miniZibaldone

From Communio journal [Full text]

August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord The Holy Transfiguration by Robert Slesinski

From the general audience See where the exercise of authority leads without respect for life, without justice, without mercy. And see to what the thirst for power leads: it becomes cupidity  that wishes to possess everything. In this regard, a text of the prophet Isaiah is particularly illuminating. In it, the Lord puts one on guard against the avidity of  rich landowners that always want to possess more houses and lands. [...]  And the prophet Isaiah was not a Communist! God, however, is greater than the iniquity and dirty games played by human beings. In his mercy, He sent the prophet  Elijah to help Ahab to convert. Now we turn the page, and how does the story continue? God sees the crime and knocks on Ahab’s heart and, faced with his sin, the King  understands, humbles himself and asks for pardon. How good it would be if the exploiting powerful of today did the same! [...]  In this case also, mercy shows the masterful way that must be followed. Merc...

From a homily At this moment, the Lord Jesus repeats to each one of us His question: “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). [...]  May our thought and our gaze be fixed on Jesus Christ, beginning and end of every action of the Church. He is the foundation and no one can place a different one (1  Corinthians 3:11). He is the “rock” on which we must build. Saint Augustine reminds of this when he writes that the Church, although agitated and shaken by the events  of history, “does not collapse because she is founded on the rock, from which Peter derives his name. It is not the rock that gets its name from Peter, but Peter that  gets it from the rock, just as the name Christ does not derive from the Christian, but the name Christian derives from Christ. […] Christ is the rock, on whose  foundation Peter was also built” (In Joh 124, 5:PL 35, 1972).   [full text]

From the Audience Why a Jubilee of Mercy? What does this mean? The Church is in need of this extraordinary moment. I do not say: this extraordinary moment is good for the Church. I  say: the Church is in need of this extraordinary moment. In our age of profound changes, the Church is called to offer her particular contribution, rendering visible  the signs of the presence and closeness of God. [...] Therefore, this Jubilee is a privileged moment for the Church to learn to choose only “what pleases God most.” And, what is it that ‘pleases God most”? To forgive His  children, to have mercy on them. [...] To turn one’s look to God, our Merciful Father, and to brothers in need of mercy, means to focus our attention on the essential content of the Gospel: Jesus, Mercy  made flesh, which renders visible to our eyes the great mystery of the Trinitarian Love of God. To celebrate a Jubilee of Mercy means to put again at the center of  our personal life and of that o...