GOSPEL of Luke 6:39-45 Jesus told a parable to his disciples: “Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye. There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles. A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.”
READING OF THE DAY First Reading from the Book of Sirach SIR 27:4-7
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear; so do one's faults when one speaks. As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace, so in tribulation is the test of the just. The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had; so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind. Praise no one before he speaks, for it is then that people are tested.
Second Reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 1 COR 15:54-58
Brothers and sisters: When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER To be Christian means not starting from death, but rather, from God’s love for us which has defeated our most bitter enemy. God is greater than nothingness, and a lit candle is enough to overcome the darkest of nights. Echoing the prophets, Paul cries, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”(v. 55). We carry this cry in our heart in these days of Easter. And if they should ask the reason for the smile we give and our patient readiness to share, then we will be able to answer that Jesus is still here, that he continues to be alive among us, that Jesus is here, in the Square, with us: Alive and Risen. (General Audience, 19 April 2017)
FAUSTI - The Commandment: "Become merciful just as your Father is Merciful" (6, 36), synthesis of the whole discourse of Mercy, is the only main road to salvation. Against possible and easy deviations, it is now confirmed with a series of similarities. Whoever teaches otherwise is a blind guide, a false teacher; whoever acts differently, by criticizing the evil of others and not by seeing his own, he is a hypocrite. The Commandment of Mercy is the only way of salvation, because it makes us what we are, that is, "children of the Most High". Whoever lowers his throw, because he considers it too perfect, is a blind man who leads to perdition. Whoever thinks that he knows one more perfect, is a false teacher who teaches useless things. Mercy is the greatest good because it is that love which knows realistically how to know and take charge of evil. It prevents foolishness and the presumption of criticizing the others. Criticism must be exercised only against oneself, in order to know one's own evil and the mercy of which one is indigent.Thus one enters into possession of the "good treasure". The disciple lives of this treasure, which is the Cháris of God that he has experienced, and makes others sharing in it. Only the heart converted by and to mercy can save from evil. Man was born to love and has failed because he does not love. His essential desire cannot flourish, because it is rotten bud. .Only the heart converted by Mercy can turn into good treasure that is evil. If God's love has created everything from nothing, His Mercy saves everything from evil, worse than nothing. Judging others and justifying oneself is the grave sin of blindness that prevents one from knowing one's own evil and from knowing God. This double knowledge is given in mercy. To the disciple it is asked to remove his own beam that makes him blind: he must not consider himself just and not in need of mercy! Thus the root of the evil plant is healed. Then he can remove the mote from his brother's eye. Not with a complicated eye operation, but simply with his good eye, he sees good and does good, communicating an experience of goodness. The other is pardoned by me as I was pardoned! My eye toward the other is the same of God toward me! More one is a sinner, more one is worthy of merciful love.And, as I have experienced God towards me, it is I towards the other. Our wickedness towards others is the absence of mercy: it is the rotten bud of our bad tree. The fundamental evil is the blind eye that does not see its own evil and does not feel the need for mercy. The blind eye expresses a dark heart, without goodness. And this heart, as it sees, so also acts badly. It has a hand full of fruits with the taste of death. There is a strict connection between eye/heart/hand: the principle of good or bad action is the heart full or not of mercy; and the principle of mercy in our heart is the eye, its window, which recognizes its need and welcomes its light. The principle of good is therefore our eye/heart open to our evil and tenderened by the mercy that we have received.This mercy saves from evil and creates good. I met a man who was deaf to every bad word, while he had sensitive hearing to every good thing: in him evil was extinguished and good enlightened him. He had a selective sensitivity. The bad heart, instead, only feels the evil and germinates the worst, parasite victim of the evil and its multiplier. The serious problem of the disciple is to recognize himself as an evil plant with rotten fruits. This sincerity permits to the disciple not to be blind about his own blindness. Whoever sincerely sees himself, sees his own evil and the need that he has of mercy. It is the only condition for healing.
-->Jesus, Mercy of the Father, works the judgment so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind. Before Him, man can discover his own sin without fear and without shame, because he sees himself forgiven. To recognize my bad heart, which has treasured a great capital of evil of living, is the very grafting that makes me a good tree, puts me in communion with Him who forgives and with my brothers and sisters that then I forgive. From our fruits of death, we can easily recognize ourselves as bad wood. Thus we are willing to accept His forgiveness and accept the grafting of the Only Good Wood: the Tree of Mercy of the Father, the Cross of His Son, Given for us. The knowledge of my sin in this light finally makes me in solidarity with the Father and with my brothers and sisters.
GOSPEL of Luke 6:39-45
RispondiEliminaJesus told a parable to his disciples: “Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit?
The disciple is not superior to his teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher.
Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the splinter that is in your eye,’ when you cannot see the plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.
There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit. For every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles.
A good man draws what is good from the store of goodness in his heart; a bad man draws what is bad from the store of badness. For a man’s words flow out of what fills his heart.”
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst Reading from the Book of Sirach
SIR 27:4-7
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear;
so do one's faults when one speaks.
As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace,
so in tribulation is the test of the just.
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;
so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind.
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
Second Reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
1 COR 15:54-58
Brothers and sisters:
When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility
and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters,
be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
To be Christian means not starting from death, but rather, from God’s love for us which has defeated our most bitter enemy. God is greater than nothingness, and a lit candle is enough to overcome the darkest of nights. Echoing the prophets, Paul cries, “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”(v. 55). We carry this cry in our heart in these days of Easter. And if they should ask the reason for the smile we give and our patient readiness to share, then we will be able to answer that Jesus is still here, that he continues to be alive among us, that Jesus is here, in the Square, with us: Alive and Risen. (General Audience, 19 April 2017)
FAUSTI - The Commandment: "Become merciful just as your Father is Merciful" (6, 36), synthesis of the whole discourse of Mercy, is the only main road to salvation. Against possible and easy deviations, it is now confirmed with a series of similarities.
RispondiEliminaWhoever teaches otherwise is a blind guide, a false teacher; whoever acts differently, by criticizing the evil of others and not by seeing his own, he is a hypocrite. The Commandment of Mercy is the only way of salvation, because it makes us what we are, that is, "children of the Most High".
Whoever lowers his throw, because he considers it too perfect, is a blind man who leads to perdition.
Whoever thinks that he knows one more perfect, is a false teacher who teaches useless things.
Mercy is the greatest good because it is that love which knows realistically how to know and take charge of evil. It prevents foolishness and the presumption of criticizing the others. Criticism must be exercised only against oneself, in order to know one's own evil and the mercy of which one is indigent.Thus one enters into possession of the "good treasure". The disciple lives of this treasure, which is the Cháris of God that he has experienced, and makes others sharing in it.
Only the heart converted by and to mercy can save from evil.
Man was born to love and has failed because he does not love. His essential desire cannot flourish, because it is rotten bud. .Only the heart converted by Mercy can turn into good treasure that is evil.
If God's love has created everything from nothing, His Mercy saves everything from evil, worse than nothing.
Judging others and justifying oneself is the grave sin of blindness that prevents one from knowing one's own evil and from knowing God.
This double knowledge is given in mercy.
To the disciple it is asked to remove his own beam that makes him blind: he must not consider himself just and not in need of mercy!
Thus the root of the evil plant is healed.
Then he can remove the mote from his brother's eye. Not with a complicated eye operation, but simply with his good eye, he sees good and does good, communicating an experience of goodness.
The other is pardoned by me as I was pardoned! My eye toward the other is the same of God toward me! More one is a sinner, more one is worthy of merciful love.And, as I have experienced God towards me, it is I towards the other.
Our wickedness towards others is the absence of mercy: it is the rotten bud of our bad tree.
The fundamental evil is the blind eye that does not see its own evil and does not feel the need for mercy. The blind eye expresses a dark heart, without goodness.
And this heart, as it sees, so also acts badly.
It has a hand full of fruits with the taste of death. There is a strict connection between eye/heart/hand: the principle of good or bad action is the heart full or not of mercy; and the principle of mercy in our heart is the eye, its window, which recognizes its need and welcomes its light.
The principle of good is therefore our eye/heart open to our evil and tenderened by the mercy that we have received.This mercy saves from evil and creates good.
I met a man who was deaf to every bad word, while he had sensitive hearing to every good thing: in him evil was extinguished and good enlightened him. He had a selective sensitivity.
The bad heart, instead, only feels the evil and germinates the worst, parasite victim of the evil and its multiplier. The serious problem of the disciple is to recognize himself as an evil plant with rotten fruits.
This sincerity permits to the disciple not to be blind about his own blindness. Whoever sincerely sees himself, sees his own evil and the need that he has of mercy. It is the only condition for healing.
-->Jesus, Mercy of the Father, works the judgment so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind. Before Him, man can discover his own sin without fear and without shame, because he sees himself forgiven.
RispondiEliminaTo recognize my bad heart, which has treasured a great capital of evil of living, is the very grafting that makes me a good tree, puts me in communion with Him who forgives and with my brothers and sisters that then I forgive. From our fruits of death, we can easily recognize ourselves as bad wood. Thus we are willing to accept His forgiveness and accept the grafting of the Only Good Wood: the Tree of Mercy of the Father, the Cross of His Son, Given for us.
The knowledge of my sin in this light finally makes me in solidarity with the Father and with my brothers and sisters.