Meditation

Today, Matthew places two parables about the Kingdom of Heaven for us to ponder over. The announcement of the Kingdom is of essence in Jesus' preaching and in the hopes of the chosen people. But it is evident the nature of this Kingdom is not understood by the majority...

Today, through the parable of the weeds and the wheat, the Church urges us to ponder over the coexistence of good and evil. Good and evil within our heart; good and evil we may spot on others, good and evil we can see in the world, all around us.
 

Today, we must also listen to our Lord —even if we are busy by so many things— reminding us that “there is need of only one thing” (Lk 10, 42): love and saintliness. They should be our aim, the horizon we must never lose sight of amidst our daily chores.
 

Today, we contemplate how both human and supernatural love can grow in us, given that we use the same heart to love both man and God.
 

Today, we ponder over a parable concerning community life, where good and evil, Gospel and sin, constantly get mixed up. Settling this situation as the servant suggests would seem the logical approach: “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” (Mt 13, 28). But God's patience is infinite, and He waits until the very last moment —as a good father would— for the possibility of a change: “Let them grow together until harvest” (Mt 13, 30).
 

Today, we contemplate God as a good and magnanimous farmer, who has so richly sown his field. He has not spared anything for the redemption of man; He has vested everything in his own Son Jesus Christ who, as the seed sown in the good soil (death and burial), with his saint Resurrection has become our own life and resurrection.
 

Today’s fragment of the Gospel narrates an episode that places us in front of a situation which is not unusual in the various Christian communities. Indeed, John and James have been very generous leaving behind their households and their nets to follow Jesus the Christ. They have heard the Lord announce a Kingdom and offer eternal life but they still fail to understand the new dimension the Lord puts forward to them.

Today —in Matthew's Gospel— Jesus starts introducing us into the mysteries of the Kingdom, in that particular way that He likes to use by means of parables.
 

Today, to start with, the Gospel surprises us: “Who is my mother?” (Mt 12, 48), wonders Jesus. It would seem the Lord is showing a contemptuous attitude towards Mary, his mother. Nothing of the sort! What Jesus wants to make quite clear is that, in his own eyes —God's eyes— the crucial value of a person does not lie on flesh and blood facts,...
 

Today, we celebrate with joy Saint Mary Magdalene. With joy and benefit for our faith!, because her trail could very well be ours. Magdalene came from afar (cf. Luke 7,36-50) and she did go very far... Indeed, at the dawn of the Resurrection, Mary looked for Jesus, found the risen Jesus and met Jesus’ Father, "Our Father". That morning, Jesus Christ revealed to her the most important fact of our faith: that she was also God’s daughter.
 

Today, the Gospel invites us to discover the importance of resting in the Lord. The Apostles were retuning from the mission on which Jesus had sent them. They cast out demons, cured the sick and preached the Gospel. They were tired and Jesus told them: “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (Mk 6, 31).
 

Today, the Gospel brings up a double message. On the one hand, Jesus calls us with a beautiful invitation to follow him: “Many people followed him, and he cured them all” (Mt 12, 15). If we follow him we shall find the remedy for all the troubles of our journey, as we were reminded not long ago: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11, 28). On the other hand, we are shown the value of gentle love: “He will not contend or cry out” (Mt 12, 19).
 

Today, the Lord is watching what we have sown during our lives, to pick the fruits of sanctity. Will He find charity, love of God and fellow man? Jesus corrects the rabbis' meticulous casuistry making the Sabbath rest law totally unbearable: Will He have to remind us that He is only interested in our heart, in our capacity to love?
 

Today, facing a world which decided to turn its back on God, in front of a world hostile to Christianity and to Christians, to listen to Jesus (who is the One who is talking to us in the liturgy or in the private reading of the Word) brings consolation, joy and hope in the middle of our daily struggles: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened…, and you will find rest” (Mt 11,28-29).
 

Today, the Gospel offers us the opportunity to accede, so to speak, to the very structure of the divine wisdom. Who, amongst us, would not love to become acquainted with the unfathomable mysteries of life? There are enigmas the world's best team of investigators would not even dream of detecting. There is One however before which “there is nothing hidden… nothing is secret” (Mk 4, 22). 

Today, Christ upbraided two Galilean cities, Chorazin and Bethsaida, for their incredulities: “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes”. Christ himself bore witness that the Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, would have done penitence in great humility, if the wonders of the divine power had been done in them.
 

Today, Jesus offers us an explosive mixture of recommendations; it is like one of those fashionable banquets where the dishes are just tiny little tasty ‘snacks’. These are profound and hard to take in advice, addressed to his disciples in their mid-missionary preparation and formation process (cf Mt 11, 1). We have to fragment the text in separate blocks to better taste them.
 

Today, on the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we read in the Gospel that Jesus sends out the Twelve, two by two, to preach. Until now, they have accompanied the Master on the roads of Galilee, but the time has come to begin spreading the Gospel, the Good News: the news that our Father God loves us with an infinite love and has brought us to life to make us happy for all eternity. This news is for everyone...

Today, the Gospel invites us to ponder over the relationship student/teacher: “No disciple is above his teacher, no slave above his master” (Mt 10, 24). Amongst us it is not impossible a student can excel over the teacher who taught him the basics of a given subject. We have instances in History like the painter Giotto who quickly surpassed his teacher Cimabue, or Manzoni, excelling over abbot Pieri...
 

Today, the Gospel highlights the difficulties and contradictions that Christians will have to endure for the sake of Christ and His Gospel, and how they must resist and persevere until the end. Jesus promised us: "I am with you always, until the end of the age" (Mt 28, 20); but He did not promise His followers an easy path. On the contrary, He said: "You will be hated by all because of my name" (Mt 10, 22).
 

Today, the Gospel invites us to evangelize, it says: “Preach” (Mt 10, 7). The announcement is Jesus’ good news, trying to tell us about the kingdom of God, that He is our savior, sent by the Father to the world and for this reason, the only one who can renew us from within and change the society in which we live.
 

Today, the Gospel shows us Jesus sending his Apostles on a mission: “Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them…” (Mt 10, 5). The twelve make up the “Apostolic College”, that is “missionary”. The Church, in its earthly pilgrimage, is a Missionary Community, as its origin lies in the fulfillment of the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, following God Father's divine intentions...
 

Today, the Gospel speaks of the man who was dumb because he was possessed, and of how his healing provoked different reactions between the crowd and the Pharisees who, in the face of prodigious evidence, nobody could deny, they attributed it to devilish powers “He drives out demons by the prince of demons” (Mt 9, 34). Instead, the crowd marvels: “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel” (Mt 9, 33)...

Today, the liturgy of the Word invites us to admire two splendid manifestations of faith. So splendid were they that they deserved to move Jesus Christ's heart, provoking his immediate reaction. Our Lord does not allow himself to be won over in generosity!
 

Today the liturgy helps us discover the sentiments of the Heart of Jesus: “He was amazed at their lack of faith” (Mk 6, 6). Without a doubt, the disciples must have been impressed by the lack of faith of the Master's fellow citizens and his reaction. It seemed only natural that things would have occurred differently: They came to the land where he had lived for so many years, they had heard about the works he was doing,...

Today, we see how Jesus brought new times with him and a new doctrine, which He taught with authority; and we also realize how, as usual with new things, they clash with prevailing praxis and environment. Thus, in the pages preceding today's Gospel, we see Jesus forgiving the paralytic of his sins and healing his disease while the scribes are shocked; or, Jesus telling Matthew, a tax collector, to follow him,...
 

Today, the Gospel speaks to us of a vocation, that of Matthew the publican. Jesus is preparing a small group of disciples that would continue his work of Salvation. And He chooses whom He wants: whether fishermen or from humble professions. He even calls to follow him, a tax collector, a highly abhorred role by the Jews —who considered themselves as perfect Law-abiding citizens—, because they saw it as tantamount to having a sinful life,...
 

Today, we find one of the many evangelic manifestations evidencing the merciful goodness of the Lord. They all show many aspects, rich in details. Jesus' compassion, mercifully exerted, goes from resurrecting the dead or healing a leper to forgiving an openly sinful woman; He heals many ailments and accepts repented sinners —as shown in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost drachma and the prodigal son.
 

Today, the Church celebrates the festivity of St. Thomas. After describing the apparition of Jesus on Easter Sunday, John the Evangelist, tell us that the apostle Thomas was not with them, and when the Apostles —who had seen the Lord— were bearing witness of him, Thomas replied: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (Jn 20, 25).
 

Today, the liturgy offers us one of the most shocking fragments of our Lord's public life. The scene shows a great vivacity that contrasts radically with the disciples' attitude and Jesus' behavior. We can imagine how frightened they must have been on the boat when “suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves” (Mt 8, 24), though their distress was not enough to awake Jesus, who was sleeping.