Meditation

Today, Jesus points out where true happiness lies in our lives. In Luke's version, beatitudes are accompanied by painful wails for those who do not accept the message of salvation, but prefer to stick to a self-sufficient and selfish life. With the beatitudes and wails, Jesus applies the doctrine of the two paths: the path of life and the path of death...
 

Today, I would like to center our thoughts on the first words of this Gospel: “Jesus departed to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God” (Lk 6, 12). Introductions as this one may go unnoticed in our daily reading of the Gospel, while —in fact— they are of the maximum importance. Today, Jesus, specifically and clearly tells us that the election of the twelve disciples —central decision for our Church's future life...

Today, Jesus provides us with an example of the freedom, which we speak so much about. But, contrary to what most claim or consider as “freedom”, Jesus' freedom, is totally associated with and adhered to the Father's actions. He will say: “Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also” (Jn 5, 19). And the Father only does and acts out of love.
 

Today, the liturgy takes us to contemplate the healing of a “deaf man who had a speech impediment” (Mk 7, 32). As in other cases (the Bethsaida and Jerusalem blind men, etc.), the Lord surrounds the miracle with a series of outward motions. In such miracles, the Fathers of the Church see the overemphasized harmonic involvement of the Humanity of Christ...
 

Today, responding to the Pharisees' accusation, Jesus explains the correct meaning of the Sabbath, while quoting an example from the Old Testament (cf. Deut 23, 26): “Have you not read what David did (...)? He went into the house of God, took the bread of offering, which only the priests could lawfully eat, ate of it, and shared it with his companions” (Lk 6,3-4).
 

Today, while pondering over the Gospel, we can detect the trap prepared by the Pharisees and masters of the Law, when they twist an important question: they simply oppose how the fasting and praying of the Pharisees and John’s disciples compares to the eating and drinking of Jesus' disciples.
 

Today, we are still surprised at how those fishermen were capable of leaving everything behind, their job, their families, to follow Jesus (“They left everything and followed him” Lk 5, 11), precisely when He manifested Himself before them as an exceptional collaborator for the business from which they made their living. If Jesus of Nazareth would make the same proposal to us, in our 21st century...,

Today, we are facing a great contrast: people out in search of Jesus and Him healing all kinds of “sickness” (starting with Simon's mother-in-law); at the same time, “demons also came out from many, shouting” (Lk 4, 41). That is: on one side, goodness and peace; on the other side, evil and despair.
 

Today, we can see how His teaching activity was Jesus' central mission of His public life. Jesus' preaching, however, was very different from others, and this surprised and amazed people. Despite the fact Jesus had not studied (cf. Jn 7, 15), He, certainly, befuddled the Jews with his teachings, “because he spoke with authority” (Lk 4, 32). His style of speech had the authority of he who knows He is the “Saint of God”.
 

Today, “this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4, 21). With these words, Jesus comments at the synagogue of Nazareth a text from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me” (Lk 4, 18). These words have a meaning that goes beyond the specific historical moment when they were said...

Today, the Word of the Lord helps us to discern that over and above our human usages we have to place God's Commandments. In fact, as time goes by, it is easy for us to distort the evangelic advice and, willingly or not, replace the Commandments or engulf them in a punctilious meticulousness: “And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves...
 

Today, we contemplate the parable of the talents. Here, we can appreciate something like a change of style in Jesus' message: the announcement of the Kingdom is no longer limited to point out its nearness but to the description of its contents through stories: it is the time of the parables!
 

Today, Friday, 21st week in ordinary time, the Lord, in the Gospel, reminds us of the convenience of staying always awake and ready to meet him. Whether at midnight, or at any other moment, a cry can ring out at our door to invite us to come out and meet our Lord. Death never makes appointments. In fact, “you know neither the day nor the hour” (Mt 25, 13).
 

Today, we remember the Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist, the Messiah's Precursor. All his life moves around Jesus, to the extent that without Him, the very existence and aim of the Messiah's Precursor would have had no significance whatsoever.
 

Today, as in previous days, and in others to follow, we contemplate Jesus, beside himself, condemning those attitudes incompatible with a dignified and decent life, not only Christian but also human: “on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing” (Mt 23, 28). He confirms us that sincerity, honesty, loyalty, nobility, are virtues God loves and are, also, very much appreciated by us, humans.
 

Today we seem to catch Jesus in a foul mood —someone must have really gotten him upset; upset with false religiosity, pompous claims and egoistic piety. He has sensed the lack of love, i.e., “judgment and mercy and fidelity” (Mt 23, 23), behind the superficial actions of trying to fulfill the Law. Jesus embodies all these in his person and ministry. He was justice, mercy and faith...
 

Today, once again, the Gospel shows how the goodness of God, who watches over our happiness, is poured out. It tells us clearly what the sources are: truth, goodness, righteousness, justice, love... and all the virtues. It also warns us not to fall into the traps - excesses, lusts, deceptions, in a word, sins - that would prevent us from attaining such happiness.
 

Today the Gospel places us in Capernaum, where Jesus is followed by many after witnessing his miracles, especially the spectacular multiplication of the loaves. Socially, Jesus runs the risk of dying of success there, as is often said; they even want to name him king. This is a key moment in the catechesis of Jesus. It is the moment in which he begins to clearly explain the supernatural dimension of his message...
 

Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Bartholomew, apostle. Evangelist John so vividly narrates his first encounter with the Lord, that it is easy for us to visualize the scene. It is a dialogue between young, direct, frank... divine hearts!
 

Today, a teacher of the law asks Jesus “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” (Mt 22, 36), the most important one is the first commandment. The answer, however, speaks of a first commandment and of a second commandment. Two inseparable rings, which are the very same thing. Inseparable, but a first one and a second one, a golden one and a silver one.
 

Today, Jesus’ parable speaks of the banquet of the Kingdom, a recurrent example in his preaching. Specifically, this story has to do with that wedding feast that will be celebrated at the end of time, when the union of Jesus with his Church will be eternal. She is Christ's spouse, who walks in our world, and will finally espouse her Beloved forever and ever. 

Today, God's Word invites us to realize that divine “logic” goes beyond mere human logic. While we, men, calculate (“they thought that they would receive more” (Mt 20, 10)), God —who is a dear Father too—, simply loves (“Are you envious because I am generous?” (Mt 20, 15)). And the measure of love is to have no measure: “I love because I love, I love to love” (St. Bernard).
 

Today, we contemplate the reaction provoked by the dialogue of Jesus with the rich young man: “Who then can be saved?” (Mt 19, 25). The words our Lord addressed to the rich young man are very tough and severe, but they are supposed to awaken and surprise our drowsiness. They are not isolated words, to be found here and there in the Gospels: this type of message is repeated twenty times....
 

Today, the liturgy of the Word submits to our consideration the famous passage of the rich young man, that young man that did not succeed in reacting to the eye-beaming look Jesus Christ cast at him (cf. Mk 10, 21). Saint John Paul II reminded us that we can recognize in that young man all those that approach Jesus Christ by asking him about the meaning of their own lives...

Today, we persevere in the interpretation of the Discourse of the Living Bread that we have been commenting these last Sundays: "I am the living bread which has come from heaven" (Jn 6, 51). It has a very well thought-out, and even literary, structure, full of valuable teachings. How wonderful it would be if we, Christians, could have a better knowledge of the Scriptures!...

Today, we are presented a scene to contemplate that is unfortunately, a very real one now-a-days: “Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them” (Mt 19, 13). Children are especially loved by Jesus; but we, with our typical and characteristic reasoning of “adult people”, do not let them get close to Jesus and to the Father: —When they grow up, if they wish, they will choose...! What a huge mistake!
 

Today, Jesus responds to his contemporaries’ questions about the true meaning of marriage by underlining its indissolubility...
 

Today, we celebrate the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in body and soul to Heaven. “Today —St. Bernard says— the Virgin, full of glory, is taken up to heaven, showering the celestials beings with joy.” And he will add these nice words: “What a beautiful present the earth is sending to heaven today!..
 

Every Christian has the right to demand from us priests the forgiveness of God and his Church. At a given moment, a psychologist may appease your state of mind; a psychiatrist, through medical care, can defeat an endogenous disorder. Both can therefore be very useful though, at times, prove to be insufficient. For God only may forgive, remove, forget, smash while destroying, the personal sin...

Today, once more, the Gospel reveals God’s heart to us. It demonstrates the emotional reaction of the Father in Heaven, in relation to his children. His most impassionate concern is for the small ones, those who nobody ever pays any attention to; those who do not attain whatever the rest of the world does. We already know that the Father, as the good Father He is, has a preference for the small children...