miniZibaldone

From the Angelus “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself” [I]t’s not we that, on the basis of our criteria, define who is and who is not our neighbour, but it’s the person in a situation of need who must be able to recognize who is his neighbour, namely, “the one who showed mercy on him” (v. 37). This conclusion indicates that mercy, in confronting a human life in a state of necessity, is the true face of love. It is thus that we become true disciples of Jesus and that the face of the Father is manifested: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).   [full text]

From the Angelus Christmas is to celebrate the unheard-of God , or better, it is to celebrate an unprecedented God , who overturns our logic and our expectations. . . . Please, let us not make Christmas worldly! Let us not put the One celebrated aside . In six days, it will be Christmas. The trees, the decorations and the lights everywhere recall that this year also there will be a celebration. Advertising invites to keep exchanging newer and newer gifts to have surprises. However, is this the celebration that pleases God? What Christmas would He want, what presents and surprises? We look at the first Christmas of history to discover God’s tastes. That Christmas was full of surprises . It begins with Mary, who was Joseph’s promised bride: the Angel arrives and changes her life. From being a virgin, she will be a mother. It continues with Joseph, called to be the father of a son without generating Him . . . . However, it’s on Christmas Eve that the greatest surprise arrives...

From the Angelus Turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary . . . to continue the Lenten journey with faith and generosity. The Transfiguration helps the disciples, and also us, to understand that Christ’s Passion is a mystery of suffering, but it’s especially a gift of infinite love on Jesus’ part. The event of Jesus, who is transfigured on the mountain, makes us also understand better His Resurrection. To understand the mystery of the cross it’s necessary to know in anticipation that He that that suffers and is glorified is not only a man but the Son of God, who has saved us, with His faithful love to death.   [link]

Turn from a god of miracles to the miracle of God, which is Jesus Christ. From the angelus address This account of the Evangelist Luke is not simply the story of a fight within a community, like can sometimes happen in our neighborhoods, caused by envy and jealousies. Rather it brings to light a temptation that a religious person is always vulnerable to — all of us are vulnerable to it — and which we must decidedly avoid. What is this temptation? It is the temptation to think of religion as a human investment and consequently, to begin to “negotiate” with God, seeking our own interests. Instead, the true religion is about receiving the revelation of a God who is Father and who is concerned with each one of his creatures, also with the smallest and most significant in the eyes of man. [...] N o human condition can be a motive for exclusion — no human condition can be a motive for exclusion — from the heart of the Father, and that the only privilege in the eyes of God is that of n...

  From the Angelus address To celebrate Christmas well, we are called to spend time in the “places” of astonishment [wonder]. And what are these places of wonder in daily life? There are three.  The first place is “the other,” in whom we recognize a brother, because since the birth of Jesus, every face is marked with a similarity to the Son of God. Above all when it is the face of a poor person, because as a poor man, God entered the world and it was the poor, in the first place, that he allowed to approach him.  Another place of wonder - a place in which, if we look with faith, we feel wonder, is history. [...]  The third place of wonder is the Church. To look on her with the wonder of faith means not just considering the Church only as a religious institution – which the Church is – but to feel that she is a mother who, despite her warts and wrinkles – we have so many! – lets the contours of the bride beloved of and purified by Christ the Lord shine through. [ful...

The fourth Sunday of Advent may be called "Angelus Sunday" L'Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet

From the Angelus address But let us ask: Is it true that in the various situations and circumstances of life, we have in us the same sentiments that Jesus had? Is it true that we feel as  Christ felt? For example, when we suffer some evil or some affront, can we react without animosity and forgive from the heart those who ask us for forgiveness? How  difficult it is to forgive, eh? How difficult! “You’re going to pay for this” — that phrase comes spontaneously, yes? Or when we are called to share joys and  sadnesses, do we know how to truly cry with the one who cries and rejoice with the one who rejoices? Or when we should share our faith, do we know how to do it with  courage and simplicity, without being ashamed of the Gospel?[...] I leave you with this question: Am I truly in love with Jesus? Am I convinced that Jesus offers me and gives me salvation? And, if I am in love, I have to make him  known! But we should be courageous: make low the mountains of ...

From the Angelus address And the Gospel of today brings us to contemplate Jesus as he was presented before Pilate as the king of a kingdom that “is not of this world.” This doesn’t mean that Christ is the king of another world, but that he is a different kind of king; but he is king in this world.[...] We have here a contraposition of two types of logic. The worldly logic bases itself on ambition, competition, combat with the weapons of fear, of bribery, of the manipulation of consciences. On the other hand, the logic of the Gospel, that is, the logic of Jesus, is expressed in humility and gratitude. [...] Jesus has revealed himself as a king. When? In the event of the cross. [...] And today, in this Square, let each one of us say in his heart: “He has given his life for me, to be able to save each one of us from our sins.”  And who has understood this? One of the criminals who was crucified with him understood it well, the one called the “good thief,” who pleads w...