miniZibaldone

In this exclamation, “It is the Lord,” there is all of the enthusiasm of paschal faith. “It is the Lord,” full of joy and wonder, in stark contrast with the confusion, the desperation, the sense of impotence that had afflicted the spirit of the disciples. From the Regina Caeli The Gospel of today tells of the third apparition of the Risen Jesus to the disciples...  The story is placed in the framework of the daily life of the disciples, when they have returned to their lands and their work as fishermen, after the distressing days of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. It was difficult for them to understand what had happened. But while everything seemed to have ended, it is once again Jesus who “seeks” his disciples. It is he who goes in search of them. [...]  The presence of the Risen Jesus transforms everything: darkness is overcome by light; useless work becomes again fruitful and promising; the feeling of tiredness and abandonment gives way to a new st...

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...

  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...