Book of Genesis 2:18-24. The Lord God says: "It is not good for man to be alone. I'm going to make him a help that will suit him. » With the earth, the Lord God shaped all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air, and brought them to man to see what names he would give them. They were living beings, and man gave each one a name. Man therefore gave their names to all the animals, to the birds of the air and to all the beasts of the field. But he found no help that suited him. Then the Lord God made a mysterious sleep fall on him, and the man fell asleep. The Lord God took one of his ribs, and then closed the flesh in his place. With the rib he had taken from the man, he shaped a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This time, this is the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh! She will be called a woman - Ishsha -, she who was taken from the man - Ish. » Because of this, the man will leave his father and mother, he will become attached to his wife, and the two of them will become one.
Psalm 128(127),1-2.3.4-5.6. Happy who fears the Lord and walks according to his ways! You will feed on the work of your hands: Blessed are you! Happiness is yours!
Your wife will be in your house. like a generous vine, and your sons, around the table, like olive trees.
This is how it will be blessed the man who fears the Lord. From Zion, may the Lord bless you! You will see the happiness of Jerusalem all the days of your life. and you'll see your sons' sons. Peace to Israel!
Letter to the Hebrews 2:9-11. But Jesus, who was lowered a little below the angels, we see him crowned with glory and honor because of his Passion and death. If he has therefore experienced death, it is, by the grace of God, for the benefit of all. He for whom and through whom everything exists wanted to lead a multitude of sons to glory; that is why it was appropriate that he should lead to his perfection, through sufferings, the one who is at the origin of their salvation. For he who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, must all have the same origin; for this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers,
Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark 10:2-16. Pharisees approached him and, to put him to the test, they asked him: "Is it permissible for a husband to send his wife away?" Jesus answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They told him: "Moses allowed his wife to be sent away on condition that an act of repudiation be established. » Jesus replied: "It is because of the hardness of your hearts that he has formulated this rule for you. But at the beginning of creation, God made them man and woman. Because of this, the man will leave his father and mother, he will become attached to his wife, and both will become one flesh. Thus, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has united, let man not separate it! » Back home, the disciples asked him again about this question. He told them: "He who sends his wife away and marries another becomes adulterous towards her. If a woman who has sent her husband away marries another, she becomes an adulterer. » People presented children to Jesus for him to lay his hand on them; but the disciples dismissed them sharply. Seeing this, Jesus became angry and said to them, "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God is to those who are like them. I tell you, he who does not accept the kingdom of God in the manner of a child will not enter it. » He kissed them and blessed them by laying his hands on them.
FAUSTI - " The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them", Jesus says of the children who flock around Him. There is a deep understanding with them, that escapes the disciples, He embraces them, wishes them to come to Him, blesses them and places His hands upon them. The previous chapter talked about the relationship "with the other", ruined by sin and restored by Jesus. Here this chapter talks about the new relationship with oneself, necessary in order to enter the kingdom. Adam, who had placed his own ego at the center of everything, discovering that he was naked and in need of everything, fled from God because he was afraid. The child is quietly poor and receives everything. Nothing by himself, it's what others make of him. And he lives all this naturally. Running with trust to those who welcome him, giving free expression to his filial condition, accepted by others and by him as the only possibility of surviving. But this applies to every man, who is fundamentally a relationship and a filial belonging. He is "of someone" as a child. If he does not want to be of God, he becomes of himself, of others or of something else, alienating himself respectively in selfishness, in slavery or in idolatry. The presumed self-sufficiency is actually the death of the self. Man is essentially a child, who receives as a gift of love all he has and he is, including his own self. Otherwise, he does not exist. No one, in effect, gives what he does not have, and no one has what he has not received. Pride, which is, in fact, afraid of not being loved, preventing from receiving, makes impossible to be loved and to love. Jesus, the new Adam, is the first who has lived in fullness the filial condition. His being completely of the Father, by Him and for Him, this is His infinite richness, which He pours out upon all brothers, who gather around Him. Those who are great and the powerful do not come to Him, but those who are like Him, little and poor. Welcomed by the Son, they enter the Kingdom of the Father. The disciple is he who has nothing and receives everything. He is a son, what he is, is a gift, and as such he accepts himself joyfully. He rediscovers the true dignity of man : to be a partner of God and to love Him wholeheartedly. He lives the marriage as an image of this great mystery. For him, the divorce is a shipwreck, love has not gone to port. The monogamy, more than a law, is an evangelical gift. It derives from the awareness of the love with which one is loved and to whom one is called.
In the Gospel of today’s Liturgy we see Jesus react somewhat unusually: He is indignant. And what is most surprising is that his indignation is not caused by the Pharisees who put him to the test with questions about the lawfulness of divorce, but by his disciples who, to protect him from the crowd of people, rebuke some children who had been brought to Jesus. In other words, the Lord is not angry with those who argue with him, but with those who, in order to relieve him of his burden, distance the children from him. Why? It is a good question: why does the Lord do this?
Let us remember — it was the Gospel reading of two Sundays ago — that while performing the gesture of embracing a child, Jesus had identified himself with the little ones: he had taught that it is indeed the little ones, namely, those who depend on others, who are in need and cannot reciprocate, that should be served first (cf. Mk 9:35-37). Those who seek God find him there, in the little ones, in those in need: in need not only of material goods, but of care and comfort, such as the sick, the humiliated, prisoners, immigrants, the incarcerated. He is there: in the little ones. This is why Jesus is indignant: any affront to a little one, a poor person, a child, a defenceless person, is done to him.
Today the Lord picks up this teaching again and completes it. In fact, he adds: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mk 10:15). Here is what is new: the disciple must not only serve the little ones, but also acknowledge himself as a little one. And does each of us recognise ourselves as being little before God? Let us think about this, it will help us. Awareness of being little, awareness of being in need of salvation is indispensable in welcoming the Lord. It is the first step in opening ourselves up to him. Often, however, we forget about this. In prosperity, in well-being, we have the illusion of being self-sufficient, that we suffice to ourselves, that we do not need God. Brothers and sisters, this is a deception, because each one of us is a person in need, a little one. We must seek out our own smallness and recognise it. And there, we will find Jesus.
---<In life, recognising oneself as little, is a starting point for growing. If we think about it, we grow, not so much on the basis of our successes and the things we have, but above all in difficult and fragile moments. There, in our need, we mature; there we open our hearts to God, to others, to the meaning of life. Let us open our eyes to others. Let us open our eyes, when we are little, to the true meaning of life. When we feel small in the face of a problem, small in front of a cross, an illness, when we experience fatigue and loneliness, let us not be discouraged. The mask of superficiality is falling away and our radical fragility is re-emerging: it is our common ground, our treasure, because with God frailty is not an obstacle but an opportunity. This would be a beautiful prayer: “Lord, look at my frailties…” and list them before him. This is a good attitude before God.
Indeed, it is precisely in our frailty that we discover how much God takes care of us. The Gospel today says that Jesus is very tender with the little ones: “he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them” (v. 16). The difficulties and situations that reveal our frailties are privileged opportunities to experience his love. Those who pray with perseverance know this well: in dark or lonely moments, God’s tenderness towards us makes itself, so to speak, even more present. When we are little, we feel God’s tenderness more. This tenderness gives us peace; this tenderness makes us grow, because God draws close to us in his way, which is nearness, compassion and tenderness. And, when we feel we are little, small, for whatever reason, the Lord comes closer, we feel he is closer. He gives us peace; he makes us grow. In prayer the Lord draws us close to him, like a father with his child. This is how we grow: not in the illusory pretence of our self-sufficiency — this makes no one grow — but in the strength of placing all our hope in the Father, just like the little ones do; they do this.
Today let us ask the Virgin Mary for a huge grace, that of littleness: to be children who trust the Father, certain that he will not fail to take care of us.
Book of Genesis 2:18-24.
RispondiEliminaThe Lord God says: "It is not good for man to be alone. I'm going to make him a help that will suit him. »
With the earth, the Lord God shaped all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air, and brought them to man to see what names he would give them. They were living beings, and man gave each one a name.
Man therefore gave their names to all the animals, to the birds of the air and to all the beasts of the field. But he found no help that suited him.
Then the Lord God made a mysterious sleep fall on him, and the man fell asleep. The Lord God took one of his ribs, and then closed the flesh in his place.
With the rib he had taken from the man, he shaped a woman and brought her to the man.
Then the man said, "This time, this is the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh! She will be called a woman - Ishsha -, she who was taken from the man - Ish. »
Because of this, the man will leave his father and mother, he will become attached to his wife, and the two of them will become one.
Psalm 128(127),1-2.3.4-5.6.
Happy who fears the Lord
and walks according to his ways!
You will feed on the work of your hands:
Blessed are you! Happiness is yours!
Your wife will be in your house.
like a generous vine,
and your sons, around the table,
like olive trees.
This is how it will be blessed
the man who fears the Lord.
From Zion, may the Lord bless you!
You will see the happiness of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
and you'll see your sons' sons. Peace to Israel!
Letter to the Hebrews 2:9-11.
But Jesus, who was lowered a little below the angels, we see him crowned with glory and honor because of his Passion and death. If he has therefore experienced death, it is, by the grace of God, for the benefit of all.
He for whom and through whom everything exists wanted to lead a multitude of sons to glory; that is why it was appropriate that he should lead to his perfection, through sufferings, the one who is at the origin of their salvation.
For he who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified, must all have the same origin; for this reason, Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers,
Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Mark 10:2-16.
Pharisees approached him and, to put him to the test, they asked him: "Is it permissible for a husband to send his wife away?"
Jesus answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
They told him: "Moses allowed his wife to be sent away on condition that an act of repudiation be established. »
Jesus replied: "It is because of the hardness of your hearts that he has formulated this rule for you.
But at the beginning of creation, God made them man and woman.
Because of this, the man will leave his father and mother,
he will become attached to his wife, and both will become one flesh. Thus, they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore, what God has united, let man not separate it! »
Back home, the disciples asked him again about this question.
He told them: "He who sends his wife away and marries another becomes adulterous towards her.
If a woman who has sent her husband away marries another, she becomes an adulterer. »
People presented children to Jesus for him to lay his hand on them; but the disciples dismissed them sharply.
Seeing this, Jesus became angry and said to them, "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God is to those who are like them.
I tell you, he who does not accept the kingdom of God in the manner of a child will not enter it. »
He kissed them and blessed them by laying his hands on them.
FAUSTI - " The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like them", Jesus says of the children who flock around Him. There is a deep understanding with them, that escapes the disciples, He embraces them, wishes them to come to Him, blesses them and places His hands upon them. The previous chapter talked about the relationship "with the other", ruined by sin and restored by Jesus. Here this chapter talks about the new relationship with oneself, necessary in order to enter the kingdom. Adam, who had placed his own ego at the center of everything, discovering that he was naked and in need of everything, fled from God because he was afraid. The child is quietly poor and receives everything.
RispondiEliminaNothing by himself, it's what others make of him. And he lives all this naturally. Running with trust to those who welcome him, giving free expression to his filial condition, accepted by others and by him as the only possibility of surviving. But this applies to every man, who is fundamentally a relationship and a filial belonging.
He is "of someone" as a child. If he does not want to be of God, he becomes of himself, of others or of something else, alienating himself respectively in selfishness, in slavery or in idolatry. The presumed self-sufficiency is actually the death of the self. Man is essentially a child, who receives as a gift of love all he has and he is, including his own self. Otherwise, he does not exist.
No one, in effect, gives what he does not have, and no one has what he has not received. Pride, which is, in fact, afraid of not being loved, preventing from receiving, makes impossible to be loved and to love.
Jesus, the new Adam, is the first who has lived in fullness the filial condition. His being completely of the Father, by Him and for Him, this is His infinite richness, which He pours out upon all brothers, who gather around Him.
Those who are great and the powerful do not come to Him, but those who are like Him, little and poor. Welcomed by the Son, they enter the Kingdom of the Father.
The disciple is he who has nothing and receives everything. He is a son, what he is, is a gift, and as such he accepts himself joyfully. He rediscovers the true dignity of man : to be a partner of God and to love Him wholeheartedly.
He lives the marriage as an image of this great mystery. For him, the divorce is a shipwreck, love has not gone to port. The monogamy, more than a law, is an evangelical gift. It derives from the awareness of the love with which one is loved and to whom one is called.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS, 3 October 2021
Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!
In the Gospel of today’s Liturgy we see Jesus react somewhat unusually: He is indignant. And what is most surprising is that his indignation is not caused by the Pharisees who put him to the test with questions about the lawfulness of divorce, but by his disciples who, to protect him from the crowd of people, rebuke some children who had been brought to Jesus. In other words, the Lord is not angry with those who argue with him, but with those who, in order to relieve him of his burden, distance the children from him. Why? It is a good question: why does the Lord do this?
Let us remember — it was the Gospel reading of two Sundays ago — that while performing the gesture of embracing a child, Jesus had identified himself with the little ones: he had taught that it is indeed the little ones, namely, those who depend on others, who are in need and cannot reciprocate, that should be served first (cf. Mk 9:35-37). Those who seek God find him there, in the little ones, in those in need: in need not only of material goods, but of care and comfort, such as the sick, the humiliated, prisoners, immigrants, the incarcerated. He is there: in the little ones. This is why Jesus is indignant: any affront to a little one, a poor person, a child, a defenceless person, is done to him.
Today the Lord picks up this teaching again and completes it. In fact, he adds: “Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mk 10:15). Here is what is new: the disciple must not only serve the little ones, but also acknowledge himself as a little one. And does each of us recognise ourselves as being little before God? Let us think about this, it will help us. Awareness of being little, awareness of being in need of salvation is indispensable in welcoming the Lord. It is the first step in opening ourselves up to him. Often, however, we forget about this. In prosperity, in well-being, we have the illusion of being self-sufficient, that we suffice to ourselves, that we do not need God. Brothers and sisters, this is a deception, because each one of us is a person in need, a little one. We must seek out our own smallness and recognise it. And there, we will find Jesus.
---<In life, recognising oneself as little, is a starting point for growing. If we think about it, we grow, not so much on the basis of our successes and the things we have, but above all in difficult and fragile moments. There, in our need, we mature; there we open our hearts to God, to others, to the meaning of life. Let us open our eyes to others. Let us open our eyes, when we are little, to the true meaning of life. When we feel small in the face of a problem, small in front of a cross, an illness, when we experience fatigue and loneliness, let us not be discouraged. The mask of superficiality is falling away and our radical fragility is re-emerging: it is our common ground, our treasure, because with God frailty is not an obstacle but an opportunity. This would be a beautiful prayer: “Lord, look at my frailties…” and list them before him. This is a good attitude before God.
EliminaIndeed, it is precisely in our frailty that we discover how much God takes care of us. The Gospel today says that Jesus is very tender with the little ones: “he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them” (v. 16). The difficulties and situations that reveal our frailties are privileged opportunities to experience his love. Those who pray with perseverance know this well: in dark or lonely moments, God’s tenderness towards us makes itself, so to speak, even more present. When we are little, we feel God’s tenderness more. This tenderness gives us peace; this tenderness makes us grow, because God draws close to us in his way, which is nearness, compassion and tenderness. And, when we feel we are little, small, for whatever reason, the Lord comes closer, we feel he is closer. He gives us peace; he makes us grow. In prayer the Lord draws us close to him, like a father with his child. This is how we grow: not in the illusory pretence of our self-sufficiency — this makes no one grow — but in the strength of placing all our hope in the Father, just like the little ones do; they do this.
Today let us ask the Virgin Mary for a huge grace, that of littleness: to be children who trust the Father, certain that he will not fail to take care of us.