Tuesday 31 December 2013

LET US LIVE AS CHILDREN OF GOD, BRINGING PEACE AMONG PEOPEL

NEW YEAR: 1ST OF JANUARY: Gal 4:4-7
The Catholic Church starts the New Year with Mary, the mother of the Lord, so that we may learn from her to live in faith and to accept God’s will and God’s plans for us.
In the company of Mary, we learn to be children, having Jesus as our elder brother. Mary, being full of the Holy Spirit, who enabled her to be fully committed to be a servant of the Lord, will help us to be formed in the image of Christ and to be one with him, thus becoming with him children of God.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul reminds us that God carried out his plan of salvation, at “the appointed time”, by sending his Son, who was “born of a woman”, in order to “enable us to be adopted us sons”.
As we begin a new year, let us rejoice and give thanks for this great gift of love: “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father” (Gal 4:4-7). We are not slaves, but children, and with Christ we are heirs of God’s Kingdom.
We end the year of 2013 with the reality of war in several parts of the world. There is civil war in Syria, causing endless destruction and countless refugees; and there is civil war in South Sudan, the newest country and one of the poorest in the world. Governments do not have money for schools, hospitals or even enough food for the population, but they have plenty of money for weapons that bring death, transforming their countries into cemeteries.
In the Catholic Church, the first day of the year is a day of prayer for peace. Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). If we are indeed children of God, then we must work for peace and establish peace in our society. Then, people will not live anymore in fear, and all will live as free children of God.

May God fill you with blessings and grace in the New Year of 2014.

Friday 27 December 2013

JESUS, A REFUGEE IN FOREIGN LAND

29 DECEMBER: THE HOLY FAMILY
Although celebrating the Holy Family, this Sunday's gospel moves around the figure of Joseph and his role as guardian of the family.
Joseph put his live at the service of Jesus
He was a man of silence. No words of him are reported. He is always in the background, except when some difficult action has to be taken; then he comes in the forefront, doing whatever expected of him. He was a faithful servant, always ready to suffer inconvenience for the ones he loved. Mary and her needs took precedence over his own interests. And his life was totally at the service of Jesus. In fact, it is Jesus alone who gave meaning to his life, because according to the wisdom of the world is life was simply a wasted life.
They became refugees in Egypt
When we speak of the Holy Family, we main think of a family without problems, where everything was perfect and where all needs were satisfied. The Gospel of Matthew presents a very different picture. In order to protect his wife and and the baby Jesus, they had to run away to Egypt, in a hurry, in the middle of the night, because the tyrant Herod, afraid of is own shadow, was ready to kill the child as he had killed his own sons, afraid of loosing his grip on power.
Jesus' family went through the experience of thousands, in fact millions, of families who become refugees, running away from war, tyranny, oppression and starvation. Egypt, although being equated with the land of oppression, was in fact many times a land of refuge, where many people would find protection and abode.
The plight of the refugees
As we remember Jesus as a refugee in a foreign land, waiting for the best opportunity to god back to his homeland, we must remember the thousands of refugees who are running away from their own homes in order to escape the killings of war. In Syria, South Sudan and many other places...there are millions, suffering from the fight for power and the control of the wealth which should be shared by all. It is as the proverb says: When two elephants fight, the grass suffers.
Jesus went through the experience of his people
Jesus was a refugee in Egypt, as the people of Israel had been in ages past. As the Messiah, who comes to establish a new Covenant and liberate God’s people, Jesus goes through the experience of the people of Israel, that is through the human experience of suffering and rejection in order to transform it into a source of salvation.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

THE MYSTERY OF INCARNATION

25 DECEMBER: CHRISTMAS: Jn 1:1-5,9-14
Crib at Limbwata, Chililabombwe, Zambia
The mystery of Jesus Christ
Chapter 1 of the Gospel of John expresses well the mystery of Incarnation, which is the mystery of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God who chose to share with us our humanity to enable us to share his divinity. This is the mystery that we celebrate at Christmas.
Our deepest desire is to become gods
Since the beginning, starting with Adam and Eve, human beings always strived to become gods. And so deep a desire is much more than an impossible dream; it is part of what we are, carrying in us the image of God. However, in the pursuit of this goal, we have gone astray, by trying to be gods outside God and against God. That is the great sin, called original sin, because it is the source of all other sins. Being created, how can we ever reach perfection on our own? Being given life, how can we become the owners of life? In spite of that, each one of us, being Adam and Eve, behaves in the same way, claiming the right to life and to lordship over all. By doing that, we abandon the right path, moving further and further away from the fulfilment of our deepest desire, transforming it more and more into an impossible dream. How can we become gods by rejecting the image of the living God in us?
The Word became flesh
The Son of God - the Word or the Speaking out of God - "became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (Jn 1:14). By doing that, he restores humanity to itself, becoming again a true image of God. Being one with Jesus Christ, we become gods; not any more false gods set up on the emptiness of our own selves, but true gods, being one  with God in Jesus Christ.
"To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12-13).
By sheer grace
On this great mystery, St Augustine wrote: 
"For what greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become son of God?

Ask if this were merited; ask for its reason, for its justification, and see whether you will find any other answer but sheer grace."

Friday 20 December 2013

JOSEPH, A MAN OF HONOUR

IV SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Mt 1:18-24
The Gospel is about Jesus Christ
Paul initiates his letter to the Romans by presenting himself as an apostle called and sent by God to proclaim the good news (the Gospel). And he makes it clear that he was commissioned to announce the news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God who took human nature, being as such a descendant of David (Ro 1:1-3).
This is the great mystery that we celebrate at Christmas, which we call the mystery of Incarnation, which means that the Son of God came to live among us in a body like ours. Remaining the Son of God, he decided to hide his glory and assume human nature to be truly “God-with-us".
Joseph’s role in the incarnation
This Sunday's gospel deals with the role of Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth, engaged to Mary, in this mystery of Incarnation.
Some people would like to know much more about Joseph and even complain that we don't give him enough consideration in the Church. In fact, we can find very little in the Gospels about Joseph, but the Gospels were not written to satisfy our curiosity; they are proclamations of Jesus as the Son of God, Christ and Saviour. Similarly, we are told also very little about Mary, because we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not the gospel of Joseph or Mary. However, if we read attentively, we can find in the little that is written plenty to help us to be true disciples of Jesus Christ.
Joseph was confronted with the mystery of Incarnation. It is as if he is forced in by the circumstances; but we should not forget that circumstances are part of God's plan. He was engaged to Mary, when he discovered that Mary was pregnant. Faced with that, he could not understand even less accept the situation; puzzled, he looked for a way out. 
Even though unable to understand, Joseph cared about Mary’s dignity
In his Gospel, Matthew speaks of two attitudes that define Joseph's character: he was "a man of honour" (or a "righteous man"), and he wanted "to spare her publicity" (or he was unwilling "to put her to shame"). Being a man of honour, he could not accept Mary, when her pregnancy was not his; but he loved and respected her too much, and could not find the courage to denounce her and bring shame upon her. So he decided to abandon her, knowing that his decision would bring reproach and derision upon him, because everybody would point fingers at him and accuse him of being irresponsible. Instead of bringing shame upon Mary, he preferred to be shamed himself by the gossip of the people.
Joseph acted in good conscience and with a pure heart; and God intervened, because he straightens the path of the righteous and comforts the heart of the troubled. God revealed to Joseph the mystery of Mary's pregnancy: "the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit"(Mt 1:20), and orders him to play his role as protector of Mary and of the  child to be born. And Joseph did it, silently and in the background. In the end, Jesus' words apply to him: "‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!" (Lk 17:10).

Friday 13 December 2013

JOHN’S QUESTION: IS JESUS THE PROMISED ONE?

III SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Mt 11:2-11
John the Baptist is more than a prophet
After a long time of silence, without a prophetic voice to guide the people in the ways of the Lord, John the Baptist came. He came as a prophet, bold and courageous like all the prophets of old, powerful in words and deeds. However, Jesus would tell the crowd that John was "much more than a prophet", because he was the messenger sent to prepare the way of the Messiah, in such a way that "among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist" (Mt 11:9-11).
John was great by his role as the forerunner of the Messiah, and he was great by his faithfulness up to the end. He remained always true to himself, because he was steadfastly loyal to his call and his mission. In the wilderness, he became a free man, who could not be tossed around like a reed shaken by the wind. He had put himself totally at the service of the Lord, and nothing else could influence him or turn him away from his duty.
John’s question to Jesus
Being presented as more than a prophet, we may think of him as superman, but he was not so. In prison, waiting for execution, he experienced what most saints experience, the dark night of the soul, where hope and faith seem to be fallacies. Then, only love goes on giving a reason to trust; and John sent his disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (Mt 11:3).
John's question has been the question of so many, which goes on being repeated: Are you the one, or should we look for someone else? When we pass through moments of darkness in our lives, this same question invades our hearts: Are we not mistaken? Have we pursued but a dream? It seems as if we have lost Him or as if He is hiding from us. And we cannot rest until we find him again. And like John, we must ask others to help us find Him who gives rest and life to our souls (Song of songs, 5:8).
Jesus came with mercy and love
The answer of Jesus was reassuring: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me" (Mt 11:4-6).
Jesus came to bring forth God's merciful love that give life and salvation.  In him, God's promise made by Isaiah comes true: 
"Be strong, do not fear!
Here is your God.
He will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy" (Is 35:4-6).

Thursday 5 December 2013

A TIME OF RECONCILIATION, JUSTICE AND PEACE

II SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Isaiah 11:1-10
Paul wrote to the Romans that "whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." (Ro 15:4)
God's word is always a light in our path, filling our hearts with hope and guiding our feet in the ways of love, justice and peace.
The Scriptures are the bearers of a promise of life, liberation and salvation. As we read through its pages, our hearts are illumined and warmed by God's fire of love, bringing a certainty of life and salvation. In a world in despair, walking through darkness, the Scriptures set out a torch of hope, showing God walking along with us and carrying us through the darkness and sufferings of this world to the light and rest of his kingdom.
Isaiah presents in a poetic form God's promise, which is fruit of his plan of salvation:
"The wolf lives with the lamb, 
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them." (Is 11:6).
There will be reconciliation and peace, harmony and communion. Jealousy, envy and hatred will not dominate the hearts of people anymore. There will be no more injustice, oppression and destruction. God's kingdom will be established and God's glory will shine all over the universe.
At the same time, the word of God is like a sword or, as Isaiah puts it, God "shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth" (Is 11:4).  And we see that very clearly in the boldness and the courage with which John the Baptist challenged both the religious and political leaders of his time?
The word of God denounces our evil plans and evil actions and challenges us to reform and convert. If we refuse to listen and to mend our ways, then the word of God will stand against us in judgement.
We may never take God for granted. He is a merciful God, but his mercy goes hand in hand with with his justice:
"Righteousness shall be 
the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness 
the belt of his loins." (Is 11:5). 
We must realize that we can never bribe God:
"He shall not judge 
by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes 
by what his ears hear,
but with righteousness 
he shall judge the poor, 
and decide with equity 
for the meek of the earth" (Is 11:3-4)

The only way to reach to God's heart is by being merciful and by a daily efort to live in love. When we live by love, we are manifesting God's glory here on earth.

Thursday 28 November 2013

THE LORD IS COMING, BRINGING PEACE AND SALVATION

I SUNDAY OF ADVENT:Isaiah 2:1-5; Mt 24:37-44

The liturgical season of Advent, which we start this Sunday, is a time filled with hope, enlightening and warming our hearts in the cold of our anxieties and distresses.
Looking forward to the arrival (advent) of the Prince of Peace and Lord of Life, we are called to prepare ourselves in earnest so that we may give him a great welcome.
Remembering the historical event of Jesus' birth, we celebrate his coming into our lives today, while preparing ourselves for the time when God's promises will be fulfilled and our salvation will be complete.
The words of the prophet Isaiah still resound in today's world. They come to us like a dream in the night, which fills us with joy and hope. But it is not a dream. Isaiah announces a time of reconciliation and peace; and this peace is a promise and a project, being offered to us as God's gift and demanding from us commitment and the readiness to make difficult choices, changing our ways and our relation with creation and with each other.

"He will wield authority over the nations
and adjudicate between many peoples;
these will hammer their swords into ploughshares,
their spears into sickles.
Nation will not lift sword against nation,
there will be no more training for war.
O House of Jacob, come,
let us walk in the light of the Lord." (Is 2:1-5)

During the Advent, we must be ready to have our homes, our lives and our hearts wide open for Jesus Christ to come in, and this is very much stressed in the Gospel: "the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect." (Mt 24:44) We have to be on the look out, so that we are not caught unaware and unprepared.

We must cultivate an attitude of alertness, restraining ourselves from all self-indulgence which gives a short-lived respite from all the pain that oppresses our lives, and committing ourselves to listen to God's word and do his will.

Thursday 21 November 2013

CHRIST, THE KING OF KINGS

XXXIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME:
A profession of faith
We end the Year of the Faith with the celebration of Jesus Christ the King. With Thomas, after overcoming his doubt, we confess our faith: “My Lord and my God” (Jn 20:28).
Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. In his plan of salvation, God has decided to subject everything to Christ’s rule, so that finally he can surrender everything to the Father, making it possible for God to be “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28).
Speaking of Jesus’ kingship we use human words, which may lead us to false conceptions about his kingship. The people of Israel expected a Messiah king in the manner of all other earthly kings, only much more powerful. However, in his life and in his death on the cross, he made it clear that he had no come for that. When people looked for him to be king in order to solve their problems, Jesus went ino hiding (Jn 6:15). Finally, he was proclaimed king on the cross, which sounds like a joke.
A mission of service
The kingship of David was always looked upon as a prophecy of the Messiah and this Sunday’s first reading presents two essential aspects of his kingship. First, he was chosen by God, who called him and ordered him to be at the service of the people. The political power entrusted to him is part of a mission of service. There are many who get political power for the sake of power, using and abusing their power and transforming everybody else into tools that must satisfy their hunger for glory and dominion. Nobody can stand up to them, because everybody else must be subservients to them.
A pact with the people
The text of the first reading makes it also ver clear that David was chosen by the people and that his kingship was based on a pact made between the elders of the people and himself. And he was anointed as king only after that.
The pact with the people is an essential aspect of political power. When that pact is broken, the ones exercising it loose their legitimacy.
Jesus is proclaimed king on th cross
This passage on the enthronement of David as king is used to understand the kingship of Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. 
From the Father, Jesus received a mission of service and he made that very clear in the Last Supper, teaching his disciples to serve, even by doing what was considered humiliating work, like washing the feet of the others. Jesus is king by his service and love, not by dominion and oppression.
Jesus is proclaimed king on the Cross, because it is on the cross that he showed is faithfulness and his love, and it is on the cross that he establishes a new covenant, by which a new people of God is created.

We are called to share in Christ’s kingship, but for that we must walk on his footsteps, sharing his cross.

Friday 15 November 2013

NO WORK, NO FOOD

XXXIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME:2 Thessalonians 3:7-12
Excited with the Second Coming
The Christians of Thesalonika got so excited with the end of the world and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ that many of them stopped working.
Paul had to call them to their senses, reminding them of his own example: 
“we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you” (2 Th 3:7-8).
And he ordered in Jesus’ name that everybody  should “do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (2 Th 3:12). In a very straightforward talk, he wrote to them: “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (2 Th 3:10).
A festive atmosphere
During my holidays in Portugal, it has surprised me that most of the people are continuous speaking of their rights and of the duty of the government to provide for everything. 
The national basket is empty, and the country must borrow more money to pay the huge debts, subjecting itself to the impositions of the lenders, who force people to tighten their belts and change their spending habits. People are not ready for that and their outcry gets louder and louder, demanding that we ignore the creditors and live our own lives, enjoying all the rights granted in the constitution. There is very little talk of personal and collective responsibility; and there are no alternatives being offered to change the situation. Coming from outside, and looking around, during the Summer time (and part of Outumn), one sees a festive  atmosphere that pervades the whole country. It seems as if it is the duty of someone else to move the country’s economy around.
With a very low birth rate, Europe is becoming an old continent, in which Portugal occupies one of the worst positions. With very few children, and an increasingly aging population, there will be no futurion, without a big change in values and attitudes.
Hope moves us forward

Hope - mainly the hope of Second Coming of Jesus - must fill us with courage and motivate us to work hard. While we should respect the rights of the others, we must pay attention to our duties and commit ourselves to carry them out.

Saturday 9 November 2013

GOD IS THE GOD OF THE LIVING

XXXII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: LK 20:27-38; 2 Mac 7:1-2,9-14
The seven martyrs, their mother and Eleazar
The traditionalist Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection
During Jesus' time, the resurrection of the dead was already a commonly accepted belief among the Jews. In spite of that, the Sadducees, a group composed mainly of priestly families, who were traditionalists in questions of faith, refused to believe in the resurrection. Guiding themselves only by the Torah, that is the written Law as it can be read in the first five books of the Bible, they saw the faith in the resurrection as something new and alien to the truths revealed by God.
The long process of revelation
The Sadducees did not realize that God's revelation was a long process through which God guided his people towards the truth. Coming to Jesus, the Sadducees tried to laugh at him and fill him with scorn by showing how laughable the belief in the resurrection was. Jesus told them, straight to their faces: "you are wrong" (Mk 12:24), because in the resurrection, we will be children of God, equal to angels, and our bodies will acquired a completely new dimension, since God's life and God's glory will be manifest in them.
God is the living God
Little by little, the people of Israel discovered this truth, which Jesus expressed very clearly: God is the God of the living; and he is our God. In the journey of faith, the people of Israel were influenced by others, specially the Persians who believed in the resurrection and who had liberated them from the Babylonians, allowed them to go back to their homeland and gave them freedom to follow their customs and practice their religion. But more important than the Persian influence was the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who led them to a deeper understanding of Yahweh. With the Exodus, the people of Israel recognised Yahweh as Liberator and Lord. Through the prophets, they came to realize that, being the Liberator, he wants to set us free even from the power of death. Yahweh, being the living God, is the God of the living.
In 2 Maccabees 7:9, the faith in the resurrection appears clearly. One of the seven brothers told the king: 
"you dismiss us from this present life, 
but the King of the universe will raise us up 
to an everlasting renewal of life, 
because we have died for his laws”.
The example of the seven brothers
The books of the Maccabees present the revolt against the oppressive laws of the Seleucid king Antiochus IV,  giving witness to many Jews who chose to remain faithful to God and defiant to the king, in spite of the persecution inflicted upon them. The story of the seven brothers represents the attitude of many others, who did not care about what was considered politically correct, aware that the politically correct many times is not correct at all. They believed in the resurrection, and in that belief they found the courage to die for their faith.

Saturday 2 November 2013

ALL SOULS DAY: REMEMBERING THE DEAD

ALL SOULS DAY
Yesterday, as I travelled from Porto to RĂ©gua, I met a very old widow, still full of life, in spite of her 82 years. Carrying a bunch of flowers, she was heading to her home village to pay her respects to the dead, mainly her father whom she mentioned several times.
In the evening, I went with Fr. Horácio to Vila Marim, one of his parishes, where I took the picture of the cemetery. In the background, you can see Vila Real, a city of the living, and in the foreground the city of the dead, that is the cemetery, ready for the celebration of All Souls’ day. 
People pay great attention to the dead and spend lots of money remembering them, with expensive mausolea, tombstones, flowers and candles. One remains with the impression that the dead are more important than the living. It is much more than a simple remembrance… it looks like a cult of the dead. 
The use of flowers became a business, and they embellish and soothe the pain and the feeling of loss, not of the dead but of the living. And there are the candles, plenty of candles. We may ask if they are a symbol of the warmth of love, of hope and of life or if they are simply being burnt to the dead as a kind of worship?
THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION
In the cemetery of my home town, like in many other Portuguese cemeteries, there are no symbols of the resurrection. There are plenty of crosses and of the Crucified Jesus, indicating pain and suffering; and there are many images of Our Lady and of angels, that they may protect and carry our dead to the Father’s house. Sometimes, we can find an image of the Good Shepherd, but there are no images of the Risen Christ or even symbols of the resurrection. 
People change with the times, and not always for the better. In the church where I was baptised, there are two images of the Risen Christ, being a carving on the door of the tabernacle and a painting over a tomb. And the dead where buried inside the church, for the living to remember that we are part of the same family and that we worship the Lord together. In the end, living and dead are one in Christ, and in Christ they will find life and salvation. 
If we forget the resurrection, our remembrance of the dead easily becomes worship of the dead. Instead of moving forward, illumined by hope, we look backward remembering the past, unable to make of the present a time worthy of the future.
VICTORY OVER DEATH
In his letter to the Corinthians, speaking about death and resurrection, Paul wrote:
“When this perishable body 
puts on imperishability, 
and this mortal body 
puts on immortality, 
then the saying that is written 
will be fulfilled:
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
 The sting of death is sin, 
and the power of sin is the law. 
But thanks be to God, 
who gives us the victory 

through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Co 15:54-57)

THE SCANDAL OF JESUS MIXING WITH SINNERS

XXXI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: Luke 19:1-10
A merciless society
A few weeks ago, there was a big headline on a Portuguese newspaper about a rich man who had been president of Benfica and who is in prison because of misappropriation of huge amounts of money. It said: in control of bread and wine (in the sacristy of the prison’s chapel)! It was more against the Church than against the man in prison, and it expressed a very common idea nowadays: whoever commits a crime is beyond redemption, and should be shown no mercy at all. All those who fall must be trampled upon and crushed, and the ones who try to give them a hand are pushed aside and pointed at as being  guilty of the same crimes or at least contaminated by their filthiness. Our society - today’s society - is full of self-righteousness and cannot understand compassion, mercy and forgiveness. It is moved by a strong desire of revenge, exorcising the evil that pervades the whole of it by punishing the ones who are not clever enough to hide. Indeed, we see the speck in others’ eyes, but don’t see the log in our own eyes (Mt 7:3).
This Sunday, we listen to the story of Zacchaeus. Being a tax collector, he was seen as a thief, a collaborator and a traitor. According to the well behaved and the politically correct, he was an outcast that should be avoided like a leper.
Jesus challenges our prejudices
Jesus never allowed himself to be dictated by such false values. He always looked at people as persons, reading into their hearts and seeing the goodness hidden in them. Zacchaeus had made a great effort just to have a glimpse of Jesus, and in that Jesus detected his readiness to repent and to change.
When Jesus made himself invited to Zacchaeus’ house, he caused a commotion and a scandal. How could a man of God sit at the table of a sinner? What kind of a prophet was he? Many people take certain attitudes for granted, and will not accept to be challenged. However, Jesus came to challenge us. Jesus wanted to show God’s patience with all of us; and his patience comes out of his love for us.
God’s love and patience
The first reading, taken from the book of Wisdom, expresses that very clearly:
In your sight, Lord, the whole world 
is like a grain of dust that tips the scales,
like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground.
Yet you are merciful to all, 
because you can do all things
and overlook men’s sins 
so that they can repent.
Yes, you love all that exists, 
you hold nothing of what 
you have made in abhorrence,
for had you hated anything, 
you would not have formed it.
And how, had you not willed it, 
could a thing persist,
how be conserved 
if not called forth by you?
You spare all things because 
all things are yours, Lord, lover of life,
you whose imperishable spirit is in all.
Little by little, therefore, 
you correct those who offend,
you admonish and remind them 
of how they have sinned,
so that they may abstain 
from evil and trust in you, Lord. 

(Wisdom 11:22-12:2)

Saturday 26 October 2013

I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH

XXX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: 2 Tim 4:6-8,16-18
The readings for the Sunday liturgy always present us with a series of challenges, calling on us to examine ourselves, to change and to go forward in new directions more in accordance with God's calling and God’s will. 
In this Sunday’s readings, we listen to the second letter  of Paul to Timothy, where he looks back and makes an evaluation of his own life. Being in prison because of the Gospel, he saw his life as a sacrifice, poured down like a libation and offered to the Lord in total surrender. He knows that his time to depart has come. The future of his life is in the hands of the  Lord.
Paul's life was not an easy life; in fact, it was a continuous struggle that he was forced to fight in order to carry on with his evangelical work. Paul wrote:  "I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish" (2 Tm 4:7).
If we read the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's own letters, mainly to the Galatians and to the Corinthians, we get a good picture of that struggle that put his life many times in danger.
Like Paul's life, our lives lived in faith are a continuous struggle, implying the daily effort to be faithful. It is a struggle within and without; with the enemy inside our own hearts and the enemies outside, who try to separate us from the love of Christ.

In the end, when our time comes, may we be able to say like Paul: "I have kept the faith", meaning that we have remained faithful to Jesus Christ, accepting him as the centre of our lives; and we have remained faithful to his way of life and to his values. Like Paul, we wait for "the crown of righteousness", which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give".

Saturday 19 October 2013

PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL


XXIX SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:2
As we celebrate the Mission Sunday, the words of Paul to Timothy resound in the Church with renewed urgency:
"I solemnly urge you: proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching." (2 Tim 4:1-2)
A renewed commitment
When Pope Benedict XVI initiated the campaign for a new evangelisation, it was far from his mind a new message, different from the one left to us by Jesus Christ; instead, Benedict XVI was thinking of a renewed effort and commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel. 
We cannot be shy and remain silent. We may be scared and puzzled, not knowing what to do in this frightening modern world, but we are invited to stand up and speak out with courage and boldness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul puts it very clear: 
  • Proclaim the message
  • Be persistent
  • At all times, favorable or unfavorable
  • In all forms: convince, rebuke, encourage
  • With patience
New challenges
Certainly, in this 21st century, we face new challenges and many different problems not encountered in the past, and we must find new ways and a new language, which may answer today's expectations. Many times, our language is old, difficult to understand and far removed from people's daily concerns. Our Message must be relevant for the people of  today and must speak to their hearts.
Pope Francis on our missionary duty
In his message for the Mission Sunday, Pope Francis wrote:
Each community is therefore questioned and invited to make its own, the mandate entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles, to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8) and this, not as a secondary aspect of Christian life, but as its essential aspect: 
we are all invited to walk the streets of the world with one’s brothers and sisters, proclaiming and witnessing our faith in Christ and making ourselves heralds of his Gospel.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

St Teresa of Avila


Let us always be mindful of Christ's love
As we celebrate today St. Teresa of Avila, let us listen to her teaching about Jesus Christ and the centre place that he must occupy in our lives.

“If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for Christ helps and strengthens us and never abandons us. He is a true friend. And I clearly see that if we expect to please him and receive an abundance of his graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through his most sacred humanity, in which God takes delight.
  Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at the summit of contemplation; on this road he walks safely. All blessings come to us through our Lord. He will teach us, for in beholding his life we find that he is the best example.
  What more do we desire from such a good friend at our side? Unlike our friends in the world, he will never abandon us when we are troubled or distressed. Blessed is the one who truly loves him and always keeps him near. Let us consider the glorious Saint Paul: it seems that no other name fell from his lips than that of Jesus, because the name of Jesus was fixed and embedded in his heart. Once I had come to understand this truth, I carefully considered the lives of some of the saints, the great contemplatives, and found that they took no other path: Francis, Anthony of Padua, Bernard, Catherine of Siena. A person must walk along this path in freedom, placing himself in God’s hands. If God should desire to raise us to the position of one who is an intimate and shares his secrets, we ought to accept this gladly.
  Whenever we think of Christ we should recall the love that led him to bestow on us so many graces and favours, and also the great love God showed in giving us in Christ a pledge of his love; for love calls for love in return. Let us strive to keep this always before our eyes and to rouse ourselves to love him. For if at some time the Lord should grant us the grace of impressing his love on our hearts, all will become easy for us and we shall accomplish great things quickly and without effort.”

Saturday 12 October 2013

YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU


XXVIII SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME:
The story of Naaman
This Sunday we hear the story of Naaman, the foreigner dignitary, who was healed by the prophet Elisha. It is an interesting story.
Naaman was an influential man with a very important position of leadership in his country, but he suffered from a terrible and incurable disease, leprosy, which would make of him an outcast. However, in spite of the prevalent attitudes towards lepers, he was not stigmatised, keeping his position and having a friendly relationship with the king. 
By an israelite girl, taken as prisoner of war, he came to know about the prophet of God Elisha, who was seen as a healer. Naaman thought of him as one healer more, who would act like all other traditional healers. Sick people with incurable diseases are always looking for alternatives that may relieve their pain. And Naaman did not waste time, putting himself on the road to Israel. 
The prophet's behaviour was surprising or even strange. He did not touch the patient or talk to him and even refused to see him, making it very clear by his behaviour that he could not be compared with all other healers.   He behaved as if he did not care, and made no use of any magical means, ordering through a messenger that he goes and takes a bath seven times in the river Jordan.
Naaman was healed by his obedience to the prophet’s orders
Annoyed, Naaman decided to go back home, despising the prophet's instructions, convinced that the waters of the river Jordan were not better than the waters of any other river. His servants and friends had to plea with him to give it a try, since it was not a difficult thing to do. In the end, Naaman realised that he was not cured by the waters, but by God, through his prophet. His healing was an affirmation of God's existence and power. The only participation required from Naaman was an attitude of trust and obedience, that is faith.
Saved by faith
Indeed, the healing of the body led Naaman to faith in the true God. Naaman was a foreigner, a pagan who was able to recognise God's presence and action. In a similar way, the Gospel presents the story of the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. From the whole group, only one - the Samaritan one - recognised God’s mercy and went back to Jesus to give thanks. And to him Jesus said: “Your faith has saved you” (Lk 17:19).
This makes it very clear that one may be physically healed without being touched in his heart and without changing his attitude and relationship towards God. One needs an open heart and a listening mind to recognise God’s presence and action in his life. Only then can we accept God’s love and be ready to answer him with love and thanksgiving.

Saturday 5 October 2013

LISTENING TO THE CHALLENGES OF POPE FRANCIS


Pope Francis was interviewed by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor in chief of La CiviltĂ  Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal. You can read the full interview in http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20130919_1.htm
I present here some of the more challenging statements of the interview

I am a sinner
I ask Pope Francis point-blank: “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” He stares at me in silence. I ask him if I may ask him this question. He nods and replies: “I do not know what might be the most fitting description.... I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.”
“Yes, perhaps I can say that I am a bit astute, that I can adapt to circumstances, but it is also true that I am a bit naĂŻve. Yes, but the best summary, the one that comes more from the inside and I feel most true is this: I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon.”
Consultation is very important
“Over time I learned many things. The Lord has allowed this growth in knowledge of government through my faults and my sins. So as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, I had a meeting with the six auxiliary bishops every two weeks, and several times a year with the council of priests. They asked questions and we opened the floor for discussion. This greatly helped me to make the best decisions. But now I hear some people tell me: ‘Do not consult too much, and decide by yourself.’ Instead, I believe that consultation is very important.
“The consistories [of cardinals], the synods [of bishops] are, for example, important places to make real and active this consultation. We must, however, give them a less rigid form. I do not want token consultations, but real consultations. The consultation group of eight cardinals, this ‘outsider’ advisory group, is not only my decision, but it is the result of the will of the cardinals, as it was expressed in the general congregations before the conclave. And I want to see that this is a real, not ceremonial consultation.”
The Church as the people of God
“The image of the church I like is that of the holy, faithful people of God. This is the definition I often use, and then there is that image from the Second Vatican Council’s ‘Dogmatic Constitution on the Church’ (No. 12). Belonging to a people has a strong theological value. In the history of salvation, God has saved a people. There is no full identity without belonging to a people. No one is saved alone, as an isolated individual, but God attracts us looking at the complex web of relationships that take place in the human community. God enters into this dynamic, this participation in the web of human relationships.”
Holiness
“I see the sanctity of God’s people, this daily sanctity,” the pope continues. “There is a ‘holy middle class,’ which we can all be part of, the holiness Malègue wrote about.” The pope is referring to Joseph Malègue, a French writer (1876–1940), particularly to the unfinished trilogy Black Stones: The Middle Classes of Salvation.
“I see the holiness,” the pope continues, “in the patience of the people of God: a woman who is raising children, a man who works to bring home the bread, the sick, the elderly priests who have so many wounds but have a smile on their faces because they served the Lord, the sisters who work hard and live a hidden sanctity. This is for me the common sanctity. I often associate sanctity with patience: not only patience as hypomonĂ© [the New Testament Greek word], taking charge of the events and circumstances of life, but also as a constancy in going forward, day by day. This is the sanctity of the militant church also mentioned by St. Ignatius. This was the sanctity of my parents: my dad, my mom, my grandmother Rosa who loved me so much. In my breviary I have the last will of my grandmother Rosa, and I read it often. For me it is like a prayer. She is a saint who has suffered so much, also spiritually, and yet always went forward with courage.”
The Church is a home for all
“This church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of selected people. We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity. And the church is Mother; the church is fruitful. It must be. You see, when I perceive negative behaviour in ministers of the church or in consecrated men or women, the first thing that comes to mind is: ‘Here’s an unfruitful bachelor’ or ‘Here’s a spinster.’ They are neither fathers nor mothers, in the sense that they have not been able to give spiritual life. Instead, for example, when I read the life of the Salesian missionaries who went to Patagonia, I read a story of the fullness of life, of fruitfulness.”
The ability to heal wounds
“I see clearly,” the pope continues, “that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful; it needs nearness, proximity. I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds.... And you have to start from the ground up.
“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all. The confessor, for example, is always in danger of being either too much of a rigorist or too lax. Neither is merciful, because neither of them really takes responsibility for the person. The rigorist washes his hands so that he leaves it to the commandment. The loose minister washes his hands by simply saying, ‘This is not a sin’ or something like that. In pastoral ministry we must accompany people, and we must heal their wounds.”
The Church is a mother and shepherdess
“How are we treating the people of God? I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess. The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbour. This is pure Gospel. God is greater than sin. The structural and organisational reforms are secondary – that is, they come afterward. The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the dark- ness, but without getting lost. The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials. The bishops, particularly, must be able to support the movements of God among their people with patience, so that no one is left behind. But they must also be able to accompany the flock that has a flair for finding new paths.”
Proclaim the Gospel
“We need to proclaim the Gospel on every street corner,” the pope says, “preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing, even with our preaching, every kind of disease and wound. In Buenos Aires I used to receive letters from homosexual persons who are ‘socially wounded’ because they tell me that they feel like the church has always condemned them. But the church does not want to do this. During the return flight from Rio de Janeiro I said that if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. By saying this, I said what the catechism says. Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.”
About homosexuality
“A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‘Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?’ We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing.”
The confessional is not a torture chamber
“This is also the great benefit of confession as a sacrament: evaluating case by case and discerning what is the best thing to do for a person who seeks God and grace. The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better. I also consider the situation of a woman with a failed marriage in her past and who also had an abortion. Then this woman remarries, and she is now happy and has five children. That abortion in her past weighs heavily on her conscience and she sincerely regrets it. She would like to move forward in her Christian life. What is the confessor to do?
“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But wh- en we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”
Focus on the essentials
“The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently. Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus. We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.”
The proclamation of the saving love of God
“I say this also thinking about the preaching and content of our preaching. A beautiful homily, a genuine sermon must begin with the first proclamation, with the proclamation of salvation. There is nothing more solid, deep and sure than this proclamation. Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can draw even a moral consequence. But the proclaimation of the saving love of God comes before moral and religious imperatives. Today sometimes it seems that the opposite order is prevailing. The homily is the touchstone to measure the pastor’s proximity and ability to meet his people, because those who preach must recognise the heart of their community and must be able to see where the desire for God is lively and ardent. The message of the Gospel, therefore, is not to be reduced to some aspects that, although relevant, on their own do not show the heart of the message of Jesus Christ.”
Seeking God
“In fact, there is a temptation to seek God in the past or in a possible future. God is certainly in the past because we can see the footprints. And God is also in the future as a promise. But the ‘concrete’ God, so to speak, is today. For this reason, complaining never helps us find God. The complaints of today about how ‘barbaric’ the world is – these complaints sometimes end up giving birth within the church to desires to establish order in the sense of pure conservation, as a defence. No: God is to be encountered in the world of today.
“God manifests himself in historical revelation, in history. Time initiates processes, and space crystallises them. God is in history, in the processes.”
God is a God of surprises
“Because God is first; God is always first and makes the first move. God is a bit like the almond flower of your Sicily, Antonio, which always blooms first. We read it in the Prophets. God is encountered walking, along the path. At this juncture, someone might say that this is relativism. Is it relativism? Yes, if it is mis- understood as a kind of indistinct pantheism. It is not relativism if it is understood in the biblical sense, that God is always a surprise, so you never know where and how you will find him. You are not setting the time and place of the encounter with him. You must, therefore, discern the encounter. Discernment is essential.”
God is always in our lives, everybody’s life
“If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God. Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists – they have a static and inward directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies. I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life. God is in everyone’s life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs or anything else – God is in this person’s life. You can, you must try to seek God in every human life. Although the life of a person is a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.”
To grow in understanding
“Here, human self-understanding changes with time and so also human consciousness deepens. Let us think of when slavery was accepted or the death penalty was allowed without any problem. So we grow in the understanding of the truth. Exegetes and theologians help the church to mature in her own judgment. Even the other sciences and their development help the church in its growth in understanding. There are ecclesiastical rules and precepts that were once effective, but now they have lost value or meaning. The view of the church’s teaching as a monolith to defend without nuance or different understandings is wrong.”