Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

- homiletics -

AMAZE ME LORD AND I WILL PASS OVER THE DESERT OF NINIVE TO TRY TO AMAZE MEN WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF YOUR WORD

To fish men in God's net means to remove them from an immanent perspective, devoid of absolute references and devoid of ultimate meaning, to bring them instead into a wider and deeper horizon. Among the hundred thousand words we hear from televisions, dai social media, from the radios, it gives Youtube, it gives Tik Tok and which are often inappropriate and lacking in reality, it is good that Sacred Scripture resounds in our life, the history of stories written by God for us.

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Author:
Gabriele Giordano M. Scardocci, o.p.

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Dear brothers and sisters,

In this third week of ordinary time we celebrate with the Universal Church the Sunday of the Word of God, recently established by the Supreme Pontiff Francis I [see Liturgy of the Word WHO].

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The Word of God which is contained in Sacred Scripture is one of the sources from which to draw the water of our faith, flowing like a river in our souls. Sacred Scripture is therefore within the Bible that contains the 74 sacred books, the composition of which is inspired by God who helped the human author.

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To try to understand the concept of inspiration I try to give you an example. What is your favorite book? I tell you mine, regarding recent literature: Twentieth century by Alessandro Baricco. A short story born entirely from simple fantasy. The Author had artistic and literary intentions, he was also guided by good purposes, tell us a wonderful story; but he certainly had not received the special grace of the help of the Holy Spirit to compose a book that would reveal the works of God for man. Moreover, the author's purpose was not to transmit narratives concerning the revelation of God.

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So here's the difference: i 74 biblical books are inspired, written jointly by the human author and the Holy Spirit to tell us this beautiful story of love which is the salvation that the Trinitarian God offers to man. In order to understand the true meaning of Sacred Scripture, God gave, especially to bishops and priests, the grace to grasp its profound meaning and the mission of teaching it to the People of God and also to those who do not know it. And this teaching of the Word of God is what is evident in today's readings. First of all, Jonah, we read about:

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«This word of the Lord came to Jonah: “Get up, going to Nineveh, the big city, and tell them what I tell you ". Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Word of the Lord " [Gio 3,1-5.10].

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Jonah is sent to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, or said in other words: it is sent right into the eye of the storm, in the polytheistic religious political center in which there was a conception opposite to that of the Jewish people. The Lord therefore seeks with His Word to generate friendship, contacts and bonds even between totally different peoples, totally in cultural and ideological contrast. This is how Jonah becomes the herald of this Word of eternal life, the word with which God tries to change our daily life, what we live today in the year 2021.

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How the word changes our life we discover it in today's Holy Gospel in which Jesus is presented as the living Word of the Father as well as fulfillment of the Old Testament word. Through that Word it is therefore the incarnate Word of God who speaks to us and tells us how our life changes, if we listen to it:

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“Passing along the Sea of ​​Galilee, he saw Simone and Andrea, brother of Simone, as they cast their nets into the sea; they were in fact fishermen. Jesus said to them,: “Come after me, I will make you fishers of men ". And immediately they left their nets and followed him " [MC 1, 14-20].

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Simon and Andrew are made fishers of men by Jesus. The Word of God makes them capable of catching man in their daily life and bringing them to the knowledge of higher truths. To fish men in God's net means to remove them from an immanent perspective, devoid of absolute references and devoid of ultimate meaning, to bring them instead into a wider and deeper horizon. Among the hundred thousand words we hear from televisions, dai social media, from the radios, it gives Youtube, it gives Tik Tok and which are often inappropriate and lacking in reality, it is good that Sacred Scripture resounds in our life, the history of stories written by God for us. In fact, as the Nobel Prize for literature Sir Kazuo Ishiguro said, British of Japanese origin, by contacting the Swedish Academy:

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“All the good stories, regardless of the method by which they are narrated, they must contain reports that are important to us; that move us, entertain us, exasperate us or surprise us ".

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Let us ask the Lord for the grace to open ourselves more and more to listening and to the interiorization of His word, so that his Trinitarian love always moves us, to have fun, to exasperate and surprise us in our life of faith and charity.

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Rome, 24 January 2021

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Staff Blog

Father Gabriele

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