Dear Brothers and Sisters, 

This Sunday's Gospel presents Jesus to us absorbed in prayer, a little apart from his disciples. When he had finished, one of them said to him: "Lord, teach us to pray" (Lk 11: 1). Jesus had no objection, he did not speak of strange or esoteric formulas but very simply said: "When you pray, say: "Father' ", and he taught the Our Father (cf. Lk 11: 2-4), taking it from his own prayer in which he himself spoke to God, his Father. St Luke passes the Our Father on to us in a shorter form than that found in the Gospel according to St Matthew, which has entered into common usage. We have before us the first words of Sacred Scripture that we learn in childhood. They are impressed in our memory, mould our life and accompany us to our last breath. They reveal that "we are not ready-made children of God from the start, but that we are meant to become so increasingly by growing more and more deeply in communion with Jesus. Our sonship turns out to be identical with following Christ" (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth [English translation], Doubleday, 2007, p. 138). 

This prayer also accepts and expresses human material and spiritual needs: "Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins" (Lk 11: 3-4). It is precisely because of the needs and difficulties of every day that Jesus exhorts us forcefully: "I tell you, ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Lk 11: 9-10). It is not so much asking in order to satisfy our own desires as, rather, to keep a lively friendship with God who, the Gospel continues, "will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Lk 11: 13). The ancient "Desert Fathers" experienced this, as did contemplatives of all epochs who became, through prayer, friends of God, like Abraham who begged the Lord to spare the few righteous from the destruction of the city of Sodom (cf. Gen 18: 21-32). St Teresa of Avila addressed an invitation to her sisters with the words: we must "beseech God to deliver us from these perils for ever and to keep us from all evil! And although our desire for this may not be perfect, let us strive to make the petition. What does it cost us to ask it, since we ask it of One who is so powerful?" (Cammino, 60 (34), 4, in Opere complete, Milan 1998, p. 846) [title in English: The Way of Perfection]. Every time we say the Our Father our voices mingle with the voice of the Church, for those who pray are never alone. "From the rich variety of Christian prayer as proposed by the Church, each member of the faithful should seek and find his own way, his own form of prayer... each person will, therefore, let himself be led... by the Holy Spirit, who guides him, through Christ, to the Father" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on some aspects of Christian meditation, 15 October 1989, n. 29; ore, 2 Jan. 1990, p. 10).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus, 25 July 2010]

1. “Our Father, who art in heaven . . .”.

We stand at the altar around which the entire Church in Sarajevo is gathered. We say the words taught to us by Christ, Son of the Living God: Son consubstantial with the Father. He alone calls God “Father” (Abba – Father! My Father!) and He alone can authorise us to address God as “Father”, “Our Father”. He teaches us this prayer in which everything is contained. Today, we wish to find in this prayer what can and must be said to God – our Father – at this moment in history, here in Sarajevo.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." 

"I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: 'From pestilence, from hunger and from war, deliver us!'"

2. Our Father! Father of men: Father of peoples. Father of all peoples who dwell on earth. Father of the peoples of Europe. Of the peoples of the Balkans.

Father of the peoples belonging to the family of the South Slavs! Father of the peoples who, here on this peninsula, have been writing their history for centuries. Father of the peoples, sadly affected not for the first time by the cataclysm of war.

“Our Father . . .”. I, Bishop of Rome, the first Slavic Pope, kneel before You to cry out: “From pestilence, from hunger and from war – deliver us!”. I know that many join me in this plea. Not only here in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but throughout Europe and beyond its borders. I come here carrying with me the certainty of this prayer that is uttered by the hearts and lips of countless brothers and sisters of mine. For a long time, they have been waiting for this “great prayer” of the Church, of the people of God, to be said in this place. For a long time, I myself have been inviting everyone to join in this prayer.

How can we forget the prayer offered in Assisi in January last year? And then the one raised in Rome, in St Peter's Basilica, in January this year? Since the beginning of the tragic events in the Balkans, in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the guiding thought of the Church, and in particular of the Apostolic See, has been prayer for peace.

3. Our Father, 'hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come...'. May your holy and merciful name shine forth among men. May your kingdom come, a kingdom of justice and peace, of forgiveness and love.

"Thy will be done . . .".

May your will be done in the world, and especially in this troubled land of the Balkans. You do not love violence and hatred. You abhor injustice and selfishness. You want men to be brothers and to recognise you as their Father.

Our Father, Father of every human being, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Your will is peace!

4. Christ is “our peace” (Eph 2:14). He taught us to call God “Father”.

He who by his blood conquered the mystery of iniquity and division, and by his Cross broke down the massive wall that separated men, making them strangers to one another; He who reconciled humanity with God and united men among themselves as brothers.

This is why Christ was able to say one day to the Apostles, before his sacrifice on the Cross: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you" (Jn 14:27). It was then that he promised the Spirit of Truth, who is at once the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Peace!

Come, Holy Spirit! “Veni, creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita . . .!” “Come, Creator Spirit, visit our minds, fill with your grace the hearts you have created.”

Come, Holy Spirit! We invoke you from this city of Sarajevo, a crossroads of tensions between different cultures and nations, where the fuse was lit at the beginning of the century that sparked the first world war, and where, at the end of the second millennium, similar tensions are concentrated, capable of destroying peoples called by history to collaborate in harmonious coexistence.

Come, Spirit of peace! Through you we cry out: 'Abba, Father' (Rom 8:15).

5. "Give us this day our daily bread . . .".

To pray for bread is to pray for everything necessary for life. Let us pray that, in the distribution of resources among individuals and peoples, the principle of universal participation in the goods created by God may always be realised.

Let us pray that the use of resources for armaments will not damage or even destroy the heritage of culture, which is the highest good of humanity. Let us pray that restrictive measures, deemed necessary to curb conflict, will not cause inhuman suffering to the defenceless population. Every person, every family has a right to their "daily bread".

6. "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us . . .".

With these words we touch on the crucial issue. Christ himself made us aware of this when, dying on the cross, he said of his killers: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).

The history of individuals, peoples and nations is full of mutual resentment and injustice. How important were the historic words addressed by the Polish bishops to their German confreres at the end of the Second Vatican Council: "We forgive and ask forgiveness!" If peace has been achieved in that region of Europe, it seems that this has been thanks to the attitude effectively expressed by those words.

Today we want to pray for a similar gesture to be renewed: "We forgive and we ask forgiveness" for our brothers and sisters in the Balkans! Without this attitude, it is difficult to build peace. The spiral of "guilt" and "punishment" will never end unless, at some point, forgiveness is granted.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. If memory is the law of history, forgiveness is the power of God, the power of Christ acting in the events of individuals and peoples.

7. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil . . .”.

Lead us not into temptation! What temptations do we ask the Father to keep us from today? They are those that make the human heart a heart of stone, insensitive to the call of forgiveness and harmony. They are the temptations of ethnic prejudice, which make us indifferent to the rights of others and to their suffering. They are the temptations of extreme nationalism, which lead to the oppression of others and the desire for revenge. They are all temptations that express the culture of death.

Faced with the desolate spectacle of human failure, we pray with the words of our Venerable Brother Bartholomew I, Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople: 'Lord, let our hearts of stone be broken at the sight of your sufferings and become hearts of flesh. Let your Cross dissolve our prejudices. With the vision of your agonising struggle against death, may our indifference or rebellion flee' (Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, Good Friday 1990, Opening Prayer).

Deliver us from evil! Here is another word that belongs entirely to Christ and his Gospel. "I have not come to condemn the world, but to save the world" (Jn 12:47). Humanity is called to salvation in Christ and through Christ. The nations that the current war has so terribly divided are also called to this salvation!

Let us pray today that the saving power of the Cross may help us overcome the historic temptation of hatred. Enough of the countless acts of destruction! Let us pray, following the rhythm of the Lord's Prayer, that the time of reconstruction, the time of peace, may begin.

May the dead of Sarajevo, whose remains lie in the nearby cemetery, pray with us. May all the victims of this cruel war pray, invoking reconciliation and peace for the survivors in the light of God.

8. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God!” (Mt 5:9). This is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel passage. Yes, dear brothers and sisters, we will truly be blessed if we become artisans of that peace which only Christ can give (cf. Jn 14:27), indeed which is Christ himself. “Christ is our peace.” We will become builders of peace if, like him, we are willing to forgive.

“Father, forgive them!” (Lk 23:34). From the Cross, Christ offers forgiveness and asks us to follow him on the arduous way of the Cross to obtain his peace. Only by accepting his invitation can we prevent selfishness, nationalism and violence from continuing to sow destruction and death.

Evil, in all its manifestations, is a mystery of iniquity, in the face of which the voice of God rises clear and decisive, as we heard in the first reading: “Thus says the High and Lofty One . . . I dwell in a high and holy place, but I am also with the oppressed and the lowly” (Isaiah 57:15). These prophetic words contain an invitation to all of us to examine our consciences seriously.

God is on the side of the oppressed: he is close to parents who mourn their murdered children, he hears the helpless cry of the defenceless who are trampled underfoot, he is in solidarity with women humiliated by violence, he is close to refugees forced to abandon their land and their homes. He does not forget the suffering of families, the elderly, widows, young people and children. It is his people who are dying.

Such barbarism must be stopped! Enough with war! Enough with destructive fury! It is no longer possible to tolerate a situation that produces only death: killings, destroyed cities, ruined economies, hospitals without medicines, the sick and elderly abandoned, families in tears and torn apart. A just peace must be achieved as soon as possible. Peace is possible if moral values are recognised as taking precedence over claims of race or force.

9. Dear Brothers and Sisters! At this moment, together with you, I raise to the Lord the cry of the psalmist: 'Help us, God, our saviour, for the glory of your name, save us and forgive our sins' (Ps 79:9).

Let us entrust this supplication to her who "stood" silently and prayerfully beneath the Cross (cf. Jn 19:25). Let us look to the Blessed Virgin, whose Nativity the Church joyfully celebrates today.

It is significant that my visit, long desired, has been able to take place on this Marian feast day so dear to you. With Mary's birth, hope blossomed in the world for a new humanity no longer oppressed by selfishness, hatred, violence and the many other forms of sin that have stained the paths of history with blood. We ask Mary Most Holy that the day of full reconciliation and peace may also dawn on your land. 

Queen of Peace, pray for us!

[Pope John Paul II, in connection with Sarajevo, 8 September 1994]

In today’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 11:1-13), Saint Luke narrates the circumstances in which Jesus teaches the “Lord’s Prayer”. They, the disciples, already know how to pray by reciting the formulas of the Jewish tradition, but they too wish to experience the same “quality” of Jesus’ prayer because they can confirm that prayer is an essential dimension in their Master’s life. Indeed each of his important actions is marked by long pauses in prayer. Moreover, they are fascinated because they see that he does not pray like the other teachers of the time, but rather his prayer is an intimate bond with the Father, so much so that they wish to be a part of these moments of union with God, in order to completely savour its sweetness. 

Thus, one day they wait for Jesus to finish praying in a secluded place and then they ask him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (v. 1). In responding to the disciples’ explicit question, Jesus does not provide an abstract definition of prayer, nor does he teach an efficient technique to pray in order to “obtain” something. Instead, he invites his own to experience prayer, by putting them directly in communication with the Father, causing them to feel nostalgic for a personal relationship with God, with the Father. Herein lies the novelty of Christian prayer! It is a dialogue between people who love each other, a dialogue based on trust, sustained by listening and open to a commitment to solidarity. It is the dialogue of a Son with his Father, a dialogue between children and their Father. This is Christian prayer. 

Hence, he delivers the “Lord’s Prayer” to them, perhaps the most precious gift left to us by the Divine Master during his earthly mission. After revealing to us his mystery as Son and brother, with that prayer Jesus allows us to enter into God’s paternity. I want to underscore this: when Jesus teaches us the “Our Father”, he allows us to enter into God’s paternity and he points the way to enter into a prayerful and direct dialogue with him, through the path of filial intimacy. It is a dialogue between a father and his son, of a son with his father. What we ask in the “Our Father” is already fulfilled for us in his Only-begotten Son: the sanctification of the Name, the advent of the Kingdom, the gift of bread, of forgiveness and of delivery from evil. As we ask, we open our hand to receive; to receive the gifts that the Father has shown us in his Son. The prayer that the Lord taught us is the synthesis of every prayer and we address it to the Father, always in communion with our brothers and sisters. Sometimes distractions can occur in prayer, but we often feel the need to stop at the first word, “Father”, and feel that paternity in our heart.

Jesus then recounts the parable of the importune friend and Jesus says: “we must persevere in prayer”. My thoughts turn to what children do when they are three-and-a-half years old: they begin to ask about things they do not understand. In my country, it is called “the ‘why’ age”, I think it is also the same here. Children begin to look at their father and ask: Why Dad? Why Dad? They ask for explanations. Let us be careful: when the father begins to explain why, they come up with another question without listening to the entire explanation. What is happening? Children feel insecure about many things that they are only partially beginning to understand. They only wish to attract the father’s gaze, and thus the “why, why, why?”. If we pause on the first word of the “Our Father”, we will be doing the same as when we were children: attracting the father’s gaze upon us: saying, “Father, Father” and also asking, “why?”, and he will look at us. 

Let us ask Mary, woman of prayer to help us pray the “Our Father” in unity with Jesus in order to live the Gospel guided by the Holy Spirit.

[Pope Francis, Angelus, 28 July 2019]

(Mt 13:24-30)

The metaphor that follows the initial parable is intended to emphasize that the presence of “evil” in the world is not to be attributed to the lack of vitality of the Seed, nor to the divine Work.

And Jesus upsets the precipitous cliché of apostolic morality:

«So You want us to go and gather them? But He declares: No, for by reaping the tares you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.» (vv.28-30).

In his commentary on Tao Tê Ching xxxvi master Wang Pi writes: «By conforming to the nature of creatures, the best way to avoid future difficulties is to induce them to spontaneously run to ruin, without subjecting them to punishment».

Qualities are intertwined with errors, weaknesses and inconsistencies, but from the earliest days in the communities, some believers struggled to live with the different mentalities of their brethren of faith - a situation that nevertheless allowed life to teem.

It was experienced that time was the best medicine to make the parasitic weed spontaneously dry up: and it did not even was turning out to be so infertile; quite the contrary.

The parable of the good wheat and the weeds is meant to help us not to fall into exclusivism - not because of ideological issues, but vital ones.

The rough hands of some disciples would tear up all the intertwining of the various roots with the earth and each other.

Premature sorting would ruin everything good in the present, and the future itself.

The Lord's teaching is a reminder.

It is not immediate to understand the multifaceted significance of these preparatory energies, which from their magma and dissent will give birth to the unexpected attunements of God's inopinable future.

New opportunities also sprout from personal or institutional mediocrity. Even it a paradoxical condition of growth and prosperity of the Church, 'perfect' to the extent that it recognises itself on the path of conversion to Christ: «semper conformanda».

As in the Community, those who face life in the Spirit and wish their adventure to flourish, must learn to respect discomforts and make contradictions live within themselves.

The uniformity of fundamentalists or purists would like an external, immediate and decisive justice (in eloquent forms) but only God is able to plumb the depths of events.

Fraternities must not enclose themselves within suffocating hedges.

They have the mission to learn dialogue with differences and standing with disparate oppositions, so that life becomes rich through diverse relationships and the concrete exchange of personal gifts, in varied and even discordant contexts.

Such is the added value that opens up New Life, while the myth of indefectibility remains confined to sects.

In fact, not infrequently that very side of ourselves that we do not want, that we reject, that we would like to exclude or correct - and misjudged by others - has perhaps already revealed itself or will in time reveal itself to be the best part of us, both from the point of view of exceptional realisation of personality and of the Calling by missionary Name.

Each believer is both 'ally' and unfaithful at the same time, but in such friction lurks the new sparks [also of disappointment, but fruitful] and our completion - traversing the paradoxes of fallibility.

As well as unprecedented cultural, even economic, political and social paths.

[Saturday 16th wk. in O.T.  July 26, 2025]

Rebirth - from failures

(Mt 13:24-30)

The metaphor that follows the initial parable is intended to emphasise that the presence of 'evil' in the world is not to be attributed to the lack of vitality of the Seed, nor to the divine Work.

Jesus upsets the precipitous cliché of apostolic morality:

"Do you therefore want us to reap them? But He declares: No, lest by reaping the darnels you uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest' (vv.28-30).

In the commentary to Tao Tê Ching xxxvi Master Wang Pi writes: "By conforming to the nature of creatures, the best way to avoid future difficulties is to induce them to run to ruin spontaneously, without subjecting them to punishment.

Qualities are intertwined with errors, weaknesses and inconsistencies, but from the earliest days in the communities some believers found it hard to live with the different mentalities of the brothers of Faith - a situation that nevertheless allowed life to teem.

And it was experienced that time was the best medicine to let the tares dry up spontaneously: in perspective, it did not even turn out to be so; quite the contrary.

The parable of the good wheat and the weeds is meant to help us not to fall into exclusivism - not for ideological reasons, but for vital ones.

The rough hands of some disciples would tear up all the intertwining of the various roots with the earth and each other.

Premature sorting would ruin everything good in the present, and the future itself.

The fulfilment of the laws of purity had ensured the separation of Judaism from other cultures.

Thus some converts to the Christ Messiah were unwilling to give up their identity marks.

Others like Paul taught that impurity is good to be persecuted, but the sinner is to be tolerated.

The internal debate raised awareness: in real life there persists a mixture of things - in harmony and [at least at first sight] contrary to the Word of God.

Apparently there is like an ambitious enemy sleeping within each one of us and even in the churches, who may sometimes seem to want us to lose the very reason for believing.

Faced with the ambiguity of good and evil - or rather of ideas about good and evil - some people rush to want to resolve it immediately.

They claim to be able to eradicate indecency definitively on the basis of opinions, doctrinal and moral preconceptions - which, however, do not look at people and events [except in the usual (rigid) way].

The Lord's teaching is a reminder.

It is not immediate to understand the multifaceted significance of these preparatory energies, which from their magma and dissent will give birth to the unexpected attunements of God's inopinable future.

New opportunities also sprout from personal or institutional mediocrity. Even a paradoxical condition of growth and prosperity of the Church, 'perfect' to the extent that it recognises itself on the path of conversion to Christ: "semper conformanda".

The uniformity of fundamentalists or purists would like an external, immediate and decisive justice (in eloquent forms), but only God is able to plumb the depths of events.

Some cling to the certainties of the norm, but such schemes immediately close off the imbalances of the chaos that could have been made fruitful precisely by those providential novelties: those that supplant the stale, reworking and adapting the unsuspected [thus solving the real problems and making people dream of different intentions - another destiny].

In order not to mortify life in the illusion of 'non-negotiable' behaviour and procedures [mostly, cultural and religious certainties that are then abandoned], communities must not close themselves within suffocating hedges.

They would be unbearable: they have the mission of learning dialogue with differences and standing with disparate oppositions, so that life may become rich through diverse relationships and the concrete exchange of personal gifts, in varied and even discordant contexts.

Such is the added value that opens up the New Life, while the myth of indefectibility remains confined to sects.

In fact, not infrequently that very side of ourselves that we do not want, that we reject, that we would like to exclude or correct - and misjudged by others - has perhaps already revealed itself or will in time reveal itself to be the best part of us, both from the point of view of the exceptional realisation of the personality and of the Calling by Missionary Name.

Each believer is both 'ally' and unfaithful at the same time, but in such friction lurks the new sparks [even of fruitful disappointment] and our completion - walking the paradoxes of fallibility. As well as unprecedented cultural, even economic, political and social paths.

Says the Tao (LVIII): 'When the government in everything meddles, the people are fragmented [!] Fortune originates in misfortune, misfortune hides in fortune. Who knows its culmination? Those who do not correct. Correction turns into falsehood, good becomes an omen of misfortune, and every day the bewilderment of the people grows deeper and more lasting. That is why the Saint is square but does not cut, is incorrupt but does not wound, is straight but does not flaunt, is bright but does not dazzle'.

As in the Church, those who face life in the Spirit and want their adventure to flourish must learn to respect discomforts and make contradictions coexist within themselves.

Embrace the opposing sides and his own different images - dwelling within. And without commenting, more casually, with unencumbered perception.

Rejecting, naming and repressing what we imagine to be 'flaws'... precludes us from the other horizon - the one that becomes an Ally.

It is the unexpected point of view, which recovers and puts things right; generating knowledge, complete life and full, unpredictable, awe-inspiring relationships.

Here is Happiness unleashed - when you don't disturb it upstream.

Anxieties, prejudices, reproaches, customary opinions, expectations, unnatural propositions, fears, false attitudes of the approved ego (and so on) do not make one grow.

External preconceptions relegate and torment us into fideistic, historical, moralistic or performance digressions; ultimately confining each one to a sense of inferiority to models.

Judgments, paradigms, cliché epithets, cerebral conceptions and attitudes lock us all into neuroses, conflicts, anxieties, and vicious lapses that alter the possibilities of personal discovery - cutting off the sense of Mystery and the glimpse of the Other.

The world of God outside and inside us does not live by comparisons and judgements of guilt, which hold us back - but (pausing in the 'shortcomings') by a Goal that is not expected.

Excessive energy, untamable tendency, which overcomes all pious one-sidedness.

To internalise and live the message:

Do you dwell in the "lacks", or do you look Elsewhere?

The subject of this Sunday's Gospel is, precisely, the Kingdom of Heaven. “Heaven” should not be understood only in the sense that it towers above us, because this infinite space also takes the form of human interiority. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a field of wheat to enable us to understand that something small and hidden has been sown within us which, nevertheless, has an irrepressible vital force. In spite of all obstacles, the seed will develop and the fruit will ripen. This fruit will only be good if the terrain of life is cultivated in accordance with the divine will.

For this reason in the Parable of the Weeds [tares] among the good Wheat (Mt 13:24-30). Jesus warns us that, after the owner had scattered the seed, “while men were sleeping, his enemy” intervened and sowed weeds among the wheat. This means that we must be ready to preserve the grace received from the day of our Baptism, continuing to nourish faith in the Lord that prevents evil from taking root. St Augustine commenting on the parable noted “many are at first tares but then become good grain”, and he added: “if these, when they are wicked, are not endured with patience they would not attain their praiseworthy transformation” (Quaest. septend. in Ev. sec. Matth., 12, 4: PL 35, 1371).

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 17 July 2011]

One of the parables narrated by Jesus on the growth of the kingdom of God on earth makes us discover very realistically the character of struggle that the kingdom entails, due to the presence and action of an "enemy", who "sows the tares (or weeds) in the midst of the wheat". Jesus says that when "the harvest flourished and bore fruit, behold, the weeds also appeared". The servants of the master of the field would like to pluck it, but the master does not allow them to do so, "lest . . . uproot the wheat also. Let the one and the other grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'Harvest the darnel first and bind it in bundles to burn it; but the wheat put it in my barn' (Mt 13:24-30). This parable explains the coexistence and often the intertwining of good and evil in the world, in our lives, in the very history of the Church. Jesus teaches us to see things with Christian realism and to treat every problem with clarity of principles, but also with prudence and patience. This presupposes a transcendent vision of history, in which we know that everything belongs to God and every final outcome is the work of his Providence. However, the final fate - with an eschatological dimension - of the good and the bad is not hidden: it is symbolised by the harvesting of the wheat in the storehouse and the burning of the tares.

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 25 September 1991]

Today's Gospel page proposes three parables with which Jesus speaks to the crowds about the Kingdom of God. I dwell on the first one: that of the good wheat and the weeds, which illustrates the problem of evil in the world and highlights God's patience (cf. Mt 13:24-30.36-43). How much patience God has! Each of us can also say this: "How much patience God has with me!". The story takes place in a field with two opposing protagonists. On one side is the master of the field who represents God and scatters the good seed; on the other side is the enemy who represents Satan and scatters the bad grass.

As time passes, weeds also grow in the midst of the wheat, and faced with this fact the master and his servants have different attitudes. The servants would like to intervene by tearing up the weeds; but the master, who is concerned above all for the salvation of the wheat, opposes this, saying: "Let it not happen that, in gathering up the weeds, you also uproot the wheat with it" (v. 29). With this image, Jesus tells us that in this world good and evil are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them and uproot all evil. Only God can do this, and he will do it in the final judgement. With its ambiguities and its composite character, the present situation is the field of freedom, the field of Christian freedom, in which the difficult exercise of discernment between good and evil is carried out.

And in this field it is therefore a matter of combining, with great trust in God and his providence, two apparently contradictory attitudes: decision and patience. The decision is to want to be good wheat - we all do -, with all our strength, and therefore to distance ourselves from the evil one and its seductions. Patience means preferring a Church that is leavened in the dough, that is not afraid to get its hands dirty washing its children's clothes, rather than a Church of the 'pure', that claims to judge before time who is in the Kingdom of God and who is not.

The Lord, who is Wisdom incarnate, today helps us to understand that good and evil cannot be identified with defined territories or specific human groups: "These are the good, these are the bad". He tells us that the line between good and evil passes through the heart of each person, passes through the heart of each one of us, that is: We are all sinners. It makes me want to ask: "Who is not a sinner, raise your hand". No one! Because we all are, we are all sinners. Jesus Christ, by his death on the cross and his resurrection, freed us from the bondage of sin and gives us the grace to walk in a new life; but with Baptism he also gave us Confession, because we always need to be forgiven of our sins. To always and only look at the evil outside of us is to not want to recognise the sin that is also within us.

And then Jesus teaches us a different way of looking at the field of the world, of observing reality. We are called to learn God's times - which are not our times - and also God's 'gaze': thanks to the beneficial influence of an eager expectation, what was darnel or seemed to be darnel can become a good product. This is the reality of conversion. It is the perspective of hope!

May the Virgin Mary help us to grasp in the reality that surrounds us not only the dirt and the evil, but also the good and the beautiful; to unmask the work of Satan, but above all to trust in God's action that makes history fruitful".

[Pope Francis, Angelus 23 July 2017]

(Mt 20:17-28)

The Roman Empire subjugated the Mediterranean basin with the strength of the Legions.

Through a large base of slaves and tributes, it concentrated titles and wealth in the hands of small circles - with abuse of power and coercion.

The new Kingdom must be the seed of an alternative society.

The pivot will be to regain a kind of synthesis of Jesus' life in order to make it one's own, as expressed in v.28.

Three titles are enunciated here that gave rise to Christology:

«Son of man» is the One who manifested man in the divine condition: fullness of humanity that reflects and reveals the very intimate life of God.

Figure of an accessible and transmissible "holiness", fully embodied -  day-to-day even.

Son of man is in fact the authentic and full development of the person according to the active Dream of the Father, which sweeps away the obsessive "yoke" of the common religion - expanding life (and the ego boundaries).

In adhering to the «Son of man» we are introduced as protagonists into salvation history.

Collaborators in the apex of Creation - that is, in the process of love. And we are detached from the pre-human of competitions [a warlike condition for supremacy’s desire].

«Servant» of Yahweh: Righteous who suffers pains of Love, to save us - an icon of the subdued and wise strength of the Father who through his sons expresses himself not as a conqueror, but as a meek lamb.

Sacrificial icon - in the ancient sense of «sacrum facere», to make Sacred - to revive a people unable to go to God through their brothers.

In Judaism, the ‘death of the righteous’ - even in the legal dimension of the Torah - was equal to a ransom, already understood as reparation-atonement for the multitude (v.28) of the guilty (cf. Is 53:11-12).

In Christ the vicarious mechanism vanishes: the Father sends the Son not as an external or propitiatory victim, necessary and predestined, but to make us reflect, first step in humanization.

Thus recovering the dimension of awareness and Communion [conviviality of differences].

Hence: the only title of "pre-eminence" remains that of «Go'el»: making oneself (each) «close relative» who takes on all debt for the ransom of others, for the restoration of personal dignity - and total self-possession.

Full brotherhood with women and men of all conditions: should be the growing programme of the Apostle.

Despite the disproportion, only this reversal of the Face is at the center of history and doesn’t lower God to the level of banal ‘domination’.

Turning and Freedom that becomes a permanent program of effective solidarity, and stimulates fervor.

Determining Principle of the new Kingdom, where ambitions are not chased.

Rather, the Master’s fate is shared, that is, «drinking the same Chalice» (vv. 22-23) and the destiny of others’ fulfillment; even paradoxical.

In Christ, the Church-Family people proceed towards Jerusalem, without merits or functions that claim a right - but with the keys of ‘life’.

This is how we concretely find ourselves «on the right and left» (vv. 21.23) of the royal Crucified One - and in mystical Union with the wounded Risen One.

By ascending together.

[St James the Apostle, July 25]

The anti-ambition or the front row in the pattern of satraps

(Mt 20:20-28)

Unofficially, Pius VII tried to lift the triregnum (neoclassical style, unusual) given to him by Napoleon, but his pages could hardly lift it up because of the weight.

Let alone carry 8 kilos and 200 grams on his head! He even tried to put it on, however, while of course someone also supported him from the side [imagine if he had fallen on his red slippers].

But it was also too tight: impossible to get your head into it!

Out of spite, Bonaparte the new emperor had it made so that no pope could ever wear it; and so it was, the ironic museum piece.

The imposition formula was: 'Receive the Tiara adorned with three crowns, and know that Thou art Father of Princes and Kings, Ruler of the world, Vicar on earth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

While amidst symphonies and choirs some were waiting for the moment of the tiara to weep a little over the ancient splendours, at the celebration of the reopening of the Council - after the coronation - Paul VI finally laid the triregnum on the papal altar.

He took it off with satisfaction, not because it was uncomfortable (he had a good four and a half kilos on his head): later he also made other gestures of unexpected renunciation with demands to be obeyed.

After him, no pope had the courage to adorn himself.

It was an opportunity not to be missed by anyone with vast experience of curial and diplomatic circles.

With in his fist the keys of Heaven, the reins of the earth and the command of Purgatory [the three crowns], the pontiff decided to bring up several flames from underground - to overheat the strains of some careerist from the sidelines, accustomed to directing souls by standing on top of any trunk.

Pope Francis speaks explicitly of clericalism as the root of all the Church's moral evils [if we do not get the grace of principality, it would not hurt to at least aspire to the roles of those who stand beside the leaders: v.21].

Like the ambition of the sons of Zebedee, among us it is all a scramble for a place in the sun - a very serious and radical deficiency, incapable of any activity of critical prophecy.

A false concept of the kingdom: that is why the plane is often off course, which does not bode well for ambitious leaders, always strangely in the race.

(Never shrink back and let the faithful or brethren think of us as idiots who do not 'reap' and therefore do not know how to be in the world).

Officially united to the Offering of the Servant Son, in fact not everyone believes that in the weakness of the believer stands out the divine Power and authentic Esteem that builds the fabric of the present and launches the future.

So much for the dreamers of Neverland: to so many it seems more dignified to presume upon oneself.

It is better to think that the glorious Cross of Christ is a momentary parenthesis and entirely his own, the fruit of a pre-established plan or of a blind destiny, so that the humiliation of making oneself small does not touch us.

Behind the good manners, bad habits creep in - and greed, which through fixed privileges leads the churches to the loss of meaning and cohesion.

With a trail of life annuities [lifelong prerogatives and titles, with no possibility of ministerial replacement, no checks and balances].

Those who aim for visibility and trunks have no real interest in people, except for their co-opted elite.

They think calculatingly and act according to vanity: displaying their 'spiritual' rank, with an artificial sense of honour, and pre-eminence, arrogance, spin.

Let us imagine the inscrutable quality of pastoral proposals deprived of the conviction of another Waiting, enlightening. Sometimes set up for greater external shine, and self-congratulation; promoting numbers, window-dressing, and catwalks.

The Empire subjugated the Mediterranean basin with the strength of the Legions. Through a vast slave and tribute base, it concentrated titles and wealth in the hands of small circles - with abuse of power and coercion.

The new kingdom must be the seed of an alternative society.

And when the archetype of the pyramidal Church falls apart, a victim of its own internal contradictions, we must be ready to offer people a model of coexistence that no longer disintegrates [with its own boomerangs].

The pivot will be to re-appropriate a kind of synthesis of Jesus' life to make it our own, as expressed in v.28.

Three titles are enunciated here that gave rise to Christology:

"Son of Man" is the One who manifested man in the divine condition: fullness of humanity that reflects and reveals God's own intimate life.

He is the figure of an accessible and transmissible 'holiness', all incarnate - even summary.Son of Man is in fact the authentic and full development of the person according to the active Dream of the Father, which sweeps away the obsessive "Yoke" of common Religion - dilating life (and the boundaries of the ego).

In joining the "Son of Man" we are introduced as protagonists in salvation history.

Collaborators in the pinnacle of Creation - that is, in the process of love. And we are detached from the pre-human of competitions [belligerent condition of lust for supremacy].

"Yahweh's 'Servant': Righteous One who suffers the pains of Love, in order to save us - icon of the Father's resigned and wise strength, who through his sons reveals himself not as victor, but as a meek lamb.

Sacrificial icon - in the ancient sense of 'sacrum facere', to make sacred - to raise up a people unable to go to God through their brothers.

In Judaism, the death of the righteous - even in the juridical dimension of the Torah - was equal to a ransom, already understood as reparation-expiation for the multitude (v.28) of the guilty (cf. Is 53:11-12).

In Christ the vicarious mechanism vanishes: the Father sends the Son not as an external or propitiatory victim, necessary and predestined, but to make us reflect, the first step of humanisation.

Thus recovering the dimension of awareness and Communion [i.e. conviviality of differences].

Hence: the only title of "pre-eminence" remains that of "Go'el": to make oneself (each one) a "Next of kin" who takes on every debt for the redemption of others, for the restoration of personal dignity and total self-possession.

Full fraternity with woman and man of every condition should be the apostle's growing programme.

Unusual instrument of 'excellence' or 'eminence' - yet frankly sapiential, according to nature:

Even the Tao Tê Ching (LII) states: 'Enlightenment, is to see the small; strength, is to stick to softness'.

Despite the disproportion, only this turning of the Face stands at the centre of the story and does not lower God to the level of trivial domination.

Reversal and Freedom that becomes a permanent programme of active solidarity, and stimulates fervour.

Determining principle of the new Kingdom, where one does not chase ambitions.

Rather, one shares the Master's fate, that is, "drinking the same cup" (vv.22-23) and the destiny of others' fulfilment, even paradoxical.

In Christ, the people of the Church-Family proceed towards Jerusalem, without merits or functions that claim a right - but with the keys to life.

This is how one finds oneself concretely "on the right and left" (vv.21.23) of the royal Crucified One - and in mystical union with the wounded Risen One.

Ascending together.