It's never too late (unique Coin and smart working: Love)

(Mt 20:1-16)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is the outcome of the new, inverted world.

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

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

The unfavourable has become favourable!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The soul counts, not the CV or performance.

To internalise and live the message:

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

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

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

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

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

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 21 September 2008]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pope Francis, Angelus 20 September 2020]

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary  [15 August 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us. For the Feast of the Assumption, I have prepared several texts because they are biblical passages that often recur in Marian feasts and therefore, I hope, may be useful for meetings, catechesis and meditation. I sincerely wish you all a holy and peaceful Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

 *First Reading from the Book of Revelation (11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab)

The first sentence we read is the conclusion of chapter 11 of Revelation, which heralds the end of time and God's victory over all the forces of evil, as already mentioned in verse 15: "Then loud voices in heaven said: 'Now the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.'" To express this message of victory, as always in the Book of Revelation, St John uses numerous images: we have seen, in succession, the Ark of the Covenant and three characters: the woman, the dragon, and then the newborn child. The Ark of the Covenant recalls the famous ark, the golden wooden chest that accompanied the people during the Exodus on Mount Sinai and constantly reminded the people of Israel of their Covenant with God. In truth, the ark had disappeared at the time of the exile to Babylon; it was said that Jeremiah had hidden it somewhere on Mount Nebo (2 Maccabees 2:8) and it was believed that it would reappear at the coming of the Messiah. John sees it reappear: 'The temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in the temple' (11:19). This is the sign that the end of time has come: God's eternal covenant with humanity is finally fulfilled once and for all. Then appears "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth". Who does this woman represent? The Old Testament gives us the key, because the relationship between God and Israel is often described in nuptial terms, as in Hosea (2:21-22), while Isaiah develops the theme of marriage to the point of presenting the coming of the Messiah as a birth, since it is from Israel that the Messiah must be born (66:7-8). The woman described here represents the chosen people who give birth to the Messiah: a painful birth for the persecuted disciples of Christ, to whom John says: you are giving birth to a new humanity. The second character is the dragon, placed in front of the woman to devour her newborn son, which indicates the struggle of the forces of evil against God's plan. For the persecuted Christians to whom the Apocalypse is addressed, the word 'dragon' is not an exaggeration, and the striking description reveals the violence that afflicts them: the dragon is enormous, fiery red, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on its heads. The heads and horns represent intelligence and power, the diadems indicate imperial power that shows a real capacity to harm by dragging a third of the stars of the sky and casting them down to earth. However, only a third, so it is not a real victory, and the rest of the text will say that the power of evil is only temporary. And here is the infant: 'The woman gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all nations with an iron sceptre': this is clearly the Messiah and alludes to a phrase from Psalm 2: 'The Lord said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron sceptre' (Ps 2:7-9). 'The child was taken up to God and to the throne' symbolises the resurrection of Christ, whom Christians considered the Firstborn, now seated at the right hand of God. Christians live in a difficult world, but they are certain of God's protection: this is the meaning of the desert, which once again recalls the exodus, during which God never ceased to care for his people, and for this reason they can rest assured: if the dragon has failed in heaven, he cannot win on earth either. To the early Christians who were severely persecuted, the Apocalypse announces victory: "Now the salvation, the power and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come" (Rev 12:10).

Additional information  1. The liturgical reading does not include the end of Rev 11:19, but it is worth reading: the scene described (lightning, voices, thunder, earthquake) recalls the moment of the conclusion of the Covenant on Sinai. "Then there were flashes of lightning, voices, thunder, an earthquake and a heavy hailstorm" (Rev 11:19), to be compared with: "On the third day, in the morning, there were thunderclaps, flashes of lightning, a thick cloud on the mountain and a loud trumpet blast" (Ex 19:16). 

2. The Apocalypse is addressed to persecuted Christians to sustain them in their trials: its content, from beginning to end, is a message of victory; but everything is coded and must be deciphered. In fact, from the very first words, the author affirms that the dragon will not be able to hinder God's salvation. The prophecy of Balaam (Num 24:17) helps us to understand the iron sceptre of the Messiah. A later Christian reinterpretation applied the vision of the woman to the Virgin Mary, which is why the liturgy offers us this text on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, because she is the first to benefit from Christ's triumph. This struggle of the dragon against the woman recalls the account in Genesis: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel" (Gen 3:15). This text offers a beautiful definition of salvation: the power and kingship of our God (Rev 12:10).

*Responsorial Psalm (44/45:11-16)

Today we read only the second part of Psalm 44/45, which is addressed to the bride of the king of Jerusalem on her wedding day. The first part of the psalm speaks of the king himself, covered with praise for his virtues, who is promised a glorious kingdom and whom God himself has chosen. The second part, on the feast of the Assumption, addresses the young princess who is about to become the king's bride. On a first level, therefore, this psalm seems to describe a royal wedding: the king of Israel unites with a foreign princess to seal the alliance between two peoples, a frequent occurrence in Israel as elsewhere. Throughout human history, many political alliances have been sealed by marriages. But since the religion of Israel is an exclusive covenant with the one God, every young foreign woman who became queen in Jerusalem had to accept a special condition: she also had to marry the king's religion. Specifically, in this psalm, the princess who comes from Tyre — as we are told — and who is introduced to the court of the king of Israel, must renounce her idolatrous practices in order to be worthy of her new people and her husband: 'Listen, daughter, look, lend your ear: forget your people and your father's house'. This was a crucial issue at the time of King Solomon, who had married foreign women, and therefore pagans, and later, at the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel: we recall the great confrontation between the prophet Elijah and the numerous priests and prophets of Baal whom Jezebel had brought with her to the court of Samaria. But, for those who can read between the lines, this advice given to the princess of Tyre is actually addressed to Israel: the royal bridegroom described in the psalm is none other than God himself, and this "daughter of the king, all adorned for her husband" is the people of Israel admitted to intimacy with their God. Once again, we are struck by the boldness of the authors of the Old Testament in describing the relationship between God and his people, and, through them, with all humanity. The prophet Hosea was the first to compare Israel to a bride (Hos 2:16-18). After him, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the second and third Isaiah developed the theme of the marriage between God and his people; and in their texts we find all the wedding vocabulary: affectionate names, the wedding dress, the wedding crown, fidelity (cf. Jer 2:2; Isa 62:5). Unfortunately, this bride, who was all too human, was often unfaithful, that is, idolatrous, and the prophets themselves defined the infidelities of the people as adultery, that is, as a return to idolatry. The language then becomes more precise: jealousy, adultery, prostitution, but also reconciliation and forgiveness, because God always remains faithful. Isaiah, for example, speaks of Israel's deviations as a disappointment in love in the famous song of the vineyard (Isaiah 5:1-7; 54:4-10). Idolatry occupies so much space in the prophets' discourses because the covenant between God and humanity, this plan of salvation, passes through Israel's faithfulness. Israel knows this: its election is not exclusive, but only by remaining faithful to the one God can it fulfil its vocation as witness to all nations. In Mary, the Bible dares to affirm that God has asked the whole of humanity to be his bride. By celebrating Mary's Assumption and her introduction into God's glory, we anticipate the entry of the whole of humanity, following in her footsteps, into intimacy with its God.

Second Reading from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:20-27a)

Today's liturgy offers us Paul's meditation on Christ's resurrection, in contrast to Adam's death. This gives us food for thought: what do Christ and Mary have in common? And what does Adam lack? The Gospel of the Visitation invites us to contemplate Mary as the one who believed and accepted God's plan without understanding everything. Her response to the Angel is a model for believers: "Let it be done to me according to your word (Lk 1:38), I am the handmaid of the Lord, ready to put my life at the service of God's work. In the Magnificat, Mary reveals her deepest concerns by re-reading her life in the light of God's great plan for his people, in favour of Abraham and his descendants forever, as he had promised to the fathers. From the beginning, in the Bible, it was understood that this is the only thing God asks of us: to be ready to say, 'Here I am'. Abraham, Moses, Samuel – called by God – knew how to respond in this way. And thanks to them, God's work was able to take a step forward each time. The New Testament offers Jesus Christ as an example who, in the story of the Temptations, responds to the seductions of the tempter with only words of faith. And if he teaches us to say, in the Our Father, 'Thy will be done', it is because this is his central thought, as he tells his disciples in the episode of the Samaritan woman: 'My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work' (Jn 4:34). In Gethsemane, he does not deny this: 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me! Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will!' (Mt 26:39). And the author of the Letter to the Hebrews sums up the whole life of Jesus as follows: 'When Christ came into the world, he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will' (Heb 10:5-10). If Jesus submits to the will of the Father at all times and in all circumstances, it is because he trusts. We could also say of him: 'Blessed are those who have believed...'. His resurrection shows that the way of faith is truly the way of life, even if it passes through physical death. In his letters to the Romans and the Corinthians, Paul contrasts Christ's behaviour with that of Adam: Adam is the one to whom everything was offered – the tree of life, dominion over creation – but he did not believe in God's benevolence, refusing to submit to his commandments. The apostle does not want to tell us what would have happened if Adam had not sinned, but he wants to remind us that there is only one way that leads to life and brings us into the joy of God. Adam turns his back on the tree of life when he begins to doubt God, and Paul says this in the present tense because, for him, Adam is not a man of the past but a way of being human.  As the rabbis observe: Everyone is Adam to himself. We can then better understand Paul's statement that in Adam all die, that is, by behaving like Adam, we distance ourselves from God and separate ourselves from the true life that He wants to give us in abundance. On the contrary, choosing the path of trust, as Christ did, at any cost, is to enter into true life: "Eternal life is that they know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent, Jesus Christ" (Jn 17:3). To know, in biblical language, means to believe, to love, to trust. Paul asserts that in Christ all will return to life by grafting themselves onto him, that is, by adopting his way of life. Today's feast of the Assumption of Mary helps us to contemplate the fulfilment of God's plan for man when it is not hindered. Mary, fully human, did not act like Adam and expresses the destiny that every human being would have had if there had been no fall of our first parents. Like every human being, she experienced ageing and one day left this life, falling asleep in the Lord: this is the 'Dormition' of the Virgin. We can therefore affirm two simple truths: our body is not designed to last forever as it is on earth, and Mary, all pure and full of grace, fell asleep. However, Adam hindered God's plan, and the transformation of the body that we could have known, that is, the Dormition, became death with its accompanying suffering and fragility because death, which causes us so much suffering, entered the world because of sin. But where the power of death entered, God gives life: Jesus is killed by the hatred of men, but the Father raises him up, the first of the risen, who brings us into true life, where love reigns. Elizabeth says to Mary: "Blessed is she who believed..."; Jesus applies this beatitude to all who believe: "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice" (Lk 8:21).

NOTE When the Risen One appeared to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, the kingship of Christ was revealed to him as a certainty, and this certainty would permeate all his words and thoughts because, for him, Christ, the conqueror of death, was also the conqueror of all the forces of evil, the Messiah awaited for centuries. For this reason, in all his letters we recognise expressions of the messianic expectation of the time: "Everything will be accomplished when Christ hands over the Kingdom to God the Father, after destroying all the powers of evil"; or "He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet", as we read in Psalm 110 (109).

From the Gospel according to Luke (1:39-56)

After the accounts of the Annunciation to Zechariah concerning the birth of John the Baptist and to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus, there follows the episode of the "Visitation," which has the appearance of a family story, but we must not be deceived: in reality, Luke is writing a profoundly theological work. We must give full weight to the central phrase: 'Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud voice'. It is the Holy Spirit who speaks to announce, from the very beginning of the Gospel, what will be the great news of Luke's entire account: the one who has just been conceived is the Lord. Elizabeth proclaims: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb": God is acting in you and through you, acting in the Son you are carrying in your womb and through him. As always, the Holy Spirit allows us to discover, in our lives and in the lives of others — of all others — the traces of God's work. Luke is certainly aware that Elizabeth's words, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," echo at least in part a phrase from the Old Testament found in the Book of Judith (Jdt 13:18-19): when Judith returns from the enemy camp, where she has beheaded the general Holofernes, she is welcomed into her camp by Ozias, who says to her: "You are blessed among all women, and blessed is the Lord God." Mary is thus compared to Judith. And the parallel between the two phrases suggests two things: the repetition of the expression blessed among all women suggests that Mary is the victorious woman who guarantees humanity's definitive victory over evil; as for the final part (for Judith: blessed is the Lord God, for Mary: blessed is the fruit of your womb), it announces that the fruit of Mary's womb is the Lord himself. Therefore, this account by Luke is not a simple anecdote, and we can compare the power of Elizabeth's words with Zachariah's silence.  Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth has the strength to speak; Zechariah remains silent because he had doubted the words of the angel announcing the birth of John the Baptist. John the Baptist also expresses his joy: Elizabeth says that he 'leaped for joy' as soon as he heard Mary's voice, and he too is filled with the Holy Spirit, as the angel had announced to Zechariah: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth... he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb." Elizabeth asks herself, "Why is this happening to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Here too there is a reference to an episode in the Old Testament: the arrival of the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:2-11). After establishing himself as king in Jerusalem and building a palace worthy of the king of Israel, David decides to bring the Ark of the Covenant to the new capital. But he is torn between fervour and fear. At first, there is a joyful stage: "David gathered all the elite of Israel, thirty thousand men. He set out with all the people... to bring up the ark of God, on which the Name, the Name of the Lord of hosts who sits on the cherubim, is invoked..." But an accident occurs: a man who touches the ark without authorisation dies instantly. Fear then takes hold of David, who exclaims: "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" The journey is interrupted: David prefers to leave the ark in the house of a certain Obed-Edom, where it remains for three months, bringing blessings upon that house. David reassures himself: "It was told to King David, 'The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God,'" and he brings the ark up to Jerusalem with great joy, dancing with all his might before the Lord. It is clear that Luke wanted to include many details in the story of the Visitation that recall this bringing up of the ark: the two journeys, that of the ark and that of Mary, take place in the same region, the mountains of Judea; the ark enters the house of Obed-Edom and brings blessings (2 Sam 6:12), Mary enters the house of Zechariah and Elizabeth and brings blessings; the ark remains with Obed-Edom for three months, Mary remains with Elizabeth for three months; David dances before the ark and John the Baptist leaps for joy before Mary. All this is not accidental. Luke invites us to contemplate in Mary the new Ark of the Covenant. And the ark was the place of God's Presence. Mary mysteriously carries this Presence of God within her: from now on, God dwells in our humanity. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." All this, thanks to Mary's faith: at Elizabeth's words, Mary sings the Magnificat.

NOTE ON THE MAGNIFICAT. In this page of Luke, we find many references to other biblical texts, and fragments of many psalms can be recognised in almost every sentence. This means that Mary did not invent the words of her prayer: to express her amazement at God's action, she simply takes up expressions already used by her ancestors in the faith. There is already a double lesson here: a lesson in humility, first of all. Faced with an exceptional situation, Mary simply uses the words of her people's prayer. Then there is a lesson in community spirit, we might say in synodal ecclesial spirit. None of the biblical quotations contained in the Magnificat have an individualistic character, but all concern the entire people. This is one of the great characteristics of biblical prayer, and therefore of Christian prayer: the believer never forgets that he belongs to a people and that every vocation, far from separating him, places him at the service of that people. As for the biblical roots of the Magnificat, it can be said that it is a re-reading of the entire history of salvation: God has done wonders throughout the ages and continues to act in the present.  A. In the past: He has looked upon the humility of his servant; He has done great things for Mary; He has shown the power of his arm; He has scattered the proud; He has brought down the mighty from their thrones; He has lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things; He has sent the rich away empty-handed; He has come to the aid of Israel, his servant. B. In the present: Mary can proclaim, "All generations will call me blessed," and this is still true today. The Lord shows mercy from generation to generation. God's mercy is an ever-present reality for those who fear him, that is, for those who open themselves to his greatness. The Magnificat therefore teaches us to contemplate God's work throughout history, in the life of the people and in our own lives. Finally, the Magnificat is at the heart of Luke's theology: God overturns the order of things: the powerful are brought low, the humble are lifted up; the rich are emptied, the poor are filled. This 'turning upside down' is already present in the prophets (especially in Isaiah and the First Book of Samuel), but Luke places it at the centre of his Gospel, which is full of parables and stories in which God gives preference to the least, the little ones, sinners and the poor. This prayer is therefore profoundly revolutionary: not in the sense of a violent revolution, but of a spiritual and social revolution that passes through mercy, justice, humility, and faith.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  [10 August 2025]

*First reading from the Book of Wisdom (18:6-9)

The first verse immediately introduces us to the atmosphere: the author indulges in a meditation on the "night of the Paschal liberation," the night of Israel's exodus from Egypt, led by Moses. Year after year, Israel celebrates the Passover meal to relive the mystery of God's liberation on that memorable night (Ex 12:42). Celebrating in order to relive: the verb "to celebrate" does not simply mean to commemorate, but "to remember," that is, to allow God to act again, which implies allowing oneself to be profoundly transformed. Even today, when the father of the family, during the Passover meal, introduces his son to the meaning of the feast, he does not say to him: "The Lord acted on behalf of our fathers," but "The Lord acted on my behalf when I came out of Egypt" (Ex 13:8). And the rabbis' comments confirm: "In every generation, each person must consider himself as if he had come out of Egypt." The celebration of the Easter night encompasses all the dimensions of the Covenant, both the thanksgiving for the liberation accomplished by God and the commitment to fidelity to the commandments. Liberation, the gift of the Law and the Covenant are a single event, as God communicated to Moses, and through him to the people, at the foot of Mount Sinai (Ex 19:4-6). In the few lines of the Book of Wisdom, we are presented with two dimensions: first of all, thanksgiving: "The night (of liberation) was foretold to our fathers so that they might be courageous, knowing well to what oaths they had given their allegiance" (v. 6). Here we speak of oaths, which are God's promises to his people: a lineage, a land, a happy life in that land (Gen 15:13-14; 46:3-4). "For your people were waiting for the salvation of the righteous, for the ruin of their enemies. For as you punished our adversaries, so you glorified us by calling us to yourself” (v. 7). This is the lesson: by choosing oppression and violence, the Egyptians brought about their own ruin. The oppressed people, on the other hand, received God’s protection. The second dimension of the celebration of the Easter night is personal and communal commitment: “ The holy children of the righteous offered sacrifices in secret and agreed to share both success and danger, singing the sacred praises of their fathers” (v. 9). The author draws a parallel between the practice of worship “offering sacrifices in secret” and the commitment to fraternal solidarity “agreeing to share success and danger” . The Law of Israel has always united the celebration of God's gifts and solidarity among the members of the people of the Covenant. Jesus will also establish the same link: "remembering him" means, in a single gesture, celebrating the Eucharist and placing oneself at the service of one's brothers and sisters, as he himself did on Holy Thursday evening by washing the feet of his disciples.

*Responsorial Psalm (32/33, 1.12, 18-19, 20.22)

 "Rejoice, O righteous, in the Lord; praise is fitting for the upright." From the very first verse, we know that we are in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the context of a liturgy of thanksgiving. Please note: 'righteous' and 'upright' do not indicate attitudes of pride or self-satisfaction, but the humble attitude of those who enter into God's plan because in the Bible, righteousness (for us it would be holiness) is not a moral quality but a gift. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he has chosen as his inheritance" (v. 12). The Covenant is God's plan, that is, the free choice by which he wanted to entrust his mystery to a people. It is therefore natural to give thanks for this gift. This is not arrogant pride, but legitimate pride, the awareness of the honour God has bestowed on them by choosing them for a mission, and it is our pride in being incorporated through baptism into his people on mission in the world. Trust comes from faith, and the following verse expresses this experience of faith in another way: The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those who hope in his love' (v. 18). This is a splendid definition of 'fear of God' in the biblical sense: not fear, but total trust. The juxtaposition of the two parts of the verse is interesting: 'those who fear him' and 'those who hope in his love'.  The fear of God is, in reality, trust in God's love, not servile fear, but a response of love, as Psalm 102/103 says: "As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." The only true way to respect God is to love him, as is clearly stated in Israel's profession of faith: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut 6:4). I return to the central verse: "The eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his love." God watched over Israel like a father during its journey through the desert. Without divine intervention, the Jews, freed from Egypt, would not have survived either the crossing of the Sea or the trials of the desert. At the burning bush, the Lord promised Moses that he would accompany his people to freedom, and he kept his promise. When we read "the Lord," we are always referring to the famous tetragrammaton YHWH, which Jews do not pronounce out of respect and which means, "I am, I will be with you, every moment of your life." Ultimately, it refers to the breath of human beings.  The psalmist continues: "To deliver him from death and feed him in time of famine" (v. 19), which recalls the Book of Deuteronomy, where it is said that the Lord watched over his people "as the apple of his eye". The psalm continues: "The Lord is our help and our shield. May your love be upon us, Lord, as we put our hope in you" (vv. 20, 22). This trust is not always easy, and Israel has wavered between trust and rebellion, constantly attracted by idols. This psalm is ultimately a call to firm faith. The author is well aware of his people's uncertainties. That is why he invites them to rediscover the certainty of faith, the only thing capable of generating lasting happiness. He composed this psalm of twenty-two verses, like the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, to indicate that the Law is a treasure that guides life from A to Z.

*Second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews (11:1-2, 8-19)

 'By faith': this expression recurs like a refrain in chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews, and the author even goes so far as to say that he does not have enough time to list all the believers of the Old Testament whose faith enabled God's plan to be fulfilled. The text proposed to us this Sunday focuses only on Abraham and Sarah, models of true faith. It all began for them with God's first call (Genesis 12): 'Leave your country, your homeland and your father's house, and go to the land I will show you'. And Abraham obeyed, the text tells us, in the most beautiful sense of the word: to obey in the Bible means free submission of those who accept to trust because they know that when God commands, it is for their good and for their liberation, knowing that God wants only our good, our happiness. Abraham set out for a country he was to inherit: to believe means to live everything we possess as a gift from God. He set out without knowing where he was going: if we knew where we were going, there would be no need to believe. Believing is trusting without understanding and without knowing everything; accepting that the path is not the one we planned or desired because it is God who decides it. Thy will be done, not mine, said Jesus much later, who in turn became obedient, as St. Paul says, even to death on the cross (Phil 2). "By faith Sarah, though past the age of childbearing (90 years old), was able to become a mother." It is true that at first she laughed at such an incredible announcement, but then she accepted it as a promise and trusted, listening to the Lord's response to her laughter: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" said God. "At the appointed time I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son" (Gen 18:14). And what was humanly impossible came to pass. Another woman, Mary, centuries later, heard the announcement of the birth of the promised son, and accepted it, believing that nothing is impossible for God (Lk 1). By faith, Abraham faced the incredible trial of offering Isaac as a sacrifice, but even there, although he did not understand, he knew that God's command was given out of love: it was the path of the promise, a dark but sure path. From a human point of view, the promise of a descendant and the request for the sacrifice of Isaac are in stark contradiction, but Abraham, the believer, precisely because he had received the promise of a descendant through Isaac, can go so far as to offer him in sacrifice because he believes that God cannot deny his promise. When Isaac asked, 'Father, I see the fire and the wood... but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?', Abraham replied with complete confidence, 'God will provide, my son'. The path of faith is dark, but it is sure. And he was not lying when he said to his servants along the way, 'Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will come back to you.' He did not know what lesson God wanted to teach him about the prohibition of human sacrifice, he did not know the outcome of the test, but he trusted. Centuries later, Jesus, the new Isaac, believed that he could rise from the dead, and he was heard, as the Letter to the Hebrews says. Here we have an extraordinary lesson in hope! It is faith that saves us, and the author of the Letter to the Hebrews comments that the plan of salvation is fulfilled thanks to those who believe and allow the promise to be fulfilled through them.

NOTE In Hebrew, the verb 'to believe' is aman (from which our 'amen' derives), a term that implies solidity, firmness; to believe means 'to hold fast', to have complete trust, even in doubt, discouragement or anguish.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (12:32-48)

 This text begins with a word of hope that should give us all the courage we need:

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." In other words: this Kingdom has certainly been given to you; believe it even if appearances seem to say otherwise.  But Jesus does not stop there: he immediately describes the demands that arise from this promise. For "to whom much is given, much will be required; to whom much is entrusted, much more will be asked." The only dominant thought in the heart of the believer is the fulfilment of God's promise, which frees us from all other concerns:

"Sell what you have and give it to the poor; make yourselves purses that do not grow old, a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Jesus explains what he expects of us with three short parables: the first is that of the servants waiting for their master's return; the second, shorter one, compares his return to the unexpected arrival of a thief; the third describes the arrival of the master and the judgment he pronounces on his servants. The key word is "service": God honours us by taking us into his service, by making us his collaborators. Later, Saint Peter, who understood Jesus' message well, would say to the Christians of Asia Minor: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some believe, but he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to be lost, but everyone to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). He even goes so far as to say: "You who are waiting, hasten the coming of the day of God" (2 Pet 3:12). It is our responsibility to "hasten" the coming of the Kingdom of God, as we say in the Our Father: "Thy Kingdom come!" It will come all the more quickly the more we believe and commit ourselves to it. Thus, all our efforts, even the most modest, in a mysterious way, are a collaboration in the coming of the Day of God: "Blessed is that servant whom the master, on his arrival, finds doing so. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions."  "Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he returns. Truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them." On closer inspection, this happens every Sunday at Mass: the Lord invites us to his table and he himself nourishes us, renewing us with the energy we need to continue our service.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  [3 August 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us. In the midst of the holiday season, the Word of God challenges us to give true meaning to life.

*First Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:2; 2:21-23)

 When reading the book of Qohelet (Qohelet means 'one who calls' or 'the teacher who speaks before the assembly'), also known as Ecclesiastes, one might think that the author is a philosopher; instead, he is a preacher and one of the most fascinating and uncomfortable personalities of biblical wisdom. It is true that his book is classified among the 'wisdom books', but the biblical books known as wisdom books are not philosophical essays in the manner of the pagans or agnostics. They are first and foremost books written by believers for believers; in a sense, they are catechisms. 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity': these are the first words of the book of Qohelet, and perhaps also what best sums it up. 'Vanity' literally translated would be 'breath of breath', something evanescent, and who can boast of holding a breath between their fingers? Another similar expression, very dear to the author, is 'running after the wind' (1:14). In other words, everything to which we devote our thoughts, dreams, energies, activities and time is ephemeral, temporary, fleeting. Everything, except one thing. What is it? The author keeps the mystery alive and only at the end of the book does he reveal that the only important thing in the world is the search for God. In the end, we understand that this is not a disillusioned philosophical meditation, but a vigorous preaching in a veiled form. In the meantime, he describes in a thousand ways the many human activities as futile efforts, a chasing after the wind to grasp a breath between one's fingers. To better argue his point, he has King Solomon himself speak as a man of desires and power, crowned with glory, but a glory that had no future. In fact, several phases mark his life: before becoming king, we know nothing about him except his thirst for power; as king, he was initially admirable for his wisdom and humility, but in the end he fell into idolatry and became a slave to his love of wealth. Qohelet has Solomon speak as if he were taking stock of his reign: a reign of power and wealth (Jesus will say of him: 'Solomon in all his glory'). He had wisdom and sought the great works that fascinate the powerful and wise of the time; all the pleasures of life, and in the end, the failure of his kingdom. With Rehoboam, his son, incapable of wise politics, the kingdom was divided, and worse still, idolatry regained the upper hand and in a few years Solomon's glory vanished. What we read today refers to him: "He who has worked with wisdom and knowledge will leave it to another who has not worked for it" (2:21). Rehoboam, his son and successor to the throne of Jerusalem, seriously lacked wisdom, and from there arose the schism that divided David's kingdom forever. In light of this experience, Qohelet affirms: "All is vanity." We read the same thing in Psalm 103: 'Man: his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field: a breath of wind, and he is no more' (15-16).  In Qohelet there is a true language of faith: God alone knows all mysteries, and every search for happiness outside of Him is vain because only He possesses the keys to true wisdom. Ultimately, even if we do not understand all the mysteries of existence, we know that everything is a gift from God. Those who trust in God will never be disappointed, and wisdom consists in abandoning oneself to God and observing His commandments is the only way to happiness: "Whoever keeps the commandment will know no evil." (Qo 8:5).  In the end, true wisdom is the humility of living life as a gift from God: "Every man who eats, drinks and enjoys well-being in all his labour: it is a gift from God. (Qo 3:13). 

*Responsorial Psalm 89/90 (3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17)

The psalm takes us to the context of a ceremony of supplication for forgiveness at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile: the prayer "Return, Lord, how long? Have mercy on your servants" (v. 13) is typical of a penitential liturgy.  This psalm is therefore a prayer asking for conversion: 'Teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart' (v. 12). Conversion consists in living according to God's wisdom in order to know the true measure of our days. It is no coincidence that this psalm is offered to us as an echo of the first reading, from the book of Qohelet, a meditation on true wisdom, while the psalm offers a splendid definition of wisdom as the true measure of our days, a healthy lucidity about our condition as human beings. Born without knowing why and destined to die without even being able to foresee when: this is our destiny, and this is the meaning of the first verses we have read: You turn man back to dust when you say, 'Return, O children of men!' (v.3), that is, return to the earth from which I have drawn you. This does not create sadness but serenity because our misery rests on the greatness and stability of God: 'A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night' (v. 4). God gives us security because He wants only our good. However, trouble arises when we lose clarity about our misery, as chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis clearly illustrate, recounting the error of Adam, a symbolic character whose behaviour is considered a model of what not to do. "Adam did this or that" does not describe a hypothetical first man, but a type of behaviour, and in this light, this psalm is in harmony with the first reading, where Qohelet has Solomon, the wise king, speak at the beginning, but then seduced by luxury, power, and women who made him an idolater. In the second part of his reign, he behaved like Adam, who turned away from God's wisdom. This psalm invites us to rediscover the wisdom and humility of the young Solomon, because true wisdom is the awareness of man's smallness, which is never humiliating: a trusting, filial smallness. The conclusion is splendid: 'establish the work of our hands' (v. 17), which shows the cooperation between God and man: man works, God gives solidity and meaning to human work.

*Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Colossians (3:1-5, 9-11)

Paul first makes a distinction between "things above" and "things on earth", two different ways of living: behaviours inspired by the Holy Spirit and those that are not. "Things above" are kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forgiveness, living according to the Spirit, and this is the behaviour of the baptised. "Things on earth" are debauchery, impurity, unbridled passion, greed, covetousness, behaviour not inspired by the Spirit. Paul establishes the link between baptism and the way of life: "if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (v. 1). He says "you have been raised," but then he says "you have died" (v. 2), and the words do not have the same meaning for him as they do for us. For Paul, from the resurrection of Christ onwards, nothing is as it was before. To be risen means precisely to be dead to the world and born to a life according to the Spirit, what he calls the realities above. The Christian is a "transformed person who lives in the manner of Christ," and Paul calls him "the new man." He does not despise "the things of the earth"; on the contrary, he will say shortly afterwards: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him" (3:17). It is not, therefore, a question of living a different life from the ordinary one, but of living it differently: not rejecting this world, but living it already as a seed of the Kingdom, where all men are brothers, as he explains in his letter to the Galatians (3:26-28) and repeats at the end of this Sunday's passage from the letter to the Colossians: "There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all." The community of Colossae probably had the same problems as the Galatians and, in particular, the great question that agitated the early Christian communities, namely whether non-Jews who became Christians should take on Jewish practices: dietary rules, ritual ablutions, and above all circumcision. There were circumcised Christians and uncircumcised Christians, and some Jews insisted on circumcision. The answer to the Galatians and Colossians was the same: baptism makes everyone brothers and sisters, and all forms of exclusion are outdated; what matters is being a disciple of Christ. 

NOTE. Some exegetes believe that this letter attributed to Paul was not actually written by him; Paul, in fact, never visited Colossae: it was Epaphras, one of his disciples, who founded that community. According to a very common practice in the first century (called pseudepigraphy), it is hypothesised (but this is only a hypothesis) that a disciple very close to Paul's thinking addressed the Colossians under the authority of the apostle's name because the moment was serious. If this hypothesis is correct, it is not surprising to find in this writing phrases taken literally from Paul and others that show how theological reflection continued to develop in Christian communities. Jesus had said, 'The Spirit will guide you to the whole truth.' And in previous Sundays, we have already seen theological developments that are not yet found in Paul's own writings.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (12:13-21)

Jesus' response seems abrupt: "Who made me your judge or mediator?" However, as a good teacher, Jesus takes the opportunity to draw a lesson that he explains well with this parable. A man who has become rich through business is thinking about how best to enjoy his wealth; he thinks about demolishing his warehouses and building bigger ones to store all his grain and goods, and then he says to himself: 'My soul, you have many goods stored up for many years; rest, eat, drink and be merry' (v. 19). Unfortunately, he has forgotten that his life does not depend on him, and in fact he dies that very night. He thinks he is rich, but true wealth is not what he imagines. To better understand Jesus' teaching, we need to remember what he said earlier: "Be careful and keep away from all greed, because even if someone has an abundance, his life does not depend on what he has" (v. 13) and, even though it is not in this Sunday's liturgical reading, he concludes: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing' (Lk 12:22-23). Jesus' teaching is not new; it takes up themes already familiar in the Old Testament. Ben Sira said that those who become rich do not know how long they have to live, then they will leave their possessions to others and die (cf. Sir 11:18-19); and in this Sunday's first reading, Qohelet offered similar reflections: "What profit does a man gain from all his toil and from the cares of his heart, with which he toils under the sun?" (Qo 2:22), returning several times to the same theme (cf. Qo 5:9...15). The prophet Isaiah is very incisive in accusing the people of Jerusalem of being dazed by pleasures instead of listening to God's call to conversion (cf. Is 22:13), and the book of Job repeats: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there" (Job 1:21), a phrase still recited today in Israel at every funeral. All these phrases sound like reminders of the reality of life. Jesus denounces senseless behaviour: "Fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" (v. 20) and the parable ends: "So is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich in God." This implies two things: Never forget that riches come from God and belong to him because he entrusts them to us to put them at the service of the Kingdom of God. Life is short, but precisely for this reason, let us hurry to put it to good use! Jesus responds sharply to the man asking for his inheritance: that man has his priorities wrong because the most precious inheritance is the faith we have received from our fathers. And every time Jesus responds sharply (to his mother at Cana (Jn 2:4) and to Peter in Caesarea (Mt 16:23), it is because his mission is at stake.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C) [27 July 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us! This time I have taken a little longer to present some important details of the readings in the NOTES, which are useful for personal meditation and for lectio divina during this holiday period.

*First Reading from the Book of Genesis (18:20-32)

This text marks a step forward in the idea that men have of their relationship with God: it is the first time that one dares to imagine that a man can intervene in God's plans. Unfortunately, the liturgical reading does not allow us to hear the previous verses in which we read that immediately after the encounter at the Oaks of Mamre, Abraham takes his leave, accompanying the three mysterious men to contemplate Sodom from above. The Lord, speaking to himself, says: 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, when Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?' (vv. 17-19). God takes the covenant he has just made very seriously, and it is here that what we might call 'the most beautiful negotiation in history' begins: Abraham, armed with all his courage, intercedes to try to save Sodom and Gomorrah from a punishment they certainly deserve. In essence, he asks if God really wants to destroy these cities even if he finds at least fifty righteous people, or only forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. What audacity! Yet, apparently, God accepts that man should act as his interlocutor: at no point does the Lord seem impatient and, indeed, he responds each time exactly as Abraham hoped. Perhaps God appreciates that Abraham has such a high opinion of his justice. In this regard, it can be noted that this text was written at a time when people were beginning to become aware of individual responsibility: in fact, Abraham would be scandalised by the idea that the righteous could be punished together with sinners and for their sins. We are far from the time when an entire family was eliminated for the sins of one. The great discovery of individual responsibility dates back to the prophet Ezekiel and the period of the Babylonian exile, i.e. the 6th century BC. We can therefore formulate a hypothesis about the composition of the chapter read today and last Sunday: it is a text written at a rather late date, although it derives from perhaps much older stories, whose oral or written form was not yet definitive. God loves it when people intercede for their brothers and sisters, as we can see with Moses: when the people made a 'golden calf' to worship immediately after swearing never to follow idols again. Moses intervened to beg God to forgive them, and God, who was waiting for nothing else, hastened to forgive them (Ex 32). Moses interceded for the people for whom he was responsible; Abraham, on the other hand, intercedes for pagans, and this is logical, after all, since he is the bearer of a blessing for all the families of the earth. This text is a great step forward in discovering the face of God, but it is only a stage, still within a logic of accounting: how many righteous people will it take to obtain forgiveness for sinners? The final theological step will be to discover that with God it is never a matter of payment. His justice has nothing to do with a scale, whose two pans must be perfectly balanced, and this is what St. Paul will try to make us understand in this Sunday's passage from the Letter to the Colossians. This text from Genesis is also a beautiful lesson on prayer, which is offered to us on the day when Luke's Gospel recounts Jesus' teaching on prayer, beginning with the Our Father, the plural prayer par excellence, which invites us to open our hearts to the whole of humanity. 

NOTE: Development of the notion of God's justice in the Bible: In the beginning, it was considered normal for the whole group to pay for the fault of one: see the case of Achan in the time of Joshua (Joshua 7:16-25). In a second phase, it is imagined that each person pays for himself. Here, there is a new step forward: if ten righteous people are found, they can save an entire city. Jeremiah dares to go further: a single righteous person can obtain forgiveness for all: 'Go through the streets of Jerusalem, search for one man who acts justly... I will forgive the city' (Jer 5:1). Ezekiel also reasons in these terms: 'I sought for a man among them who would stand in the breach before me... but I found none' (Ezek 22:30). It is with the book of Job, among others, that the final step is taken: when it is finally understood that God's justice is synonymous with salvation, not punishment. Jeremiah even goes so far as to invoke unconditional forgiveness, based solely on God's greatness: "If our sins testify against us, act, Lord, for the honour of your name!" (Jer 14:7-9). Before God, just like Jeremiah, Abraham understood that sinners have no other argument than God himself! Finally, note Abraham's optimism, which fully earns him the title of "father of faith": he continues to believe that all is not lost, that not all are lost. Even in a city as horrible as Sodom, he is convinced that there are at least ten good men!

Responsorial Psalm (137/138), 1-2a, 2bc-3, 6-7ab, 7c-8)

This psalm is a song of thanksgiving for the Covenant that God offers to humanity: the Covenant made first with Israel, but also the Covenant open to all nations, and Israel's vocation is precisely to bring other nations into it. Three times 

: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart', 'I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness', and – in verse 4, which we do not hear this Sunday – 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you'. Here we see a progression: first, it is Israel speaking on its own behalf: "I give you thanks, Lord, with all my heart"; then the reason is specified: "I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness"; finally, it is the whole of humanity that enters into the Covenant and gives thanks: "May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you". 

Since we are talking about the Covenant, it is normal that there are allusions to the experience of Sinai and echoes of the great discovery of the burning bush when God told Moses that he had seen the misery of his people and had come down to free them (Ex 2:23-24). Echoing this, the psalm sings: "On the day I called, you answered me" (v. 3). Another reference to God's revelation at Sinai is the expression "your love and faithfulness" (v. 2): these are the same words with which God defined himself before Moses (Ex 34:6). The phrase "Your right hand saves me" (v. 7) is, for Jews, an allusion to the exodus from Egypt. The "right hand" is, of course, the right hand, and since Moses' song after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15), it has become customary to speak of the victory that God obtained with a strong hand and a powerful arm (Ex 15:6, 12). The expression "Lord, your love is forever" (v. 8) also evokes all of God's work, particularly the Exodus, as in Psalm 135/136, whose refrain is: "For his love is forever." Another link between this psalm and Moses' song is the connection between the entire epic of the Exodus, the Covenant at Sinai, and the Temple in Jerusalem. Moses sang:

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him" (Ex 15:1-2, 13), and the psalm echoes:

"Not to the gods, but to you I will sing, I bow down toward your holy temple" (vv. 1-2) because the

Temple is the place where all God's work on behalf of his people is remembered. However, God's presence is not limited to a stone temple, but that temple, or what remains of it, is a permanent sign of that presence. And even today, wherever they are in the world, every Jew prays facing Jerusalem, towards the holy temple mountain, because it is the place chosen by God, in the time of King David, to offer his people a sign of his presence. Finally, God's greatness does not crush man, at least not those who recognise their own smallness: "The Lord is exalted, but he looks upon the humble; he recognises the proud from afar" (v. 6). This too is a great biblical theme: his greatness is manifested precisely in his goodness towards the smallness of man (cf. Wis 12:18) and Psalm 113/112: "He raises the weak from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap" and in the Magnificat: "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the humble". The believer knows this and is amazed: God is great, he does not crush us, but on the contrary, he makes us grow.

These parallels, that is, the influence of Moses' song, the experience of Sinai from the burning bush to the exodus from Egypt and the Covenant, are found in many other psalms and biblical texts.

This shows how much this experience was – and remains – the foundation of Israel's faith.

Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians (2:12-14)

God has cancelled the document written against us (Col 2:14). Paul here refers to a widespread practice when money was borrowed: it was customary for the debtor to give the creditor a 'debt acknowledgement document'. Jesus also used this image in the parable of the dishonest steward. On the day his master threatens to fire him, he thinks of making friends for himself; to this end, he summons his master's debtors and says to each one, 'Here is your debt document; change the amount. Did you owe a hundred sacks of wheat? Write eighty' (Lk 16:7). As he often does, Paul uses the language of everyday life to express a theological thought. His reasoning is this: because of the seriousness of our sins, we can consider ourselves debtors to God. Moreover, in Judaism, sins were often called "debts"; and a Jewish prayer from the time of Jesus said: "In your great mercy, cancel all the documents that accuse us." Well, anyone who looks up at the cross of Christ discovers the extent of God's mercy for his children: with Him, it is not a matter of keeping accounts: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' is the prayer of the Son; but it is He himself who said, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father'. The body of Christ nailed to the cross shows that God is like this: He forgets all our wrongs, all our faults towards Him. His forgiveness is displayed before our eyes: "They will look on him whom they have pierced," said the prophet Zechariah (Zech 12:10; Jn 19:37). It is as if the document of our debt had been nailed to the cross of Christ. However, we are still surprised because this whole passage is written in the past tense: "buried with Christ in baptism, you have also been raised with him... with him God has given you life... forgiving us all our sins and cancelling the document written against us... he took it away by nailing it to the cross". 

NOTE Paul wants to affirm that the salvation of the world is already accomplished: this 'already-realised' salvation is one of the great themes of the Letter to the Colossians. The Christian community is already saved through baptism; it already participates in the heavenly reality. Here too we see an evolution with respect to some of Paul's earlier letters, such as 'We have been saved, but in hope' (Rom 8:24); "If we have been united with him in death, we will also be united with him in resurrection" (Rom 6:5). While the Letter to the Romans places the resurrection in the future, the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians speak in the past tense, both of burial with Christ and of resurrection as an already present reality. “When we were dead in our sins, he made us alive with Christ – by grace you are saved –; with him he raised us up and seated us in the heavens in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:5-6). “You were buried with Christ, with him you were also raised... You were dead... but God gave you life with Christ.” For Paul, baptism is like a second birth, and his insistence that salvation has already taken place through birth into a totally new life is probably also linked to the historical context: behind many expressions in the Letter, we can glimpse a climate of tension and conflict. The community in Colossae seems to be under dangerous influences, against which Paul wants to warn them: "Let no one deceive you with seductive words" (Col 2:4)... "Let no one trap you with empty and deceptive philosophy" (Col 2:8)... "Let no one judge you in matters of food and drink, or in regard to festivals or sabbaths" (Col 2:16). Thus, a recurring problem reappears in the background: how does one enter into salvation? Must one continue to strictly observe all Jewish law? Paul answers: through faith. This theme is present in many letters, and we find it clearly here as well (v. 12): buried in baptism with Christ... raised... through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. The Letter to the Ephesians repeats it even more clearly: 'It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not the result of works, so that no one can boast.' (Eph 2:8-9) Life with Christ in the glory of the Father is not only a future hope, but a present experience of believers: an experience of new life, of divine life. From now on, if we want, Christ lives in us; and we are enabled to live the divine life of the risen Christ in our daily lives! This means that none of our old ways of acting is any longer an inevitable condemnation. Love, peace, justice, and sharing are possible. And if we do not believe this is possible, then we are saying that Christ has not saved us! Be careful! Until now, we have always spoken of the Letter to the Colossians as if Paul were the author; in reality, many exegetes believe that it was written by a disciple very close to Paul, inspired by his thought, but from a later generation. 

From the Gospel according to Luke (11:1-13)

It may come as a surprise, but Jesus did not invent the words of the Lord's Prayer: they come directly from Jewish liturgy and, more profoundly, from the Scriptures. Starting with the vocabulary, which is very biblical: Father, name, holy, kingdom, bread, sins, temptations... Let us begin with the first two questions: with great pedagogical skill, they are addressed first of all to God and teach us to say 'your name', 'your kingdom'. They educate our desire and commit us to collaborate in the growth of his kingdom. The Our Father, probably taught by Jesus in Aramaic, 'Abun d'bashmaya... nethqadash shimukin', which recalls liturgical Hebrew, is a school of prayer, or if you prefer, a method for learning to pray: let us not forget the disciple's request that immediately precedes it: 'Lord, teach us to pray' (v. 1). Well, if we follow Jesus' method, thanks to the Lord's Prayer, we will end up knowing how to speak the language of God, whose first word is Father. The invocation 'Our Father' immediately places us in a filial relationship with God and was already present in the Old Testament: 'You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting'. (Is 63:16). The first two questions concern the name and the kingdom. "Hallowed be thy name": in the Bible, the name represents the person himself; to say that God is holy (kadosh / shmokh in Aramaic - separate) is to affirm that He is "beyond everything, and this request means: "Make yourself known as God". "Thy kingdom come": repeated every day, this question will transform us into workers in the Kingdom. God's will, as we know, is that humanity, gathered in his love, should become queen of creation: 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:27), and believers await the day when God will be recognised as king over all the earth, as the prophet Zechariah announced: 'The Lord will be king over all the earth' (Zech 14:9). Our prayer, our method of learning the language of God, will make us people who desire above all else that God be recognised, adored and loved, that everyone recognise him as Father, passionate about evangelisation and the Kingdom of God. The next three questions concern daily life: "Give us", "Forgive us", "Do not abandon us to temptation". God never ceases to do all this, and we place ourselves in an attitude of acceptance of his gifts. "Give us this day our daily bread" (τὸν ἐπιούσιον): the manna that fell every morning in the desert taught the people to trust day by day, and this request invites us not to worry about tomorrow and to receive food each day as a gift from God: here bread has various meanings, including the Eucharistic bread, as I will explain in the Note, and the plural "our bread" invites us to share the Father's concern to feed all his children. "Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who is indebted to us": God's forgiveness is not conditioned by our behaviour, and fraternal forgiveness does not buy God's forgiveness, but is the only way to enter into the divine forgiveness that is already given: those who have a closed heart cannot receive God's gifts. "Do not abandon us to temptation." Here there is a translation problem, because – once again – Hebrew grammar is different from ours: the verb used in the Hebrew prayer means "do not let us enter into temptation." This refers to every temptation, of course, but above all to the most serious one, the temptation to doubt God's love. The whole of life is involved in the Lord's Prayer: speaking the language of God means knowing how to ask, and asking is not only permitted but recommended because it is an exercise in humility and trust. Nor are these just any requests: bread, forgiveness, strength against temptation. All the requests are in the plural, and each of us makes them on behalf of the whole of humanity. Ultimately, there is a close connection between the first petitions of the Lord's Prayer and the subsequent ones: we ask God for what we need to fulfil our baptismal mission: Give us all we need – bread and love – and protect us, so that we may have the strength to proclaim your Kingdom. The Gospel immediately follows with the parable of the importunate friend who invites us never to stop praying, certain that the heavenly Father always gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (v. 13), so that even if our problems are not solved with a wave of a magic wand, we will no longer experience them alone but together with Him.

NOTE 

1 – Regarding 'bread' in verse 3: the same adjective is found in a prayer in the Book of Proverbs: 'Give me neither poverty nor riches; give me only my daily bread' (Pr 30:8).  

2 The term bread τὸν ἐπιούσιον, a very rare adjective, is a hapax legomenon, i.e. it appears only here (and in Mt 6:11), and is not found elsewhere in classical Greek literature or in the LXX (Septuagint). There are many interpretations, but ἐπιούσιος remains enigmatic and carries with it a wealth of meanings: the material bread necessary for daily life; spiritual bread, that is, the Word of God and the Eucharist, the sign of daily trust in the Providence of the Father. Some exegetes read it as 'bread for the day that is coming', thus a confident invocation for the immediate future. 

3. Jesus takes the Our Father directly from the Jewish liturgy, and here are some Jewish prayers that are at its origin: 'Our Father who art in heaven' (Mishnah Yoma, common invocation); 'May your name be sanctified in the world you have created according to your will' (Qaddish, Qedushah and Shemoné Esré); May your kingdom come quickly and be recognised throughout the world... May your will be done in heaven and on earth... Give us our daily bread...

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us... Lead us not into temptation... Yours is the greatness, the power, the glory... (1 Chr 29:11)

4. The final doxology of the Lord's Prayer: Many Christian groups, well before the Second Vatican Council, recited at the end of the Lord's Prayer: Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power and glory forever. This "doxology" (word of praise) is found in some manuscripts of Matthew, and is probably derived from a very ancient liturgical use, already in the first century, but dating back even further, to David's prayer (cf. Chronicles 29:11).

5. On the importance of prayers of petition, I echo an interesting image proposed by Duns Scotus: imagine a boat on the sea; on the shore there is a rock, on which there is a ring, and another ring on the boat, tied together with a rope The man who prays is like someone in the boat pulling on the rope: he does not pull the rock towards himself, but brings himself – and the boat – closer to the rock.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole