Church of Our Saviour
Chapel of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary

SPIRITUAL CRUMBS FOR LENT 2023
BY FR. ENZO DEL BROCCO, CP

Ash Wednesday
Today’s Gospel offers us the milestones that guide our Lenten journey, the pillars of our spiritual journey.
The first pillar is almsgiving. On our streets and squares, in and around our subway and train stations, there are so many opportunities of almsgiving! But how do we do it? Is it the way according to the Gospel? The term ‘alms’ is a rich one, it comes from the Greek language, and it stands both for God’s mercy and justice. Let us recall how the Father through his son Jesus, stripped of His divine wealth and becoming similar to us in everything, except in sin, and pouring over us such abundant mercy as to give us the dignity of children of God! Almsgiving to those in need means first changing our mentality and heart to see every person as a sister and brother, no matter the color of their skin, culture and faith; it means trying to achieve for them and together with them that justice and mercy capable of treating them with the dignity given them by God. The other necessary element is prayer, as strength, support, challenge, comfort, a request for help in the service of love. The last, but not least, is fasting, that is, the ability to fast not just from food, but from the things that also take away my time and focus from God and my neighbor. It’s an exercise to learn how to dominate our instincts, to be alert and attentive and to not fall asleep with indifference! It keeps your eyes and ears open to see and hear God who asks for help in our needy sisters and brothers. The Gospel then highly recommends that it all must be lived in secret, so that only the Father can see it.

Thursday after Ash Wednesday
During a journey there are times when you encounter a crossroad, and you must take a direction. You cannot hesitate forever at the crossroad and there are also times when you take one way instead of the other because you’re distracted or in a hurry or you simply follow where everyone else is going because it’s apparently easier. Let’s take some time today and reflect on the direction we’re taking in our life and why. Does it really lead to life? Jesus today tells us that “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Friday after Ash Wednesday
When you’re on a journey through a desert you want to carry only what is essential to survive so to make it to your destination. It’s about “letting go” of what is futile and rediscover the true meaning of your life. Fasting helps shift the attention from the stomach (i.e. from physical needs) to the heart (i.e. the need for meaning). It is a way to learn discernment, not a practice aimed at itself, or a good excuse for diets to lose weight with theological motivations. In order to reach the fullness of joy, we fast from our own selfishness to make space for the essential baggage to carry: God and our neighbor.

Saturday after Ash Wednesday
Today’s gospel shows us Jesus on the road calling those who are excluded to follow him, and he shares his time and meals with sinners and the outcast. Are we willing as a Church to set ourselves on a journey (exodus), to move out to the streets and call the outcast and excluded and sit at the table with them? What kind of company are we looking for and with whom do we want to share our time and “meals”?



The templations of Jesus in the desert, Mosaic, Venice, Basilica of S. Marco, XIII century.

February 26, 2023

1st Sunday of Lent
The forty days of Jesus in the desert recall a number that recurs in Sacred Scripture on various occasions. It calls to mind in particular the 40 years during which the People of Israel wandered through the wilderness; a long period of formation in order to become the People of God, but also a long period in which the temptation to be unfaithful to their Covenant with the Lord was ever present. Forty was also the number of days that it took Elijah to reach God’s Mountain, Mount Horeb.

The wilderness to which Jesus withdrew is the place of silence and poverty, where one is deprived of material support. In the desert, one's vulnerability is exposed and must face the fundamental existential questions while assaulted by temptations. 

The first temptation concerns performing a miracle to feed oneself, thus satisfying one of the primary needs of every living creature; the second concerns challenging God by carrying out a gesture that is nothing short of foolish, demanding that God intervene: an action that is also extremely spectacular, with the aim of attracting the attention of public opinion through spectacular miracles and breathtaking scenography; the third temptation posed by Satan has to do with the conquest of power over the world, obtainable by recognizing the devil as its undisputed master.
 
Jesus' temptations are ours too: they affect the whole world of daily relationships. The first temptation concerns the relationship with ourselves and with things (the illusion that goods fulfill life). The second is an open challenge to our relationship with God (a magical God at our service). Finally, the third concerns the relationship with others (the hunger for power and dominion opposed to humility and service).
 
In this season of Lent let us renew our commitment to the journey of life by following Christ and by making his lifestyle our own. 

Monday of the First Week of Lent
There is something extraordinary in the announcement of the final judgment made by Jesus in the Gospel according to Matthew (cf. Mt 25:31-46). We should really meditate on it more carefully. Jesus defines humans who find themselves in need and suffering as “the least brothers of mine” and reveals that every act of relating with each of them decides the relationship with Jesus in the Kingdom: "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). Those brothers and sisters of Jesus are not the believers, the Christians, but the everyday victims in history, the needy that every land and every time knows as the least and that we encounter every day during our lifetime journey.

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
The journey we are called to make is never solitary but always in company. This is why we turn in prayer to the Father with the possessive adjective ‘ours’ and not ‘my’. Walking together can sometimes seem more frustrating because not everyone keeps the same pace, and everyone has different needs and expectations. To travel together it is essential to have the same destination and adhere to a common plan. The destination is His Kingdom and the plan is His will. The journey is also made of obstacles, dangers, helplessness, fear, fatigue, etc. The 'Our Father' brings our needs down, accompanied by the adjective "our", to three: the daily bread, forgiveness, the victory over evil. Let’s say today with calm the prayer of the ‘Our Father’ and pause at each request to rediscover the deep meaning of our life and our connectedness to one another.

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent
Why is it that we always look for more sensational and indisputable signs? To pretend to be convinced by something that leaves no room for misunderstanding and therefore forces us to choose what is ‘good’ is not good at all! ‘Good’ never forces us because it would suppress the supreme gift God gave us: freedom! Jesus in today's Gospel says that this generation will only receive the sign of Jonah. The prophet Jonah gave no extraordinary sign and had no special effects. He simply “walked” through the streets of Nineveh and “preached”. Waiting for the sensational to change our life is just a way of saying we don't really want to change. If the word of Jonah was enough to change the life of the Ninevites, what are we waiting for to change ours? We have the word of Jesus Christ who gave us the supreme sign of God’s love by giving his life for us on the Cross! 

Thursday of the First Week of Lent
There are times in a journey when we feel lost or uncertain and we need to ask for more information and directions. It isn’t always easy to ask someone else for help because this requires admitting one’s own weakness and vulnerability. Pride and the presumption to know everything along with stubbornness can deviate your direction and lead you to a wrong destination. Nobody is ever strong enough to not need help and only the humble have the courage to ask for it. Prayer, in fact, is essentially 'asking, searching and knocking' and only the “poor in spirit” know what to ask for, how to search and where to knock. This spiritual 'begging’ attitude will also teach us to not discard anyone, particularly those who can become bothersome, but to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Never be ashamed to ask for help and don’t be indifferent to those who ask for it. 

Friday of the First Week of Lent
The way of the gospel always invites us to higher standards, to a ‘righteousness’ higher than the one ‘of the scribes and Pharisees.’ Jesus tells us that it is not enough to ‘not kill’. He goes to the roots of evil. The root of evil is anger and anger is the beginning of murder. Anger is a feeling that can hide behind the robes of justice and lead to the idea of supremacy and intolerance. This gives way to contempt, to always call the other with despicable qualifying adjectives. The road that leads to aggressivity is much shorter and easier than the one to dialogue and reconciliation. The latter requires a pure and tender heart capable of seeing God present in the other, to always see a brother/sister and not an enemy: “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother.” So, on your journey to the altar be sure that you have reached out first to your brother/sister because there is Jesus present waiting for your true sacrifice.

Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Our journey is to become perfect like our heavenly Father and the apex of this perfection is loving the enemy! This divine love is ‘scandalous' because it is practiced where one least expects it: "...but I tell you: love your enemies and pray for your persecutors…” Christians will be recognized not only by how they love each other but also by how they love their enemies. We often love only those who will reciprocate; we greet those who greet us; we are concerned only with those who exchange favors; we surround ourselves only with those who think as we do. Observe our ‘digital’ relationships and connections. We’re eager to increase our 'friends' and ‘likes’ built on reciprocity or common interests and some use them just as a way to ‘spy’ on what others are doing without ever interacting. The consequence is that instead of creating bridges we're building invisible walls. Just as the sun rises “on the bad and the good,” and rain falls “on the just and the unjust”, let’s use this tool to reach out to everyone, nobody excluded.



March 5, 2023

Second Sunday of Lent
For this Second Sunday of Lent I invite you to read the message of Pope Francis for Lent 2023 Pope Francis using the story of Jesus’ Transfiguration as a launching point, addresses both the journey of Lent and the Catholic Church’s ongoing Synod on Synodality:

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR LENT 2023
Lenten Penance and the Synodal Journey

Dear brothers and sisters!

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all recount the episode of the Transfiguration of Jesus. There we see the Lord’s response to the failure of his disciples to understand him. Shortly before, there had been a real clash between the Master and Simon Peter, who, after professing his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, rejected his prediction of the passion and the cross. Jesus had firmly rebuked him: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a scandal to me, because you do not think according to God, but according to men!” (Mt 16:23). Following this, “six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John his brother and led them away to a high mountain” (Mt 17:1).

The Gospel of the Transfiguration is proclaimed every year on the Second Sunday of Lent. During this liturgical season, the Lord takes us with him to a place apart. While our ordinary commitments compel us to remain in our usual places and our often repetitive and sometimes boring routines, during Lent we are invited to ascend “a high mountain” in the company of Jesus and to live a particular experience of spiritual discipline – ascesis – as God’s holy people.

Lenten penance is a commitment, sustained by grace, to overcoming our lack of faith and our resistance to following Jesus on the way of the cross. This is precisely what Peter and the other disciples needed to do. To deepen our knowledge of the Master, to fully understand and embrace the mystery of his salvation, accomplished in total self-giving inspired by love, we must allow ourselves to be taken aside by him and to detach ourselves from mediocrity and vanity. We need to set out on the journey, an uphill path that, like a mountain trek, requires effort, sacrifice and concentration. These requisites are also important for the synodal journey to which, as a Church, we are committed to making. We can benefit greatly from reflecting on the relationship between Lenten penance and the synodal experience.
In his “retreat” on Mount Tabor, Jesus takes with him three disciples, chosen to be witnesses of a unique event. He wants that experience of grace to be shared, not solitary, just as our whole life of faith is an experience that is shared. For it is in togetherness that we follow Jesus. Together too, as a pilgrim Church in time, we experience the liturgical year and Lent within it, walking alongside those whom the Lord has placed among us as fellow travellers. Like the ascent of Jesus and the disciples to Mount Tabor, we can say that our Lenten journey is “synodal”, since we make it together along the same path, as disciples of the one Master. For we know that Jesus is himself the Way, and therefore, both in the liturgical journey and in the journey of the Synod, the Church does nothing other than enter ever more deeply and fully into the mystery of Christ the Saviour.

And so we come to its culmination. The Gospel relates that Jesus “was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light” (Mt 17:2).This is the “summit”, the goal of the journey. At the end of their ascent, as they stand on the mountain heights with Jesus, the three disciples are given the grace of seeing him in his glory, resplendent in supernatural light. That light did not come from without, but radiated from the Lord himself. The divine beauty of this vision was incomparably greater than all the efforts the disciples had made in the ascent of Tabor. During any strenuous mountain trek, we must keep our eyes firmly fixed on the path; yet the panorama that opens up at the end amazes us and rewards us by its grandeur. So too, the synodal process may often seem arduous, and at times we may become discouraged. Yet what awaits us at the end is undoubtedly something wondrous and amazing, which will help us to understand better God’s will and our mission in the service of his kingdom.

The disciples’ experience on Mount Tabor was further enriched when, alongside the transfigured Jesus, Moses and Elijah appeared, signifying respectively the Law and the Prophets (cf. Mt 17:3). The newness of Christ is at the same time the fulfilment of the ancient covenant and promises; it is inseparable from God’s history with his people and discloses its deeper meaning. In a similar way, the synodal journey is rooted in the Church’s tradition and at the same time open to newness. Tradition is a source of inspiration for seeking new paths and for avoiding the opposed temptations of immobility and improvised experimentation.

The Lenten journey of penance and the journey of the Synod alike have as their goal a transfiguration, both personal and ecclesial. A transformation that, in both cases, has its model in the Transfiguration of Jesus and is achieved by the grace of his paschal mystery. So that this transfiguration may become a reality in us this year, I would like to propose two “paths” to follow in order to ascend the mountain together with Jesus and, with him, to attain the goal.

The first path has to do with the command that God the Father addresses to the disciples on Mount Tabor as they contemplate Jesus transfigured. The voice from the cloud says: “Listen to him” (Mt 17:5). The first proposal, then, is very clear: we need to listen to Jesus. Lent is a time of grace to the extent that we listen to him as he speaks to us. And how does he speak to us? First, in the word of God, which the Church offers us in the liturgy. May that word not fall on deaf ears; if we cannot always attend Mass, let us study its daily biblical readings, even with the help of the internet. In addition to the Scriptures, the Lord speaks to us through our brothers and sisters, especially in the faces and the stories of those who are in need. Let me say something else, which is quite important for the synodal process: listening to Christ often takes place in listening to our brothers and sisters in the Church. Such mutual listening in some phases is the primary goal, but it remains always indispensable in the method and style of a synodal Church.

On hearing the Father’s voice, the disciples “fell prostrate and were very much afraid. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and do not be afraid.’ And when the disciples raised their eyes, they saw no one else but Jesus alone” (Mt 17:6-8). Here is the second proposal for this Lent: do not take refuge in a religiosity made up of extraordinary events and dramatic experiences, out of fear of facing reality and its daily struggles, its hardships and contradictions.

The light that Jesus shows the disciples is an anticipation of Easter glory, and that must be the goal of our own journey, as we follow “him alone”.  Lent leads to Easter: the “retreat” is not an end in itself, but a means of preparing us to experience the Lord’s passion and cross with faith, hope and love, and thus to arrive at the resurrection. Also on the synodal journey, when God gives us the grace of certain powerful experiences of communion, we should not imagine that we have arrived – for there too, the Lord repeats to us: “Rise, and do not be afraid”. Let us go down, then, to the plain, and may the grace we have experienced strengthen us to be “artisans of synodality” in the ordinary life of our communities.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the Holy Spirit inspire and sustain us this Lent in our ascent with Jesus, so that we may experience his divine splendour and thus, confirmed in faith, persevere in our journey together with him, glory of his people and light of the nations.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 25 January, Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul
FRANCIS

Monday of the Second Week of Lent
Since the beginning of creation, it has always been our desire to become like God. Unfortunately, we thought that it consisted in possession. Jesus recognizes our desire and shows the way: "be merciful, as your Father is merciful". This presumes to truly understand God’s nature. He is mercy and if we do not experience His mercy in our lives we cannot understand. Mercy is the highest expression of God’s power because it is able to transform the enemy into a brother or sister, to break down the walls of division and build bridges for the encounter, to save what is lost and to open the doors of the Kingdom to the excluded of our time, to beat the swords into plowshare and the spears into pruning hooks (cf Is 2:4). The journey to become like God is in not judging, not condemning, but forgiving and giving.

Tuesday of the Second Week of Lent
Did it ever happen to you to go on a trip and realize at the end of it how you’ve packed so many unnecessary things? When we carry unnecessary ‘baggage’, we transform a tool into a burden. So much time, anxiety and energy in packing, unpacking and carrying. The risk is to transform the dreamed trip into a nightmare because we are focused more on the means than on the objective we want to reach. Let’s consider the Sunday precept: the ‘obligation’ to go to mass on Sunday and how we live it. What is the Eucharist? Isn’t it primarily an invitation of the Lord? Isn’t it a banquet, a party of life where God gives himself to me and to every person for free? Do I live this moment as a gift or a burden? Is it the best time of the week for me or not? Do I live this moment as time to enjoy with God and my brothers and sisters? If this moment is simply reduced to an obligation, then the situation is very serious, because probably the center is not God, but myself and my appearance to impress others and attract their admiration.

Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem”, Jesus says to the disciples. Jerusalem is where His Glory will be revealed. Today’s gospel passage is a counterpoint between two ways of understanding God’s glory: that of the Son of Man and ours. The first is in giving oneself up, serving and giving one's life; the second is in possessing, ruling over others and enjoying all the benefits. It is a struggle between selfishness and love, where love wins with its own defeat, and selfishness loses with its own victory. We often have a desire for recognition, to be seen, praised and compensated with the risk to reduce our existence to pure appearance, to idolatry ("cult of the image"). Idols do nothing but give death, transforming those who make them similar to themselves (Ps 115). Instead of Glory, they give vainglory: the emptiness of an image, without weight or consistency. Why am I interested in following Jesus? What am I looking for? What do I expect by following Him?

Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
There are times during the journey that you need a wakeup call to not lose the ride. Today’s parable shakes us; it especially shakes us who live in the abundance of an opulent society, that knows how to hide the poor so well to the point of no longer noticing their presence. There are still beggars on the streets, but we are wary of their real misery; there are marginalized and despised foreigners, but we feel entitled not to share our goods with them. We must confess it: the poor are embarrassing to us because they unveil the weakness of our systems, they are the sign of our injustice. So often we prefer not to see or hear so not to be bothered. And when we think of them as a sign-sacrament of Christ, we often end up giving them crumbs, or even some help, but keeping them always at social distance. Yet on the day of judgment, we will discover that God is on the side of the poor, we will discover that the beatitude of Jesus was addressed to them. If we listen to the call of today’s Scriptures we will hear how it calls us to listen to the cry of the poor at our “doorstep”. 

Friday of the Second Week of Lent
During the journey of life we may risk thinking that we can dispose of our lives, the lives of others and of everything that exists in creation at our pleasure without being accountable. Instead of recognizing the origin and foundation of our dignity, we think about how to fool the One to whom it belongs, denying the evidence of our own fragility. Lost in the delirium of omnipotence, our actions become expressions of “supremacy” and “abuse of power” and we believe we can manipulate the origin of life, the cosmos, nature recklessly. I am moved by the attitude of the almighty God in today’s Gospel. Despite our rejection, like a shaken lover, a wounded parent, a friend who suddenly finds himself betrayed, He continues to reach out to us to the point of risking His Son's life, thinking, in doing so, of arousing our respect, if not justice. It’s an appeal to our heart and compassion. Let’s fix our eyes on the “rejected stone” and decide if to either collide with it or to make of it the “cornerstone” of my life.

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Where is the journey leading us? Has it led us far away or have we decided to just not move? Have we decided to return? What are our motivations to take off, return or stay?

Today's parable shows us the journey of two sons and their father. The two sons both have the same idea of God but one decides to leave and the other to stay. The younger one thinks that God is a competitor, an adversary: in His presence he cannot fulfill himself. God is perceived a censor, an enemy of happiness and freedom. He takes what he thinks belongs to him and leaves (i.e. atheism). When he finds himself in desperate need and alone, he decides to return but he sees himself back as a slave. The other son (i.e. legalist and rubricist religion) stayed and obeyed like a slave, incapable of joy and acting under the fear of his father's judgment. Both have the same false image of God. Since the beginning Satan has suggested to everyone that God is master of everything, the legislator, the ruthless judge, who condemns you to eternal death if you do not obey. The way of the father in the parable shows us the true image of God who goes out to meet both sons and invites them to celebrate with him as brothers.



March 12, 2023

Third Sunday of Week of Lent

The first two Sundays of Lent can be read as a twofold introduction to the spirituality of this liturgical season, consecrated to once again agitating the waters of our baptism to prevent them from becoming a pool of dead waters.

With the next three Sundays we decisively enter the catechumenal journey of rediscovery of our baptism through three stories whose central theme is water (III, the Samaritan woman), light (IV, the man born blind), life (V, Lazarus). These are pages that the ancient tradition has given us precisely as the basic ingredients of a catechumenal path.

Water is the best known and most qualifying element of baptism. The element has more than one meaning. The best known is its power to wash and clean, and I fear that, for many, it is the only one that comes to mind, also because the catechesis of past years insisted a lot on the "stain" of original sin, even if some were led to wonder: what has a newborn baby done wrong to need to be purified? A more than legitimate question, which however came from a mutilated and reductive catechesis. We can learn what it really means from Peter in his first Letter: «This water, as an image of baptism, now saves you too; it does not take away the filth of the body, but it is an invocation of salvation addressed to God by a good conscience by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1Pt 3:21).

Today's liturgy, for example, sees water primarily as an element that quenches thirst, and as such is necessary for life. At a higher metaphorical level, thirst is a symbol of the "desire" that inhabits us from the beginning, starting from the needs of a physical nature up to the highest ones of a moral and spiritual nature. This is the theme of this Sunday's liturgy.

Let also acknowledge how the Samaritan woman’s situation symbolizes that of many vulnerable people and populations with regard to access to water. The scarcity of water, as an integral vital element, today represents for too many people the reminder of their social discrimination, the distance from their popular roots, the horrendous mirror of their cultural stigmata, a dehumanizing hostile tool, the infinite time of their anguish, the fever of their defenseless souls, the dehydration of their discarded bodies and the solitude of their pilgrimage in the desert of media and political invisibility.

March 22, is World Water Day. In 2020, The Pontifical Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development published the document Aqua fons vitae – water is a source of life – to help local churches to reflect and act on “the issue of water, development and the future of human life on Earth”. I invite you to read as it provides a summary of some of the major challenges by raising awareness and suggesting some actions that could be undertaken by churches at the local level.

Monday of the Third Week of Lent
Have you ever asked for something and be upset, jealous or angry because someone ‘out of the circle’ was able to receive it? When there is no demand, we are able to welcome the gift; where there is demand the gift dies. Today’s gospel shows us that the Lord sees sons and daughters everywhere and what is true for Israel is obviously true for the Church today. Salvation is not for an elite, or for pretentious and privileged people; it’s for everyone, it’s universal and unexpected. It’s a ‘surprise’! Jesus’ words will increase the rejection towards him and further unleash the anger against him to the point that he was led “out of the city … to the edge of the mountain… to throw him down!" There are times during our journey, when we will follow the footsteps of Jesus, that our lives may provoke opposition too. Jesus "passed through the midst of them and went away", in the direction of Capernaum (cf. Lk 4:31) and to Jerusalem where he will reveal His glory on the Cross. He continues to pass today in the middle of his church but goes beyond the church like Elijah and Elisha, reaching out to the excluded ones whom God loves.

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
How many times? Have you ever been tired of always taking the first step again and again? Forgiveness is the center of the Christian life. Sometimes to be merciful is considered a weakness but in reality it requires a lot of courage. It's very easy to instinctively react and blow up and it is a true journey to learn how to forgive. This is possible only if I realize how many times God forgives me on and on, without ever being tired of it. The perfect community is not where there are no mistakes and it's an illusion to pretend that. The Christian community is not exempted from human limitations and sin. It is actually the place where forgiveness is sought and given. Forgiveness is not simply something that covers or hides sin. It doesn't simply repair what is broken, trying to put the pieces together. It actually confers more value to it by adding something more precious (i.e. the prodigal son who is dressed with the finest robe, wears a ring and sandals)! Forgiveness is transformative and heals both the receiver and the giver. It's always a win-win. Nobody ever loses. Forgiveness is the essence of God. 

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
We live in such polarized times that it seems as if there are only two ways to exist. One is the way of a conservatism and rigid traditionalism, convinced that the past is all we need; the other is of progressivism and cancel culture, convinced that only by demolishing the past can we achieve the newness that can save our lives. It’s as if a tree is either its roots or fruits. But between them there is a trunk and branches that allow the sap to flow from the roots to the fruits. Today’s Gospel shows us how Jesus’ teaching can go beyond this false dichotomy between a rigid traditionalism and a sterile progressivism. Jesus has the capacity to accomplish the past by freeing it from established patterns and allow the novelty to break through without contrasting it with the past. There is a tendency even inside the Church to create this false bipolar scheme (i.e. if you are pro-life you are labeled as a conservative, if you are pro-environment you are labeled as a progressive; as if the two cannot coexist and are not founded actually on the same principle). Don’t think that to be new it is necessary to begin from scratch. Don’t’ destroy your past but embrace it, learn from it, make a treasure of it. At the same time don’t remain frozen in the past. Don’t be fearful of change but learn how to keep what is essential to "enculturate" it in our times. Don’t be afraid to hear the new “cries of the poor” that require new answers with a language and expression that is able to be understood and match the new needs. 

Thursday of the Third Week of Lent
When you're on a journey you always want to be able to communicate, especially when you're lost or in need of something in an unknown territory. In today's Gospel, Jesus drives out a demon who was keeping a man mute. The man is healed, free from evil and now able to communicate. At the sight of this, some began to slander and accuse Jesus of acting in the name of Beelzebul. Their tongue functions very well but their spoken words lack truth and freedom, creating corruption and death. They speak out of jealousy and envy because Jesus' words and actions represent a threat to their established power. They think that by slandering they will regain respect and honor. The exercise of slander grows proportionally to our narcissism. The egocentric person always tries to eliminate the other perceived as a "competitor" through slander and false imputations. Slander perverts the reality and poisons the hearts. Unfortunately slander is many times manifested in daily life: gossip, murmuring, defamation, etc... And when the lie spreads - especially today through the media -, not only trust is wounded, but mistrust and fear are disseminated to the point that all relationships risk becoming artificial and dehumanized. So who is the real mute and possessed by a mute demon? The man who was healed or the ones who falsely accuse and slander?

Friday of the Third Week of Lent
If you decide to go somewhere and use a navigation app, you're able to see, according to the different options offered (i.e. car, public transportation, walk, tolls, no-tolls, traffic, etc...), the distance and approximate travel time to arrive to your destination. There are so many options you can choose from and I personally always try to choose the fastest option. In today's Gospel a scribe asks Jesus for the 'best route': “Which is the first of all the commandments?” The reason is that although the Decalogue was composed of ten commandments, the rabbis and the Pharisees had extrapolated from all the law 613 commandments (road map). 365 as the days of the year were prohibitions and 248 as the components of the human body were positive precepts, for a total of 613! Given this complexity, it is unsurprising that the ancient rabbis frequently sought ways to summarize the law and to identify the most important laws, those commands that incurred the harshest penalties when violated. The answer of Jesus is disconcerting because he ignores the 613 commandments. His response brings the scribe to the core and origin of Israel's "creed": "Shema Israel". “Hear Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You will therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength". Our love towards God must be absolute, but to be authentic, this love of God must then be translated into love for our neighbor. Once we acknowledge this and take this route we'll discover like the scribe that we "are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

Saturday of the Third Week of Lent
Our journey is not so much about climbing but descending, it’s not about accumulating but giving. True greatness is humility. Humility; homo; humus: they have the same root. Knowing one's truth makes us human and love is true when it is human, humble. This is the humus that allows love to be love. Love is never pompous, but always humble. Humility is the most sublime quality of God who is the servant of all, because he loves everyone. For this reason, whoever humbles himself is lifted up, that is, he has the greatness of God who is love, humility and service. On the other hand, whoever inflates his own self is the opposite of God who emptied himself to make room for every creature. Being like the Pharisee, full of himself and despising others, prevents us from entering through the narrow door; the attitude of the tax collector instead makes us enter comfortably together in company of others. Indeed, the more humble I am, the more I love; the more I am in company, especially with those whom the Pharisee despises, the wider the door of Life will be!

March 19, 2023

4th Sunday of Lent
            Why a special name for this Sunday – Laetare – Rejoice?  Why the lighter colored rose/pink vestments during the solemn penitential season of Lent. The answer is simple – just as there is no resurrection without the cross, there is no value to the cross without the resurrection.  As we prepare for Good Friday, we are reminded that on the third day after that seeming defeat, Easter Sunday, life triumphs as Jesus is raised from the dead.  

            Our Catholic faith often holds in tension the fullness of our beliefs. This does not always make it simple. We affirm both the cross and the resurrection – death and life.  To name but a few more: grace and nature; sin and mercy; faith and works.

            The entrance chant, the introit, (above) for Laetare Sunday based upon Chapter 66 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, clearly says who should rejoice – “Jerusalem and … all those who love her.”   

            Raising up Jerusalem is a fitting symbol for the tensions that are part of our faith.

            Jerusalem – for the Jews in Biblical times - the center of the promised land, the holy city, the capital of the nation, the Temple dwelling pace of God, the captured city; the place longed for by those dragged into exile; a Roman colony.   Triumph and defeat!

            The new heavenly Jerusalem – the symbol of the complete victory when all the ambiguities of the earthly Jerusalem are transformed, draws much imagery from the Book of Revelation. Sometimes the imagery has been mistaken by some Christians, like the Puritans, to suggest we might be able the create this new Jerusalem in a specific place on earth.  Not quite, Jesus will usher in the heavenly Jerusalem. 

            The current Jerusalem – This city is affirmed as holy by the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianly and Islam.  The Temple, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock are there.  Sadly, its name “City of Peace” is belied by tension, divisiveness, hate and violence that too regularly display themselves. Is it not a tragic betrayal that we have allowed our faiths, drawn from a common forefather, to turn us against one another? 

            We are in Lent. This week Ramadan will begin, and in a few weeks, Passover will be celebrated. Perhaps, a fervent prayer for all faiths might be for a Jerusalem that is a more holy reflection of its name and genuine religious values bequeathed to us by Abraham.  May we able to sing with greater confidence – Rejoice Jerusalem! - even now, as we await one day the new heavenly Jerusalem.

March 20, 2023

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
During the pandemic, when our travels and visits to people have been drastically reduced we’ve been able to find other ways to reach out and travel virtually. There has definitely been a spike in the use of wireless and touchless technology at school, work, shopping, meetings etc... Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus who performs a miracle without him being physically present. We could metaphorically call it a ‘wireless’ miracle. No wires, no physical connections: everything happened remotely, and we are no longer surprised by what happens at a distance. However, when it comes to faith, we are still suspicious. Jesus replied to the royal official: "Go, your son lives." That man believed in the accomplishment of the word of Jesus. For months now there have been payment services through smartphones or touchless cards. No more cash, no wallets to open, no exchange of banknotes, no cards to swipe, documents to show, receipts to sign. If we are able to create structural levels of trust without touching anything, why do we not trust God and his word? Why do we always need signs? Hasn't he already ‘bought’ us at a high price, not a virtual price but a very real one, the price of his blood? And isn't that worth more than a digital payment?

March 21, 2023

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
The human being is essentially a traveler, not just physically. So many have seen their dreams, wishes and hopes disrupted or ignored and therefore live like the paralyzed man of today’s Gospel. How is it possible that in 38 years he has never managed to dive into those waters at least once before others? Did those around him just ignore him or consider him as a helpless cause? His life is a nightmare, a loser from the start; he stands there by the pool every day for 38 years! After attempting many times to enter into the pool and being always defeated by someone else, he slowly begins to just surrender to the idea that nothing will ever change. He is the one known not by his name but for his disease and begging. He begins to slowly enjoy his defeat, give up, identify himself with his paralysis and blame others for his condition: “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up”. Sometimes we risk the same and enjoy playing the role of the victim, blaming others for our condition and laziness to heal/change. Jesus is very clear with him: "Do you want to be well?... Rise, take up your mat, and walk… Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you.” Jesus tells us today to get out of our “victimhood” and pick up our “mat” and “walk”. Salvation is not a lottery for the lucky ones or confined to a special time and space. We don’t have to search for a well or a magic pool to get up on our feet, embrace our life and walk. Do not allow the indifference and stigmatization of others keep you from rising and walking in the way of the Lord. And for those who think to be healthy and are happily on the journey: do not be indifferent, do not stigmatize, but help the “paralyzed” to get back up and walk on their own feet.

March 22, 2023

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
There are moments in which we enjoy the journey and probably would never want to arrive to the destination. I think that sometimes we prefer that God remains inaccessible, far away, distant, in the heavens because we think He represents everything we are not and what we cannot be. It is easy to meet people who, even non-Christians, share some words and / or gestures of Jesus. But Jesus is not simply one of the many gurus, philosophers, life coaches of history. We believe that He is "the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father". What unnerved Jesus' contemporaries (cf. Jn 5:17-30), and probably many today, is not so much His preaching, but rather his intimate approach with God, to the point of calling him Father. The intimacy that Jesus has with the Father is overflowing with affection. Jesus can be truly understood only in this relationship with the Father as His Father's love is His strength. The good news of the Gospel is knowing that this secret of Jesus is not only for Him. He came to give each of us a Father. In fact, through Him, with Him and in Him we became children of God. Therefore we can truly understand ourselves and who we are called to be only by entering into a deeper relationship with the Father too. 

March 23, 2023

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
On the journey there are times when we ask for information and trust those who give us directions. Even in our life we rely on the “testimony” of others. Think of the great travelers like Marco Polo who left us with a testimony describing his discovery of the world, or of reporters from the scenes who describe what is happening, or of witnesses in court and finally of our parents and grandparents and the role they played in our lives. The testimony from others or to others is the transmission of the truth that is enriched from hand to hand and if the testimony is true and is dictated by love, it produces freedom and life. If the testimony is false it produces slavery and death. So, it is precisely the testimony and the quality of the testimony that shapes our existence. But testimonies are insufficient, particularly when they do not confirm what we want to hear or believe. Jesus healed the paralytic of Bethesda and is now severely contested for having performed the miracle on the Sabbath day. It doesn't matter if he freed a paralytic from his slavery! Jesus tries to bring light to the truth citing the testimony of the Baptist (who was admired by everyone, even by enemies like Herod), the Scriptures and Moses. Despite these testimonies, they are blinded by their prejudice and therefore cannot understand neither with their intelligence or with their heart. What are the prejudices that are keeping me from believing that Jesus is the Christ? And as a Christian, am I a faithful testimony to Christ with my words and deeds?

March 24, 2023

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
In the Gospel of John, it seems as if Jesus is continuously on trial. The mock trial held after his arrest will only be the result of a decision already made since the beginning: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (Jn 1:11). Jesus must die because he is extremely dangerous; he proclaims himself the Saviour; he questions the interpretation of the Law; he highlights the contradictions of the reborn priestly class; he ridicules the presumed holiness of the Pharisees; he becomes unpleasant and a problem for public order, putting at risk the established powers of the time. It matters little if what he says is true, or if he really is what he claims to be. How do I perceive Jesus’ presence and words? As a threat to our established comfort zones, beliefs and power, or as someone who can free us from our false claims, invisible knots of “give-and-take”?

March 25, 2023

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
We live in times of declarations of tolerance and inclusion, but those who think differently are often not tolerated but marginalized and excluded. We are conditioned by what others think, wanting to be always trendy or traditionalist depending on the side with which we align ourselves; afraid of being excluded from a party or circle if we think differently; fearful of the judgement of others and therefore to be excluded. In today’s Gospel we have the example of Nicodemus who does not accept the method used by his peers. Despite being a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, he proves to have an open mind and heart and is able to challenge prejudices. Nicodemus shows us that there are times that we must take a stand, overcome barriers, go beyond pre-packaged schemes (conservative or liberal) and put always at the center the person as the Gospel teaches us.

5^th Sunday of Lent

March 27, 2023

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Have you ever found yourself forced to take a detour that you didn’t expect or want? Have you ever made the wrong turn and wind up in a dead end? Have you ever felt manipulated and used as a mean for another scope? Today’s Gospel shows us a case of a woman ‘caught’ in her sin and brought in front of Jesus. The scribes and Pharisees immediately pronounce their sentence: "Moses in the Law commanded us to stone women like this" (Jn. 8,5). In truth, in that male-dominated socio-cultural context, the law is already being twisted because the biblical legislation also involved the adulterous male (Lv. 20:10 and Dt. 22:22). Furthermore, they are not really interested in justice, but are using this woman to make a point with Jesus and hope to find a reason to “stone’ him too! Imagine the feelings of this poor woman in that moment, guilty of her own sin, betrayed and abandoned by her lover, brought in public in front of everyone and exploited to condemn Jesus! She probably truly felt at a dead end, on the edge of a cliff. Jesus challenges them saying: "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" (Jn. 8,7). I have the impression today that sometimes there are cases of injustice brought to our attention in the public square of the social media in a twisted way, not because there is a real concern to solve them but because they can feed other interests. And it’s staggering how people continuously “throw stones” through the social media! I love the fact that Jesus, the “rejected stone” does not crush the woman but becomes the “corner stone” of her new life: "Go and from now on don't sin anymore" (Jn. 8:11). 

March 28, 2023

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Where are you from? Where are you going? Who are you? These are questions that accompany our journey of faith. They are questions directed to us but also to Jesus. But what motivates these questions? Do we have an openness to accept what will be revealed or do we behave like the Pharisees in today's Gospel? In their hearts they had already cataloged and rejected Jesus and are not at all willing to review their positions. Jesus' answer is emblematic: "You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above." Many might like Jesus’ teachings or at least some of them, but He asks us to see in Him the One who sent Him. Faith is not a myth, neither just a pile of data or formulas to learn by heart; it's more like putting together the pieces of a puzzle. It requires patient listening and acceptance of what will be revealed, concentration and patience. We live in times in which we think we can manipulate and change anything according to our desire. But putting together a puzzle is about observing carefully the details of the colors and shapes, accepting them for what they are, and putting together the ones that match without forcing them. Jesus then adds that a complete knowledge of him will come only when he is lifted up from the earth: "Then you will realize that I AM." The cross, therefore, destroys all the false images that we have of God and reveals who He is: Love!

March 29, 2023

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
"Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin": Evil enslaves us, precisely because it contrasts that free and liberating openness that is typical of faith. We all know the strength of negative habits, which we call "vices". Who among us has never experienced the will to do good, but the inability to do it, out of laziness, fear or ignorance? Let's be honest, this means our freedom is hurt and limited. Our small whims keep us imprisoned, unable to reach out and be able to get closer to others. We often get stuck in our laziness and close our mind and heart to the needs of others. What or Who can set us free? The Son, who is the Truth, reveals who we are: “Ecce Homo” (Jn 19:5). During His Passion, Jesus will display at the same time the ugliness of sin and the beauty of God’s mercy. The “most handsome of men” (Ps 45:3) will be “spurned and avoided by men, like one from whom you turn your face and was held in no esteem” (Is 53:3), but at the same time He will draw us when elevated by revealing God’s Infinite Love. Though his passion, death and resurrection He showed us the path to victory, the path to fly. Our sin tends to keep our tires flat, while faith allows the “breath” of God to regenerate us and fill our “tires” so to be able to hit the road again and reach the promised land we are destined to enter. To not have faith is like being an eagle who lives like a chicken and therefore runs but does not know how to use the wings and fly high. The Truth is what will set us free!

March 30, 2023

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Chapter 8 of the Gospel of John begins with a woman to be stoned, whom Jesus forgives; it ends with Jesus who reveals himself as "I Am". I Am means God and now they want to stone him. There is a very close connection: Jesus is stoned because he reveals a God who is contrary to what all religions believe. During this chapter the word “father” is present fourteen times: father Abraham, father God and father Satan, the devil. Even the children of Abraham can have as father God or the devil. We should not take for granted that because we are believers, baptized, heirs of the promise, our Father is God.  Depending on which Word we choose to hear, we define what kind of children we are. There is a truth that makes us free and it is the knowledge of the Father as love and mercy, which allows us to be a beloved child and to love my sisters and brothers. It gives the ability to not condemn, to drop the hearts of stones so to transform yourself into bread. This is the truth that makes us free: freedom is to love your sisters and brothers; and there is a counter-truth that we live and that is within us and which is called original sin, which is a big falsehood that enslaves us and is the false image of the father, the false image of God.

March 31, 2023

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
What a strange and unsettling experience it is to be blindsided when you’re traveling! When we run out of ideas to defend our point of view or beliefs, we tend to be blindsided by hate and become violent in a blink of an eye. We’re pulled in a vortex that we can’t control. In today’s Gospel we see how, after dropping the stones, the Jews pick them up again to stone Jesus because he calls God Father. He attempts to dialogue with reason, but the only answer is violence. He was turning upside down, like he did in the temple with the tables of the merchants, the structures and established powers that were being threatened by his presence, words and deeds. Those who feel as owners of the truth will inevitably become violent. Those instead who are guided by it will be set free and always seek for dialogue with everyone even when it seems useless.

April 1, 2023

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Jesus did not belong to the political, priestly or financial caste and yet he was perceived as a threat to the holders of power even if they were limited by the oppression of the Romans. Even today, many believe that the so-called order marked by human laws would be disturbed and upset by faith and religious freedom. The plot against Christ has become countless times, in history and still today, a cause of persecution for his followers. There are still many who, like the high priest Caiaphas, propose and implement the absurd and drastic solution: "You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish!" This is a true example of manipulation. There are many like Caiaphas out there, wolves dressed like lambs, who will always try to save what will guarantee them power by making us believe it’s for our good. This is how religious freedom and the fundamental rights of every human being continue to be trampled and repressed. Unfortunately, “mors tua, vita mea” is still the logic behind most of the decisions and laws that threaten life from its conception to its end. For God every human life is precious and no matter its stage, condition, status, nationality or beliefs, it's always to be saved and not sacrificed. He is the true leader, the Good Shepherd, who will never eliminate those who threaten him, but will actually lay down his life even for them: "when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

April 3, 2023

Day 35 - Monday of Holy Week
How far is it? How long does it take? Is it worth it? These are questions that arise when we decide to go on a trip. We evaluate the different routes and means of transportation to save money and time. But when we are really interested in going somewhere, or want to visit someone very dear to us, that we haven’t met in a long time, we just put every effort into going. Today’s Gospel takes us into the house of Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany (meaning home of friendship). Mary, ignoring the presence of others, anoints Jesus’ feet with costly perfumed oil and dries them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the oil and this action annoys Judas the Iscariot who sees in the gesture a waste of money. The Gospel presents two different approaches to life. The first is that of the "world", represented by Judas Iscariot who on one hand, with his own worry to hoard, is actually a cause of poverty because of his greed, and on the other hand, under the pretext of charity, he uses the poor for its own profit. This greed and theft create a “throwaway culture” that produces discarded lives. The second is the spirit of the house of Bethany where all are welcomed and treated as friends. The solution to poverty is in the gift of oneself to others; it’s the personal relationship that gives the oppressed dignity and freedom. It’s about befriending, treating one another as brothers and sisters, thus bringing them out of oppression and placing them in a position to build the human and fraternal community. The trading mentality does not save the poor, neither will make the earth habitable for everyone. It’s the logic of encounter and generosity. To Love is never a waste and we are called to be the ‘fragrance’ of Christ and fill the world with love just as He did by breaking the 'alabaster jar' of His life on the Cross.

April 4, 2023

Day 36 Tuesday of Holy Week
Have you ever followed a friend without knowing the destination? Today's Gospel portrays a very dramatic moment. Jesus is with his disciples during the last supper and the reading shows how we can get caught between betrayal and denial. Jesus is humanly upset because one of His own will betray him. The sadness grows because, although his enemies made it clear that they want to kill him, the betrayal will come from a friend, one of the disciples chosen by Him! As Psalm 55 says: "For it is not an enemy that reviled me—that I could bear— Not a foe who viewed me with contempt, from that I could hide. But it was you, my other self, my comrade and friend, you, whose company I enjoyed, at whose side I walked in the house of God". It's tragic and Judas wants to steal what Jesus has already decided to offer. However, the real tragedy of Judas is not so much in having betrayed Jesus, as in the desperation and belief that he cannot be forgiven. Judas was offered the grace of repentance but despair took over to the point of pushing him towards self-destruction. Peter, the disciple chosen by the Lord as the rock on which to found the Church, is not able to understand that he too, like Judas, is called to welcome the gift of God. He offers himself to Jesus, to follow him to the point of offering his life for Him. He does not yet know the gratuitous love of the Lord and that salvation does not consist in giving his life for Jesus, but in the fact that Jesus gives His life for us. Like Judas, Peter also stains himself with a despicable sin but unlike Judas he will repent and believe in God's forgiveness. 

April 5, 2023

Day 37 Wednesday of Holy Week
“Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?” "The teacher says, in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples" (cf Mt 26:17-18). The Lord asks us to welcome Him to celebrate Easter with his disciples. We are called to make our life a room where the Lord can sit at the table and give himself. Will we give him today this opportunity? Or will we hold on to the door just to peek, or let ourselves be frightened by our smallness? The Lord knows what will happen and yet He wants even Judas to participate in his supper, He does not set conditions; It is not necessary to be good people to welcome his Word. The Lord comes and gives himself for everyone. Now that the epilogue is near, He wants to make a unique, extraordinary gesture that will make His life as a definitive gift. Then it is up to us to welcome with awe and gratitude the gift of a God who dies for love; or to refuse it like Judas who closed his heart and sold his best friend for the price of a slave. Today's warning for all of us is that it is not enough to have known the Lord, to have followed him, to have left everything to become his disciples; the adversary is next to us and can tragically deceive us. The Lord wants to celebrate His Easter again with me this year. Let us open the "top floor" of our souls and prepare it for the feast of the passage, to remember the many slaveries from which we need be freed. Let us make the Lord, who can save us from our slaveries, feel at home.

April 6, 2023

Day 38 Holy Thursday
The night He was betrayed... He loved them till the end. Jesus offers His life to those who will betray, deny, and abandon Him. The offer of His Body and Blood and the washing of the feet by Jesus are part of the same mystery. In fact Jesus commands for both gestures: "Do this in memory of me", or: "Do this as I did to you". Two gestures, two memories commanded for a single reality: Jesus who gives his life for us. Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his clothes, takes the towel, wraps it around his hips, pours water into the basin, washes the disciples' feet. No attendants nor assistants. This gesture was usually done by a slave, or by a son towards his old father, or by a disciple towards his master. A gesture, therefore, which is of humiliation, but which can also be of relationship, of affection. Let us recall that the disciples never performed such gesture towards Jesus and that the only one who washed His feet was a prostitute with her tears and dried them with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with ointment. Jesus himself describes that gesture, as a sign of great love.

Each one of us, to enter into a relationship with Jesus, will have to let his feet be washed by Him. We must accept seeing the "prepackaged" image we have of God, shattered; we must accept a love that cannot be humanly measured, but that is a love that always anticipates, a love, above all, that cannot be deserved. Peter is confused and will understand only later, after having also gone through infidelity. Even Judas will have his feet washed that evening and receive the Eucharistic morsel, but he increases his capacity for enmity to the point of allowing Satan to take possession of him completely.

Let Jesus Christ wash your feet. Here we decide whether our faith is authentically Christian, or not. It is only from such an understanding of Jesus, from such an inversion of roles, that we will truly be in communion with God or reject him.

Jesus then asks the disciples: "Did you understand what I did to you?". The washing of the feet carried out by Jesus was indeed a revelation of who Jesus is, but it also becomes an example, a life-style that is proposed to the disciples. 'Tell me what image you have of God and I will tell you how you live as a person. So if you believe that God, the Lord, can wash your feet, then you will be able, indeed feel the responsibility and the duty to wash the feet of others'. 

April 6, 2023
Day 39 Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
"After taking the vinegar, Jesus said: It is finished!” What does it mean: "It is finished"? It doesn’t mean it’s over, neither that there is nothing more to say. Remember the words at the beginning of the last supper: “Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.” It means everything has reached the apex. Love has reached its perfection. The Cross touched the highest peak of Love: he gave himself to the Father, without reservations and without regrets ("Father, into your hands I abandon my life"); he has forgiven his enemies ("Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do"); he has opened the gates of heaven to the repentant thief. In short, Jesus on the cross changed the greatest pain - unjustly inflicted on the only truly innocent man in all of history - into the greatest love; he transformed totally unwarranted violence into totally unconditional dedication of Himself. Today we are not asked to speak, but to contemplate, to turn our gaze to the One we have pierced. The temptation is to turn away our gaze from being fixed on Jesus crucified because it’s easier to ignore: “What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over”. We are probably afraid to not be able to resist standing in front of the One who has neither appearance nor beauty to attract our gaze. The temptation, for us, is to lower our eyes before the One who took charge of our sufferings, to cover our faces in front of Him who took on our pains, who was pierced for our crimes, crushed for our iniquities. Let us not be indifferent today. Let us turn our gaze upon Him so to be able to see the “crucified ones” of our times: the poor, the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick, the homeless, the refugees, the marginalized, the wounded, the abused, the abandoned, the prisoners. They are not “attractive” and yet they exist. Ignoring them does not make them disappear, but if we fix our gaze upon them, we will be pierced, discovering that they are our sisters and brothers.

April 8, 2023

Day 40 Holy Saturday
No words, no rituals, no songs, no bells, just silence. The Word that became flesh and was crucified is now silenced in a tomb. But that Word in the tomb is like a “grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies to produce much fruit.” It’s buried but has the strength to crack a rock. Jesus was buried in a hurry before twilight. There was no time for a proper burial. Burying deceased loved ones with dignity and piety, participation and affection is understood as a duty and a right. Let us turn our thoughts to current events: to the thousands of deaths that the contagious disease has cause, the victims of wars and so many destitute sisters and brothers whose names remain unknown. Many, too many still die without a proper burial, without the comfort of friendly presences, without the consolation of the funeral, without the songs of hope. Let us all live this day in silence and hope, memory and expectation.