FAUSTI - Two news of events: a killing and an accident with many victims. In the first case, the freedom and wickedness of man is at play, in the second case, the inevitability and the violence of creation. These two events recall in an exemplary way what most shakes the faith of the believer: why does God allow the abuses and the violences, the disasters and the earthquakes? History with its injustices and nature with its senselessness seem to be dominated rather by the evil one or by chance. In the first episode it is expected that He judges between the bad and the good ones. In the second episode the basic objection is implicit: what trust can one have in the Father, if the innocent people are suffering? Jesus takes them as models of difficult discernment, to give the believer a key to understanding historical and natural events (Sl 136). The evil that there is, both in man and in things, is mysteriously connected with the sin; but it does not escape from the hand of that God in whose hand are the abysses of the earth (Sl 95,4) and who collects the waters of the sea like a dam (Sl 33,7). It is true that we have all sinned; but our evil is now the place of salvation: "where sin abounded, grace abounded" (Rom 5:20).All events must therefore be read, at a deeper level, in terms of perdition and salvation: they reveal the perdition from which conversion to the Lord saves us. To know the "signs of the time" means to see in evil the Lord who comes to save us by calling us to conversion. Good discernment opens our eyes and changes our lives Just as our daily limits are places of love and communion with others, so our absolute limit is a place of communion with the Other, the Absolute, from which we come and to which we return. Radical conversion is to come out of the delirium of omnipotence: to accept life and death as communion with God. To discern the signs of the present means to read every fact given as an appeal to pass from hypocrisy to filiality, from the domain of fear to that of freedom. The prophets - the last of whom was the Baptist - were sent to call the people to produce these fruits. With the Messiah the arrival of God was expected for the final account. Jesus, on the other hand, will start the year of Grace. In Him, the Son, the time starts when God exercises His Mercy directly and definitively. He makes the holy year, which men do not do. "Behold, I have been coming for three years..." These are the three years of Jesus' ministry. They, for themselves, conclude history and constitute the time for coming for judgment. But they are also the today of salvation, in the patience of the Son who takes care of our ills. This day will be extended for another year, until today and always, wherever the mission, the proclamation and the conversion will make men contemporary to His Word of Grace. This year is the length of our history, which always lasts another year, through the intercession of the Son who accomplishes what the Father wants. All the following years are the "one more year" that is prolonged, to make the same offer to the next generations by the announcement. This is the profound meaning of history. It is the year of God's patience and Mercy, a dilation of salvation and a dilation of judgment, again and always for a year, from the beginning until the end. Good discernment opens our eyes and changes our lives God does not cut the fig tree, that is, man! He respects him because He loves him. He lavishes all his work on him, so that he may respond to his love.
Lk 13,1-9 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
Isaiah 55:1-9 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Psalm 63:1-8 O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.
FAUSTI - Two news of events: a killing and an accident with many victims. In the first case, the freedom and wickedness of man is at play, in the second case, the inevitability and the violence of creation.
RispondiEliminaThese two events recall in an exemplary way what most shakes the faith of the believer: why does God allow the abuses and the violences, the disasters and the earthquakes?
History with its injustices and nature with its senselessness seem to be dominated rather by the evil one or by chance. In the first episode it is expected that He judges between the bad and the good ones. In the second episode the basic objection is implicit: what trust can one have in the Father, if the innocent people are suffering?
Jesus takes them as models of difficult discernment, to give the believer a key to understanding historical and natural events (Sl 136).
The evil that there is, both in man and in things, is mysteriously connected with the sin; but it does not escape from the hand of that God in whose hand are the abysses of the earth (Sl 95,4) and who collects the waters of the sea like a dam (Sl 33,7). It is true that we have all sinned; but our evil is now the place of salvation: "where sin abounded, grace abounded" (Rom 5:20).All events must therefore be read, at a deeper level, in terms of perdition and salvation: they reveal the perdition from which conversion to the Lord saves us.
To know the "signs of the time" means to see in evil the Lord who comes to save us by calling us to conversion. Good discernment opens our eyes and changes our lives
Just as our daily limits are places of love and communion with others, so our absolute limit is a place of communion with the Other, the Absolute, from which we come and to which we return. Radical conversion is to come out of the delirium of omnipotence: to accept life and death as communion with God.
To discern the signs of the present means to read every fact given as an appeal to pass from hypocrisy to filiality, from the domain of fear to that of freedom.
The prophets - the last of whom was the Baptist - were sent to call the people to produce these fruits.
With the Messiah the arrival of God was expected for the final account. Jesus, on the other hand, will start the year of Grace. In Him, the Son, the time
starts when God exercises His Mercy directly and definitively. He makes the holy year, which men do not do.
"Behold, I have been coming for three years..." These are the three years of Jesus' ministry. They, for themselves, conclude history and constitute the time for coming for judgment. But they are also the today of salvation, in the patience of the Son who takes care of our ills.
This day will be extended for another year, until today and always, wherever the mission, the proclamation and the conversion will make men contemporary to His Word of Grace.
This year is the length of our history, which always lasts another year, through the intercession of the Son who accomplishes what the Father wants. All the following years are the "one more year" that is prolonged, to make the same offer to the next generations by the announcement.
This is the profound meaning of history. It is the year of God's patience and Mercy, a dilation of salvation and a dilation of judgment, again and always for a year, from the beginning until the end. Good discernment opens our eyes and changes our lives God does not cut the fig tree, that is, man! He respects him because He loves him. He lavishes all his work on him, so that he may respond to his love.
Lk 13,1-9 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
RispondiEliminaAnd Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they suffered such things?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.
Isaiah 55:1-9
RispondiEliminaHo, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Psalm 63:1-8
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
and all ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.
Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play."
We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.
And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.