Divine in Human: strong, dignified and fraternal gestures, not repertoire

(Mt 13:54-58)

The Divine in the Human makes itself Present in the intense, welcoming relationships that open up inexplicable recoveries; then it leaks out in the strong, dignified and fraternal gestures - not repertoire.

In today's Gospel passage there is a significant difference with some earlier translations (vv.54.58).

The Lord helps us to grow with true «wonders», not with “miracles” [punctual events] but by working within, changing the shrunken heart and improving us with his Love.

The «prophetic» has nothing to do with the sensational.

Only in this way will one not grow weary of the good that is not brilliant; nor will one despise the existence of ordinary people because they lack prestige and titles.

Jesus' powerful works unfold over time - by educating, not impressing and subduing.

His 'signs', those inexplicable recoveries he performs, are the calibre and fruit of a growing Encounter-through-the-Way.

Work of Art (far better than accidental shortcuts) is for the profiteer to become righteous, the doubter to become more confident, the unhappy to resume hope.

It takes time, though astonishment can be immediate.

The Mystery of the power of the new God announced by Christ is hidden in 'Someone inside something'.

It is the web where the Signs of a great Reality nestle, to which despite the difficulties we have access and in which we participate.

The Person of Jesus tells of a Father who does not fear that his holiness is endangered by contact with the world.

The higher Mystery is already in the common man.

So the conflict is not with outsiders, but with the usual stubborn 'neighbours' full of prejudice - habitual and habituated, who already know how it ends... But they inaugurate nothing.

Instead, the Son is no longer a “local child”: a quiet programme of the «village», the product of normal archaic ideas or of already transmitted intentions, which no Encounter will be able to arouse and move.

In his homeland, the Master does not astound as elsewhere: He encounters a diffidence that wears down of days all counted that protrusion of the believing that would fill indigence.

Faith, on the other hand, encompasses what cuts through the impossible Dream of Novelty: our boasting is not from social status, nor from established gender.

It grasps its specific weight not in the folklore, but precisely in regenerating - through the incessant reactivation of intrinsic interest.

In this way, Faith is not rhetoric. It realizes that the state of doubt is more fruitful than conviction.

How does one become a non-people?

Certainties leave no breathing space for the inventiveness of unusual doing, nor for the feeling or growth of strong Life, not disfigured by the repertoire of expected accomplishments.

To internalize and live the message:

How does your ordinary existence redeem the vicissitudes of shaky people?

How do you live the more of the Faith over habits and commonplaces?

[Friday, 17th wk. in O.T.   August 1st, 2025]

Divine in Human: strong, dignified and fraternal gestures, not repertoire

(Mt 13:54-58)

"Christians are a priestly people for the world. Christians should make the living God visible to the world, bear witness to Him and lead it to Him. When we speak of this common commission of ours, as we are baptised, this is not a reason to boast about it. It is a question that both gives us joy and troubles us: are we truly God's sanctuary in the world and for the world? Do we open up access to God to men, or rather hide it? Have we not - God's people - largely become a people of unbelief and distance from God? Is it not true that the West, the core countries of Christianity, are tired of their faith and, bored with their own history and culture, no longer want to know faith in Jesus Christ? We have reason to cry out to God in this hour: "Do not let us become a non-people! Let us recognise you again! For you anointed us with your love, you placed your Holy Spirit upon us. Let the power of your Spirit become effective in us again, so that we may joyfully bear witness to your message!"

[Pope Benedict, homily 21 April 2011].

The Divine in the Human makes itself Present in the intense, welcoming relationships that open up inexplicable recoveries; then it leaks out in the strong, dignified and fraternal gestures - not in repertoire.

In today's Gospel passage there is a significant difference with the previous CEI translation ('74) (vv.54.58).

The Lord helps us to grow with true 'prodigies', not with 'miracles' [punctual events] but by working in our innermost being, changing our shrunken hearts and improving us with his Love.

The "prophetic" has nothing to do with the sensational.

Only in this way will we not grow weary of the good that is not brilliant; nor will we despise the existence of ordinary people because they lack prestige and titles.

The powerful works of Jesus unfold over time - educating, not impressing and subduing.

His 'signs', those inexplicable recoveries he performs, are the calibre and fruit of a growing Encounter-for-The-Way.

A work of art (far better than accidental shortcuts) is that the profiteer becomes righteous, the doubter more secure, the unhappy person regains hope.

It takes time, though astonishment can be immediate.

The Mystery of the power of the new God announced by Christ is hidden in 'Someone within something'.

It is the plot where the Signs of a great Reality nestle, to which despite the difficulties we have access and are sharers.

The Person of Jesus tells of a Father who does not fear that his holiness is endangered by contact with the world.

The sovereign Mystery is already in the common man.

So the conflict is not with outsiders, but with the usual stubborn 'neighbours' full of prejudice - habitual and habituated, who already know how it ends... But they inaugurate nothing.

Instead, the Son is no longer a local child: a quiet programme of the 'village', the product of normal archaic ideas or already transmitted intentions, which no encounter will be able to arouse and stir up.

At home, the Master does not astound as elsewhere: he encounters a diffidence that wears down with days all counted that protrusion of belief that would fill indigence.

Faith, on the other hand, understands what cuts through the impossible Dream of Novelty: our boast is not from social status, nor from established gender.

It grasps its own specific weight not in the folklore, but precisely in regenerating - by the incessant reactivation of intrinsic interest.

In this way, Faith is not rhetoric: it realises that the state of doubt is more fruitful than conviction.

How does one become a non-people?

Certainties leave no breathing space for the inventiveness of the unusual, nor for the feeling or growth of strong Life, not disfigured by the repertoire of expected fulfilments.

To internalise and live the message:

How does your ordinary existence redeem the affairs of shaky people?

How do you live the more of Faith over habits and commonplaces?

Expectations, misunderstandings - and the spirit of the valley

(Mk 6:1-6)

Domestic side, not domestication

Where Faith is lacking only small changes occur, not the astounding wonders of the alternative presence of the Kingdom of God:

"And he could do no mighty work there, except that having laid hands on a few sick ones, he healed" (v.5).

We do not realise that the Lord could come from humble, dishonourable beginnings, as ours might be - devoid of great dynastic ties, or violent class jumps.

Says the Tao Tê Ching (vi):

"The spirit of the valley does not die [...] it is used, but it does not tire". Master Wang Pi comments:

'The spirit of the valley is the non-valley at the centre of the valley. It has no form or shadow, nothing contrasts and nothing rejects, it remains at the bottom without moving, it keeps quiet without fading. The valley is completed by it, yet its form cannot be seen: this is the most perfect model'.

Like the Wisdom codes of nature, Faith in Christ bids farewell to the idea prevalent in institutional, representative and top-down cultures and religions.

All unwilling, in their great knowledge, to deal with the normality of life that flows.

Jesus avoids rigid or grandiose models. He gives himself with simplicity to his people and aims at the formation of authentic believers.

Their trust must be placed solely in the Kingdom of God - a dimension that truly breaks the balance, because it enters into day-to-day existence and ferments it from invisible roots.

As an envoy of the Father, he would like all the people to be builders and standard bearers of other dreams - but in his home village he feels as if blocked by those who are incapable of deciphering the dimension of the divine in the human.

He has to face the obtuse incomprehension of the centres of power, but also the very failures and hopes - quiet or divisive - of the popular reality that frequents the places of worship.

The villagers expected the usual blessings (by now addicted) or perhaps a charismatic leader to fight against the Romans - and here they would gladly use the flames of religious identity to inflame their spirits.

They would have accepted a warlike captain, reflecting archaic beliefs - instead they find themselves disappointed with the inapparent reality before their eyes.

They do not know how to discover God's plot in the history of the least.

Conversely, there are many divine signs inscribed in what is summarily manifested: warnings that can help us discover the not purely earthly dimension of things, relationships, presences, and so on.

Many misunderstand the spirit of strength that Faith transmits to us.

It breaks balances because it does not offer guarantees that have already been imagined - but it is at bottom domestic and all natural [each Seed has its own particular destiny and development].

How then is the boy they have known from birth so different?

Because there is no equation between what one thinks conformistically, and the Lord. Not even by emphasising intentions.

Both great expectations and proximity can be an obstacle to a daily knowledge of what is extraordinary behind the ordinary dimension of events and people.

Even many brothers or collaborators of Saints have failed to grasp the exceptionality of a common life lived in fidelity and dedication to their Calling by Name. All the more real as it is less conspicuous.

The incomprehension and village jealousy of those who live next door and chase after a god of their own - disfigured - is a source of bitterness; but it does not stop us.

The experience of rejection prompts a change of direction (v.6b).

The soul lives under the sign of Oneness that renounces preconception, the quiet life, simple approval, easy success.

And closed doors can be an added value! They open us to the soul's journey in the Spirit, to the eccentric Announcement, to the amazing Mission.

Unfortunately, we register another kind of spirit in the 'valley' - of a totally negative sign, which in the work of evangelisation and community animation is identified with the pastoral of consent [I will give you what you want].

The astute coordinator manages relations with the faithful, the masses and the institutions with extreme shrewdness, as well as expectations - concrete, immediate - of approval and individual or circle advantage.

At times, some leaders (even church leaders) seem to be nothing more than skilful storytellers: they do not fight the dehumanising structures, nor the powerful on the ground. On the contrary, they try to make allies of them, to win easily.

Even in the time of global crisis, the conviction persists that educational, cultural and 'religious' structures can only go on with the external support of power hierarchies, and the established order. Or with the search for more 'signs' and as many wonders.

Unfortunately, such a downward, outward-looking attitude - out of weariness, which is widespread - does not amount to the enhancement of the most varied and intimate Gifts of God in people, nor to the promotion of the Kingdom.

It is obvious then that those who frequent the palace do not like incendiaries: those who hold titles and a glorious role remain impervious to the work of the Spirit who makes all things new.

[Every opportunist unfortunately remains tied to the chains of command, to the old tactical balances that have guaranteed him career, position, lustre, visibility, easy security on the side].

Perhaps the worst aspect of this downward and normal common denominator game is the cheap identification between order guaranteed by the Gospel and current equilibrium.

An illusion of external harmony between the Beatitudes proclaimed by the Lord and opportunities for a quiet life, or gain, and social recognition.Thus the principles experienced first-hand by the Master are subverted by some followers, in an opaque strategy that ends up distorting the Glad Tidings in favour of every lost one.

And each shaky though unsatisfied person spontaneously tends to adapt to the small certainties they find, offered by the rhetoric of even great narratives.

Even today, on the other hand, the Word of God sparks off the easy appeal of such dynamics and structures of authentic 'sin': it threatens them in no uncertain terms.

Indeed, they seize souls, make them conformist, indifferent to injustice, fearful of freedom - and tend to take even the God of the Exodus hostage.

The Father, however, continues to raise up eccentric prophets: they make us all more capable of perceiving the genius of the age. As well as the personal talents deployed - even amidst the irritated threats of 'countrymen' caught up in levelling marketing.

Advertisers who risk being left without protection or lineage, of course.

But who refuse to affix ready-made seals to the spirit of mediocrity that annoys no one.

To internalise and live the Word, let us ask ourselves:

What has changed in your journey since you began to live more intensely in adherence to Christ? How has your environment reacted?

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I would like to reflect briefly on this Sunday’s Gospel passage. It is taken from the text that has the famous saying “Nemo propheta in patria”. In other words no prophet is properly accepted among his own people who watched him grow up (cf. Mk 6:4). Indeed after Jesus, when he was about 30 years old, had left Nazareth and had already been travelling about preaching and working miracles of healing elsewhere, he once returned to his birthplace and started teaching in the synagogue. His fellow citizens “were astonished” by his wisdom, and knowing him as “the son of Mary”, as the carpenter who had lived in their midst, instead of welcoming him with faith were shocked and took offence (cf. Mk 6:2-3). This reaction is understandable because familiarity at the human level makes it difficult to go beyond this in order to be open to the divine dimension. That this son of a carpenter was the Son of God was hard for them to believe. Jesus actually takes as an example the experience of the prophets of Israel, who in their own homeland were an object of contempt, and identifies himself with them. Due to this spiritual closure Jesus “could do no mighty work there [Nazareth], except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them” (Mk 6:5). In fact Christ’s miracles are not a display of power but signs of the love of God that is brought into being wherever it encounters reciprocated human faith. Origen writes: “as in the case of material things there exists in some things a natural attraction towards some other thing, as in the magnet for iron... so there is an attraction in such faith towards the divine power” (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, 10, 19).

It would therefore seem that Jesus—as is said—is making sense of the negative welcome he received in Nazareth. Instead, at the end of the account, we find a remark that says precisely the opposite. The Evangelist writes that Jesus “marvelled because of their unbelief” (Mk 6:6). The astonishment of Jesus’ fellow townspeople is matched by his own surprise. In a certain sense he too is shocked! Although he knows that no prophet is well accepted in his homeland, the closed heart of his people was nevertheless obscure and impenetrable to him: how could they fail to recognize the light of the Truth? Why did they not open themselves to the goodness of God who deigned to share in our humanity? Effectively Jesus of Nazareth the man is the transparency of God, in him God dwells fully. And while we are constantly seeking other signs, other miracles, we do not realize that he is the true Sign, God made flesh, he is the greatest miracle in the world: the whole of God’s love contained in a human heart, in a man’s face.

The One who fully understood this reality was the Virgin Mary, who is blessed because she believed (cf. Lk 1:45). Mary was not shocked by her Son: her wonder for him was full of faith, full of love and joy, in seeing him so human and at the same time so divine. Let us therefore learn from her, our Mother in faith, to recognize in the humanity of Christ the perfect revelation of God.

[Pope Benedict, Angelus 8 July 2012]

The same link between the 'miracle-sign' and faith is confirmed by other negative facts. Let us recall some of them. In Mark's Gospel we read that Jesus in Nazareth "could perform no miracle, but only laid hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marvelled at their unbelief" (Mk 6:5-6).

We know the gentle rebuke Jesus once addressed to Peter: "Man of little faith, why did you doubt?". This happened when Peter, who at first went boldly on the waves towards Jesus, then by the violence of the wind became afraid and began to sink" (cf. Mt 14:29-31).

5. Jesus emphasises more than once that the miracle he performed is linked to faith. "Your faith has healed you", he says to the woman who had been suffering from haemorrhaging for twelve years and who, when she came up behind him, touched the hem of his cloak and was healed (cf. Mt 9:20-22; Lk 8:48; Mk 5:34).

Similar words Jesus pronounced while healing blind Bartimaeus, who at the exit from Jericho insistently asked for his help, crying out: "Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on me!" (cf. Mk 10, 46-52). According to Mark: "Go, your faith has saved you", Jesus answers him. And Luke specifies the answer: "Have sight again! Your faith has saved you" (Lk 18:42).

He makes an identical statement to the Samaritan healed of leprosy (Lk 17:19). While to two other blind men pleading to regain their sight, Jesus asks: "Do you believe that I can do this?" "Yes, O Lord!" . "Let it be done to you according to your faith" (Mt 9:28-29).

6. Particularly touching is the episode of the Canaanite woman, who did not cease to ask Jesus' help for her daughter "cruelly tormented by a demon". When the Canaanite woman prostrated herself before Jesus to ask him for help, he replied: 'It is not good to take the bread of the children to throw it to the little dogs' (this was a reminder of the ethnic diversity between Israelites and Canaanites, which Jesus, son of David, could not ignore in his practical behaviour, but to which he alluded in a methodological function to provoke faith). And here the woman intuitively comes to an unusual act of faith and humility. She says: 'It is true, Lord . . . but even little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table'. Faced with such a humble, gracious and confident word, Jesus replies: 'Woman, truly great is your faith! May it be done to you as you wish" (cf. Mt 15:21-28).

It is an event difficult to forget, especially when one thinks of the countless "Canaanites" of every time, country, colour and social condition, who reach out their hand to ask for understanding and help in their needs!

7. Note how in the Gospel narrative it is continually emphasised that Jesus, when he "sees faith", performs the miracle. This is clearly stated in the case of the paralytic lowered to his feet through the opening in the roof (cf. Mk 2:5; Mt 9:2; Lk 5:20). But the observation can be made in many other cases recorded by the evangelists. The factor of faith is indispensable; but as soon as it occurs, the heart of Jesus is outstretched to fulfil the requests of the needy who turn to him for help with his divine power.

8. Once again we see that, as we said at the beginning, the miracle is a "sign" of God's power and love that saves man in Christ. But because of this, it is at the same time a call to man to faith. It must lead both the one who is miraculously saved and the witnesses of the miracle to believe.

This applies to the apostles themselves, right from the first "sign" given by Jesus in Cana of Galilee: it was then that they "believed in him" (John 2: 11). Then, when the miraculous multiplication of the loaves took place near Capernaum, with which the heralding of the Eucharist is connected, the evangelist notes that "from then on, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went with him", not being able to accept a language that seemed too "harsh" to them. Jesus then asked the Twelve: "Perhaps you also want to leave?". Peter answered, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words to eternal life, we have believed and known that you are the Holy One of God" (cf. Jn 6:66-69). The principle of faith is thus fundamental in the relationship with Christ, both as a condition for obtaining the miracle and as the purpose for which it is performed. This is made very clear at the end of John's Gospel, where we read: "Many other signs did Jesus do in the presence of his disciples, but they were not written in this book. These have been written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, believing, you may have life in his name" (John 20: 30-31).

[Pope John Paul II, General Audience 16 December 1987]

Today’s Gospel account once again, like last Sunday, brings us to the synagogue of Nazareth, the village in Galilee where Jesus was brought up in a family and was known by everyone. He, who left not long before to begin his public life, now returns and for the first time presents himself to the community, gathered in the synagogue on the Sabbath. He reads the passage of the Prophet Isaiah, who speaks of the future Messiah, and he declares at the end: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). Jesus’ compatriots, who were at first astonished and admired him, now begin to look sideways, to murmur among themselves and ask: why does he, who claims to be the Lord’s Consecrated, not repeat here in his homeland the wonders they say he worked in Capernaum and in nearby villages? Thus Jesus affirms: “no prophet is acceptable in his own country”, and he refers to the great prophets of the past, Elijah and Elisha, who had worked miracles in favour of the pagans in order to denounce the incredulity of their people. At this point those present are offended, rise up, indignant, and cast Jesus out and want to throw him down from the precipice. But he, with the strength of his peace, “passed through the midst of them and went away” (cf. v. 30). His time has not yet come.

This passage of Luke the Evangelist is not simply the account of an argument between compatriots, as sometimes happens even in our neighbourhoods, arising from envy and jealousy, but it highlights a temptation to which a religious man is always exposed — all of us are exposed — and from which it is important to keep his distance. What is this temptation? It is the temptation to consider religion as a human investment and, consequently, “negotiate” with God, seeking one’s own interest. Instead, true religion entails accepting the revelation of a God who is Father and who cares for each of his creatures, even the smallest and most insignificant in the eyes of man. Jesus’ prophetic ministry consists precisely in this: in declaring that no human condition can constitute a reason for exclusion — no human condition can constitute a reason for exclusion! — from the Father’s heart, and that the only privilege in the eyes of God is that of not having privileges, of not having godparents, of being abandoned in his hands.

“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). The ‘today’, proclaimed by Christ that day, applies to every age; it echoes for us too in this Square, reminding us of the relevance and necessity of the salvation Jesus brought to humanity. God comes to meet the men and women of all times and places, in their real life situations. He also comes to meet us. It is always he who takes the first step: he comes to visit us with his mercy, to lift us up from the dust of our sins; he comes to extend a hand to us in order to enable us to return from the abyss into which our pride made us fall, and he invites us to receive the comforting truth of the Gospel and to walk on the paths of good. He always comes to find us, to look for us.

Let us return to the synagogue. Surely that day, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Mary, his Mother, was also there. We can imagine her heart beating, a small foreboding of what she will suffer under the Cross, seeing Jesus, there in the synagogue, first admired, then challenged, then insulted, threatened with death. In her heart, filled with faith, she kept every thing. May she help us to convert from a god of miracles to the miracle of God, who is Jesus Christ.

[Pope Francis, Angelus 31 January 2016]

(Mt 13:47-53)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To internalize and live the message:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. What is it like?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What a great lesson in marriage and family spirituality!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Pope Francis, Angelus 26 July 2020].

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Marcelo Figueroa, in L'Osservatore Romano;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NOTE 

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

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

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

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

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

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

+ Giovanni D'Ercole