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]

“The poor are the treasure of the Church.” Abstract theories lead us to ideologies and ideologies lead us to deny that God became flesh, he became one of us! It is a life shared with the poor that transforms and converts us. From an address to poor pilgrims Since Jesus wanted to share in your condition, out of love he became one of you: despised by men, forgotten, one who does not count for much. When you happen to experience all of this, do not forget that Jesus also experienced it like you. It is proof that you are precious in his eyes, and that he is near to you. You are in the heart of the Church, as Father Giuseppe Wresinski said, because Jesus, in his life, always gave priority to people who were like you, who lived similar situations.  And the Church, who loves and prefers what Jesus loved and preferred, cannot rest until she has reached all those who experience rejection, exclusion, and feel that they do not matter to anyone. In the heart of the Church, you allow us ...

Others make us question ourselves. And when others do not have this effect on us, something there is not right; something in such hearts is not Christian. From the angelus And He says to each of us: “Go and do likewise,” especially to the brother or sister you see in trouble. “Go and do likewise.'” Do good works, do not just say words that go to the wind. A song comes to mind: “Words, words, words.” No. Please, do. Act. And by the good works that we do with love and joy for others, our faith grows and bears fruit. Let us ask ourselves – each of us responding in our heart – let us ask ourselves: Is our faith fruitful? Does our faith produce good works? Or it is rather sterile, and therefore more dead than alive? Am I ‘the neighbor’ or do I simply just pass along? Or am I among those who select people according to their own pleasure? It’s good to ask ourselves these questions and often because, in the end, we will be judged on the works of mercy. The Lord will say to us: ‘But y...

We must not wait for prodigious events to be converted, but we must open our heart to the Word of God, which calls us to love God and our neighbor. The Word of God  can make an arid heart revive and heal it of its blindness. From the audience Jesus says that one day that rich man will die: the poor and the rich die, they have the same destiny, as do all of us; there are no exceptions to this. And then  that man turns to Abraham, begging him with the appellation of “father” (vv. 24.27). He claims, therefore, to be his son, belonging to the People of God. Yet in life  he showed no consideration to God; instead, he made himself the center of everything, shut-in in his world of luxury and waste. Excluding Lazarus, he did not take  into account either the Lord or His Law. To ignore the poor is to scorn God! We must learn this well: to ignore the poor is to scorn God. [...]  There is a particular point in the parable to be noted: the rich man does not have a name...

You can become a neighbor to anyone you meet in need, and you will be so if you have compassion in your heart, that is, if you have that capacity to suffer with the  other. From the general audience And here the parable offers us a first teaching: it is not automatic that one who frequents God’s house and knows His mercy is able to love his neighbor. It is not  automatic! One can know the whole Bible, one can know all the liturgical rubrics, one can know all the theology, but from knowing, loving is not automatic: loving  has another way, intelligence is needed but also something more … The priest and the Levite saw, but ignored; looked but did not provide. Yet true worship does not  exist if it is not translated into service to one’s neighbor. Let us never forget it: in the face of the suffering of so many people destroyed by hunger, by violence  and by injustices, we cannot remain spectators. What does it mean to ignore man’s suffering? It means to ignor...