Our Lady of Sorrows

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 2:33-35)

As the child's father and mother were wondering at the things that were being said about him, Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed- and a sword will pierce your soul too -- so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today, the Gospel not only tells us what women were next to the
Cross, but also that Jesus Christ does not leave His mother alone:
He places her in the custody of John. When St. John speaks of human
acts like this, he certainly remembers events that had actually occurred,
but he always wants to go deeper than mere facts of the past. So,
what is he trying to say?

The first clue comes from his form of address to Mary: "Woman".
Jesus had used this same form of address at the marriage feast of Cana,
anticipation of the definitive marriage feast, of the "new wine" that the
Lord wanted to bestow. What had then been merely a prophetic sign
now becomes a reality. Second, the Church has not had any difficulty
to recognize in the "Woman", on the one hand, Mary herself, and,
on the other hand —transcending time— the "Church", bride and
Mother, in which the mystery of Mary spreads out into history.

—O Jesus, I wish to receive Mary as a person (our Mother!) in my
own personal existence and as a Church, thus fulfilling your last will,
as St. John also did.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Today's Gospel Reading (John3:13-17)

No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man; as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Today, Nicodemus, who "took out the nails" from Jesus Christ, receives
an anticipated revelation: the Son of man will be "ex-alted" (high and lifted
up from the Earth) and will draw all men unto Himself. The emerging
Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, was slowly getting deeper
into this truth. One thing was clear from the onset: with the Cross of Christ,
the ancient sacrifices of the temple were definitely outdone. Something new
had happened!

God did not want to be glorified by sacrificing bulls and rams, whose blood
cannot purify man nor atone for him. The new desired cult, but still undefined
until then, had become a reality. In the Cross of Jesus it had been verified what
in vain had been attempted with animal sacrifices: Christ has occupied their
place. The temple was still a venerable place of prayer and announcement.
Its sacrifices, on the other hand, were no longer binding upon Christians.

—We adore you, Oh Christ!, and we bless you, because with your Holy Cross
you redeemed the world.

The greatness of humanity depends on its relation with the sufferer

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 7:11-17)

It happened that soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, 

accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. Now 

when he was near the gate of the town there was a dead man being 

carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a 

considerable number of the townspeople was with her. When 

the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her and said to her, 'Don't cry.' Then 

he went up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, 

'Young man, I tell you: get up.' And the dead man sat up and began to 

talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Everyone was filled with awe 

and glorified God saying, 'A great prophet has risen up among us; God 

has visited his people.' And this view of him spread throughout Judaea 

and all over the countryside

The greatness of humanity depends on its relation 

with the sufferer

Today, the mercy of God towards the needy is highlighted. The true
measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to
suffering and to the sufferer. This holds true both for the individual and
for society.

A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of
helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through "com-
passion" is a cruel and inhuman society. Yet society cannot accept its
suffering members unless individuals are capable of doing so
themselves; moreover, the individual cannot accept another’s suffering
unless he personally is able to find meaning in suffering, a path of
purification and growth in maturity, a journey of hope.

—O Jesus, help me to welcome the sufferer by taking up his suffering,
so it becomes also mine. Then, this shared suffering will be penetrated
by the light of love and we will experience the joy of consolation:
both of us —united in suffering— will find You, Who suffered on the
cross for us.

Religion, "laïcité positive" and "secularism"

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 7:1-10)

When he had come to the end of all he wanted the people to hear, 
he went into Capernaum. A centurion there had a servant, a favourite 
of his, who was sick and near death. Having heard about Jesus he sent 
some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and heal his servant. 
When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him saying, 
'He deserves this of you, because he is well disposed towards our people;
he built us our synagogue himself.' So Jesus went with them, and was 
not very far from the house when the centurion sent word to him by 
some friends to say to him, 'Sir, do not put yourself to any trouble 
because I am not worthy to have you under my roof; and that is why I
did not presume to come to you myself; let my boy be cured by your 
giving the word. For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers 
under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come 
here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.' When
Jesus heard these words he was astonished at him and, turning round, 
said to the crowd following him, 'I tell you, not even in Israel have 
I found faith as great as this.' And when the messengers got back to 
the house they found the servant in perfect health.

Religion, "laïcité positive" and "secularism"

Today, this scene plunges us in a social atmosphere of
"endearing humanity": a centurion —a foreigner— is concerned about
one of his servants; he sends some elders of the Jews to plead with Jesus
to heal his servant who is seriously ill… There is an element that brings
them together: "he has built our synagogue". In their multifaceted
diversity (origin, culture, social position… even religion), they are united
by their respect to "religiosity".

"Laïcité positive" seeks a fair political autonomy: it avoids the
"confessional"State, but assumes the deep human fact of the religiosity
("secularism"rejects it). It is essential to insist on the distinction between
"politics" and"religion” to protect as much the religious freedom of all
citizens as the State responsibility for them. On the other hand, we
should become more aware of the irreplaceable role of religion for the
formation of consciences and the contribution which it can bring to
—among other things— the creation of a basic ethical consensus within
society.

—O Lord, we adore You and we pray to you for our authorities.

The "blindness" of relativism - Love of God is certain and undeniable

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 6:39-42)

He also told them a parable, 'Can one blind person guide another? 
Surely both will fall into a pit? Disciple is not superior to teacher; 
but fully trained disciple will be like teacher. 
Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and 
never notice the great log in your own? 
How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take out that 
splinter in your eye," when you cannot see the great log in 
your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first,
and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in 
your brother's eyes

The "blindness" of relativism

Today, it turns out to be very much in progress the description
made by St. Paul about "nonage" in the faith: to be tossed back
and forth by the waves and being blown here and there by every
wind of teaching. How many "winds" of doctrine have we known
these recent decades! From Marxism to Liberalism, even to
Libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from
atheism to a vague religious mysticism... and so forth. This is the
worst blindness, because one does not know to which place one is
going or where should one go.

Having a clear Faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often
labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism —the
"blindness" of thinking according to "what is in fashion"— looks
like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards. We are
moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not
recognize anything as certain and which has as its highest goal one’s
own ego and one’s own desires.

—Our friendship with you, O Jesus, is our "measure": the measure
of true humanism. Your friendship gives us the criterion to discern
between veracity and falsehood, between deception and truth...

Birth of Mary - God's work in secret

Today's Gospel Reading (Matthew 1: 1-16.18-23)

Roll of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham: Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, Judah fathered Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse; and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife, Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa, Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah, Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah, Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah;and Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place. 

After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor, Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud, Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob; and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ. 

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.' Now all this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us'.

Birth of Mary

Today, Jesus' genealogy, the Saviour that had to come and be born
of Mary, shows us how the work of God is interwoven into human
history, and how God acts in the secret and silence of every single day.
At the same time, we can see his reliability to accomplish his promises.

The Holy Spirit, that mysteriously had to incarnate the Son in Mary,
entered, therefore, in our history since a long time before, and traced
a path leading to the Virgin Mary of Nazareth and, through her,
to her Son Jesus. In this work, everything bring us to contemplate,
 admire and worship, through prayer, the greatness, the generosity
and the simplicity of the divine action, that will extol and rescue
our human lineage through our Lord’s personal involvement.

—This girl, virgin and Jesus' mother, had to be also our mother.
Who could ever imagine God to be so great and so simple as to so
intimately bind himself to us?

The "Beatitudes", the Christian’s paradoxes - Christ set of values rather than of the world.

Today's Gospel Reading (Luke 6,20-26)

Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said:  How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours  Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill.  Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh.  'Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you,  denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man.  Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look! -your reward will be great in heaven.  This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets  But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now.  Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you shall go hungry.  Alas for you who are laughing now: you shall mourn and weep. ' Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you!  This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.

The "Beatitudes", the Christian’s paradoxes

Today, Jesus repeatedly calls "blessed" to his disciples.
The "Beatitudes" are words of promise that work at
the same time as moral guidance.
Each "beatitude" describes, so to speak,
the realistic condition of the disciples of Christ:
they are poor, they are hungry, they cry, they are hated,
 persecuted... The beatitudes are like practical "qualifications",
but also like theological-moral indications.

Despite the threatening situation in which Jesus considers
his disciples, this situation becomes a promise when
regarded in the light coming from the Father.
For the disciple, the "Beatitudes" are a paradox:
the standards of the world are turned upside down
when you just look at things from God’s scale of values.
The "Beatitudes" are promises resplendent with the
new image of the world and of the man inaugurated by Jesus,
His "transformation of values ".

—When I "look" through you, O Lord, then,
I live with new standards, I begin to "feel" something of what is
yet to come (Heaven) and joy enters in my tribulation.