God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! Here is the commentary on next Sunday's texts with the assurance of prayer for the Pope and for the great spiritual and social needs of our society.

2nd Sunday in Lent year C (16 March 2025)

*First Reading from the book of Genesis (15.5-12.17-18)

 In the time of Abraham, the covenant between two heads of tribes took place with a ceremonial similar to the one described here: adult animals in the fullness of their strength were sacrificed and torn in two as if to say: may the same happen to me as to these if I am not faithful to the covenant we are making. In addition, both parties would walk barefoot through the carcasses thus wanting to share blood, that is, life, and become like blood relatives. The animals had to be three years old because mothers suckled their children until they were three years old and the number 3 had become a symbol of maturity so that the three-year-old animal was considered an adult. Abraham performs these customary rites for a covenant with God that on the surface seems to respect traditional rites yet everything is different because for the first time in human history, one of the contracting parties is God himself. Similar to similar rituals is that Abraham rips the animals in two and places each half in front of the other without, however, dividing the birds because the birds of prey descended on the carcasses and chased them away considering them birds of ill omen (Abraham, despite having discovered the true God, still retained a certain superstition). What is different, however, is that at sunset Abraham falls into a mysterious sleep accompanied by a dark and profound anguish and at that moment he sees a smoking brazier and a blazing torch passing among the pieces of animals. The text speaks of a mysterious sleep, but uses a word that is not in common use but was already used to indicate Adam's sleep while God created woman. It is therefore a way of saying two things: firstly, man cannot witness God's work and when man wakes up (whether Adam or Abraham), a new day, a new creation, begins; it also shows that man and God are not on the same level because in the work of creation and the covenant God takes all the initiative while for man it is enough to trust: Abraham had faith in the Lord and the Lord considered him righteous. God's presence is symbolised by fire, as is often the case in the Bible: "a smoking brazier and a blazing torch", like the burning bush, the smoke of Sinai, the pillar of fire that accompanied the people during the Exodus in the desert, up to the tongues of fire of Pentecost. These are the terms of the covenant: God promises Abraham a descendant and a land, descendant and land terms placed in inclusion in the narrative: at the beginning, God had said: look at the sky and count the stars, if you can... so shall your descendants be, "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you possession of this land" and at the end: "To your descendants I give this land".  Surprising is this promise to a childless old man, and it is not the first time that God has made it to him even though until now Abraham has not even seen the shadow of its fulfilment while continuing to walk sustained only by the promise of a God unknown to him. Let us recall the precedents of his vocation: "Get thee out of thy country, and out of thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee. I will make you a great nation (Gen 12:1) and the Bible has always emphasised the indomitable faith of Abraham who "departed as the Lord had told him" (Gen 12:4). Here, the text states: "Abraham had faith in the Lord, and the Lord counted him righteous". This is the first appearance of the word faith in the Bible: it is the irruption of faith into human history. The verb to believe in Hebrew comes from a root meaning to stand firm: Amen comes from the same root. To believe means to stand firm, to trust to the end, even in doubt, discouragement and anguish. This is Abraham's attitude; and that is why God considers him righteous, and in the Bible, the righteous is he whose will is according to God's will. Later, St Paul will use this phrase to affirm that salvation is not a matter of merit: "If you believe... you will be saved" (Rom 10:9). On reflection, God gives and asks only one thing of us... to believe, that is, to trust him. 

Notes for further study.

v.7: "I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees"; it is the same verb used for the exit from Egypt with Moses, six hundred years later: God's work is presented from the beginning as a work of deliverance.

- v.12: "mysterious sleep" = tardemah = same word used for Adam, Abraham and Saul (1 Sam 26).

*Responsorial Psalm (26 (27),1.7-8.9a-d.13-14)

 This psalm presents such contrasting states of mind that one could almost doubt that it is the same person speaking from beginning to end, but, on closer inspection, it always expresses the same faith that manifests itself in both exultation and supplication according to the states of mind of the praying person who feels empowered to say everything to the Lord. And so prayer embraces man's entire existence: serenity that stems from certainty - "The Lord is my light and my salvation: of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is the defence of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?", combined with an ardent plea - "Hear, Lord, my voice. I cry out: have mercy on me, answer me!' Israel has always kept its faith firm in the midst of its vicissitudes and indeed in difficulties has made its faith more true. Finally, between the first and the last verse, there is the passage from the present to the future: in the first verse, "The Lord is my light and my salvation" which is the language of faith, that is, of unshakeable trust, while in the last verse, "I am certain to contemplate the goodness of the Lord ... and hope in the Lord, be strong" expresses hope conjugated together with faith in the future. There are ways to comment on this psalm often in the three-year liturgical cycle, so today we will stop at just these two verses: "Your face, Lord, I seek" and "I am certain to contemplate the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living".  First of all, "Your face, Lord, I seek": seeing the face of God is the desire, the thirst of every believer because we are created in the image of God and we are drawn to him, our Creator. The desire to seek his face becomes more intense during Lent. As the Lord told Moses, we cannot see him and remain alive (cf. Ex 33:18-23. In this text, the greatness and inaccessibility of God is present together with all the tender closeness of God, who is so immense that we cannot see him with our eyes. The radiance of his ineffable, inaccessible Presence - what the texts call his glory - is in fact too blinding for us. Can our eyes gaze upon the sun? How then can they look at God? This greatness, however, does not crush man, on the contrary, it protects him, it is his security and the profound respect that invades the believer before God does not arouse fear, but a mixture of total trust and infinite respect that the Bible calls 'fear of God'. This helps us understand the first verse: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?" That is: he who believes is no longer afraid of anything, not even death, and no other god can ever arouse in him that religious feeling of fear, as the next verse reiterates: "The Lord is the defence of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? Confidence that we find again in the last verse: "I am certain to contemplate the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living". But what is the land of the living? Certainly the land given to his people and the possession of which has become for Israel a symbol of God's gifts, but there is also the reminder of the demands of the Covenant: the holy land was given to the chosen people to live in holily. And this is one of the main themes of the book of Deuteronomy (cf. Deut 5:32-33), where the living in the biblical sense are the believers.

*Second Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians (3:17-4:1)

The fundamental question of Christianity and central to human history, as it emerges in the Gospel, in the Acts of the Apostles, in Paul's letters, and which continues to be relevant today, is this: the incarnation, passion, death and resurrection of Christ, which the apostle calls here "the cross of Christ".  If Christ truly died and rose again, the face of the world was changed because he made peace with the blood of his cross. For Paul, the cross of Christ is truly the crucial event for the Christian that changes the way of thinking, reasoning and living. Those who think that the rite of circumcision remains indispensable even now act as if the event of the 'cross of Christ' has not taken place and St Paul calls them the 'enemies of the cross of Christ'. The Philippians may have been hesitant, but St Paul warns them sternly, inviting them to beware of dogs, bad workers and false circumcision (3:2), adding that the (true) circumcised are we, who worship through the Spirit of God by putting our glory in Jesus Christ without trusting in ourselves. He even uses a paradox: the truly circumcised are those who are not circumcised in their flesh, but baptised into Jesus Christ because their whole existence and salvation is in Jesus Christ and they know that they are saved by the cross of Christ and not by ritual practices. False circumcisions, on the other hand, are those who have received circumcision in their flesh, according to the law of Moses, and attach greater importance to this rite than baptism. And when Paul states that "the belly is their god" he is referring precisely to circumcision. Moreover, Paul sees another pitfall in the believer's attitude: is salvation earned by one's own practices or do we receive it freely from God? When he says that the belly is their god, he wants to imply that these people are betting on Jewish ritual practices and they are wrong: "they boast of what they ought to be ashamed of and think only of the things of the earth" for which "their final fate will be perdition".  And he goes on to point out which is the right choice: he reminds the Philippians that our citizenship is in heaven while we await Jesus Christ as saviour, who will transform our poor bodies into the image of his glorious body, with the active power that makes him even able to subject all things to his dominion. If we await him as saviour, it means that we recognise that all our trust is placed in him and not in ourselves and our own merits. We are thus the true circumcision and worship by the Spirit of God, because our glory is placed in Jesus Christ and we do not trust in ourselves. At this point Paul sets himself up as a model since if there was one with merits to be reckoned with under Jewish law, it was he. For he writes that if anyone else believes that he can trust in himself, I can trust even more, I, circumcised on the eighth day, of the seed of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Jew, the son of Jews; by the law, a Pharisee; by zeal, a persecutor of the Church; by the righteousness found in the law, become blameless. Now all these things, which were gains for me, I counted as loss because of Christ (cf. Phil 3:4-7). In summary, to take Paul's example means to make Jesus Christ - and not our practices - the centre of our lives and this means to be 'citizens of heaven'.

*From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (9:28-36)

In chapter nine Luke relates that Jesus, while he was praying in a lonely place, asked the disciples this question: "Who do the crowds say that I am?", then to them: "But who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered: "The Christ (i.e. the Messiah) of God". Jesus then announced the necessity of the sacrifice of the Son of Man rejected by the elders, the high priests and the scribes, put to death but resurrected on the third day. Today's episode seems to take up the same discourse eight days later. Jesus leads Peter, James and John up the mountain because he wants to pray with them again and it is in this context that God chooses to reveal the mystery of the Messiah to these three privileged ones. Here it is no longer men, the crowd or the disciples, who express their opinion, but it is God himself who invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him!" The mountain of the Transfiguration brings to mind Sinai, and Luke chooses a vocabulary that evokes the context of God's revelation on Sinai: the mountain, the cloud, the glory, the resounding voice, the tents. The presence of Moses and Elijah is understandable since Moses spent forty days on Sinai in the presence of God and came down with a face so radiant that it amazed everyone. Elijah, on the other hand, walked for forty days and forty nights to the mountain where God revealed Himself in a totally unexpected way: not in the power of wind, fire, or earthquake, but in the gentle whisper of a gentle breeze. The two Old Testament characters who had the privilege of seeing the glory of God are also present here where the glory of Christ is manifested. Only Luke specifies the content of their conversation with Jesus, that is, they were talking about his exodus that was about to take place in Jerusalem. Luke uses the word exodus because one cannot separate the glory of Christ from the cross and resurrection, which he calls the Passover of Christ. Just as the Passover of Moses inaugurated the Exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the land of freedom, the Passover of Christ opens the path of liberation for all mankind. From the cloud a voice says: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him!". These three words: My Son, the Chosen One, Listen to him, expressed at the time of Christ the diversity of portraits with which the Messiah was imagined. The title of Son of God was conferred on kings on the day of their consecration; the Elect is one of the names of the servant of God mentioned by Isaiah in the Servant Songs: "Behold my servant whom I uphold, my Elect"; Hear him, seems to allude to the promise God made to Moses to raise up a prophet after him: "I will raise up to them a prophet like you from among their brethren; I will put my words in his mouth" (Deut 18:18), and some inferred from this that the expected Messiah would be a prophet. "Listen to him," is not the order of a demanding or domineering teacher, but a plea: Listen to him, that is, trust him. Peter, contemplating the transfigured face of Jesus, proposes to settle on the mountain all together, but Luke specifies that he did not know what he was saying because it is not the case to isolate oneself from the world and its problems since time is short. God's plan is not for a chosen few: Peter, James and John must rather hurry to join the others and work because on the last day, it will be the whole of humanity that will be transfigured. Paul says it in his letter to the Philippians: "we are citizens of heaven".

+Giovanni D’Ercole

Here is a short version for those who wish it 

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

*First Reading from the Book of Genesis (15:5-12, 17-18)

 In the time of Abraham, the covenant between two heads of tribes took place with a ceremonial similar to the one described here: adult animals in the fullness of their strength were sacrificed, torn in two as if to say: may the same happen to me as to these if I am not faithful to the covenant we are making. Furthermore, both contracting parties would walk barefoot through the carcasses thus wanting to share blood, i.e. life, and become like blood relatives. The animals had to be three years old because mothers suckled their children until they were three years old and the number 3 had become a symbol of maturity so that the three-year-old animal was considered an adult. Abraham performs these customary rites for a covenant with God. On the surface, he seems to respect the traditional rites, yet everything is different because for the first time in human history, one of the contracting parties is God himself. Let us first take a closer look at what is similar: Abraham rips the animals in two and places each half in front of the other without, however, dividing the birds because the birds of prey descended on the carcasses and Abraham chased them away considering them birds of ill omen. But there is something unusual: at sunset, Abraham falls into a mysterious sleep accompanied by a dark and deep anguish. The text speaks of a mysterious sleep, a word already used to refer to Adam's sleep while God created the woman, and it is used to say two things: first, man cannot witness God's work and when man awakens (whether Adam or Abraham), a new day, a new creation, begins. Moreover, man and God are not on the same level because in the work of creation and the covenant God takes all the initiative while man only has to trust: Abraham had faith and the Lord considered him righteous. God's presence is symbolised by fire, as is often the case in the Bible: "a smoking brazier and a blazing torch", like the burning bush, the smoke of Sinai, the pillar of fire that accompanied the people during the Exodus in the desert, up to the tongues of fire of Pentecost. These are the terms of the covenant: God promises Abraham a descendant and a land, a promise already made to a childless old man even though until now Abraham has not even seen the shadow of its fulfilment, but continues to trust a God unknown to him. For the first time, the word faith appears in the Bible: it is the irruption of faith into human history. The verb to believe in Hebrew comes from a root meaning to stand firmly: Amen comes from the same root. To believe means to stand firm, to trust to the end, even in doubt, discouragement and anguish. This is Abraham's attitude; and that is why God considers him righteous. The text states: 'Abraham had faith in the Lord, and the Lord considered him righteous'. Later, St Paul will use this phrase to affirm that salvation is not a matter of merit: 'If you believe... you will be saved' (Rom 10:9). On reflection, God gives everything and asks only one thing of us: to trust him. 

*Responsorial Psalm (26 (27),1.7-8.9a-d.13-14)

 This psalm presents such contrasting states of mind that one could almost doubt that it is the same person speaking from beginning to end, but, on reflection, it always expresses the same faith that manifests itself in both exultation and supplication according to the states of mind in which we find ourselves because prayer embraces the whole of human existence. Serenity is born of certainty - "The Lord is my light and my salvation ... he is the defence of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?", together with ardent supplication - "Hear, Lord, my voice. I cry out: have mercy on me, answer me!". In times of joy as well as in times of trial, Israel has always kept its confidence firm and indeed in difficulties has made its faith more true. This psalm returns often in the three-year liturgical cycle, so today we pause only on these two verses: "Your face, Lord, I seek" and "I am certain to contemplate the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living".  To see the face of God is the desire of every believer because we are created in God's image and are drawn to him, but the radiance of his ineffable Presence, which the Bible calls his glory, is too blinding for us. Can our eyes gaze into the sun? How then can they look at God? This greatness, however, does not crush man, on the contrary, it protects him, it is his security and the profound respect that invades the believer before God does not arouse fear, but a mixture of total trust and infinite respect that the Bible calls 'fear of God'. This helps us understand the first verse: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?" That is: the believer is no longer afraid of anything or anyone, not even death, and no other god can ever again arouse in him that religious feeling of fear, as the next verse reiterates: "The Lord is the defence of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? We find trust again in the last verse: 'I am sure to contemplate the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living'. And the living in the biblical sense are the believers.

*Second Reading from the Letter of St Paul to the Philippians (3:17-4:1)

The fundamental question of Christianity and central to the history of humanity, as it emerges in the Gospel, in the Acts of the Apostles, in Paul's letters, and which continues to be relevant today, is this: the incarnation, passion, death and resurrection of Christ, which the Apostle calls here "the cross of Christ".  If Christ truly died and rose again, the face of the world was changed because he made peace with the blood of his cross. For Paul, the cross of Christ is truly the crucial event for the Christian that changes the way of thinking, reasoning and living. Those who thought that the rite of circumcision was also indispensable were acting as if the event of the 'cross of Christ' had not taken place, and St Paul calls them the 'enemies of the cross of Christ'. The Philippians may have been hesitant and St Paul urges them to beware of the false circumcisers (3:2), adding that the truly circumcised are we who place all our trust in Jesus Christ. And he goes so far as to use a paradox: the truly circumcised are those who are not circumcised in their flesh, but baptised into Jesus Christ because their whole existence is in Christ and they know that they are saved by the cross of Christ and not by ritual practices. When Paul states that "the belly is their god" he is referring precisely to circumcision and wants to make it clear that these people are betting on their ritual practices. The right choice is to remember that we are citizens of heaven and await the Lord Jesus Christ as saviour, who will transform our poor bodies into the image of his glorious body. If we await Christ as saviour, it means that we recognise that all our trust is in him and not in ourselves and our own merits. We are thus the circumcised (the true) and worship by the Spirit of God, because our glory is placed in Jesus Christ and we do not trust in ourselves. At this point Paul sets himself up as a model, since if there was one with merit to be reckoned with under Jewish law, it was he. By setting himself as an example he encourages us to make Christ, and not ritual practices, the centre of our lives and if we are in Christ we are already 'citizens of heaven', even though we still dwell on earth. 

*From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (9:28-36)

In chapter nine Luke relates that Jesus, while he was praying in a lonely place, asked the disciples: "Who do the crowds say that I am?", then to them: "But who do you say that I am?" and Peter answered: "The Christ (i.e. the Messiah) of God". And Jesus said: It is necessary that the Son of Man should suffer much, be rejected, put to death, and, on the third day, rise again. Today's episode seems to take up the same discourse eight days later with Jesus leading Peter, James and John up the mountain because he wants to pray with them again, and in this context God chooses to reveal to these three privileged ones the mystery of the Messiah. Here it is no longer men, the crowd or the disciples, who express their opinion, but it is God himself who provides the answer and invites us to contemplate the mystery of Christ: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him!" The mountain of the Transfiguration brings to mind Sinai, and Luke chooses a vocabulary that evokes the context of God's revelation on Sinai: the mountain, the cloud, the glory, the resounding voice, the tents. Understandable is the presence of Moses and Elijah, the two Old Testament characters who had the privilege of the revelation of God's glory and are now witnesses of Christ's glory. Only Luke specifies the content of their conversation with Jesus, that is, they were talking about his exodus that was about to take place in Jerusalem. Luke uses the word exodus because one cannot separate the glory of Christ from the Cross, and he uses it referring to the Passover of Christ. Just as the Passover of Moses inaugurated the Exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the land of freedom, the Passover of Christ opens the path of liberation for all mankind. Everything hinges on three words that expressed the different conceptions of the Messiah at the time of Christ: "This is my Son, the chosen one; listen to him!" The title Son of God was bestowed on kings on the day of their consecration; the Elect is one of the names of the servant of God mentioned by Isaiah in the Servant Songs: "This is my servant whom I uphold, my Elect"; Hear him seems to allude to the promise God made to Moses to raise up a prophet after him (Deut 18:18), and some inferred that the expected Messiah would be a prophet. Listen to him! This is not the order of a demanding or domineering teacher, but a plea: Listen to him, that is, trust him. Peter, amazed by the transfigured face of Jesus, proposes to settle on the mountain all together, but Luke specifies that Peter did not know what he was saying because it is not the case to isolate oneself from the world and its problems since time is short. Rather, Peter, James and John must hurry to join the others because God's plan is not limited to a chosen few: on the last day, it will be the whole of humanity that will be transfigured. St Paul in his letter to the Philippians said that "we are citizens of heaven", because through baptism we are already in eternal life even though we are still pilgrimage on earth.

+Giovanni D’Ercole

Reflections on the religious sense.

This reflection also stems from a dialogue with a gentleman of about my age.

This well known and respected gentleman in his village met an old acquaintance of his and was rebuked by the latter because he did not attend religious services; according to her, he should have done so for his own good. The gentleman replied that he did not feel this need and that it did not seem to him that his behaviour might offend the generally understood religious sense. 

Discussions like this occur often among human beings, this is nothing new. I report it because it made me reflect on the religious sense in human life. The topic touches on several disciplines and is complex.     

Studies by Fiorenzo Facchini say that various behaviours of prehistoric man are read in a religious sense. Our ancestors gave burials to their dead and painted representations on the walls.      

These caves had something sacred about them. Religious manifestations of antiquity were songs and dances.

In all religions we find a need for reassurance about our lives and also the need to find magical answers to our problems.

Bettelheim argues that on an individual level and especially in childhood, religion can provide that basis of stability and security with which the child can evolve towards autonomy.

The society in which we live forces us to run, to be in step with the times; it wants to give us its values.

Today there is the fashion of the ephemeral, of competitiveness - and so it is psychologically reassuring to believe in a 'mother-environment' that loves us, or to be within a design that gives meaning to our lives.

Unlike Freud who did not have a positive view, or the philosopher Charles Marx who claimed that religion is the opium of the people, Jung in the eleventh volume "Psychology and Religion" says verbatim:

"Since' religion is indisputably one of the first and universal expressions of the human soul [...] it is not only a sociological or historical phenomenon, but an important personal matter" (vol.XI, p.15).

In my long professional practice I have often encountered people who have had to come to terms with this issue.

The therapist's task is not to condition the other, but to clarify the underlying dynamics.

I have met people who described themselves as non-believers but who on an unconscious level had to come to terms with their dreams. Or individuals who belonged to different religions that were so rigid that they inhibited their vital sense.

In all these cases, knowledge of the human soul grew, whether they claimed to be religious or not. We are not discussing each person's philosophical position.

There were differences between the person who called himself religious and one who was not.

I would like to point out that these differences do not constitute value judgements, but only behavioural characteristics.

The religious person believes that there is a reality that is sacred and beyond this world - and that his existence is enhanced according to his belief.

He who called himself a non-believer rejected transcendence, was one who is self-made and believes that he alone constructs his own destiny.

A constant concern was to deny any reference or wisecrack that was made to religious topics.

I have even met someone who was more concerned about what my beliefs were than his personal problems. I always replied that my sphere of action was the psyche in all its manifestations. Beyond any manifestation sacred or not, respect for the person is already a sacred attitude.

"To 'desacralise' oneself completely is not easy either, as it is difficult to deny history altogether - both for those who believe in creation and those who believe in evolution.

Who knows whether evolution includes a creation?

Dr Francesco Giovannozzi Psychologist-psychotherapist 

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us! 

First Sunday in Lent (year C) 9 March 2025 

*First Reading from the Book of Deuteronomy (26:4 - 10)

Moses orders an offering gesture, as is the case in all religions, but for Israel it is a real profession of faith: "He shall take the basket from your hands and place it before the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall speak these words". Then follows a whole discourse on God's work for his people, which could be summed up in a simple sentence: everything we have, everything we are, is a gift from God. This is the great novelty of the entire Bible, especially of the book of Deuteronomy. If in religions the rite of offering is a gesture of asking the deities for benefits that they possess, for Israel there is a reversal of the meaning of the rite because this offering is an act of gratitude. To offer gifts is not to grant God something that belongs to us, but to recognise that everything is His gift and we do not present ourselves to Him with hands full of our own riches; rather, we recognise that without Him our hands would remain empty. In this spirit, bringing one's offerings becomes a gesture of remembrance. The book of Deuteronomy insists on this practice perhaps because the people seemed to have partly forgotten God and His benefits. In the desert, Israel had well understood that its survival depended on God and Him alone. However, having arrived in the Promised Land (the land of Canaan, the Israel of today) they ran the risk of forgetting the true God as there were widespread cults of the local Baal-worshipping peoples and the serious risk of contamination by idolatry posed a threat to the true faith. The prophets always sought to maintain fidelity to the Sinai Covenant (cf. Ex 20:2), repeating that there is only one God, the God of Moses, who delivered his people from the hand of the Egyptians, accompanied them throughout their history and, finally, gave them the promised land. It seems that the concern of our text is to preserve the memory of what God has accomplished and, indeed, the book of Deuteronomy could be called the book of memory. The rite of the offering of the firstfruits is therefore above all a gesture of remembrance, accompanied by the enumeration of the works performed by God on behalf of his people. The word 'firstfruits' contains the idea of 'first', the first fruits of the new harvest, the first sheaves of wheat, the first bunches of grapes, the first born of the new litter. All of this constitutes the beginning and the promise: by weighing the first sheaf, the first bunch, one could tell if the harvest would be abundant, and the ritual of offering already existed in the days of Cain and Abel to obtain the blessings of divinity. Moses had transformed its meaning: from then on, everything was lived in function of the Covenant and that is why one understands the discourse that accompanies the offering. One does not ask God for benefits for the future, but acknowledges the benefits one has had since Abraham's call, and the rite becomes a profession of faith that constitutes a summary of Israel's history: "My father was a wandering Aramean...". It all began with Abraham, the Aramean chosen by God to become the father of the people of the Covenant: a "wandering" nomad in the sense that, before his call by God, he had not yet discovered the one God, wandering therefore in a spiritual sense. The following sentence "My father was a wandering Aramean, who went down to Egypt" no longer refers to Abraham, the progenitor, but to his descendant Jacob: he and his sons settled in Egypt. The whole story follows, up to the entry into the promised land. At this point, the gesture of the offering takes on its full meaning: by offering the first sheaf, the first cluster, it is as if one were presenting the entire harvest to God.  The offertory in the Mass has the same meaning: to recognise that everything is God's gift: "Blessed are you, Lord, God of the universe, from your goodness we have received these gifts: from your goodness we prepare and offer gifts to God that are not ours but his.

 * Responsorial Psalm 90 (91) 1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15

The psalm is presented as a dialogue with three voices.  Israel says: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will spend the night in the shadow of the Almighty. I say to the Lord: 'My refuge my fortress, my God in whom I trust'. The priests at the entrance to the Temple proclaim: "No misfortune shall befall you, no blow shall fall on your tent". Finally, God himself intervenes: "I will deliver him, for to me he has bound himself; I will put him in safety, for he has known my name."  In the first verses, if one pays attention, four different names are given to God: the Most High (Elyôn), the Almighty (El Shaddai), the Lord (YHWH) and finally God (Elohim). The deities of other peoples use three of these names: the Most High, the Almighty and Elohim. Israel uses these common terms to designate its God, but is the only people in the world who can call him by the fourth, the famous Name revealed to Moses in the burning bush: YHWH. As God himself says in the book of Exodus: "I revealed myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty (El Shaddai), but by my name, YHWH, I did not make myself known to them" (Ex 6:3). These first verses develop the theme of the believer's security with the embrace of the Most High in the shadow of the Almighty.  In the language of the psalms, the embrace of the Most High recalls the Temple of Jerusalem and the shadow is that of the wings of the statues of the cherubim above the ark of the covenant. However, there is also an allusion to God's protective presence throughout the Exodus. As exegetes note, the "wings" recall those of the eagle that encourages the first flights of its young (Deut 32:10-11; cf. Ex 19:4). And the angel Gabriel will say to the Virgin of Nazareth: "The power of the Most High will spread its shadow over you" (Lk 1:35). The terms "my refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust" express a profession of faith and indicate a resolution against idolatry that always demands a commitment not to abandon the embrace of the Most High. Jesus is the one who never ceases to take refuge in God, as we see today in the gospel of Jesus' temptations. In short, the fight against idolatry is a theme that runs throughout the Bible and is a central point in the preaching of the prophets. Even in our time, there is food for thought because idolatry takes on different and ever new faces. Two stanzas follow in the psalm, which are a kind of catechesis addressed by the priests to every pilgrim in the Temple of Jerusalem: "no misfortune shall befall you, no blow shall fall on your tent" if you remain under the shadow of the Most High, for he will give orders to his angels to guard you in all your ways. Thou shalt tread upon lions and vipers, thou shalt crush lions and dragons. The message is twofold: certain is the victory - you shall trample down lions and dragons - and guaranteeing it is God who will never cease to protect his people who will give orders to his angels to guard all the pilgrim's steps, indeed they will carry him with their hands, so that his foot will not stumble over stones. At the end, in the last verse, God speaks: 'I will deliver him, for to me he has bound himself; I will make him safe, for he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him" Note the final verse "in distress I will be with him, I will deliver him and make him glorious" which shows how Israel understood that God does not remove every trial with a magic blow, but is "with" us in difficulty and trial. In distress, 'I will be with him' is exactly the meaning of the name 'Emmanuel', which means God-with-us. Proposed at the beginning of Lent, this psalm invites us to find refuge in the embrace of the Most High, attending the liturgy in our churches where there is no longer the ark of the Covenant, nor the two statues of the cherubim - those winged beings with the head of a man and the body of a lion, whose wings joined together formed a throne for God -, but something much greater: the Presence of the Holy Trinity

* Second reading from the Epistle of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Romans (10:8-13)

St Paul makes an important point: whether you are Jews or pagans there is no difference because what you have in common is that you are Christians and you all invoke the same Lord, generous to those who seek him. The problem existed in Rome as elsewhere and the question was whether Jews and pagans should be treated equally. Although Paul wanted all Jews to accept Jesus as the Messiah, nevertheless only a minority of the Jewish people adhered to Jesus Christ, while it was the pagans who constituted the largest part of the Christian communities. One understands then that the coexistence of Christians of such different origins, Jewish or pagan, posed quite a few difficulties and endless discussions arose on issues such as the Law, circumcision and dietary rules. The problem was deeper as some Jewish converts to Christianity reluctantly accepted the entry of what they called 'the uncircumcised', Israel being the chosen people from whom the Messiah would be born.  The question was: is not accepting the non-Jews a betrayal of the Covenant and the election of the Jewish people? For Paul to prevent the Gentiles from receiving baptism meant that Jesus only saves the Jews, whereas in the Old Testament the prophet Joel had already said of the Messiah: "I will pour out my Spirit on every man. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your elders will dream dreams, your young men will have visions. On the servants and maidservants also will I pour out my Spirit in those days... Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Gl 3:1-5). Moreover, Paul's contemporaries found it strange that to be saved it was enough to invoke the name of Jesus while they believed one had to be circumcised and scrupulously observe the Law. The Apostle responds that since Jesus Christ is Lord (God), henceforth anyone who invokes him is saved as Christ himself told Nicodemus: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life," specifying precisely: "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." (Jn 3:16-17) and the term "world" clearly means "all mankind". The Apostle does not hesitate to repeat: "If with your mouth you proclaim, "Jesus is Lord!", and with your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to obtain righteousness, and with the mouth one makes the profession of faith to obtain salvation'.  In the Old Testament, 'to obtain righteousness' and 'to be saved' meant the same thing.  Moreover, the verb 'to believe' does not here have the sense of a personal opinion, and the parallel between 'mouth' and 'heart' on which he insists indicates that faith is a deep and total commitment of the person. Thus, according to Paul, what we read in the book of Deuteronomy is fulfilled: "This word is very near you: it is in your mouth and in your heart." While Deuteronomy speaks of the Law to be observed, now this word is the message of faith in Jesus Christ, and Paul reminds those who have received baptism: salvation is freely given to us by God without any merit of our own; we only have to accept it with faith and freedom: "If with your mouth you proclaim that Jesus is Lord, and if with your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. With the heart one believes to obtain righteousness, with the mouth one makes profession of faith to obtain salvation

* From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (4:1 - 13)

If we read this Gospel page in the light of today's responsorial psalm, we recognise the inner attitude with which Jesus began his public mission: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will spend the night in the shadow of the Almighty. I say to the Lord: My refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust'.  Jesus places himself in the shadow of the Most High, while temptation drives him to leave this refuge, to doubt his security and to seek shelter and security elsewhere: these are precisely the three temptations that have always marked the history of Israel and also our lives. The devil - in Greek 'diabolos', that is, he who divides - tempts him by instilling doubt and distrust. If you truly are the Son of God, you can do whatever you want and are able to provide for your own happiness. Tell this stone that it may become bread and so satiate your hunger immediately after such a long fast (first temptation); adore me and you will surely be able to realise all your plans and projects (second temptation). Finally, "if thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written: "To his angels he will give orders concerning thee that they may guard thee"; and "they will carry thee on their hands that thy foot may not stumble over a stone (third temptation). Jesus, however, does not give in to satanic enticements because he is certain that only God satisfies man's true hunger and he has chosen to trust, in other words, to dwell in the shelter of the Most High, as the psalm says. In more detail in the first temptation, when the Tempter provokes him Jesus replies: "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone', an expression known to all the Jewish people because it is contained in chapter 8 of Deuteronomy, as a meditation on Israel's experience during the exodus under the leadership of Moses: "Remember all the way that the Lord your God made you walk these forty years in the wilderness...He made you experience hunger, then He fed you with manna that neither you nor your fathers knew, to make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord." (Deut 8:2-3). The people know from experience what the blessedness of poverty means: Blessed are those who hunger, for they trust only in God to be filled, and Deuteronomy continues: "Acknowledge therefore in your heart that the Lord your God was educating you as a man educates his son." (Deut 8:5). In this way the Son of God, who now begins to lead his people, relives in his flesh the experience of Israel in the wilderness. In other words, when the Tempter challenges Jesus saying: "If you are the Son of God, prove it!", his answer is clear: My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to do his works, as he will say to the disciples in the encounter with the Samaritan woman (cf. Jn 4:32-34). In the second temptation, to the Tempter who promises him all the kingdoms of the earth, Jesus replies: "The Lord your God you shall worship: to him alone you shall render worship", quoting this text among the best known of the Old Testament, which follows the Shema Israel, the Jewish profession of faith (Dt 6:10-13). In the third temptation, the devil provokes Jesus to throw himself down being the Son of God, for it is written that angels will come to guard him by carrying him on their hands, but he replies: "It has been said, 'You shall not test the Lord your God (Deut 6:16). Christ knows that he is always in the shelter of the Most High, no matter what happens. Faced with the provocations of the Tempter, Jesus draws from the word of God the strength to resist those who want to separate him from the Father; he never argues with him and his three answers are exclusively quotations from Scripture. In this he shows himself to be the authentic heir of his people and the phrase from Deuteronomy, taken up by St Paul in the Letter to the Romans (see the second reading), applies to him: "The Word is near you, it is on your lips and in your heart." (Deut 30:14). The three answers refer to the book of Deuteronomy, written precisely to remind the Israelites that God is their Father. Jesus, in his life, retraces the experience of his people in the desert, from Baptism, where he is revealed as the Son, to Gethsemane where the Tempter will return for the final attack. We read at the end of our text: "After he had exhausted all temptation, the devil departed from him until the opportune moment, but Jesus will always remain under the shadow of the Most High and, with this episode, Luke shows that Jesus is the only true model to follow.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

God bless us and may the Virgin protect us.

Here is the commentary for the Ash Wednesday readings

5 March 2025  (year C)

The liturgy of Ash Wednesday, which opens Lent, was once marked by the beginning of public penance today and the start of the last stretch of the formation of catechumens, who prepared to receive baptism at the Easter Vigil. Symbolising the call to prayer and conversion of heart, which proclaims the texts of Holy Scripture, is the rite of ashes, a sign of penance and conversion.  It is an 'austere symbol' with which we begin the spiritual journey of Lent, recognising that our body, formed from dust, will return to dust, and therefore we are invited to make our existence a sacrifice God in union with the death of Christ Jesus. What illuminates Ash Wednesday and the whole of Lent is the event of the Resurrection of Jesus, which we will celebrate with renewed hope in this Jubilee year. Ash Wednesday is a day of penance, fasting and almsgiving, which is to be understood as sharing what we are and what we possess with our brothers and sisters for the glory of God. This requires the courage to give up something that costs us in order to live Lent as a time of true inner purification. 

*First Reading from the Book of the Prophet Joel (Gl 2:12-18) 

Return to the Lord with all your heart! This is the invitation that the prophet Joel issues to us today. His book is very short (it contains a total of seventy-three verses divided into four chapters) and is set around the year 600 BC, i.e. just before the exile in Babylon. There are three constantly intertwining themes: the prospect of terrible scourges, heartfelt appeals to fasting and conversion, and the proclamation of God's salvation. Today it is the second theme that the liturgy proposes to us at the beginning of Lent. The solemn call to conversion urges us to take seriously what follows, namely the invitation: 'Return to me', and the people respond and plead: 'Forgive, Lord, your people and do not expose your inheritance to the mockery and derision of the nations. The prophets always teach not to be satisfied with outward manifestations and Joel also does not fail to emphasise this: 'Tear your hearts and not your garments and return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful'.  This is what Isaiah says: 'Though you multiply your prayers, I do not listen: your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, purify yourselves. Turn away from my eyes your evil deeds, cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice..." (Is 1:14-17). And Psalm 50/51 comments 'The sacrifice that pleases God is a contrite spirit; a sorrowful and humiliated heart, O God, you do not despise it'. The prophet Ezekiel helps us to understand what the psalmist means: that we must break our hearts of stone so that the heart of flesh may emerge, and the prophet Joel follows this line when he calls for tearing hearts and not garments in order to escape a deserved punishment. For he writes: "who knows that God will not change and repent and leave behind him a blessing?" And he concludes by announcing that forgiveness has already been granted. The liturgical translation says: "The Lord shows jealousy for his land" having had pity on his people, but God's mercy is destined for all men, and this is precisely the message we find in the book of Jonah very similar to that of Joel. In fact, Jonah narrates the conversion of Nineveh, the pagan city that had gone a day's journey proclaiming: 'Forty days more and Nineveh will be destroyed', and the inhabitants immediately believed in God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed themselves in sackcloth, great and small. Even the king of Nineveh laid down his royal mantle, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down on the ashes, and then proclaimed a state of alertness and had everyone in Nineveh cover themselves with sackcloth and call upon God mightily. God saw their conversion and lifted the chastisement he had threatened to inflict (Gen 3:4-10). The secret is that God is overflowing with zeal and love, as Joel reminds us, for all men, and St Paul will say: 'God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us' (Rom 5:8).

*Responsorial Psalm (50 (51).  Forgive us, Lord: we have sinned

Let us also join the people of Israel gathered in the Temple of Jerusalem for a great penitential celebration. They know that they are full of sins, but they know from experience that God's mercy is inexhaustible and so they ask for forgiveness with the certainty of being heard. This was precisely King David's discovery after he sinned with Bathsheba, wife of an officer, Uriah, who was at war at the time. Bathsheba let David know that she was pregnant by him, and David arranged for her betrayed husband to die in battle so that he could take the woman and the child she was carrying for himself for good. The prophet Nathan did not immediately try to make David admit his sin, but first reminded him of God's many gifts and announced forgiveness before David even had time to confess his guilt (cf. 2 Samuel 12). In addition to all the gifts and privileges that God had bestowed upon him, he also added that the Lord was ready to grant him whatever he wished. Throughout history, Israel had occasion to record that God is indeed "the merciful and gracious Lord, slow to anger, rich in faithfulness and loyalty", as he had revealed to Moses in the wilderness (Ex 34:6). The prophets also reiterated this message, and the verses of Psalm 50/51 are full of it. Isaiah, for example, says: "I, I alone blot out your sins for my own sake, and I remember your sins no more" (Isaiah 43:25). The announcement of God's free forgiveness always surprises us: it almost seems too good to be true. For some, it may even seem unfair: if everything is forgivable, why strive to live well? But this means forgetting that we all, without exception, need God's mercy and he surprises us, because, as Isaiah says, God's thoughts are not our thoughts. And it is precisely in forgiveness that God surprises us the most. Let us think of the Gospel parable of the labourers of the last hour: "Can I not do with my things what I will? Or are you jealous because I am good?" (cf. Mt 20:15), to that of the prodigal son (Lk 15): when the ungrateful son returns to his father, animated by motives that are anything but noble, Jesus puts a phrase from Psalm 50 on his lips: "Against you, against you alone have I sinned". And with this single phrase, the broken bond is reconnected. Faced with the ever new proclamation of God's mercy, the people of Israel, who in the Psalms speak for us all, recognise themselves as sinners. Its repentance is not detailed, it never is in the penitential Psalms, but expresses everything in a simple plea: 'Have mercy on me, O God, in your love; in your great mercy blot out my iniquity. Wash me all from my guilt, from my sin make me pure". And God, who is all mercy, attracted by man's misery, waits for nothing more than this humble confession of our poverty. And it is useful to remember that 'mercy' has the same root as 'almsgiving' and this reminds us that we are beggars of love and forgiveness before God. What to do then: give thanks and forgive. Give thanks for the forgiveness that God continually offers us. In every penitential celebration, the most important prayer is the recognition of God's gifts and forgiveness. First of all, we must contemplate God himself, and only then can we acknowledge ourselves as sinners. The Rite of Reconciliation clearly states that we confess God's love along with our sin, and praise will spring spontaneously from our lips: "Lord, open my lips and my mouth will proclaim your praise" (this is the phrase that opens the Liturgy of the Hours, every morning and is taken from Psalm 50/51) in which we are reminded that praise and gratitude will only arise in us if God opens our hearts and lips. And the second step that God expects of us and constitutes the ascetic programme of our whole life is the commitment to forgive in our turn, without delay or conditions. 

*Second Reading from St Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians (5:20-6:2) 

"Be reconciled to God"! Paul speaks of reconciliation well aware of the breaking of the covenant between God and his people. In the Old Testament, the people knew that God is not at odds with mankind, as Psalm 102/103 clearly expresses: 'The Lord is not always quarrelling, he does not retain his wrath forever; he does not treat us according to our sins, he does not repay us according to our faults... As far as the east is from the west, so he turns away from us our faults... He knows of what we are made, he remembers that we are dust.  Similarly, we read in Isaiah: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, who will have mercy on him, to our God, who forgives abundantly" (Isaiah 55: 7), and in the Book of Wisdom: "You have compassion on all, for you can do all things, and you shut your eyes to the sins of men, waiting for their repentance... Your sovereignty over all makes you forgiving to all" (Wisdom 11: 23; 12: 16). David had this experience when he slew Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, and God sent him the prophet Nathan who, in essence, said to him: All that you have, I have given you; and if it were not yet enough, I would be ready to give you again all that you desire. God was not even unaware that Solomon had obtained the throne by eliminating his rivals, yet he heard his prayer at Gibeon and granted his requests far beyond what the young king had dared to ask for (1 Kings 3). But there is more: God's very Name, 'Merciful', means that he loves us the more miserable we are. Therefore, God is not in dispute with man. Yet Paul speaks of reconciliation, because from the beginning of the world (Paul says 'from Adam', but it is the same thing), it is man who is in conflict with God. The Genesis account (Gen 2-3) attributes the origin of this accusation against God to the serpent because he is jealous of man and does not want his good: "God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen 3:4) The Bible implies that this suspicion is not natural in man - it is the voice of the serpent, and therefore can be cured. This is precisely what St Paul says: 'Brothers, we, in the name of Christ, are ambassadors: through us it is God himself who exhorts. We beseech you in the name of Christ: be reconciled to God'. And what has God done to remove this distrust from our hearts? The apostle continues: "He who knew no sin, God made sin for our sake" (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus did not know sin; on the contrary, as we read in the letter to the Philippians, Jesus made himself obedient (Phil 2:8), and always remained confident, even in suffering and death. That is why he teaches men this trust and reveals that Di is all love and forgiveness: he is Mercy. By an unbelievable paradox, because of this revelation Jesus was considered a blasphemer, treated as a sinner and executed as a cursed man (cf. Deut 21:23). The hatred and blindness of men came upon him and the Father let it happen, because this was the only way for us to experience first hand how far "the Lord is jealous for his land and moves with compassion for his people" as the prophet Joel states. Jesus faced the sin of men, violence, hatred, the rejection of a God who is Love, and on the cross he appears how far the horror of human sin reaches and how far the gentleness and forgiveness of God reaches. And it is precisely from this contemplation that our conversion, what Paul calls 'justification', can arise. "They will turn their eyes to him whom they have pierced," we read in the book of the prophet Zechariah (Zech 12:10), taken up by John (Jn 19:37). In the dying Jesus who forgives his executioners, we discover the very face of God ("He who has seen me has seen the Father" Jn 14:9) and, thanks to him, we are reconciled by God. The task of the baptised is to proclaim and bear witness to this love, in the school of Paul who cries out: "We are ambassadors of Christ", a mission that involves each one of us. This short text closes with a quotation from the prophet Isaiah "At the favourable time I have heard you

and on the day of salvation I have succoured you" who spoke to the exiles in Babylon, announcing to them that the hour of salvation had come. While Israel had to announce deliverance, because false images of God imprison the hearts of men, Jesus Christ entrusted his Church with the mission of announcing the remission of sins to the world.

*From the Gospel according to Matthew (6:1-6. 16-18)

Today's Gospel contains two short excerpts from the Sermon on the Mount, which occupies chapters 5-7 of Matthew's Gospel. The whole discourse revolves around a central core that is the Lord's Prayer (Mt 6:9-13), the prayer that gives meaning to everything else. This indicates that the exhortations given here are not mere moral advice, but lead to the heart of faith, and the message is as follows: all our actions must be rooted in the discovery that God is Father. Prayer, almsgiving and fasting are therefore not just religious practices, but paths to bring us closer to God-the-Father: Fasting means learning to shift the centre away from ourselves, and with prayer we centre our lives on God, while almsgiving opens our hearts to our brothers and sisters. Three times Jesus uses expressions that invite us not to be like those who love to show off. Religious practices were certainly of great importance in the Jewish society of the time and the risk was to place too much value on outward displays as some did. Matthew recalls Jesus' rebukes to those who cared more about the length of their fringes than about mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:5ff). Here, Jesus invites his disciples to a true inner purification because to be truly righteous one must avoid acting in front of men in order to be admired by them. Righteousness was a fundamental theme for believers and in the Beatitudes, Jesus mentions it twice: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." (Mt 5:6) "Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Mt 5:10) But in biblical language, true justice does not consist in accumulating religious practices, however noble they may be. True righteousness is to be in harmony with God's plan as we already read in Genesis: "Abraham believed the Lord, and therefore the Lord counted him righteous." (Gen 15:6). Therefore, not a righteousness that is self-righteousness, but a deep harmony and agreement with God.  Prayer, fasting, almsgiving become three ways to live justice: In prayer, we allow God to mould us according to his plan: "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. "And precisely for this reason, Jesus recommends: "When you pray, do not waste words as the pagans do; your Father knows what you need even before you ask him. (Mt 6:7-8) Fasting is along the same lines: it frees us from the illusion of what we believe is essential to be happy, but which often ends up imprisoning us. Jesus himself, fasting in the desert, answered Satan: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Mt 4:4) Almsgiving is the fruit of our walk of righteousness, because it makes us merciful. It is no coincidence that the Greek word for almsgiving comes from the same root as eleison ("have mercy") and to give alms means to open one's heart to compassion. Since God loves all his children, there can be no true justice without social justice. And we see this clearly in the Last Judgement: "Come, ye blessed of my Father... For I was hungry and you gave me food... "And at the end: "The righteous shall go to eternal life. (Mt 25:31-46). Ultimately those who flaunt are at odds with true righteousness because they display a subtle form of spiritual selfishness, a way of remaining self-centred. And the real tragedy is that this attitude closes our hearts to the Spirit's sanctifying action.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (year C)  March 2nd, 2025

 God bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

*First Reading from the Book of Sirach (27:4-7)

 This is a book of the Bible that has had a rather eventful journey. To begin with, it bears three names: Ben Sira the Wise, Sirach, and Ecclesiasticus. Sirach or Ben Sira are two similar names, both related to his family name. "Ben" means "son of", so the author is the son of Sira. At the end of the book, he signs himself 'Jesus, son of Sira', which offers a further indication, since Jesus is a typically Jewish name. It is therefore a Jew from Jerusalem writing in Hebrew, and the title 'the Wise' makes it clear that this is neither a historical nor a prophetic book, but one of those books called 'sapiential'. It is called Ecclesiastical because in the first centuries of Christianity, the Church made the newly baptised read this book to complete their moral education. The book was written by Ben Sira in Jerusalem in Hebrew around 180 B.C., translated into Greek some fifty years later, around 130 B.C. by his own nephew in Alexandria. In the Bible, Sirach occupies a special place: it belongs to the books called 'deuterocanonical'. In fact, when at the end of the first century A.D. the doctors of the law definitively established the official list of writings considered part of the Bible, not all the books circulating in Israel were included. Some texts were recognised by all as the Word of God - for example, the Book of Genesis or Exodus. But for some more recent texts, the question remained open. Sirach was among them and was eventually excluded because to enter the official canon of the Hebrew Bible, a book had to be written in Hebrew and written in the land of Israel. But at the time the canon was established (late 1st century AD), the Hebrew original of Sirach was lost and only the Greek translation circulated in Alexandria. For this reason, the book was not accepted by the Jewish communities in the land of Israel. However, in the Jewish communities of the diaspora (especially in Alexandria), it was already considered part of the Bible, so it continued to be recognised.

The Christian community, on the other hand, received it through the Greek-speaking communities, and thus Sirach became part of the Christian biblical canon.  The author, Ben Sira, may have founded a school of wisdom in Jerusalem and this is deduced from the last chapters of the book, which appear to be a collection of teachings for young Jewish students, apprentice philosophers, in Jerusalem around 180 BC.  

Jerusalem at that time was under Greek rule, but the occupation was relatively liberal and peaceful as persecution began later, under Antiochus Epiphanes, around 165 BC. However, although the Greek power respected the Jewish religion, the contact between the two cultures endangered the purity of the faith.

This excessive cultural openness could lead to dangerous syncretism, a problem similar to that of our time: we live in an age of tolerance that can easily turn into religious indifference. Is it not true that today we are like in a supermarket of ideas and values, where everyone takes what they prefer and this even seems logical and to be accepted as the best choice?  One of Ben Sira's goals was to convey the Jewish faith in its integrity, in particular the love for God's Law (Torah). According to him, true wisdom resided in the Law of Israel. Israel had to preserve its identity and faith in order to keep alive the teaching of the Fathers in faith and purity of customs, and these were considered to be the fundamental principles for the survival of the chosen people. 

Coming to the content, the book is like a collection of sayings and proverbs that are interesting but not always immediately understandable to us, because they use images and sayings belonging to another culture. In today's text, Ben Sira uses three images that were very common at the time. If gold is passed through a sieve, the slag is evident; when a pot is baked in the oven, one can immediately see if it has been well worked, and a healthy tree produces good fruit. So then, just as the sieve separates the gold from the impurities, the fire of the oven reveals the qualities of the pot and from the fruit we can tell whether the tree is healthy or diseased, so our words reveal the true nature of our heart because only a good heart will speak good words. About two hundred years later, Jesus teaches the same thing as we read in this Sunday's gospel: "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil: for his mouth expresses that which out of his heart overflows" (Lk 6:45). Our words are the mirror of our heart.

*Responsorial Psalm (91 (92), 2-3. 13-14. 15-16)

Israel accused God of deception in the Sinai desert when dehydration threatened men and animals: the famous episode of Massa and Meriba (Ex 17:1-7).  God, however, proved greater than the wrath of his people: he caused water to spring from a rock. Since then, God has been called our rock as a reminder of his faithfulness, steadier than all the suspicions of the people. From this rock Israel drew the water of its survival... but more importantly, over the centuries, it became the source of its faith and trust. This concept is expressed at the end of the psalm: 'to proclaim how righteous is the Lord, my rock'. The reference to the rock recalls the experience of the desert and the faithfulness of God, stronger than any rebellion. The expression "your love and your faithfulness" (v. 3) also recalls the experience of the desert: they are the words that God himself used to reveal himself to his people: "The Lord God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, rich in faithfulness and loyalty..." an expression taken up many times in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, as a sign of the Covenant between God and his people: "God of love and faithfulness, slow to anger and rich in mercy" (Ex 34:6).  The episode of Massa and Meriba - the trial in the wilderness, the people's suspicion, God's intervention - was repeated so often that Israel ended up realising that it was a constant risk: man is always tempted to be suspicious of God when things do not go as he wishes. The Garden of Eden story helps to understand this important lesson: the cunning serpent manages to convince the progenitors that it is God who is deceiving them. In fact, he misrepresents God's thinking by claiming that he forbids them the best fruits under the guise of protecting them when in fact it is the opposite and Adam and Eve allow themselves to be deceived. Unfortunately, it is a story that repeats itself throughout history and how is it possible to avoid demonic deception? This psalm helps us by suggesting that we should have confidence: "It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing to your name, O Most High, to proclaim in the morning your love, your faithfulness through the night. It is indeed good for us to praise the Lord and sing to his name, and Israel understood that praising, singing to God is good for man himself. St Augustine said it clearly: "Everything that man does for God, benefits man and not God." Singing for God, opening our eyes to his love and faithfulness, day and night, protects us from the wiles of the serpent. In this psalm, the expression "it is good" corresponds to the Hebrew term "tôv", the same used to say "good to eat", but to know it, one must have experienced it, and that is why the psalm adds in verse 7 (which we do not read today): "The foolish man does not know them and the foolish man does not understand", but the believer knows "how righteous is the Lord, my rock: in him there is no wickedness".  Only an unshakeable trust in God's love can illuminate man's life in all circumstances, while distrust and suspicion completely distort our view of reality. To be suspicious of God is a deadly trap. He who trusts in God is like a tree that is always green, always maintaining its sap and freshness (cf. Psalm 1). Jesus spoke of "living water" taking up an image familiar to the people of the time. Not only is it good for ourselves to praise and sing God's love, but it is also good for others to hear it from us. For this purpose, the psalm repeats at the beginning and end: 'It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing to your name, O Most High, and to proclaim your love'. "To proclaim" means to proclaim to others, to unbelievers: once again, Israel recalls its mission as a witness to God's love for all men. To conclude, I note that this psalm bears a heading: 'Psalm for the Sabbath day', the day par excellence on which God's love and faithfulness are sung. One could make this psalm the psalm for Sunday, because for us Sunday is the celebration of God's love and faithfulness which in Jesus Christ have been manifested in a definitive way. 

*Second Reading from the First Letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:54-58)

 For several weeks now we have been reading chapter 15 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, which is a long reflection on the Resurrection. Today Paul concludes his meditation with a cry of triumph: 'Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (v 57). It is the victory of the Resurrection because, as he writes, what is corruptible in us will become incorruptible, what is mortal will clothe immortality (v 53): immortality, incorruptibility are God's prerogatives. Only in this way will we become in the image and likeness of God, according to the original plan announced and realised throughout the entire itinerary of the Bible, with humanity's many failures and God's continuous interventions to save his plan of love. It is the plan of salvation: that is, God saves us in order to be truly happy and accomplishes it through various stages that the letter to the Ephesians summarises as follows: "making known to us the mystery of his will, according to the kindness which in him he had purposed for the government of the fullness of time: to bring all things, those in heaven and those on earth, back to Christ, the one head". (Eph 1:9-10). In creating humanity, the Lord had the plan to make it happy, united, filled with the Spirit of God, admitted to share in the life of the Trinity. A plan that has never failed and subsists forever because the designs of God's heart endure from generation to generation (cf. Ps 32/33). This is noted by the prophet Isaiah: "My plan shall endure and all that pleases me I will fulfil" (Is 46:1) and also Jeremiah: "I know the plans I have made for you - the Lord's oracle - plans of prosperity and not of misfortune: I will give you a future and a hope" (Jer 29:11). Human history therefore has meaning, significance and direction. That is, we know where we are going and the years do not all follow one another in the same way, because God has a project, a definite plan. We are oriented towards the future and we wait for this plan to be fulfilled by praying with our Father, that his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. However, history testifies that humanity is falling short of this plan and people do not seem to cooperate. God respects our freedom and we often seem unwilling to listen to God's voice because it is a project that exceeds our rational perspectives. But why wonder? St Paul says that this project - he calls it the mystery of God's will - exceeds us and is unthinkable for us. Humanity, however, has two choices: accept the project and strive to advance it, or reject it and look elsewhere for our own happiness. Adam is the example of one who refuses and takes another direction, to his own detriment. God, however, remains patient and will save his project by not allowing himself to be discouraged by man's ill will because no one and nothing can extinguish the fire of God's love for us. We read in the Song of Songs that "Great waters could not quench Love and rivers would not submerge it" (Song 8:6-7a). Therein lies our hope, which Paul vigorously proclaims: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?". It is certainly not biological death that separates us from him and our brothers, for we shall rise again, but spiritual death, the consequence of sin. Yet sin too is defeated by Jesus Christ: henceforth, grafted into the risen Christ, we can live like him and with him win the game of love. Indeed, Paul affirms that the victory is already won: contrary to what it seems, death and sin are the great losers and God's plan is saved: Jesus, with the forgiveness given to all, frees us from our sins and, if we want, the door is open to the Holy Spirit. We can then live the love and fraternity for which we are created. St Paul's cry of triumph resounds in us: "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" All that remains is for us to continue in the commitment of the struggle with Christ: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, remain steadfast and unshakable, making ever greater progress in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord". 

*From the Gospel according to Saint Luke (6:39-45)

 We find here several instructions of Jesus that are like warnings concerning relationships within the Christian community, recommendations that are also present in the gospels of Matthew and John although in no particular order and proclaimed in different contexts. St Luke grouped them here because he probably saw a link between them and it is precisely this link that we seek to understand together. To better proceed we divide the text into two parts: the first is a reflection on the gaze, while the second is the metaphor of the tree and the fruit. In the first part, Jesus develops the theme of the gaze and begins with an observation: a blind man cannot guide another blind man, and the message is clear: we must be very careful because when we act as guides, we must not forget that we are blind from birth. The apologue of the mote and the beam goes in this direction since with a beam in one's eye, one is truly blind and cannot claim to cure the blindness of others. Between these two observations, Luke inserts a phrase that at first sight seems enigmatic: 'A disciple is no more than the teacher; but everyone who is well prepared will be like his teacher'. The preparation Jesus speaks of is, in a sense, the healing of us who are blind. It is Luke himself who notes that the disciples of Emmaus only began to see clearly when "Jesus opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45). Since Jesus came into the world to open the eyes of the blind, his disciples, healed by him from their blindness, also have the mission to bring the light of revelation to the world. What the prophet Isaiah said about the servant of God, in the so-called servant songs, is true for Jesus Christ, but also for his disciples: "I have destined you to be the light of the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to free from prison the captive and from prison those who dwell in darkness" (Is 42:6-7). This is a very interesting mission, which we can only cope with by always remaining under the light of the Master and letting him heal our blindness. The evangelist then moves without transition to the metaphor of the tree and the fruit, which suggests that the theme is still the same: the true disciple, who allows himself to be enlightened by Jesus Christ, bears good fruit, but he who, on the contrary, does not allow Jesus Christ to enlighten him, remains in his blindness and produces bad fruit. It is now necessary to understand what fruits are involved. Taking into account that the text is after an entire discourse of Jesus on mutual love, we can understand that the fruits are related to our behaviour. The guiding rule is "Be merciful as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).  It was not difficult for Jesus' contemporaries to understand this language: they knew that the Father expects fruits of justice and mercy from us, which can be both actions and words because "the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart" (Lk 6:45). In the first reading we read that the fruit manifests the quality of the tree; in the same way the word reveals the feelings and one should not praise anyone before he has spoken, because it is precisely his word that allows one to judge him. It is truly extraordinary how in a few words Luke has developed the whole Christian mystery: when we allow ourselves to be formed by Christ we are transformed in our whole being: in our gaze, behaviour and language. A teaching that returns often in the New Testament as, for example, in the Letter to the Philippians: "You shine like stars in the world, holding fast the word of life" (Phil 2:15-16), or in the Letter to the Ephesians: "Once you were darkness, now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. The fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth" (Eph 5:8). The first step is to learn to look at others as God looks at them: with a gaze that does not judge, that does not condemn, that does not take pleasure in pointing out a speck in the other's eye, that is, in noticing something really tiny. Just as the straw is blown away by the wind and therefore without depth and importance, so too must the faults of others be counted. If Jesus does not give them importance, the disciple well trained in his school will be like his master. This sentence is followed by the whole discourse on God's mercy and our vocation to be like him, a very ambitious life programme: love your enemies, be merciful, do not judge, do not condemn because your Father is merciful and we are called to be his image in the world. Jesus concludes thus: the mouth of the disciple expresses that which overflows from the heart. To become God's image, the secret is to immerse ourselves in his Word.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Short Commentary:

*First Reading from the Book of Sirach (27:4-7)

 This is a book of the Bible that has had a rather eventful journey. To begin with, it bears three names: Ben Sira the Wise, Sirach, and Ecclesiasticus. Sirach or Ben Sira are two similar names, both related to his family name. "Ben" means "son of", so the author is the son of Sira. At the end of the book, he signs himself 'Jesus, son of Sira', which offers a further indication, since Jesus is a typically Jewish name. It is therefore a Jew from Jerusalem writing in Hebrew, and the title 'the Wise' makes it clear that this is neither a historical nor a prophetic book, but one of those books called 'sapiential'. It is called Ecclesiastical because in the first centuries of Christianity, the Church made the newly baptised read this book to complete their moral education. The book was written by Ben Sira in Jerusalem in Hebrew around 180 B.C., translated into Greek some fifty years later, around 130 B.C. by his own nephew in Alexandria. In the Bible, Sirach occupies a special place: it belongs to the books called 'deuterocanonical'. In fact, when at the end of the first century A.D. the doctors of the law definitively fixed the official list of writings considered part of the Bible, not all the books that circulated in Israel were included. Some texts were recognised by all as the Word of God - for example, the Book of Genesis or Exodus. But for some more recent texts, the question remained open. Sirach was among them and was eventually excluded because to enter the official canon of the Hebrew Bible, a book had to be written in Hebrew and written in the land of Israel. But at the time the canon was established (late 1st century AD), the Hebrew original of Sirach was lost and only the Greek translation circulated in Alexandria. For this reason, the book was not accepted by the Jewish communities in the land of Israel. However, in the Jewish communities of the diaspora (especially in Alexandria), it was already considered part of the Bible, so it continued to be recognised. The Christian community, on the other hand, received it through the Greek-speaking communities, and thus Sirach became part of the Christian biblical canon. 

Turning to the content, the book is like a collection of maxims and proverbs using images and sayings belonging to another culture. In today's text, Ben Sira uses three images that were very common at the time. If gold is passed through a sieve, the slag is evident; when a pot is baked in the oven, one can see at once whether it has been well worked, and a healthy tree produces good fruit. So then, just as the sieve separates the gold from the impurities, the fire of the oven reveals the qualities of the pot and from the fruit one can tell whether the tree is healthy or diseased, so our words reveal the true nature of our heart because only a good heart will speak good words. Jesus teaches the same thing as we read in this Sunday's gospel: "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth evil: for his mouth expresses that which out of his heart overflows" (Lk 6:45). Our words are the mirror of our heart.

*Responsorial Psalm (91 (92), 2-3. 13-14. 15-16)

Israel accused God of deception in the Sinai desert when dehydration threatened men and animals: the famous episode of Massa and Meriba (Ex 17:1-7).  God, however, proved greater than the wrath of his people: he caused water to spring from a rock. Since then, God has been called our rock as a reminder of his faithfulness, steadier than all the suspicions of the people. From this rock Israel drew the water of its survival... but more importantly, over the centuries, it became the source of its faith and trust. This concept is expressed at the end of the psalm: 'to proclaim how righteous is the Lord, my rock'. In the Garden of Eden story, the cunning serpent manages to convince the progenitors that it is God who is deceiving them. In fact, he misrepresents God's thinking by claiming that he forbids them the best fruits under the guise of protecting them when in fact it is the opposite and Adam and Eve allow themselves to be deceived. Unfortunately, it is a story that repeats itself throughout history and how is it possible to avoid demonic deception? This psalm helps us by suggesting that we should have confidence: "It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing to your name, O Most High, to proclaim in the morning your love, your faithfulness through the night". Singing for God is good for man above all, and St Augustine said it clearly: "Everything that man does for God, benefits man and not God." Singing for God, opening our eyes to his love and his faithfulness, day and night, protects us from the wiles of the serpent. Only an unwavering trust in God's love can illuminate man's life in all circumstances, while distrust and suspicion completely distort our view of reality. To be suspicious of God is a deadly trap. He who trusts in God is like an evergreen tree, which always retains its sap and freshness (cf. Psalm 1). To conclude, I note that this psalm bears a heading: 'Psalm for the Sabbath day', the day par excellence on which God's love and faithfulness are sung. One could make this psalm the psalm for Sunday, because for us Sunday is the celebration of God's love and faithfulness, which in Jesus Christ were manifested in a definitive way.  

*Second Reading from the First Letter of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:54-58)

 For several weeks now we have been reading chapter 15 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, which is a long reflection on the Resurrection. Today Paul concludes his meditation with a cry of triumph: 'Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (v 57). It is the victory of the Resurrection because, as he writes, what is corruptible in us will become incorruptible, what is mortal will clothe immortality (v 53): immortality, incorruptibility are God's prerogatives. Only in this way will we become in the image and likeness of God, according to the original plan announced and realised throughout the Bible's entire itinerary, with humanity's many failures and God's continuous interventions to save his plan of love. In creating humanity, the Lord had the plan to make it happy, united, filled with the Spirit of God, admitted to share in the life of the Trinity. A plan that has never failed and subsists forever because the designs of God's heart endure from generation to generation (cf. Ps 32/33). Human history therefore has meaning, significance and direction. That is, we know where we are going and the years do not all follow one another in the same way, because God has a project, a precise plan. We are oriented towards the future and we wait for this plan to be fulfilled by praying with our Father, that his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. However, history testifies that humanity is falling short of this plan and people do not seem to cooperate. God respects our freedom and we often seem unwilling to listen to God's voice because it is a project that exceeds our rational perspectives. But why wonder? St Paul says that this project - he calls it the mystery of God's will - exceeds us and is unthinkable for us. Humanity, however, has two choices: accept the project and strive to advance it, or reject it and look elsewhere for our own happiness. Adam is the example of one who refuses and takes another direction, to his own detriment. God, however, remains patient and will save his project by not allowing himself to be discouraged by man's ill will because no one and nothing can extinguish the fire of God's love for us. It is certainly not biological death that separates us from him and our brothers, for we shall rise again, but spiritual death, the consequence of sin. Yet sin too is defeated by Jesus Christ: henceforth, grafted into the risen Christ, we can live like him and with him win the game of love. Indeed, Paul affirms that the victory is already won: contrary to what it seems, death and sin are the great losers and God's plan is saved: Jesus, with the forgiveness given to all, frees us from our sins and, if we want, the door is open to the Holy Spirit. We can then live the love and fraternity for which we are created.

*From the Gospel according to St Luke (6:39-45)

 We find here several instructions from Jesus that are like warnings concerning relationships within the Christian community, recommendations that are also present in the gospels of Matthew and John although in no particular order and proclaimed in different contexts. St Luke grouped them here because he probably saw a link between them and it is precisely this link that we are trying to understand together. To better proceed we divide the text into two parts: the first is a reflection on the gaze, while the second is the metaphor of the tree and the fruit. In the first part, Jesus develops the theme of gaze and begins with an observation: a blind man cannot guide another blind man, and the message is clear: we must be very careful because when we act as guides, we must not forget that we are blind from birth. The apologue of the mote and the beam goes in this direction since with a beam in one's eye, one is truly blind and cannot claim to cure the blindness of others. Between these two observations, Luke inserts a phrase that at first sight seems enigmatic: 'A disciple is no more than the teacher; but everyone who is well prepared will be like his teacher'. The preparation Jesus speaks of is, in a sense, the healing of us who are blind. It is Luke himself who notes that the disciples of Emmaus only began to see clearly when "Jesus opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45). Since Jesus came into the world to open the eyes of the blind, his disciples, healed by him from their blindness, also have the mission to bring the light of revelation to the world. This is a very interesting mission, which we can only cope with by always remaining under the light of the Master and letting him heal our blindness. The evangelist then moves without transition to the metaphor of the tree and the fruit, which suggests that the theme is still the same: the true disciple, who allows himself to be enlightened by Jesus Christ, bears good fruit, but he who, on the contrary, does not allow Jesus Christ to enlighten him, remains in his blindness and produces bad fruit. It is now necessary to understand what fruits are involved. Taking into account that the text is after an entire discourse of Jesus on mutual love, we can understand that the fruits are related to our behaviour. The guiding rule is "Be merciful as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).  In the first reading we read that the fruit manifests the quality of the tree; similarly, the word reveals the feelings and one should not praise anyone before he has spoken, because it is precisely his word that allows one to judge him. It is truly extraordinary how in a few words Luke has developed the entire Christian mystery: when we allow ourselves to be formed by Christ we are transformed in our whole being: in our gaze, behaviour and language. The fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth" (Eph 5:8). The first step consists in learning to look at others as God looks at them: with a gaze that does not judge, that does not condemn, that does not take pleasure in pointing out a speck in the other person's eye, that is, in noticing something really tiny. Just as the straw is blown away by the wind and therefore without depth and importance, so too must the faults of others be counted. If Jesus does not give them importance, the disciple well trained in his school will be like his master. Jesus concludes thus: the mouth of the disciple expresses that which overflows from the heart. To become the image of God, the secret is to immerse ourselves in his Word.

+Giovanni D'Ercole

May the Lord bless us and may the Virgin protect us!

7th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C (23 February 2025)

Reading from the First Book of Samuel (26,2.7-9.12-13.22-23)

Saul was the first king of the people of Israel, around 1040 BC. The texts say that "no son of Israel was more handsome than he, and he surpassed from the shoulder upwards anyone else of the people" (1 Sam 9:2). He was a peasant from a simple family in the tribe of Benjamin, chosen by God and anointed king by the prophet Samuel, who initially hesitated because he distrusted monarchy in general, but had to obey God. Saul was anointed with oil and bore the title 'messiah'.  After a good start, Saul unfortunately proved Samuel's worst fears right: his personal pleasure, love of power and war prevailed over loyalty to the covenant. It was so bad that, without waiting for the end of his reign, Samuel, at God's command, set out to find his successor and chose David, the little shepherd from Bethlehem, the eighth son of Jesse. David was received into Saul's court and gradually became a skilful war leader, whose achievements were the talk of the town. One day, Saul heard the popular song that circulated everywhere: "Saul has slain his thousand, and David his ten thousand" (1 Sam 18:7) and was seized with jealousy that became so fierce towards David that he went mad. David had to flee several times to save himself, but contrary to Saul's suspicions, David never failed in his loyalty to the king. In the episode narrated here, it is Saul who takes the initiative: the three thousand men spoken of were gathered by him for the sole purpose of satisfying his hatred for David. "Saul went down into the wilderness of Zif with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David" (v. 2) and his intention was clear: to eliminate him as soon as possible. But the situation is reversed in David's favour: during the night David enters Saul's camp and finds everyone asleep, thus a favourable opportunity to kill him. Abisai, David's bodyguard, has no doubts and offers to kill him: 'Today God has put your enemy in your hands. Let me therefore nail him to the ground with my spear in one stroke and I will not add the second" (v 8). David surprises everyone, including Saul, who can hardly believe his eyes when he sees the proof that David has spared him. Two questions arise: why did David spare the one who wanted his death? The only reason is respect for God's choice: "I would not stretch out my hand against the messiah of the Lord" (v.11).  Why does the Bible recount this episode? There are certainly several reasons. Firstly, the sacred author wants to paint a portrait of David: respectful of God's will and magnanimous, refusing vengeance and understanding that Providence never manifests itself by simply delivering the enemy into one's own hands. Secondly, because the reigning king is untouchable and it should not be forgotten that this account was written in the court of Solomon, who had every interest in passing on this teaching. Finally, this text represents a stage in the biblical story, a moment in God's pedagogy: before learning to love all men, one must begin by finding some good reason to love some of them. David spares a dangerous enemy because he was, in his time, God's chosen one. The last stage will be to understand that every man is to be respected everywhere because the image of God is marked in him. We are all created in the image and likeness of God.

*Psalm 102 (103) 1-2, 3-4, 8. 10. 12-13

This psalm is encountered several times in the three liturgical years and we can admire the parallelism of the verses, a kind of alternation of verses that answer each other. It would be good to recite or sing it in two voices, line by line or in two alternating choirs. First chorus: "Bless the Lord, my soul" ... Second chorus: "May all that is in me bless his holy name" ... First chorus: "He forgives all your sins ... Second chorus: "He does not treat us according to our sins". And so on. Another characteristic is the joyful tone of the thanksgiving. The expression 'Bless the Lord, my soul' is repeated as an inclusion in the first and last verses of the psalm. Of all the blessings, the verses chosen for this Sunday insist on God's forgiveness: "He forgives all your faults... Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and great in love; he does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults. As far as the east is from the west, so he turns away our faults from us." Several times we have noted this: one of the great discoveries of the Bible is that God is only love and forgiveness. And that is precisely why he is so different from us and constantly surprises us. When the prophet Isaiah says: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, says God; your ways are not my ways" (55:6-8), he invites us to seek the Lord while he is being found, to call upon him while he is near. He invites the ungodly to forsake his way and the perverse man his thoughts, and adds: 'Return to the Lord who will have mercy on him, to our God who graciously forgives' - and adds - 'because my thoughts are not your thoughts'. Precisely the conjunction 'because' gives meaning to the whole sentence: it is precisely his inexhaustible mercy that makes the difference between God and us. Some five hundred years before Christ, it was already understood that God's forgiveness is unconditional and precedes all our prayers or repentance. God's forgiveness is not a punctual act, an event, but is its very essence. However, it is only we who can freely make the gesture of going to receive this forgiveness of God and renew the Covenant; he will never force us and so we go to him with confidence, we take the necessary step to enter into God's forgiveness that is already acquired. On closer inspection, this is a discovery that goes back to very ancient times. When Nathan announced God's forgiveness to King David, who had just gotten rid of his lover's husband, Bathsheba, David in truth had not yet had time to express the slightest repentance.  After reminding him of all the benefits with which God had filled him, the prophet added: "And if this were little, I would add still more" (2 Sam 12:8). Here is the meaning of the word forgiveness, made up of two syllables that it is good to separate "for - gift" to indicate the perfect gift, a gift beyond offence and beyond ingratitude; it is the covenant always offered despite infidelity. Forgiving those who have wronged us means continuing, in spite of everything, to offer them a covenant, a relationship of love or friendship; it means accepting to see that person again, to extend our hand to them, to welcome them at our table or in our home anyway; it means risking a smile; it means refusing to hate and to take revenge. However, this does not mean forgetting. We often hear people say: I can forgive but I will never forget. In reality, these are two completely different things. Forgiveness is neither forgetting nor erasing what has happened because nothing will erase it, whether it is good or bad. There are offences that can never be forgotten because the irreparable has happened. It is precisely this that gives greatness and gravity to our human lives: if a wipe-out could erase everything, what would be the point of acting well? We could do anything. Forgiveness therefore does not erase the past, but opens up the future. It breaks the chains of guilt, brings inner liberation and allows us to start again. When David had Bathsheba's husband killed, nothing could repair the evil committed. But David, forgiven, was able to raise his head again and try not to do evil any more. When parents forgive the murderer of one of their children, it does not mean that they forget the crime committed, but it is precisely in their grief that they find the strength to forgive, and forgiveness becomes a profoundly liberating act for themselves. Those who are forgiven will never again be innocent, but they can raise their heads again. Without arriving at such serious crimes, everyday life is marked by more or less serious acts that sow injustice or pain. By forgiving and receiving forgiveness we stop looking at the past and turn our gaze to the future. This is how it is in our relationship with God since no one can claim to be innocent, but we are all forgiven sinners.

*Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:45-49)

St Paul's meditation on Christ's resurrection and ours continues and is addressed to Christians of Greek origin who would like to have a clear and precise answer on the resurrection of the flesh, when and how it will take place. Paul has already explained last Sunday that the resurrection is an article of faith whereby not believing in the resurrection of the dead means not believing in the resurrection of Christ either. Now he addresses the question: How do the dead rise and with what body do they return? In truth he acknowledges that he does not know what the resurrected will look like, but what he can say with certainty is that our resurrected body will be completely different from our earthly one. If we consider that Jesus who appeared after the resurrection was not immediately recognised by his disciples and Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener, this shows that he was the same and, at the same time, completely different. Paul distinguished an animal body from a spiritual body, and the expression spiritual body surprised his listeners who knew the Greek distinction between body and soul. However, being Jewish, he knew that Jewish thought never contrasts the body and the soul, and his Jewish training led him instead to contrast two types of behaviour: that of the earthly man and that of the spiritual man, inaugurated by the Messiah. In every man, God has insufflated a breath of life that makes him capable of spiritual life, but he still remains an earthly man. Only in the Messiah fully dwells the very Spirit of God, which guides his every action. To argue, Paul refers to Genesis, in which he reads the vocation of mankind, but does not interpret it historically. For him, Adam is a type of man or, rather, a type of behaviour. This reading may seem unusual to us, but we must get used to reading the creation texts in Genesis not as an account of events, but as accounts of vocation. By creating humanity (Adam is a collective name), God calls it to an extraordinary destiny. Adam, the earthly being, is called to become the temple of God's Spirit. And it must be remembered that in the Bible, Creation is not considered an event of the past because the Bible speaks much more of God the Creator than of Creation; it speaks of our relationship with God: we were created by Him, we depend on Him, we are suspended from His breath and it is not about the past, but about the future. The act of creation is presented to us as a project still in progress: in the two accounts of creation, man has a role to play. "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it" in the first account (Gen 1:28). "The LORD God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it" in the second account (Gen 2:15). And this task concerns all of us, since Adam is a collective name representing the whole of humanity. Our vocation, Genesis goes on to say, is to be the image of God, that is, inhabited by the very Spirit of God. "God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." (Gen 1:26-27). Adam is also the type of man who does not respond to his calling; he allowed himself to be influenced by the serpent, who instilled in him, like a poison, distrust of God. This is what Paul calls earthly behaviour, like the serpent crawling on the ground. Jesus Christ, the new Adam, on the other hand, allows himself to be guided only by the Spirit of God. In this way, he fulfils the vocation of every man, i.e. of Adam; this is the meaning of Paul's sentence: "Brothers, the first man, Adam, became a living being but the last Adam (i.e. Christ) became a life-giving spirit."

The message is clear: Adam's behaviour leads to death, Christ's behaviour leads to life. However, we are constantly torn between these two behaviours, between heaven and earth, and we can make Paul's expression our own when he cries out: 'Wretched man that I am! I do not do the good that I want, but do the evil that I do not want." (Rom 7:24, 19). In other words, the individual and collective history of all mankind is a long journey to allow ourselves to be inhabited more and more by the Spirit of God.  Paul writes: "The first man from earth is made of earth, the second man is from heaven. As the earthly man is, so are those of the earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are the heavenly". And St John observes: 'Beloved, even now we are children of God, but what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know, however, that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2). The perfect image of God in Jesus Christ, the apostles saw it on the face of Christ during the Transfiguration.

Note: the serpent crawling on the ground tempts mankind (Adam - adam man related to adamah earth, is not the name of a person but indicates the whole of mankind made of earth Gn1,26-27) and the name of the serpent is nahash a word that can mean either serpent or the dragon of Revelation: Gn3,15; Rev 12)

*From the Gospel according to Luke (6:27-38)

"Be merciful as your Father is merciful" and you will then be children of the Most High, for he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.  This is the programme of every Christian, it is our vocation. The entire Bible appears as the story of man's conversion as he gradually learns to master his own violence. It is certainly not an easy process, but God is patient, because, as St Peter says, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day (cf. 2 Pet 3:8) and he educates his people with such patience, as we read in Deuteronomy: "As a man corrects his son, so the Lord your God corrects you" (Deut 8:5). This slow eradication of violence from the human heart is expressed figuratively as early as the book of Genesis: violence is presented as a form of animality. Let us take the account of the Garden of Eden: God had invited Adam to name the animals, to symbolise his superiority over all creatures. God had in fact conceived Adam as the king of creation: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the wild beasts, and over all the reptiles that creep upon the earth" (Gen 1:26). And Adam himself had recognised that he was different, that he was superior: "Man gave a name to all the animals, to the birds of the air, and to all the wild beasts; but for man he found no helper to match him" (Gen 2:20). Man did not find his equal. But two chapters later, we find the story of Cain and Abel. At the moment when Cain is seized with a mad desire to kill, God says to him: "Sin is crouching (like a beast) at your door. It lurks, but you must master it' (Gen 4:7). And starting from this first murder, the biblical text shows the proliferation of vengeance (Gen 4:1-26). From the very first chapters of the Bible, violence is thus recognised: it exists, but it is unmasked and compared to an animal. Man no longer deserves to be called man when he is violent. The biblical texts thus embark on the arduous path of converting the human heart. On this path, we can distinguish stages. Let us pause on the first: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (Ex 21:24). In response to the terrible boast of Lamech (Gen 4:23), great-grandson of Cain, who gloried in killing men and children to avenge simple scratches, the Law introduced a first limit: a single tooth for a tooth, and not the whole jaw; a single life for a life, and not a whole village in retaliation. The law of retaliation thus already represented significant progress, even if it still seems insufficient today. The pedagogy of the prophets constantly addresses the problem of violence, but comes up against a great psychological difficulty: the man who agrees not to take revenge fears losing his honour. The biblical texts then show man that his true honour lies elsewhere: it consists precisely in resembling God, who is 'good to the ungrateful and the wicked'. Jesus' discourse, which we read this Sunday, represents the last stage of this education: from the law of retaliation we have moved on to the invitation to gentleness, to disinterestedness, to perfect gratuitousness. He insists: twice, at the beginning and at the end, he says "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you"... "Love your enemies, do good and lend without hoping for anything in return". And so the ending surprises us a little: up to this point, although it was not easy, at least it was logical. God is merciful and invites us to imitate him. But here the last lines seem to change tone: 'Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you: a good measure, pressed down, shaken and overflowing will be poured into your lap, for with the measure with which you measure, it will be measured to you in return' (Lk 6:37-38). Have we returned to a logic of 'quid pro quo'? Of course not! Jesus is simply pointing out to us here a very reassuring path: in order not to fear being judged, simply do not judge or condemn others. Judge actions, but never people. Establish a climate of benevolence. In this way, fraternal relations will never be broken. As for the phrase: "Your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High", it expresses the wonderment experienced by those who conform to the Christian ideal of meekness and forgiveness. It is the profound transformation that takes place in them: for they have opened the door to the Spirit of God, and he dwells in them and inspires them more and more. Little by little they see the promise formulated by the prophet Ezekiel fulfilled in them: "I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit within you; I will take away from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ez 36:26).

+Giovanni D'Ercole

Summary on request: Short commentary.

Reading from the First Book of Samuel (26.2.7-9.12-13.22-23)

Saul was the first king of the people of Israel, around 1040 B.C. He was a peasant from a simple family of the tribe of Benjamin, chosen by God and anointed king by the prophet Samuel, who initially hesitated because he distrusted monarchy in general, but had to obey God. After a good start, Saul unfortunately proved Samuel's worst fears right: his personal pleasure, love of power and war prevailed over loyalty to the Covenant. It was so bad that, without waiting for the end of his reign, Samuel, at God's command, set out to find his successor and chose David, the little shepherd from Bethlehem, the eighth son of Jesse. David was received into Saul's court and gradually became a skilful war leader, whose achievements were the talk of the town. One day, Saul heard the popular song that circulated everywhere: "Saul has slain his thousand, and David his ten thousand" (1 Sam 18:7) and was seized with jealousy that became so fierce towards David that he went mad. David had to flee several times to save himself, but contrary to Saul's suspicions, David never failed in his loyalty to the king. In the episode narrated here, it is Saul who takes the initiative: the three thousand men spoken of were gathered by him for the sole purpose of satisfying his hatred for David. "Saul went down into the wilderness of Zif with three thousand chosen men of Israel to search for David" (v 2) and his intention was clear: to eliminate him as soon as possible. But the situation is reversed in David's favour: during the night David enters Saul's camp and finds everyone asleep, thus a favourable opportunity to kill him. Abisai, David's bodyguard, has no doubts and offers to kill him: 'Today God has put your enemy in your hands. Let me therefore nail him to the ground with my spear in one stroke and I will not add the second" (v 8). David surprises everyone, including Saul, who can hardly believe his eyes when he sees the proof that David has spared him. Two questions arise: why did David spare the one who wanted his death? The only reason is respect for God's choice: "I would not stretch out my hand against the messiah of the Lord" (v.11).  The sacred author wants to outline the portrait of David: respectful of God's will and magnanimous, who refuses revenge and understands that Providence never manifests itself by simply delivering the enemy into one's own hands. Secondly, because the reigning king is untouchable and it should not be forgotten that this account was written in the court of Solomon, who had every interest in passing on this teaching. Finally, this text represents a stage in the biblical story, a moment in God's pedagogy: before learning to love all men, one must begin to find some good reason to love some, and David spares a dangerous enemy because as king he is God's chosen one. The last stage will be to understand that every man is to be respected because we are all created in the image and likeness of God.

*Psalm 102 (103) 1-2, 3-4, 8. 10. 12-13

This psalm would be good to recite or sing in two voices, in two alternating choirs. First chorus: "Bless the Lord, my soul"... Second chorus: "Let all that is in me bless his holy name"... First chorus: "He forgives all your sins... Second chorus: "He does not treat us according to our sins". And so on. Another characteristic is the joyful tone of the thanksgiving. The expression 'Bless the Lord, my soul' is repeated as an inclusion in the first and last verses of the psalm. Of all the benefits, the verses chosen for this Sunday insist on God's forgiveness: "For he forgives all your faults... Merciful and gracious is the Lord, slow to anger and great in love; he does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults... "for my thoughts are not your thoughts". Precisely the conjunction 'because' gives meaning to the whole sentence: it is precisely his inexhaustible mercy that makes the difference between God and us. Some five hundred years before Christ, it was already understood that God's forgiveness is unconditional and precedes all our prayers or repentance. God's forgiveness is not a punctual act, an event, but is its very essence. However, it is only we who can freely make the gesture of going to receive this forgiveness of God and renew the Covenant; He will never force us and so we go to Him with confidence, we take the necessary step to enter into God's forgiveness that is already acquired. On closer inspection, this is a discovery that goes back to very ancient times. When Nathan announced God's forgiveness to King David, who had just gotten rid of his lover's husband, Bathsheba, David in truth had not yet had time to express the slightest repentance.  After reminding him of all the benefits with which God had filled him, the prophet added: "And if this were little, I would add still more" (2 Sam 12:8). Here is the meaning of the word forgiveness, made up of two syllables that it is good to separate "for - gift" to indicate the perfect gift, a gift beyond offence and beyond ingratitude; it is the covenant always offered despite infidelity. Forgiving those who have wronged us means continuing, in spite of everything, to offer them a covenant, a relationship of love or friendship; it means refusing to hate and to take revenge. However, this does not mean forgetting. We often hear people say: I can forgive but I will never forget. In reality, these are two completely different things. Forgiveness is not a blank slate. There are offences that can never be forgotten, because the irreparable has happened. It is precisely this that lends greatness and gravity to our human lives: if a wipe-out could erase everything, what would be the point of acting well? We could do anything. Forgiveness therefore does not erase the past, but opens up the future. It breaks the chains of guilt, brings inner liberation and allows us to start again. When David had Bathsheba's husband killed, nothing could repair the evil committed. But David, forgiven, was able to raise his head again and try not to do evil any more. When parents forgive the murderer of one of their children, it does not mean that they forget the crime committed, but it is precisely in their grief that they find the strength to forgive, and forgiveness becomes a profoundly liberating act for themselves. Those who are forgiven will never again be innocent, but they can raise their heads again. Without arriving at such serious crimes, everyday life is marked by more or less serious acts that sow injustice or pain. By forgiving and receiving forgiveness we stop looking at the past and turn our gaze to the future. This is how it is in our relationship with God since no one can claim to be innocent, but we are all forgiven sinners.

*Second Reading from the First Epistle of St Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians (15:45-49)

St Paul's meditation on Christ's resurrection and ours continues and is addressed to Christians of Greek origin who would like to have a clear and precise answer on the resurrection of the flesh, when and how it will take place. Paul has already explained last Sunday that the resurrection is an article of faith whereby not believing in the resurrection of the dead means not believing in the resurrection of Christ either. Now he addresses the question: How do the dead rise and with what body do they return? In truth he acknowledges that he does not know what the resurrected will look like, but what he can say with certainty is that our resurrected body will be completely different from our earthly one. If we consider that Jesus who appeared after the resurrection was not immediately recognised by his disciples and Mary Magdalene mistook him for the gardener, this shows that he was the same and, at the same time, completely different. Paul distinguished an animal body from a spiritual body, and the expression spiritual body surprised his listeners who knew the Greek distinction between body and soul. However, being Jewish, he knew that Jewish thought never contrasts the body and the soul, and his Jewish training led him instead to contrast two types of behaviour: that of the earthly man and that of the spiritual man, inaugurated by the Messiah. In every man, God has insufflated a breath of life that makes him capable of spiritual life, but he still remains an earthly man. In order to argue, Paul refers to Genesis and sees Adam as a type of behaviour because the creation account in Genesis is not an account of events, but the account of a vocation. By creating humanity (Adam is a collective name), God calls it to an extraordinary destiny. Adam, the earthly being, is called to become the temple of God's Spirit. And it must be remembered that in the Bible, Creation is not seen as an event of the past, but speaks of our relationship with God: we were created by Him, we depend on Him, we are suspended from His breath and it is not about the past, but about the future. The creative act is presented to us as a project still in progress: in the two accounts of creation, man has a role to play. "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). "The LORD God took man and put him in the garden of Eden that he might cultivate it and keep it" (Gen 2:15). And this task concerns all of us, since Adam is a collective name representing the whole of humanity. Our vocation, Genesis goes on to say, is to be the image of God, that is, inhabited by the very Spirit of God. "God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them." (Gen 1:26-27). Adam is also the type of man who does not respond to his calling; he allowed himself to be influenced by the serpent, who instilled in him, like a poison, distrust of God. This is what Paul calls earthly behaviour, like the serpent crawling on the ground. Jesus Christ, the new Adam, on the other hand, allows himself to be guided only by the Spirit of God. In this way, he fulfils the vocation of every man, i.e. of Adam; this is the meaning of Paul's sentence: "Brothers, the first man, Adam, became a living being but the last Adam (i.e. Christ) became a life-giving spirit."

The message is clear: Adam's behaviour leads to death, Christ's behaviour leads to life. However, we are constantly torn between these two behaviours, between heaven and earth, and we can make Paul's expression our own when he cries out: 'Wretched man that I am! I do not do the good that I want, but do the evil that I do not want." (Rom 7:24, 19). In other words, the individual and collective history of all mankind is a long journey to allow ourselves to be inhabited more and more by the Spirit of God.  Paul writes: "The first man from earth is made of earth, the second man is from heaven. As the earthly man is, so are those of the earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are the heavenly. 

*From the Gospel according to Luke (6:27-38)

"Be merciful as your Father is merciful" and then you will be children of the Most High, for he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.  This is the programme of every Christian, it is our vocation. The entire Bible appears as the story of man's conversion as he gradually learns to master his own violence. It is certainly not an easy process, but God is patient and educates his people with such patience. This slow eradication of violence from the human heart is expressed figuratively as early as the book of Genesis: violence is presented as a form of animality. God had invited Adam to name the animals, to symbolise his superiority over all creatures.  And Adam himself had recognised that he was different, superior, and did not find his equal. But next we find the story of Cain and Abel. At the moment when Cain is seized with a mad desire to kill, God says to him: "Sin is crouching (like a beast) at your door. It lurks, but you must master it' (Gen 4:7). And starting from this first murder, the biblical text shows the proliferation of vengeance (Gen 4:1-26). From the very first chapters of the Bible, violence is thus recognised: it exists, but it is unmasked and compared to an animal. Man no longer deserves to be called man when he is violent. The biblical texts thus embark on the arduous path of converting the human heart. On this path, we can distinguish stages. Let us pause on the first: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" (Ex 21:24). In response to the terrible boast of Lamech (Gen 4:23), great-grandson of Cain, who gloried in killing men and children to avenge simple scratches, the Law introduced a first limit: a single tooth for a tooth, and not the whole jaw; a single life for a life, and not a whole village in retaliation. The law of retaliation thus already represented significant progress, even if it still seems insufficient today. The pedagogy of the prophets constantly addresses the problem of violence, but comes up against a great psychological difficulty: the man who agrees not to take revenge fears losing his honour. The biblical texts then show man that his true honour lies elsewhere: it consists precisely in resembling God, who is 'good to the ungrateful and the wicked'. Jesus' discourse, which we read this Sunday, represents the last stage of this education: from the law of retaliation we have moved on to the invitation to gentleness, to disinterestedness, to perfect gratuitousness. He insists: twice, at the beginning and at the end, he says 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you'.... God is merciful and invites us to imitate him. But here the last lines seem to change tone: 'Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and you will be given (Lk 6:37-38). Are we perhaps back to a logic of 'quid pro quo'? Of course not! Jesus is simply pointing out to us here a very reassuring path: to not fear being judged, simply do not judge or condemn others. Judge actions, but never people. Establish a climate of benevolence. In this way, fraternal relations will never be broken.

+Giovanni D'Ercole