Jos 5:9a, 10-12 The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”
While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of the month. On the day after the Passover, they ate of the produce of the land in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. On that same day after the Passover, on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased. No longer was there manna for the Israelites, who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.
Responsorial Psalm 34
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad. R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol his name. I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Look to him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. When the poor one called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him. R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 - 2 Cor 5:17-21
Brothers and sisters: Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
I will get up and go to my Father and shall say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable: “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’”
by FAUSTI - "A man": It is God, both Father and Mother, Law and Love. The two sons indicate the totality of men. Sinners or righteous, for Him we are always and only children. That is why He has compassion for everyone and does not look to sins. The deep desires of our heart are about what God has in Himself, and what we need. From here envy and aversion to God as our antagonist can arise. But God is not antagonistic. He gives to His children everything He has. In fact, He had already given to Adam that equality which he then wanted to kidnap to Him. For itself every gift, however small, is a sign of another reality: the donation of the Donor. The requests that the two children make to the Father (substances and kids) are always small and petty compared to the Gift he wants to make: Himself. The youngest son leaves nothing of what is his, he takes everything away. The essential is absent: the love of the Father, of Whom everything is a gift. Whoever departs from God can still live by His fruits: love, joy, justice and peace. But not for long. Once the capital has been extinguished, these, too, cease. When the sun has set, the night will not be late. The abandonment to the Father soon brings about the general famine. The son, who departed from the Father, loses his substance. He loses himself, his being son. It is a stream that is cut off from the spring from which it flows. In the anguish in which everything is nothing, the void is unnecessarily filled with everything, which is eaten from nothing. To believe one can enjoy life without God is like to want to breathe without air. Beyond any false modesty, what then brings us nearer to God is need. Man himself is need of God. Made by Him, only in Him is himself. He comes from Him and realizes himself by returning to Him. Rejected God, Who leaves us free even when we make a mistake, we serve the idol.Those who had suffered from the closeness of the Father go to serve foreign masters. There he would like to be nourished by what satisfies the pigs. But an invisible hand prevented him from doing so, because his satiety is only with the Father. Before he was out of himself, alienated in his desires that, instead of saving him, had reduced him to hunger. Now he does not repent, he simply comes to his conclusion. . He noted that reality was not what he was thinking . Before he was out of himself, alienated in his desires that, instead of saving him, had reduced him to hunger. Now he does not repent, he simply comes to his conclusions. He noted that reality was not what he thought. It is a conversion to oneself, more than to the Father. He sensed his own true interest. It is the beginning of a journey. He sees the difference between what is in his misery and what is in the Father's house. It is the gap between reality and desire, between hunger and satiety.
-->The man who has abandoned God, feels the absolute emptiness, the alternative to God is not atheism, but the anguish of nihilism. I think that today nothingness is the normal pedagogue to Christ. The desire for God, the conclusion of the journey, is the principle of setting in motion. Nostalgia for the Father is essential to man, who is always a son. Nostalgia that is the pain of return: It is pain that knows and indicates the way to find peace, and grows in proportion to distance. If he stops running away and looks towards heaven, towards Him, he realizes the smile with which He has always looked at him. But the son has not yet understood that the Father is gratuitous love and thinks, not having deserved it, to renounce his fatherhood. If he looks at himself, he sees his own failure, but if he looks at Him he discovers his own essence of son. Conversion is accepting God as the Father who loves freely. Seeing the evil of the son, the Father is troubled by the bowels... emotion is the fundamental quality of that God who is Mercy. The kiss of the Father of life is His Fatherly Love for the Son. All the other gifts are contained in this Kiss, which is the Holy Spirit, the common Life of the Father and the Son given to the sinner. The Father is in a hurry. He knows how harms to his son his idea of returning as a servant. His fatherhood is always ready for us when we return to Him. And a new robe of that He covers us is Christ Himself. He is the new garment of those who are regenerated in Baptism. He makes us and reveals us children. And they began to do feasting, the beginning of what will be without end. The eldest son is Israel, the firstborn of God, the figure of every righteous person. For him to return to the Father means to participate in His Feast for the brother. In the Feast there is the harmony of mutual love and the dance of the Father and of the Son in the one Spirit. We are all invited to become His children, living by the Son. No one is missing, not even the right one. Then it will be feast, joy, symphony, dance. It will be the return of all creation to the Father in the Son, in Whom and for Whom all things have been done. This is our salvation: the full joy of God!
Reading 1
RispondiEliminaJos 5:9a, 10-12
The LORD said to Joshua,
“Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”
While the Israelites were encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho,
they celebrated the Passover
on the evening of the fourteenth of the month.
On the day after the Passover,
they ate of the produce of the land
in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain.
On that same day after the Passover,
on which they ate of the produce of the land, the manna ceased.
No longer was there manna for the Israelites,
who that year ate of the yield of the land of Canaan.
Responsorial Psalm 34
R. (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 - 2 Cor 5:17-21
Brothers and sisters:
Whoever is in Christ is a new creation:
the old things have passed away;
behold, new things have come.
And all this is from God,
who has reconciled us to himself through Christ
and given us the ministry of reconciliation,
namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting their trespasses against them
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
as if God were appealing through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
GOSPEL
RispondiEliminaLk 15:18
I will get up and go to my Father and shall say to him:
Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed this parable:
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.’”
by FAUSTI - "A man": It is God, both Father and Mother, Law and Love.
RispondiEliminaThe two sons indicate the totality of men. Sinners or righteous, for Him we are always and only children.
That is why He has compassion for everyone and does not look to sins.
The deep desires of our heart are about what God has in Himself, and what we need. From here envy and aversion to God as our antagonist can arise.
But God is not antagonistic. He gives to His children everything He has.
In fact, He had already given to Adam that equality which he then wanted to kidnap to Him.
For itself every gift, however small, is a sign of another reality: the donation of the Donor.
The requests that the two children make to the Father (substances and kids) are always small and petty compared to the Gift he wants to make: Himself.
The youngest son leaves nothing of what is his, he takes everything away.
The essential is absent: the love of the Father, of Whom everything is a gift.
Whoever departs from God can still live by His fruits: love, joy, justice and peace.
But not for long. Once the capital has been extinguished, these, too, cease.
When the sun has set, the night will not be late.
The abandonment to the Father soon brings about the general famine.
The son, who departed from the Father, loses his substance. He loses himself, his being son.
It is a stream that is cut off from the spring from which it flows. In the anguish in which everything is nothing, the void is unnecessarily filled with everything, which is eaten from nothing.
To believe one can enjoy life without God is like to want to breathe without air.
Beyond any false modesty, what then brings us nearer to God is need.
Man himself is need of God.
Made by Him, only in Him is himself. He comes from Him and realizes himself by returning to Him.
Rejected God, Who leaves us free even when we make a mistake, we serve the idol.Those who had suffered from the closeness of the Father go to serve foreign masters. There he would like to be nourished by what satisfies the pigs. But an invisible hand prevented him from doing so, because his satiety is only with the Father. Before he was out of himself, alienated in his desires that, instead of saving him, had reduced him to hunger. Now he does not repent, he simply comes to his conclusion. . He noted that reality was not what he was thinking .
Before he was out of himself, alienated in his desires that, instead of saving him, had reduced him to hunger. Now he does not repent, he simply comes to his conclusions. He noted that reality was not what he thought.
It is a conversion to oneself, more than to the Father. He sensed his own true interest.
It is the beginning of a journey.
He sees the difference between what is in his misery and what is in the Father's house.
It is the gap between reality and desire, between hunger and satiety.
-->The man who has abandoned God, feels the absolute emptiness, the alternative to God is not atheism, but the anguish of nihilism.
RispondiEliminaI think that today nothingness is the normal pedagogue to Christ.
The desire for God, the conclusion of the journey, is the principle of setting in motion.
Nostalgia for the Father is essential to man, who is always a son. Nostalgia that is the pain of return: It is pain that knows and indicates the way to find peace, and grows in proportion to distance. If he stops running away and looks towards heaven, towards Him, he realizes the smile with which He has always looked at him. But the son has not yet understood that the Father is gratuitous love and thinks, not having deserved it, to renounce his fatherhood.
If he looks at himself, he sees his own failure, but if he looks at Him he discovers his own essence of son.
Conversion is accepting God as the Father who loves freely.
Seeing the evil of the son, the Father is troubled by the bowels... emotion is the fundamental quality of that God who is Mercy.
The kiss of the Father of life is His Fatherly Love for the Son.
All the other gifts are contained in this Kiss, which is the Holy Spirit, the common Life of the Father and the Son given to the sinner.
The Father is in a hurry. He knows how harms to his son his idea of returning as a servant. His fatherhood is always ready for us when we return to Him. And a new robe of that He covers us is Christ Himself.
He is the new garment of those who are regenerated in Baptism. He makes us and reveals us children.
And they began to do feasting, the beginning of what will be without end.
The eldest son is Israel, the firstborn of God, the figure of every righteous person. For him to return to the Father means to participate in His Feast for the brother.
In the Feast there is the harmony of mutual love and the dance of the Father and of the Son in the one Spirit. We are all invited to become His children, living by the Son.
No one is missing, not even the right one.
Then it will be feast, joy, symphony, dance.
It will be the return of all creation to the Father in the Son, in Whom and for Whom all things have been done.
This is our salvation: the full joy of God!