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Using visible signs, Jesus takes us from the material to the spiritual

4 August 2024/in Homiletics/by Hermit Monk

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

BY USING VISIBLE SIGNS JESUS TAKES US FROM THE MATERIAL TO THE SPIRITUAL

Jesus will proclaim the blessedness of those who believe without having seen: «Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed». Faith opens your eyes and allows you to trace the sign to its profound meaning, from the gift to the Giver, from material reality to its symbolic dimension, from material bread to the "bread of life"

Author
Hermit Monk

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The reading of the Johannine Gospel puts us in contact with the particular way this author has of narrating the events of Jesus. The intent of the singular evangelist is to elevate us from the simple historical fact narrated to the meaning or mystery hidden in it. What Gregory the Great wrote referring to the Holy Scripture could be applied to him: «In one and the same language as he narrates the text, reveals the mystery (Because with the same word while expounding the text he enunciates a mystery)» (Morals in Job, XX,1).

The statement of a question and sometimes misunderstandings are useful to the author of the Fourth Gospel to carry out this hermeneutic operation. The Samaritan woman asks Jesus how she can draw from the well without a means, Magdalene asks where the body of Jesus which she could no longer find had been placed. The very first disciples ask Jesus: «Where are you staying?». In the evangelical page of this XVIII Sunday there are actually three questions: «Rabbi, when you came here?»; «What must we do?»; «What sign do you perform so that we see and believe?». Here is the page of the Gospel we want to talk about.

"During that time, when the crowd saw that Jesus was no longer there and neither were his disciples, he got into the boats and headed for Capernaum in search of Jesus. They found him across the sea and told him: “Rabbi, when you came here?”. Jesus answered them: "In truth, verily I tell you: you are looking for me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate those loaves and were satisfied. Get busy not for food that doesn't last, but for the food that remains for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Because the Father is on him, It gave, he put his seal". They told him then: “What must we do to do the works of God?”. Jesus answered them: “This is God's work: that you believe in him whom he has sent". Then they told him: “What sign do you perform so that we see and believe you? What work do you do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat’. Jesus answered them: "In truth, verily I tell you: it is not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you bread from heaven, the true one. Indeed, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.". Then they told him: "Man, always give us this bread". Jesus answered them: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty, May!”» (GV 6,24-35).

With today's song the Lectionary introduces us to the discourse on the bread of life contained in chapter VI of the Fourth Gospel. The initial notes put us in contact with the anxiety of the crowds looking for Jesus. If we keep in mind what the v. 23: «the place where they had eaten bread, after the Lord had given thanks"; we understand what had remained imprinted in the memory of the crowd. Having eaten abundant bread is an initial stage, but it is enough to set people moving in search of Jesus. The description of this one is a little confusing, how to make people perceive, through the breathlessness and anxiety of the crowd, an inchoative search for faith: first they see only one boat, then they notice that Jesus had not gone up there, then they see other boats arriving (vv. 22. 23). And when they finally track him down in Capernaum the question «When did you come here?» (GV 6,25), shows more of an interest in Jesus' movements, how he could have escaped them, than having understood the hidden meaning of the sign performed by Jesus. The reader is thus spontaneously invited to ask himself: «What do we look for when we want to meet Jesus?».

The words of Jesus they initially lay bare this search which does not go in depth and stops at the edge of the satisfied need: «You are looking for me not because you saw signs, but because you ate those loaves and were satisfied" (GV 6,26). The crowds did not understand the sign and the extraordinary novelty that it indicated, namely that in Jesus the superabundant gratuitousness of God is revealed which is not limited to imminent need, present now, but it leads to an eternal future. What Jesus says is decisive in this regard: «Get to work for the food that does not perish, but which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you." (GV 6,27).

The verb used, you work, which means to work, do concretely, earn, recalls the other curious expression of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John: «do the Truth». The first thing expected from a man who is confronted with Christ and his word is that he "do the truth". This biblical formula doesn't mean what you might think: live in accordance with the truth. «Doing the truth» entails, in the Fourth Gospel, the entire process of assimilation of the revelation brought by Jesus, the path of progress in faith; means «to make one's own the truth" of Jesus, listening to his word and contemplating his person and his actions. Thus man progressively enters the mystery of Christ and becomes Christian. But believing is not enough. The believer must also deepen his faith. It is what John defines with the expression: "know the truth". This profound knowledge is not acquired in a day; it is obtained little by little, with the very rhythm of the development of faith.

Here then is that Jesus, according to Johannine's own way of narrating, it allows us to enter into a profound understanding of the sign accomplished, moving from the material to the spiritual, from need to desire for God, to faith in Christ who gives the bread of eternal life. Responding, so, to people's question about what the "works of God" to do are (v. 28), Jesus does not refer to "good works", for example fasting, of almsgiving or prayer. There are not many works, but only one: the work of faith. The famous diatribe between faith and works in Saint John is overcome by stating that faith is the essential and necessary work. It gives meaning and orientation to the sacramentality of the Christian's actions. The work of God, that is, what allows God to operate in man, it is faith, so expressed by Jesus: “Believe in him whom he has sent” (GV 6,29). And recalling the theme of doing and Truth, previously mentioned, in the same Gospel Jesus had stated: «He who does the truth comes towards the light, so that it appears clearly that his works were done in God " (GV 3,21).

Jesus' response it is not received and understood in depth by his interlocutors who ask him again for a sign that legitimizes his authority and enables them to "see and believe" (GV 6,30). To substantiate the request, the crowds cite the episode that occurred during the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, when the gift of manna legitimized the authority of Moses (Is 16,4.15; Shall 78,24). We are still in the perspective of miracles and the gift of exchange, as happens among the powers of this world, a perspective abhorred by Jesus so whoever has seen his signs wants to make him king (GV 6,14-15). But to the "seeing is believing" logic of the crowds, Jesus actually opposes "believing to see". Maybe he won't tell Marta: «I didn't tell you that, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?» (GV 11,40)? To Thomas who affirms: «If I don't see, ... I don't think so" (GV 20,25) Jesus will proclaim the blessedness of those who believe without having seen: «Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed» (GV 20,29). Faith opens your eyes and allows you to trace the sign to its profound meaning, from the gift to the Giver, from material reality to its symbolic dimension, from material bread to the "bread of life" (GV 6,35), the "real bread" (GV 6,32), the "bread of God" (GV 6,33), the bread that is not the fruit of the earth, but "which descends from heaven" (GV 6,33).

Jesus clarifies then through his affirmation of faith, which operates a passage from the past to the present, from the events of the Exodus to today, and reveals who gives the Bread, the true one, which is Jesus the Christ: «It is not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the real one" (GV 6,32). God who for Jesus is "my Father" (GV 6,33) he didn't "give", as in the past, but finally he "gives" this bread today and always. This is the culminating point where Jesus reveals the work of God the Father which is accomplished in Him and which the manna of the Sinaitic desert prefigured. And the revelation is that this bread is Christ himself: «I am the bread of life». This Sunday's evangelical pericope stops here, about this self-revelation: "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not be hungry and whoever believes in me will not be thirsty, more» (GV 6,35).

The Latin Father Saint Ambrose (339-340 – 397), commenting on the Psalm 118, this is how he expresses himself:

«It's up to you to take this bread. Approach this bread and you will take it. If you turn away from Christ, you will die, if you get closer to Christ, you will live. This is the bread of life: so, who eats Life, he cannot die. How can he who has Life as food die?? How can he who has Life for sustenance fail? Draw near to Him and be satisfied: He is bread. Approach Him and drink: He is the source. Come close to Him and let yourselves be enlightened: He is the light. Draw near to Him and let yourselves be set free: in fact where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom there. Draw near to Him and let your bonds be loosened: He is the remission of sins. You wonder who He is? Listen to what he himself says: “I am the bread of life: whoever comes to me will no longer be hungry, whoever comes to me will never be thirsty again”».

From the Hermitage, 4 August 2024

Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

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Father Ariel sued the Holy See and the Order of Dominican Nuns before the European Court of Human Rights: «I am a nun because I feel like one»

2 August 2024/1 Comment/in Theology and canon law/by Father Theodore

FATHER ARIEL SUED THE HOLY SEE AND THE ORDER OF DOMINICAN NUNS BEFORE THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS: «I AM A NUN BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE ONE»

The homophobic outrage of the Mother Prioress: «Reverend Father, it historic mental hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà, which was here, in this area of ours, in Monte Mario, it was permanently closed in January of 2000. While we, like Dominican nuns, we can't do anything for her.".

– Summer lightnesses of the Fathers of the Island of Patmos –

Author
Teodoro Beccia

While Rome was enveloped in a blanket of heat and the thermometer read 40°, our Father Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo presented himself at Monastery of Santissimi Domenico e Sisto in Santa Maria del Rosario, which is located in Rome in the Monte Mario district, to ask the Mother Prioress to begin the novitiate in view of her profession of religious vows as a Dominican nun.

Father Ariel feels like a nun and should be welcomed and respected as such

The Mother Prioress she was initially very delicate and began by saying:

«Reverend Father, in fact it is very hot these days in Rome. So you don't have to worry too much about any actions, completely inconsiderate reactions or, worse, demands, because in some subjects the heat can play really bad tricks, even in the presbyteries".

No way. More determined than ever, he set out to explain that each of us, today, it is not so much what it is or appears to be, but what he feels or perceives himself to be. In this regard he gave the example of the Olympics in France, where one, an Algerian boxer defined as hyperandrogynous (see WHO, WHO) forced an Italian competitor to withdraw from the competition after a few seconds, except being literally massacred (see WHO, WHO, WHO, etc…).

the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, undoubtedly and unquestionably a woman, as many journalists have explained, before which the Italian competitor Angela Carini withdrew within a few seconds after a single punch received by this woman, undoubtedly and unquestionably a woman

Now impatient the Mother Prioress, among other things, feeling mocked by this priest who seemed truly brain-dead, he blurted out:

«Reverend Father, it historic mental hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà, which was here, in this area of ours, in Monte Mario, it was permanently closed in January of 2000. While we, like Dominican nuns, we can't do anything for her.".

At that point Father Ariel ran shocked and crying to the Dominican Convent of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva to speak with an elderly theologian he trusted, Father Daniel Ols. After listening to it without batting an eyelid, the elderly theologian pretended nothing happened, because as we know, crazy people should never be contradicted. With an excuse he was absent and proceeded to call the 118. Shortly afterwards, a Misericordia ambulance arrived with sirens blaring and two beefy nurses, one of whom was holding a straitjacket. He escaped from the two before they wrapped him up inside that restraint instrument, shortly afterwards he asked for political asylum at the LGBT embassy of Cowkiller of Rome, where a team of lawyers rushed friendly who are currently helping him to sue, on charges of discrimination, the Holy See and the Dominican Nuns at the European Court of Human Rights.

In conclusion: among us Fathers of The Island of Patmos, capable of making fun of ourselves when necessary and the French Olympics transformed into a grotesque Gay Pride under the banner of mockery of Catholicism (see WHO); event in which an attempt was made to make the world of the unreal win at all costs, there is this substantial difference: we joke by deserious what cannot be treated as serious, because it isn't. By contrast, instead, the organizers of certain Olympic-Gaul events want to impose as true and serious at all costs what remains and will always remain surreal and grotesque when tested by facts. Not to mention the danger, because that is all a chapter to be treated separately, indeed, force civil society to accept people not for who they actually are, but for what they feel or say they are in a completely surreal or capricious way, it's dangerous, very dangerous…

We wish a happy summer to our readers.

Velletri of Rome, 2 August 2024

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Dear Cousins from beyond the Alps, these circumstances, very simply, give us back the Mona Lisa

1 August 2024/in Actuality/by Straight Anna Monia

DEAR COUSINS FROM OVER THE ALPE, THIS BEING SO, VERY SIMPLY, GIVE US BACK THE MICA

I do not tear my clothes in the name of sacrilege, this is not what this is about. I tear my clothes because of abortion included in the Constitution. Terrible. In this case, let's keep our clothes on, despite the heat, and let's ask ourselves: what does the carnival have to do with the Olympics??

— Actuality —

Author
Anna Monia Alfieri, I.M.
Knight of the Italian Republic

Basically that's what I thought, when I saw, during the inauguration ceremony of the Olympics, the wagon with the parody, let's call it, of Leonardo's Last Supper (cf.. Future, WHO e WHO).

I don't tear my clothes in the name of sacrilege, this is not what this is about. I tear my clothes because of abortion included in the French Constitution. Terrible. In this case, let's keep our clothes on, despite the heat, and let's ask ourselves: what does the carnival have to do with the Olympics?, (c)it is useful?

The aim was to reiterate the secular character of the State? Secularism does not mean bad taste or desecration of culture. I think it was a bad page in the history of the Olympics and of France, of Western culture in general, also given the almost general silence. After all, everyone, I stand corrected, almost everyone — because those who are not aligned with the dominant culture must remain silent, under penalty of being accused of being obscurantist - they have the right to have their say, regardless of the form which is always substance.

Yet another consideration, this, I admit, sweaty, after all, I also belong to the category: seeing those images I thought of Charlemagne, I thought of the pages of Bossuet, so much loved by Manzoni, I thought of Saint Therese of Lisieux, I thought of Maritain, so appreciated by Saint Paul VI. Ma, above all, I thought of the Lourdes cave which still attracts pilgrims from all over the world and which remains a sign of contradiction for everyone's intelligence, even lay people, the honest ones, it's obvious.

Dear young people, reflect and reject bad taste, ignorance and contempt of the true culture that, to be such, it is the fruit of free and honest hearts and minds. We who have inherited so much beauty have the task of safeguarding and respecting it. If we are not capable of it, let's give it to others to do it. So, give us back the Mona Lisa!

Milan, 1 August 2024

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When the dream amphibologist author of “Codice Katzinger” he took care of “cat and cat” and tried to scratch itches by celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Viagra …

31 July 2024/in Actuality/by father ariel

WHEN THE DREAM AMPHIBOLOGIST AUTHOR OF CODICE KATZINGER HE WAS DEALING WITH CATZ AND MATZ AND HE TRIED TO PITCH THE ITCHES BY CELEBRATING TWENTY YEARS OF VIAGRA …

Good times, when it was more of a woman's hair rather than ridicule Codice Katzinger of a pathetic character who, in order to make news and cassettes, makes no distinction between the twentieth anniversary of Viagra and the twenty centuries of history of the Papacy!

— Smiling at what isn't serious but would like to be —

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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Overwhelmed by the heat that envelops us this summer, Fathers de The Island of Patmos they have entrusted to my pen the gift of a fresh smile with which to pay homage to our Readers, reiterating incidentally that as priests we are called to be serious and not serious people. In fact, between the serious and the serious lies the difference between a sincere man and a hypocritical man.

The Italian man is no longer what he once was, when for a skirt he lost the light of reason. And faced with certain current situations we can only say... those were good times! Today, the light of reason, many lose it behind conspiracies or unlikely cryptic codes of the Supreme Pontiffs who have made false renouncements of the pontificate, to follow with unspecified amphibologies marketed by some salesman …

Instead of testosterone certain Italian men exude science fiction phobias, often even of a pseudo-religious nature. No longer foaming at the mouth as happened in the past, to talk about the unforgettable performances from One Thousand and One Nights that they would offer to certain beautiful women; today, with their mouths, they drool excitedly to talk about gift e ministry pontifical, getting excited much more than they would get excited in front of a beautiful model put on the cover of an erotic monthly magazine.

And so it was that a certain journalist - whose intellectual honesty is equal to that of a fox who enters a henhouse dressed as a Carmelite nun to preach penitential fasting -, he understood that the wise popular proverb had been tragically reversed. In fact, our wise elders said:

«It pulls a woman's hair more than an ox cart».

That's why ours, in data 6 February 2019, he tried to arouse itching with the historical apologia of the ancestors of Viagra by writing in the newspaper The 19th Century this article:

«The ancestors of Viagra. Thousand-year history of aphrodisiacs, from the ancient Romans to words in chat» (see article WHO).

It may be that while working on this article ended up discovering that if Viagra exists it's precisely because women's hair grows less and less, the cart is increasingly tired and the oxen that pull it are increasingly horned. And as if by magic he decided to transform himself from an unlikely historian of urology and andrology into a canonist, ecclesiologist and historian of the most unlikely Church yet, creating a kind of hair and itching that today is more painful than ever, perhaps even on a compensatory level, because many men seem to make up for their natural lack of libido by arousing themselves with plots centered on false popes ruling false churches after their predecessor had falsely renounced the sacred throne to inaugurate a fantastic “venue prevented” (!?).

We priests miss them terribly those men who let themselves be pulled more by a woman's hair than by an ox cart. For us confessors, then, it was a pleasure and a great act of grace to absolve an army of lustful people, behind which, well never forget it, there were just as many lustful women, because men did not do it alone, in that case it would have just been masturbation. Therefore, when certain weeping women, groaning and afflicted in their victimhood, they speak of the plague of cheaters, referring to them as whoremongers, with due honesty they should remember and admit that behind every whoremonger there is always and necessarily a whoremonger, unless, as we said just now, man does not do it alone, in this case, however, it would not be betrayal but a completely different thing and very different sexual practice and activity.

Today, the psycho-impotent in the brain following Carini's rabid rabid dogs and amphibologists who wrote cryptic codes to decode, I am far from coming to confession, because the more they wreak havoc on the Church and the Papacy, the more they pretend to feel right.

Good times, when it was more of a woman's hair rather than ridicule Codice Katzinger of a pathetic character who, in order to make news and cassettes, makes no distinction between the twentieth anniversary of Viagra and the twenty centuries of history of the Papacy!

Happy summer everyone.

From the island of Patmos, 31 July 2024

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Mary Magdalene «The apostle of the apostles», from a morning meditation for the Discalced Carmelite nuns

22 July 2024/1 Comment/in Homiletics/by father ariel

MARY MAGDALENE, THE "APOSTLE OF THE APOSTLES", FROM A MORNING MEDITATION FOR THE DISCALCED CARMELITES

Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans: "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!». E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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Meditation on the figure of Mary Magdalene offered to the Discalced Carmelite nuns this morning.

In today's party the universal Church celebrates liturgical memory of Santa Maria Maddalena, an extraordinary female figure in the Christological experience that reminds us of the Blessed Apostle Paul who, addressing to the people of Corinth, clarifies in a few short words the foundation of our faith:

"If Christ had not risen indeed, in vain would be our faith and our hope in vain " (The Cor, 15).

Before the empty tomb of the risen Christ, the link between reason and faith, more than narrow, it is inseparable. Because with reason we arrive at the overturned stone of the tomb of Christ God, with faith we enter the eternal mystery of the Risen One.

Monica Bellucci as Maddalena in the film The Passion, 2004.

On the words of the Apostle Paul Blessed, which in the resurrection of Christ shows us the mystery of mysteries on which our faith can stand or die, is a rational demand: but what is faith? And do not use some coincidence that the word "rational", because the relationship between ratio e fides, reason and faith, it is highlighted by three Holy Fathers and doctors of the Church who constitute the pillars of theological speculation: Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo, St. Anselm of Aosta first Abbot of Le Bec and then Archbishop of Canterbury, San Tommaso Aquino.

The dogmatic constitution of Vatican II, God's word, takes up the text of the constitution almost verbatim the son of God the First Vatican Council, reiterating in a line of continuity with the previous magisterium and with the Council of Trent the «Relationship between faith and reason» expressed with these words:

"The same Holy Mother Church professes and teaches that God, beginning and end of all things, It can be known with certainty to the natural light of human reason through created things; indeed, the invisible things of Him are known by the intelligence of the human being through the things that were done (cf. RM 1,20) [1]».

A distance of approximately a century from Vatican I, following the teaching of Aquinas, the Holy Pontiff John Paul II gave us his encyclical on faith and reason, the Faith and Reason.

The big question "What is faith", that in us resonates with the divine gift of reason, the Author of the Letter to the Hebrews provides an answer by saying:

«faith is the certainty of things hoped for and demonstration of realities that are not seen» (EB 11, 1).

To open up to faith, which it is both "certainty" and "hope", you need to project ourselves in a dimension of eternity, because the source of faith is the Lord.

The Servant of God Anastasio Ballastrero he used to say that «The present life is a space of bliss to the extent that eternity is rooted in it».

This story of the resurrection of Christ, with which concludes the entire Gospel of John the Apostle Blessed, is placed in the Eternal as an open door on the way toἔσχατον, the glorious day when Christ will return in glory to judge the living and the dead. And all this is a challenge to human reason to induce the man to the big step of faith.

Blessed Evangelist continues to narrate that while the two disciples returning home, Mary remained crying outside the tomb:

«The first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb in the morning, when it was still dark, and he saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. He then ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, what Jesus loved, and told them: “They took the Lord away from the tomb and we don't know where they placed him!”. Maria was outside, the tomb, and crying. she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and one at the feet, where it had laid the body of Jesus. And they told her: “Donna, why are you crying?” He answered them: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid". Said this, She turned around and saw Jesus, standing; and he knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus told her: «Donna, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?». Her, thinking it was the gardener, he told him: “man, if you have carried him away, tell me where you put it and I'll go get it”. Jesus told her: “Maria!”. She turned and said to him in Hebrew: “Rabbuni!”, what does it mean: “Maestro!”. Jesus told her: “Don't hold me back, because I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, My God and your God". Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples: “I saw the Lord!” and what he had told her (GV 20,1-2 e 11-18).

During the sacred rites of the Passover of resurrection we sing an ancient sequence of rare beauty the Gregorian, of which a verse reads: Mors et vita conflixere duel aiming ... (death and life will face in a tremendous duel). And from this duel is something out defeat death, because the resurrection of Christ is an explosion of vital love without beginning and without end that takes us back to the eternal dimension of our existence in the ancient original Garden of Eden, because with Christ we are dead to sin and with Him we are all resurrected. For as we have all been involved in the sin of Adam, we have all been involved and made sharers in Christ's redemptive resurrection.

Death touches us more painfully, especially when it deprives us of precious suffering, He proves this Mary Magdalene with her tender lamentation. But however painful, death does not affect us forever, It takes us to a moment of passage to eternity, as we proclaim in our profession of faith:

"... I believe in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the world to come".

It's still, so different but similar, we proclaim it during the Holy Mass on the Most Holy Eucharistic Species of Christ present alive and true with His body, His blood His soul and His divinity, cheering:

"We announce your death, Lord, We proclaim your resurrection until you come again ".

To understand what he was trying Maddalena in his heart at that moment, there might be help St. John of the Cross, that like all true mystics lived with his feet on the ground balances, because it is the earthly Jerusalem that we are called to project ourselves into the eternal heavenly Jerusalem. Referring to the Blessed Apostle Paul (cf.. RM 14, 3) he exhorts:

"Those who act according to reason is like one who eats nutritious foods; those who moves behind the taste of the will is like one who eats rotten fruit '[2].

Because of this, just 49 year old, now in its fullness in Christ after flying on "two wings"[3] of faith and reason, St. John of the Cross received death lowered into the spiritual coherence that a few years ago led him to write in his famous poem "Break the canvas now in the sweet encounter"[4]. And what he portrayed as a 'canvas', it was the mystical-poetic representation of the last tear through which, through the overturned stone of the empty tomb of the Risen, leads to the contemplation of the Divine Victorious Lamb who triumphs over death and that through the mystery of his resurrection involves us in eternity; and who is able to enjoy the eternal, He says together with the Blessed Apostle Paul: "For me, living is Christ and dying is a gain" (I Phil 1, 21).

Tender remains for ever the question of Mary Magdalene, that frightened before the empty tomb pained groans:

"They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we know not where they have laid!».

E, said this, shortly after she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, behind his back; but his reason did not know that it was Jesus; But it was the same reason that led her at once to make the leap of faith before the heavenly light of the Risen Body, she knew from her voice that spoke her name: «Maria!».

If we avert our fearful look the upturned stone of our empty tombs, We find out what the Lord's love goes beyond death, enough that we turn back; and day by day we will discover that 'Alpha and l 'Omega, the Word of God, It is behind us, to call us by name, because we are all in the divine heart of the great mystery of the Father, who wanted us, loved and called by name before the beginning of time.

Mary Magdalene is a woman who seeks the beloved of his heart, and to her church, in this Liturgy of the Word, He directs the words of the Book of Song of Songs in which it is revealed God's love for man and man for his God:

«… I tried my soul loves […] I found the love of my soul ".

Between the second and third century St. Hippolytus of Rome[5] It defines "the Apostle of the Apostles". She is in fact the first to see the risen Christ, according to the story of Blessed John the Evangelist. And after recognizing it she ran to tell it to the eleven Apostles, hidden and shocked by what they had seen a few days before on Golgotha. And from this episode it understands what is venerable figure of Maddalena, sent by Christ to proclaim his resurrection to those fearful that a few days before, during l'Last Supper, He had established priests of the New Covenant; the same people who a few days earlier, as recounted a dramatic passage from the Gospel: «And all the disciples, forsook him, fled» (cf.. Mt 26, 56). And the first of the Apostles, covered by Christ God for a vicarious function and he defined as uplifting rock of his Church (cf.. Mt 16, 13-20), before the stunning scenery of the capture and condemnation of the Divine Master, he didn't say, as he said on Mount Athos during the transfiguration of Christ "we stay here ...", Indeed, "let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah " (cf.. MC 9, 2-8). After Christ had sweated blood in the Garden shortly after going to meet his painful passion, Peter denied him three times. And even the abandonment of God by his apostles and priests, it's part, of always, the mystery of the Church; it's part, of always, of the mystery of faith. To take it up our cross and follow him (cf.. MC 8, 27-35), not enough reason alone, because it needs to be done through reason the leap of faith. Only in this way will we be able to recognize the Risen One who calls us by name from behind, because all, we are called to be Mary. E, like Mary, be heralds of his Resurrection.

the Island of Patmos, 22 July 2024

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NOTE

[1] First Vatican Council: Denz. -beautiful, 3004; cf 3026

[2] St. John of the Cross, it gives The soul in love prayers, n. 43.

[3] CF. Saint John Paul II, Faith and Reason, introductory preamble.

[4] St. John of the Cross, it gives O flame of love alive.

[5] Hippolytus Roman [170-235 D.C.], theologian and priest. It was the first anti-pope in Church history, He died reconciled with the legitimate Pope Pontian, together with whom he died in Sardinia after being convicted to the metals (to forced labor) by Maximinus the Thracian.

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Come aside, in a lonely place, and rest a bit’

21 July 2024/in Homiletics/by Hermit Monk

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

COME APART, IN A LONELY PLACE, AND REST FOR A LITTLE BIT’

The Lord does not want them to feel like exclusive protagonists of the good they have done, giving in to the risk of appropriating what they have achieved. In fact, let us remember that the apostles were called and sent and the power given to them came from Jesus, by his authority.

Author
Hermit Monk

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The portion of the Gospel text chosen for the Liturgy of this XVI Sunday of Ordinary Time skips the entire narrative of the death of John the Baptist (MC 6,17-29), that, in Marc's opera, follows last Sunday's Gospel, where it is described at length and in great detail. Effectively, according to Marco's story, both Jesus and the disciples seem not to notice the Baptist's death. Which does not naturally happen to John's disciples who collect and bury his corpse. So too Matthew must have perceived this discrepancy and in fact in his work he establishes a connection between the death of John and Jesus who decides to go aside with his, because he writes:

«The disciples [of the Baptist] they went to get the body, they buried him and went to tell Jesus. Hearing this, Jesus left there in a boat and withdrew by himself to a deserted place. But the crowd, knowing it, he followed him on foot from the cities. They, got off the boat, he saw a large crowd and felt compassion for them and healed their sick." (Mt 14,12-14).

Vincent van Gogh, Noon, rest from work, 1890, Paris, Orsay Museum

If in Matthew's version we can deduce that Jesus retreats to a solitary place to reflect on the death of his ancient master, we, instead, following Marco, we can look for other reasons for Jesus' invitation: « Come aside, in a lonely place, and rest a bit" (MC 6,31). Let us also remember that for Mark the story of John's death desired by Herod starts from the latter's observation about Jesus: «That John whom I had beheaded, It has risen!» (MC 6, 16). Here is the pericope inserted in the Liturgy of the Word:

"During that time, the apostles gathered around Jesus and told him everything they had done and what they had taught. And he said to them: “Come aside, you alone, in a deserted place, and rest a bit.". In fact, there were many who came and went and didn't even have time to eat. Then they went in the boat to a deserted place, on the sidelines. Many, however, saw them leave and understood, and they ran there on foot from all the cities and preceded them. Off the boat, he saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep that have no shepherd, and he began to teach them many things " (MC 6,30-34).

In Jesus' desire to listen to the apostles' report and in the desire they have to report what they have "done and taught" (MC 6, 30) we find the reason why He invites them aside. The Lord does not want them to feel like exclusive protagonists of the good they have done, giving in to the risk of appropriating what they have achieved. In fact, let us remember that the apostles were called and sent and the power given to them came from Jesus, by his authority. This evidence casts an early look at what will be the dynamics of the post-Easter mission and which concern the Church of all times. From the missionaries, the Apostles like any other announcer of the Gospel, a great deal of effort and enthusiasm is put into it, but the result is guaranteed by the strength of the Word which has within itself a power that surpasses even those who announce it (Rom 1,16). The temptation is always the same, that the correspondents perceive themselves as the architects of success and that the success is their own work alone. Jesus will teach the disciples, The evangelist Luke reminds us of this, that:

“When you have done everything you have been ordered, said: We are useless servants. We did what we had to do" (LC 17,10).

Jesus, inviting the Twelve to rest with him, he also invites them to detach themselves from what they have done and taught. In this sense we also understand the theme of rest and what follows next. As well as being a sign of human attention, like the one Jesus had towards Jairus' daughter who was brought back to life, inviting bystanders to feed her (MC 5,43), rest throughout Scripture also has a theological significance. We go from the rest of God to the end of the created work, to the repetition of the same in the writing of the Letter to the Hebrews:

«For he who has entered into his rest, he too rests from his works, like God from his own. Let us therefore hasten to enter that rest, so that no one falls into the same type of disobedience" (EB 4,10-11).

Even in the Gospel of Matthew we find an invitation to rest: «Venite a me, you all, that you are tired and oppressed, and I will refresh you" (Mt 11,28). The rest of the disciples, as well as having a very human value, it is very reminiscent of the spiritual awareness that the psalmist had sung about:

«The Lord is my shepherd: I lack nothing. On grassy pastures it makes me rest, He leads me to still waters. Refresh my soul, he guides me along the right path because of his name" (Shall 23).

At this point we understand that on the one hand distancing from the completed work is required, overcoming that human temptation to feel like its custodians and masters for all the effort that has been put into it, on the other hand, rest allows us to enjoy what is essential and which corresponds to the first reason why the Twelve were chosen: «He made Twelve of them, whom he called apostles, so that they could be with him and to send them out to preach" (MC 3,14). "Being with him" brings to mind that Gospel episode, reported by Luca, which sees the industrious Martha contrasted with the idle Mary who remains close to Jesus to listen to him. The two sisters, wrongly or appropriately, they have been taken as a model of the active or contemplative life:

«But the Lord answered her: «Marta, March, You struggle and you get acted for many things, But of one only one is needed. Maria chose the best part, that will not be removed " (LC 10, 41-42).

What follows is important, because it is a good introduction to what comes next, both in the Gospel and in the liturgical lectionary: the story of the "Multiplication of the loaves" will in fact occupy the Sundays of the liturgical year from next, the seventeenth, up to the twentieth. A decisive story that we also find in the entire sixth chapter of John and which will help us understand, through the sign of bread, who Jesus is and what gift he offers. The fact that the Church still continues to donate that bread today, in different ways, it makes us understand how important this is for the faith and life of Christians. Then Jesus with his disciples “went in the boat to a desert place, apart", but the narrator adds that "many saw them leaving and understood and from all the cities ran there on foot and preceded them" (MC 6,33). The reader in this way is not surprised when, landed, Jesus realizes that the place he has gone to is not at all isolated, but indeed it is more populated than ever. The reader, prepared by Marc's skillful narration, you ask: «How will Jesus react?». And the answer is soon given, given the large crowd: “He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd” (MC 6,34). Behind that feeling of compassion is the understanding of the profound thirst for the Word of God, of the Gospel, which pushed those people to precede the boat with Jesus and the disciples on foot to the other shore. They were "sheep without a shepherd".

In the Old Testament this expression occurs several times to indicate a people disbanded due to lack of leaders or due to bad leaders (Nm 27,17; 1Re 22,17; 2Cr 18,16; Gdt 11,19). However, we can also think of a veiled reference to the death of John the Baptist; Jesus feels he must continue his ministry so that the crowds who also flocked to John do not find themselves abandoned (MC 1,5). The unfulfilled desire, frustrated rest, it is thus seen not as a problem but as an opportunity. The rest project was set aside to meet the needs of the crowds. But as we have read, it is certainly not an ethic of duty that leads Jesus to this choice, but compassion. Rest can wait if a service as necessary as required is urgent and other times will come to retreat to secluded places and rest with his disciples.

Compassion is the origin and foundation of Jesus' action, therefore "he began to teach them many things" (MC 6,34). Just as he had noticed the need for rest of the Twelve, he now sees the hunger for the Word of the people who seek him. He doesn't feel annoyed or nervous about it, but immediately begins to preach and announce the Gospel. Agree to change your plan, because the compassion that Jesus feels is more than a feeling of pity or pity, rather a bringing the other inside oneself, welcome him deeply. Just as He had accepted the Father's plan:

"This is eternal life: that they know you, the one true God, and whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. I glorified you on earth, doing the work you gave me to do" (GV 17, 3-4).

Manzoni in his novel «I promessi sposi» gives an interpretation of what compassion is, its effects and what causes it from a religious point of view. In the twenty-first chapter of the work he reports the dialogue between the Kite and the Innominato who had ordered Lucia's kidnapping:

«…He made me feel too sorry». "Compassion! What do you know about compassion? What is compassion?». «I have never understood it as well as this time: compassion is a story a little like fear: if one lets it take possession, he is no longer a man". «Let's hear a little about what she did to move you to compassion». «O most illustrious lord! so long…! cry, to pray, and make certain eyes, and become white as dead, and then sob, and pray again, and certain words…».

What had the kidnapped girl done? if not asking the reason for the violence, beg for release and experience all the feelings and movements of the soul that can be experienced in such circumstances? Manzoni, after describing them and ascertaining the impotence of stemming the harsh contingency, says so in the novel: «Lucia turned to the One who holds the hearts of men in his hand...» (Cap. XX).

From the Hermitage, 21 July 2024

Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

«Go further, so close you make me upset …» If a priest removes the crucifix from the center of the altar so that it does not cover the “centrality” of the celebrant-protagonist, it means that we have reached the end of the line

20 July 2024/in Liturgical pastoral care/by Father Simone

«GO FURTHER, SO CLOSE YOU MAKE ME DISTURBED …» IF A PRIEST REMOVES THE CRUCIFIX FROM THE CENTER OF THE ALTAR SO THAT IT DOES NOT COVER THE "CENTRALITY" OF THE CELEBRANT-PROTAGONIST, IT MEANS THAT WE HAVE REACHED THE END OF THE LINE

What can we say if videos are circulating in which priests and even bishops are seen going up to the altar and removing the crucifix from above it because it evidently takes away visibility, it occupies the space that the celebrant will take up shortly afterwards, sometimes brandishing monstrous microphones that, those yes, they can very well stay where they are?

Author
Simone Pifizzi

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What is strange and bizarre it usually strikes a chord social, because it dramatically increases views and attracts people's comments. No human sphere can be considered alien to this anxiety of searching for the particular, from the ridiculous to the monstrous, even the religious one.

Some truly strange events which took place in churches have found success on the various most famous and used platforms. From the priest who sings a popular song from the altar or makes it the backdrop for small laughable videos, to the shocking clothes of some spouses, to certain excessive blessings with holy water. Does anyone use i social also to stigmatize these behaviors that happen in churches or those gestures that border on the abuse of the place, because they are not suitable, that of the liturgy used at will. The world has become a great stage and unfortunately even religious people think that it can be accessed by exploiting the space of a church hall or presbytery. A few days ago there was news about a designer who designed a more than transparent wedding dress for a church wedding and there was no shortage of people who were able to comment: «A church is just a building, he can wear whatever he wants" (WHO).

But what can we say if videos are circulating in which priests and even bishops are seen going up to the altar and removing the crucifix from above it because it evidently takes away visibility, it occupies the space that the celebrant will take up shortly afterwards, sometimes brandishing monstrous microphones that, those yes, they can very well stay where they are?

The Bishop of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro

A priest of the Archdiocese of Salerno-Campagna-Acerno

The oddities of our time which also intersect the religious world and how the liturgy is lived and celebrated gives us the "La" to remember that the presbyters are not the undisputed masters of the celebrations and that in truth they are acting for a service that conveys a greater and deeper mystery. In this regard, I would like to focus on the altar because some oddities and distortions have occurred there, at the hands of some celebrant or diligent "pastoral worker", not to mention the so-called "liturgical animators" who think they can act as they please or more likely forget that the altar is not just any furniture, a place to put things in bulk.

Just to set the record straight, in the rite of dedication of the altar it is said that:

«with the anointing of Chrism [esso] becomes a symbol of Christ, who was called Anointed most worthily of all; in fact the Father anointed him with the Holy Spirit and made him High Priest, who offered the sacrifice of his life for the salvation of all on the altar of his own body" (Order of the dedication of the Church and the Altar, IV/22).

LThe altar is therefore a symbol of Christ and this doctrine is traditional. Saint Ambrose mentioned it several times:

«What is the altar, if not the sign of the body of Christ?» (What is the altar?, except the form of the body of Christ?), (Comm. in Cant. I,6: PL 15,1855; Of the sacred., V, 2, 7; cfr IV, 2, 7: PL 16, 447. 437).

The historical events which concern the presence of altars in churches are ancient and complex and naturally go beyond this modest contribution. We could start with the fixed altar that began to appear in the basilicas of the 4th century, until the adoption of the stone altar for which the biblical symbol of Christ "cornerstone of the spiritual building" was no stranger (cf.. Shall 118, 22; Mt 21, 42; At 4, 11; 1Color 10, 4; 1PT 2, 4-8). We could mention the ancient custom of celebrating the Eucharist on the tombs of martyrs which found concrete translation in the construction of altars above their tombs, as well as the translation of their relics under the altars of the new basilicas. Saint Ambrose always writes about this: «In the place where Christ is the victim, there are also triumphal victims. Above the altar him, who died for everyone; these, redeemed by his passion, under the altar" (Letter 22, 13: pl 16, 1023).

Of all the places that are present in a church only the altar knows a dedication rite, to underline its excellence:

«The altar, on which the sacrifice of the cross is made present in the sacramental signs, it is also the table of the Lord, in which the people of God are called to participate when they are summoned for Holy Mass; the altar is the center of the thanksgiving that takes place with the Eucharist" (The general setting of the Roman Missali, 296).

Even the Supreme Pontiff remembered it: «The gaze of those praying is directed towards the altar, priest and faithful, summoned for the holy assembly around it" (Speech by 24 August 2017).

The importance of the altar it is naturally also remembered by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

«The altar, around which the Church is gathered in the celebration of the Eucharist, it represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of sacrifice and the Lord's table, and even more so since the Christian altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present and as a victim offered for our reconciliation, both as heavenly food that is given to us" (n. 1383).

For these reasons the liturgical reform going back to the ancient Christian tradition, he wanted only one altar to be built in churches, detached from the wall to be able to walk around it and celebrate towards the people, placed in a way that attracts attention. That it was normally fixed and dedicated, with the stone table, but other worthy matters are not excluded, solid and well made. And relics of saints can be placed under the altar; that it is covered with a tablecloth and there is a cross and candlesticks above or next to it (The general setting of the Roman Missal, 298-308).

Veneration for the altar - who in fact kisses, it is incensed and bowed before it - it is motivated by its connection with the sacrifice of Christ, to whom, in the Sacrament, the sacrifice of the praying Church is associated. The spiritual offering of the faithful is placed on it, signified in bread and wine, because the Holy Spirit, for the ministry of the priest, make them a sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, so that those who feed on it become one body in Christ, to the praise of God the Father. The prayer in the preface in the dedication mass expresses this well: «Around this altar we nourish ourselves with the body and blood of your Son to form your one and holy Church».

And it is precisely the uniqueness of the redemptive sacrifice, on Calvary and in the Eucharist, on the part of Christ priest and victim, which led the conciliar liturgical reform to establish that multiple Masses cannot be celebrated at the same time in the same church and that in new churches there should be only one fixed altar. The intention to educate the Christian people with this practice and with this sign is clear, the altar, which «represents (meaning) clearly and permanently Christ Jesus, Living stone, and represents in the midst of the assembly of the faithful the one Christ and the one Eucharist of the Church" (The general setting of the Roman Missal, NN. 298, 303).

The Second Vatican Council ended in 1965, yet on this aspect, as on others, for that matter, the sensitivity of those Fathers who celebrated the important assembly and that of the many documents that followed unfortunately does not seem to have been acquired or recovered by everyone. In 2002, for example, the Holy thirst, or the Congregation for Divine Worship, had to intervene to declare it "unlawful" to celebrate the First Communion Mass on a temporary altar in the middle of the church with the naive intention of "evoking the Last Supper", since it is a useless duplication of the "sign already present"; a gesture designed to confuse the people by distracting them from the essentials. But also today in some Parishes, sometimes in front of the altar, someone places a table with the symbols of Passover on it, thus generating total liturgical and theological confusion, even if the intent would be the opposite. It is not unusual for the altar to become a support for explanatory posters, for example of a particular liturgical season and everything is placed underneath it, from the Nativity scene at Christmas time to the various offers, sometimes curious, in some celebrations. I once saw a poor little lamb forced to stay in a basket under the altar all the time when it probably would have preferred to graze in a meadow. At a certain point he started to bleat, creating hilarity in those present at the Eucharist. And a bit of everything is placed on top of it and perhaps for this very reason, as mentioned above, some celebrants find nothing better than raising the Cross, probably considering it a redundant furnishing, while instead it is foreseen and placed there to remind us towards whom we must turn our gaze.

How to fix all this? Certainly through the continuous training of everyone. Of the priests first who must take care of the celebrations and therefore be expert knowledge of the subject. In this case of the peculiarity and centrality of the sign of the altar which refers to that of Christ. They should remember, for instance, and even outside the liturgical action, the altar is an invocation and expectation of the presence of Him, Christ, who makes all things new (cf.. AP 21, 5).

Because of this, through catechesis and educational moments, they must help the faithful to form spiritually and become aware of a well-celebrated liturgy with its own signs, transparent and more important, just like the altar, it is and must be the first school in itself: «The law of prayer, law of belief».

We started by remembering the horrors that the social they are ready to reverberate until a new and sensational one pops up. Among these, some have to do with what happens in the church and in the liturgies. Thus was born this contribution which is not intended to make people laugh or multiply negative comments, as happens on Web. But it's just an invitation to take, from this circumstance, the importance and beauty of the contents of the faith and how they are expressed in the liturgy. If mistakes have been made in this area and will be made, the principle always applies: «Errors are corrected where detectedr»; that we could translate: mistakes are corrected as soon as you realize you have made them.

In conclusion we cannot fail to remind all those naive Catholics, so worried about being scandalized and shouting scandal, but not as concerned about carefully checking news and images, that many videos they posted on social they have nothing to do with the Catholic Church and our clergy. In fact, there are pseudo churches around the world which in their external liturgical apparatus are inspired by the Catholic Church. In this regard it would be enough to remember that after the First Vatican Council (opened in 1869, finished in 1870, but formally closed only in 1960) there was a schism that gave birth to the so-called Old Catholic "church".. Only from this aggregation were born and subsequently multiplied dozens of self-styled "churches" managed by rather exotic characters. Having seen and considered that there is enough liturgical abuse in our Catholic clergy; seen and considered that sometimes one almost has the impression that some of our priests compete with each other to see who can perform the most eccentric extravagance, that at least other people's antics are not attributed to us, because ours are enough and more than enough, as well as sufficiently embarrassing those of us who continue to be Catholic.

Florence, 20 July 2024

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

Francis of Assisi mystical saint, not holy, It's a very complicated figure

17 July 2024/in Theologica/by Father Ivano

FRANCIS OF ASSISI MYSTIC HOLY, NOT SANTINO, IT IS A VERY COMPLICATED FIGURE

Francis is for theology, but he reassures his friar that this must not lead him to lucubrations, intellectualism ends in itself, or to a reality that could distance him from the Lord rather than bring him closer, that elevates him on an intellectual level but not on a mystical-spiritual level. This is why Francis can allow himself to correct and exhort even a very refined theologian like Saint Anthony of Padua; this is why Francis remains a very complex and complicated figure to understand, explain and convey, above all to follow.

— Theologica —

Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Capp.

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This article on the Seraphic Father - which in its own way could be defined as "reactive” as “inspired by” - I owe it to the expression of one of the various newly appointed young bishops, who, responding to an interviewer, illustrated his personality and his pastoral perspectives by stating that he would be inspired by the "theology of Saint Francis of Assisi". Undoubtedly the young bishop will have tried to say something engaging, with transport and sincere heart, perhaps, however, ignoring not so much Franciscanism, but Francis of Assisi himself is something quite complex, for us Franciscans first.

Bartolome Esteban Murillo (Seville 1618 – 1682), Saint Francis embraces the crucified Christ, oil on canvas, private collection – Photo © Christie's

The editorial team of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos it is also and above all a place of spiritual, pastoral discussion and theological discussion between brothers. And so, Father Ariel and Father Gabriele, both dogmatic theologians by training, Capuchin Friar Minor and Franciscan priest asked me:

«Which one would it be “the theology of Saint Francis"? Saint Francis was perhaps a theologian? And since when? It appears to us that the Franciscan theologians were Anthony of Padua, today doctor of the Church, who was able to exercise the teaching of theologian with the permission of Francis who gave it with no small initial reluctance; Bonaventura da Bagnoregio (doctor of the Church) who is the patron saint of theologians. To follow up with Arlotto da Prato e Matteo d'Acquasparta, but above all the great one fine doctor Duns ScotO, also known as doctor of the immaculate conception of Mary".

It is always our duty to explain with truthful historical and theological rigor what is real and what is surreal, what is historically authentic and what is adulterated to a legendary level, sometimes even ideological. This is why it is reasonable and realistic to say that today, many of those who are inspired by our Seraphic Father, they demonstrate that they know very little about St. Francis. Unfortunately the facts demonstrate - and the facts demonstrate it, not rash judgments - which more than others pauperismO certain subjects are very close to that poverty socio-political ideology that both Francis of Assisi and the wisdom of the Church have fought since the 13th century, openly disavowing it and opposing a concept of poverty that did not open up to transcendence and a relationship with God, but it became violent poverty, accusatory and punitive towards those who possessed material goods. Exactly what in the post-industrial and post-Marxist era will be defined and indicated by sociologists as social envy.

To be precise we should talk about old heresies returning, starting from that of Friar Dolcino, preceded by Gherardo Segarelli and many other more or less illustrious members of that heretical movement of the early 14th century known as Fraticelli. Francesco, followed by Franciscanism which took life and then form from him, they constituted the most striking disavowal and implicit fight against these heretical currents, in full adherence to the doctrine of the Church and obedience to its established authorities.

Francesco is extremely complicated, as a Saint and as a man, despite being the Saint recognized by all as simpler, in truth it is extremely complex. Often, the first to not understand it, It was really us Franciscans, that we have recycled it several times throughout history for our various use and consumption, or “mitigated” and “sweetened”, as Tommaso da Celano and Bonaventura da Bagnoregio did in different but fundamentally similar ways.

Complicated figures to understand and interpret they have always existed in the history of the Church, even if sometimes the populace has distorted them through their own more or less surreal devotions. One of these figures, which in this sense we can cite as an example, it is Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, to understand which it is necessary to interpret his figure in the light of mystical theology in which God attracts man to himself in the totality of his present and future being and becoming. Otherwise San Pio da Pietrelcina will become a superstitious popular figure whose image will be reserved for the place on the truck of the strictly southern truck driver, next to the erotic photos of the calendar of the current calendar year where the figures of twelve bewitching photo models stand out. I say "strictly Southern truck driver" for a purely sociological purpose, because the South Tyrolean one makes a coherent choice: or he puts San Pio da Pietrelcina on his truck or the erotic calendar of the current calendar year, but not both together.

Saint Francis of Assisi For about nine centuries it has aroused the interest not only of devout people, but also of scholars, historians, literati, theologians and of course artists, because of the extraordinary nature of his experience of Christian life; a testimony to the Gospel that has been able to inform and transform our society and, naturally, the church. The poor words that follow have no pretense as there are already many, was stated, and of great cultural standing spoke about Francis, highlighting all areas of his life and his singular personality. The simple intent of this writing is to highlight the single aspect of his mystical experience, angle of vision through which his entire existence as a Christian and saint could also be read.

It's the same Francesco to remember the beginning of his new life as a mystical experience and a gift from God. Twenty years later he describes the events of his conversion in Will that event is now dying, his life change, enclosing it within these few, very densely spoken:

«The Lord granted to me, Brother Francis, to thus begin to do penance, since I am in sin, it seemed too bitter to see lepers; And the Lord Himself led me among them and I showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body. Then, I stayed a little, and I left the world".

Francis is not a theologian, at least not as we are used to thinking. It does not elaborate a systematized conception of the Christian experience, nor does he write treatises or essays on faith and its truths. Nonetheless when Dante, in the Divine Comedy, talks about the mendicant Orders and specifically about Francis, his praise comes from the one who is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest theologian the Church has ever had: San Tommaso D’Aquino. On the other hand, the praise of San Domenico, founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, known as Dominicans, the other mendicant Order par excellence, it will come from the mouth of Saint Bonaventure, the theologian par excellence of the Franciscans, the one who forever stigmatized the image of Francis to the point of making him appear practically inimitable. The great Florentine poet, in the two twin cantos, l’XI and the XII of Paradise, painfully highlights that both movements have lost their initial luster, having deviated from the teachings and rules of their founders. Therefore Dante, through St. Thomas, tells the story of Francis' life by placing it all in a mystical and spiritual dimension, as demonstrated by the long preamble which moves entirely within the realm of metaphor. It talks about the union of the Assisi native with a woman who, despite its virtues, she had remained alone for more than one thousand one hundred years after the death of her first "husband" and no other man had wanted to take her as his wife and that for love of her he, Francesco, he faced his father's wrath. Saint Thomas unravels the long metaphor only in the tercet where he finally explains that the two spouses he speaks of are Francis and Monna Poverty.

This spiritual itinerary of his, made of meetings, embrace of poverty, extreme fidelity to the Gospel and lots of prayer, Francesco will read it, we have already mentioned it, as a gift from the Lord. There are three verbs in the Will which are indicative in this regard. Five times he will repeat that «The Lord gave it to me» to do penance, to have faith in churches and priests, to have brothers and to write the Rule for them. He will subsequently state that the Lord always «revealed to mei» what he had to do and introduce himself with the greeting that had become famous: «May the Lord give you peace». And finally «He hired me» among the lepers.

In this regard Francesco, as you know, it does not offer a political response to social injustices, to the problem of evil in the world. He has no plans for effective and concrete changes, he does not meditate on struggles and rebellions; Francesco, to be understood, it is neither a hippy nor a Che Guevara from the Middle Ages, nor a contemporary of certain so-called very social priests today. Francis responds with faith, when he manages to penetrate to the bottom, with total and impetuous adhesion, the sacrifice of Christ. Let's try to follow him in his thoughts: It gave, the Most High, the master of the universe, of all creation, he sacrificed his only and favorite Son so as not to lose his creature, the man, capable only of sinning. And if Christ who is God came to earth dragged by an immense love, and he became poor and a pilgrim, he suffered from hunger and cold, betrayal and abandonment of friends, to the point of giving his life on the cross to restore salvation to humanity, the eternal joy of Paradise, what else is left for man to do but follow, as much as possible, the footsteps of the Savior, the Gospel, if not to respond to divine love with poor human love, trying to love each other like brothers? And who, if not the poor and the derelict, repeating the earthly experience of Christ in suffering, can better understand the ardent divine charity and accept anguish and suffering with gratitude, recover, like Christ, to the will of the Father?

I Little flowers of Saint Francis, a wonderful collection in the vernacular from the last quarter of the fourteenth century of "miracles and pious examples" of his life, they make him say it, about what the virtue of perfect joy is:

«Above all the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which Christ grants to his friends, it is to conquer oneself, and willingly for the love of Christ endure punishments, insults and opprobriums and inconveniences; because we cannot boast in all the other gifts of God, but they are not ours, but of God, wherefore says the Apostle (Paul, in 1 Cor 4, 7 n.d.r.): “What's wrong with you, that you do not have from God? And if you got it from him, because I boasted about it, as if you had it yourself?”. But in the cross of tribulation and affliction we can glory, but what does the Apostle say? (always Paolo, in Gal 6,14 n.d.r): I do not want to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ".

And so the cross since the encounter with the lepers, at the beginning of his conversion, forms part of Francesco's experience, of his spiritual horizon. If we really wanted to identify a theology of Saint Francis, we could define it as a «Knowledge of the Cross». He embraces the cross as he embraces the leper because now what was bitter had turned into sweetness and he can hear the voice of Christ calling him from the cross, in the small church of San Damiano. There, the Redeemer, according to the iconography of the triumphant Christ, without signs of physical suffering, he stares at the observer with quiet sweetness. Francesco believed that the image was aimed specifically at him and spoke to him: «Francesco, can't you see that my house is falling down? So go and fix it.". But Francis misunderstands the symbolic meaning of the words, he believes he must save the material edifice from ruin, he doesn't suspect what task awaits him: save the spiritual building, the church. He comes out happy, it seems to him that life finally has a purpose. Now he knows what to do, the mysterious words of Spoleto's previous dream, that of the palace and the bride that will be his, they begin to clarify; because of this, he can see who is calling him for the first time and hear his name spoken. So that is the order he was waiting for. And so Francesco, "arming oneself with the sign of the cross", his mission began.

The mystical inspiration of Francesco traceable in many of his works, from the Unstamped rule, l’Epistle to the faithful O The praises of the Most High God they are combined from now on with devotion to the Cross of Christ. In the Lodi kept in Brother Leo's chart Let's read these very famous words addressed to the Lord:

«You are holy, o Lord, only God, who does wonderful things. You are strong, you are great, you are very tall, you are omnipotent, your Holy Father, king of heaven and earth. You are three and one, man, God of gods. You are the good, all good, the supreme good, the Lord God, living and true. You are love, charity; you are wisdom, you are humility, you are patience, you are beauty, you are meekness, you are security, you are stillness, you are joy, you are our hope and joy, you are justice, you are temperance, you are all our riches in superabundance. You are beauty, you are meekness; you are protector, you are our guardian and defender, you are fortress, you are refreshment. You are our hope, you are our faith, you are our charity, you are all our sweetness, you are our eternal life, O great and wonderful Lord, Almighty God, merciful savior".

As well as in the third chapter of Foils the profound devotion that the Saint from Assisi reserved for the Cross of Jesus is narrated:

«The day of the Holy Cross is coming, and Saint Francis early in the morning, before saying, he throws himself into prayer in front of the door of his cell, turning his face towards the east, and prayed in this form: O my Lord Jesus Christ, two thanks please do me, before I die; the first, that in my life I feel in my soul and in my body, as much as possible, that pain that you, sweet Jesus, you supported in the hour of your most bitter passion; the second, that I feel in my heart, as much as possible, that great love of which you, Son of God, you were fired up to willingly support so much passion for us sinners".

These aspects of Francis' spirituality they will then be figuratively represented by the artists, which was mentioned at the beginning. Many could be mentioned, including: Master of San Francesco, whose name derives from a panel with the Saint and two angels now preserved in the Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi. We can remember him by the imposing crucifix in the Basilica dedicated to the Saint, in Arezzo. The painted Cross, takes up the typology of Christ Suffering, of Byzantine inspiration, where the pain and death of Jesus are underlined by the head reclining on the shoulder and the body arched. While most painted crosses were read from bottom to top and ended with an Ascension and Christ in glory, here the message must be read from top to bottom, according to the dictates of Franciscan spirituality. This dying Christ, not anymore Triumphant, it is a novelty introduced by the Franciscans who cultivate the element of the pathetic, in the sense of an invitation to compassion. Now the mysterious word, custodian of the secret of Christianity, it is no longer "loving" but "suffering". Instead of appearing standing on the Cross, Risen and triumphant as in San Damiano, Jesus is depicted with his eyes closed and his head leaning sideways on one shoulder. Without denying the resurrection, the faithful become more fond of the Man of suffering. The true message of this cross is therefore that Jesus came down from heaven and endured the passion inflicted on him by Pontius Pilate for men and for their salvation. Devotion leaves room for compassion, to everyone's participation in the suffering of Jesus. And the first of these devotees is Francis himself depicted as a small boy under the cross, which is what he liked to call himself, who takes a bleeding foot of the crucifix in his hands and kisses it. Another work in my opinion capable of describing the «Sknowledge of the Cross» Franciscan is the Saint Francis embracing the crucified Christ by Murillo. Painting created approximately in 1668 and preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville in Spain. The work was part of a cycle commissioned to the Spanish painter by the Capuchins for a chapel in the church of their convent in Seville. These works were to enhance the distinctive elements of Franciscan spirituality. The painting is of shocking beauty; it moves the spectator who remains silent in front of such a canvas, as in prayer. The painting symbolizes the culminating moment of Francis' life: the renunciation of one's material goods to embrace religious life. The composition is harmonious. Next to the cross, two angels hold an open book which contains the passage from the Gospel according to Luke in Latin: «Whoever of you does not give up all his possessions, he cannot be my disciple" (LC 14, 25-27).

At the feet of the Saint there is a globe, a terrestrial globe; Francesco seems to push him away with his foot, metaphor of his rejection of all vanity. But let's get to the most striking fact, and also the most controversial at least in the testimonies that report it, for whom the mystical inspiration of Saint Francis is combined with his profound devotion to the Cross of Christ Jesus. I'm talking about the La Verna episode in Tuscany, the vision of the seraph and the impression of the stigmata. To make the extraordinary nature of the event palpable, let's relive it through the words of the Saint's biographer, Thomas of Celano, someone who knew him personally, who was called by Pope Gregory IX to write his biography, collecting testimonies on the events. Also and above all on that of the stigmata, before than with the Major legend San Bonaventura da Bagnoregio replaced the previous ones Quickly, imposing its destruction. As Bonaventure is well known and known, general minister of the Order, he sent a precise and mandatory command to all the Franciscan convents: destroy all manuscripts on the life and deeds of the Seraphic Father. However, several of these manuscripts were also found in some Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys and monasteries, who were careful not to carry out such a command. It is to them that historians owe thanks if the manuscripts of the Quickly narrated by other authors before Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, considered by some Church historians as the second founder, or so-called re-founder of the Franciscan Order.

Thomas of Celano in Life before he certainly knew Friar Leone's version of the events in La Verna and obviously also Friar Elia's letter. The biographer could not afford to neglect either the Saint's closest friend and his confessor or the powerful head of the Order. How to connect two such divergent testimonies? He circumvented the difficulty by telling the miracle of the stigmata twice with clever adjustments, a first placing it on the Verna, a second at the time of the exposure of Francis' body. Let's reread what Tommaso da Celano writes:

«Two years before Francesco died, spending a period in the hermitage which is called Verna from the name of the place, in a vision sent by God he saw a man, almost as if he were a Seraph with six wings, stay above yourself, with hands open and feet together, stuck on a cross. Two wings rose above his head, two spread out on the fly and two finally covered the whole body. Seeing this, the blessed servant of the Most High was filled with great amazement but could not understand what that vision meant.. He enjoyed it very much and was delighted to feel himself looked at with a benign and sweet look by the Serafino., whose beauty was truly unimaginable, but at the same time he was terrified by his affixing to the cross and by the cruelty of his suffering. So he got up, as it were, sad and happy, and in Francesco joy and pain alternated. He continued to anxiously mull over what the vision might mean, and his spirit was terribly strained to try to grasp its meaning. Because by reasoning he did not arrive at any certain interpretation and he felt pervaded and very agitated in his heart by the novelty of that vision, the marks of nails began to appear on his hands and feet, as he had seen shortly before on the man crucified above him. His hands and feet seemed to be pierced in the center by nails: the heads of the nails could be seen on the inside of the hands and on the top of the feet, and on the opposite side the tip. Those marks were round on the inside of the hands and elongated on the opposite side and almost formed a fleshy and raised excrescence, as if it were the tip of the nails folded and clinched. Likewise, the marks of the nails protruding onto the rest of the flesh were imprinted on the feet. Even the right side, as if he had been pierced by a spear, he showed a large scar that often emitted blood so that his tunic and legcloths were frequently stained with his holy blood. Ah, how few as long as the crucified servant of God lived, they were lucky enough to be able to see the sacred wound in his side! But happy Elijah who while the Saint lived deserved to see her in some way and no less happy Rufinus who was able to at least touch her".

Still further ahead is Tommaso da Celano, speaking of the joy and sadness of the people and the friars in the presence of the now deceased body of the Saint, he reports as follows:

«Pure, an unprecedented joy tempered their sadness and the novelty of the miracle filled their minds with extraordinary amazement. Thus mourning was changed into festive song and crying into jubilation. In fact, they had never heard or read in the Scriptures what they now saw with their own eyes, and they would hardly have believed it if they hadn't had such probative and certain testimony before them […] The shape of the cross was perceived in him. In fact, he seemed to have just been taken down from the cross with his hands and feet pierced by nails and his right side wounded by the spear. They still saw his flesh, which was previously dark, now shining with a luminous whiteness and the superhuman beauty already demonstrated the reward of the blessed resurrection. His face, at last, it was like that of an angel […] While she shone before everyone with such wonderful beauty, his flesh became brighter and brighter. It was truly a miracle to see in the center of his hands and feet not the nail holes but the nails themselves formed from his own flesh., dark in color like iron and the right side purple with blood. And those signs of martyrdom did not inspire fear or horror in those who saw them, rather they conferred decorum and ornamentation, like black tiles on a white floor".

We could stop here and say nothing else in the presence of such a moving story. Suffice it to underline that in La Verna Francis finally experienced his personal and extraordinary identification with Christ and with him crucified. But in what context did this happen?? Towards the end of his life, Francis felt increasingly pressured by the Church concerned with normalizing a project of Christian life, practicing evangelical poverty and love, that, if actually implemented, it would have been revolutionary and dangerous for the ecclesiastical structure itself, if misinterpreted. He also felt misunderstood by a large part of the friars and this increased his discouragement. Having grown up out of all proportion, not everyone was capable of sharing such difficult choices, men sometimes of limited virtue or too cultured, far from the pure ideals of their spiritual leader. Like Christ increasingly alone at the finish line of the cross, at about forty-four years old Francesco took with him very few companions, intimate and involved, and moved, as we know, on the Verna, for a long retreat of solitary contemplation. He was counting on overcoming that profound crisis; he continually asked God to enlighten him, that would show him what the end of his life would be like. In fact, he began to see the darkness in his soul lift only when he understood that he had to leave the problems of the Order and its future to God's decision., enduring, writes Tommaso da Celano, that "the merciful will of the heavenly Father would be totally fulfilled in him". The biographer thinks of the founder as "another Christ" against the backdrop of the Mount of Olives. The Saint, however, he would have liked to at least know what end awaited him, despite now being sure not to rebel against it. A day, after praying for a long time, he resorted to the triple opening of the Gospels, who always showed the same pace or a very similar one. The gaze fell: «on the Passion of Christ, but only in the stretch in which it is predicted". When Tommaso da Celano wrote this part of the work he evidently already knew the sequel, he knew that shortly thereafter he would tell about the apparition of the Seraph and the stigmata. He deliberately constructed the episode of the triple opening with evangelical quotes that refer to the agony of Christ according to Luke (22, 43-45). Christ, at the height of suffering he asks the Father: «Put this cup away from me», but he understands that he must accept all the suffering of the imminent Passion. In the Gospel, after the vision of the angel Jesus felt momentarily consoled; but immediately afterwards he fell back into great anguish, enough to sweat blood. Francesco is also on the mountain, he comes up from La Verna; he sees the Seraph and finds consolation in the moment in which he accepts all the suffering that still awaits him before death. Anguish leads Christ to sweat blood; Francesco, the vision of the Seraph disappeared, feels the Mount of Olives so close to the point that the nails of flesh, copies of the nails of the Cross become visible. Like all the great mystical saints, Francis on La Verna is also immersed in the darkness of the so-called "dark night", not even supported by his dear friend and companion Leone who lived, himself, a moment of crisis. After a long period of spiritual retreat, Francis finally had an epiphany, sees the solution: be Christ, who is God, he submitted himself to the will of the Father, he will not have to do the same himself? Thus, that identification with the Model is achieved which is inscribed not only in the soul of the Saint, but also in his flesh. Jesus consoles Francis and reveals to him the rightness of his path which had its origin and first assurance from the other cross, that of San Damiano; and also gives him the gift of his love, now in the terminal moment of his Christian life and experience. From this profound knowledge, not intellectual, but mystical, of the cross of Christ, those words that we reported above and condensed here will flow from the heart of Francis. Testimony of that «science» of the Christian mystery that still moves us today for the way Francis understood and lived it:

«You are love, charity; you are wisdom, you are humility, you are patience, you are beauty, you are meekness, you are security, you are stillness, you are joy, you are our hope and joy, you are justice, you are temperance, you are all our riches in abundance".

In a letter from Francis to Anthony of Padua in which he addressed him as "Brother Anthony, my bishop", he said:

«Do theology too, but be careful that this does not extinguish the spirit of prayer and contemplation".

Francis is for theology, but he reassures his friar that this must not lead him to lucubrations, intellectualism ends in itself, or to a reality that could distance him from the Lord rather than bring him closer, that elevates him on an intellectual level but not on a mystical-spiritual level. This is why Francis can allow himself to correct and exhort even a very refined theologian like Saint Anthony of Padua; this is why Francis remains a very complex and complicated figure to understand, to explain and convey, above all to follow. This is also why it is not easy to talk about the "theology of Saint Francis".

Sanluri, 17 July 2024

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«If in some place they did not welcome you and did not listen to you, go away and shake the dust under your feet"

14 July 2024/in Homiletics/by Hermit Monk

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

«IF IN SOME PLACE THEY DIDN'T WELCOME YOU AND DIDN'T LISTEN TO YOU, GO AND SHAKE THE DUST UNDER YOUR FEET"

No romantic idealism therefore or no legendary pauperism, but a style that allows you to look not so much at yourself as at models who need to attract attention, but rather direct it towards the only Lord, Jesus. The center is not the missionary, but the Gospel that he announces, which is: «Power of God». And a particular sign of this style is brotherhood.

Author
Hermit Monk

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In the last few decades in multiple conferences, on books, in the articles churned out galore in pastoral magazines, the Church has questioned a lot about evangelization, defined as mission or even as new evangelization. A great effort has been made in the search for new languages or in the study of the elements of communication and style, on how the contents of the Word are preached or can be renewed. The results of this effort to date are discouraging. It is likely that pastoral actors in the Church have focused too much on the "what", the content of the message, to the detriment of the "how", that is, leaving the testimony of life in the shadows? In any case, this Gospel page is welcome 15th Sunday for a year. Here Jesus does not dwell on the contents or on doctrinal suggestions, but rather focuses on "how" those sent to announce the Word should present themselves. Here is the evangelical pericope:

"During that time, Jesus called the Twelve to him and began sending them out two by two and gave them power over impure spirits. And he ordered them to take nothing for the journey except a staff: nor bread, nor bag, nor money in his belt; but to wear sandals and not to wear two tunics. And he told them: «Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave there. If somewhere they didn't welcome you and didn't listen to you, go away and shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony to them". And they, parties, they proclaimed that the people should convert, they cast out many demons, they anointed many sick people with oil and healed them" (MC 6,7-13).

The time is coming for which one cannot just listen or learn, but what has been received must be returned. Jesus, who had also suffered a major defeat among his fellow villagers and co-religionists (MC 6,1-6), suffering their disbelief to the point of not being able to make any sign of power, he is not afraid to entrust to the Twelve everything he has and which has characterized his mission up to that moment. Everything that is his, all its power, It now changes hands and is entrusted free of charge to the Twelve. Thus we understand Mark's insistence in saying that Jesus "began, took the initiative" (horxato di MC 6,7) to send the Twelve two by two. The novelty of what happens in today's Gospel lies precisely in this simple gesture, but very complicated, because it involves, in a certain way also for Jesus, a detachment from one's exclusive power.

Is the first time that Jesus involves some of his people in the mission, charging them with important responsibilities. He called the disciples to become fishers of men (Mc 1,16ss.), he traveled with them various roads in Galilee; he defended them before the Pharisees who accused them (MC 2,23-28) and finally among these he chose Twelve so that "they would be with him and also to send them to preach and so that they would have the power to cast out demons" (MC 3,13-19). They have heard many of his teachings, especially the parables about the Kingdom that Jesus announced and which saw many acts of power performed by him. They have not yet shown great faith (cf.. MC 4,40), but Jesus must still have considered them ready for the mission.

And He entrusts them with three specific tasks. The first is to announce the conversion, or the Gospel of the Kingdom. The disciples are thus entrusted with the same task that Jesus carried out immediately after speaking. The Twelve "preached that people should convert" (MC 6,12); in fact like Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry: «The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near; convert and believe in the Gospel" (MC 1,15). The second task of the disciples is the exercise of authority over impure spirits. And even in this case we witness the same pattern as the beginning of the Messiah's mission. Jesus, as soon as the conversion to the Kingdom was announced and the first disciples were called, he actually performs the exorcism on an impure spirit in the synagogue of Capernaum (MC 1,23). Finally they are sent to heal the sick. Jesus did this several times at the beginning of his ministry, starting right from the circle of disciples, healing Peter's mother-in-law (MC 1,29-30). Now, even the Twelve can anoint the sick and heal them (MC 6,13).

From this it is clear that in the words and gestures of the Twelve the mission that Christ carried out up to that moment is reproduced exactly and in order. The things that Jesus said and did are now done and spoken by the Apostles. This is the mystery of continuity between the person of Jesus Christ and that of the Church founded by him. If Jesus had not wanted to communicate the gift he had or had not been able to do so, he would have been remembered as a great preacher or therapist and his figure would probably have been assimilated to that of the various itinerant prophets who traveled through Palestine at that time.. But it was not so, for all He had, the exousia (MC 6,7; cf.. 1,22.27; 2,10) to free from evil, heal and preach, since then and still today it circulates in the veins of the community that bears his name: the church.

As well as the bitter experience of the refusal that characterized the ministry of the Messiah. It can also happen to the Twelve, to the disciples, to find the door closed. These, which must go two by two as prescribed by the Law, which required the testimony of at least two people (cf.. Dt 17,6), they know from the beginning of their mission that someone will not receive them or listen to them. The answer will be to walk away shaking the dust from your shoes, as a testimony for them (MC 6,11). Shaking off the mud or dust from under your feet was a symbolic gesture that every Israelite made when leaving the pagan land. Now it becomes the gesture of the unwelcome disciple, not a spite or an offense, but a warning that will be testimony for the accusation on the day of judgment. The refusal, But, it does not stop the Church that announces. After Easter she will be able to bring the Word to the extreme ends of the earth, announcing not only that the Kingdom is near, but also that Christ is risen.

And as for the directions given by Jesus let's say straight away that they must not be reproduced as such. They remind us that Jesus' preaching has faith and an eschatological option as its underlying theme. In the New Testament these indications change depending on the geographical location, of the climate and culture in which the missionaries are immersed. We can imagine that the Apostle Paul had paid for his sea crossings to announce the Gospel (At 13,13) or that he kept his cloak forgotten in Troas in the house of Carpus, he asked for it, along with the books and parchments (2Tim 4,13).

No romantic idealism therefore or no legendary pauperism, but a style that allows you to look not so much at yourself as at models who need to attract attention, but rather direct it towards the only Lord, Jesus. The center is not the missionary, but the Gospel that he announces, which is: «Power of God» (RM 1,16). And a particular sign of this style is brotherhood.

Qoheleth suggested that it is "better to be two than just one" (q 4,9). Being two gives strength to the spoken word, since in the Old Testament, as already reported, a testimony, to be valid, it must be based on at least two witnesses (Nm 35,30; Dt 17,6; 19,15). Going together and not alone is important because this way you can experience the relationship, communion and charity. The community style, a relationship woven of mutual love, it is the best testimony that certifies the quality of the message you want to communicate and produces a change, both in the missionaries who announce, that perhaps they are called upon to endure, to welcome each other and respect each other, and in those who receive the message. This, at the bottom of, it was one of the most significant legacies that the Lord Jesus gave to his followers: «From this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you have love for each other " (GV 13,35).

From the Hermitage, 13 July 2024

Sant'Angelo Cave in Ripe (Civitella del Tronto)

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The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

History and Gospel. Those who don't believe in God and mock him always end up believing in everything

6 July 2024/4 Comments/in Homiletics/by father ariel

Homiletics of the Fathers of The Island of Patmos

HISTORY AND GOSPEL. THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD AND MAKE HIM ALWAYS END UP BELIEVING IN EVERYTHING

How many times do we priests and theologians, especially after the advent of the various ones Da Vinci Codes, but above all gods social media on which anyone can have a podium to dissect and spread the greatest absurdities, we heard ourselves say: «You are not the right narrator about Jesus Christ and the Madonna, given that she had other children, so much so that the Gospel itself clearly speaks of brothers and sisters?».

Author
Ariel S. Levi di Gualdo

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In a few days will be remembered with all the rhetoric of the case the fall of the Bastille (14 July 1789). When certain historical events are transformed into legends, the fantastic replaces the real, forgetting how the French Revolution marked the largest and most violent bloodbath of modernity. However, if legend replaces history, the bucolic image of a people crying out for freedom arises, equality, brotherhood gives life to the great Age of Enlightenment.

What connection runs between the page of the Holy Gospel of this one Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time and certain pages of history? Let us first read the pericope of this Gospel:

"During that time, Jesus came to his homeland and his disciples followed him. Saturday arrived, he began teaching in the synagogue. And many, listening, they were amazed and said: “Where do these things come from?? And what wisdom was given to him? And the wonders like those performed by his hands? This is not the carpenter, Mary's son, Giacomo's brother, of Jesus, of Judas and Simon? And his sisters, they don't stay here with us?”. And it was a source of scandal for them. But Jesus said to them: “A prophet is not despised except in his own country, among his relatives and in his home”. And there he could not perform any miracles, but he only laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled at their unbelief. Jesus walked through the surrounding villages, teaching" (MC 6, 1-6).

The incarnation of the Word of God and the announcement of the Gospel they enter into the history of humanity, of which I am part. Without perspective and historical knowledge it is not possible to understand the Christological event of Jesus, true God and true man, therefore the great mysteries of faith, nor will it be possible to distinguish the true from the false and understand why certain falsehoods came to life in the form of so-called black legends.

The revolution it was not made by the people, which was exploited, used and abused on that and other historical occasions; it was the nobility who did it, especially the classes of the new bourgeoisie. Like this, after having cut off the head of a King who, for better or for worse, came from a thousand-year-old dynasty, events forced the French to place the imperial crown on the head of a Corsica corporal born into a family of Italian origin; who, moreover, put it on his head himself, after having taken it out of the hands of the Supreme Pontiff Pius VII, forced, for political reasons and for the sake of peace to lend himself as an extra to the egocentric drama staged in the cathedral of Notrê Dame on 2 December 1804, before ending up captured in Rome in 1809 and moved into exile in Fontainebleau until 1815. Napoleon had already previously had the Supreme Pontiff Pius VI captured, deported to Valence-sur-Rhône 1798, where he died in 1799.

In the space of just ten years, between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, two Supreme Pontiffs were captured and deported into exile. They are pages of our modern history, but yet, if we exchange a few words with the general public, we will discover that certain events are unknown to the masses, including our Catholic faithful. Which is more than understandable, if we consider that in recent days the final exams have concluded with the promotion of students who affirmed that the Divine Comedy was written by Giuseppe Garibaldi and that Rome was founded by Christopher Columbus.

Before, during and after the Revolution a destructive fury was unleashed towards everything that was Christian and sacred. Religiosity was relegated to a set of irrational superstitious rites used by priests on their conjuring tables to keep the people in awe. Entire religious structures were looted and an extraordinary heritage of art and culture was irreparably lost with heads severed under the Jacobin revolutionary fury.

The results of everything this they did not take long to make themselves heard and in the years immediately following that event there was a large increase in illiterates in France, of superstitions and esoteric practices as never seen before. In fact, when man ceases to believe in God and rejects him, sometimes in a mocking way, others even violent, he then ends up believing in everything. Something of which the Revolution was an eloquent and tragic paradigm in our modernity.

In the revolutionary period, followed by the Napoleonic one, in order to eradicate religiosity and religious sentiment from populations, an army of pseudo-scholars began to make critical studies on the Holy Scriptures, with the well-known results that arrogant ignorant people can produce: misunderstand due to partial or often total lack of knowledge. The circulation of many black anti-Christian and anti-Catholic legends dates back to those years, with which the intention was to unmask the falsehoods of priests and the Church.. Therefore, if on the one hand there were self-styled scholars who, regardless of the existence of detailed Jewish and Roman historical sources, claimed that Jesus Christ had never existed and that his was an invented figure, on the other hand there were those who attempted to use the Gospels themselves to spread sensational falsehoods, one of these was that he had brothers and sisters, other than the immaculate conception of Mary! Everything - they affirmed in triumphal tones - was witnessed by the Gospels themselves, although the clerical scoundrel has always worked to keep people in the darkness of ignorance and hide these inconvenient truths, before the guillotines operating twenty-four hours a day finally brought the lights of reason, because anyone who didn't think according to the light of certain lights had their head cut off in the square.

How many times do we priests and theologians, especially after the advent of the various ones Da Vinci Codes, but above all gods social media on which anyone can have a podium to dissect and spread the greatest absurdities, we heard ourselves say:

«You are not the right narrator about Jesus Christ and the Madonna, given that she had other children, so much so that the Gospel itself clearly speaks of brothers and sisters".

Those who know the Hebrew language and the culture of ancient Judea, within which Jesus was born, he knows that in that world the concept of belonging to a family or a tribe was so strong that everyone was part of it: cousin, Uncle, Grandchild, brother-in-law … was regarded as a “brother/sister” of all other members and indicated as such. In the culture and language of the time there were no terms to indicate cousins of the various degrees. Therefore, John the Baptist, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who was Jesus' maternal cousin, can be referred to as brother.

Faced with this explanation some objected that Elizabeth is indicated as Mary's cousin. Yup, but in tradition and in piety popular, not in the historical chronicles of the Holy Gospels which entrust the story of the "visitation" to the Blessed Evangelist Luke (LC 1,39-56). Therefore, say that Jesus had brothers and sisters, it does not at all indicate offspring brought into the world by the same mother, with all due respect to the various bloggers who ensure that they reveal those terrible truths kept hidden by the Church for 2000 year old, that is, that Mary's son had other brothers and sisters. All this proves that when man stops believing in God and rejects him, sometimes in a mocking way, others even violent, he then ends up believing everything and everyone, by the authors of the phantoms Codes down to the last anonymous blogger who publishes bursts of nonsense on the Internet.

There was no shortage of self-styled scholars either and needless to say discoverers and spreaders of truths kept hidden by priests and the Church, who pointed out that Jesus was also referred to as “Firstborn”, proof and proof that he would be the first but not the only child. In this case, as well as Jewish culture, Egyptian archeology also comes to us: in an ancient tomb the commemorative inscription of a deceased woman who had «died during childbirth giving birth to her first-born son» was discovered. If she had died giving birth to her firstborn, it is evident that she was unable to give birth to any other second child. It was perhaps an inscription with an absurd and meaningless clarification? No, the clarification was sensible and primogeniture was indicated because the first born benefited from rights and as many duties, including the authority he would then inherit from his parents. It is the first born who is entitled to the title and authority transmitted to him by the parent.

As well as people who reject God they then end up believing in everything, until they fall into superstition and occultism, this page of the Holy Gospel also depicts those who only believe in the superficial things their eyes see, without the ability to go further to see more deeply with the eyes of the soul. Everything is summarized in these sentences:

«“Where do these things come from?? And what wisdom was given to him? And the wonders like those performed by his hands? This is not the carpenter, Mary's son, Giacomo's brother, of Jesus, of Judas and Simon? And his sisters, they don't stay here with us?”. And it was a source of scandal for them." (MC 6, 1-6).

These are typical questions of those who close every possibility of dialogue and encounter with the new that God has always reserved for us with the phrase: «It has always been done this way!». This matters to the petty little minds of yesterday and today, It's not about "doing well" but "It's always been done this way". This attitude prevents us from grasping and immersing ourselves in the dimension of the extraordinary, of the transcendent and the metaphysical hidden in the appearance of the ordinary. For this reason "he could not perform any miracles there", because at the basis of each of its signs there is the miracle of the faith of man who realizes them through the free exercise of his own will, which is the supreme gift of God. It is not by chance, miracles performed, Jesus dismissed the people he healed with the sentence: "We ', your faith has saved you ". Because that was the real miracle: the miracle of faith that is born from openness to Christ and that heals us from leprosy and the blindness of that sin that makes us cripples, if not worse: living dead.

The phrase "A prophet is not despised except in his own country" it is a paradigm that goes beyond the geographical dimension of Nazareth, birthplace of Jesus, whose homeland is the whole world, of which he is the light. This is the same world that did not recognize him and did not welcome him, as narrated in the Prologue to the Gospel of Blessed John the Evangelist:

He was in the world,

and the world was made through him,

yet the world did not recognize him.

He came among his people,

but his people did not welcome him.

But to those who welcomed him,

gave power to become children of God:

to those who believe in his name,

which do not give blood,

nor from a desire for meat,

nor by the will of man,

but they were begotten by God.

And the Word became flesh

and he dwelt among us;

and we saw his glory,

glory as of the only begotten of the Father,

full of grace and truth (GV 1, 10-14).

From this one should understand that the Holy Gospel is a harmonious text from which it is not possible to extrapolate half sentences and then manipulate them into saying what the Holy Scripture does not say. The Holy Gospel is not a dead letter but a living Word of God inserted into the history of man in which the Word of God made man was born into this world. And Jesus Christ was such an extraordinary historical phenomenon that today the calendar divides the years of historical eras indicating them as: before Christ and after Christ. It is very dangerous not to know or eliminate the historical element from the two thousand year old Christian experience, thus opening the doors to ignorance and running the serious risk of not having any experience of faith, falling, if everything goes well, in the most squalid fideism.

In the 14th century we had a giant like San Bernardino of Siena who did not hesitate to hurl thunder and lightning against the gullible who venerated the relic of the ampoule containing the milk of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

"It is who you want, I say you do not like these things to God these. Like milk from the Virgin Mary. Or women, where you are? And likewise you, able men, vedestene mai? You know you should be showing for relics: v'aviate not faith […] Maybe she was a cow the Virgin Mary, she had her milk lassato, how loose the beasts, you lassano mugnare? I have this opinion: that is, she had so much milk, neither more nor less, enough that Bochina Jesu Christ blessed " (San Bernardino of Siena – Hypocrite devotions, in: Baldi. Novels and moral examples of S. Bernardino of Siena, Florence, 1916).

Today, however, we have a self-styled Gospa who has been speaking banalities for forty years to a small group of shrewd entrepreneurs who play at being seers. E, while everything is happening, in our equestrian circus we no longer have even the shadow of a San Bernardino of Siena ready to throw thunder and lightning towards the simple naive, but above all against those who feel authorized to deceive them. What if a San Bernardino da Siena capable of shouting the truth existed among us, at best we would accuse him of being aggressive and divisive, because after all... «it has always been done this way!». Just as if Christ had come to this world to please and please Him, rather than to fight it:

«Do not think that I have come to bring peace on Earth; have not come to bring peace, but a sword " (Mt 10, 34).

The pericope of this Sunday's Holy Gospel it contains much more than you might imagine, on the lines and behind the lines. Because of this, at the end of reading, we say: "God's word", and we give thanks to God!

From the island of Patmos, 6 July 2024

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