IT IS WONDERFUL TO BE HERE

II SUNDAY OF LENT - Mark 9:2-10

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we are presented with the scene of the Transfiguration, in which we can be touched by several aspects. 

• We may ask ourselves why did Jesus choose only three out of the twelve Apostles for this extraordinary experience? Not all gifts are given to everybody. God gives to whom he chooses to give. The deep experience of Jesus Christ which brings a sense of bliss is not given to all, even though all of us may desire it and ask for it.
• Jesus took them to a high mountain, “where they could be alone by themselves.” It is important to have times to be alone, without anybody or anything that may disturb us, so that our hearts and our minds concentrate on the Lord. Nothing else matters. In order to have an experience of contemplation, we must make silence around ourselves. On the other side, they were four with Jesus, showing us the importance of small groups in prayer or in sharing God’s word. In the small group, they help each other to express the deep experience of God’s presence.
• We may also reflect on the role of the “high mountain”, which reminds us of the Mountain, of God’s Mountain, where he reveals himself in manifestations of power and glory, proclaiming his mercy and his love. It is on the mountain that Jesus revealed his glory. and this mountain reminds us of another mountain, the Calvary, where Jesus would give the greatest proof of love.
• To go up the mountain implies effort and endurance, which can lead to an exhilarating experience. Up there, our vision is enlarged and things fall into position. We faced with a world bigger than ourselves, which we cannot embrace. Up there, we are touched by the beauty and the harmony of what surrounds us. There have been always people who look for thrilling experiences, in which they feel high. Nowadays, many look for that in drugs; however, such experiences leave a sour aftertaste leading to emptiness and despair.
• On the mountain, alone with Jesus, they were able to contemplate Him in his glory. And they were full of joy and happiness. For a while, they forgot everything else, and Peter claimed: “It is wonderful for us to be here.” And they would like this moment to last forever. Maybe, we have forgotten that only Jesus Christ is able to give us peace, joy and happiness. Only in his company, can we climb up the mountain and make the experience of bliss, which enables us to find meaning in life.
• On the mountain, Jesus is presented and recognised as the Son. The voice, that same voice heard before during the baptism, proclaims: “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.” A deep experience of Jesus Christ will lead us to recognise that He is the Son of the living God.
• In the New Testament, God gives only one commandment, and that is about Jesus Christ: “Listen to him.” Indeed, he is the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6)

LENT: GOING THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE OF THE DESERT

I SUNDAY OF LENT - Mark 1:12-15

In this Sunday’s Gospel,  is from Mark (1:12-15) presents a few details about Jesus. He went to the wilderness, guided by the Spirit and there he remained for forty days, being tempted by Satan. Jesus’ experience in the desert is the basis for our lent season. 

We may ask ourselves: What for did Jesus go to the desert? And he went there on an impulse by the Spirit. Before beginning his ministry, Jesus went to the desert for a time of silence and solitude. Those were days of intensive prayer, searching for the way to achieve his mission. It was a time for listening to his own heart and to the voice of the Spirit that speaks within. In forty days, Jesus went through the experience of the people of Israel who wandered for forty years, thus preparing himself for his ministry.

A desert is a harsh place, where the survival is difficult. Filled with awe, we are forced to recognise our smallness and our fragility. In order to survive, one must know where to find water and a resting place. One must be able to find the way that will lead him out of the wilderness. But endurance and the readiness to leave aside everything that is not essential are keys to success.

In the desert, we are made aware that we are not self-sufficient; in fact, for our survival, we are dependent on others and we depend on God. Life is not in our hands and we must make responsible decisions.

The desert was like a school for the people of Israel. During their stay in the desert, they made an extraordinary experience of God. They could feel God’s presence, the one who is always near, always accompanying us in our journey, walking side by side with us. God guided and protected them and he gave them instructions which are true guidelines for life. He made a covenant with them, by which he committed himself to them. God showed his care and his love.

And what was the people’s reaction? When they experienced thirst and hunger, they doubted God’s care and remained full of mistrust. They questioned God’s intentions, accusing him of evil. They put God to the test and revolted. They did not want to be dependent on God, and they chose to make their future with their own hands. Such attitude led them to a dead end. There can be no life outside the source of life.

In the desert, Jesus went through the experience of the people of Israel. Being tempted like them, he remained faithful, never questioning or doubting God’s love and care. In the desert, Jesus was able to find a place of rest, being in harmony with the creation: “He was with the wild beasts, and the angels looked after him.”

Then Jesus went to Galilee and started preaching the Good News: “The time has come’ he said ‘and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the Good News.” (Mk 1:15)

During this Lent season, let’s accompany Jesus in his desert experience and thus find the strength to follow him up to the Calvary and then to resurrection. This time is a time of grace for us to reconcile with God and to believe in the Good News of God’s mercy and love.

THE WORLD DAY OF THE SICK

VI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 1:40-45

The Church celebrates today the World Day of the Sick, giving us the opportunity to pray for the sick while reflecting upon their suffering and upon our attitude towards all those who touched by sickness.

In this Sunday readings, we are called upon to look at the suffering of all those who are excluded and rejected, being abandoned to their own fate. In the past, all those who suffered from leprosy were ostracised and forced to live far from the community, without anybody to show them compassion and love.  Being stigmatised as impure and as a danger to society, people stayed away from them. And this was sanctioned by the religious laws and done in the name of God, as we can see in the first reading (Lev 13:1-2,44-46). We can understand that in the past people did not know how to protect themselves from a contagious disease, and they needed to avoid all contact with the people who were infected, but the law was too harsh, adding religious motives and considering them as impure, thus excluding them from God’s mercy and compassion. It was and still is very easy and common to justify in the name of God what we do out of ignorance.

Jesus, by ignoring the laws of impurity, reveals a different face of God - a caring and compassionate God. He allowed the leper to come close to and then, full of compassion, touched him, demonstrating that our human tabus should not prevent us from caring for the sick, even those who suffer from terrible and repulsive conditions. In fact, they are the ones who most need our care. And nowadays we know how to protect ourselves from contagious diseases. To the leper's request: “If you want to, you can cure me.”, Jesus replied: “Of course I want to! Be cured!”

In his healing ministry, Jesus never cared only for the cure of the body. For him, the soul was the most important, and so Jesus tried always to help the person to regain the sense of self-dignity and to restore her/ him to the community. That’s why he touched this untouchable, so that, in this gesture, he could feel loved and cared for. This is most important. Nowadays, we have the means to care effectively for the sick bodies of our relatives or our friends, but many times they suffer from loneliness because there is nobody to keep them company. There are so many elderly people abandoned by their children in Old People’s Homes and abandon them there.

Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of the Sick

As theme for the World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis proposes the scene of Jesus on the cross leaving his mother to his beloved disciple: “Behold, your son... Behold, your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (Jn 19:26-27) As a role model, Mary teaches the Church the maternal care that she must have mainly for the poor, the sick and the suffering.

“The Church’s maternal vocation to the needy and to the sick has found concrete expression throughout the two thousand years of her history in an impressive series of initiatives on behalf of the sick. This history of dedication must not be forgotten.  It continues to the present day throughout the world.  In countries where adequate public health care systems exist, the work of Catholic religious congregations and dioceses and their hospitals is aimed not only at providing quality medical care, but also at putting the human person at the centre of the healing process, while carrying out scientific research with full respect for life and for Christian moral values.  In countries where health care systems are inadequate or non-existent, the Church seeks to do what she can to improve health, eliminate infant mortality and combat widespread disease.  Everywhere she tries to provide care, even when she is not in a position to offer a cure.  The image of the Church as a “field hospital” that welcomes all those wounded by life is a very concrete reality, for in some parts of the world, missionary and diocesan hospitals are the only institutions providing necessary care to the population.”

“Jesus bestowed upon the Church his healing power:  “These signs will accompany those who believe... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover (Mk 16:17-18).  In the Acts of the Apostles, we read accounts of the healings worked by Peter (cf. Acts 3:4-8) and Paul (cf. Acts 14:8-11).  The Church’s mission is a response to Jesus’ gift, for she knows that she must bring to the sick the Lord’s own gaze, full of tenderness and compassion. Health care ministry will always be a necessary and fundamental task, to be carried out with renewed enthusiasm by all, from parish communities to the most largest healthcare institutions. We cannot forget the tender love and perseverance of many families in caring for their chronically sick or severely disabled children, parents and relatives.  The care given within families is an extraordinary witness of love for the human person; it needs to be fittingly acknowledged and supported by suitable policies.  Doctors and nurses, priests, consecrated men and women, volunteers, families and all those who care for the sick, take part in this ecclesial mission. It is a shared responsibility that enriches the value of the daily service given by each.” (Pope Francis, Message for the World Day of the Sick, nº 4,6)

THE LORD HEALS THE BROKEN-HEARTED

V SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Mark 1:29-39

Nobody passes through this world without being touched by the cold hand of pain and suffering. And whenever it touches us, we are made aware of our fragility and our mortality. Then, we realise that “life is but a breath” (Job 7:7), lasting a little while and no more. And that little while is filled with pain and suffering. In moments of joy, we may behave like the lords of the world to whom nothing seems impossible as if life is full of merriness. However, when suffering knocks at the door, all that enjoyment is no more than a faint memory. And then we ask time and again: Why? Why all this suffering? What have I done to be punished in this way?

We do not get used to suffering and we do not accept our mortality. In our quest for understanding, we may raise our hands and turn our eyes to heaven in an attitude of defiance or even of revolt. In such moments, it is good to read the book of Job. It is an extraordinary book, in which we can hear the cry of humanity: with an aching heart filled with anguish, we hear the questions being asked aloud - those eternal questions always mumbled in our hearts, for which we never find an appropriate answer.

Job has the audacity to stand before God and ask: Are you being fair? Do you take pleasure in my pain? If you are a good and merciful God, how can you allow such violence, injustice, suffering and anguish? Or did you create us for pain and death?

Time and again, humanity tries to silence the big questions and lives as if life is only for joy and pleasure.  We can even find preachers of a gospel of well-being and wealth in which God will be at our service, ready to satisfy all our desires. The book of Job compels us to look at the harsh reality of life lived here on earth. Pleasures are but a passing moment which leaves a bitter taste. Moments of incomplete happiness are followed by a hangover of malaise, anguish and (almost) despair. 

The questions of Job go on reverberating through all generations. In spite of the violence of an endless pain and of a life rushing towards death, we long for peace, happiness and the fullness of life. In Job, we can see a prophecy of Christ, who in his pain addressed God, crying out: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mt 27, 46). On the cross, Jesus is the “man of sorrows”, whose life seems to be meaningless. In his wounds and in his pain, he looks like a cursed man, rejected by all, before whom God remained silent. In Jesus Christ, humanity experienced the anguish and the pain to the last. But death had not the last word on him. In fact, he passed through death to life, becoming a source of hope for all those who follow on his way. 

In the book of Job, at the end, we find him acknowledging God’s mystery, the mystery of a God whose plan for humanity is a plan of life not of death. And that is what Jesus Christ revealed to us by his words and by his actions. God is with us and on our side, when we pass through suffering and death, so that in him we may find resurrection and life.

In this Sunday liturgy, with the Psalm 147, we sing: 

“He heals the broken-hearted,

  he binds up all their wounds.” (Ps 147:3)

In his ministry to the sick and the poor, Jesus showed the compassionate face of God who listens to the cry of his people and feels their pain. Jesus Christ “took our sicknesses away, and carried our diseases for us.” (Mt 8:17 (Is 53:4)