SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD - 23 January 2022 - HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

 https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2022/documents/20220123_omelia-domenicadellaparoladi -dio.html

SUNDAY OF THE WORD OF GOD - 23 January 2022

HOLY MASS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

St. Peter’s Basilica

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, 

In the first reading and in the Gospel, we find two parallel acts. Ezra the priest lifts up the book of the law of God, opens it and reads it aloud before the people. Jesus, in the synagogue of Nazareth, opens the scroll of the Sacred Scripture and reads a passage of the prophet Isaiah in the presence of all. Both scenes speak to us of a fundamental reality: at the heart of the life of God’s holy people and our journey of faith are not ourselves and our own words. At its heart is God and his word.

Everything started with the word that God spoke to us. In Christ, his eternal Word, the Father “chose us before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4). By that Word, he created the universe: “he spoke, and it came to be” (Ps 33:9). From of old, he spoke to us through the prophets (cf. Heb 1:1), and finally, in the fullness of time (cf. Gal 4:4), he sent us that same Word, his only-begotten Son. That is why, in the Gospel, after reading from Isaiah, Jesus says something completely unexpected: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled” (Lk 4:21). Fulfilled: the word of God is no longer a promise, but is now fulfilled. In Jesus, it has taken flesh. By the power of the Holy Spirit, it has come to dwell among us and it desires to continue to dwell in our midst, in order to fulfil our expectations and to heal our wounds.

Sisters and brothers, let us keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, like those in the synagogue of Nazareth (cf. v. 20). They kept looking at him, for he was one of them, and asking, “What is this novelty? What will he do, this one, about whom everyone is speaking?” And let us embrace his word. Today let us reflect on two interconnected aspects of this: the word reveals God and the word leads us to man. The word is at the centre: it reveals God and leads us to man.

First, the word reveals God. Jesus, at the beginning of his mission, commenting on the words of the prophet Isaiah, announces a clear decision: he has come to liberate the poor and the oppressed (cf. v. 18). In this way, precisely through the scriptures, he reveals the face of God as one who cares for our poverty and takes to heart our destiny. God is not an overlord (padrone), aloof and on high – an ugly but untrue image of God – but a Father (Padre) who follows our every step. He is no cold bystander, detached and impassible, a “God of mathematics”. He is God-with-us, passionately concerned about our lives and engaged in them, even sharing our tears. He is no neutral and indifferent god, but the Spirit, the lover of mankind, who defends us, counsels us, defends us, sustains us and partakes of our pain. He is always present. This is the “good news” (v. 18) that Jesus proclaims to the amazement of all: God is close at hand, and he wants to care for me and for you, for everyone. That is how God is: close. He even defines himself as closeness. In Deuteronomy, he says to the people: “What other people has gods as close to them as I am to you?” (cf. Deut 4:7). A God of closeness, of compassionate and tender closeness. He wants to relieve the burdens that crush you, to warm your wintry coldness, to brighten your daily dreariness and to support your faltering steps. This he does by his word, by the word he speaks to rekindle hope amid the ashes of your fears, to help you rediscover joy in the labyrinths of your sorrows, to fill with hope your feelings of solitude. He makes you move forward, not in a labyrinth, but on a daily journey to find him.

Brothers and sisters: let us ask ourselves: do we bear within our hearts this liberating image of God, the God of closeness, compassion and tenderness, or do we think of him as a merciless judge, an accountant who keeps a record of every moment of our lives? Is ours a faith that generates hope and joy, or, among us, a faith still weighed down by fear, a fearful faith? What is the face of God that we proclaim in the Church? The Saviour who liberates and heals, or the Terrifying God who burdens us with feelings of guilt? In order to convert us to the true God, Jesus shows us where to start: from his word. That word, by telling us the story of God’s love for us, liberates us from the fears and preconceptions about him that stifle the joy of faith. That word overthrows false idols, unmasks our projections, destroys our all too human images of God and brings us back to see his true face, his mercy. The word of God nurtures and renews faith: let us put it back at the centre of our prayer and our spiritual life! Let us put at the centre the word that reveals to us what God is like. The word that draws us close to God.

Now the second aspect: the word leads us to man. To God and to man. Precisely when we discover that God is compassionate love, we overcome the temptation to shut ourselves up in a religiosity reduced to external worship, one that fails to touch and transform our lives. This is idolatry, hidden and refined, but idolatry all the same. God’s word drives us to go forth from ourselves and to encounter our brothers and sisters solely with the quiet power of God’s liberating love. That is exactly what Jesus shows us in the synagogue of Nazareth: he has been sent forth to the poor – all of us – to set them free. He has not come to deliver a set of rules or to officiate at some religious ceremony; rather, he has descended to the streets of our world in order to encounter our wounded humanity, to caress faces furrowed by suffering, to bind up broken hearts and to set us free from chains that imprison the soul. In this way, he shows us the worship most pleasing to God: caring for our neighbour. We need to come back to this. Whenever in the Church there are temptations to rigidity, which is a perversion, whenever we think that finding God means becoming more rigid, with more rules, right things, clear things… it is not the way. When we see proposals of rigidity, let us think immediately: this is an idol, it is not God. Our God is not that way.

Sisters and brothers, the word of God changes us. Rigidity does not change us, it hides us; the word of God changes us. It penetrates our soul like a sword (cf. Heb 4:12). If, on the one hand it consoles us by showing us the face of God, on the other, it challenges and disturbs us, reminding us of our inconsistencies. It shakes us up. It does not bring us peace at the price of accepting a world rent by injustice and hunger, where the price is always paid by the weakest. They always end up paying. God’s word challenges the self-justification that makes us blame everything that goes wrong on other persons and situations. How much pain do we feel in seeing our brothers and sisters dying at sea because no one will let them come ashore! And some people do this in God’s name. The word of God invites us to come out into the open, not to hide behind the complexity of problems, behind the excuse that “nothing can be done about it” or “it’s somebody else’s problem”, or “what can I do?”, “leave them there”. The word of God urges us to act, to combine worship of God and care for man. For sacred scripture has not been given to us for our entertainment, to coddle us with an angelic spirituality, but to make us go forth and encounter others, drawing near to their wounds. I spoke of rigidity, that modern pelagianism that is one of the temptations of the Church. And this other temptation, that of seeking an angelic spirituality, is to some extent the other temptation today: gnostic movements, a gnosticism, that proposes a word of God that puts you “in orbit” and does not make you touch reality. The Word that became flesh (cf. Jn 1:14) wishes to become flesh in us. His word does not remove us from life, but plunges us into life, into everyday life, into listening to the sufferings of others and the cry of the poor, into the violence and injustice that wound society and our world. It challenges us, as Christians, not to be indifferent, but active, creative Christians, prophetic Christians.

“Today” – says Jesus – “this scripture has been fulfilled” (Lk 4:21). The Word wishes to take flesh today, in the times in which we are living, not in some ideal future. A French mystic of the last century, who chose to experience the Gospel in the peripheries, wrote that the word of God is not “a ‘dead letter’; it is spirit and life… The listening that the word of the Lord demands of us is our ‘today’: the circumstances of our daily life and the needs of our neighbour” (Madeleine Delbrêl, La joie de croire, Paris, 1968). Let us ask, then: do we want to imitate Jesus, to become ministers of liberation and consolation for others, putting the word into action? Are we a Church that is docile to the word? A Church inclined to listen to others, engaged in reaching out to raise up our brothers and sisters from all that oppresses them, to undo the knots of fear, to liberate those most vulnerable from the prisons of poverty, from interior ennui and the sadness that stifles life? Isn’t that what we want?

In this celebration, some of our brothers and sisters will be instituted as readers and catechists. They are called to the important work of serving the Gospel of Jesus, of proclaiming him, so that his consolation, his joy and his liberation can reach everyone. That is also the mission of each one of us: to be credible messengers, prophets of God’s word in the world. Consequently, let us grow passionate about sacred scripture, let us be willing to dig deep within the word that reveals God’s newness and leads us tirelessly to love others. Let us put the word of God at the centre of the Church’s life and pastoral activity! In this way, we will be liberated from all rigid pelagianism, from all rigidity, set free from the illusion of a spirituality that puts you “in orbit”, unconcerned about caring for our brothers and sisters. Let us put the word of God at the centre of the Church’s life and pastoral activity. Let us listen to that word, pray with it, and put it into practice.

Mc 7,1-8.14-15.21-23

 

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

 https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/twenty-second-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b/

TWENTY SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

Deut 4:1-2,6-8; Jas 1:17-18,21-22,27; Mark 7:1-8,14-15,21-23

William Barclay, the famous Scottish Protestant theologian, tells the story about an old Jewish rabbi who was in a Roman prison. He was on a minimal ration of food and water. It was just enough for him to survive.

As time passed, the rabbi grew weaker and weaker. Finally, it became necessary to call a doctor. The old man’s problem was diagnosed as dehydration. The doctor’s report confused prison officials. They could not understand how the rabbi could be dehydrated. Although his daily ration of drinking water was minimal but it was adequate for him.

The guard was told to watch the old man closely to see what he was doing with his water. It was then that they mystery was solved. The guards discovered that the rabbi was using almost all his water to perform religious ritual washings before he prayed and before he ate. As a result, he had little water left to drink.

This story helps us to understand today’s gospel. It helps us to understand also why the Jewish leaders are surprised when they see Jesus’ disciples eat without performing the ritual of washing which they are accustomed to do before eating their meal. And so the Lord takes their criticism to point out what is essential and this essential is the heart of morality. The heart of morality is no other than the heart of a person.

But before anything else, Jesus does not exempt His disciples from fulfilling the Law of Moses. He even told His disciples that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17). When Jews talk about ‘the Law,’ they mean two things: the written law and the oral law. The written law, the more important one, is set down in the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) and sometimes called the Law of Moses. For a long time, the Jews were content with this written law and they applied this into their live as they saw as important.

But the scribes saw this written law as too vague to understand and should be put in details and so this gave rise to the second set of laws, the oral laws or oral traditions. One of them is ritual cleansing before eating and before praying. The reason behind these oral traditions was good, in order to make religion permeate every action of the day. But slowly this oral law began to degenerate into an activity of performing external rituals. You please God if you’re the law but you commit sin if you do not observe.

The pious practices per se, were not bad. What Christ opposed was the attitude of Pharisees that such formal and merely external actions constituted a person’s religiosity. It is worse when these were done for display or to show to the people how pious they were. In other words the real intent of the law has been lost for the sake of merely keeping the ritual. Jesus challenges them that it is not the ritual purification of hands, cups, kettles, etc., although this is important also for sanitary purposes, a person is guaranteed an interior purification. Rather, it is not through this ritual that makes this person clean or unclean. But rather, what I had said awhile ago that the heart of morality is no other than the heart of a person. That is why Jesus says to the Pharisees by quoting Isaiah’s prophecy: “These people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines mere human precepts,” (vv. 6-7).

It is not through this ritual of washing hands before eating and praying that makes a person clean or unclean. Eating with hands that have not been washed cannot make a person unclean. What makes the person unclean comes from within the people, from their hearts. And from their hearts come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly, (vv. 21-23). Maybe the question that we should ask ourselves is this: “Ano ba ‘yang sinasabi o ginagawa mo nagmula ba ‘yan sa iyong puso o sa iyong nguso?”

Fr. Jerry Orbos, SVD, in his homily, also asked: “De lata ba ang puso mo? (Do you have a canned heart?). A canned heart is a closed heart where no one goes in and no love goes out.  It doesn’t get heart. It is a well-preserved heart with lots of preservatives! Inside a canned heart, there are no disturbances, no crises, no life and no love. How do you know if you have a canned heart? You shut out God from your heart. You hold back your heart-your love from others. You are filled with hatred, guilt, hurts, pride and other filth. What you need is a can opener – abre lata – to open your heart. God is the abre lata of all hearts. Allow Him to open your heart.

How does this apply to us? This gospel reading says to us that we must not identify our religion or being religious with just performing external acts like: going to church on Sundays and attend Mass, saying prayers, reading the Bible or giving to charity because these do not guarantee us holiness. What is the most important is the love in our hearts that motivates us to what do what we do. We go to Mass and we pray to God because we love Him so much. We give charity to those in need because we love them. If our hearts is filled with bitterness and pride, then all these external acts won’t make us holy before God and enter His Kingdom.

At the end allow me to tell this anecdote in order for us to reflect more. There were two monks who were of the monastery on an errand. On their way back, they saw a beautiful woman by the riverbank. She asked if they could help her cross the river so her clothes would not get wet. The first monk vehemently refused. He said that he had a vow of chastity and had not touched a woman. The second monk told her to get on his back and without saying anything carried her across the river.

The two return to the monastery in silence. But after sometime, the second monk was summoned by the abbot and asked to explain the ‘indecent’ incident. The monk replied that he indeed carried the sexy woman on his back and then forgot all about it.

The abbot there then understood that the first monk who has not forgotten and even reported the incident to him was the one who has a problem of chastity. Sinungaling ang kanyang puso. Salawahan ang kanyang puso.

Today’s Readings: Cycle B

Lord to whom we will go you have words of eternal life

 

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B) Jos 24:1-2, 15-17, 18; Eph 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

 https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/twenty-first-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-b/

TWENTY FIRST SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (YEAR B)

Jos 24:1-2, 15-17, 18; Eph 5:21-32; John 6:60-69

The story is told of an Indian Christian evangelist who was distributing the Gospels to passengers in a train speeding through Central India. One man in anger took the copy, tore it into small pieces and threw them out the open window.

That seemed to be the end of the matter but actually it was only the beginning… for a man who was walking along the railroad track that day. He saw this little piece of paper. Picked it up and in his own language, HE saw written on it the words: “Bread of eternal life.”

He did not know what that meant, so he asked around among his friends. One told him: “That comes out of a Christian book.” You must not read it or you will be defiled.”

He bought a New Testament and someone showed him the passage with Jesus’ words: “I am the bread of life.”That started it! He studied the Gospels and light flooded into his heart. Later he became a preacher of the Gospel. And so it was that a little piece of paper, through the power of the Spirit, became the bread of life in this man’s life.

You see, how powerful the word of God is, even written in a piece of torn paper; it changed a person into a follower of the Lord Jesus.

Words are the easiest and most common form of communication. Great preachers have inspired saints. Great words when written, last and can be read and reread. Words are wonderful things that please the ear and the mind. More important, good and kind words, when spoken at the right time, can heal a wounded heart.

As somebody had said that, words are also the first and easiest means of communication with God. Children and many grown-ups find words indispensable for prayer. Such words well prayed are a means of sanctification. When holy men and women prayed and wrote down their words of prayer they helped to make others holy.

But words can also be very destructive. It can destroy a character or reputation, can harm the peace of a family, can stir up all kinds of violent emotions – anger, passion, greed, and lust and can wound more than a physical blow. Words can hurt too. Psychologists tell us that the way we speak about an infant affects the child negatively or positively. Laughing at a baby may create an emotional scar and may result later in neuroses.

A vast number of words are poured out every minute. Most of these are destructive and harmful. Let us not add to this stream. Let our words help and not hurt.

Just like the gospel of today, the response of St. Peter to the question of Jesus is a very good response in the sense that, like a sword, it penetrates into the deepest of our hearts. St. Peter answered: “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,” (v.68).

Of course, the ‘word’ St. Peter had spoken is the Word of God in the Bible that instructs us on what to do in order to attain eternal life. This Word of God is sweet and life giving. We cannot receive the Holy Mass without the priest but we can read the Bible in the privacy of our rooms or anywhere else.

A story of a former Presbyterian pastor and later became a Catholic said that he was surprised to find out, when he began to know the Catholic faith, that Catholics actually respect the Bible so much as the Word of God. They draw their basic beliefs, including beliefs about Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium from the Bible.

But as somebody had said that it is ironic that while informed Catholics are ready to point out that the Bible is “our book,” the “book of the Church” relatively few Catholics read and study the Bible regularly. Relatively few know what “our book” teaches as well as many other Christians do. Hence, the challenge to Catholics today in this area is two-fold. First, we must know the Word of God, so that we will “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you account for the hope that is in you…with gentleness and reverence,” (1Peter 3:15). Second, Catholics must live the word of God by putting it into practice. Our salvation depends on being “doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving (ourselves),” (Jas 1:22). These two challenges, of course, are related because we cannot live God’s word unless we understand it and know what it really means.

Even the Vatican II Council of the Church invites us to put the Word of God into practice in our daily lives. That is why it is not surprising then that one of the four primary documents of Vatican II that we called constitutions is the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. The Latin title is simply Dei Verbum or The Word of God.

Through this word of God, we can have a personal relationship with God and fellowship with Him. We can come to know God’s existence with ease, with certitude and with no trace of error. In God’s word, we find truth, freedom and life.

I am hoping that each one of us later will say: “I am a good Catholic, not only because I am a daily communicant but also because I am a daily reader of the Word of God that gives life.” So how important is God’s Word in your life?

Lord, who will we go to?

 

MASS IN THE CHAPEL OF THE DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE - HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/cotidie/2020/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20200508_lavicinanza-lostile-didio.html

 MASS IN THE CHAPEL OF THE DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE - HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

"His consolation is close, true and opens the doors of hope"

Friday, 8 May 2020 

Introduction

Today is the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day. Let us pray for those people who work in these meritorious institutions. May the Lord bless their work that does so much good.

Homily 

This conversation between Jesus and the disciples again takes place at the table, during Supper (see Jn 14:1-6). Jesus is sad, and all His followers are sad: Jesus said that He would be betrayed by one of them (see Jn 13:21) and they all perceive that something bad would happen. Jesus begins to console them, because one of the tasks, the jobs of the Lord is to console. The Lord consoles His disciples and here we see Jesus's way of consoling. We have many ways of consoling, from the most authentic, from the closest, to the most formal, such as telegrams of condolences: Profoundly saddened by… That does not console anyone, it is false, the consolation of formality. But how does the Lord console? It is important to know this, because when we go through sad moments in our life, we too learn to perceive what is the true consolation of the Lord.

And in this Gospel passage we see that the Lord always consoles with His closeness, through truth and hope. They are the three paths of the consolation of the Lord.

In closeness, never distant: I am here. These beautiful words: I am here. I am here, with you. And very often, in silence. But we know that He is there. He is always there. That closeness that is God's style, even in the Incarnation, making Himself close to us. The Lord consoles in closeness. And He does not use empty words; on the contrary, He prefers silence. The strength of closeness, in presence. He speaks little, but He is close.

A second path of Jesus's closeness, of Jesus's way of consoling, is the truth: Jesus is truthful. He does not say formal things that are lies: No, be calm, everything will pass, nothing will happen, it will pass, things come to an end… No. He tells the truth. He does not hide the truth. Because He Himself in this passage says, I am the truth (see Jn 14:6). And the truth is, I will go, that is, I will die (see vv. 2-3). We are faced with death. It is the truth. And He says it so simply and gently, without causing harm. But we are right before His death. He does not hide the truth.

And this is the third way. Jesus consoles with hope. Yes, this is a bad moment, but do not let your hearts be troubled. … Have faith also in me (v. 1). I will tell you something, Jesus says, in my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? (v. 2). He is the first to go and open the doors, the doors to that place, through which we will all pass, at least we hope. I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be (v. 3). The Lord returns every time that one of us is departing from this world. I will come, I will take you with me: hope. He will come and take us by the hand, and bring us with Him. He does not say, No, you will not suffer, it's nothing… No. He tells the truth: I am near you. This is the truth: it is a bad moment, of danger, of death. But do not let your heart be troubled, stay in that peace, that peace that is the basis of every consolation. Because I will come and I will take you by hand wher I will be.

It is not easy to allow ourselves to be comforted by the Lord. Very often, in bad moments, we get angry with the Lord and we do not allow Him to come to speak to us like this, with this tenderness, with this closeness, with this gentleness, with this truth and with this hope.

Let us ask the grace to learn to let ourselves be comforted by the Lord. The consolation of the Lord is true, it does not deceive. It is not anaesthesia, no. But He is close, He is true, and He opens the doors to hope.

Spiritual Communion

Those who cannot receive Communion can now make a spiritual communion:

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if you were already there, and I unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You