Meditation

Today, when we read the genealogy of Jesus in the liturgy of the Mass, a sentence commonly said in rural areas here in Catalonia, Spain, comes to mind: “Josephs, Johns and donkeys are to be found in every house”. That's why, in order to make a difference between them, one uses the household name.

Today we are asked to learn from St. John. This is not easy. Our self-renunciation and sacrifice, our commitment, the Truth… they are not very much in fashion today. Many are those that only react to money, pleasure, comfort, lies…? We must keep our heart clean and clear of things. Otherwise, neither Jesus nor other people can find any room in there.
 

Today, Jesus seems to want us to get rid of that eagerness of ours for a futile curiosity, of the arrogance the Pharisees and Masters of the Law showed by looking down upon God's plans for them by ignoring John's call (cf. Lk 7, 30). 
 

The Lord has no limits when it comes to accomplish his mission: “The blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed...” (Lk 7, 22). Where are my hopes placed? Where is my joy resting? 
 

As Saint Augustine wrote, “there are two wills. Your will has to be corrected so as to identify it with God's will; but do not try to bend God's will to adapt it to yours.” In the Catalan language we say a child “believes” you to mean he obeys you. There is an identification of obedience and faith, of the relationship that exists between trust and obedience.

Today, the Gospel looks at two aspects of Jesus' personality: His shrewdness and His authority. Let's take his shrewdness first: He knows the heart of man deeply, he knows the inner life of all those who approach him. And when the High Priests and the authorities are sent to maliciously ask him: "What authority have you to act like this? 

John had a firm disposition about his way of life and about sticking to the Truth, which, eventually, brought imprisonment and martyrdom to him. Even in his prison he expeditiously speaks to Herod. John teaches us how to combine a firm character with meekness: "The one who is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie" (Jn 1, 27);...

A new way of looking and a new heart are necessary if the ways of God are to be recognized, and if we are to respond with cheerfulness and generosity to the demanding calls of those He has sent. Not everybody is willing to understand it, let alone live it. What's more the way we live our lives and our plans might be in opposition to God's will. 

Today, we should be distraught before the Lord’s sigh: “To what shall I compare this generation?” (Mt 11, 16). Jesus is overwhelmed by our heart, more often than not, nonconforming and ungrateful. We are never fulfilled; we are complaining all the time. We even dare to blame Him for all the things that disturb us.
 

Mary, a young woman “betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David” (Lk 1, 28) has a plan, of human proportions, evidently. However, God comes into her life to bestow on her another project... of divine proportions. Today, He wants to come into our lives too, to give our everyday human tasks divine proportions.

Today, Jesus leads us to rest in God. He certainly is a demanding Father, because He loves us and invites us to give Him everything; but He is not an executioner. When He requires something of us it is to help us grow in His love. His only commandment is to love. We can suffer for love, but we can also rejoice in love and rest in love...

Today, Jesus challenges us: “What do you think of this?” (Mt 18, 12): what kind of mercy do you practice? Perhaps, we, “practicing Catholics”, having drunk copiously of God's mercy in his sacraments, could come to a point to think that we are already justified in the eyes of God. 

Today, the Lord preaches and cures at the same time. Today we see the Lord teach those who considered themselves to be the more learned of their times: the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. We can sometimes think that because we live in the century we live in or because of the studies we have under our belt, there is little for us left to be learnt. 

Advent, in reality is "conversion that crosses over from the heart into action and, consequently, to the eternal life of the Christian" (Saint John Paul II).

Today's Gospel tells of how Jesus, in front of that huge crowd, felt compassion and said “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Mt 9,37-38). He has always wanted to be able to count on us, he wants us, in all our diverse circumstances to become real apostles of the world in which we move and live. 

Jesus comes with the power to open the eyes of our heart, to make us see, to make us believe. Advent is a powerful time for prayer: a time for petition, and especially for the professing of faith. A time to see and to believe. Remember the words of the fable of the Little Prince: “The essential can only be seen with the heart”.

Today, the Lord pronounced these words at the end of His "Sermon on the Mount" where He bestows a new and deeper meaning to the Commandments of the Old Testament, the "words" of God to men. He talks as the Son of God, and as such, He demands us “to receive what I say to you”, as very significant words. 

Today, is St. Andrew's Day, apostle, a festivity celebrated in a solemn way amongst Eastern Orthodox Christians. He was one of the two young men that met Jesus by the river Jordan and had a long conversation with him. He first found his own brother Simon, and told him “We have found the Messiah” and he brought him to Jesus (cf. Jn 1,41-42). 

One of the aspects of humility is gratitude. The arrogant one feels he owes nothing to anybody. To feel grateful, we need first to discover our insignificance. “Thanks” is one of the first words we teach our children. “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike” (Lk 10, 21).
 

We can only approach Jesus with a humble attitude, like that of the centurion. That way we can live the hope of Advent: the hope of salvation and life, of reconciliation and peace. Only he, who acknowledges his poverty and realizes that the meaning of life is not to be found in himself, but in God, in turning his life over to Him, can really have hope.

Benedict XVI explains: "To watch means to follow the Lord, to choose what He has chosen, to love what He has loved, to conform one's own life to His". Then the Son of Man will come… and the Father will embrace us for resembling his Son.

Today, last day of the Ordinary Time, Jesus clearly warns us about the fate of our pass through life. Should we stubbornly insist on living imbued by the immediacy of our worldly cares, the last day of our earthly existence will come upon us so suddenly that the very blindness of our own greediness will prevent us from recognizing God himself,...
 

Today, Jesus invites us to see how the fig tree buds sprout, a symbol of our Church that, periodically, is renewing itself thanks to that inner power God instills in it (let us remember the allegory of the vine and the branches, cf. Jn 15): "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. As soon as their buds sprout, you know that summer is already near" (Lk 21,29-30).
 

Let us just look at the last sentence: "Now, when you see the first events, stand erect and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is drawing near". The core of the message of these last days of our liturgical year is not fear but hopefulness of a future deliverance, that is, the Christian complete expectancy of the fulfillment of our full life with the Lord, which our body and the world around us will also share. 

Today, we pay attention to this short but sharp sentence of our Lord, which sticks into our soul and makes us wonder: why perseverance is so important? why does Jesus tell us our salvation depends upon the exercise of this virtue?
 

Today, astounded, we listen to the Lord's severe warning: "The days will come when there shall not be left one stone upon another of all that you now admire; all will be torn down" (Lk 21, 6). Jesus' words can be placed in the antipodes of the so called “indefinite human progress culture” or, if preferred, of the unstoppable evolution of some techno/scientific and political/military leaders of the human species.
 

The widow's generosity is a good lesson for us, Christ's disciples. We can be extremely generous, as the wealthy people that were “putting their offerings into the treasury” (Lk 21, 1). But, none of this will be worth the while if we only give “from our plenty”, without any loving or generous spirit, without offering ourselves along.

Yes, we profess that Jesus is King, King with a capital K. Nobody could ever be at such a level of royalty. The Kingdom of God is not of this world. It is a Kingdom that is entered through Christian conversion. A Kingdom of truth and life, a Kingdom of holiness and grace, a Kingdom of justice, love and peace. 

... In Heaven we shall all love each other with a pure heart, without any feelings of envy or distrust, and, not only husband and wife, our sons or those or our own blood, but everybody, without exception nor language country, race or culture discriminations, for "true love attains a great strength" (St. Paulinus of Nola).

The New Rites are Jesus' Word. This is why St. Luke has joined to the scene of the purification of the temple Jesus preaching there every day. The new worship is centered in the prayer and in the audition of God's Word. But, in fact, the center's center of the Christian institution is the living person of the very Jesus, with his own flesh offered and his own blood shed at the Cross and given to us in the Eucharist.