Book of Isaiah 61,1-2a.10-11. The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn; I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels. As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, So will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 1,46-48.49-50.53-54.
Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant; from this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel , remembering his promise of mercy,
First Letter to the Thessalonians 5,16-24. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil. May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 1,6-8.19-28.
A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, "Who are you?" he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, "I am not the Messiah." So they asked him, "What are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No." So they said to him, "Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?" He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' as Isaiah the prophet said." Some Pharisees were also sent. They asked him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?" John answered them, "I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie." This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
ANGELUS 13 December 2020 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
The invitation to joy is characteristic of the season of Advent: the expectation of Jesus’ birth that we experience is joyful, somewhat like when we await the visit of a person we love a great deal, for example, a friend whom we have not seen for a long time, a relative... We are in joyful anticipation. And this dimension of joy emerges particularly today, the Third Sunday, which opens with Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Entrance Antiphon; cf. Phil 4:4, 5). “Rejoice!”: Christian joy. And what is the reason for this joy? That “the Lord is at hand” (v. 5). The closer the Lord is to us, the more joy we feel; the farther away he is, the more sadness we feel. This is a rule for Christians. A philosopher once said something more or less like this: “I do not understand how one can believe today, because those who say they believe have a face from a funeral wake. They do not bear witness to the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Many Christians have that face, yes, a face from a funeral wake, a face of sadness... But Christ is risen! Christ loves you! And you have no joy? Let us think a bit about this and let us ask: “Do I have joy because the Lord is close to me, because the Lord loves me, because the Lord has redeemed me?”.
The Gospel according to John today presents us the biblical character who — excluding Our Lady and Saint Joseph — first and most fully experienced the expectation of the Messiah and the joy of seeing him arrive: naturally, we are speaking of John the Baptist (cf. Jn 1:6-8, 19-28).
The Evangelist introduces him in a solemn way: “There was a man sent from God... He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light” (vv. 6-7). The Baptist is the first witness to Jesus, with the word and with the gift of his life. All the Gospels agree in showing that he fulfilled his mission by indicating Jesus as the Christ, the One sent by God, promised by the Prophets. John was a leader of his time. His renown had spread throughout Judea and beyond, to Galilee. But he did not surrender even for an instant to the temptation to draw attention to himself: he always oriented himself toward the One who was to come. He used to say: “he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” (v. 27). Always indicating the Lord. Like Our Lady: always indicating the Lord: “Do whatever he tells you”. The Lord is always at the centre. The Saints around him, indicating the Lord. And one who does not indicate the Lord is not holy! This is the first condition of Christian joy: to decentralize from oneself and place Jesus at the centre. This is not alienation, because Jesus is effectively the centre; he is the light that gives full meaning to the life of every man and woman who comes into this world. It is the same dynamism of love, which leads me to come out of myself, not to lose myself but to find myself again, while I give myself, while I seek the good of others.
-->John the Baptist undertook a long journey to come to bear witness to Jesus. The journey of joy is not a walk in the park. It takes work to always be joyful. John left everything, in his youth, to put God in first place, to listen to His Word with all his heart and all his strength. John withdrew into the desert, stripping himself of all things superfluous, in order to be freer to follow the wind of the Holy Spirit. Of course, some of his personality traits are unique, unrepeatable; they cannot be recommended for everyone. But his witness is paradigmatic for whoever wishes to seek the meaning of his or her life and find true joy. In particular, the Baptist is a model for those in the Church who are called to proclaim Christ to others: they are able to do so only by detaching from themselves and from worldliness, by not attracting people to themselves but directing them toward Jesus.
This is joy: directing toward Jesus. And joy must be the characteristic of our faith. Even in dark moments, that inner joy, of knowing that the Lord is with me, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord is Risen. The Lord! The Lord! The Lord! This is the centre of our life, and this is the centre of our joy. Think carefully today: how do I behave? Am I a joyful person who knows how to transmit the joy of being Christian, or am I always like those glum people, as I said before, who seem to be at a funeral wake? If I do not have the joy of my faith, I cannot bear and others will say: “But if faith is so sad, it is better not to have it”.
By praying the Angelus now, we see all of this fully realized in the Virgin Mary: she silently awaited God’s Word of salvation; she welcomed it; she listened to it; she conceived it. In her, God became close. This is why the Church calls Mary a “Cause of our joy”.
FAUSTI - If from time immemorial the "Word was towards God", there was and there will always be "a man sent by God to witness to others". John is a figure of the wise men and prophets who, everywhere and always, have awakened their brothers to the light. The purpose of their witness is that "all" recognize the light of life and enter into the mysterious dialogue with God that leads them to live their truth. Otherwise, even if darkness does not stop the light, there is only a dull and twilight existence, which tends to death. It is underlined that the wise men and the prophets, of Israel and of all peoples, are not the light: they are enlightened by the Word and they witness it to others, so that all may receive the light of life. An enlightened person who thinks himself as a light is in the deepest night. Testimony gives voice to the Word here and now. The poetic prologue is followed by a narrative prologue, in the form of a process, with interrogation and answers. In this prologue the personages of the drama enter the scene. On one side are the protagonists and on the other the antagonists of the Word. On one side are John and Jesus, respectively the witness of the Word and the Word witnessed - man before God and God before man - and on the other side are the Jews, priests, Levites and Pharisees, the ruling power, the opponents of the Word.This trial, which begins here against the Baptist, will continue against Jesus and then against his disciples. It is the same that takes place within those who, hearing the Word, find themselves in the situation of being its adversary or its witness, called to decide between lies and truth, slavery and freedom, darkness and light, life and death. The other synoptics describe John in greater detail. Here everything is made essential, with the result t of making him the typical representant of the Word: he awaits it, he senses it present, it is revealed to him in Jesus, he recognizes it and he indicates it to others. In him we see the path that leads to the discovery of the Logos become flesh, with the necessary dispositions to meet the only-begotten Son, the narrator of the Father to His brothers and sisters, the fulfillment of every promise of God to mankind. The Baptist is the man of desires. If desire concerns what must be and is not yet there, he defines himself first of all as the one who "is not". His being is addressed to something else, to the Other. He is an "eccentric" man, with the center outside himself, he is attracted, unbalanced, set in motion by it. John is the Israel who believes in the God who promises and knows that there is a fulfillment of His promise. He is first and foremost a seeker. He is not satisfied by his search - it would be a frustration - but he finds what he desires and communicates to others the joy of his discovery. The witness is a free spirit, in contradiction with the dominant mentality. He is a restless and clear conscience, in search of the truth; once he has found it, he lives it and proclaims it, anticipating what, sooner or later, will be accepted by others as well. He does not say "I am", as reserved in the Gospel for Jesus, but "I, the voice". After the triple negation, his "I", his identity, is to be "voice" that cries out the "Word" of which he is a witness. John lends voice to the expectation of both Israel and all humanity in search of its light. Every cry of man, who has not ceased to hope, finds in him its own voice. The voice prepares the Way of the Lord through which we go to Him and He comes to us. The prophet keeps man in God's way, which is not our way: it is the way of freedom, which passes through Truth and Justice. Whoever does not thirst for freedom, truth and justice - an inseparable combination - cannot know God or man.
--->Jews, priests, Levites and Pharisees are the recognized authorities of the people. Instead of growing it in the way of the Lord, they suffocate it under their power. The relationship between prophecy and institution is always "critical". The prophet in fact calls to obey and serve the truth, not to use it to be obeyed by the people and, if possible, by God himself. John is sent to baptize; only later will he understand the profound reason for it. He proclaims "a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins". His baptism may fit into a common religious symbolism . To immerse oneself and come out of the water means to die to a dead life in order to be reborn to a beautiful and just existence. If the immersion expresses the reality of death, the emergence expresses the desire for life. The very consciousness of death and injustice is already a protest against injustice and death, an aspiration to a full and just life. With his baptism John intends to prepare that of the Messiah, who will baptize in the Spirit. "In the midst of you stands He whom you do not know" In the world there is always a presence of the Unknown One waiting to reveal itself. John calls it out to everyone.
from "omelia" of P. Ronchi John is the "martyr" of light, the witness that the approach of God transfigures, is like a handful of light thrown in the face of the world, not to dazzle, but to awaken the forms, the colors and the beauty of things, to widen the horizons of the world. and the beauty of things, to broaden the horizon. Witness that the cornerstone on which history rests is not sin but grace, not mud but a ray of sunshine, which never gives way. Every believer is assigned the same prophecy as the Baptist: to announce not the decay, the ruin, the rot that threatens us, but eyes that see God walking among us, pilgrim sandals and a heart of light: in the midst of you stands One Whom you do not know.
Book of Isaiah 61,1-2a.10-11.
RispondiEliminaThe spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favor from the LORD and a day of vindication by our God, to comfort all who mourn;
I rejoice heartily in the LORD, in my God is the joy of my soul; For he has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem, like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants, and a garden makes its growth spring up, So will the Lord GOD make justice and praise spring up before all the nations.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint Luke
1,46-48.49-50.53-54.
Mary said: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked with favor on his lowly servant;
from this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel ,
remembering his promise of mercy,
First Letter to
the Thessalonians 5,16-24.
Rejoice always.
Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ
according to Saint John 1,6-8.19-28.
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites (to him) to ask him, "Who are you?"
he admitted and did not deny it, but admitted, "I am not the Messiah."
So they asked him, "What are you then? Are you Elijah?" And he said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" He answered, "No."
So they said to him, "Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us? What do you have to say for yourself?"
He said: "I am 'the voice of one crying out in the desert, "Make straight the way of the Lord,"' as Isaiah the prophet said."
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him, "Why then do you baptize if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?"
John answered them, "I baptize with water; but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie."
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
POPE FRANCIS
RispondiEliminaANGELUS 13 December 2020
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good morning!
The invitation to joy is characteristic of the season of Advent: the expectation of Jesus’ birth that we experience is joyful, somewhat like when we await the visit of a person we love a great deal, for example, a friend whom we have not seen for a long time, a relative... We are in joyful anticipation. And this dimension of joy emerges particularly today, the Third Sunday, which opens with Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Entrance Antiphon; cf. Phil 4:4, 5). “Rejoice!”: Christian joy. And what is the reason for this joy? That “the Lord is at hand” (v. 5). The closer the Lord is to us, the more joy we feel; the farther away he is, the more sadness we feel. This is a rule for Christians. A philosopher once said something more or less like this: “I do not understand how one can believe today, because those who say they believe have a face from a funeral wake. They do not bear witness to the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Many Christians have that face, yes, a face from a funeral wake, a face of sadness... But Christ is risen! Christ loves you! And you have no joy? Let us think a bit about this and let us ask: “Do I have joy because the Lord is close to me, because the Lord loves me, because the Lord has redeemed me?”.
The Gospel according to John today presents us the biblical character who — excluding Our Lady and Saint Joseph — first and most fully experienced the expectation of the Messiah and the joy of seeing him arrive: naturally, we are speaking of John the Baptist (cf. Jn 1:6-8, 19-28).
The Evangelist introduces him in a solemn way: “There was a man sent from God... He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light” (vv. 6-7). The Baptist is the first witness to Jesus, with the word and with the gift of his life. All the Gospels agree in showing that he fulfilled his mission by indicating Jesus as the Christ, the One sent by God, promised by the Prophets. John was a leader of his time. His renown had spread throughout Judea and beyond, to Galilee. But he did not surrender even for an instant to the temptation to draw attention to himself: he always oriented himself toward the One who was to come. He used to say: “he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie” (v. 27). Always indicating the Lord. Like Our Lady: always indicating the Lord: “Do whatever he tells you”. The Lord is always at the centre. The Saints around him, indicating the Lord. And one who does not indicate the Lord is not holy! This is the first condition of Christian joy: to decentralize from oneself and place Jesus at the centre. This is not alienation, because Jesus is effectively the centre; he is the light that gives full meaning to the life of every man and woman who comes into this world. It is the same dynamism of love, which leads me to come out of myself, not to lose myself but to find myself again, while I give myself, while I seek the good of others.
-->John the Baptist undertook a long journey to come to bear witness to Jesus. The journey of joy is not a walk in the park. It takes work to always be joyful. John left everything, in his youth, to put God in first place, to listen to His Word with all his heart and all his strength. John withdrew into the desert, stripping himself of all things superfluous, in order to be freer to follow the wind of the Holy Spirit. Of course, some of his personality traits are unique, unrepeatable; they cannot be recommended for everyone. But his witness is paradigmatic for whoever wishes to seek the meaning of his or her life and find true joy. In particular, the Baptist is a model for those in the Church who are called to proclaim Christ to others: they are able to do so only by detaching from themselves and from worldliness, by not attracting people to themselves but directing them toward Jesus.
EliminaThis is joy: directing toward Jesus. And joy must be the characteristic of our faith. Even in dark moments, that inner joy, of knowing that the Lord is with me, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord is Risen. The Lord! The Lord! The Lord! This is the centre of our life, and this is the centre of our joy. Think carefully today: how do I behave? Am I a joyful person who knows how to transmit the joy of being Christian, or am I always like those glum people, as I said before, who seem to be at a funeral wake? If I do not have the joy of my faith, I cannot bear and others will say: “But if faith is so sad, it is better not to have it”.
By praying the Angelus now, we see all of this fully realized in the Virgin Mary: she silently awaited God’s Word of salvation; she welcomed it; she listened to it; she conceived it. In her, God became close. This is why the Church calls Mary a “Cause of our joy”.
FAUSTI - If from time immemorial the "Word was towards God", there was and there will always be "a man sent by God to witness to others".
RispondiEliminaJohn is a figure of the wise men and prophets who, everywhere and always, have awakened their brothers to the light. The purpose of their witness is that "all" recognize the light of life and enter into the mysterious dialogue with God that leads them to live their truth. Otherwise, even if darkness does not stop the light, there is only a dull and twilight existence, which tends to death. It is underlined that the wise men and the prophets, of Israel and of all peoples, are not the light: they are enlightened by the Word and they witness it to others, so that all may receive the light of life. An enlightened person who thinks himself as a light is in the deepest night. Testimony gives voice to the Word here and now. The poetic prologue is followed by a narrative prologue, in the form of a process, with interrogation and answers. In this prologue the personages of the drama enter the scene. On one side are the protagonists and on the other the antagonists of the Word. On one side are John and Jesus, respectively the witness of the Word and the Word witnessed - man before God and God before man - and on the other side are the Jews, priests, Levites and Pharisees, the ruling power, the opponents of the Word.This trial, which begins here against the Baptist, will continue against Jesus and then against his disciples. It is the same that takes place within those who, hearing the Word, find themselves in the situation of being its adversary or its witness, called to decide between lies and truth, slavery and freedom, darkness and light, life and death.
The other synoptics describe John in greater detail. Here everything is made essential, with the result t of making him the typical representant of the Word: he awaits it, he senses it present, it is revealed to him in Jesus, he recognizes it and he indicates it to others.
In him we see the path that leads to the discovery of the Logos become flesh, with the necessary dispositions to meet the only-begotten Son, the narrator of the Father to His brothers and sisters, the fulfillment of every promise of God to mankind.
The Baptist is the man of desires. If desire concerns what must be and is not yet there, he defines himself first of all as the one who "is not". His being is addressed to something else, to the Other. He is an "eccentric" man, with the center outside himself, he is attracted, unbalanced, set in motion by it. John is the Israel who believes in the God who promises and knows that there is a fulfillment of His promise. He is first and foremost a seeker. He is not satisfied by his search - it would be a frustration - but he finds what he desires and communicates to others the joy of his discovery.
The witness is a free spirit, in contradiction with the dominant mentality. He is a restless and clear conscience, in search of the truth; once he has found it, he lives it and proclaims it, anticipating what, sooner or later, will be accepted by others as well. He does not say "I am", as reserved in the Gospel for Jesus, but "I, the voice". After the triple negation, his "I", his identity, is to be "voice" that cries out the "Word" of which he is a witness. John lends voice to the expectation of both Israel and all humanity in search of its light. Every cry of man, who has not ceased to hope, finds in him its own voice.
The voice prepares the Way of the Lord through which we go to Him and He comes to us.
The prophet keeps man in God's way, which is not our way: it is the way of freedom, which passes through Truth and Justice. Whoever does not thirst for freedom, truth and justice - an inseparable combination - cannot know God or man.
--->Jews, priests, Levites and Pharisees are the recognized authorities of the people. Instead of growing it in the way of the Lord, they suffocate it under their power.
RispondiEliminaThe relationship between prophecy and institution is always "critical". The prophet in fact calls to obey and serve the truth, not to use it to be obeyed by the people and, if possible, by God himself.
John is sent to baptize; only later will he understand the profound reason for it. He proclaims "a baptism of conversion for the forgiveness of sins". His baptism may fit into a common religious symbolism . To immerse oneself and come out of the water means to die to a dead life in order to be reborn to a beautiful and just existence.
If the immersion expresses the reality of death, the emergence expresses the desire for life. The very consciousness of death and injustice is already a protest against injustice and death, an aspiration to a full and just life.
With his baptism John intends to prepare that of the Messiah, who will baptize in the Spirit. "In the midst of you stands He whom you do not know" In the world there is always a presence of the Unknown One waiting to reveal itself. John calls it out to everyone.
from "omelia" of P. Ronchi
John is the "martyr" of light, the witness that the approach of God transfigures, is like a handful of light thrown in the face of the world, not to dazzle, but to awaken the forms, the colors and the beauty of things, to widen the horizons of the world.
and the beauty of things, to broaden the horizon. Witness that the cornerstone on which history rests is not sin but grace, not mud but a ray of sunshine, which never gives way.
Every believer is assigned the same prophecy as the Baptist: to announce not the decay, the ruin, the rot that threatens us, but eyes that see God walking among us, pilgrim sandals and a heart of light: in the midst of you stands One Whom you do not know.