to seek the agreement of men and women but rather — as he was to say to Pilate in the end — “to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37). The true prophet does not obey others as he does God, and puts himself at the service of the truth, ready to pay in person. It is true that Jesus was a prophet of love, but love has a truth of its own. Indeed, love and truth are two names of the same reality, two names of God.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 3 February 2013]

7. In his activity as a teacher, which began in Nazareth and extended to Galilee and Judea up to the capital, Jerusalem, Jesus knows how to grasp and make the most of the abundant fruits present in the religious tradition of Israel. He penetrates it with new intelligence, brings out its vital values, and highlights its prophetic perspectives. He does not hesitate to denounce men's deviations from the designs of the God of the covenant.

In this way he works, within the one and the same divine revelation, the passage from the "old" to the "new", without abolishing the Law, but instead bringing it to its full fulfilment (cf. Mt 5:17). This is the thought with which the Letter to the Hebrews opens: "God, who had already spoken in ancient times many times and in various ways to the fathers through the prophets, has lately, in these days, spoken to us through his Son . . ." (Heb 1:1).

8. This transition from the 'old' to the 'new' characterises the entire teaching of the 'Prophet' of Nazareth. A particularly clear example is the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus says: "You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Do not kill . . . But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother shall be brought into judgment' (Matthew 5: 21-22). "You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery; but I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy; but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors . . ." (Mt 5:43-44).

Teaching in this way, Jesus at the same time declares: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfil" (cf. Mt 5:17).

9. This "fulfilment" is a key-word that refers not only to the teaching of the truth revealed by God, but also to the whole history of Israel, that is, of the people whose son Jesus is. This extraordinary history, guided from the beginning by the powerful hand of the God of the covenant, finds its fulfilment in Jesus. The plan that the God of the covenant had inscribed in this history from the beginning, making it the history of salvation, tended towards the "fullness of time" (Gal 4:4), which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Prophet of Nazareth does not hesitate to speak of this from his very first speech in the synagogue of his city.

10. Particularly eloquent are the words of Jesus reported in the Gospel of John when he says to his opponents: "Abraham, your father, rejoiced in the hope of seeing my day . . .", and in the face of their disbelief: "Are you not yet fifty years old and have you seen Abraham?", Jesus confirms even more explicitly: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am" (John 8: 56-58). It is evident that Jesus affirms, not only that he is the fulfilment of God's salvific designs, inscribed in Israel's history since Abraham's time, but that his existence precedes Abraham's time, to the point of identifying himself as "he who is" (Ex 3:14). But for this very reason he, Jesus Christ, is the fulfilment of Israel's history, because he "surpasses" this history with his mystery.

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

Gospel [...] tells us about the disbelief of Jesus’s fellow villagers. After preaching in other villages in Galilee, Jesus returned to Nazareth where he had grown up with Mary and Joseph; and, one sabbath, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who were listening asked themselves: “Where does he get all this wisdom? But, isn’t he the son of the carpenter and Mary, that is, of our neighbours that we know so well?” (cf. vv. 1-3). Confronted with this reaction, Jesus confirms the truth that had even become a part of popular wisdom: “A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house” (v. 4). We say this many times…

Let us reflect on the attitude of Jesus’s fellow villagers. We could say they knew Jesus, but they did not recognise him. There is a difference between knowing and recognizing. In essence, this difference makes us understand that we can know various things about a person, form an idea, rely on what others say about that person, we might perhaps meet that person every now and then in the neighbourhood; but all that is not enough. This is a knowledge, I would say ordinary, superficial, that does not recognise the uniqueness of the person. We all run this risk: we think we know so much about a person, even worse, we use labels and close the person within our own prejudices. Jesus’s fellow villagers knew him for thirty years in the same way and they thought they knew everything! “But isn’t this the boy we saw growing up, the son of the carpenter and Mary? Where do these things come from?”. The distrust…in reality, they never realised who Jesus truly was. They remained at the exterior level and refused what was new about Jesus.

And here, we enter into the true crux of the problem: when we allow the convenience of habit and the dictatorship of prejudice to have the upper hand, it is difficult to open ourselves to what is new and allow ourselves to be amazed. We control: through attitudes, through prejudices… It often happens in life that we seek from our experiences and even from people only what conforms to our own ideas and ways of thinking so as never to have to make an effort to change. And this can even happen with God, and even to us believers, to us who think we know Jesus, that we already know so much about Him and that it is enough to repeat the same things as always. And this is not enough with God. But without openness to what is new and, above all – listen well – openness to God’s surprises, without amazement, faith becomes a tiring litany that slowly dies out and becomes a habit, a social habit.

I said a word: amazement. What is amazement? Amazement happens when we meet God: “I met the Lord”. But we read in the Gospel: many times the people who encountered Jesus and recognised him felt amazed. And we, by encountering God, must follow this path: to feel amazement. It is like the guarantee certificate that the encounter is true and not habitual.

In the end, why didn’t Jesus’s fellow villagers recognise and believe in Him? But why? What is the reason? In a few words, we can say that they did not accept the scandal of the Incarnation. They did not know this mystery of the Incarnation, but they did not accept the mystery: they did not know it. They did not know the reason and they thought it was scandalous that the immensity of God should be revealed in the smallness of our flesh, that the Son of God should be the son of a carpenter, that the divine should be hidden in the human, that God should inhabit a face, the words, the gestures of a simple man. This is the scandal: the incarnation of God, his concreteness, his ‘daily life’. And God became concrete in a man, Jesus of Nazareth, he became a companion on the way, he made himself one of us. “You are one of us”, we can say to Jesus. What a beautiful prayer! It is because one of us understands us, accompanies us, forgives us, loves us so much. In reality, an abstract, distant god is more comfortable, one that doesn’t get himself involved in situations and who accepts a faith that is far from life, from problems, from society. Or we would even like to believe in a ‘special effects’ god who does only exceptional things and always provokes strong emotions. Instead, brothers and sisters, God incarnated Himself: God is humble, God is tender, God is hidden, he draws near to us, living the normality of our daily life.

And then, the same thing happens to us like Jesus’s fellow villagers, we risk that when he passes by, we will not recognize him. I repeat that beautiful phrase from Saint Augustine: “I am afraid of God, of the Lord, when he passes by”. But, Augustine, why are you afraid? “I am afraid of not recognising him. I am afraid that when the Lord passes by: Timeo Dominum transeuntem. We do not recognize him, we are scandalised by Him, we think with our hearts about this reality.

Now, in prayer, let us ask the Madonna, who welcomed the mystery of God in her daily life in Nazareth, for eyes and hearts free of prejudices and to have eyes open to be amazed: “Lord that we might meet you!”, and when we encounter the Lord there is this amazement. We meet him in the normal: eyes open to God’s surprises, at His humble and hidden presence in daily life.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 4 July 2021]

Traditions and ideal order

(Mk 7:1-13)

Religiosity can deceive the ideal order; the life of Faith promotes it, relying on a perfection and purity derived simply from the human dimension - of common sense and awareness.

This is how the world is improved and redeemed: by uniting with the Father’ Shekhinah; not perched in a fort, as if we were in a den.

And the full adventure, beyond borders, in the Spirit, makes us feel beautiful inside, instead of sick to be cured; indeed, capable of giving space to the magic of the Divine in ourselves and in relationships.

Without ever feeling besieged, ‘sons’ spontaneously react to events - with countless personalizing charitable initiatives, unrelated to any habit, chain, nomenclature.

Under the Herods dynasty the sense of the clan and the community were crumbling.

Due to survival problems, families were forced to close in on themselves, loosen ties, think about their own needs.

This closure was reinforced by the forms of devotion of the time in every respect. In vv.10-12 we see an incredible example of this: those who dedicated their inheritance to the Temple could leave their parents without help!

Offence and offering: injustice and normative behaviour - a strange connection, in the apparent form of an exemplary accent.

Compliance with the purity rules was a factor of ordinary marginalization for many people.

It was precisely the miserable who were regarded as ignorant and cursed species, because they were unable to fulfil; as a result, they were unable to receive the consolating blessing promised to Abraham.

A daily dripping that undermined the profound meaning of existing together.

In particular, ablutions were a kind of rite during which a “satisfying” gap between the sacred and the profane was celebrated - in detachment from people and situations considered impure.

Staying out of the supposed filth, none of the sick could ever be relieved.

So the rules were not a source of peace, but of slavery. Extending a charitable hand would even be sacrilegious.

In short, inhuman trifles were placed before the Law itself, nullifying its understanding spirit [fraternity that would have accentuated the enthusiasm of existing].

Placed in that context, people only embraced paths they already knew.

Woman and man lost the sense of their multifaceted existence. And life without the "opposites" weakened the Exodus of the whole people.

«Artfully you cancel the commandment of God, to observe your tradition» (Mk 7:9).

Jesus could not tolerate the closed world of conformist religiosity being bent and used to annihilate relationships.

This is why the control of the Pharisees is opposed by the freedom of the disciples (v.2), who refuse to obey that which does not make sense for concrete life - where visible love feeds ideal love.

The Master and Lord teaches that true worship is Closeness. In this way, there is a stage and a whole new order in the groove of the Word, which conquers all external links to the interiority.

Authentic 'ecstasy' is the 'purity of benefiting all' - not the self-satisfaction of the perfection model.

[22nd Sunday in O.T.  B  (Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23)  September 1st, 2024]

The torment of purity

Mk 7:1-8.14-15.21-23 (1-30)

When we do not accept ourselves as we are because in common opinion we "do not fit in" and are imperfect, we risk turning dissatisfaction into nagging.

But beyond ritual impudence, and beyond even the oscillations in religious ideologies, or the wrong-doing and the wrongness, if we shift our gaze to the highly original uniqueness of our own Task in the world and the Call to radiate (even simply not to be distant and vain bravadoes, but to be unhurried and unhurried who come), even in a climate of uncertainty, the torments will first go into the background, then transfigure, unfolding confidence in our Birth.

This Sunday's liturgy of the Word places the rawness of the confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders on the specific weight of oral traditions, which in ordinary people amplify the idea of an icy and separatist 'perfection'.

Thus Jesus brings out his new proposal of Faith, which detaches itself from the common religious sense of his own people, so that it does not combine with the sick interiority of rituals that celebrate frigid distances from the world of others (comically considered corrupt).

The polemic between the Transmission of the Word (the only authentic 'Traditio') and oral or 'cultural' customs acquires a profoundly constructive context for our spiritual journey in the sacred passages.

The beginning of the first reading recommends Listening; then not to add or take away; then that wisdom is in the practice. God is Near.

In the second: the Gift "descends" so that we become Firstfruits; then "welcome" (not "obey"!); finally, the Gift imposes itself if we do not allow ourselves to be contaminated by the "world".

The latter term (in the Gospels, especially Jn) is identifiable with the devout appearance of officialdom.

A structure of sin characterised at its core by the symbiosis of power, religion and confessional commerce.

Anchored to an opinion of God designed in the image and likeness of the caste that sequestered him in separate places and tribal customs.

Singular indeed that Jesus (vv. 21-22) recommends a humanising adherence.

He does not denounce any attitude contrary to Religion, precisely because he considers the self-aggrandisement of narrow-mindedness invented by spiritual leaders - explicitly - a kind of theatrical comedy.

The disconnection from the sobriety of the Word of God conceals a perverse enmity towards reality and people as they are.

A sacred disease from which community leaders themselves (who are read in the watermark as recipients of the teaching) can be contracted.

Unfortunately, with the same frequency as the actors of archaic holiness.

Indeed, to build communion with God, it is not enough to be his admirers. Nor does the quietism of the instruction booklet satisfy us.

Procedures (it seems) do not leave us disjointed - just because they reassure.

Customs link individual emotionality to the habit of many (the apparent security of the 'long chain').

In purist religions, the precariousness of the personal Path is abhorred, and slumbering in habitual mechanisms almost a value.

On the Path of Faith in Christ, and at a certain point in the personal journey, it is precisely the little-valued boundary of creaturality that becomes a healthy spirit of dissatisfaction - and that spring that leaves us no longer certain or fulfilled; harnessed to goals.

Giuseppe Cottolengo, Teresa of Calcutta, and the saints who leave their mark have responded to the personal Calling by making room for multiple facets of the soul; palpably betraying the current 'social' adaptation.

Heaven is not jealous of its prerogatives, nor envious of our progress.

The departure? Not customs, but our personal, unrepeatable Roots of Essence.

The Roots are hidden, eager for understanding and appreciation; restless enough to compel us to explore further.

Enemy of a reverence-paravour, the Lord is not content with obvious birdseed, fragrant only with compromise.

He does not propose to his own to identify with an external model, which is inculcated through signs, gestures, formulas, typical images or established roles.

The conformism of the bigoted and cassock paradigm risks blurring the reason why we are.

The Master asks for an inner eye. For even in our radical impediments, or in our annoyance at repetition and in our fed up with the most established devotional mechanisms (once considered a sign of 'sloth') we unearth signals as mysterious as they are essential.

Dignity and promotion: in the authentic Master's teaching, the disciple can afford the luxury of following the path of the Spirit in the most unprecedented, least grey way; without letting himself be shackled by reassuring rubrics or conformism.When the time is right, even what one considers to be the incompleteness of a contracted and unbalanced character (only because he or she wishes to sift through the specific weight of constituencies that he or she does not understand) can come into play as a resource that will do what it must.

Gaps and eccentricities belong to us, as does the search for trial and error: not a fault, but a condition. This is despite the fact that in times past not a few 'guides' would have branded and ridiculed them as irreverent restlessness, disharmony or sacrilege.

In our vulnerabilities we see ourselves, we even glimpse in germs the complete Person we will be (full-blown humanisation, unthinkable before Jesus).

In the personal Exodus, to find oneself violating 'regular' compliance, to find oneself challenging the habit of 'characters' or betraying a commonly recognised role, in Christ becomes a golden opportunity to ignite more intense vibrations.

Not only to know oneself better within, but to fulfil one's own unrepeatable Realisation, unencumbered by the fear of punishment (even social punishment).

Although it may be disconcerting to squeamish souls, that transmigration from natural religiosity to Faith means moving from spiritualisations that elevate (but in detachment barbarianise) to humanisations that bring one closer.

Let us therefore learn not to feel dismay that we have not religiously 'succeeded'!

Purity of advantage, not of the model of perfection

Traditions or hypocritical ideas, and ideal order

(Mk 7:1-13)

"The heart of the believer is not too small for Him to whom Solomon's temple was not sufficient. For we are the temple of the living God. As it is written, 'I will dwell among them.

If an important person said to you, "I will come and dwell with you," what would you do? If your house is small, no doubt you would be bewildered, you would be frightened, you would prefer it not to happen. But fear not the coming of God, fear not the desire of your God. He does not shrink from you when he comes. On the contrary, when he comes, he will dilate you' (St Augustine, Discourse 23, 7).

Religiosity can deceive the ideal order; the life of Faith promotes it, relying on a perfection and purity derived simply from the human dimension - of common sense and realisation.

This is how one improves and redeems the world: by uniting with the Shekhinah of the Father; not by entrenching oneself in a fortress, as if in a lair.

And the full adventure, beyond boundaries, in the Spirit, makes us feel beautiful inside, instead of sick to be healed; indeed, capable of giving space to the magic of the Divine in ourselves and in our relationships.

Without ever feeling besieged, children react spontaneously to events - with countless personalising beneficial initiatives, unrelated to any habit, concatenation, nomenclature.

Under the Herod dynasty, the sense of clan and community was crumbling.

Although they felt the constant call of the Temple, because of pressing needs they were no longer open to communion.

There were too many taxes to pay, both to the government and to the House of God.

Thus debts increased, accentuating survival problems and fraying the brotherhood of kinship and solidarity of lineage.

Families were forced to close in on themselves, loosen their bonds, thin out attendance at meetings and think about their own needs.

This closure was reinforced by the devotion of the time in every respect, and here (vv.9-13) we see an incredible example of this: those who dedicated their inheritance to the Temple could leave their parents without help!

A picture of a creed that denied God's commandment in the name of God: korbàn [offering made to God] without mercy.

Ritual ruthlessness devoid of any glimmer of friendliness - yet religiously connected.

Offence and offering: injustice and normative behaviour.

Strange mutual bond, between two unrelated compasses - in the apparent form of the exemplary, devout, respectable, long-winded, confiding and pious accent.

"Beautifully ye cancel the commandment of God, to observe your own tradition" (Mk 7:9).

The observance of purity rules was a factor of ordinary marginalisation for many people: women, children, the sick, foreigners, the poor.

It was the most unpleasant real situation for the (true) sacredness of life, for its enchantment - subjected to a kind of compulsory schooling, all distant from the unfortunate.

Precisely the wretched were considered ignorant and cursed, because they were incapable of global fulfilment. Consequently, unable to receive the consoling blessing promised to Abraham.

A daily drip that undermined the profound meaning of existing together.

In particular, ablutions were a kind of ritual during which a satisfying dividing of the sacred and profane - holiness - was celebrated in the detachment from people and situations considered impure.

By staying away from supposed filthiness, no one could ever be uplifted.So the rules were not a source of peace, but of slavery: as mentioned above, those who could not observe them were considered ignoble, non-people.

To extend a charitable hand would even have been sacrilegious. 

In short, inhuman trifles were placed before the Law itself, thwarting its inclusive spirit [fraternity that would have heightened the enthusiasm to exist].

Then, both the narrow limits and the extreme positions led to the incoherence of those who emptied the content of the Word and prevented a different path from being activated to reach the authenticity of purity.

"Perfection" had to be: immersion in dialogue, instead of that precipitate into an external ethical ideology. And in doing so, allowing oneself to be plunged by sacral ties that accentuated exclusive states, of self-satisfaction, exaltation - or addiction.

Dropped into that sterilised and humiliating context, identification prevailed over any vocation or missionary destiny.

Deceived and caged by one-way hoods, people only embraced paths they already knew.

Woman and man lost the sense of their multifaceted existence. And life without the "opposites" weakened the Exodus of the whole people.

Jesus could not bear that the closed world of religiosity could be bent and used to control, divide and discriminate - to annihilate the path and relationships.

The satisfied in this sense became a source of mediocrity, everywhere - whereas as we also know, Joy is the fruit of Liberation; not of one-sided paths.

The sense of completeness is linked to the appreciation of differences. This concerns both personal and social events.

We know this infallibly, by the wisdom of Nature.

For the Tao Tê Ching (LXXXI) says: "The Way of Heaven is to benefit, and not to harm".

Everywhere we encounter our personal alarms, or material worries; a thousand distracting occupations. Even projects for the quality of relationships - perhaps still mixed with the learning of venerable customs or la page [unrelated expedients] that debilitate us.

Hence, the Pharisees' control is opposed by the disciples' freedom (v.2), who refuse to obey what makes no sense for real life - where visible love feeds ideal love.

Jesus teaches that true worship is practical closeness and authenticity, not literal adherence to patterns or cerebral doctrines.

In the groove of the Word there is a stage and a whole new order, which conquers all external connections to the interiority.

He links rite and action, faith and love, customary prescription and intimate obligation.

The only command capable of purifying and making us the image and likeness of the Person who knows how to meet his opposite, according to the unity in Spirit of worship.

When we accept the call of the Gospels, recognising it as a stimulus that corresponds and builds conviviality of differences, we feel less hard and proud.

If, on the other hand, we remain distant, we will go to church stumbling with traditions or with new ideas, however great, but without relating to the Father's plan of salvation.

The Eternal One does not want to snatch away our abilities, but to open us up to goodness and true ecstasy.

Purity of advantage - not of perfection.

To internalise and live the message:

What is the meaning of the purity taught by Jesus?

Is your faith close or far from life?

And here is the problem

And here is the problem: when the people settle in the land, and they are the depository of the Law, they are tempted to place their security and joy in something that is no longer the Word of the Lord: in possessions, in power, in other 'divinities' that are actually vain, they are idols. Of course, the Law of God remains, but it is no longer the most important thing, the rule of life; rather, it becomes a covering, a cover, while life follows other paths, other rules, often selfish individual and group interests. And so religion loses its authentic meaning, which is to live in listening to God in order to do his will - which is the truth of our being - and thus live well, in true freedom, and is reduced to the practice of secondary customs, which rather satisfy the human need to feel right with God. And this is a serious risk of every religion, which Jesus encountered in his time, but which can also occur, unfortunately, in Christianity. Therefore Jesus' words in today's Gospel against the scribes and Pharisees should make us think too.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 2 September 2012].

Two identity cards

To know our true identity we cannot be "sitting Christians" but we must have the "courage to always set out to seek the face of the Lord", because we are "the image of God". In the Mass celebrated at Santa Marta on Tuesday, 10 February, Pope Francis, commenting on the first liturgical reading - the account of creation in the book of Genesis (1:20 - 2:4) - reflected on an essential question for every person: "Who am I?".

Our 'identity card', said the Pope, is found in the fact that human beings were created 'in the image, according to the likeness of God'. But then, he added, "the question we can ask ourselves is: How do I know the image of God? How do I know what he is like in order to know what I am like? Where do I find the image of God?" The answer is to be found "certainly not on the computer, not in encyclopaedias, not in books", because "there is no catalogue where the image of God is". There is only one way "to find the image of God, which is my identity" and that is to set out: "If we do not set out, we will never know the face of God".

This desire for knowledge is also found in the Old Testament. The psalmists, Francis noted, "many times say: I want to know your face"; and "even Moses once said this to the Lord". But in reality "it is not easy, because setting out means leaving behind so many certainties, so many opinions of what the image of God is like, and seeking him". It means, in other words, "letting God, life, put us to the test", it means "risking", because "only in this way can one come to know the face of God, the image of God: by setting out".

The Pope drew again on the Old Testament to recall that "this is what God's people did, this is what the prophets did". For example "the great Elijah: after having conquered and purified the faith of Israel, he feels the threat of that queen and is afraid and does not know what to do. He sets out. And at a certain point, he prefers to die". But God "calls him, gives him food and drink and says: keep walking". So Elijah "arrives at the mountain and there he finds God". His was therefore 'a long journey, a painful journey, a difficult journey', but it teaches us that 'whoever does not set out, will never know the image of God, will never find the face of God'. It is a lesson for all of us: 'the seated Christians, the quiet Christians,' said the Pontiff, 'will not know the face of God. They have the presumption to say: 'God is like this, like that...', but in reality 'they do not know him'.

To walk, on the other hand, 'you need that restlessness that God himself has placed in our hearts and that leads you forward to seek him'. The same thing, the Pontiff explained, happened "to Job who, with his trial, began to think: but how is God, who allows this to me?". Even his friends 'after a great silence of days, began to talk, to discuss with him'. But all this was not helpful: 'with these arguments, Job did not know God'. Instead, 'when he allowed himself to be challenged by the Lord in the trial, he met God'. And it is precisely from Job that we can hear "that word that will help us so much in this journey of searching for our identity: 'I knew you by hearsay, but now my eyes have seen you'". This is the heart of the matter according to Francis: "the encounter with God" that can happen "only by setting out".

Certainly, he continued, "Job set out with a curse", even "he had the courage to curse life and his history: 'Cursed is the day I was born...'". Indeed, the Pope reflected, 'sometimes, in the journey of life, we do not find meaning in things'. The same experience was had by the prophet Jeremiah, who "after being seduced by the Lord, he heard that curse: 'But why me?'". He wanted to "sit quietly" and instead "the Lord wanted to make him see his face".

This is true for each of us: "to know our identity, to know the image of God, we must set out", be "restless, not quiet". Precisely this "is to seek the face of God".

Pope Francis then also referred to the passage in Mark's Gospel (7:1-13), in which "Jesus encounters people who are afraid to set out" and who build a sort of "caricature of God". But that "is a false identity card" because, the Pontiff explained, "these non-restless ones have silenced the restlessness of the heart: they paint God with the commandments" but in so doing "they forget God" in order to observe only "the tradition of men". And "when they are unsure, they invent or make another commandment". Jesus says to the scribes and Pharisees who heap up commandments: "Thus you nullify the Word of God with the tradition you have handed down, and of such things you do many". Precisely this "is the false identity card, the one we can have without setting out, quietly, without restlessness of heart".

In this regard, the Pope highlighted a "curious" detail: the Lord in fact "praises them but rebukes them where there is the sore spot. He praises them: 'You are truly skilful in rejecting God's commandment in order to observe your tradition'", but then "rebukes them where the strongest point of the commandments is with your neighbour". In fact, Jesus recalls that Moses said, "Honour your father and your mother, and whoever curses father or mother shall be put to death". He continues: "You, on the other hand, say: if one declares to one's father or mother that "what I should help you with, that is, give you food, give you clothing, give you to buy medicine, is Korbàn, an offering to God", do not allow them to do anything more for their father and mother". In doing so "they wash their hands of the tenderest, strongest commandment, the only one that has a promise of blessing". And so "they are quiet, they are quiet, they do not set out". This then "is the image of God that they have". In reality theirs is a path 'in quotes': that is, 'a path that does not walk, a quiet path. They deny their parents, but they fulfil the laws of tradition that they have made'.

Concluding his reflection, the bishop of Rome reproposed the meaning of the two liturgical texts as 'two identity cards'. The first is 'the one we all have, because the Lord made us that way', and it is 'the one that tells us: set out and you will know your identity, because you are the image of God, you are made in God's likeness. Set out and seek God". The other instead reassures us: 'No, rest assured: fulfil all these commandments and this is God. This is the face of God'. Hence the wish that the Lord "give us all the grace of the courage to always set out, to seek the face of the Lord, that face that one day we will see but which here, on earth, we must seek."

[Pope Francis, St. Martha, in L'Osservatore Romano 11/02/2015].

The origin of evil is not in an external cause

Purity, impurity and holiness misrepresented

(Mk 7:14-23)

The Church has preserved faith in the goodness of creation; it does not look down on nature, society, and the concrete work of the Father, as is unfortunately advocated in certain squeamish mentalities (in a devout key).

Neither does he believe that to feel saved, there are instruments or zones of refuge that one only needs to use, enjoy, or reach out to. The Lord is for an all-round humanisation.

In ancient cultures, the religious and mythical view of the world led people to appreciate any reality from the category of holiness as detachment and separateness - even inaccessibility.

Purity laws indicated the conditions necessary to stand before God and feel good in his presence - but in fact always dismayed, because (obviously) not totally fulfilled.

One could not present oneself where the person was, or on any occasion and in any way - but according to rules related to food, contact, dress, recommended times of prayer; so on.

In the context of Achaemenid rule, in order to enhance identity, rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and maintain their class, the priests accentuated purity norms and sacrificial obligations, repeatedly manipulating the meaning, contexts, and postulates of Scripture.

Obviously, a substantial part of the offerings thus inflated remained with the class that performed the rites.

All this, at the expense of a flattened conception of the propitiatory and (supposedly) thaumaturgical cultic style, which invested every aspect of people's ordinary lives.

A multitude enslaved by the imposed vision - childish in itself - algid perhaps, but swampy and irritating.

At the time of Mk some Jewish converts believed they could abandon the ancient customs and approach the pagans; others were of the opposite opinion: it would be like rejecting substantial parts of the Torah [e.g. Lev 11-16 and 17ff].

In fact Mk emphasises that the problem is "in the house" (v.17 Greek text: inside the house) i.e. in the Church and among its intimates [the CEI translation reads in "a" house].

A place where paradoxically we still do not understand the Master [!] who came to free us from invented and contrived obsessions.

Christ must insist in his teaching, now not addressed to strangers, but precisely to the habitués, incapable - unlike the crowds - of "understanding" (v.14) even the rudiments of spiritual things.

In order to educate the stubborn ones still "devoid of intellect" (v.18) who consider themselves masters, he does not go to just any dwelling place, but precisely to the place where, unfortunately, expectations are cultivated that are sometimes far removed from the people (vv.14.17).

The evangelist rejects the distinction between the religious sphere of life and a 'contaminated' daily set-up; a source of corruption. But normal, trivial, summary - for this reason assessed as distant from the 'divine'.

Quintessence that conversely does not intend to subjugate anyone.

Prescriptions remain insufficient to give us access to God: they are but symbols, trajectories, and images.The active presence of a new Order abolishes legal prescriptions, and shifts the centre of the morality of our acts.

Here we recall Jesus' teaching: impurity does not come from without [i.e. from outside to inside].

That is not the threat to the life of the woman, the man, and the community, according to God's trickless design.

The realities of the world are never wicked and unfit - not even for worship.

They only become obnoxious by passing through decisions that are sacrilegious, because they block life. And detachments that barbarise.

The canonicity of the bigot and the cassock has nothing to do with divinisation, which conversely rhymes with what is concretely humanising.

The debate on the pure and the impure should not be placed on the level of things [e.g. food that goes to the stomach] but of behaviour, which starts and goes to the heart. A place that is not always serene and well 'ordered'.

There are no sacred apriorisms: it is not enough that a place, a house, objects, a person ... have been legitimised by ceremonies or even exchanges, for them to become untouchable, honest and eminent.

In this way, there is no sacred and profane in itself.

Mystery and bliss come into the world exclusively through the channel of dialogue and encounter with respect for intelligence, personal souls, and differing cultures. Not through entities of merit, nor through misrepresented straits.

Sanctification is linked to conduct. And in cases of consistency, even to the failure, anguish, and frustrations that result from challenging field choices.

These are decisions that jeopardise, and sometimes ridicule us in comparison with, the custom of compulsory authentication - where it sometimes seems necessary to avoid life. Or you are 'nobody'.

Here, formal legalism unfortunately kills any expansion of resources and ideals.

In short, impure is what poisons the existence and spontaneous realisation of people, their relationships, and creation itself.

Yet it is imperfections that make us new, exceptional, unique!

Jesus opens up a new Way to bring all of us imperfect people closer to God, to others even far away, and to ourselves - without puritanical exclusions.

When, for example, we do not accept ourselves as we are - inside, or in the field, not welcoming the different and the opposite - because in common opinion 'it is not right', we risk transforming dissatisfaction into intimate nagging.

Even the religious sense of impurity will lead us from unrest to disaster.

But outside the commitment to friendship with ourselves, with created things, and the spirit of fraternity, of conviviality of contraries, the fear of contamination is unfounded.

On the contrary, we are called to love limits: they are the ground, even broken and impudent, of preparatory energies for real flowering.

They are primordial impulses and signs of our task in the world according to God's newness.

Every Exodus values alternatives.

And we find fulfilment, the meaning of life, as well as gradually greater completeness, by encountering precisely our opposite sides.

Anyone who intimidates the 'inadequate' brother threatens the life of the cosmos and makes the very people who are most sensitive and attentive distrustful.

Jesus frees the crowd of the voiceless, the lost, from the obsession of apprehensions and fears, from always being on the defensive.

We are not called to fixate on one direction. There are others.

So let us learn not to be dismayed that we are not religiously 'successful' - but Firstfruits!

To internalise and live the message:

What do you think makes you presentable in society? In what sense are you impeccable - because you are embellished and conform to opinion?

Does being a 'son' and 'firstfruit' make you defensive or does it restore your desire to live to the full?

Conclusion:

Eucharistic crumbs

Sons, little dogs, demons and free movement

(Mk 7:24-30)

Jesus discovered the will of the Father in the events of life. The same was true for the growth of awareness of the first communities, which carried no small prejudices, at least until the third generation of believers (inclusive) - as witnessed by the Synoptics.

Religious law prevented dealing with foreigners and people of other ethnicities, borders or cultures. At first, Jesus [i.e.: He in the first communities, His mystical Body] seems not to want to care (v.27).

But after helping the crowds and his own to emancipate themselves from the prison of the norms of purity (vv.14-23) Christ breaks out of conformist ways of experiencing God.

He even exoduses himself from national and racial territories that were then sequestering the life-bloods - thus overcoming sacred preconceptions.

The Son's singular initiatives arise on the basis of a wholly personal experience of the divine, of a Father munificent in bestowing without conditions.

Provident and unequal from the stingy God of religions: the latter discordant from creatures, alien, and (incomprehensibly) habitual.The Lord himself helps us in his story to experience the transcendent in even summary life. Thus, to get out of the contrived doctrinal ways that cage existence [territory, customs, ideology, memberships of various kinds - even 'internal'].

With an unusual gimmick, the young Rabbi tries to open up the Judaizing mentality, crossing borders.

The intent is to make us develop his own Faith. It promoted diverse existence, and outside of traditional myopia could thus find astounding adherences.

No boundary fences, no obstacles ... can contain our will to live: we want to feed not on pride (or resistance) but on love at risk, not debased - and express ourselves completely.

Even dialogue with a woman not of his people was a 'thought' alien to the mentality of the crowds of the time - alien even to the conceptions of the first two generations of believers, in this respect still entrenched and mixed with idols.

But there was a whole people of strangers [the mestizo 'woman' and her spiritual offspring] who felt they had no future. And this challenged the many apriorisms of the time.

In short, even the church of Mk had not fully grasped the meaning of the 'bread of the sons' - all available to be 'recognised'.

Because of atavistic rivalries, ancient peoples used to call foreigners by the derogatory appellation 'dog', synonymous with impudence, meanness and ignoble baseness.

They were widespread misgivings about the sense of human brotherhood - from primitive vision [and not only, in the age of access].

The Lord's harsh sentence (v.27) reflects a comparison from poor areas and family life, where pets and youth once abounded.

There was still a difference between children generated by hearing the Word of God and those who regulated themselves 'by scent'.

But although no one denied sustenance to the "children" in order to give it to the "dogs" around - the latter at least had the right to the crumbs that fell on the ground.

In fact, the text speaks of 'little dogs' [kynaría-kynaríois] as pets loved by the very young and who easily fed them leftovers during meals.

In a certain sense, they belonged to 'the house'.

For the different and distant - even the misunderstood - it is not a problem to resort to Jesus instinctively; on the contrary, they would be content with the scraps.

According to this, the community of the sons should not lack bodily nourishment and wisdom food for anyone (Mk 6:42-44).

However, the old-timers, who considered themselves family members of entitlement and asserted registry rights, sulked and in the assemblies pretended not to allow everyone to partake of the communion, the Eucharistic grains, the gifts of the festive kingdom.

But thanks to the appeal of the Gospels [quite different from the exaggerated imperial or legionary 'evangelical' proclamations] the dominion of demons (v.29) - so alive in all the various forms of religiosity at the time in Rome - was coming to an end.

According to Mk. there should be no obsession, chain or preconception that can take away our direction of progress and energy, so that with extreme freedom we are enabled to work and be open to the needs of others, even pagans (Mk 6:45a).

Thus a debate arises in the Roman fraternities about the conditions of community membership.

What is the position of converts from paganism? Do they have the right to participate in the breaking of the Bread without prior doctrine-discipline? Is there or is there not a break with the observant tradition?

Mark emphasises that we have no pre-emption: the principle of universal salvation is the attitude of Faith; not a right.

The community of the baptised is not allowed to live on rent. The Gospel is open, overriding the biblical priority of the chosen people.

The reason for any exception is sensitive love, which has the freedom to yield, which becomes the only principle of membership.

The condition of membership in the new people of God is Faith in the heart and not in the blood or in the head, nor in the discipline that distances us from ourselves, God and others.

Faith: a new principle, which shatters every illusion of exclusivity.

With the Father, in the Son, it is no longer a matter of mortifying oneself, depending, striving and struggling, in order to stand before one another.

Legal purity is insufficient (vv.1-23), indeed now it is the person even of disconcerting origins - formerly an outsider - who emerges 'victorious' from the fight with the Lord.

Spousal entrustment is appreciable everywhere, by anyone: foundational Eros gushing from every soul, and not bound to repertoires. It overcomes any particularism.

Of course, it has its criteria - but they are essential: transparency, freshness, tension towards unity, overcoming conditions and taboos; value of the person; secret empathy of energies.

The Gospel passage traces a whole path of adherence to Christ.Those who are far away can approach and even start from the popular - inconvenient - idea that Jesus is the expected 'Son of David' [cf. parallel Mt 15:22]: a military commander and ruler who was supposed to seize power, subjugate the nations, ensure the golden age, himself fulfil the prescriptions of the Law as if he were a Model, and impose their observance on all.

The starting point of the journey may be a miserable glimmer, a beginning that perhaps does not promise much. In fact, in this specific case, it is decidedly confusing: the Master does not answer (Mt 15:23).

The title affixed to Him has nothing to do with God, nor does it concern the authentic Firstborn. He is not a powerful Messiah - a predatory, homologated image - but a servant.

It makes no sense even to ask Him for "Mercy" (Mt 15:22)! Indeed - let's face it - despite the superficial ritual habits we have, here Christ seems quite angry (v.23).

This is not the healthy relationship with the Lord: He does not chastise or enjoy being begged by the needy.

Rather, He educates as He does a friend, brother or parent; and He does not grant graces by lottery, or miracles by sympathy and protection, or favours by territory - like pagan gods.

That image is totally deviant, but it is a bogus figure that comes out of the very "insiders" (Mt 15:23-24), who would have nothing to object to [cf. again v.23].

Indeed, their own catechesis is the source of it: the title "son of David" sounds strange, on the lips of a pagan.

Even today, this homologising paternalistic idea - of inculcated guilt - tends to drive away those who seek an amiable companion.

The priority for 'Israel' is acknowledged by Jesus because it is precisely the eldest sons who must be converted to a new Face of the first God of Sinai - still valued Lawgiver and Judge, instead of Creator and Redeemer of our intelligence and freedom.

[Albeit in a good-natured way, they unfortunately continue to spread it, as a sullen notary, since pre-catechism].

Jesus distances himself from those who make claims and at the same time divert the souls of the needy who seek him.

Then, in spiritual terms, no one can boast a right to anything: the truly sacred Gifts do not derive from any selective election relationship, nor even clientelistic [of the buying and selling kind].

So, to become intimate with Christ... can one be content with the Eucharistic 'crumbs' - i.e. 'minimal salvation'?

Can one be satisfied with the mere crumbs that fall from the table of the supponent closed in small schemes (Mk 7:27-28)?

Certainly, because it is Faith that saves (Mk 7:28-29a), not a grand gesture or a long habit in the disciplines of the arcane - nor a code of purity.

The authentic Lord only says:

"By this Word, go" (v.29) - i.e. proceed to the joy of a full life, transmissible to an "offspring" not destined for torment or premature death.

And without the judgement of others, the one with the usual deceptive tares of inadequacy, on your back.

Thanks to Him we are not introduced into a summary religious practice, but into a Relationship that is chiselled over time (vv.25-30).

How to orient oneself?

Instead of the narrow Law, it is the Gospel that fully empowers us.

As if we were "little dogs" (vv.27-28) that seek life and nourishment, instinctively proceeding [by "sniffing"] along unexplored paths. And that according to character, inclination, Calling by Name, appeal to other secret forces.

In short, all men - although still far from an explicit adherence to faith - are inhabited by this knowledge that is at once personal and primordial, that gives immediate and infallible direction.

So in simplicity will we too, to find the Way.

For Faith has no nationality, and is the only valid language-relation-trajectory for communication between God and woman and man.

It is universal; it crosses time, denominational and even religious borders.

Commenting on the Tao Te Ching (LVIII), Master Wang Pi states:

"He who rules well has no form or name, he does not initiate administrations. The various categories divide and separate, that is why the people are fragmented'.

Master Ho-shang Kung adds:

"When the ruler is liberal, the people are united in wealth and satiety: people love each other and get along well".

Today it is about sharing the minutiae and fragments of the 'more' we in the West inherited from past generations.

A very instructive and affluent 'more'; lavishly bestowed, yet received without 'anything too much' [ne quid nimis] nor much merit or risk (as 'good Christians...').

And respecting in all things the nomenclature of the veterans, of the cordate and the powerful - always disinclined to real coexistence.

Christ, on the other hand, is sapiential food for free circulation; not impeded food, to be kept locked in tabernacles.

His virtue is now understood only outside the sacristies - from far and wide (vv.24-25) - where even a minuet of bread makes one trust and rise, in sharing.

To break the Eucharist as source and summit is to proclaim it a Gift not to be withheld or kept intact, but rather to be displayed and distributed without moralising.

To share that Food is to participate in the root of existence, what we have and are; the yardstick of what we proclaim, believe and practise.

Sadly, not infrequently the strangers and dissimilar are hungrier for the true Manna from Heaven.

Saturated to the point of nausea - and perhaps still unable to comprehend its meaning - why live the shared Nourishment [perhaps with little regard for its meaning] as a problem and fear?

To internalise and live the message:

If not of 'your people', do you at least want to talk to them - even if veterans, inner clubs and regulars forbid it?

Don't you think the synodal path is a good opportunity to review abstract positions?

Do you know of any ecclesial parishes that do not give outsiders a chance?

Do you know people hurt by exclusions? What do you do, silence-consent?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of God’s Law, of his commandments, makes its entrance in the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday. It is an essential element of the Jewish and Christian religions, where the complete fulfilment of the law is love (cf. Rom 13:10). God’s Law is his word which guides men and women on the journey through life, brings them out of the slavery of selfishness and leads them into the “land” of true freedom and life. This is why the Law is not perceived as a burden or an oppressive restriction in the Bible. Rather, it is seen as the Lord’s most precious gift, the testimony of his fatherly love, of his desire to be close to his People, to be its Ally and with it write a love story.

This is what the devout Israelite prays: “I will delight in your statutes, / I will not forget your word.... Lead me in the path of your commandments, / for I delight in it” (Ps 119[118]:16, 35). In the Old Testament the person who passes on the Law to the People on God’s behalf is Moses. After the long journey in the wilderness, on the threshold of the promised land, he proclaims: “Now, O Israel, give heed to the statutes and the ordinances which I teach you, and do them; that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, gives you” (Deut 4:1). And this is the problem: when the People put down roots in the land and are the depository of the Law, they are tempted to place their security and joy in something that is no longer the Word of God: in possessions, in power, in other ‘gods’ that in reality are useless, they are idols. Of course, the Law of God remains but it is no longer the most important thing, the rule of life; rather, it becomes a camouflage, a cover-up, while life follows other paths, other rules, interests that are often forms of egoism, both individual and collective.

Thus religion loses its authentic meaning, which is to live listening to God in order to do his will — that is the truth of our being — and thus we live well, in true freedom, and it is reduced to practising secondary customs which instead satisfy the human need to feel in God’s place. This is a serious threat to every religion which Jesus encountered in his time and which, unfortunately, is also to be found in Christianity. Jesus’ words against the scribes and Pharisees in today’s Gospel should therefore be food for thought for us as well.

Jesus makes his own the very words of the Prophet Isaiah: “This People honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Mk 7:6-7; cf. Is 29,13). And he then concludes: “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men” (Mk 7:8).

The Apostle James too alerts us in his Letter to the danger of false piety. He writes to the Christians: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jas 1:22). May the Virgin Mary, to whom we now turn in prayer, help us to listen with an open and sincere heart to the word of God so that every day it may guide our thoughts, our decisions and our actions.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 2 September 2012]

First and principal meaning of penitence is interior, spiritual. The principal effort of penitence consists "in entering oneself", one's deepest being, entering this dimension of one's own humanity in which, in a certain sense, God is waiting for us. The "exterior" man must

— I would say — yield, in each of us, to the "interior" man and, in a certain sense, "make way for him". In current life, man does not live enough on the "interior" plane. Jesus Christ clearly indicates that also acts of devotion and penitence (such as fasting, charity, prayer) which because of their religious finality are mainly "interior", may yield to the current "exteriorism", and can therefore be falsified. Penitence, on the contrary, as turning to God, requires above all that man should reject appearances, succeed in freeing himself from falsity, and find himself again in all his interior truth. Even a rapid, summary look into the divine splendour of man's interior truth is already a success. It is necessary, however, to consolidate this success skilfully by means of systematic work on oneself. This work is called "ascesis" (it had already been given this name by the Greeks of the times of the origins of Christianity). Ascesis means an interior effort not to let oneself be swept along and pushed by the different "exterior" currents, in such a way as to remain always oneself and keep the dignity of one's own humanity.

But the Lord Jesus calls us to do something more. When he says "go into your room and shut the door", he indicates an ascetic effort of the human spirit, which must not end in man himself. That shutting-in of oneself is, at the same time, the deepest opening of the human heart. It is indispensable for the purpose of meeting the Father, and must be undertaken for this purpose. "Your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Here it is a question of acquiring again the simplicity of thought, of will, and of heart which is indispensable to meet God in one's own "self". And God is waiting for that, in order to approach man who is absorbed interiorly and at the same time open to his word and his love! God wishes to communicate himself to the soul thus disposed. He wishes to give it truth and love, which have their real source in him.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 28 February 1979]

This Sunday we turn to a reading from the Gospel of Mark. In today’s passage (cf. Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23), Jesus addresses an important topic for all of us believers: the authenticity of our obedience to the Word of God, against any worldly contamination or legalistic formalism. The narrative opens with the objection that the scribes and Pharisees address to Jesus, accusing his disciples of failing to observe the ritual precepts according to tradition. In this way, those challenging him seek to strike at the reliability and authority of Jesus as Teacher because they say: “But this teacher allows his disciples to evade the prescriptions of tradition”. But Jesus responds emphatically; he responds by saying: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’” (vv. 6-7). This is what Jesus says. Clear and emphatic words! ‘Hypocrite’ is, so to speak, one of the strongest adjectives that Jesus uses in the Gospel, and he speaks them as he addresses the teachers of religion: doctors of the law, scribes.... ‘Hypocrite’, Jesus says.

Indeed, Jesus wants to rouse the scribes and Pharisees from the error they have fallen into, and what is this error? That of distorting God’s will, neglecting his commandments in order to observe human traditions. Jesus’ reaction is severe because something great is at stake: it concerns the truth of the relationship between man and God, the authenticity of religious life. A hypocrite is a liar; he is not authentic.

Today too, the Lord invites us to avoid the danger of giving more importance to form than to substance. He calls us to recognize, ever anew, what is the true core of the experience of faith, that is, love of God and love of neighbour, by purifying it of the hypocrisy of legalism and ritualism.

Today’s Gospel message is also reinforced by the voice of the Apostle James, who tells us, in brief, what true religion is meant to be, and he says: pure religion is “to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (Jas 1:27). “To visit orphans and widows” means to practice charity toward neighbours, beginning with the neediest, frailest, most marginalized people. They are the people whom God takes care of in a special way, and he asks us to do the same.

“To keep oneself unstained from the world” does not mean to isolate oneself and close oneself off from reality. No. Here too there must be not an exterior attitude, but interior, substantive: it means being vigilant so that our way of thinking and acting may not be polluted by the worldly mentality, or that of vanity, of greed, of arrogance. Actually, a man or woman who lives in vanity, in greed or in arrogance and at the same time believes and shows him or herself as being religious and even goes so far as to condemn others, is a hypocrite.

Let us make an examination of conscience to see how we embrace the Word of God. On Sunday we listen to it at Mass. If we listen to it in a distracted or superficial way, it will not be of much use. Instead, we must welcome the Word with open minds and hearts, as good soil, in a way that it may be assimilated and may bear fruit in real life. Jesus says that the Word of God is like wheat; it is a seed that must grow in practical deeds. In this way the Word itself purifies our heart and actions, and our relationship with God and with others is freed from hypocrisy.

May the example and intercession of the Virgin Mary help us to always honour the Lord with our heart, witnessing to our love for him in concrete choices for the good of our brothers and sisters.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 2 September 2018]

Talents - Gifts of the new Kingdom

(Mt 25:14-30)

Mt tells this parable because some converted Jews of his communities have difficulty unlocking and evolving.

A competition arises between them that concerns the importance of ecclesial positions. It’s the true evangelical sense of «talents according to capacity» (v.15).

We all receive some accent of the Kingdom, "goods" to be multiplied by transmitting; for example, the Word of God.

Unique gift, but not uncommon: immense prosperity with extraordinary life-propulsive virtues... for each and every one.

Thus the spirit of service and sharing; the attitude to discernment and appreciation of unrepeatable uniquenesses, and much more.

The very idea of the ancient God as lawgiver and judge (vv.24-25) induced believers not to grow or transmit - rather to shut themselves up and move away from the Father’s plan.

The Lord strongly reiterates that a deformed idea of ‘Heaven at points’ can negatively affect the bearing lines of personality, and ruin people’s existence.

Even in later history this happened, when the naive masses were “educated” to perceive Freedom as guilt and the risk of Love a danger of sin.

Instead, the Lord wants to create Family, where no one is alarmed or held in check, nor blocked and potted.

Even the little that everyone has in dowry can be invested - through a contribution to be made, available to all.

This is what happens in the community that values us: the ministerial Church [«bank» of v.27] that projects and infinitely expands the resources, the broken Bread, the "goods" of the Kingdom of God.

What promotes people and reveals God’s Presence is personal and unique, yet it must not remain as rare.

Everyone has an opportunity for apostolate, his particular friendship’s attitude, and his skills... they are territories and energies to be explored without limits, so that they are shared, made wiser and propulsive.

In this way, whoever updates himself, confronts himself, is interested and makes a contribution, sees his own human and spiritual wealth grow and flourish.

Conversely, no one will be surprised that the rearguard or abstract and disembodied situations undergo further declines - finally they perish without leaving regrets (vv.27-30).

In these catecheses of chapter 25, the evangelist Mt tries to make his communities understand and help, remembering that Jesus himself was not under escort, but an involved, willing figure.

He did not want to limit himself to fighting for an appreciable and necessary legal change - but still staying at a safe distance.

In fact, he acted in a laborious, «crafted» way (FT n.217); without placing anything in safe, out of fear.

He was not limited to easy contrasts and grand ex cathedra proclamations, which would not have affected anything.

Did he have alternatives?

Of course: do not move anything, do not guard the minimums, do not protect them, limit himself, keep his mouth closed or open it only to flatter the powerful, the established and well-introduced.

Giving up fighting and neglecting to take winding routes, he would have no problems.

But also for us: the downside and safe game atrophies personal and social life, does not grow a new Kingdom - it loses it.

[Saturday 21st wk. in O.T.   August 31, 2024]

Talents - Gifts of the new Kingdom

(Mt 25:14-30)

How can a community reveal the presence of God? By enhancing and accentuating the facets of life, defending them, promoting them and cheering them up.

Why is it that some grow and others do not? Why is it that those who advance less than others, precisely on the 'religious' path, risk ruin?

We all have unique strengths, bullets, qualities and inclinations. Everyone receives gifts as an outrider (even if only one) and can fit into church services.

Everyone - even the normally excluded [like Zacchaeus, in the parallel passage in Lk 19:1-10.11-28] - has a wealth of unparalleled resources that he or she can pass on, for the enrichment of the community.

Mt tells this parable because some Jewish converts in his communities find it difficult to unlock and evolve. And some just do not flourish, clinging to roles and devotions.

To put it plainly, a competition arises among them concerning the importance of ecclesial assignments [this is the true evangelical meaning of "talents according to ability": v.15].

These tasks are also undermined by the onslaught of those coming from paganism, who are less intimidated and looser than the (somewhat museum-like) Judaizing faithful.

The resulting punctiliousness stiffens the internal atmosphere, accentuates difficulties in collaborating, and exchanging gifts and resources - enriching one another.

Vain and competitive situations we know.

We all receive some accent of the Kingdom, 'goods' to be multiplied by passing on, for example (here) the Word of God.

A unique gift, but not rare: immense prosperity and extraordinary life-promoting virtues... for each and all.

Thus the spirit of service and sharing; the aptitude for discernment and appreciation of unique uniqueness, and much more.

Of course, the community grows not if it produces, showcases and 'yields'. It is made up of members who are all valuable and already 'adults', who spontaneously know where and how to place themselves!

Women and men of Faith do not seek merits, they do not hold back for themselves; they relate to God and their neighbour wisely, even when not in 'correct' terms and formulas (according to the instruction booklet).

Unfortunately, in order to persuade them to respect characters and configuration, and to follow custom, veterans have not infrequently played on fear.

With regard to 'social' fear, in particular, on the popular inclination not to get into trouble (which also paralysed the inner life).

Since the time of Jesus, there has been no lack of fear and the desire to avoid blackmail [my mother used to say in amazement of dishonest leaders: "They use religion as a weapon!"].

The very idea of the ancient God as lawgiver and judge (vv.24-25) induced believers not to grow or pass on, but rather to shut themselves away and distance themselves from the Father's project.

On pain of social exclusion, it was forbidden to welcome new experiences of God, to authentically encounter oneself, to open up personal (even radically identity) spaces, to chart new paths.

Thus for centuries.

To understand the meaning of the parallel passage of Lk 19:11-28 [v.22 where in the CEI translation the King would seem to reiterate the mean idea of the uneducated launderer], it is enough to insert a question mark [the original Greek codes had no punctuation]:

"He says to him: From your own mouth I judge you, wicked servant! Did you know that I am a severe man, that I take what I have not laid down and that I reap what I have not sown?"

The same in Mt 25:26:

"But answering his Lord said to him, 'Wicked and idle servant [...] Did you know that I reap where I have not sown and I gather where I have not scattered?"

As if to say: "But who taught you that!".

The Lord emphatically reiterates that that deformed concept of the doting Heavens can negatively affect the character lines, and ruin people's existence. Especially if Freedom and the risk of Love are perceived as a guilt - in any case a danger of sin that could lead to the deleterious spiritual state of no longer being considered (by traditional religiosity) 'in the grace of God'.

Ancient religions needed followers who were also immature and obtuse, without nerve - who were then content to avoid danger, and clung to the petty securities of the everyday grind.

Instead, the Father desires expanded hearts, which undertake and risk for love, and for love's sake.

If the God of popular piety needs flocks that are sometimes obtuse and servile, Christ needs friends, family members and reckless collaborators, capable of walking on their own legs, who do not dehumanise (others too).

Thus, today, the pastoral of consent [I will give you what you want] presupposes obedient and devout masses, deprived of personality and dreams.

Instead, the Lord wants Family, where no one is alarmed, restrained, blocked, put in the hole. Perhaps for fear of losing the family tranquillity, the little place he has, the fake security he has carved out or taken as alms.

Pope Francis, for example, does not want conquests to frighten us and hold us back, but that as consanguineers of our eternal side, we should be the first to vibrate with prophetic ideals. And ramming through false convictions that do not disturb - indeed, they put us into lethargy - to stimulate more grandiose ideal areas in terms of humanising qualities.

Even the little that each person has in dowry can be invested - through a contribution to be made, available to all.

This is what happens in the community that enhances us: the ministerial Church ["bank" of v.27] that projects and infinitely expands the resources, the broken Bread, the "goods" of the Kingdom of God.

That which promotes people and reveals the Presence of God is personal and unique, yet it must not remain as rare.

Everyone has an opportunity for apostolate, his or her own attitude of friendship and skills... these are territories and energies to be explored without limits, so that they may be shared, made sapiential and propulsive.

As the Pontiff declared:

"The inability of experts to see the signs of the times is due to the fact that they are closed within their system; they know what can and cannot be done, and they stay safe there. Let us ask ourselves: am I only open to my own things and my own ideas, or am I open to the God of surprises?"

Anyone who updates, confronts, takes an interest and makes a contribution - without getting overwhelmed by routine, fear, fatigue - sees their human and spiritual richness grow and flourish.

Conversely, no one will be surprised that rearguard or abstract and disembodied situations - exhausting, though in themselves sluggish, exhausted, spineless and merely boring or fanciful - suffer further downturns and finally perish without leaving regrets (vv.27-30).

In these catecheses of chapter 25, the evangelist Mt tries to make his communities understand, help and act as a springboard, remembering that Jesus himself was not under escort, but an involved, willing figure.

He did not let matters slide, but entered into them - nor did he say: what am I doing here?

Nor did he merely fight for a welcome and necessary legal change - but stood at a safe distance.

Instead, he embodied the gift of self, tracing the path of social choice in the first person, with an arduousness to undertake it; without placing anything in the safe, out of fear.

Paraphrasing the encyclical Fratelli Tutti (No. 262) we would say: he knew that not even norms were sufficient 'if one thinks that the solution to problems consists in dissuading through fear'.

The Lord in fact frequented the out-of-touch and in-between figures; he kept away from envious and smelly circles. He acted in a hard-working, "artisanal" (FT n.217) manner and put his face to it; he did not preach to others ex cathedra.

Did he have alternatives?

Certainly: not to move, not to guard the least, to limit oneself, to keep one's mouth shut; possibly to open it, but only to flatter the powerful, the established and well-connected.

By giving up the struggle and taking tortuous paths, he would have no problems.

And if he had added omertà to the common mediocrity of the spiritual leaders of the time, he might well have had a career.

But for us too: playing it down and safe atrophies personal and social life, does not grow a new kingdom - it loses it.

In everyone, something equal and unequal

The Gospel [...] is the parable of the talents, taken from St Matthew (25:14-30). It tells of a man who, before setting out on a journey, summons servants and entrusts them with his wealth in talents, ancient coins of great value. That master entrusts the first servant with five talents, the second with two, and the third with one. During the master's absence, the three servants must make use of this patrimony. The first and second servants each double the starting capital; the third, however, for fear of losing everything, buries the talent received in a hole. On the master's return, the first two receive praise and reward, while the third, who only returns the coin received, is reprimanded and punished.

The significance of this is clear. The man in the parable represents Jesus, the servants are us, and the talents are the heritage that the Lord entrusts to us. What is the heritage? His Word, the Eucharist, faith in the heavenly Father, His forgiveness... in short, so many things, His most precious possessions. This is the patrimony that He entrusts to us. Not only to be guarded, but to grow! While in common usage the term 'talent' indicates a distinct individual quality - e.g. talent in music, sport, etc. - in the parable the talents represent the Lord's goods, which He entrusts to us so that we may make them bear fruit. The hole dug in the ground by the "wicked and slothful servant" (v. 26) indicates the fear of risk that blocks the creativity and fruitfulness of love. For fear of the risks of love blocks us. Jesus does not ask us to keep his grace in a safe! Jesus does not ask this of us, but he wants us to use it for the benefit of others. All the goods we have received are to give them to others, and so they grow. It is as if he were saying to us: 'Here is my mercy, my tenderness, my forgiveness: take them and make good use of them'. And what have we done with them? Who have we 'infected' with our faith? How many people have we encouraged with our hope? How much love have we shared with our neighbour? These are questions it is good for us to ask ourselves. Any environment, even the most distant and impractical, can become a place where talents can bear fruit. There are no situations or places precluded to Christian presence and witness. The witness that Jesus asks of us is not closed, it is open, it depends on us.

This parable spurs us not to hide our faith and our belonging to Christ, not to bury the Word of the Gospel, but to circulate it in our lives, in relationships, in concrete situations, as a force that challenges, that purifies, that renews. The same goes for forgiveness, which the Lord gives us especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation: let us not keep it closed within ourselves, but let us allow it to unleash its power, let it bring down walls that our selfishness has put up, let it make us take the first step in blocked relationships, resume dialogue where there is no more communication... And so on. Let these talents, these gifts that the Lord has given us, come to others, grow, bear fruit, with our witness.

I think it would be a nice gesture today for each of you to take the Gospel home, the Gospel of St Matthew, chapter 25, verses 14 to 30, Matthew 25: 14-30, and read this, and meditate a little: 'The talents, the riches, all that God has given me of spiritual, of goodness, the Word of God, how do I make them grow in others? Or do I just keep them in a safe?"

And furthermore, the Lord does not give everyone the same things and in the same way: he knows us personally and entrusts to us what is right for us; but in everyone there is something equal: the same, immense trust. God trusts us, God has hope in us! And this is the same for everyone. Let us not disappoint Him! Let us not be deceived by fear, but let us trust with confidence! The Virgin Mary embodies this attitude in the most beautiful and fullest way. She received and accepted the most sublime gift, Jesus himself, and in turn offered him to humanity with a generous heart. We ask her to help us to be "good and faithful servants", to participate "in the joy of our Lord".

(Pope Francis, Angelus 16 November 2014)