Dear Brothers and Sisters, Buongiorno! This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 1:14-20) shows us, so to speak, the “passing of the baton” from John the Baptist to Jesus. John was His precursor; he prepared the terrain for Him and he prepared the way for Him: Jesus can now begin his mission and announce the salvation by now present; He was the salvation. His preaching is summarized in these words: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (v. 15). Simply. Jesus did not mince words. It is a message that invites us to reflect on two essential themes: time and conversion.
In this text of Mark the Evangelist, time is to be understood as the duration of the history of salvation worked by God; therefore, the time “fulfilled” is that in which this salvific action reaches its pinnacle, full realization: it is the historical moment in which God sent his Son into the world and his Kingdom was rendered more “close” than ever. The time of salvation was fulfilled because Jesus arrived. However, salvation is not automatic; salvation is a gift of love and as such, it is offered to human freedom. Always, when we speak of love, we speak of freedom: love without freedom is not love; it may be interest, it may be fear, many things, but love is always free, and being free it calls for a freely given response: it calls for our conversion. Thus, it means changing mentality — this is conversion, changing mentality — and changing life: no longer following the examples of the world but those of God, who is Jesus; following Jesus; “doing” as Jesus had done, and as Jesus taught us. It is a decisive change of view and attitude. In fact, sin — above all the sin of worldliness which is like air, it permeates everything — brought about a mentality that tends toward the affirmation of oneself against others and against God. This is curious... What is your identity? And so often we hear that one’s identity is expressed in terms of “opposition”. It is difficult to express one’s identity in the worldly spirit, in positive terms and in those of salvation: it is against oneself, against others and against God. And for this purpose it does not hesitate — the mentality of sin, the worldly mentality — to use deceit and violence. Deceit and violence. We see what happens with deceit and violence: greed, desire for power and not service, war, exploitation of people... This is the mentality of deceit that definitely has its origins in the father of deceit, the great pretender, the devil. He is the father of lies, as Jesus defines him.
All this is opposed by the message of Jesus, who invites us to recognize ourselves as in need of God and his grace; to have a balanced attitude with regard to earthly goods; to be welcoming and humble toward everyone; to know and fulfil ourselves in the encounter with and service of others. For each one of us the time in which we are able to receive redemption is brief: it is the duration of our life in this world. It is brief. Perhaps it seems long... I remember that I went to administer the Sacraments, the Anointing of the Sick, to a very good elderly man, very good, and in that moment, before receiving the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick, he said this phrase to me: “My life flew by”. This is how we, the elderly, feel, that life has passed away. It passes away. And life is a gift of God’s infinite love, but it is also the time to prove our love for him. For this reason every moment, every instant of our existence is precious time to love God and to love our neighbour, and thereby enter into eternal life.
Dear brothers and sisters, this Sunday is dedicated to the Word of God. One of the great gifts of our time is the rediscovery of Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church at all levels. Never as today has the Bible been as accessible to everyone: in all languages and now even in audiovisual and digital formats. Saint Jerome, whose 16th centenary of death I recently recalled, says that those who ignore Scripture ignore Christ; those who ignore Scripture ignore Christ (cf. In Isaiam Prol.). And vice versa is Jesus, the Word made Flesh, dead and risen, who opens our mind to understanding the Scriptures (cf. Lk 24:45). This happens in particular in the Liturgy, but also when we pray alone or as a group, especially with the Gospel and with the Psalms. I thank and encourage the parishes for their steadfast commitment to educate in listening to the Word of God. May we never lack the joy to sow the Gospel. And I repeat once again: may we have the habit, may you have the habit of always carrying a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to be able to read it during the day, at least three, four verses. The Gospel always with us.
O Father, who in your Son who came among us you have given fulfillment to the promises of the old covenant, give us the grace of continual conversion, that we may receive, in a passing world, the Gospel of life that does not pass away.
FAUSTI- The Gospel is Jesus Christ, Son of God. Jesus, therefore, by proclaiming the Gospel, proclaims Himself. He speaks the Word and is at the same time the Word spoken. For this reason it is alive and operative, capable of moving us like the first disciples. The decisive moment in history has come, because the Kingdom of God has arrived. The Kingdom of God, overturning the kingdom of man, which we already know well, as it arouses our hopes, also challenges our freedom. Jesus' proposal immediately becomes the responsibility of an answer from me. The Kingdom has already come by His initiative, but the entrance is reserved to my freedom. Conversion is turning to Him, starting behind Him on His own path. In all religions man seeks God, but in Christianity it is God Who seeks man. His proposal is direct and personal: He Himself, through the initiative of His Love, asks me to follow Him. His question and our answer are the two constitutive elements of faith, both immediate and non-delegable. No one can call me in His place and no one can answer in my place. He commits Himself first to be with me, and I commit myself to stay with Him. Others can be of help or previous mediation, the same announcement must lead me to meet Him. This is why we must beware of Christianity as an ideology. Faith is a concrete relationship with Him, a loving mutual belonging, a joyful being of one another. The story contains two parallel scenes of call and response, which, like for the first, apply to all disciples. A journey is understood only when it is made, not before. At the beginning there is always an act of trust - not blind, but well motivated and reasonable - in the person whom one is following. For those who walk towards freedom, Jesus is the Light that illuminates the night: for those who remain in slavery, He is dark cloud. He passes in search of us, He sees us and calls us; we see, listen, understand, are conquered and respond by leaving everything behind, following Him and going after Him. The mainspring of this dynamism can only be the great joy of those who find the treasure, incomparably more precious and more beautiful than anything they leave behind. The Christian faith is a pair of feet to follow Jesus, because one is taken by Him, the absolute Love, Who is worth more than all things, affections and life itself.
The time of waiting is over,Jesus affirms, and the kingdom of God has come. The time of waiting is over, he affirms, and the kingdom of God has come. The content of the message is Gospel, a good news that arouses great joy in those who hear it. There are two conditions for to be able to experience it: to convert and to believe. To convert does not mean to avoid a sin, but it is the decision to change radically the way of seeing God, man, the world and history. There is hope for everyone, even for the hardened sinner because God does not consider him as a reject but as a son. The second part of the passage introduces the call of the first four disciples who are not doing important things but simply carrying out their work. God does not address Himself the idlers, the people without ideals but to those who are fully inserted in their social, economic and family context. Membership is not a fallback or a consolation. From the beginning, Jesus presents Himself as a teacher different from those of His time. The Master does not want disciples who seek Him out to learn a lesson, as was the case in those days but people who walk with Him, who share His life choices. The first four disciples immediately respond to the call, they trust in Jesus and follow Him, even though their destination is still unspecified and the destiny to which they are called will be clarified only later. The response to the call must be prompt, the detachment from goods and affections total and immediate, nothing can prevent us from following Him. Everything must be sacrificed if it is in contrast with the new life to which Jesus calls.(Diac. Giarlotto)
POPE FRANCIS ANGELUS 24 January 2021
RispondiEliminaDear Brothers and Sisters, Buongiorno!
This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Mk 1:14-20) shows us, so to speak, the “passing of the baton” from John the Baptist to Jesus. John was His precursor; he prepared the terrain for Him and he prepared the way for Him: Jesus can now begin his mission and announce the salvation by now present; He was the salvation. His preaching is summarized in these words: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” (v. 15). Simply. Jesus did not mince words. It is a message that invites us to reflect on two essential themes: time and conversion.
In this text of Mark the Evangelist, time is to be understood as the duration of the history of salvation worked by God; therefore, the time “fulfilled” is that in which this salvific action reaches its pinnacle, full realization: it is the historical moment in which God sent his Son into the world and his Kingdom was rendered more “close” than ever. The time of salvation was fulfilled because Jesus arrived. However, salvation is not automatic; salvation is a gift of love and as such, it is offered to human freedom. Always, when we speak of love, we speak of freedom: love without freedom is not love; it may be interest, it may be fear, many things, but love is always free, and being free it calls for a freely given response: it calls for our conversion. Thus, it means changing mentality — this is conversion, changing mentality — and changing life: no longer following the examples of the world but those of God, who is Jesus; following Jesus; “doing” as Jesus had done, and as Jesus taught us. It is a decisive change of view and attitude. In fact, sin — above all the sin of worldliness which is like air, it permeates everything — brought about a mentality that tends toward the affirmation of oneself against others and against God. This is curious... What is your identity? And so often we hear that one’s identity is expressed in terms of “opposition”. It is difficult to express one’s identity in the worldly spirit, in positive terms and in those of salvation: it is against oneself, against others and against God. And for this purpose it does not hesitate — the mentality of sin, the worldly mentality — to use deceit and violence. Deceit and violence. We see what happens with deceit and violence: greed, desire for power and not service, war, exploitation of people... This is the mentality of deceit that definitely has its origins in the father of deceit, the great pretender, the devil. He is the father of lies, as Jesus defines him.
All this is opposed by the message of Jesus, who invites us to recognize ourselves as in need of God and his grace; to have a balanced attitude with regard to earthly goods; to be welcoming and humble toward everyone; to know and fulfil ourselves in the encounter with and service of others. For each one of us the time in which we are able to receive redemption is brief: it is the duration of our life in this world. It is brief. Perhaps it seems long... I remember that I went to administer the Sacraments, the Anointing of the Sick, to a very good elderly man, very good, and in that moment, before receiving the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick, he said this phrase to me: “My life flew by”. This is how we, the elderly, feel, that life has passed away. It passes away. And life is a gift of God’s infinite love, but it is also the time to prove our love for him. For this reason every moment, every instant of our existence is precious time to love God and to love our neighbour, and thereby enter into eternal life.
After the Angelus the Holy Father continued:
EliminaDear brothers and sisters, this Sunday is dedicated to the Word of God. One of the great gifts of our time is the rediscovery of Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church at all levels. Never as today has the Bible been as accessible to everyone: in all languages and now even in audiovisual and digital formats. Saint Jerome, whose 16th centenary of death I recently recalled, says that those who ignore Scripture ignore Christ; those who ignore Scripture ignore Christ (cf. In Isaiam Prol.). And vice versa is Jesus, the Word made Flesh, dead and risen, who opens our mind to understanding the Scriptures (cf. Lk 24:45). This happens in particular in the Liturgy, but also when we pray alone or as a group, especially with the Gospel and with the Psalms. I thank and encourage the parishes for their steadfast commitment to educate in listening to the Word of God. May we never lack the joy to sow the Gospel. And I repeat once again: may we have the habit, may you have the habit of always carrying a small Gospel in your pocket, in your bag, to be able to read it during the day, at least three, four verses. The Gospel always with us.
O Father, who in your Son who came among us
RispondiEliminayou have given fulfillment to the promises of the old covenant,
give us the grace of continual conversion,
that we may receive, in a passing world,
the Gospel of life that does not pass away.
FAUSTI- The Gospel is Jesus Christ, Son of God. Jesus, therefore, by proclaiming the Gospel, proclaims Himself. He speaks the Word and is at the same time the Word spoken. For this reason it is alive and operative, capable of moving us like the first disciples.
RispondiEliminaThe decisive moment in history has come, because the Kingdom of God has arrived.
The Kingdom of God, overturning the kingdom of man, which we already know well, as it arouses our hopes, also challenges our freedom. Jesus' proposal immediately becomes the responsibility of an answer from me.
The Kingdom has already come by His initiative, but the entrance is reserved to my freedom.
Conversion is turning to Him, starting behind Him on His own path.
In all religions man seeks God, but in Christianity it is God Who seeks man.
His proposal is direct and personal: He Himself, through the initiative of His Love, asks me to follow Him.
His question and our answer are the two constitutive elements of faith, both immediate and non-delegable. No one can call me in His place and no one can answer in my place.
He commits Himself first to be with me, and I commit myself to stay with Him.
Others can be of help or previous mediation, the same announcement must lead me to meet Him. This is why we must beware of Christianity as an ideology.
Faith is a concrete relationship with Him, a loving mutual belonging, a joyful being of one another.
The story contains two parallel scenes of call and response, which, like for the first, apply to all disciples. A journey is understood only when it is made, not before. At the beginning there is always an act of trust - not blind, but well motivated and reasonable - in the person whom one is following.
For those who walk towards freedom, Jesus is the Light that illuminates the night: for those who remain in slavery, He is dark cloud.
He passes in search of us, He sees us and calls us; we see, listen, understand, are conquered and respond by leaving everything behind, following Him and going after Him.
The mainspring of this dynamism can only be the great joy of those who find the treasure, incomparably more precious and more beautiful than anything they leave behind.
The Christian faith is a pair of feet to follow Jesus, because one is taken by Him, the absolute Love, Who is worth more than all things, affections and life itself.
The time of waiting is over,Jesus affirms, and the kingdom of God has come. The time of waiting is over, he affirms, and the kingdom of God has come. The content of the message
RispondiEliminais Gospel, a good news that arouses great joy in those who hear it. There are two conditions for
to be able to experience it: to convert and to believe.
To convert does not mean to avoid a sin, but it is the decision to change radically
the way of seeing God, man, the world and history.
There is hope for everyone, even for the hardened sinner because God does not consider him as a reject but as a son.
The second part of the passage introduces the call of the first four disciples who are not doing important things but simply carrying out their work.
God does not address Himself the idlers, the people without ideals but to those who are fully inserted in their social, economic and family context.
Membership is not a fallback or a consolation. From the beginning, Jesus presents Himself as a teacher different from those of His time.
The Master does not want disciples who seek Him out to learn a lesson, as was the case in those days but people who walk with Him, who share His life choices.
The first four disciples immediately respond to the call, they trust in Jesus and follow Him, even though
their destination is still unspecified and the destiny to which they are called will be clarified only later.
The response to the call must be prompt, the detachment from goods and affections total and immediate,
nothing can prevent us from following Him.
Everything must be sacrificed if it is in contrast with the new life to which Jesus calls.(Diac. Giarlotto)
ISAIA 55 - OGNI MIA PAROLA
RispondiEliminahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqfa4cswzU8