18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  [3 August 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us. In the midst of the holiday season, the Word of God challenges us to give true meaning to life.

*First Reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes (1:2; 2:21-23)

 When reading the book of Qohelet (Qohelet means 'one who calls' or 'the teacher who speaks before the assembly'), also known as Ecclesiastes, one might think that the author is a philosopher; instead, he is a preacher and one of the most fascinating and uncomfortable personalities of biblical wisdom. It is true that his book is classified among the 'wisdom books', but the biblical books known as wisdom books are not philosophical essays in the manner of the pagans or agnostics. They are first and foremost books written by believers for believers; in a sense, they are catechisms. 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity': these are the first words of the book of Qohelet, and perhaps also what best sums it up. 'Vanity' literally translated would be 'breath of breath', something evanescent, and who can boast of holding a breath between their fingers? Another similar expression, very dear to the author, is 'running after the wind' (1:14). In other words, everything to which we devote our thoughts, dreams, energies, activities and time is ephemeral, temporary, fleeting. Everything, except one thing. What is it? The author keeps the mystery alive and only at the end of the book does he reveal that the only important thing in the world is the search for God. In the end, we understand that this is not a disillusioned philosophical meditation, but a vigorous preaching in a veiled form. In the meantime, he describes in a thousand ways the many human activities as futile efforts, a chasing after the wind to grasp a breath between one's fingers. To better argue his point, he has King Solomon himself speak as a man of desires and power, crowned with glory, but a glory that had no future. In fact, several phases mark his life: before becoming king, we know nothing about him except his thirst for power; as king, he was initially admirable for his wisdom and humility, but in the end he fell into idolatry and became a slave to his love of wealth. Qohelet has Solomon speak as if he were taking stock of his reign: a reign of power and wealth (Jesus will say of him: 'Solomon in all his glory'). He had wisdom and sought the great works that fascinate the powerful and wise of the time; all the pleasures of life, and in the end, the failure of his kingdom. With Rehoboam, his son, incapable of wise politics, the kingdom was divided, and worse still, idolatry regained the upper hand and in a few years Solomon's glory vanished. What we read today refers to him: "He who has worked with wisdom and knowledge will leave it to another who has not worked for it" (2:21). Rehoboam, his son and successor to the throne of Jerusalem, seriously lacked wisdom, and from there arose the schism that divided David's kingdom forever. In light of this experience, Qohelet affirms: "All is vanity." We read the same thing in Psalm 103: 'Man: his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field: a breath of wind, and he is no more' (15-16).  In Qohelet there is a true language of faith: God alone knows all mysteries, and every search for happiness outside of Him is vain because only He possesses the keys to true wisdom. Ultimately, even if we do not understand all the mysteries of existence, we know that everything is a gift from God. Those who trust in God will never be disappointed, and wisdom consists in abandoning oneself to God and observing His commandments is the only way to happiness: "Whoever keeps the commandment will know no evil." (Qo 8:5).  In the end, true wisdom is the humility of living life as a gift from God: "Every man who eats, drinks and enjoys well-being in all his labour: it is a gift from God. (Qo 3:13). 

*Responsorial Psalm 89/90 (3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17)

The psalm takes us to the context of a ceremony of supplication for forgiveness at the Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile: the prayer "Return, Lord, how long? Have mercy on your servants" (v. 13) is typical of a penitential liturgy.  This psalm is therefore a prayer asking for conversion: 'Teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart' (v. 12). Conversion consists in living according to God's wisdom in order to know the true measure of our days. It is no coincidence that this psalm is offered to us as an echo of the first reading, from the book of Qohelet, a meditation on true wisdom, while the psalm offers a splendid definition of wisdom as the true measure of our days, a healthy lucidity about our condition as human beings. Born without knowing why and destined to die without even being able to foresee when: this is our destiny, and this is the meaning of the first verses we have read: You turn man back to dust when you say, 'Return, O children of men!' (v.3), that is, return to the earth from which I have drawn you. This does not create sadness but serenity because our misery rests on the greatness and stability of God: 'A thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night' (v. 4). God gives us security because He wants only our good. However, trouble arises when we lose clarity about our misery, as chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis clearly illustrate, recounting the error of Adam, a symbolic character whose behaviour is considered a model of what not to do. "Adam did this or that" does not describe a hypothetical first man, but a type of behaviour, and in this light, this psalm is in harmony with the first reading, where Qohelet has Solomon, the wise king, speak at the beginning, but then seduced by luxury, power, and women who made him an idolater. In the second part of his reign, he behaved like Adam, who turned away from God's wisdom. This psalm invites us to rediscover the wisdom and humility of the young Solomon, because true wisdom is the awareness of man's smallness, which is never humiliating: a trusting, filial smallness. The conclusion is splendid: 'establish the work of our hands' (v. 17), which shows the cooperation between God and man: man works, God gives solidity and meaning to human work.

*Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Colossians (3:1-5, 9-11)

Paul first makes a distinction between "things above" and "things on earth", two different ways of living: behaviours inspired by the Holy Spirit and those that are not. "Things above" are kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, mutual forgiveness, living according to the Spirit, and this is the behaviour of the baptised. "Things on earth" are debauchery, impurity, unbridled passion, greed, covetousness, behaviour not inspired by the Spirit. Paul establishes the link between baptism and the way of life: "if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above" (v. 1). He says "you have been raised," but then he says "you have died" (v. 2), and the words do not have the same meaning for him as they do for us. For Paul, from the resurrection of Christ onwards, nothing is as it was before. To be risen means precisely to be dead to the world and born to a life according to the Spirit, what he calls the realities above. The Christian is a "transformed person who lives in the manner of Christ," and Paul calls him "the new man." He does not despise "the things of the earth"; on the contrary, he will say shortly afterwards: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him" (3:17). It is not, therefore, a question of living a different life from the ordinary one, but of living it differently: not rejecting this world, but living it already as a seed of the Kingdom, where all men are brothers, as he explains in his letter to the Galatians (3:26-28) and repeats at the end of this Sunday's passage from the letter to the Colossians: "There is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all." The community of Colossae probably had the same problems as the Galatians and, in particular, the great question that agitated the early Christian communities, namely whether non-Jews who became Christians should take on Jewish practices: dietary rules, ritual ablutions, and above all circumcision. There were circumcised Christians and uncircumcised Christians, and some Jews insisted on circumcision. The answer to the Galatians and Colossians was the same: baptism makes everyone brothers and sisters, and all forms of exclusion are outdated; what matters is being a disciple of Christ. 

NOTE. Some exegetes believe that this letter attributed to Paul was not actually written by him; Paul, in fact, never visited Colossae: it was Epaphras, one of his disciples, who founded that community. According to a very common practice in the first century (called pseudepigraphy), it is hypothesised (but this is only a hypothesis) that a disciple very close to Paul's thinking addressed the Colossians under the authority of the apostle's name because the moment was serious. If this hypothesis is correct, it is not surprising to find in this writing phrases taken literally from Paul and others that show how theological reflection continued to develop in Christian communities. Jesus had said, 'The Spirit will guide you to the whole truth.' And in previous Sundays, we have already seen theological developments that are not yet found in Paul's own writings.

*From the Gospel according to Luke (12:13-21)

Jesus' response seems abrupt: "Who made me your judge or mediator?" However, as a good teacher, Jesus takes the opportunity to draw a lesson that he explains well with this parable. A man who has become rich through business is thinking about how best to enjoy his wealth; he thinks about demolishing his warehouses and building bigger ones to store all his grain and goods, and then he says to himself: 'My soul, you have many goods stored up for many years; rest, eat, drink and be merry' (v. 19). Unfortunately, he has forgotten that his life does not depend on him, and in fact he dies that very night. He thinks he is rich, but true wealth is not what he imagines. To better understand Jesus' teaching, we need to remember what he said earlier: "Be careful and keep away from all greed, because even if someone has an abundance, his life does not depend on what he has" (v. 13) and, even though it is not in this Sunday's liturgical reading, he concludes: "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing' (Lk 12:22-23). Jesus' teaching is not new; it takes up themes already familiar in the Old Testament. Ben Sira said that those who become rich do not know how long they have to live, then they will leave their possessions to others and die (cf. Sir 11:18-19); and in this Sunday's first reading, Qohelet offered similar reflections: "What profit does a man gain from all his toil and from the cares of his heart, with which he toils under the sun?" (Qo 2:22), returning several times to the same theme (cf. Qo 5:9...15). The prophet Isaiah is very incisive in accusing the people of Jerusalem of being dazed by pleasures instead of listening to God's call to conversion (cf. Is 22:13), and the book of Job repeats: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there" (Job 1:21), a phrase still recited today in Israel at every funeral. All these phrases sound like reminders of the reality of life. Jesus denounces senseless behaviour: "Fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?" (v. 20) and the parable ends: "So is the one who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich in God." This implies two things: Never forget that riches come from God and belong to him because he entrusts them to us to put them at the service of the Kingdom of God. Life is short, but precisely for this reason, let us hurry to put it to good use! Jesus responds sharply to the man asking for his inheritance: that man has his priorities wrong because the most precious inheritance is the faith we have received from our fathers. And every time Jesus responds sharply (to his mother at Cana (Jn 2:4) and to Peter in Caesarea (Mt 16:23), it is because his mission is at stake.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

(Mt 13:47-53)

«Treasure» is the Gospel, the Word of God: a real bargain (v.44). «Pearl» Man is Jesus (vv.45-46).

«Kingdom» is the living assembly - people without merits, with an unexpected outcome; fruit of commitment to the search for the best.

The parable of the Net emphasizes the Result of the Kingdom of God, that is, the educational-operative Gift of the community, “area” in which God ‘reigns’.

The Church dreamed of by Christ is like a Net that pulls us up to the light, to the breath, to existence in fullness.

Conviviality of differences that makes each and everyone reborn, but without holding back the rotten and putrefied [nasty, corrupt, spoiled, dead: v.48], ie the one that has no life, nor does it longer offer it.

This is not a trivial moralistic or forensic judgment, between good and bad!

It is the distinction between what remains full and «beautiful» (in the Eastern sense) and what - putrid, rotten - corrupts and degrades, leaving irreparable filth, ordure, scum.

In short: it is in fraternal realities that God has a foot on earth.

In Communion, the Lord becomes Nest and real Presence. Ally who even in difficult moments lets us contact regenerative energies.

Friendship and eminent Self, Landing Place and vocational Instinct that although hidden fills the path, transforming it into Relationship; even in fleeting, brief moments.

Here he is Living in us, while He brings forth Joy of being, because He fills the mentality of everyone, and allows dialogue and the exchange of  gifts that make joy come alive and shine.

In this way, we are precisely the divine intervention in the ordinary existence of people, when we correspond and cooperate with His creative-promoting action of being, abundant and total.

No exclusion or condemnation: only joy, in the sense of vital wave fullness.

On every son the Father returns with care. His work does not discard a priori the unsuccessful "piece", but only what is not needed for complete life.

Now the world is intermingled, and we should not be estranged from our time, yet this does not detract from the fact that it is good to be mindful of what is eternally human.

We welcome the things of our world, but we try to go beyond the contingent - for intensity, for love: all the beauty there is.

Believers are responsible for the transmission of the Faith (v.52). In doing so, they make clear the wisdom of the Kingdom, the difference between custom and personal Calling.

The Lord's intimates invite all to be patient, so that each one may have time for growth, and choices may be ‘useful’. And beautiful ones (v.48).

Everything we have already assimilated through family upbringing thus acquires an amiable, profound, intimate, engaging, creative dimension.

And at the same time a broader purpose, but enlightened from within.

To internalize and live the message:

Has the experience of community entered you and enriched the idea of God?

[Thursday 17th wk. in O.T.  July 31, 2025]

The Lord has also given us, for our consolation, these parables of the net with good and bad fish, of the field where wheat grows but also darnel. He lets us know that he has come precisely to help us in our weakness, that he has not come, as he says, to call the righteous, those who claim to be already completely righteous, those who do not need grace, those who pray praising themselves, but that he has come to call those who know they are lacking, to provoke those who know they need the Lord's forgiveness, his grace, every day to move forward.

This seems very important to me: to recognise that we need permanent conversion, we have never simply arrived. St Augustine, at the moment of conversion, thought he had arrived on the heights now of life with God, of the beauty of the sun that is his Word. Then he had to understand that even the path after conversion remains a path of conversion, that it remains a path where there is no lack of great prospects, joys, the lights of the Lord, but where there is also no lack of dark valleys, where we must go forward with confidence leaning on the goodness of the Lord.

[Pope Benedict, on his visit to the Roman Major Seminary 17 February 2007]

Allow me, Reverend Bishop of the ancient, venerable Church of Cologne, Reverend Brother Cardinals and Bishops, allow me all, beloved brothers and sisters, that I try to clarify in this Eucharistic celebration the importance of our extraordinary meeting today with the help of this parable, with the help of the word of Christ, who repeatedly explained the kingdom of God by means of parables. Using them, he announced the presence of this kingdom to the world.

We too must encounter this dimension. This is, in a way, the essential premise of today's visit of the successor of the Apostle Peter in the episcopal see of Rome to your Church in Germany, to you here in Cologne, who represent the Church of God as it was formed over many centuries around the Roman 'Agrippine Colony'. The eminent symbol of this Church has hitherto been your splendid cathedral, whose spiritual importance has been renewed in you thanks to this year's Jubilee: it powerfully speaks to you of God's reign among us.

We, who now form the Church of Christ on earth, on this part of German territory must meet in the dimension of the unity of the kingdom of God: Christ came to proclaim this kingdom and to spread it on this earth, in every place on earth, in men and among men.

This kingdom of God is in our midst (cf. Lk 17:21), just as it was in all the generations of your fathers and ancestors. Like them, we still pray in the "Our Father" every day: "Thy kingdom come". These words testify that the kingdom of God is still before us, that we are going towards it and advancing towards it along the confused, and indeed sometimes even false, paths of our earthly existence. We testify with these words, that the kingdom of God is continually being realised and drawing nearer, even though we often lose sight of it and no longer perceive its outline determined by the Gospel. It often seems that the sole and exclusive dimension of our existence is 'this world': the 'kingdom of this world' with its visible profile, its fascinating progress in science and technology, culture and economics... fascinating and often also worrying! But if we, however, every day, or at least from time to time, kneel down to pray, we say amidst the circumstances of life always the same words: 'Thy kingdom come'.

Dear brothers and sisters! These hours, in which we meet here, the time, which thanks to your invitation and hospitality I am able to spend among you, is the time of the kingdom of God: of the kingdom "that is already here", and of that which is still "coming". That is why we must interpret all the essentials, which refer to this visit, with the help of the parable, which we hear in today's Gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like...".

2. What is it like?

According to Jesus' words as handed down to us by the four evangelists, this kingdom is explained with various parables and comparisons. Today's comparison is one of many. It seems to us very closely related to that work, which Christ's apostles, including Peter, did, as did many of his listeners on the shore of the Lake of Genezaret. Christ says: the kingdom of heaven is like "a net cast into the sea, gathering every kind of fish" (Matthew 13:47). These simple words completely change the physiognomy of the world: the physiognomy of our human world as we make it through experience and science. Experience and science cannot cross those boundaries of the "world" and human existence in it, which are necessarily joined with the "sea of time": the boundaries of a world, in which man is born and dies, in correspondence with the words of Genesis: "You are dust and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). Christ's comparison, on the contrary, speaks of the transposition of man into another "world", into another dimension of his existence. The kingdom of heaven is precisely this new dimension, which opens up above the "sea of time" and is at the same time the "net", which works in this sea for the destiny of man and of all men in God.

Today's parable invites us to recognise the kingdom of heaven as the definitive fulfilment of that righteousness, longed for by man with irrepressible longing, which the Lord placed in his heart, that righteousness which Jesus himself realised and proclaimed, that righteousness, finally, which Christ sealed with his own blood on the cross.

In the kingdom of heaven, in the kingdom 'of righteousness, love and peace' (prefatio in festo Christi Regis) man too will be found perfect. For man is the being that springs from the depths of God and hides within himself such a depth that only God can fill it. He, man, is in all his being a copy of God and is similar to him.

3. Jesus founded his Church on twelve apostles, several of whom were fishermen. Thus the image of the net was immediate. Jesus wanted to make them fishers of men. The Church too is a net, united by the Holy Spirit, connected by the apostolic mission, efficient for unity in faith, life and love.

I think at this moment of the widely spread net of the universal Church.

At the same time every single Church in your land is before my eyes, especially the large Church in Cologne and the neighbouring dioceses. And finally before my eyes is the smallest of these churches, the "ecclesiola", the domestic church, which the most recent Synod of Bishops in Rome recalled with such great attention in the theme above "the tasks of the Christian family".

The family: domestic church, the unmistakable and irreplaceable community of persons, of which St Paul speaks in today's second reading. In this he naturally has before his eyes the Christian family of his time, but what he says we must equally apply to the problems of families in our time: what he says to husbands, what he says to wives, children and parents. And finally, what he says to all of us: 'Put on, then, feelings of mercy, goodness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another... Above all, then, let there be charity, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, for to it you have been called in one body. And be thankful!" (Col 3:12-15).

What a great lesson in marriage and family spirituality!

4. However, we cannot close our eyes to the other side either; the synod fathers in Rome also dealt with it very seriously: I mean the difficulties, to which the high ideal of Christian understanding of the family and family life is exposed today. Modern industrial society has fundamentally changed the conditions of life for marriage and the family.

Marriage and family used to be not only communities of life, but also communities of production and economy. They were rejected by many public functions. The public climate is not always favourable towards marriage and family. And yet, in our mass civilisation, they prove to be a place of refuge in the search for protection and happiness. Marriage and family are more important than ever: living cells for the renewal of society, sources of strength, whereby life is made more human. I can grasp the image: net, which gives support and unity and lifts from the currents of the deep.

Let us not allow this net to be broken. State and society start their own decay, if they do not support marriage and the family more effectively and put them on a par with other non-marital communities of life. All men of good will, particularly we Christians, are called to rediscover the dignity and value of marriage and the family and to live them out before men in a convincing manner. The Church, with the light of faith, offers its advice and spiritual service.

5. Marriage and family are very deeply connected with man's personal dignity. They do not derive from instinct and passion alone, nor from feeling alone; they derive first and foremost from a decision of the free will, from a personal love, whereby the spouses become not only one flesh, but also one heart and one soul. Physical and sexual communion is something great and beautiful. But it is only worthy of man if it is integrated into a personal union, recognised by the civil and ecclesiastical community. Full sexual communion between man and woman therefore has its legitimate place only within the exclusive and definitive personal bond of fidelity in marriage. The indissolubility of conjugal fidelity, which is no longer comprehensible to many today, is equally an expression of man's unconditional dignity. One cannot live only by trial, one cannot die only by trial. One cannot love only by trial, accept a man only by trial and time.

6. Thus marriage is oriented to duration, to the future. It looks beyond its boundaries. Marriage is the only suitable place for the generation and upbringing of children. Thus, married love is also oriented by its essence to fecundity. In this task of passing on life, spouses are collaborators with the love of God the Creator. I know that even here in today's society, the difficulties are great. They burden women in particular. Restricted housing, economic and health problems, often even a declared attitude not in favour of prolific families are obstacles to greater fertility. I appeal to all those responsible, to all the forces in society: do everything to help. I appeal first of all to your conscience and your personal responsibility, dear brothers and sisters. In your conscience you must, in the presence of God, make the decision on the number of your children.

As spouses, you are called to responsible fatherhood. This means family planning that respects ethical norms and criteria, as was also emphasised by the most recent Synod of Bishops. It is with great care that I would like to remind you today of just this one thing: the killing of unborn life is not a legitimate means of family planning. I repeat what I said on 31 May of this year to the workers in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis: 'The first human right is the right to life. We must defend this right and this value. Otherwise the whole logic of faith in man, the whole programme of truly human progress would be shaken and everything would fall to the ground'. In reality this is what it is all about: serving life.

7. Dear brothers and sisters! On the indispensable platform and assumption of what has been said, we wish to turn to the deeper mystery of marriage and the family. Marriage from the perspective of our faith is a Sacrament of Jesus Christ. Marital love and fidelity are understood and transmitted by the love and fidelity of God in Jesus Christ. The power of his cross and resurrection carries and sanctifies Christian spouses.

As the recent Synod of Bishops noted in its message to Christian families in the world today, the Christian family is called in a special way to collaborate in God's salvific plan, as it helps its members "to become protagonists in the history of salvation and at the same time living signs of God's plan for the world" (Synodi Episcoporum Nuntius ad Christianas Familias, 8).

As a 'Church in a small way', sacramentally founded, i.e. a domestic Church, marriage and family must be a school of faith and a place of common prayer. I attach great significance precisely to prayer in the family. It gives strength to overcome many problems and difficulties. In marriage and the family, fundamental human and Christian attitudes must grow and mature, without which the Church and society cannot exist. Herein lies the first place for the Christian apostolate of the laity and the priesthood common to all the baptised. Such marriages and families imbued with the Christian spirit are also the true seminaries, that is, the nurseries for spiritual vocations for the priestly and religious state.

Dear spouses and parents, dear families! What could I wish you on the occasion of today's Eucharistic meeting with more cordiality than this: may you all and every single family be such a 'domestic church', a Church in a small way! May the parable of the kingdom of God be realised in you! May you experience the presence of the kingdom of God, in that you yourselves are the living "net", which unites and brings and gives shelter - for yourselves and for many around you.

This is my wish of blessing, which I express to you as your host and pilgrim and as a servant of your salvation.

8. And now let me also turn at the end of this fundamental reflection on the kingdom of God and the Christian family to St Albert the Great, whose seventh centenary celebration has brought me to your city. For here is the tomb of this celebrated son of your land, who was born in Lauingen and in his long life was at once a great scientist, a spiritual son of St Dominic and the teacher of St Thomas Aquinas. He was one of the greatest men of intelligence in the 13th century. He like no other joined the 'net' that unites faith and reason, the wisdom of God and the science of the world. At least in spirit I also visit his birthplace, Lauingen, while today, in Cologne, at his tomb, I pause to meditate with you on the words with which today's liturgy celebrates him: "If this is the will of the great Lord, / he shall be filled with the spirit of understanding, / like rain he shall pour forth words of wisdom, / in prayer he shall render praise to the Lord. / He will direct his counsel and his knowledge, he will meditate on the mysteries of God. / He will make the doctrine of his teaching shine, / he will boast of the law of the covenant of the Lord. / Many will praise his understanding, / he will never be forgotten, / his memory will not disappear, / his name will live from generation to generation. / The peoples will speak of his wisdom, / the assembly will proclaim his praise" (Sir 39:6-10).

Nothing needs to be added to these words of the wise Jesus Sirach. Nor should any be left out. For they perfectly describe the figure of that man, whose homeland your city rightly honours, and who is of joy to the whole Church. Albertus Magnus, universal doctor - Albertus Magnus, of very broad doctrine: a true 'disciple of the kingdom of God'! If we have reflected together today on the vocation of the Christian family to build the kingdom of God on earth, the words of Christ's parable must also give us the deeper meaning of this saint, whom we solemnly remember today. For Christ says: "Every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder, who takes out of his treasure new things and old things" (Mt 13:52).

Saint Albert is also similar to such a householder! May his example and intercession accompany me as I try, on my pilgrimage through your country, as a fisherman of men, to tie the net more tightly and cast it further, so that the kingdom of God may come.

[Pope John Paul II, homily Cologne 15 November 1980]

This Sunday’s Gospel Reading (cf. Mt 13:44-52) consists of the final verses of the chapter Matthew devotes to the parable of the Kingdom of Heaven. The passage includes three parables that are very briefly outlined: that of the hidden treasure, that of the precious pearl, and that of the net cast into the sea.

I will look at the first two in which the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to two different “precious” items, namely, the treasure hidden in the field and the pearl of great value. The reaction of the one who finds the pearl or the treasure is practically the same: the man and the merchant sell everything to buy what is now most dear to them. With these two similes, Jesus proposes to involve us in the building of the Kingdom of Heaven, presenting an essential characteristic of Christian life, of the life of the Kingdom of heaven: those who fully pledge themselves to the Kingdom are those who are willing to stake everything, who are courageous. Indeed, both the man and the merchant in the two parables sell everything they have, thus renouncing their material security. From this it can be understood that the building of the Kingdom requires not only the grace of God, but also the active willingness of humanity. Everything is done by grace, everything! We need only have the willingness to receive it, not to resist grace: grace does everything but it takes ‘my’ responsibility, ‘my’ willingness.

The gestures of that man and the merchant who go searching, depriving themselves of their goods in order to buy more precious treasures, are decisive gestures; they are radical gestures; I would say that they are only ‘one way’ gestures, not a ‘round trip’: they are ‘one way’ gestures. Moreover, they are made with joy because both of them have found a treasure. We are called upon to assume the attitude of these two Gospel figures, so that we too may become healthily restless seekers of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a matter of abandoning the heavy burden of our worldly certainties that prevent us from seeking and building up the Kingdom: the desire for possession, the thirst for profit and power, and thinking only about ourselves.

In our times, as we are all aware, the lives of some people can end up mediocre and dull because they probably do not go in search of a true treasure: they are content with attractive but fleeting things, glittering flashes that prove illusory as they give way to darkness. Instead the light of the Kingdom is not like fireworks, it is light: fireworks last only an instant, whereas the light of the Kingdom accompanies us all our life.

The Kingdom of Heaven is the opposite of the superfluous things that the world offers; it is the opposite of a dull life: it is a treasure that renews life every day and leads it to expand towards wider horizons. Indeed, those who have found this treasure have a creative and inquisitive heart, which does not repeat but rather invents, tracing and setting out on new paths which lead us to love God, to love others, and to truly love ourselves. The sign of those who walk this path of the Kingdom is creativity, always seeking more. And creativity is what takes life and gives life, and gives, and gives, and gives... It always looks for many different ways to give life.

Jesus, who is the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value, cannot but inspire joy, all the joy of the world: the joy of discovering a meaning for one’s life, the joy of feeling committed to the adventure of holiness.

May the Blessed Virgin help us to search every day for the treasure of the Kingdom of Heaven, so that the love God has given us through Jesus may be manifested in our words and gestures.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 26 July 2020].

"Every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who takes out of his treasure new things and old things" (Mt 13:52)

With this significant image Jesus includes - in the order of Chapter 13 of St Matthew - an important series of parables about the kingdom of heaven. The intention of the Master of Galilee is to make it clear that he did not come to "make a tabula rasa" of the religion, eras, culture, traditions and memory of the Jewish faith. Certainly, his kerygmatic proclamation inaugurated a new era for the faith and for all humanity. It was not, however, an ahistorical destructive deconstruction; on the contrary, it meant an inclusive construction of all social, anthropological and religious times and spaces.

In a similar vein, Pope Francis warns us of the dangers in our day of this tendency: 'For this same reason, a loss of the sense of history is also fostered, causing further disintegration. One senses the cultural penetration of a kind of 'deconstructionism', whereby human freedom claims to build everything from scratch. All that remains is the need to consume without limits and the accentuation of many forms of individualism without content" (Fratelli tutti, n. 13).The image of the "father or head of the family" that Jesus outlines in his teaching is very significant. The image of pater familias who knows how to wisely interpret the historical kairos he is living is very welcoming from many points of view, including the generational one. Drawing on the treasure chest of treasures, both new and ancient, he shows the imagination of his listeners the imprint of the kingdom of heaven, where there are neither excluded nor discarded. They are all treasures for the God of this new kingdom!

On several occasions, Jesus took care to teach, with his pedagogy of simplicity and the depth of the everyday scene, that the generational extremes, instead of being discarded, should be seen as examples to treasure.

This vision brings us closer again to some fundamental concepts expressed by Pope Francis in his encyclical Brothers All, such as, for example: 'The lack of children, which causes an ageing population, together with the abandonment of the elderly to painful loneliness, implicitly affirms that everything ends with us, that only our individual interests count' (no. 19).

Jesus publicly offers a vision of children, and of children in the concept of the human family, with a very strong inclusive content for his disciples and all present. In the social scale of those times, children occupied a forgotten and marginal place, especially if they were the children of poor families or foreigners: "Then children were brought to him to lay hands on them and to pray; but the disciples scolded them. But Jesus said to them, 'Let the children come to me, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And having laid his hands on them, he departed" (Mt 19:13-15). The disciples act in line with those cultural and social mandates of rejection. Jesus shows them a new path not only of fraternal inclusion but also of referentiality of children, with their treasures of purity in the social economy of his kingdom. The new treasures needed for human fraternity!

The same happens with the elderly. Jesus pauses in front of the place of offerings, often used as a public setting to demonstrate economic power, the supremacy of castes and social elites, all masquerading as religion. In the Gospel account we read: "And he sat in front of the treasury and observed how the crowd threw coins into the treasury. And many rich people were throwing many. But when a poor widow came she threw in two pennies, that is, a penny. Then he called his disciples to him and said to them, 'Truly I tell you, this widow has thrown more into the treasury than all the others. For all have given of their surplus, but she in her poverty has put in all that she had, all that she had to live on'" (Mk 12:41-44). Once again, the inclusive and referential treasure of the poor, elderly woman showed that other parameters such as human fraternity were needed in his counter-culture of the kingdom. Jesus, in highlighting the fact that the elderly woman was giving all she had and not the superfluous, offers a clear teaching, exemplifying a wisdom that those present need to assimilate. Reflected in it is the indispensable reserve of human old age, which urges us to teach that true treasure consists in giving, in being and not in accumulating, holding back or appearing. Ancient treasures are essential for human fraternity!

The blindness that prevents us today as a human family from perceiving the importance of the exemplariness and wisdom of the elderly is clearly pointed out in the encyclical: "We do not realise that isolating the elderly and abandoning them to the care of others without adequate and caring accompaniment by the family, mutilates and impoverishes the family itself. Moreover, it ends up depriving young people of the necessary contact with their roots and with a wisdom that youth alone cannot attain' (Fratelli tutti, n. 19).

The wise father of Jesus' pedagogy invites us to strive to bring the extremes of human society closer together so that we can treasure the good in them, unite what is divided and recompose our sense of social, religious, human and fraternal belonging. "The arduous task of overcoming what divides us without losing the identity of each one presupposes that a fundamental sense of belonging remains alive in everyone. Indeed, our society succeeds when each person, each social group, feels truly at home. In a family, parents, grandparents, children are at home; no one is excluded' (Fratelli tutti, n. 230).

[Marcelo Figueroa, in L'Osservatore Romano;

https://www.osservatoreromano.va/it/news/2020-11/quo-259/con-tesori-nuovi-e-antichi.html]

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C) [27 July 2025]

May God bless us and the Virgin protect us! This time I have taken a little longer to present some important details of the readings in the NOTES, which are useful for personal meditation and for lectio divina during this holiday period.

*First Reading from the Book of Genesis (18:20-32)

This text marks a step forward in the idea that men have of their relationship with God: it is the first time that one dares to imagine that a man can intervene in God's plans. Unfortunately, the liturgical reading does not allow us to hear the previous verses in which we read that immediately after the encounter at the Oaks of Mamre, Abraham takes his leave, accompanying the three mysterious men to contemplate Sodom from above. The Lord, speaking to himself, says: 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, when Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed in him?' (vv. 17-19). God takes the covenant he has just made very seriously, and it is here that what we might call 'the most beautiful negotiation in history' begins: Abraham, armed with all his courage, intercedes to try to save Sodom and Gomorrah from a punishment they certainly deserve. In essence, he asks if God really wants to destroy these cities even if he finds at least fifty righteous people, or only forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, ten. What audacity! Yet, apparently, God accepts that man should act as his interlocutor: at no point does the Lord seem impatient and, indeed, he responds each time exactly as Abraham hoped. Perhaps God appreciates that Abraham has such a high opinion of his justice. In this regard, it can be noted that this text was written at a time when people were beginning to become aware of individual responsibility: in fact, Abraham would be scandalised by the idea that the righteous could be punished together with sinners and for their sins. We are far from the time when an entire family was eliminated for the sins of one. The great discovery of individual responsibility dates back to the prophet Ezekiel and the period of the Babylonian exile, i.e. the 6th century BC. We can therefore formulate a hypothesis about the composition of the chapter read today and last Sunday: it is a text written at a rather late date, although it derives from perhaps much older stories, whose oral or written form was not yet definitive. God loves it when people intercede for their brothers and sisters, as we can see with Moses: when the people made a 'golden calf' to worship immediately after swearing never to follow idols again. Moses intervened to beg God to forgive them, and God, who was waiting for nothing else, hastened to forgive them (Ex 32). Moses interceded for the people for whom he was responsible; Abraham, on the other hand, intercedes for pagans, and this is logical, after all, since he is the bearer of a blessing for all the families of the earth. This text is a great step forward in discovering the face of God, but it is only a stage, still within a logic of accounting: how many righteous people will it take to obtain forgiveness for sinners? The final theological step will be to discover that with God it is never a matter of payment. His justice has nothing to do with a scale, whose two pans must be perfectly balanced, and this is what St. Paul will try to make us understand in this Sunday's passage from the Letter to the Colossians. This text from Genesis is also a beautiful lesson on prayer, which is offered to us on the day when Luke's Gospel recounts Jesus' teaching on prayer, beginning with the Our Father, the plural prayer par excellence, which invites us to open our hearts to the whole of humanity. 

NOTE: Development of the notion of God's justice in the Bible: In the beginning, it was considered normal for the whole group to pay for the fault of one: see the case of Achan in the time of Joshua (Joshua 7:16-25). In a second phase, it is imagined that each person pays for himself. Here, there is a new step forward: if ten righteous people are found, they can save an entire city. Jeremiah dares to go further: a single righteous person can obtain forgiveness for all: 'Go through the streets of Jerusalem, search for one man who acts justly... I will forgive the city' (Jer 5:1). Ezekiel also reasons in these terms: 'I sought for a man among them who would stand in the breach before me... but I found none' (Ezek 22:30). It is with the book of Job, among others, that the final step is taken: when it is finally understood that God's justice is synonymous with salvation, not punishment. Jeremiah even goes so far as to invoke unconditional forgiveness, based solely on God's greatness: "If our sins testify against us, act, Lord, for the honour of your name!" (Jer 14:7-9). Before God, just like Jeremiah, Abraham understood that sinners have no other argument than God himself! Finally, note Abraham's optimism, which fully earns him the title of "father of faith": he continues to believe that all is not lost, that not all are lost. Even in a city as horrible as Sodom, he is convinced that there are at least ten good men!

Responsorial Psalm (137/138), 1-2a, 2bc-3, 6-7ab, 7c-8)

This psalm is a song of thanksgiving for the Covenant that God offers to humanity: the Covenant made first with Israel, but also the Covenant open to all nations, and Israel's vocation is precisely to bring other nations into it. Three times 

: 'I give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart', 'I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness', and – in verse 4, which we do not hear this Sunday – 'May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you'. Here we see a progression: first, it is Israel speaking on its own behalf: "I give you thanks, Lord, with all my heart"; then the reason is specified: "I give thanks to your name for your love and your faithfulness"; finally, it is the whole of humanity that enters into the Covenant and gives thanks: "May all the kings of the earth give thanks to you". 

Since we are talking about the Covenant, it is normal that there are allusions to the experience of Sinai and echoes of the great discovery of the burning bush when God told Moses that he had seen the misery of his people and had come down to free them (Ex 2:23-24). Echoing this, the psalm sings: "On the day I called, you answered me" (v. 3). Another reference to God's revelation at Sinai is the expression "your love and faithfulness" (v. 2): these are the same words with which God defined himself before Moses (Ex 34:6). The phrase "Your right hand saves me" (v. 7) is, for Jews, an allusion to the exodus from Egypt. The "right hand" is, of course, the right hand, and since Moses' song after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea (Ex 15), it has become customary to speak of the victory that God obtained with a strong hand and a powerful arm (Ex 15:6, 12). The expression "Lord, your love is forever" (v. 8) also evokes all of God's work, particularly the Exodus, as in Psalm 135/136, whose refrain is: "For his love is forever." Another link between this psalm and Moses' song is the connection between the entire epic of the Exodus, the Covenant at Sinai, and the Temple in Jerusalem. Moses sang:

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him" (Ex 15:1-2, 13), and the psalm echoes:

"Not to the gods, but to you I will sing, I bow down toward your holy temple" (vv. 1-2) because the

Temple is the place where all God's work on behalf of his people is remembered. However, God's presence is not limited to a stone temple, but that temple, or what remains of it, is a permanent sign of that presence. And even today, wherever they are in the world, every Jew prays facing Jerusalem, towards the holy temple mountain, because it is the place chosen by God, in the time of King David, to offer his people a sign of his presence. Finally, God's greatness does not crush man, at least not those who recognise their own smallness: "The Lord is exalted, but he looks upon the humble; he recognises the proud from afar" (v. 6). This too is a great biblical theme: his greatness is manifested precisely in his goodness towards the smallness of man (cf. Wis 12:18) and Psalm 113/112: "He raises the weak from the dust, lifts the poor from the ash heap" and in the Magnificat: "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the humble". The believer knows this and is amazed: God is great, he does not crush us, but on the contrary, he makes us grow.

These parallels, that is, the influence of Moses' song, the experience of Sinai from the burning bush to the exodus from Egypt and the Covenant, are found in many other psalms and biblical texts.

This shows how much this experience was – and remains – the foundation of Israel's faith.

Second Reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Colossians (2:12-14)

God has cancelled the document written against us (Col 2:14). Paul here refers to a widespread practice when money was borrowed: it was customary for the debtor to give the creditor a 'debt acknowledgement document'. Jesus also used this image in the parable of the dishonest steward. On the day his master threatens to fire him, he thinks of making friends for himself; to this end, he summons his master's debtors and says to each one, 'Here is your debt document; change the amount. Did you owe a hundred sacks of wheat? Write eighty' (Lk 16:7). As he often does, Paul uses the language of everyday life to express a theological thought. His reasoning is this: because of the seriousness of our sins, we can consider ourselves debtors to God. Moreover, in Judaism, sins were often called "debts"; and a Jewish prayer from the time of Jesus said: "In your great mercy, cancel all the documents that accuse us." Well, anyone who looks up at the cross of Christ discovers the extent of God's mercy for his children: with Him, it is not a matter of keeping accounts: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' is the prayer of the Son; but it is He himself who said, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father'. The body of Christ nailed to the cross shows that God is like this: He forgets all our wrongs, all our faults towards Him. His forgiveness is displayed before our eyes: "They will look on him whom they have pierced," said the prophet Zechariah (Zech 12:10; Jn 19:37). It is as if the document of our debt had been nailed to the cross of Christ. However, we are still surprised because this whole passage is written in the past tense: "buried with Christ in baptism, you have also been raised with him... with him God has given you life... forgiving us all our sins and cancelling the document written against us... he took it away by nailing it to the cross". 

NOTE Paul wants to affirm that the salvation of the world is already accomplished: this 'already-realised' salvation is one of the great themes of the Letter to the Colossians. The Christian community is already saved through baptism; it already participates in the heavenly reality. Here too we see an evolution with respect to some of Paul's earlier letters, such as 'We have been saved, but in hope' (Rom 8:24); "If we have been united with him in death, we will also be united with him in resurrection" (Rom 6:5). While the Letter to the Romans places the resurrection in the future, the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians speak in the past tense, both of burial with Christ and of resurrection as an already present reality. “When we were dead in our sins, he made us alive with Christ – by grace you are saved –; with him he raised us up and seated us in the heavens in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:5-6). “You were buried with Christ, with him you were also raised... You were dead... but God gave you life with Christ.” For Paul, baptism is like a second birth, and his insistence that salvation has already taken place through birth into a totally new life is probably also linked to the historical context: behind many expressions in the Letter, we can glimpse a climate of tension and conflict. The community in Colossae seems to be under dangerous influences, against which Paul wants to warn them: "Let no one deceive you with seductive words" (Col 2:4)... "Let no one trap you with empty and deceptive philosophy" (Col 2:8)... "Let no one judge you in matters of food and drink, or in regard to festivals or sabbaths" (Col 2:16). Thus, a recurring problem reappears in the background: how does one enter into salvation? Must one continue to strictly observe all Jewish law? Paul answers: through faith. This theme is present in many letters, and we find it clearly here as well (v. 12): buried in baptism with Christ... raised... through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. The Letter to the Ephesians repeats it even more clearly: 'It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. It is not the result of works, so that no one can boast.' (Eph 2:8-9) Life with Christ in the glory of the Father is not only a future hope, but a present experience of believers: an experience of new life, of divine life. From now on, if we want, Christ lives in us; and we are enabled to live the divine life of the risen Christ in our daily lives! This means that none of our old ways of acting is any longer an inevitable condemnation. Love, peace, justice, and sharing are possible. And if we do not believe this is possible, then we are saying that Christ has not saved us! Be careful! Until now, we have always spoken of the Letter to the Colossians as if Paul were the author; in reality, many exegetes believe that it was written by a disciple very close to Paul, inspired by his thought, but from a later generation. 

From the Gospel according to Luke (11:1-13)

It may come as a surprise, but Jesus did not invent the words of the Lord's Prayer: they come directly from Jewish liturgy and, more profoundly, from the Scriptures. Starting with the vocabulary, which is very biblical: Father, name, holy, kingdom, bread, sins, temptations... Let us begin with the first two questions: with great pedagogical skill, they are addressed first of all to God and teach us to say 'your name', 'your kingdom'. They educate our desire and commit us to collaborate in the growth of his kingdom. The Our Father, probably taught by Jesus in Aramaic, 'Abun d'bashmaya... nethqadash shimukin', which recalls liturgical Hebrew, is a school of prayer, or if you prefer, a method for learning to pray: let us not forget the disciple's request that immediately precedes it: 'Lord, teach us to pray' (v. 1). Well, if we follow Jesus' method, thanks to the Lord's Prayer, we will end up knowing how to speak the language of God, whose first word is Father. The invocation 'Our Father' immediately places us in a filial relationship with God and was already present in the Old Testament: 'You, Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting'. (Is 63:16). The first two questions concern the name and the kingdom. "Hallowed be thy name": in the Bible, the name represents the person himself; to say that God is holy (kadosh / shmokh in Aramaic - separate) is to affirm that He is "beyond everything, and this request means: "Make yourself known as God". "Thy kingdom come": repeated every day, this question will transform us into workers in the Kingdom. God's will, as we know, is that humanity, gathered in his love, should become queen of creation: 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:27), and believers await the day when God will be recognised as king over all the earth, as the prophet Zechariah announced: 'The Lord will be king over all the earth' (Zech 14:9). Our prayer, our method of learning the language of God, will make us people who desire above all else that God be recognised, adored and loved, that everyone recognise him as Father, passionate about evangelisation and the Kingdom of God. The next three questions concern daily life: "Give us", "Forgive us", "Do not abandon us to temptation". God never ceases to do all this, and we place ourselves in an attitude of acceptance of his gifts. "Give us this day our daily bread" (τὸν ἐπιούσιον): the manna that fell every morning in the desert taught the people to trust day by day, and this request invites us not to worry about tomorrow and to receive food each day as a gift from God: here bread has various meanings, including the Eucharistic bread, as I will explain in the Note, and the plural "our bread" invites us to share the Father's concern to feed all his children. "Forgive us our sins, for we too forgive everyone who is indebted to us": God's forgiveness is not conditioned by our behaviour, and fraternal forgiveness does not buy God's forgiveness, but is the only way to enter into the divine forgiveness that is already given: those who have a closed heart cannot receive God's gifts. "Do not abandon us to temptation." Here there is a translation problem, because – once again – Hebrew grammar is different from ours: the verb used in the Hebrew prayer means "do not let us enter into temptation." This refers to every temptation, of course, but above all to the most serious one, the temptation to doubt God's love. The whole of life is involved in the Lord's Prayer: speaking the language of God means knowing how to ask, and asking is not only permitted but recommended because it is an exercise in humility and trust. Nor are these just any requests: bread, forgiveness, strength against temptation. All the requests are in the plural, and each of us makes them on behalf of the whole of humanity. Ultimately, there is a close connection between the first petitions of the Lord's Prayer and the subsequent ones: we ask God for what we need to fulfil our baptismal mission: Give us all we need – bread and love – and protect us, so that we may have the strength to proclaim your Kingdom. The Gospel immediately follows with the parable of the importunate friend who invites us never to stop praying, certain that the heavenly Father always gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (v. 13), so that even if our problems are not solved with a wave of a magic wand, we will no longer experience them alone but together with Him.

NOTE 

1 – Regarding 'bread' in verse 3: the same adjective is found in a prayer in the Book of Proverbs: 'Give me neither poverty nor riches; give me only my daily bread' (Pr 30:8).  

2 The term bread τὸν ἐπιούσιον, a very rare adjective, is a hapax legomenon, i.e. it appears only here (and in Mt 6:11), and is not found elsewhere in classical Greek literature or in the LXX (Septuagint). There are many interpretations, but ἐπιούσιος remains enigmatic and carries with it a wealth of meanings: the material bread necessary for daily life; spiritual bread, that is, the Word of God and the Eucharist, the sign of daily trust in the Providence of the Father. Some exegetes read it as 'bread for the day that is coming', thus a confident invocation for the immediate future. 

3. Jesus takes the Our Father directly from the Jewish liturgy, and here are some Jewish prayers that are at its origin: 'Our Father who art in heaven' (Mishnah Yoma, common invocation); 'May your name be sanctified in the world you have created according to your will' (Qaddish, Qedushah and Shemoné Esré); May your kingdom come quickly and be recognised throughout the world... May your will be done in heaven and on earth... Give us our daily bread...

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us... Lead us not into temptation... Yours is the greatness, the power, the glory... (1 Chr 29:11)

4. The final doxology of the Lord's Prayer: Many Christian groups, well before the Second Vatican Council, recited at the end of the Lord's Prayer: Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power and glory forever. This "doxology" (word of praise) is found in some manuscripts of Matthew, and is probably derived from a very ancient liturgical use, already in the first century, but dating back even further, to David's prayer (cf. Chronicles 29:11).

5. On the importance of prayers of petition, I echo an interesting image proposed by Duns Scotus: imagine a boat on the sea; on the shore there is a rock, on which there is a ring, and another ring on the boat, tied together with a rope The man who prays is like someone in the boat pulling on the rope: he does not pull the rock towards himself, but brings himself – and the boat – closer to the rock.

+ Giovanni D'Ercole

Treasure and Pearl - forms of interiority

(Mt 13:44-46)

Jesus does not want to make us poor poor, but Allies. His Presence completes and realizes us by Name; not in a negative sense, but in a full capacity.

The choice or "renunciation" He asks for, is not about options any. He does not make what is not worth protrude. That's why He does not belittle us.

And the total Word is the real deal.

A hidden Treasure that must first be hidden again (v.44)!

We realize that we have only partially seen of it; there is still much more to discover.

It’s not something verifiable immediately and completely.

Warning: we have to hide it again!

Here is the whole game, because such Splendor doesn’t belong to the rituals of folklore, or to the contour duties, that would make us prisoners.

In fact, the spring to get out of the cliché, the protocol, the pack ways, becomes an opportunity to discover something new.

The authentic Kingdom will not be intrusive: it doesn’t demand membership - under penalty of exclusions. It delivers other messages, transmutative from within.

We can grasp it in our roots, because it corresponds to the complete life project that inhabits us and mysteriously we intuit our own.

We understand: it makes us look forward, it makes us feel good. It makes us discover other worlds, and our own Core; beyond the problems that are gripping.

This is where the unexplainable, works.

The insecure becomes a determined person, the loser is transformed by grace into wise.

We understand that welcoming the springing Logos and corresponding to one’s personal Vocation will not be terrifying, but regenerating.

Who will shift his thoughts, will bet everything, and will bring out his essence.

In ancient times «Pearls» were the most precious and splendid things: in short, man is in search of Beauty as a meaning of life and of his own personality.

But who is the really charming man who lives completely, not epidermal?

Before Matthew allowed himself to be made an apostle, he assumed that his invaluable Diamond was the hoarding. And he has to change his mind.

Saul imagined that the boundless Gem - the authenticity of man - was the inappuntability of his practices and ideas.

God’s free Gift has urged both in the Quest for the Precious Pearl: what is delicious, fraternal, donative, lovable and not to be missed.

The preciousness of the Gospel, the valuable Uniqueness of Faith in Christ, his authentic Kingdom, are the true Capital that makes us happy.

The most beautiful unforeseen of the genuine Church: that has nothing to do with the fiction of identifications - inattentive to humanization - nor with the inculcated appearance of the many external things.

In this way, the people of the sons generated to new life will find wealth already in the being of things, in the furrows of history; from the soul, and in trials.

Out of concealment, out of patient silence, out of sudden reality, come understandings, empathies, spontaneous correspondences.

Voices that can come to us, to change life and make it unpredictable.

Exceptional Encounters tell the soul: we are not only the hardships that afflict us.

But those events, one must know how to wait for them.

[Wednesday 17th wk. in O.T.  July 30, 2025]

(or anonymous weight, toil, and deprivation, of collective rituals)

(Mt 13:44-46)

Jesus does not want to make us poor paupers, but allies - not because he intends to enrich us with 'superior goods' in a generic way.

The Encounter and its Action not only free us from attachment to things (as was once said, as the cornerstone of negative discernment).

His Presence completes and fulfils us by Name, in its own right.

He wants us to emancipate quickly and radically: in the capacity for acquisition and fullness, not emptying and depersonalisation.

The choice or 'renunciation' that he asks for does not concern petty options.

He does not make that which is not worthwhile stand out. That is why he does not belittle us.

Ancient religion emphasised collective manners and rituals, so paradoxically it accentuated the focus precisely on the transitory for all - that which really did not deserve to be overvalued.

The Lord knows that there is a 'more and better' than the petty acts of mortification, and the anonymous communal choices.

For he does not speak of sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom, but of Joy, of fullness of being.

As the Message for the XXVII World Youth Day states, the whole experience of Faith is for Joy - the measure and Source of the heart: Happiness even in Conversion and trials (nos. 5-6).

In short, the divine condition Comes, it offers itself for free: it is not a reward for previous summary merits.

But it puts everything on the line, so that we come to a complete pursuit - not of burdens, labours, and privations. Least of all approvals.

It is the total Word that is the real deal.

A hidden treasure that must first be hidden again (v.44)!

We realise that we have only seen in part; there is still much more to be discovered.

It cannot be verified immediately and completely.

Beware: it must be hidden again! The codes of healing do not take postures from external configurations.

This is where the whole game lies, because such Splendour does not belong to the rituals of folklore, or to the duties of side duties, which would make us prisoners.

Precisely, the spring to break out of the cliché, out of protocol, out of conformist herd ways, becomes an opportunity to discover something new.

The authentic Kingdom will not be intrusive: it does not demand adherence - on pain of exclusion. It delivers other messages, transmuting from within.

It is grasped at our root, because it corresponds to the complete life project that inhabits us and that we mysteriously sense is ours.

We understand: it transfers our gaze, it makes us feel good. It makes us discover other worlds, and our own core; beyond the problems that grip us.

Outside the cog of thoughts and 'that's the way they all are' - the territory of the mind can produce different, eccentric perceptions; not so much ideas, rather images, perhaps seemingly absurd.

But it draws on important experiences of other energies, cosmic and acutely personal; hence of self, of others, of out-of-the ordinary opinions, and of God.

Multifaceted and converging profiles, mysteriously allied: that do not force us to live as strangers to ourselves, yet trace another future.

Here the inexplicable is at work.

The insecure becomes assertive, the loser is transformed by grace into the wise - even grasping the discomforts (they are not hindrances to be eliminated).

We understand that welcoming the Logos arising and corresponding to one's personal Vocation will not be terrifying, but regenerating.

He who will shift his thoughts, point everything, and bring forth his own essence.

He will be an attainable Person, not manipulable.

The multifaceted Friendship with one's eminent and profound Self will surpass all posturing.

In Spirit and in real life - even before valued inferiorly - each will discover the Magnificent One that others do not even remotely imagine can intimately excel.

Even Communion - conviviality of differences - we will learn from within.

In ancient times, Pearls were the most precious and splendid things: in short, man is in search of the Beautiful as the meaning of life and of his own personality.

But who is the Beautiful man, truly fascinating and living in a complete, non-epidermal way?

Matthew, before he let himself be made an apostle, assumed that his priceless Diamond was hoarding. And he has to think again.

Saul imagined that the boundless Gem - the authenticity of man - was the unflinchingness of the devout and practising man. The inflexibility of the one who observed all the traditions (even oral) of the people, and belonged to the most consistent and strict group of Pharisees.

Suddenly they both perceived the difference between the Love of one who meets Christ in earnest and the rubbish and ugliness of puerile beliefs - which always made them feel wrong.

These unlearned 'beliefs' external to woman and man produced people who were then unapproachable, duplicitous, untrustworthy, disloyal; scrounging, dangerous, cunning, violent, always ready to cheat.The free Gift of God prompts the Search for the Precious Pearl: that which is delicious, brotherly, giving, lovable and not to be missed.

It is the life of believers transformed into men of Faith who learn the necessity of transformation for life.

Adults endowed with the spirit of childhood: who no longer feel others' judgments looming over them, according to absurd expectations, and even in the common selection between 'inside' and 'outside'.

This, perhaps only because of the discrepancy between the mythology of the extraordinary devout 'models' proposed in some elite circles, and their own experience (inculcated as insufficient).

Critical witnesses then choose to no longer allow themselves to be disturbed by provisional and circumstantial commitments normally propagated - nor by any form of empty spirituality.

In this way, we will no longer be scolded by the obligations of the role, dates, fixed or other people's schedules... which do not take into account the person's hopes.

And the soul will no longer be reduced to an enslaved dependent that must constantly compare, and impose fatuous, forced, insidious relationships on itself (for fear of being isolated).

The preciousness of the Gospel, the valuable uniqueness of Faith in Christ, His authentic Kingdom, are the true Capital that makes one happy.

The most beautiful unexpectedness of the genuine Church: which has nothing to do with the fiction of identifications - inattentive to humanisation - nor with the inculcated flashiness of the many external things.

The people of children generated to new life will find wealth already in the being of things, in the furrows of history; from the soul, and in trials.

Out of concealment, out of patient silence, out of sudden reality, come understandings, empathies, spontaneous correspondences.

Voices that can come to us, to change our lives and make them unpredictable.

Exceptional encounters tell the soul: we are not just the inconveniences that afflict us.

But those events, one must know how to wait for them.

Dear young friends,

I am happy to address you once more on the occasion of the 27th World Youth Day. The memory of our meeting in Madrid last August remains close to my heart. It was a time of extraordinary grace when God showered his blessings on the young people gathered from all over the world. I give thanks to God for all the fruits which that event bore, fruits which will surely multiply for young people and their communities in the future. Now we are looking forward to our next meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, whose theme will be: “Go and make disciples of all nations!” (cf. Mt 28:19).

This year’s World Youth Day theme comes from Saint Paul’s exhortation in his Letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (4:4). Joy is at the heart of Christian experience. At each World Youth Day we experience immense joy, the joy of communion, the joy of being Christian, the joy of faith. This is one of the marks of these gatherings. We can see the great attraction that joy exercises. In a world of sorrow and anxiety, joy is an important witness to the beauty and reliability of the Christian faith.

The Church’s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only did God speak, not only did he accomplish great signs throughout the history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he became one of us and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so many young people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy and on how to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and bring it to everyone you meet.

1. Our hearts are made for joy

A yearning for joy lurks within the heart of every man and woman. Far more than immediate and fleeting feelings of satisfaction, our hearts seek a perfect, full and lasting joy capable of giving “flavour” to our existence. This is particularly true for you, because youth is a time of continuous discovery of life, of the world, of others and of ourselves. It is a time of openness to the future and of great longing for happiness, friendship, sharing and truth, a time when we are moved by high ideals and make great plans.

Each day is filled with countless simple joys which are the Lord’s gift: the joy of living, the joy of seeing nature’s beauty, the joy of a job well done, the joy of helping others, the joy of sincere and pure love. If we look carefully, we can see many other reasons to rejoice. There are the happy times in family life, shared friendship, the discovery of our talents, our successes, the compliments we receive from others, the ability to express ourselves and to know that we are understood, and the feeling of being of help to others. There is also the excitement of learning new things, seeing new and broader horizons open up through our travels and encounters, and realizing the possibilities we have for charting our future. We might also mention the experience of reading a great work of literature, of admiring a masterpiece of art, of listening to or playing music, or of watching a film. All these things can bring us real joy.

Yet each day we also face any number of difficulties. Deep down we also worry about the future; we begin to wonder if the full and lasting joy for which we long might be an illusion and an escape from reality. Many young people ask themselves: is perfect joy really possible? The quest for joy can follow various paths, and some of these turn out to be mistaken, if not dangerous. How can we distinguish things that give real and lasting joy from immediate and illusory pleasures? How can we find true joy in life, a joy that endures and does not forsake us at moments of difficulty?

2. God is the source of true joy

Whatever brings us true joy, whether the small joys of each day or the greatest joys in life, has its source in God, even if this does not seem immediately obvious. This is because God is a communion of eternal love, he is infinite joy that does not remain closed in on itself, but expands to embrace all whom God loves and who love him. God created us in his image out of love, in order to shower his love upon us and to fill us with his presence and grace. God wants us to share in his own divine and eternal joy, and he helps us to see that the deepest meaning and value of our lives lie in being accepted, welcomed and loved by him. Whereas we sometimes find it hard to accept others, God offers us an unconditional acceptance which enables us to say: “I am loved; I have a place in the world and in history; I am personally loved by God. If God accepts me and loves me and I am sure of this, then I know clearly and with certainty that it is a good thing that I am alive”.

God’s infinite love for each of us is fully seen in Jesus Christ. The joy we are searching for is to be found in him. We see in the Gospel how the events at the beginning of Jesus’ life are marked by joy. When the Archangel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of the Saviour, his first word is “Rejoice!” (Lk 1:28). When Jesus is born, the angel of the Lord says to the shepherds: “Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you, who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). When the Magi came in search of the child, “they were overjoyed at seeing the star” (Mt 2:10). The cause of all this joy is the closeness of God who became one of us. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). Our first reason for joy is the closeness of the Lord, who welcomes me and loves me.

An encounter with Jesus always gives rise to immense inner joy. We can see this in many of the Gospel stories. We recall when Jesus visited Zacchaeus, a dishonest tax collector and public sinner, he said to him: “Today I must stay at your house”. Then, Saint Luke tells us, Zacchaeus “received him with joy” (Lk 19:5-6). This is the joy of meeting the Lord. It is the joy of feeling God’s love, a love that can transform our whole life and bring salvation. Zacchaeus decides to change his life and to give half of his possessions to the poor.

At the hour of Jesus’ passion, this love can be seen in all its power. At the end of his earthly life, while at supper with his friends, Jesus said: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love... I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:9,11). Jesus wants to lead his disciples and each one of us into the fullness of joy that he shares with the Father, so that the Father’s love for him might abide in us (cf. Jn 17:26). Christian joy consists in being open to God’s love and belonging to him.

The Gospels recount that Mary Magdalene and other women went to visit the tomb where Jesus had been laid after his death. An angel told them the astonishing news of Jesus’ resurrection. Then, the Evangelist tells us, they ran from the sepulchre, “fearful yet overjoyed” to share the good news with the disciples. Jesus met them on the way and said: “Peace!” (Mt 28:8-9). They were being offered the joy of salvation. Christ is the One who lives and who overcame evil, sin and death. He is present among us as the Risen One and he will remain with us until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). Evil does not have the last word in our lives; rather, faith in Christ the Saviour tells us that God’s love is victorious.

This deep joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who makes us God’s sons and daughters, capable of experiencing and savouring his goodness, and calling him “Abba”, Father (cf. Rm 8:15). Joy is the sign of God’s presence and action within us.

3. Preserving Christian joy in our hearts

At this point we wonder: “How do we receive and maintain this gift of deep, spiritual joy?”

One of the Psalms tells us: “Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart's desire” (Ps 37:4). Jesus told us that “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44). The discovery and preservation of spiritual joy is the fruit of an encounter with the Lord. Jesus asks us to follow him and to stake our whole life on him. Dear young people, do not be afraid to risk your lives by making space for Jesus Christ and his Gospel. This is the way to find inner peace and true happiness. It is the way to live fully as children of God, created in his image and likeness.

Seek joy in the Lord: for joy is the fruit of faith. It is being aware of his presence and friendship every day: “the Lord is near!” (Phil 4:5). It is putting our trust in God, and growing in his knowledge and love. Shortly we shall begin the “Year of Faith”, and this will help and encourage us. Dear friends, learn to see how God is working in your lives and discover him hidden within the events of daily life. Believe that he is always faithful to the covenant which he made with you on the day of your Baptism. Know that God will never abandon you. Turn your eyes to him often. He gave his life for you on the cross because he loves you. Contemplation of this great love brings a hope and joy to our hearts that nothing can destroy. Christians can never be sad, for they have met Christ, who gave his life for them.

To seek the Lord and find him in our lives also means accepting his word, which is joy for our hearts. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: “When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart” (Jer 15:16). Learn to read and meditate on the sacred Scriptures. There you will find an answer to your deepest questions about truth. God’s word reveals the wonders that he has accomplished throughout human history, it fills us with joy, and it leads us to praise and adoration: “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us kneel before the Lord who made us” (Ps 95:1,6).

The liturgy is a special place where the Church expresses the joy which she receives from the Lord and transmits it to the world. Each Sunday at Mass the Christian community celebrates the central mystery of salvation, which is the death and resurrection of Christ. This is a very important moment for all the Lord’s disciples because his sacrifice of love is made present. Sunday is the day when we meet the risen Christ, listen to his word, and are nourished by his body and blood. As we hear in one of the Psalms: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” (Ps 118:24). At the Easter Vigil, the Church sings the Exultet, a hymn of joy for the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death: “Sing, choirs of angels! ... Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour ... Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!” Christian joy is born of this awareness of being loved by God who became man, gave his life for us and overcame evil and death. It means living a life of love for him. As Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a young Carmelite, wrote: “Jesus, my joy is loving you” (P 45, 21 January 1897).

4. The joy of love

Dear friends, joy is intimately linked to love. They are inseparable gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:23). Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of love. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta drew on Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) when she said: “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls; God loves a cheerful giver. Whoever gives with joy gives more”. As the Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “In God himself, all is joy because all is giving” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975).

In every area of your life, you should know that to love means to be steadfast, reliable and faithful to commitments. This applies most of all to friendship. Our friends expect us to be sincere, loyal and faithful because true love perseveres even in times of difficulty. The same thing can be said about your work and studies and the services you carry out. Fidelity and perseverance in doing good brings joy, even if not always immediately.

If we are to experience the joy of love, we must also be generous. We cannot be content to give the minimum. We need to be fully committed in life and to pay particular attention to those in need. The world needs men and women who are competent and generous, willing to be at the service of the common good. Make every effort to study conscientiously, to develop your talents and to put them at the service of others even now. Find ways to help make society more just and humane wherever you happen to be. May your entire life be guided by a spirit of service and not by the pursuit of power, material success and money.

Speaking of generosity, I would like to mention one particular joy. It is the joy we feel when we respond to the vocation to give our whole life to the Lord. Dear young people, do not be afraid if Christ is calling you to the religious, monastic or missionary life or to the priesthood. Be assured that he fills with joy all those who respond to his invitation to leave everything to be with him and to devote themselves with undivided heart to the service of others. In the same way, God gives great joy to men and women who give themselves totally to one another in marriage in order to build a family and to be signs of Christ’s love for the Church.

Let me remind you of a third element that will lead you to the joy of love. It is allowing fraternal love to grow in your lives and in those of your communities. There is a close bond between communion and joy. It is not by chance that Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4) is written in the plural, addressing the community as a whole, rather than its individual members. Only when we are together in the communion of fellowship do we experience this joy. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christian community is described in these words: “Breaking bread in their homes, they ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:46). I ask you to make every effort to help our Christian communities to be special places of sharing, attention and concern for one another.

5. The joy of conversion

Dear friends, experiencing real joy also means recognizing the temptations that lead us away from it. Our present-day culture often pressures us to seek immediate goals, achievements and pleasures. It fosters fickleness more than perseverance, hard work and fidelity to commitments. The messages it sends push a consumerist mentality and promise false happiness. Experience teaches us that possessions do not ensure happiness. How many people are surrounded by material possessions yet their lives are filled with despair, sadness and emptiness! To have lasting joy we need to live in love and truth. We need to live in God.

God wants us to be happy. That is why he gave us specific directions for the journey of life: the commandments. If we observe them, we will find the path to life and happiness. At first glance, they might seem to be a list of prohibitions and an obstacle to our freedom. But if we study them more closely, we see in the light of Christ’s message that the commandments are a set of essential and valuable rules leading to a happy life in accordance with God’s plan. How often, on the other hand, do we see that choosing to build our lives apart from God and his will brings disappointment, sadness and a sense of failure. The experience of sin, which is the refusal to follow God and an affront to his friendship, brings gloom into our hearts.

At times the path of the Christian life is not easy, and being faithful to the Lord’s love presents obstacles; occasionally we fall. Yet God in his mercy never abandons us; he always offers us the possibility of returning to him, being reconciled with him and experiencing the joy of his love which forgives and welcomes us back.

Dear young people, have frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation! It is the sacrament of joy rediscovered. Ask the Holy Spirit for the light needed to acknowledge your sinfulness and to ask for God’s forgiveness. Celebrate this sacrament regularly, with serenity and trust. The Lord will always open his arms to you. He will purify you and bring you into his joy: for there is joy in heaven even for one sinner who repents (cf. Lk 15:7).

6. Joy at times of trial

In the end, though, we might still wonder in our hearts whether it is really possible to live joyfully amid all life’s trials, especially those which are most tragic and mysterious. We wonder whether following the Lord and putting our trust in him will always bring happiness.

We can find an answer in some of the experiences of young people like yourselves who have found in Christ the light that can give strength and hope even in difficult situations. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) experienced many trials during his short life, including a romantic experience that left him deeply hurt. In the midst of this situation he wrote to his sister: “You ask me if I am happy. How could I not be? As long as faith gives me strength, I am happy. A Catholic could not be other than happy... The goal for which we were created involves a path which has its thorns, but it is not a sad path. It is joy, even when it involves pain” (Letter to his sister Luciana, Turin, 14 February 1925). When Blessed John Paul II presented Blessed Pier Giorgio as a model for young people, he described him as “a young person with infectious joy, the joy that overcame many difficulties in his life” (Address to Young People, Turin, 13 April 1980).

Closer to us in time is Chiara Badano (1971-1990), who was recently beatified. She experienced how pain could be transfigured by love and mysteriously steeped in joy. At the age of eighteen, while suffering greatly from cancer, Chiara prayed to the Holy Spirit and interceded for the young people of the movement to which she belonged. As well as praying for her own cure, she asked God to enlighten all those young people by his Spirit and to give them wisdom and light. “It was really a moment of God’s presence. I was suffering physically, but my soul was singing” (Letter to Chiara Lubich, Sassello, 20 December 1989). The key to her peace and joy was her complete trust in the Lord and the acceptance of her illness as a mysterious expression of his will for her sake and that of everyone. She often said: “Jesus, if you desire it, then I desire it too”.

These are just two testimonies taken from any number of others which show that authentic Christians are never despairing or sad, not even when faced with difficult trials. They show that Christian joy is not a flight from reality, but a supernatural power that helps us to deal with the challenges of daily life. We know that the crucified and risen Christ is here with us and that he is a faithful friend always. When we share in his sufferings, we also share in his glory. With him and in him, suffering is transformed into love. And there we find joy (cf. Col 1:24).

7. Witnesses of joy

Dear friends, to conclude I would encourage you to be missionaries of joy. We cannot be happy if others are not. Joy has to be shared. Go and tell other young people about your joy at finding the precious treasure which is Jesus himself. We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give it away. Saint John said: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; we are writing this so that our joy may be complete” (1 Jn 1:3-4).

Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!

Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:21).

May the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany you on this journey. She welcomed the Lord within herself and proclaimed this in a song of praise and joy, the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). Mary responded fully to God’s love by devoting her life to him in humble and complete service. She is invoked as “Cause of our Joy” because she gave us Jesus. May she lead you to that joy which no one will ever be able to take away from you!

From the Vatican, 15 March 2012

[Pope Benedict, Message for the XXVII World Youth Day, 2012]