miniZibaldone

From a homily This then is the consecrated life: praise which gives joy to God’s people, a prophetic vision that reveals what counts. When it is like this, then it flowers and becomes a summons for all of us to counter mediocrity: to counter a devaluation of our spiritual life, to counter the temptation to reduce God’s importance, to counter an accommodation to a comfortable and worldly life, to counter complaints, dissatisfaction and self-pity, to counter a mentality of resignation and “we have always done it this way”. Consecrated life is not about survival, but new life. Everything, therefore, meets as Jesus arrives. What does this mean for us? Above all, that we too are called to welcome Jesus who comes to meet us. To encounter him: the God of life is to be encountered every day of our lives; not now and then, but every day. To follow Jesus is not a decision taken once and for all, it is a daily choice. And we do not meet the Lord virtually, but directly, we encounter hi...

Christians are not tired and lazy in awaiting the final encounter with the Lord, but they go to encounter Him every day, recognizing His face in that of the many individuals who ask for help. From the audience Today we reflect on this word of Jesus: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me” (Matthew 25:35-36)...  [L]et us not fall into the trap of withdrawing into ourselves, indifferent to the needs of brothers and concerned only about our interests. It is precisely in the measure in which we open to others that life becomes fecund, societies re-acquire peace and individuals recover their full dignity. And do not forget that lady, do not forget that migrant who stank and do not forget the driver whose soul was changed by the migrant.   [full text]

We are being asked not to tire of keeping the key message of the faith front and centre: the Lord is risen.  Nothing is more important;  nothing is clearer or more  relevant than this.  Everything in the faith becomes beautiful when linked to this centrepiece. From the homily It is by loving that the God-who-is-Love is proclaimed to the world: not by the power of convincing, never by imposing the truth, no less by growing fixated on some  religious or moral obligation.  God is proclaimed through the encounter between persons, with care for their history and their journey.  Because the Lord is not an  idea, but a living person: his message is passed on through simple and authentic testimony, by listening and welcoming, with joy which radiates outward.  We do not  speak convincingly about Jesus when we are sad; nor do we transmit God’s beauty merely with beautiful homilies.  The God of hope is proclaimed by living out the  ...

The center of the Gospel "is not the miracle [of the resurrected son], but Jesus' tenderness toward this boy's mother. Here, mercy takes the name of great compassion toward a woman who had lost her husband and now her only son is also bound for the cemetery. This mother's great sorrow moves Jesus and causes the miracle of the resurrection" From the audience St. Luke remarks on Jesus' feelings: "The Lord saw her and had compassion for her and said to her: '“Do not weep.”Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still "(vv. 13-14). Great compassion guided the actions of Jesus: it is he who stops the procession touching the coffin and, moved by deep compassion for this mother, decides to face death, as it were, face to face. And he confronts it definitively, face to face, on the Cross. " "When Jesus saw the mother crying, she entered his heart! Everyone arrives at the Holy Door everyone bringing with them thei...

With this gaze of Jesus, you can help bring about another humanity, without looking for acknowledgement but seeking goodness for its own sake, content to maintain a  pure heart and to fight peaceably for honesty and justice.  Don’t stop at the surface of things; distrust the worldly cult of appearances, cosmetic attempts to  improve our looks.  Instead, “download” the best “link” of all, that of a heart which sees and transmits goodness without growing weary.  The joy that you have  freely received from God, please, freely give away (cf. Mt 10:8): so many people are waiting for it!  So many are waiting for it from you. From the homily But Zacchaeus had to face a number of obstacles in order to meet Jesus.  It was not easy for him; he had to face a number of obstacles. At least three of these can  also say something to us. The first obstacle is smallness of stature .  Zacchaeus couldn’t see the Master because he was little.  Ev...

Faith, however, is born and reborn from a life-giving encounter with Jesus, from experiencing how his mercy illumines every situation in our lives.   From the homily What is the Lord asking us to build today in our lives, and even more importantly, upon what is he calling us to build our lives? In seeking an answer to this  question, I would like to suggest three stable foundations upon which we can tirelessly build and rebuild the Christian life.  The first foundation is memory. One grace we can implore is that of being able to remember: to recall what the Lord has done in and for us, and to remind ourselves  that, as today’s Gospel says, he has not forgotten us but “remembered” us (Lk 1:72).  Faith is also hope for your future and a light for life’s journey. Faith is the second foundation I would like to mention. There is always a danger that can dim the  light of faith, and that is the temptation to reduce it to something from the past, somethin...

The Lord’s passing is an encounter of mercy that unites everything around Him to enable us to recognize one who is in need of help and of consolation. From a beggar to a disciple: this is also our path. We are all beggars, all of us. We are always in need of salvation. And all of us, should take this step every day: from beggars to disciples. And so, the blind man sets out behind the Lord and begins to be part of His community. He whom they wanted to silence, now witnesses in a loud voice his encounter with Jesus of Nazareth . From the audience “If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother …. For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore, I command you, you shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land” (Deuteronomy 15:7.11). The contrast between this recommendation of Go...

This (is the) healthy realism of the Catholic Church: the Church never teaches us "or this or that." That is not Catholic. The Church says to us: "this and that." Strive for perfectionism: reconcile with your brother.  Do not insult him. Love him. And if there is a problem, at the very least settle your differences so that war doesn’t break out. This (is) the healthy realism of Catholicism. It is not Catholic (to say) "or this or nothing" From the homily Jesus, said the Pope, urged his confused people to look beyond and go forward.  But at the same time, Christ warned about the harm caused to the people of God by Christians who do not follow their own teachings.  “How many times do we in the Church hear these things: how many times!  ‘But that priest, that man or that woman from the Catholic Action, that bishop, or that Pope tell us we must do this this way!’ and then they do the opposite. This is the scandal that wounds the people and prevents the ...

No Christian can exist without joy. Christians live in joy and amazement because of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. From the homily "A Christian is a man, or a woman, of joy: a man and a woman with joy in their heart. There is no Christian without joy!”  You may be told that there are many such Christians, the Pope warned, but  “they are not Christians! They say they are, but they are not! They are missing something.” “The Christian identity card is joy, the Gospel’s joy, the joy of having been chosen by Jesus, saved by Jesus, regenerated by Jesus; the joy of that hope that Jesus is waiting for us, the joy that - even with the crosses and sufferings we bear in this life - is expressed in another way, which is peace in the certainty that Jesus accompanies us, is with us. " "The Christian,” he added,   “grows in joy through trusting in God. God always remembers his covenant." And in turn, "the Christian knows that God remembers him, that God loves him , ...

Simple take by two Latin Americans about politics and the importance of dialogue and identity. Different context, the same reality Dialogue with the world around us (Pope Francis)   We do well to recall the words of the Second Vatican Council: “The joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well” ( Gaudium et Spes , 1). Here we find the basis for our dialogue with the contemporary world. Responding to the existential issues of people today, especially the young, listening to the language they speak, can lead to a fruitful change , which must take place with the help of the Gospel, the magisterium, and the Church’s social doctrine. The scenarios and the areopagi involved are quite varied. For example, a single city can contain various collective imaginations which create “different cities”. If we remain within the parameters of o...

The Holy Spirit frees us from this ‘orphan-like’ condition which the spirit of the world wants to put us in. From the homily Christian life, Francis reiterated, “is not just an ethical life: it is an encounter with Jesus Christ.” And it is thanks to the Holy Spirit that this encounter takes place: "But we keep the Holy Spirit as a ‘luxury prisoner’ in our hearts: we do not allow the Spirit to push us forward, to move us. The Spirit does everything, knows everything, reminds us what Jesus said, can explain all about Jesus. There is only one thing the Holy Spirit can’t do: make us ‘parlour’ Christians (…) The Holy Spirit cannot make us ‘virtual’ Christians who are not virtuous. The Holy Spirit makes real Christians. The Spirit takes life as it is and prophetically reads the signs of the times pushing us forward (…), the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity” he said. Pope Francis urged all faithful this week to reflect on the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives and...

What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom? What has happened to you, Europe, the home of poets,  philosophers, artists, musicians, and men and women of letters? What has happened to you, Europe, the mother of peoples and nations, the mother of great men and women  who upheld, and even sacrificed their lives for, the dignity of their brothers and sisters? From the address We need to “remember”, to take a step back from the present to listen to the voice of our forebears. Remembering will help us not to repeat our past mistakes (cf. Evangelii Gaudium , 108), but also to re-appropriate those experiences that enabled our peoples to surmount the crises of the past. A memory transfusion can free us from today’s temptation to build hastily on the shifting sands of immediate results, which may produce “quick and easy short-term political gains, but do not enhance human fulfilment” (ibid., 224). [...]  Forms of reduc...

Announce the Easter message, to awaken and resurrect hope in hearts burdened by sadness, in those who struggle to find meaning in life. This is so necessary today. However, we must not proclaim ourselves. Rather, as joyful servants of hope, we must announce the Risen One . From the Easter Vigil homily Peter was looking for Jesus, not himself. He preferred the path of encounter and trust. And so, he got up, just as he was, and ran towards the tomb from where he would return “amazed” (v. 12). This marked the beginning of Peter’s resurrection, the resurrection of his heart. [...]  We, like Peter and the women, cannot discover life by being sad, bereft of hope. Let us not stay imprisoned within ourselves, but let us break open our sealed tombs to the Lord so that he may enter and grant us life. Let us give him the stones of our rancour and the boulders of our past, those heavy burdens of our weaknesses and falls. Christ wants to come and take us by the hand to bring us out of...

But we too remember that each of us knows the extent to which we too are often blind, lacking the radiant light of faith, not because we do not have the Gospel close at hand, but because of an excess of complicated theology. We feel that our soul thirsts for spirituality, not for a lack of Living Water which we only sip from, but because of an excessive “bubbly” spirituality, a “light” spirituality. We feel ourselves also trapped, not so much by insurmountable stone walls or steel enclosures that affect many peoples, but rather by a digital, virtual worldliness that is opened and closed by a simple click . From the Chrism Mass homily The first area where we see God showing excess in his ever-increasing mercy is that of encounter . He gives himself completely and in such a way that every encounter leads to rejoicing. [...]  It would be good for us to ask ourselves: after going to confession, do I rejoice? Or do I move on immediately to the next thing, as we would after going...

God’s glory is revealed, instead, on the cross: it is love, which shines there and spreads. It is a paradoxical glory: without noise, without profit, and without applause. But only this glory renders the Gospel fecund. From an address Unity. Jesus prays to the Father so that His own “may become perfectly one” (John 17:23); He wants them to “be one” (v. 22), as the Father and He . It is His last, most heartbroken request before His Passion: that there be communion in the Church. [...]  Every charism is a grace of God to enhance communion. However, a charism can deteriorate when it is closed or is boastful, when it wishes to be distinguished from others. Therefore, it is necessary to protect it. Protect your charism! How? By following the masterful way: humble and obedient unity....It is always necessary to watch over the charism, purifying eventual human excesses through the search for unity with all and obedience to the Church. [...]  This is the fecundity of the Chu...

Let us voice our truest desire: “[Jesus], let me receive my sight!” From a homily Sin also has this effect: it impoverishes and isolates us. [...]  But Jesus is passing by; he is passing by, and he halts: the Gospel tells us that “he stopped” (v. 49). Our hearts race, because we realize that the Light is gazing upon us, that kindly Light which invites us to come out of our dark blindness.  Jesus’ closeness to us makes us see that when we are far from him there is something important missing from our lives. His presence makes us feel in need of salvation, and this begins the healing of our heart. Then, when our desire to be healed becomes more courageous, it leads to prayer, to crying out fervently and persistently for help, as did Bartimaeus: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (v. 47). [...]  Unfortunately, like the “many” in the Gospel, there is always someone who does not want to stop, who does not want to be bothered by someone else crying out in pain, prefe...

All our expressions of love, of solidarity, of sharing are but a reflection of that love which is God.   From an address God does not  simply have the desire or capacity to love; God is love: charity is his essence, it is his nature.  He is unique, but not solitary; he cannot be alone, he cannot be closed in on himself because he is communion, he is charity; and charity by its nature is communicated and shared.  In this way, God associates man to his life of love, and even if man turns away from him, God does not remain distant but goes out to meet him.  This going out to meet us, culminating in the Incarnation of his Son, is his mercy.   [full text]

The Lord’s mercy goes to meet those who have the courage to face him, but to face him on the truth, on the things that I do and those I do not do, in order to correct me.   From a homily Thus the Pope recalled that “the Lord teaches us the path of action”. And, he added, “how often we find people — ourselves included — so often in the Church” who  proclaim: “I am very Catholic!”. They should be asked, “what do you do?”. For example, Francis noted, “how many parents say they are Catholic, but never have time to  speak to their children, to play with their children, to listen to their children?”. Perhaps, he continued, “they have their parents in a rest home, but they are  always busy and cannot go to visit them, leaving them abandoned there”. Yet they repeat: “I am very Catholic. I belong to that association...”.  This attitude, the Pope stated, is typical of this “religion of talk: I say that I am like this, but I do worldly things. Like those clerics tha...

What is a commitment? What does it mean to be committed? When I am committed, it means that I assume a responsibility — a task towards someone, and it also means the  style, the attitude of fidelity and dedication, of the particular care with which I carry out this task. Every day we are asked to put commitment in the things we do:  in prayer, in work, in study, but also in sport, in free time. In sum, to be committed means to put our good will and our strengths to improve life.  And God is also committed to us. His first commitment was to create the world and, despite our attempts to ruin it — and there are so many –, He is committed to  maintaining it alive. However, His greatest commitment was to give us Jesus. This is God’s great commitment! Yes, Jesus is in fact the extreme commitment that God  assumed in his dealings with us. Saint Paul reminds us of it when he writes that God “did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). And, in...

From the homily Jesus is the novelty and the fulfillment: He presents Himself to us as the endless surprise of God. In this Child, born for all, the past — made of memory and promise –, and the future — full of hope come together. [...]  The vocation, in fact, does not take the movements of a plan of ours thought “at table,” but from a grace of the Lord who reaches us through an encounter that changes our life. He is the novelty that makes all things new. One who lives this encounter becomes a witness and makes possible the encounter for others; and makes him also a promoter of the culture of encounter, avoiding self-reference that makes us remain closed in ourselves. [...]  Our Founders were moved by the Spirit and were not afraid to soil their hands in daily life, with the people’s problems, going with courage to the geographic and existential fringes. They did not stop in face of obstacles and the incomprehension of others, because they kept in their heart the wonder of...